Fall 2009

Welcome to Fall.....Back to School

This is a picture of Dustin on the first day of school...Dustin is off to 5th grade and Deanna is off to yoga. I think her little brother has finally caught up with her. Both brothers have passed her up. She is now the shortest in the family. We still love you.




Amazing fall colors....Seattle Arboretum


These are a few of the photo's I took on the latest photo outing with mom. The colors were so amazing, I really felt like I was walking in Kinkade painting.I found that using the foliage setting worked much better.....


It was so beautiful . The only bad part
is when you see the leaves falling you know what is coming next. Winter :(















Mom getting a perfect shot..














The Japanese Gardens were closed for the day. But we didn't let that stop us, we hiked around the back side and took pictures through the fence.















The bridge that goes over the main road.















What a beautiful fall day.. it was overcast . We decided that we better get down there before all the leaves were blown off the trees. I think we were a few days to late. But I'm glad that we made it.

Dog Walking Team

Deanna, and sometimes Darren, walk the neighbors two Alaskan Malamutes, Nova and Noodle (AKA NuNu, or Kujo). Noodle is 6 months old now, but in the outside pictures he has to be three months old. Recently he was driving his owners(and Nova) crazy and they sent him down to our house to spend the morning with Deanna. She happened to take some pictures of him. He has grown so much! He is quite the character, He knows Deanna's name now. If you say "Deanna?" to him, his eyes will light up and start wagging his tail. It's really cute.

Four Leaf Clover

Deanna was lucky enough to find a four leaf clover in our yard. Since then she found a whole patch of them in Oregon.

Spring/Summer Yard

Sorry about the lack of posts. But here are some pictures of our pond and yard from this late spring and summer.

I'm back (kind of...)

Sorry, I have not had time to post lately. The weather finally got nice enough(although a little to hot) to do projects outside. We have been working this week on

Refurbishing our stairs to our front door.
Yard work
and setting up the pool so the kids can go swimming.

Dustin also had his final concerts this week. He was awesome. It's amazing how much progress they have made from coming in at the beginning of the school year knowing nothing, to be playing songs! We are so proud of him, we are also glad to hear that he has decided to continue to play the viola again next year.

Deanna had finals this week. So she has been busy studying this week. Darren is working on finishing his school work so he can start summer vacation.

I promise that eventually i will get around to posting better posts. Just give me some time.
That's all she wrote,
Diane.

Dustin's Spring Comcert

Dustin had his spring concert and he did great. He was afraid he wouldn't do well because he miss so many classes due to our trip. They sounded awesome. The concert had all ages playing, (4th-12th grade) it was the best school concert I had been to. The high school chamber orchestra had just won 1 place in a competition against Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho. So we were listening to very talented kids.



Dustin has been asked to play in a concert for his school. He will be playing with the older students. So he has to learn harder songs...keeps him out of trouble.
I no longer need earplugs when he practices. Things just keep getting better and better.

That's all she wrote...
Diane

Happy 10th Birthday Dustin!!

Dustin is in double digits!!
I can't believe that Dustin is 10 years old already. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that he can home from the hospital.

I asked Dustin what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he said "Mom you're busy you don't need to make a cake". That's what I love about Dustin he is very thoughtful of other people. Well, because I had nothing better to do (ha ha) I decided to make him a sword cake, that should be easy..just a handle and a blade. After spending several hours I finally had a cake that I liked. You know me I have to put too much detail into a simple cake.
Dustin got a sword (reproduction) as a birthday present, this inspired us to redo Dustin's bedroom. I will put up pictures when it is finished. We are painting, remodeling furniture, and getting rid of 10 years worth of toys...maybe 8 years of toys most of the stuff in his room has not been played with for a long time. This has turned into a huge project.






I didn't want the boys fighting with real swords so I also got them play ones...Oh the battles that have been fought.

Lot's of fun.








That's all she wrote..
Diane

Fun in the sun day 5,6 and 7

Palm Springs....

Mom and Dad wanted us to experience the tram ride up Mt. San Jacinto from the Coachella Valley. It is a 2.5 mile ride up some very rugged cliffs. The cars rotate so you get a 360 degree view all the way.









It was a very beautiful ride. The tram was built in 1963 the main reason was to get people out of the heat in the desert and to colder air in the mountains, were they could enjoy hiking etc...






It was very interesting you leave the valley were it was in the high 70's and desert, mostly sand, rock and a few cactus. As you road up, the plant life changed, more bushes and grass. Then at the top you are in a alpine forest and snow. At the top the elevation is 8515 feet.










Looking down at Palm Springs.











The next day Dave and kids wanted to spend the day at the pool. The condo has a beautiful pool or pools. They have water slides, two hot tubs, one under a waterfall, a in pool volleyball area, a lovely place to just relax.






Dad, Mom and me decided to go exploring, we noticed that the Indian Canyons were about 2 miles from the condo. so went to check them out. We were sure glad we did.

>Indian Canyon is really a group of 5 canyons in the Santa Rosa Mountains. It is located in the Auga Caliente Indian Reservation. Andreas Canyon first, if you decided to go on this hike take the path on the right, with it's 150 species of plants and native Washingtonia Palm trees it is breathtaking. You hike along a creek, there are so many plants you feel like you are in a jungle. As you walk along you can see the mortars in the rock were the Indian women ground the corn. I would recommend this short hike to anyone who likes to take pictures, watch birds and lizards. It is only about a mile but took us a over an hour as we couldn't stop taking pictures.

These are the mortars where the corn was ground.



























Then we drove up to the trading post and had our lunch. They had hummingbird feeders hanging out by the Info desk, I never seen so many hummer eating at the same time in my life.



A view across the desert.




Palm Canyon


We then took the Palm Canyon hike this is a 14 mile hike....we only went a couple miles then can back. As person could send a couple days just hiking up here. It is so different that the we take through the Pacific Northwest forest.. Palm trees instead of cedars, I really felt like I was hiking in some jungle in South America. Enjoy the Photo's




Some of these Palms date back hundreds of years. The ones that look black are burnt . They are fire resistant so if the tops don't get burnt off they will continue to live. The last fire here was in 1980. This is looking up the Palms.



It's amazing that a place so pretty is tucked away the these mountains.

Now it is time for us to fly back home. Back to reality. That all she wrote.. Diane