Photos from paradise

Jason and Amelia and baby Rostam recently returned from a two week visit to Maui. While we were huddling under dark and snowy skies they were playing in the surf and strolling in the sand and taking naps on the beach.

Choosing the perfect costume

As the grandchildren get older they become more and more involved in the making of their Halloween costumes. This year Yasent designed and made most of his cyborg creation. His mother did the make-up for this part man part machine creature.


Lucas is a very serious clone trooper.

Fortunately we were able to convince Maya to be Dorothy from Kansas since we bought the dress and shoes months ago. Last year she discarded a gorgeous ballerina/witch costume for something she dug out of the costume box.
I coudn't resist another gorgeous little girl. This is Anne as red riding hood with the cape I made out of old curtains.

The More Things Change...

The above photo was taken in 1973 when Amy was a year old. The photo below was taken last week when Rostam had his first birthday. Bill has added 36 years to his age but the baby looks the same.



Rostam had a tiramasu birthday cake. Now there is a baby with impeccable taste.

Congratulations Laurie and Mike

Here are the two oldest Oliver brothers "Irish twins" being less than a year apart in age.

On our first night in Halfway Dennie and Jan treated us to a Dutch oven dinner at the family cabin. The ovens contained pork chops, a potato dish, and a peach cobbler.

The back yard at the Gulick ranch was all set up for the wedding reception. There was also an area for guests who wanted to camp out.

Mike and Laurie Boomer whose wedding we celebrated.

Charlie is always ready for a celebration of any kind.

On our last night Sean added to the celebration with this gallon of "yucca juice" which would more appropriately be labeled "blue agave juice".

Familial Memories

In addition to taking several scenic drives in and around Boulder and celebrating Charlie's birthday and his and Linda's 8th wedding anniversary (church in above photo is where they were married), we were able to spend a couple of days with my cousin Margaret and her husband Fred.

Margaret plays cello for the Colorado Symphony and was featured on their poster. We were priviveledged to attend a concert in which she played. She and Fred also treated us to a visit to the Denver Art Museum.

This is a photo of Pine Valley, the area where Bill grew up and where his sister Frances and brother Denny and their spouses live. It was the next stop in our adventures.

Wildlife?

We happened to hit the weekend of Elk Festival in Estes Park and there were certainly elk everywhere. We took a couple of nice drives in Rocky Mountain National Park, one with my high school friend, Lynn, and one with Charlie and Linda.

We spent a night with Lynn and Gail and were joined for breakfast by Patti and Rich, soon to be married. Photo is taken on Lynn's deck and is l to r: Lynn Nelson, Patti Thompson, Rich Moore, Gail Gish, Susan Cook (maiden names used)

Colorado Celebrations

We arrived in Colorado on the birthday of Bill's brother, Charlie. After an amazing dinner we arrived at his house to find four pumpkins carved by Charlie's son Sean and his girl friend Katja. Charlie is a big fan of the Colorado University Buffalos. The SWAT stands for "skip work and tailgate". Two pumpkins on the ends are of Charlie and Linda's dogs.

This is a photo of Long's Peak, the mountain that my father climbed 93 times.

I was delighted to find that the old taffy shop in Estes Park still made taffy and still had the taffy machine in the window.

Travels Continued

Our next stop was Spearfish, South Dakota, to visit with Margaret Wengert with whom I taught in Ketchikan in the 60's and early 70's. Our principal was Mr. Stekl and he drove in from eastern SD to join us.

We saw hundreds of pronghorn antelope in Wyoming and SD.

We took a detour on the return drive to Billings so that we could see Devil's Tower.

Gigantic Sculptures

The last time I visited the site of the in-progress sculpture of Crazy Horse was in the 1950's and only the top of the arm was done. Now they have finished the face and blasted away much of the rock in front of the horse. The white mock-up in the foreground is 1/34th size. The actual sculpture is in the background.

The head is 87 1/2 feet high and the flat area for the top of the arm is 263 feet long.

The heavy equipment next to the chin gives an idea of the size of the sculpture.

After seeing Crazy Horse Bill thought the heads at Mount Rushmore were surprisingly small and indeed Washington's face is only 60 feet tall. Still, he has a 21 foot nose, no small matter.

Stopping in Wyoming

We decided to break our drive from Billings to Spearfish, South Dakota with a stop in Sheridan, Wyoming. We stayed for two nights at a lovely log home B & B high in the hills overlooking the entire valley. The weather was warm and we had our breakfasts on the deck.


On one morning hike we startled three white-tailed deer. This one has her white flag or tail flying and it is easy to see how they got their name.

We couldn't pass through Sheridan without a stop at the Sheridan Inn. The inn is no longer open for lodging as it was when we used to stay there in the 50's and early 60's but we could still have a meal and they still serve platters of French fried onion rings.

Savoring Montana

Years ago my father purchased two mission bells somewhere in the Southwest. He mounted them on a wooden frame and when it was meal time my mother or one of us children would ring the bells to call the others home. It was so much nicer than standing at the back door and hollering. Today the bells reside on the Russell Ranch in Limestone, Montana. Herb Russell has mounted the smaller of the two on the back gate where it can be used to call the hands to meals.

Bill and I and my sister, Sandy, spent several days basking in the warmth and love of the Russell family. Here is Herb Russell, right, and his son, Mike.

In this photo we are heading out and saying good-bye to Susie Russell next to me, her daughter Kate, then Herb, and Sandy on the far right.

Too Much of a Good Thing

This is the view of Sisters Peaks from the yard in Sisters. The second day of our visit I sat in the right-hand chair and read for several hours not thinking that the September sun might be burning my face and arms. While I read two of the young peahens came and lay beside me in the shade of the chairs. It was such a restful peaceful afternoon.

These are autumn iris cut fresh from Nancy's garden.

This magnificent fellow also visited my reading area but was more standoffish than the females.

I rewarded my new friends with bits of bread.

Visitng in Oregon

The two of us are currently on an autumn journey to visit family and friends. We stopped first in Eugene to see Gavin whom we hadn't seen since early December of 2007.

After spending a couple of days in beautiful sunny Eugene which was gorgeous with flowers everywhere we drove to Sisters, Oregon to see friends Chuck and Nancy. We opted for the scenic drive through the forest and got this view of Sisters Peaks.

Nancy has all sorts of livestock both domestic and wild. In the early morning I caught her feeding her peacocks and peahens. She currently has eleven adults and seven youngsters

Mother mule deer and her youngster came in to have some corn. The deer come so often that Nancy has named them all. Eyelash is the mother's name.