Happy Birthday, Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. Let me tell you about my dad.

Here he is with the love of his life, Kay. They enjoyed dancing in their younger years and would get all dressed up to go to the Cove with a big group of friends.











He loves us kids, too, and we never lacked in his attention. Here we are at Deception pass. We went to lots of fun and interesting places together when we were growing up.





This is the house that Dad built in 1955. Mom helped a lot too, and I helped by not eating nails or falling down the stairs. Mom and Dad still live there.


Then he went on to building a boat... in our basement. He had to remove the wall to take it out. This is the "Salty C's".




















Then came the Salty C's II (below). We took our boats to the San Juans every summer with friends. I used to love boating.




Pictured below is the Lady Kay, a beautiful Grand Banks that my dad lovingly cared for and kept in perfect condition. Mom and Dad boated every summer until about two years ago when they sold the boat.


We all used to ski together and went to places like Sun Valley, Big Mountain, and White Pass.


Dad loves his grandkids, too. Here he is with Colin in Hawaii, trying to keep him safe by the water. Mom and Dad took the whole family to Hawaii five times over 15 years. These are memories all of us will cherish.




















Yes, they were an active bunch, but Mom and Dad were always ready (and still are) to be with the grandchildren. When they were little, nothing was more fun than spending the night at Grandmother and Grandad's.

The grandkids loved boating, too.























Mom and Dad have always loved to travel. They have a special love for Germany and Hawaii. They also love going on cruises. They are always ready for a new adventure, something new to see. We went to Victoria together last May.





















Yes, Dad loves being together with his family.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you!
Joann

Lots of white, but not on Christmas

We decorated our Christmas tree in the cold living room during the power outage. (Yes, the lights on the tree are on - we have a generator). Colin wasn't able to join us, so we found a picture of him and added him in.

Here is one of several frogs given to Dan for Christmas.
Seems that there is a never ending supply of frogs out there in retail land.












Dan and I got away after Christmas for a couple days of skiing at Crystal Mountain. Conditions were ideal: cold, clear with light, fresh snow. We were able to ski the whole mountain. Well, it was windy at the top part of the time, about 60 mph. The wind was blowing the snow around on top so that you could hardly see when disembarking from the chair. We pointed our skis straight over the edge of Green Valley and put our arms out, and the wind kept us at a nice slow speed.















Mt. Rainier, above, and Mt. Adams, below

The whole family finally gathered on January 1. Celia and Keith spent Christmas with Keith's family and Colin was in St. Louis for a week at the Urbana missions conference. We opened our presents on New Years day. The nice part about that was that I could shop the after Christmas sales! Colin got lots of things for his new apartment, such as a tablecloth and an afghan made by Celia with her new crocheting skills.



January 10th - Four or five inches of snow fell at our house in just a couple of hours. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon, with below freezing temperatures all day.