The many faces of Katelyn

Froggy!

I love this one! She drew the shape and details by hand (I just LOVE how GOOD she is with drawing!!!!) and then "colored" the picture and lily pads with a 'water-color crayon'. After that, she used a paintbrush dipped in water...and "blended" the watercolors to create the water-color-painting-effect. She's not quite ready for pure water-colors...and I think this is a REALLY cool step towards it! By the way -- the Kinkos copies always come out more vibrant...her originals are always slightly softer and more subtle. Enjoy! :)

Storm over the Wrigley Wranch

We had our first Thunder/Lightning Storm last night. Quite colorful...and loud. You can see the clouds 'dumping' rain on the mountian side. Although we could not capture it on 'film', at times the rain glowed orange as it relfected the the sunset...or...was it radio-active?

Timber Wolf Ridge

We walked up to a logging road I have named Timber Wolf Ridge yesterday. So named because I saw a wolf trotting on it during the winter, and because beyond it are trees (timber). The road is more or less the property line BETWEEN the logging company and the property south of us. The green you see between the road (where I am taking picture from) and our trailer/excavated area is about 9 acres of meadow (NOT ours).



One view (on the left I think) is the view the bears would have while watching for a chance to get dinner.

The other (to the right?) is what the wolf would see while trotting along the road. (he gets to see the lake).

Dad and the Hummer

We had one humming bird who just couldn't wait for us to refill his feeder. He landed on it and began drinking as I hooked it up. Here he is 5-6 inches from my nose.

Memorial Day at Santa Monica (part 2)

Right before we left the house,

Katelyn found some highlighters. Yea!

Kyle got to drive a bumper car for the first time.
Then while the girls continued to play at the carnival,

the boys went down to play in the surf.

Lake Coeur d'Alene above flood stage

We saw on the news last night that Lake Coeur d'Alene was about 1.25 feet above flood stage this past weekend but starting to decrease. So we went and took a look-see today. Apparently still above flood stage today. The 'horseshoe boardwalk' was closed off and debris was being cleared out of the parking lot. Should be back to normal shortly!

Bradbury Beach

This is, or at least will be when the lake rises, the closest beach to us. It is about 5 miles away.

We took these shots several days ago while looking for interesting places for Melissa to visit.

We will check it again when the water level is up.

Gazabo back up and running

I put the Gazabo back in service while at Idaho earlier this month. Back in services means canvas was stretched back over frame, and lawn furniture was transported from back covered patio (via truck), to site.

It may look trivial, but took several hours to complete.

Santa Monica Pier

I'm contributing one additional, so that the Sylmar Wrigley's only have to publish 3 if they want! We had lots of fun today...celebrating Memorial Day California-Style! Can you spot the "ham" in the second picture? Bottom picture is Melissa in Forest Gump's shoes (they are metal...secured into the wood), on Forest Gump's bench. Note the feather resting on the right shoe. Run Forest, Run! :)

A Vew from the Closet

Taken from our closet window (yes, I know, why does a closet have a window) this morning. In total, there were 4 deer outside the back fence and 2 more over our our neighbor's yard in addition to these two in our yard. Good little mowers, are they!

BARS Rev 3 Ver 1.0

In our latest attempt to discourage late night visits from our furry friends (Yogi and family?). I have set up a SCARE BEAR. You know, a scare crow to frighten bears.

The SCARE BEAR consists of a piece of welded art Lynda's Dad created with a solar powered light behind it. The following three views are what a bear would see in the dark, what he would see if he had a flash camera with him (digital of course) and what it looks like in the day light.

Last night was the pilot and...no bears! Not that that proves anything. We may not be on his Sunday night 'rounds' or he may have taken the Memorial Day weekend off to visit BooBoo.

Stay tuned for Version 1.1 and 1.2 (released together). They include THE SHOT GUN and UP UP AND AWAY.

360 View

Not sure if this will work, but I uploaded a 360 degree view of our property video to compare with the earlier Winter view. I have a microphone (in Idaho) so this one is with titles only. Next time I will make it shorter and maybe with a narrative. For now you are stuck with titles.

Thanks to our AVP/DIC for his help. I made several attempt at uploading to Youtube and finally gave up and uploaded to his site for handeling. It still took close to an hour.

DoD

BARS TOO

A lot of these six shots are out of focus, but it is all I got from the bear visit last Thursday Night. And I am still experimenting with the Blog. Uploaded this batch to email, then 'mailed' to blog.

We can make this a 'delete early' blog.

BTW, Idaho cell is being discontinued (someone - ME! - dropped it in the toilet). Stay tuned for second Washington cell number within next 10 days.

DoD

Sagle Bear...May he RIP

You may all remember that famous Sagle Bear Cub that predicted the coming of spring by peaking his little head out of the snow.

Well, it turns out that although it looked like a typical Northwest Chainsaw carving of a bear cub, it was indeed hollow.

The weight of last winter's snow was too much for the little guy. He collapsed under the weight.

Although he won't be with us next winter, you are ALL still welcome!

