Dad and Susan's visit

Michelle and I got to spend some time with Dad and Susan in the first week of September, and we had a great time together. Our long-time family friends, Dean and Bonnie, rented a van and we six spent the day touring. We started out in Olympia, and our first stop was Michelle's apartment in Seattle. Then we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, spent a lot of time in the little town of Poulsbo, and this picture is from one of our favorite stops of the day, Nash's Farm Store in a little berg just out of Sequim. In case you're wondering who's who above: Michelle, Bonnie, Dean, Dad, Susan.

This was at Nash's too. : ) Love these dogs.

The view as we left Seattle. See the Space Needle?

Dad and I in Poulsbo.

Dean and Bonnie.

Couldn't resist this Kodak moment.

There we are--four of us all together, that hardly ever happens!

The goodbyes always come too soon. (Check out Dad's cool shirt that one of his favorite daughters got him in Miramichi, New Brunswick!!)

Sand in my toes

Barb's been giving me a great introduction to life on the coast. This was our first walk on the beach after arriving in the field in mid-September. Lincoln City.
Peggy Fallon joined us for that walk, and we couldn't keep up with her! She was running most of the way, and often skipped over logs, etc. I was so glad I caught a picture of her in action. : )

Near Bar View Jetty.

I think Dr. Suess got some of his inspiration for his illustrations of trees from sea palms.

My first haircut! Not really, Willie did this himself, I was just shaping it up a bit. Getting some practice in case Tom needs a haircut at preps next year...he'll be sure to ask someone else...ANYONE ELSE! : )

Ta Da!!
Willie finished the job later, in case you're wondering. : )

Barb has taken me the scenic route whenever possible, and one day this included Cape Meares Lighthouse. It was cloudy on our way there, but as soon as we arrived, it cleared up and was gorgeous!

One of my favorite dogs in the field so far...well, sorry folks, probably THE favorite, but there's room in my heart for the others too. This is QT (belongs to the Jacobsens). I decided while we were there that lap dogs are REALLY COOL! I call her The Lick Meister. She loves to lick, Barb was trying to get her to demonstrate for the camera. : )

Barb's looking pretty Smart, eh?

Barb, Ann, Jan, Reta and Linda. We had a great time with these ladies recently."The ocean waves you bye..."

...and we wave back. See ya soon.

Weekend with Mom

Mom came to visit this past weekend. (Wow, I'm blogging something recent!) We had a great time. Barb arranged for us to meet up with Bernie to go sailing in Yaquina Bay Friday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day.

You might not be able to tell in the following picture, but Mom is running the tiller. She did that most of the trip. Bernie was quite impressed with how quickly she caught on. Good job, Mom!
Mom and I went to the Kite Festival in Lincoln City. It was really neat. I loved the kite flying that was synchronized to music...totally awesome. The group i-Quad was really impressive. If you want to see a sample of what they do, check out this link.
Ebony came with Mom, and she had never been to the beach...she's a little afraid of water, but I think she could get used to it and really love it.

Sister time

The first weekend in September, I spent the weekend in Seattle at Michelle's. It was great to be with her. I learned recently that even if our parents had 300,000 billion children, it's unlikely that two would be exactly the same. Wow! So, my sister is like one in 300,000 billion (or more). I'm enjoying our differences more all the time, and finding lots to admire in her...like all the things I laughed at through middle school and high school (what a bratty little sister I have sometimes been). Michelle took me on a walk through Ravenna Park, just up the block from her place. It was an awesome day.

Hanging out under the bridge












One of these pictures is me, in case you can't tell, but I'm wearing her very cool skirt, which she gave me before I left!

















Playing frisbee. It wasn't exactly ultimate frisbee, but Michelle got plenty of exercise running after my miscalculated throws. : )














This guy, Michael, joined us for some frisbee. He taught us a few throwing methods too. He could throw it so that it started out right-side-up, but flipped in the middle to upside-down, and then floated down...it was really cool. He didn't even try to teach us that one.

Introducing Toast:












I've been telling people about him ever since I returned from Michelle's. He's the cat she adopted this summer. His name described his condition when her friends found him. We don't really know his history...how did he lose his left front leg?? He is quite well-loved in Michelle's apartment building. Notice the green floor in Michelle's apartment!













He was very generous in sharing the bed with me and Michelle. Not the first time the two of us shared a bed with an orange cat. We did that for a while in high school too...and survived.














We ate at a Brazilian restaurant in Michelle's neighborhood, and the musicians were awesome. Food was great too.










Michelle brought me breakfast in bed! Salad for breakfast! Yeah, some people would that think that is weird, but I felt spoiled rotten.













Sunday we ate lunch at Suzette's with Shauna and Stacey. Then Shauna and I headed back home to Oregon.

Time has gone by quickly since that weekend, but I'm still enjoying the memories. This blog used to be "chronological", but I think that there won't be any logic to the order of things for the next little bit.

Back by popular demand

Well, I don't know if it could really be called "popular demand"...but a few of my good friends seem to be genuinely interested in seeing some more blog posts. It has been hard to decide where to start, there's so much I would like to share from the last four months, but I don't think I'll be able to blog it all. Maybe at some point more of it will be on my picasa site.
So Barb is giving me a great introduction to life on the Central Oregon Coast. We arrived here in mid-September, and have had some beautiful weather, so we have enjoyed walking on the beach whenever possible. We've had two meetings so far in the little town of Cloverdale at Nestucca High School. Sundays at 4:00, if you happen to be in the area : )
Today Ralph Sines turned 92 years old, and yesterday Rob and Laura Mae had a nice little party for him. It was a great time. Harold and Eric came over too, but we didn't get a picture before they left. Unfortunately, we didn't get Rob, Laura Mae or Elisa in the picture either.
Well...this is just to prove that I am still alive and blogging. : )