Christmas with Great-grandma

This is Mom's 100th Christmas.  She will be 100 next March.  We are very blessed.

Christmas Eve at St. Andrew's with Karin playing in the orchestra.

Early Christmas

 Jim, Heather, Cole and Mackenzie came in from California on Saturday for an early Christmas.  The kids had a great time at the local park with playing and some bicycle riding.

Cole and Mackenzie got to pretend that they were horseback riding.

Christmas Program

 Saturday night the orchestra (with Karin playing the violin), chancel, youth and children's choirs did a marvelous Christmas program.

Audrey and Sophie singing the final song.

Last day of hiking

 Today was our last day of hiking in Sedona.  Yesterday we hiked in the rain up Wilson Canyon but gave up when it started to snow.

 Today we took the Huckabee trail down to Oak Creek.  It was very cold but the sun was out.

Another wonder week in Sedona.

Hiking in Sedona

Today we hiked to the top of Bear Mountain.  It is really a climb and the view is great.

Reilly is check out where we came from.

Sedona

 We are up in Sedona for a week of hiking.

There are still some water left from the recent rain and the weather is beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Scott and Karin's.  Here are the cousins working on craft projects before dinner.

Sunrise at the Fiore's

This was the view from our back yard this morning at sunrise

Happy Halloween

Audrey was a fairy and Sophie was Daphne from Scooby Doo.  In the back ground is the skeleton that I made when Scott was about 4.  

St. Andrews Craft Fair

Saturday we had our first craft show at St. Andrews.  The space fee we collected went to the kitchen fund at church and also to ICS (Interfaith Community Services).  It was successful for a first show.

Rocky Point home build

We left for Rocky Point early on Thursday morning to build a house for a very poor but wonderful family.  We started out Thursday afternoon praying around the forms for the foundation of the home.  We poured the cement that afternoon and started the framing of the walls.  All this is done without power tools or  cement mixers.  Friday the house (11' by 22') was complete including the first coat of stucco.  Saturday it was completed and we had the dedication.  We also left them with lots of goodies, blankets, pots, food, etc.  We were all blessed as much as they were.

Lake Powell

 We spent last week on a houseboat with Scott, Karin, Audrey and Sophie and Karin's parents Steve and Randa.  We had a wonderful time, the only hitch was we had to drive Steve back on Thursday due to a kidney problem and he is still in the hospital.

 Cocktail time on the upper deck.

 Karin and the girls going for a swim.

 Kite flying time.

 Scott landed four of these.

 Audrey gave Grandaddy and Sophie mustaches.

The girls are making a volcano to do smoke bombs.

Home again

Home again to beautiful sunsets.

Day 3 kayaking

Wednesday we kayaked up a river and slough.  It was beautiful.  This turned out to be our last day of kayaking because today turned out to be a big wind with huge whitecaps.  It has been a great trip and sorry that we did not get to go today.  The guys went to the Air Museum and the girls to a Quilt and Textile Museum.  Looking forward to our next group trip....

 

Kayaking day 2 Garibaldi

 Cape Meares Lighthouse

 After a day of rain yesterday during our kayak today was beautiful and calm.

 

We were able to kayak around these islands and see the animal life up close.

Nestucca Bay Kayak

 We had a great day of kayaking today even though by lunch time it began to rain and we were soaked by the time we got home.

Cascade Loop

 

Today we drove the Cascade Loop.  This is the view from Lava Lake toward one of the "Sisters".

Mackenzie River Loop

 Today we drove the Mackenzie River Loop.  This is the first falls you can hike to.

 The lower picture is of Kooshe Falls the next river hike,

Newberry Volcanic NP

 This is Newberry Volcanic National Monument and the view from the top of Paulina Peak.

 We walked in the Obsidian field and Andy holding a large pumice rock.

 Tumalo Falls near Bend

The gang....



Olympic Coast

 We stopped and hiked to Ruby Beach on our way around the coast.  It was beautiful.

We hiked to the World's Largest Sitka Spruce tree.  It is hard to grasp how large it is.

This is the World's Largest Cedar tree.



HOH Rain forest

 We moved over to Forks today and hiked in the Hoh Rain forest.  These pictures are on the Trail of the Mosses.

Hiking in Olymoic NP

 We hiked Hurricane Ridge today...what a beautiful sight.

One of the beautiful waterfalls

This is an Olympic Marmutt only found here.  They were all over the alpine meadow.