Whitney Graduates - Again

Melanie and I took a trip to Idaho this weekend to watch Whitney graduate from college. She just wrapped up her senior year at BYU-I in Rexburg with a Bachelor's Degree in Communications. This is another happy moment for us as our oldest daughter reaches a milestone which we planned since her youngest days. It is rewarding to watch our kids set high expectations for themselves - and reach for them. We are proud of her accomplishment and to see her place a high value on learning and education. Now that she is out of school and married, we lost another tax deduction. I'll try to counter the adverse tax affect by earning less this next year.
It was a pleasure to share the occasion with Whitney's husband, Curt. It could have been uncomfortable last December when Curt graduated because he could have taken his new bride to some distant corner of the country before she graduated as well. Since he decided to stay in Rexburg to support Whitney while she finished her last semester, it saved us the confrontation. He was generous in his magnanimity and didn't force us to pull rank after all the time and money we had invested in Whitney's college education.
At least Whitney waited until after the graduation formalities before she celebrated. BYUI's president would surely have put her on graduation probation had she whooped and danced during the march. She was glad to be done, and we are happy for her. On to the next stage, wherever that leads her.

"R" We There Yet?

After Whitney Graduated, we took a drive over the border to Jackson. The Sheriff frowned at us when we tried to photograph his orange jumpsuit friends who were raking the park. He held his hand on his pistol the whole time he was supervising the county prisoners. One looked like a bar-fighter type, the the other like a shoplifter who stole something for his high school girlfriend from one of the souvenir shops. We had to settle for this shot of the arch.

Melanie has a very delicate disposition. Some things make her scared easily. When I asked her to stand by the dead bear, she wasn't sure she could keep her emotions in check.




































On Saturday, Whitney and Curt didn't want to pack their apartment so we took a walk up the North Menan Butte. Whenever we visited gramdma and grandpa Goff in Lorenzo, grandpa always talked about the little town of Menan, but we never went there. The buttes are probably the most prominent geologic feature in the Upper Snake River Valley. The north butte is also known as "R" mountain. We hiked to the top of the butte and saw the valley below starting to wake up for the Springtime.















All the trips we made to Eastern Idaho when we were young, my and Melanie's years at school here and having two kids graduate from BYUI, we never climbed R-Mountain. It was a simple hike up the south rim and the view was rewarding. From this angle its hard to tell where I'm standing but it is at the top left-hand corner of the "R". Whitewash on the rocks shows the top of the R with the Snake River in the background.

With Whitney and Curt moving away, we will miss Idaho.
Finally, after Whitney and Curt showed us a good time, we left for Salt Lake City to spend the day with our parents and Dana's family. This is a picture of us and Arnold as we left Rexburg. Arnold kind of blocked us from the picture.

Conference Comfort

Wasn't Conference terrific? Seems there is always a theme that stands out, and what stands out to one may not be so remarkable to another. It seemed to me that there was a consistent looking toward the temple. It hadn't occurred to me that the garners would be the temple where the saints would gather - I always just thought of the gathering place as the stakes of Zion.

It made me think of the many times I have been to the temple with our family. Over the years I'm sure I have treated the temple with less care than I should have. Just after Melanie and I were married, I worked construction with a fellow in Provo - the brother of one of Gary's college friends. This fellow told me his life went about as well as his temple attendance. That has always stuck with me, not that I followed his advice. How lucky we have always been to be near a temple and how little I have used them. Maybe now I will think less of making money, coaching teams, playing ball and being outdoors and more on strengthening my core beliefs.

Also, my mind was turned to the temlpes I have visited over the years. 1. Idaho Falls, which will always be my temple, 2. Provo, 3. SLC, 4. Bern, 5. London, 6. Ogden, 7. Logan, 8. Manti, 9. Oakland, 10. Jordan River, 11. St. George, 12. Boise, 13. Seattle, 14. Laie, 15. Kona, 16. Bountiful, 17. Draper, 18. Rexburg, 19. San Diego, 20. Houston, 21. Portland, 22. Lehi. I was at the Copenhagen temple long before it was a temple, but I guess that doesn't count. It was the original chapel in Copenhagen, next to the mission home before they changed its use to a temple, remodeled and dedicated it.

I feel badly about missing the Anchorage, Fargo, Denver, San Antonio, Medford and a couple others where I didn't have time to visit while in those towns. I hope to see more.

Will Al Gore Ever Get It?

March 29th! Snow again this morning. It will melt off before noon, but what the heck? Our daffodils didn't appreciate it much. They stayed in bed, huddled together to keep warm.
Arnold was even more upset. He walked around the yard marking his territory again. I hate it when he does that. You know how much spoor an elephant leaves behind, don't you? At least we can use it in the garden.

He did get a chance to take a bath though. He loves the water.

Even though it has been colder this past week than normal, the Flowering Plum is waking up to Spring. We haven't seen any honey bees yet, but the blossoms aren't quite in full bloom. Give it a week and the yard will be covered with the petals of the flower. Now, that is a snow I can enjoy this time of year.This guy only looks delicate for a few days, then has to be cut back to the ground. It's nice to see flowers this early since it helps dispell the gloom after a long winter. It's a nice way to begin a Sunday morning before going to church.

Arnold, step away from the bunny!

