Another new Grandson!!

Congratualations Denny and Heather!

Hunter James was born 7:50 the morning of November 8 and weighed 9 pounds and was 20.25 inches long, he's a bowling ball, or a butterball, whatever. He's very definitely a Sizemore and a workmate says he looks like a cabbage patch baby.

He definitely has the Sizemore mouth and just look at those cheeks! He's done very well, no problems and has a ravenous appetite (duh). He was, in everyone's opinion at least a couple weeks late, thus the large size. Everything is squished, nose, toes, and he has large hands, not the cute tiny newborn hands. And a full head of BROWN hair (like mama).

Camping Somewhere other than Lily Lake

Well, after our long, wet, wild winter a lot of roads were flooded out in and around Mt Rainier and one of them turned out to be the road to our Lily Lake. Keith went out with his dad and found the road gated and when they explored they found water flowing over it in one place at least. So now we have to find out who to contact to see about getting the repair nearer the top of the list so we can go back to our 19 year tradition.

In the meantime we had to find a different place to go. Kevin and Shirley found a spot near Lake Chelan a few years ago so we decided to try that spot. It was a long drive, 3.5 - 4 hours, about 200 miles one way (LL is only 100 miles). So Rach couldn't convince Tony to go, since he already wasn't liking the idea of camping anywhere. But Denny and Heather and Kevin's family all wanted to go, even if it was only for 24 hours or less.

My drive out was eventful. I have hauled my little paddle boat on top of my car for years but we hit some wind next to the Columbia River near Entiat that was a lot stronger than anything I've experienced up til now. So when the boat was airborne and felt like it would lift the car right off the road one rope broke. I got off the road and we re tied everything and took off again. The wind continued to blow and the boat was airborn again when the thing it was tied to, the handle, just broke and the boat went flying right over the car. I drove over the rope and then watched in the rear view mirror while our little fun boat was dragged behind the car just a few feet before the rear handle broke and it slid off the road into the ditch. Fortunately half of our group was in a car following me (at a distance) so no other cars were involved. We stopped and checked everything out, the boat had a little road rash and the cover was a little torn but was otherwise fine. So I backed up to retrieve the rope and found it had wrapped around the rotor. We had to jack up the car and remove the tire to be able to wrestle the rope out. The shoulder was narrow so the friend doing the work was sticking out in the road so I told the other 2 useless bodies to go down the road and make sure the traffic moved away so he wouldn't get hit. They turned it into a dance and were taking videos of it. Soon we were back on our way again, this time I tied the boat down in the middle, throught the windows so it wouldn't become airborn any more. The rest of the drive went fine, we were only about 25 miles from camp.

So we found the camp but couldn't see any "awesome" site as Kevin described it. We threw up a tent and split up, one group drove around looking for something else and the other group went into the paddle boat to look for a jumping off spot with a camp site near it. We found the spot but it was a little hard to get to but we did it anyway, I drove my car down a nasty dirt road and scratched up the sides and determined I wouldn't move it again until we were leaving. It was so windy I didn't even dare try to start a fire. There actually was a fire burning a few miles away and we had lots of smoke and ash falling on our spot. So we all hit the hay pretty early.

The next day was warm and beautiful so we spent pretty much the whole day laying on floatation devices on the lake getting varying degrees of sunburn. In the evening another friend of Dane's showed up and we had a fire but my other boys didn't get there so I was by myself.

Saturday morning was pretty dull, the 4 kids now spent all their time together, driving to town a lot and I was left alone at camp - boring. I brought a book so I did some reading and then actually took a nap. When I woke up I decided to sweep out the tent, it was dirty when we set it up. While I was sleeping I heard some new voices and - hurray!! - it was Denny and his doggy Gage, pregnant Heather was still on her way from the car. He brought his quad so we went back to the car and unloaded and set up their camp. He got a new tent and it was HUGE!!! Probably about 8 x 16 and you can put up a wall and have a screened in patio-like section, all screen on one end. But HUGE!!! I told him he should bring it to Lily Lake and we can all sleep together. A couple hours later Kevin's family showed up. They set up camp and little boys played in the dirt. We did the usual camp stuff. Kevin and Denny made a project of breaking up the firewood and ended up using the quad to try to break the larger pieces, couple of numb-heads, very definitely brothers. Kevin threw a fishing line out at dusk and had bats hitting the line, they flew real low through camp too. The kids tried to find a hiking trail a few miles away and the driver was a typical 20 year old guy in a junk car and was driving 45 MPH on the dirt road and finally broke a sway bar but managed to get the car back 20 miles to camp. Then he had to find some phone service so he could call his daddy and ask him to come out with the trailer to take his broken car home, a 400 mile round trip. That evening it began to rain very lightly so in the morning when the little boys woke up I'm sure Shirley simply had had enough and didn't even want the boys to be out playing in what was now MUD so they packed up and left first thing. We all took our time breaking camp and I was the last one out. But as I was trying to get back out that nasty dirt road I got stuck and finally had to have Denny pull me out.

