Scott, Karin Audrey and Sophie were the candle lighters at the Contemporary Service this Sunday. Audrey did a great job lighting the candle and Sophie just helped by being there.
Most Sundays we go to Mom's for lunch. One of the servers put this elf hat on Sophie.
Jim, Heather, Cole and Mackenzie all came over from California for an early family Christmas. We took all the kids to the Tucson Childrens Museum on Saturday and they had a great time. On Sunday we took the girls to church where it was Angel Sunday. Here are Audrey and Mackenzie before church after a sleepover last night for the two girls.
The three girls are watching K'Deo (our church's puppet program).
We have done some great hikes this week....long and steep. Really getting the legs back in shape. This was taken from todays hike up the Munds Wagon Trail.
This is the view from Tuesday's hike to the top Schnebley Hill. It is fun to go from the valley of Sedona up to the pine trees at the top.
We are up in Sedona for a week of hiking and relaxing. Trying to get in shape for next year's 40 mile hike on the Rogue River in Oregon. 
Here is Andy at the top of Doe Mountain.
It was a quiet Thanksgiving for us this year. Karin's parents are in Australia so it was just us, Mom and the kids and granddaughters. Here is Mom with two of her great grandchildren. Audrey helped her Mom with a Christmas project by sanding in the garage.
This is the third weekend that we have been in California. Two USC football games and the craft show last weekend. Cole (our 1pound 12 ounce bundle of joy) turns 6 this week. Way to go Cole.
Mackenzie show off the work she did on one of Cole's presents.
On Sunday we drove to the Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo for Sue's 60th birthday party. It was a wonderful party. Tom in typical fashion provided the perfect gift. A walker outfitted with a boom box, martini shaker and two glasses, horn, rear view mirrors and flashing lights. It was great fun.
This weekend we went to California for the USC vs Stanford football game. Unfortunately SC lost after 3 overtimes. On the bright side we got together Sunday with Sue and Tom Barker and Wendy and Joe D'Virgilio. We have all been friends for almost 50 years.
Our good friend and neighbor, Sandy Tountas, passed away this year. The three of us have gone to the TCC to see Broadway shows for years. This has left us this year with an extra ticket so Audrey was able to come to see Shrek the Musical. She love it.
The Frazier's brought us back to Charleston for our flight home tomorrow and then continued on their way back home to Florida. Andy and I took a cab back to downtown and walked. There are beautiful churches everywhere.
This is the circular church.
This is one of the sweetgrass basket makers.
A typical entrance to one of the beautiful homes here. Another wonderful trip comes to an end.
Today we took the ferry to Bald Head Island which is at the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
It is an island where you can only get around by bike or golf cart. The rest of the group took a golf cart with the dogs in tow and Andy and I took the bikes. It is really a neat place to see.
This is the lighthouse (no longer in use) on the island.
This is a typical view of the beach.
Today we arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is a very historic town on the river leading to the sea.
This is the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington. This building was finished in 1928 after 3 previous buildings were burned down. It is a beautiful gothic building and we were able to get a great tour of the sanctuary. Beautiful stained glass window and fabulous wood work. Woodrow Wilson's father was pastor of this church from 1874 to 1885 and the president considered this his home.
This was one of the windows in the First Presbyterian Church. We also were able to go into St. Mary Catholic Church. It will have it's 100th Anniversary next year. The brick building of this church was incredible.
We are in Raleigh, NC for two days and we went out last night for dinner to celebrate Pam's sister, Kaye's birthday. They live here in Raleigh. We had a great dinner at Shucker's.
In the morning we took a hike to Crabtree Falls.
We moved on from there to the top of Mt. Mitchell. As you can see it was just a bit cold up there. This really is not snow but frozen moisture on the trees. Check out the picture below and you can see this is the highest point east of the Mississippi.
We returned to our cabin in the afternoon and played with the dogs in the meadow next to the river by our cabin. We went on to the barn and helped the owner feed the horses, goats and donkeys.
We are just north of Asheville, NC in a cabin outside of Burnsville. This is a view east of the parkway as we traveled north to Blowing Rock and Boone. It has really turned cold today and we actually drove thru snow even though it was not sticking to the ground.
This is the river near Linville where we hiked to the falls.
This is Moses Cone Park. This house was built in the mid 1890's by Moses and his wife Bertha as their summer home. There are 25 miles of carriage roads here and the house has become a place for local crafts.
This is the group in front of what was an old rice plantation, now someone's home.
After lunch we took a loop on a small tributary river. Beautiful...and this part of the trip has come to an end. Everyone splits tomorrow except for the Frazier's and us who will be going up to North Carolina for another week.
This is Hampton Plantation. One of only two remaining as it was built. All of the others have been reconstructed. We got a tour by the new park ranger. The plantation was donated to the state by the last resident, Archibald Rutledge. It was originally a rice plantation.
We then went kayaking on the Wambaw River. This is our guide, Chris. He has done an incredible job for us.
Today we kayaked to Bull Island. It is part of a refuge and the only way to get to it is by boat.
It was quite a trek getting there and here we are having lunch after our arrival. We have all agreed that this has been the most demanding kayak trip we have done.
This is a horseshoe crab. They were all over the beach including mating pairs.
We have a great guide who is very knowledgable and has really taught us a great deal. We took a long hike after lunch and this was one of the fresh water sources on the island that had alligators in it. There are 293 different birds that inhabite this island during the year.
Our kayak group has arrived in Charleston SC for a 4 day trip. We started at Shem Creek and passed many pelicans. The ones with white fronts are this years new birds. We got to watch the young ones learn to fly and land under the watchful eye of an adult.
We kayaked from Shem Creek to Charleston Harbor. When we were crossing the main channel we were stopped by the Coast Guard that was surrounding a submarine in the harbor. 
We had lunch at Fort Sumter and got to tour the area after. It was a great day of kayaking and can not wait for tomorrows kayak to Bull Island.
On Sunday, Sept. 11th 6 of us drove up to Greer to work on the Presbyterian Church Camp. We were unable to stay at the camp this time due to the fire and flooding so we camped at Hoyer, just a few miles from the camp.
On Monday we toured the devastation at the camp. Three of the buildings were burned but the biggest damage is from the flooding this summer. They need to keep clearing out this wash to control the floods.
The guys worked mainly on sanding the cabins so they can be refinished.
We were able to get through our meals without any rain.
On the last day of work we got the BBQ shed sanded so they could us it for their test are for paint or stain.
