I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas...

So we survived our first flood. Although our landlords just called it "high water". According to the weather service it was considered "major flooding". Either way we got thru it. It was a good learning experience. We learned to get out earlier than we would have thought. We missed our opportunity to leave. Good thing it wasn't a stage4 flood, we would have had to spend the last couple of days up stairs! We got to see what was happening at which stagees of the river, and we have had good family time.





From this last pic, I'll tell you that the river is normally about10' lower. On the right-hand side is where our fire pit normally would be seen.
Anyhow Christmas is under way and it is fun to watch the kids be so excited about it. They spend hours playing 'elfs'. They run around in their little elf hats and pretend that we can't see them. Here is our Christmas tree right after we got done decorating it.
Merry Christmas everyone!

White Friday -Christmas tradition

Christmas season is upon us and we are so excited! This is my favorite time of year. Before I get started I would like to thank all those who have sponsored Henry's bike project, it is much appreciated. It's not too late to join in, as we still could use a sponsor for the paint. (See Post Below)
One of my most favorite traditions is Christmas tree hunting. I think that I would like to rename it White Friday though, as a contrast to the oh-so-popular Black Friday (It's called Black Friday because it is a stain on the Christmas season)
Anyway, the day after Thanksgiving, we all load up and head out into the mountains above Leavenworth,WA to find The Perfect Tree. It is an all-day event, with mom bringing a picnic complete with Champagne glasses for our ginger ale. Usual it is so much fun, but this year was spectacular. The weather was amazing, the surroundings were beautiful, and I had such a great time. I found some time by myself as I was hunting and I laid back in the snow, and let eh sun warm my face. I felt so at peace. I almost felt as if I was a child curled up with my mother. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (one that incidentally my company was founded on) "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity".
Anyhow, I digress. So it was a fun day. We had a great time, and found the perfect tree. Check out the photos and I'll write more at the bottom.

It was that pretty!




cousins




Wow! Huh?!


(Isn't she a cutie?)

So that is what it all looked like.
Tree permits are only $5 from the USFS, for any tree under 12foot. Although you do have to add in $ for gas, It is a wonderful and inexpensive family tradition that beats fighting off mean crowds in a Mega-mart just to get a good deal on some cheap junk that you probably don't need anyhow. Take your children to the mountains, let them feel the peace and beauty that is there.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas wishes

Caleb has a really cool idea for Henry's Christmas present and it involves all of you.
Several months ago Caleb found a nice used bike for cheap. (Henry has grown out of his bike and will need a new one by next spring.) The problem with the new bike is that the tires have been skidded down to threads and are nonfunctional, as are probably the tubes. The handbrake is shot and the grips are worn out. You might be asking why Caleb got such a bike and the answer is that it was cheap, has a good frame, and most importantly it will be a fun project for Caleb and Henry to work on together during the long dark winter. Caleb imagines giving it a custom paint job, like the last one.
"So how can I help?" you may ask. Well, we are looking for people to "sponsor" different parts of the bike. The plan is that Christmas morning Henry will open presents from various family and friends and discover the above-mentioned items and then Caleb can bring in the bike and explain it all. So we are asking for sponsors for the following things:
front tire ($15)----thanks--
back tire ($15)----thanks--
front tube ($6)----thank U--
back tube ($6)----thanks!--
grips ($16)-------thanks--
handbrake ($20)--thanks!--
paint ($10)--------open--
You don't need to buy the item--you could just send us a check stating which item you would like to sponsor and we will buy the correct/matching pieces. Also, if nothing is in your price range, we could do partial sponsoring of items. This could be a really cool way for everybody to give a gift that you know will get used and loved. Nobody rides a bike like Henry. This is Henry last summer when he was five! (on the custom bike dad made him) Feel free to respond via phone, comment, email or facebook--whichever you prefer. Thank you all very much.

3-in1

Hello everybodeee,
It has been a very busy Fall. Work for me (and Lyn) has taken off and I find myself quite swamped.
I am now finishing the second of 2 large projects. The first can been seen on my website (link on left) and this one will be up soon.
In our last post I mentioned that Henry and I would be making our yearly trip. Well we did and we had an amazing time. i was going to pull the plug on the trip because the weather was terrible on Friday, but I decided to push thru and take the chance that it would clear up by Sat. And it did, and in a major way! After we spent the night, the next morning we could see all the way north to the San Juan Islands, and all the way south to Mt. St. Helens! It was fantastic. It actually cleared up during the night, and it was a full moon. The granite cliffs surrounding the lookout appeared as if they were snow. We had such a good time. As always I am impressed with Henry's Hiking abilities, He did this unassisted, at night, by himself, It was 3.2 Miles, 2224 ft. elev. gain!

This is what we woke up to!

This is where we spent the night, up in that little lookout building.

As for other news, our beloved Trooper died! It has been a sad time for all. OK! Mostly me, but still sad. It blew a head gasket, and we have decided to not invest any more $$$ into it. Since that was our only car, we had to replace it. We decided to get something very reliable, roomy, and comfy to drive. We found a mint 95 Mercedes E320 wagon. It rides like it's on a cloud, and it is so nice to have amenities like leather, power accessories and a sunroof. It even gets around 25 mi/gal. freeway.