Into the Pit of the Vampires

It's been a few weeks since my last blog. That's because not much goes on here anymore. Seems our lives have settled into very simple routines with no spectacular highs nor lows. As a result, Melanie and I have to push ourselves out of the house every now and then in order to create a new conversation

Last Saturday after my jog, I was trying to come back to life when Melanie rolled out of bed. She had no plans for the day nor did I. The sun was going to burn off the fog in a few hours and we didn't want to waste the day doing yard work. We decided to drive to the coast for a little adventure. At first we thought just a drive to Kalalock Lodge would be perfect, but as we drove, we kept getting deeper and deeper into Olympic National Park.
One of these days we will have to spend a weekend here at Lake Quinalt Lodge. Teddy can be proud of what he started. Although I am not much of an Obama fan and his trillion dollar debt machine which my children will be fortunate enough to pay for since they voted him into office. His boondoggle will fund some badly needed improvements at the country's National Park system.
At the Hoh River Rain forest we walked among the giants. These trees are as tall as a football field, if you stood a football field on its end, that is. Other wise that wouldn't make much sense 'cuz a football field isn't very tall otherwise. Not only are these trees massive, but they host some very funky moss.
Late in the day we made it to Rialto Beach near La Push. It was high tide and a little rough, but pretty in its own way. We sure live in a beautiful country. Now that we are mature adults, we need to get out and see more of it. This Summer will give us a good chance to see some of the southwest desert. We are looking forward to that.
Here I'm standing next to one of those large trees, washed off the mountain by a previous storm where is has been battered by the surf and ocean debris.
Melanie had ulterior motives for wanting to visit the coast. She pretended not to know anything about the vampires we would run into. Having never seen the movie nor read the 3,258 pages of fine literature about the topic, I was not expecting to be caught up in the Twilight hysteria. This bus was transporting an entire gaggle of hopeless vampire groupies around this small timber town. Forks was single-handedly saved from economic ruin by pale-skinned blood suckers. It seems a whole industry has sprung up around these sub-human vermin.

We went down this road anyway.

Yes, Melanie made me stop at the vegetable market where Bella shops. We bought blood turnips, deer neck and wolf spiders. Melanie ate the spiders, crunchy. I had the deer neck burger, seared with garlic to keep the vampiresses away until we got off the reservation. Lucky for us the sun was out that day, as you can tell from the previous photos. Melanie was disappointed she didn't get her photo taken with Edward, but when we got home, she let me nibble on her neck a little anyway. I think she went out and bought the movie on DVD this week. I'll try not to watch it.

It's a New Day

February is usually a dreary month in Western Washington. When I woke up the last day of the month and saw a red glow in the eastern sky, I knew it would be worth getting out of bed and racing to find a view of the sunrise. First, I ran out to Lake Tapps hoping to get a picture across the water, but found nothing. Turning east I rounded a corner in the road with a barn on a hill to the left.

Even though I miss the sunsets in the Mountain States, these moments before sun-up are equally as thrilling. There will be time enough for yard work, for selling Brandon's old truck and recaulking the showers and tubs. This morning was spent watching the rainbow rise over the hills.
When the sun had come up and the horizon was fully bled out, I walked around the barnyard. Knowing the farmer would probably be upset if he caught me hanging around on his place, I tried to shoot a couple interesting pictures before scampering.

Seeing this electric fence insulator hanging on the wire made me think how much our world has changes in my lifetime. My children wouldn't even know what this was for or that it wasn't doing much good that way it is suspended, unattached from a wooden post. In former days these were an important part of getting meat on the table and milk in the fridge. Reading my sister Melissa's blog about her daughter being confused how ground beef was going to become part of their hamburger dinner - made me laugh. It really is a new day. Our kids don't hardley know from where they've come.
It was a treasure chest of images at the barn. With three out-buildings, implements from the 1940's, wood rotting into the ground, there has to be a magazine photo in that place somewhere. This boot, part of a pair slung over a horse stall a number of decades ago. Look how it quietly lost its soul. It must have filled with rain a thousand times before the welt gave way and the sole fell off. You'll have to go to my Flickr page to see it in color. It shows better in color. The link is to the right, at the bottom. Visit McKenzie's Flickr page as well, it shows better than mine.
It occurred to me that change is probably good. These old buildings haven't changed much and look what's happening to them. Nobody cared for them these many years and now they have lost their usefulness. Changing the roof, siding, doors and windows would have made them hold up better to the forces around them. One can learn a lot from an old barnyard. It's a new day, and that's not so bad. Maybe I'll run home and get out the caulk after all.

Winter Comes for an Unwanted Visit

Last week we enjoyed some terrific weather and started to get outdoors after a tedious winter. Today we woke to an unwanted return of snow and cold. With any luck this will move off to Rexburg where it is wanted.

At least the dafodils have poked their sleepy heads out of the ground to see what the fuss is. You can see that they haven't awaken all the way and are still stretching to find the sun. It's there, be patient a little longer.

In a few weeks these branches will be budding with brilliant green leaves, rain will be misting down, making this winter scene much more colorful, rich and promising. Even though it rains here, the colors are beautiful. Don't any of you Utahans tell me you couldn't tolerate the rain. Look out your window, see the brown grass, the gray trees, the dust kicked up from the sanded streets? Yeah, it's bleak there too, but our air is clean.