Glendale City Hall Field Trip

(These were all taken with my new phone by the way!) It just so happens that the Mayor of Glendale has a son in Melissa's classroom! The mayor & his wife organized a field trip for the class (not all 5th graders, just OUR class) to visit Glendale City Hall & the Glendale Police Station today! It was really neat-o! We met the mayor, a forest ranger, the captain of the fire department, an historian, local police officers and more. The two animals that melissa got to hold (a gopher snake and a GIGANTIC tarantula) were provided by the forest ranger. The jail picture is self-explanatory...it's Melissa making fun of my jail-time! ;)

Tombstone

Here's a picture of the boulder that flipped us. This picture was taken on our fourth run (after the flip) and is from a disposable underwater camera that we took with us on the raft.

And here are the 6 members of the Kern River Swim team. The picture was taken by our guide while we waited to launch for our first run of the day. From left to right: Jeff, Jimmy, Don, Joel (the Bachelor), Gregg, and J

Rafting on the Kern

My friend Joel Lofton is getting married in July. This weekend, six of my oldest friends (since Jr. High) and I went on a rafting adventure on the Kern River in California. This was definitely a top 10 event for all of us. The best part of the adventure was when we got high-sided on a huge boulder and the raft went completely upside down and dumped all of us. We got to ride IN the river for a few hundred yards while the guide got the raft back upright and we all climbed back in. The pictures above are from our 3rd run down the river. Each time we ran the river, we rotated positions in the raft so we each got to experience the front, middle, and back of the boat. We flipped on our second run - when I was in the front. If you ever get a chance to go rafting, I highly recommend it.

There's Bars in them there hills!

Included are two photos of our pet bear(s?). On the right is a photo of a footprint with Lynda's shoe next to it for size comparison. The print is about 50 yards away, but he/she/it was in our patio and rummaged through our collection of winter trash for goodies (trash now moved to dump).

To the left is a shot is of the bird feeder J&T gave Lynda. Wooden part is vertical rather than horizontal. You may be able to see a bird on the top wondering what happen to it's fast food restaurant. Later in the week, the bear decided some dessert was in order and demolished the attached humming bird feeder for the sugar water. The feeder sits about one yard from our heads at the bed.

Lemons on a Plate

Her latest and last "pastel". A lovely still-life drawing. I love the shaping & shading! Next project...watercolor!! :)

KT Tunstall Concert at the Wiltern

It was a WONDERFUL show. A perfect first concert for Liss. :)

Melissa's Latest Works of Art!

Kitty was pastel #2. (Dado - a copy of this one is coming home with Lyn! :)

Landscape is patel #3. (My favorite so far)

She is finishing her Still-Life pastel (lemons on plate) this week and then will move on to painting! :)

(Jeffy - let me know if you want me to email you so that you can forward on)

The End

OK, this is really the 'end' of our Mexico Trip =) -- (Get it, Kenny-Boy?) Taken at the beach in Puerto Vallarta.

Day 9, Picture 1&2

And, back to San Pedro, arriving at 7am. Nice 'ship touch' is you put your luggage outside your cabin door on the last evening and don't see it again till you arrive at your home-aiport, plus you get your airline boarding pass onboard. So, departing the ship is nice and easy -- no luggage! You exit, shuttle to the airport and walk directly to the gate. Upon arrival in Spokane, luggage is there. It's really nice. Picture #1 is soldiers arriving home at LAX. It was announced in the terminal and everyone was greeting and thanking them. Pretty cool. Picture #2 is arrival back in San Pedro.

The End!

Day 8, Picture 1&2

Days 'at sea' and nice and restful and enjoyable, too.

Day 7, Picture 1&2

Well, ports are all over now. Two days 'at sea' and we'll be back in San Pedro. Friday, April 25th. Pic #1, Bill got new huarache sandals while we were in Mazatlan =) and, the cabin attendant makes 'towel animals' each evening -- but I thought this one was sort of cute -- he was on the bed holding the TV remote and the TV was on when we returned from dinner. Cute?

Day 6, Picture 1&2

Ah, our favorite port - Puerto Vallarta. Pic #1 is of the beach in the older part of town. And Pic #2 might look familiar to Ken & Lynda ... I think they stayed in a time share in town that was up on a hill like this. As they say, anyone can walk down hill -- but that walk back up in the noon-day sun is a little slower. Ah, Mexico.

Day 5, Picture 1&2

Next port - Mazatlan. We were there from 8am till 5:30pm and docked, thus you just walk on/off at will. No tender. We returned to the old church so Bill could see the step he missed (picture #1) when he fell and dislocated his shoulder. Thankfully, this trip had no mis-steps! We celebrated by participating in the 'Buy one, get one free' Dos Equis XXs Beer -- however, we found out EACH person has to 'buy one, to get one free'. Two beers is about one too many for me =).

Day 4, Picture 1&2

Cabo San Lucas. We were there from about 10am till 6pm. You have to take the ship's tender into town (a very short ride). We know a couple from the Bay Area who now live there full time, so we had a nice visit with them. They have been living there over 10 years now -- originally he ran a sport fishing business and now they are about to open a Jazz Club (she sings, he plays the piano). 'Two 4 the Road' is the name of their new place. Second photo is the view as you arrive in Cabo.

Day 3, Picture 1&2

Monday was all day at sea, as we head towards Cabo San Lucas. Here's a couple more shots of the cabin.

Day Two, Picture 1&2

Time to board The Vision of the Seas. We got upgraded to a Grand Suite - which is about 355 sq. ft., with a balcony of 116 sq. ft. She was beautiful. Huge bathroom (as ship's go) with a double sink. And floor to ceiling glass doors leading to the balcony. Much grander/larger than we have had before.