My Sister's 60 th Birthday Nov. 6, 2010

It was a BIG SURPRISE planned by her two daughters. It was held at the Church Cultural hall in Mill Creek, Washington. Thirty five of her friends came from her town.Thirty five relatives came also. We arrived early and helped the girls in the kitchen with the food. Ron made the punch, and I arranged the fruit trays and ham trays. Ron and Betty, Darcie, Quinn and Jewel arrived later. Kali and Michelle decorated the Hall in her favorite hot pink colors with lots of colorful Pink Balloons. Fresh pink Roses on the tables. A beautiful pink boa around her neck.

     When she arrived we all sang Happy Birthday to her.She was really surprised to see her son David who was sick with the flu in Layton, Utah.and her Grandson Parker. And also her Sister from Arizona. Julie was happy to be there.She scooted around the hall with her new scooter. Notice her broken foot in her hot pink cast for the past two months. Due to her bone cancer it is not healing well. She may have to have Surgery later on it. There was lots of delicious food for everyone.

     This is the gift table with the scrapbook of her friends.
Then a short program was enjoyed by all. Her friend Beverly did a Belly dance for her with candles. Two of her Singing students sang solos. Her daughter Kali played two piano solos. Cindy her friend made up a poem especially for her.  "Roses are Red Violets are Blue, Julie, you know how much we all Love you. "  She had thought and thought and finally came up with this original poem.
   
    Then her only Sister told a few Senior Jokes on her turning 60 to lighten the Birthday Party. Like the new Campbell's Soup for Seniors, It is called Large Letter Alphabet Soup. Another one was Julie always wanted a BMW. But now she doesn't care about the W. " One time Frank asked Julie ,what do Old Men wear ?Boxers or Briefs."She thought about it for awhile and said "Its DEPENDS. Now she can sing along with elevator music, eat dinner at 4 p.m. if she wants, and nobody will care.

   
      The Birthday cake was specially made for her .It had her name on it. It was circled by white and black piano keys. On top it had a large black music note. Notice the fresh pink roses.

Halloween in Oregon

          Sunday was Halloween this year, we drove through dense fog to Church. Dennis and his family were there. They had been babysitting the Triplets all weekend and they were both lacking sleep, therefore Zombies.

       After Church Dennis toured us through the new home he was building for Justin. It was huge, 5ooo sq.feet.three levels, 5 bedrooms, Theater room,bar, basketball court in the basement, butlers pantry, lots of storage shelves everywhere, a large kitchen with a farm sink and a great Island, a large dining room and living room with a fireplace joining each room,three car garage. Large swimming pool with slide and beautiful large gray rock features. Large patio with a long tube to slide down, from the second floor to the ground for the kids to escape when they are teenagers.

      Then we arrived at his home, we ate delicious Venison Stew, Dennis had made. Then the preparations began for the Halloween Party that evening. Marianne made a large Veggie Skeleton, pumpkin pies out of pie crust, little smokie mummies, out of smokie sausages, wrapped with bread dough.  Then we took it all to Jeremey's home when all the family met for the Halloween celebration.

      The Grandkids all came in costume and were very cute. Of course it was photo time to catch them all in their costumes. JaNae did a little craft with the little kids making plastic candy corns into people. Everyone brought Halloween type food. Bats and ghosts made from tortillas, a brain from Peach Jello with eyeballs, bread dough fingers with red almond fingernails, A spiderweb in avocado dip and salsa. For Desert Ice Cream with Halloween toppings like Frankensteins teeth, chopped walnuts, Zombie Eyes, cherries, vampire's blood, strawberry syrup topping. and spider legs, chocolate sprinkles.

       Dennis had made a spook alley in the garage for the kids. It was dark, spooky. Long black strips of plastic garbage bags, hit you in the face as you walked through the spook alley.You stepped on sheets of bubble wrap which popped under your feet. Scary ! It as great and really spooky even had real stuffed mountain goat head in it so the kids could pet it. A fun but a long day for all.
Happy Halloween in Oregon.

Trip to Oregon

       We were on the way to Oregon, it was dark, detours, first we got lost in Los Angeles,California, for two hours. When we finally figured how to work the GPS Gal, she directed us out to I-5 to Redding, California. Stopped there to visit, Aunt Ruth Helton and her family. They showed us the Funeral DVD of Uncle Vernon's Funeral, which was great to see. Then they gave a copy of the DVD of the Funeral.
   

       Then we drove to Grants Pass to visit Ron's cousin Cheryl and Dave Painter. Ron hadn't seen them for 25 years, so spent five hours with them. Drove to Winston, Oregon, visited more Reber cousins for a few more hours. Stayed at Garden Island Palms, in Roseburg,Oregon.
     

