Beach Bums

It was a perfect day, and thankfully we had shade.

Noah, all covered in sand, thanks to Eric and Sarah.

Jordan gets ready to catch a wave

That was fun. Let's try it again.

Noah has great form.

"Grandpa, help me build a hole for a lake."

This is how the hole looked 2 hours later.

CA 2009 with family

This is what happens to grandkids when they're bad!
Not really - Sarah loves to spend time with Molly

We visited the La Brea tar pits with Jordan and Cyndi and learned
a lot about what goes into making a museum with lots of old bones.
It's very exacting work and would require lots of patience.

When we found out that there is a Kroc Center in San Diego, we took Maya,
Noah and Sarah there for a tour and to enjoy the pool.

Noah was the first one to try the high dive. Eventually Maya got brave
enough, and then there was no stopping either one of them.

Herm was able to get these mid-flight jumps of Maya. It was a
beautiful day, and we put on lots of sunscreen. Besides the Kroc
Center, we had lunch at In-n-Out burgers and then a stop at
a serve-yourself-frozen yogurt shop that was unusual (hope
one comes to Oregon soon.

Welcome, Baby Chase

Chase Andrew was born today (Feb. 11) at 7:46 a.m.
He weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 18.5 inches long.

These are some mighty proud grandparents!!!

How about those commercials???

I've come up with a way to vote on the Super Bowl commercials, and here's the categories and the winners:

Funniest: Doritos with snow globes

Ingenuity: One second commercial

Downright cute: Insects stealing a bottle of Coke

How would you vote???

I highly recommend "The Shack"

I just finished reading for the second time the book, "The Shack". And while my first reading of this book began to make a difference in my life, the second time through was just as meaningful. The biggest impact on my life came in the area of forgiveness. I finally realized and admitted that there were three people in my life that I needed to extend forgiveness, and until I did, I could not move on like the main character in the book had been able to do.

Another benefit I received from this book was to get some answers to the "why" that kept going on in my mind as to why God didn't prevent the sexual abuse I experienced as a young girl. That was very freeing for me.

So that's why I'm recommending that everyone who reads this blog consider reading this book. I'm sure that you will receive great benefit. And while it may not be in the areas where I received benefit, there will no doubt be something for you. The book is fairly short, inexpensive, and readily available. Give it a try!

Southern CA grandchildren enjoy winter in OR

Sarah looks the hill over, then starts down the hill followed by a crash.

Noah looks the hill over...

goes over the jump he and his dad constructed...then reaches the bottom safely.

Noah makes an ice fort.

Ice tastes so good, at least Sarah thinks so.

Winter continues

We are now experiencing the third snowiest winter in the recorded history of the state of Oregon. Eric gets involved in shoveling the sidewalk.

In order to get out, we need to have chains on our tires. Salem only has 30 trucks with snowplows and sand/gravel spreaders. Our road has not seen one of them for days. But our road leads to one that has been taken care of, so off we went to do some shopping.

Besides all the extra work snow brings, the beauty of the fresh snow is wonderful to observe.

And while ice is pretty treacherous, it coats the trees and allows them to glisten.