Our Tubing Party

On a beautiful day after two days of snow, Janice and Matt came by to do some tubing with Sheri and Joel. We went out with them to near the back of the property behind Sheri's and Joel's home. Here is Janice and Seth coming back up after a run.

 Viv and Janice tried to go down together back to back. They're at the bottom here.

 Seth would start back a ways and run up and dive on his sled. Viv and Janice are giving him a little help.

 Janice could get a little more speed on Seth's sled than on the tube. Start....

 ....Finish.

 Seth needed a brake to make a bit of yellow snow with help from his Mom.

 Here is what Seth was trying to do, like his Dad, run and dive on the tube. Joel tried two tubes at once. Didn't work too well. He lost the second tube.

 H'mmm, I thought I saw a squirel go up this tree! Guess I scared him.

 This shot gives you an idea of how everything looks. A fun snow storm.

 The real photographer. Matt took some neat movies.

 He even got Viv going head over heels. At one point she was vertical, feet in the air, face in the snow. Here she is laughing so hard she can't get up. She didn't try a "Joel" after that.

 Sisters trying to go atop two tubes at once. The top one imediately slid off the bottom one.

 I slipped in the house to check on Grandma and Grandpa. They stood at their bedroom window and watched most of the fun. Even after getting tired of standing they wouldn't leave the window.

 later out the front window we got some good pictures of the birds. Our beautiful dove.

 The best shot of this type Thrush.

 I finally got a Flicker looking up so the full colors can be seen.

 The Steller Jay. These birds are really hyper. It's hard to get a shot that is not blurry because they never stop moving.

 I should have pulled the zoom back so you could see how many of these birds are scattered around on the ground under the feeder.

We spend a lot of time, especially the folks, watching birds out our front window. When they are not watching tubing out their bedroom window!?!

Snow?

Look what we woke up to today! It's like winter came after spring. This is the "Mound" in front of the house.

It looks like the Flicker was eating through the snow.

This little guy seemed to enjoy being out of the snow.

Grandpa won't be resting on his bench today.

Behind this little tree our garden is under a blanket of the white stuff.

Looking at the mound area from the south.

Hey! what is this? I was just getting used to the rain!

Joel just finishing up. We got it all shoveled off so when the next storm comes through this evening it won't be too deep.

While I was shoveling this part of the drive Channel 5 News came by and took some shots and interviewed me. We watched it on the news at noon. Now I'm not just rich, I'm rich and famous.

 The snow was just right for shoveling. Not too deep and melting underneath.

It seems strange to get snow after doing all the work outside the past two weeks. Well I'll be that much ahead when spring really does come. Viv took Grandpa to the Dr. this morning. He's having a lot of pain in his hip. They are having his Xrays evaluated. He's home and doing good now.

A Sunny Afternoon

Viv, Grandma, Grandpa and I drove up to Skagit Valley Saturday, the 19th of February. We heard that the Snow Geese were out in the thousands. Sure enough we found a big flock of them. I tried to photo a group as they flew over, but I couldn't hold the camera still enough to get rid of the blur.

 So I settled with some on the ground.

 I had to take a couple of shots of Grandma to show you how helpless and decrepit a ninety one year old woman looks like. She celebrated her birthday this week but never slows down.

 She might take a nap once-in-a-while, but she sure does more than her share of work.

 Grandpa went to the Ophthalmologist to get his eyes checked because he is having a harder time reading. He was told that he was experiencing "Macular Degeneration". He was given direction to begin taking a new vitamin pill and to start wearing sun glasses when he is outside. Here he was taking a walk today before church on another sunshiny day. Not bad for a soon to be 93 year old either!

 Even Harry enjoyed the sunshine. Not bad for a lazy 6 year old dog.

 Here is the temperature yesterday, February 19th. The weatherman said normal for this time of the year is 50 degrees.

 I think Viv especially likes the weather, although it is still colder than she likes it.

Well as you can tell all is well here. We are saddened to hear this past week of the passing of Uncle Leo. Some wonderful things were said in Priesthood class about him. As highly as people think of others in life, they realize how much better they are after they are gone.

A Good Week

You wouldn't believe the weather we're having. The sun even shown a few days. The temperature was up in the high forties the first three days. Then it cooled off but was still dry. I decided to take advantage of it and do some of my spring work early. Imagine working outside in February.

I pulled dead flowers and weeds on several flowerbeds and decided on the last two or three to take a before and after picture. This first five pictures are the before. This is the bed just south of the patio beside the walkway down to the garden

 These are along the west side of the patio.

 This south of the patio looking north.

 This is my herb garden just off the southwest corner of the patio.

 This is along the wall on the west side of the patio.

These are the "after" shots.

 We had another bird show up on our feeders. This is a Red Winged Blackbird.

 I kept "Harry" in long enough to take some more shots of our squirrel.

 Her he is getting a drink from the fountain under the weeping Cherry.

 We occasionally get a treat by having these elegant Dove pay us a visit. They feed from the ground so you won't see them on the feeders. They have such a quiet dignity about them besides being so beautiful. No wonder the Lord uses them as a symbol of the Holy Ghost.

 We had another visit by a Flicker and I got a little better shot.

I'm so glad to be a little ahead on the spring yard work. Still have to prune the Peach tree and the grapes and try to get a head start on the weeds in the garden. Its been a fun week. Next week should be interesting. Monday Viv goes to the dentist. Most of you know her aversion to dentists. This is the first time she will have gone here in Washington. That is also Valentines Day and Tuesday is Grandma's birthday. We are taking her and Sharon to the Red Lobster for dinner in the evening. Sunday will be Sharon's birthday. Pops sees the Dr. on Wednesday, Thursday Viv and I are at the Cannery, and Friday Pops has physical therapy. So life is busy and we're all relatively well and happy.