       The next day, we drove to Buxton Oregon, to stay with Ron's brother, Tom and Sharon. We stayed with them a week helped Sharon do her Geneology. Spent Sunday going to Church through the dense fog which we had forgotten about in Oregon. Spent the day visiting Dennis and Marianne and their family. Had Halloween dinner with all their family. Visited our daughter Rhonda and grand kids in Lake Oswego one day. Of course Grandpa took them Krispy Kremes.

        It took three days to arrive at our destination. It was beautiful driving through the wonderful Autumn colors. The trees were several colors of gold, orange and red. Grants Pass was especially beautiful this time of year. Then travelled to Vancouver,Washington, stopped at looked up the phone number for my cousin who lives there. But was unable to contact her then. So we continued on to Stanwood, Washington.

Tornadoes

       We travelled to the town of Flagstaff this weekend and surveyed the Tornado damage. They had five Tornado's hit around Flagstaff, Arizona  in one day. Some were 1 hour apart. We drove 10 miles west of Flagstaff and to the small town of Belmont, which was hit the worst. Two hundred homes were damaged. Twenty eight were destroyed completely. This was new housing community. One home had rowboat stuck in the roof.These  residents took shelter at the Circle 6 Motel which was close by the homes.
       They were given shelter for free from the Motel. Many back yard wooden fences were torn down.The siding was ripped off many homes, the garage doors and windows were broken. Their car and truck windows were smashed. The Mountain behind the Town had path of destruction, where the tall pine trees were torn down. As we saw the devastation, we realized we were blessed to only the minimal damage we had at our home. Our Mayor visited this area and she said help would come from the Federal Government. Several Damage and Construction trucks were busy helping repair the damage already.

       Then we saw the Train which was derailed. Twenty eight train cars were thrown off the tracks. Most were double piggyback cars which we saw laying on the side of the Railroad tracks. They had started building a road to get to them , so they could get them up righted on to the railroad tracks again. There were huge cranes there to help pull up the trains cars.

The Worst Storm in 27 years.

     Wow !!   We had a MICRO BURST today, we had a violent  thunder, lightning, tornado wind, torrents of heavy rain, then came the massive hail stones, the size of ping pong balls. This made a lot of noise, pounding hail stones this size coming down with a 75 mph wind blowing them sideways.
     
     This storm did a lot of damage in our area. Our Camper was flooded,and all the window screens were destroyed and the clearance lights of the front of it were torn off.  The visibility was very poor during the storm. I was glad we were not out in it.
   
      North of Phoenix the town of Care Creek had hail stones the size of baseballs. Interesting inside the hail stones, you could see two little hail stones, which I had never seen before.

      The houses around us all who had sky lights, had them all broken. Shingles were ripped off the roofs. Our street turned into river instantly.
   
      Our truck had the side mirror broken,and another mirror on our other car. Our roof top air conditioner, had the vents dented so bad, that the air couldn't flow out of it. Several large trees toppled over in our neighborhood. Many landing on top of cars or homes. A large tree fell over, and one really large one, fell on a Van parked under it when the Van with  a two year old boy and his Dad in it, took refuge, under the tree to get off the road during the storm. 
    
      Even the freeway was flooded so much there was only one lane of traffic getting through. The power lines also came down across the Valley. Some landed across the main freeway. This brought the five o'clock traffic to a complete standstill for two hours.
     
     The Grand Canyon University, in Phoenix had 6o windows broken, the car lots had all the cars metal damaged by the large hail, plus broken car windows. Power was lost for central Phoenix area for 20,000 homes. The hail bouncing in the swimming pools were making the water jump 2 1/2 feet high from each hail stone which hit.  It was very interesting to watch. 
 
     In the Flagstaff area there were 4 Tornadoes, which destroyed several homes and derailed several train cars.  We had four waves of wind, rain, and hail today. finally it is over.   

FAll IS HERE

I love FALL, in Arizona, the weather is still 108 and  its FALL already.                                     Our is GrassstillGreen,                                       The Swimming Pools are closed. 

School has started. 

Our Summer Garden is still producing, but its  time to plant a Winter  GARDEN in  OCTOBER. We plant Green Peas, Carrots, Cabbage,Cauliflower, Broccoli, Onions, and String Beans, a colorful Garden. I know that  colorful veggies have the most nutrition and are the best for you.  

Labor Day Activities

Brandon's beautiful pool to keep us cool
Natalie doing a flip
Byerlee
Max
Byerlee
Max, Natalie,Riley and Jet
Riley and Natalie, Max and Daniel, Jet{Baby}

Byerlee

Labor Day we went to a Barbecue at our Grandson's Brandon's home. There were lots of their friends and family there. We enjoyed Steak or Chicken and salads. We watched the Great Grand kids show us their swimming skills in their pool. Here are the photos.it was very hot today 108 degrees. I was nice to have different scenery and see the Grand children.