15 Days ago my grandfather passed away. It was a welcome passing as he had fought with cancer for a long time and suffered much. I was glad that he was able to finally be taken home. But I discovered at the funeral that I am sad that it will be a long time till I get visit with him again. On Wednesday the 20th we drove to Utah to attend the funeral. The drive to UT is always hard. It took 16 hours in the car. I've stated my feelings for that drive before, so I wont say how much I detest it.
The funeral itself was really quite peaceful and pleasant. The weather was nice just for that day. I loved hearing the stories about grandpa, and loved seeing how much he has affected the lives of so many friends and family. One man sang on old negro spiritual that I found to be very touching, as well as beautiful. It illustrates the fact that life extends beyond this world. Listen here. Here is a pic of the kids at the Logan temple after the burial.

[If you like any of the pics you can click on them, which makes them bigger, then right click, cut-n-paste.]
The next day we took advantage of being all the way down in UT to visit Lyn's Fam. Here are the kids waiting for the train to take us down to the Grandparents.

We had a very enjoyable time, and wish we had more of it. I especially enjoyed getting to know my Bro & Sis In-law Peter and Charlotte better. I am so excited for them and their future. The world needs more people like them outside of UT.
Yesterday we spent the day readying ourselves for Halloween. We carved pumpkins, and made chili, and a costume for Fern. Since Henry was a pencil last year he had the idea that Fern should be an eraser with him. And of course if Henry suggests it, it's gospel! So here is our little band of office supplies.

And our spooky pumpkins, including my barfing pumpkin I made with my drill.


Anyhow, we are excited for the upcoming holidays, and are very excited to have a nostalgic Christmas an the farm. This house should be awesome for Christmas.
We love all of you, and hope that you find yourselves back here in the Great Northwest. If you do, please know that you will have a home away from home at our house.
Happy Fall to you.

Update and Video

Hello everybodee!
We just found this neat video of our great little town. We want to share it with you. It shows what it looks like here and gives some background. Perhaps it will entice you to come and visit us sooner rather than later. We all know that you are dying to come up to the great NW and visit someday. Maybe this will help light a fire.
Click Here
Also we wanted to let everyone know that we are doing well. We added 2 new members to our family: Cali, and Kizzy. They are stray barn cats, kittens really that the children adopted and they adopted the kids, so It's official. They are really patient. They let Fern drag them all over the place and play with them. It's quite cute. Only problem is that we think Henry might be allergic to cats, we'll see.
Lyn's new sewing business is going quite well and news of it is spreading quickly thru the community. She named it "Resergence" mispelling intended, (for those who don't know much about sewing, there is a machine called a serger.)
My bro Riley is coming home from Alaska tonight, we are planning on taking Henry and climbing Mt. Pilchuck this weekend. It should be EPIC. It's supposed to be great weather and there will be nearly a full moon. I am looking forward to watching the sun go down and the moon go up. According to NASA this week the moon will be the biggest and brightest now more than anytime in the next 20 years. They call it a "Super Harvest Moon"
Anyhow we hope that you are all enjoying the fall and doing some fun stuff too.

End of summer catch up

So to start off my poor Trooper died a while back, the water pump blew up, literally. The thing that was notable about that is that he was just about to hit a big milestone, or more appropriately a BIG mileage: 250,000! I had my camera ready and every thing, but then BlAm! 249,999.5 and D-E-A-D! Oh well we got it fixed and all is well now.


Also the kids went camping with Gma and Gpa Nelson this summer. That was really ambitious on their part for taking 5 grand kids under the age of six camping for 3 days, but they all loved it. We met up with them on day 4 and went out to see Mt.St. Helens. It was quite awe-striking. It had been 30 years since she blew her top and still there is very little that is able to grow in the area. The power of nature is seriously amazing. Hear are some pics of Helens and the kids.




We have had a very busy summer. We have had great times camping and hiking and playing at our beach. I think that we have been to the beach most this summer. Usually we go down there for 3-4 hours. The kids play in the sand and wade in the river. It's chilly but it's so much better than all the chemicals and stuff that you would get at a lukewarm swimming pool. It is neat that there is so much here on our road taht we don't HAVE to go much of anywhere. We even have a wonderful Blackberry patch to pick from.

Business has been busy for me this summer. I have helped a lot of clients thru the design process and now they are all entering the installation process; I should have nearly $100K of install happening this fall! Not bad for the first year of biz. Next year things should really take off as the search engines pick up my site and as my reputation grows. That's exciting.

This weekend was Fern's 4th B-day. My parents (Nelson) came over and my sister too. we had a fun day and enjoyed seeing Fern and her characteristic exuberance in opening her presents.


We are loving life out here. We feel so blessed that we were guided to this place. Life is so much richer when it is simpler. Sometimes we get things too complicated. It doesn't need to be that way. When I lived in El Salvador, I noticed that despite them being the 2nd poorest nation in this hemisphere, that the people of that country were very content. After many months pondering on it, I realized that the more 'things' you have the more things that you have to worry about. Remove things, and unnecessary programs and time wasters, like TV, and life slows down and you can breathe and sense the peace and happiness that the universe provides. anyhow, a closing pic. Enjoy