Goodbye Elmo Balloon

Grace came racing in the back door panicked - "Daddy, I need Elmo back, I need Elmo back."  At which point I realized she had taken her Elmo birthday balloon from the family birthday part into the back yard - and let it go.  So she has had her first lesson in letting balloons go - only it hasn't sunk in.  She kept asking, "Is Eric looking for Elmo?" whenever Eric stepped outside.

Fruits of the Garden update

The canning went very well and until Aimee realized we forgot to add the Lemon juice.  The lemon juice's acidity is essential to long term storage of the tomatoes, so now we have a lot of canned tomatoes that we need to use soon.  The sure look pretty.

Fruits of the Garden

We didn't pick any tomatoes for a week - and look at our bounty! We used a laundry basket to pick the juicy little red devils before we canned them over devilishly high heat.

Spider Glacier

Aimee and Nelson standing before Spider Glacier in the pass over Holden Village. Unfortunately, Spider Glacier has melted so much that the trail was unpassable over the pass. This picture was taken an hour or so before that discovery - otherwise we wouldn't be so darned happy. So Jami, Micah, Aimee and I turned around and hiked back out 10 miles and down 4,000 feet, arriving back at the truck at 10pm at night and then driving to Field's Pt. Landing to catch the boat to Holden.

Scone Chicken

Grace called me a "scone chicken" this morning - which is what a person is "after when you take a bath."  Mommy, however, is not a scone chicken - although there seems to be some hope that she could eventually attain that status.

Dinosaurs and Falling Suns

At Holden Village, Grace and I (Nelson) were watching deer graze in the center of the village.  Grace told me, "Daddy, the deer are afraid of the dinosaurs."  Later, at sunset, Grace said, "Daddy, the sun is going down to the mountains?"  "It is?" I said.  "It's going to break all the houses.  It's going to break all the castles."

President Past

Aimee is now a Past President at Gift of Grace. Her two years of service are up - now it's off to Grad School. No rest for the weary.