Labor Day Week-End

Long-time friends Barb and Jim Sullivan came over for a visit on their Harley this week-end. We had a wonderful visit with our greatly missed Woodinville friends. We cooked fresh, wild salmon on a cedar plank on our new grill.
We're trying to get them to move over to the sunny side of the mountains. They're thinking about it....

Yesterday we went blueberry picking with Sarah (daughter-in-law), her sister, and their parents. All together we picked more than 65 pounds - 21 of those pounds were ours to bring home. I love blueberries, so now I have enough to last me a while.

Shopping Cart

We were out recently and came upon this huge shopping cart. It is actually a vehicle - look closely and you'll see seats, a steering wheel, and an exhaust pipe.

Cranefly Migration

A couple of days ago, we witnessed a cranefly migration in back of our house. I had no idea there was such a thing, but sure enough, that is what it was. I saw more cranefly in a few minutes than I've seen in my entire life. Thousands of them were heading south to warmer climes. I wish I'd gotten a picture.

Breezy

Today we took JJ to the local airport where a different plane is presented and flown every Saturday afternoon. Today it was a 'Breezy' - so called because there is no enclosed area at all - hence it is breezy when flown. Here's the plane we saw - JJ even got to sit in the one passenger seat after the flight.
Hannah went with us last time, but opted out this time.

Camp

Grandson JJ just returned from camp. We got to bring him home from camp, so we were able to see the camp and meet several kids. He is pictured here with his camp friend Gabe.
This is a special week-long camp for children of deployed military. It's called "Operation Purple" and there is one in every state. It's a chance for kids to be with other kids who have a deployed parent. Our grandson loved it! He's proud of the camouflage soot on this face and didn't want it to come off.

Here's a link to some TV reports on the various Operation Purple camps.
http://www.militaryfamily.org/our-programs/operation-purple/media.html

Dress Up at our House

Hannah was here recently and got into Grandpa's old uniform.

Hanford

Yesterday, we finally got to tour the Hanford Nuclear Reactor site about 80 miles from here. The place is surrounded by the most desolate landscape I've seen. It's also full of rattlesnakes and scorpions - we didn't venture far away from the plant. What an experience it was! We learned so much! There was a lot of history we didn't know about, either. Too much to elaborate on here.