Merry Christmas

I've decided to add a few pictures as a special Christmas edition of the Blog. Here you'll see Mikki and I as we practiced our peace signs. It took me several tries to master it, usually only using one finger(driving in Idaho will do that to you) - I'm just kidding. You may notice a long line of foot prints going just to the right of Mikki. Those are the prints of the itinerant who took the picture. What you don't see is our tracks as we chased him down the beach trying to get our camera back. The picture you see is the evidence that we did catch him. He wasn't too fast, but he was wiry and put up a pretty good fight, but was no match for Mikki. I was very proud of her. She subdued him with an arm bar and had him tapping out in about a minute. Actually, this is a picture of our back yard looking West.

This is a picture from last year when Jake was in Sandcreek Middle School. This was taken just following his coming in second in the 50 meter free style at the fall swim meet. I think he could have had first place if he hadn't worn his football gear. That crazy kid! Many of you will recognize the pretty girl growing out of his arm pit - his sister, Katie. Actually, Katie is the accomplished swimmer and Jake is the football player. As many of you are aware, they both are excellent musicians. Jake plays percussion in the Hillcrest band and and sings in the Men's Choir. Katie sings in the Choral and plays guitar and bass.

These are the signs Katie and Jake took to the war protest we had last year. This brings back a lot of memories from the sixties when I was carrying signs. But mine said "Passing thru. Down on my luck. Can you help? God Bless." I carried one that said "Eat at Joe's", But I made more money with the other one.

This is from our trip to Monterrey, Ca to see Tyler Graduate from Language School. He learned Arabic so he could be stationed in North Carolina and keep an eye on the Arabs there. Just because there aren't any there doesn't deter the Marines. He is there in case some wander by. The slabs of rock behind them are actual pieces of the Berlin Wall taken from - well.....Berlin, where else? When we got there, the slabs were just plain, so we thought we'd jazz them up a bit. I thought it made them look more festive, but the Marines just didn't see it our way. Our trip was cut short after that. I really think they overreacted and didn't have to escort us off the base like that. And such language! I mean, really, they were only slabs of cement. You'll notice Jake's hair is a different color. That was part of his Halloween costume that didn't wear off like it was suppose to.

We often go down to the river to feed the geese. We ran out of bread, so Zach tried Carsten, but the geese didn't care for that fare and left him alone. We fished him out and dried him off, but Carsten didn't seem to appreciate the effort. We saw it as feeding the geese and a quick swim lesson. The other people there were huffed, but I thought calling the police was a bit over the top. After all, we fished him out. Truth is, this is Zach and our grandson, Carsten. We were feeding the ducks and geese at the river.

This is a picture of Katie and the warning sign we were forced to post on our house and in several different places about the city when she got her drivers license. The State Department of Transportation and the State Police required it. Personally, I didn't think the accidents were that bad and just because that certain driving instructor, who will remain nameless, will never teach again, shouldn't mean we have to drive in front of Katie at all times with a bull horn to let unaware drivers know she is on the road. It is very inconvenient. But, isn't she cute? Actually, she is a very excellent driver and we are very, very proud of her. She has been driving for a couple of years now.

This last picture is for me because I'm tired of winter already and I wanted a picture of something with color. This was taken in some one's back yard. I snuck back in the yard when I thought no one was home. As it turned out, they were home and seemed to be a bit miffed when they found me taking pictures in their back yard. Still, a day in jail just for taking pictures? Geez!!! Really, this is a picture of our Pergola. The ladder is for picking grapes from the top.

So much for pictures. I hope you liked them. And, I hope the season is good to you and that you all have a Merry Christmas.