I sure hope Lily Lake is available again next year but if not, at least we're educated as to this other spot which could really be nice without all the excitement of this year.

Visiting the Big Island

We got to Kauai and spent the first couple days just visiting and going to the District Convention, etc. Saturday we took off for the Big Island. We got to see just about everything there was to see on the island. We only got to go play on the beach once because, believe it or not, there aren't many good beaches on that whole island. Saturday we checked out Hilo, the farmer's market, a couple waterfalls, Rainbow falls and Pe'epe'e falls which were huge and brown because the tropical depression hit the night before and dumped 10 inches of rain, then we saw the west coast drive, Waipio Valley, central part of the island, Waimea, which was buried in fog and was cold, a perfectly awesome sunset at Anaeho'omalu bay (A-bay) and camping at a campground called Kapaa, with a noisy group of locals. Sunday we drove north or east to a beautiful valley called Pulolu. We had to hike down to the beach, it was steep and would have been very slick had it been raining but fortunately it was dry. One of the prettiest spots on the island. We turned around an continued south through Kailua and Kona, played at a pretty beach called Hapuna for a couple hours and got sunburned, then ate lunch at a beautiful park with all the pretty birds and hiked 1.5 mile round trip to a petroglyph site (ancient Hawaiian carvings). We visited Kealakekua Bay (where Captain Cook was killed and his bones were buried at sea) at a beach called Napo'opo'o, then an ancient "Place of refuge" replica called Pu'uhonua o Honaunau and then camped at a quieter although buggier campground called Hookena. When we were having dinner and downloading pictures onto the computer we got a 1.5" cockroach in the camper flying around so I opened the door and jumped out and Dane shooed it out, yuck! We got a good night sleep though and when we woke up we were camped right in front of a "no camping allowed" sign, oops! Early in the morning a fat white guy came and parked right next to us with his radio blasting, then walked away with his dog to smoke and visit witht the people in the camp. Slowly I figured out he was the local drug dealer and the stupid loud radio was his call to come get your drugs like the ice cream man with his music. Grrr. Monday was our best day. We went to the south end of the island, Kae Lae, and people were snorkling and jumping off a cliff. I was considering going in and just swimming but was being hesitant because the rocks had urchins on them and was kinda slippery so I decided to just sit and keep my feet in the water when a big wave came in and decided to take me out. When I saw I was going I pushed off so I wouldn't get pulled out feet first. As I was going out I bumped a couple rocks and now have a big scrape and bruise, oops again. But the water was great, overall I'm glad it happened. There was a local guy there that just watched over all us dumb tourists. When I started swimming I heard him call out and check if I was ok. Then he was in the water near me and said "you doin OK Moms?" MOMS, he called me MOMS! He was at least 60! It's just a respect thing though, I know, I'm not a spring chick so what do you call me, Lady? Then I had to climb up a 40 foot ladder but that was fine, I had no problem with that. We kept driving and I saw a neat longhorn (bull) so I stopped to take a picture and when I parked next to a carport like thing I saw inside a mule and a zebra! We saw wind farms and herds of cows and Paniolo, Hawaiian cowboys. We stopped by a beautiful black sand beach, BLACK sand and a fish pond called Punaluu. It is also a sanctioned Hawksbill turtle resting place and we actually got to see one about 2 feet long. Then we headed to the volcano. When we got there Dane said he wanted to do the Kilauea Iki trail, a 3 mile trail and it was already after 4 PM. So I said great but that we'd have to hurry becuase the sun sets about 7 and typically when we hike it's at a pace of about 2 MPH. So we hit the trail hard and got the hike done in 1.5 hours and it turned out to be 4.4 miles. It was awesome, we actually hiked right across the crater, past the steaming vents. I think the crater was about 2 miles across. So we got that done and wanted to go down to the ocean end of the Chain of Craters road to see the night time lava glow. On the way down we saw another Petroglyph trail, Pu'u Loa, that was .7 mile one way so we grabbed our flashlights and cameras and took off nearly running across the lava. It was easy to do though because there's very little loose rocks, they're all glued together. Ours was the last car in the parking area when we got out. Then we drove the rest of the way to the road that ends at the lava, another little hike to that spot, 1 - 1.5 miles round trip in the moonlight by the ocean. We didn't get to see any glowing lava going into the ocean but when you'd look up at the mountains there was the glow from the eruption taking place on the back side of the mountain from where visitors can see in the park. The road is closed for 1/2 mile so people just stopped and sat on the road and rested. They also have a picnic table and trash cans set up so we sat and took pictures of the glow, it reminded me of what the ancient Hawaiians must have seen and worshipped. So that day total we did about 7 miles hiking and a nice swim and climb up a ladder. We were exhausted and up where we slept on the volcano in a campground at about 4000' elevation called Kulanaokuaiki it actually got COLD at night, we had to have blankets and long clothes. We slept pretty good and when I got up I looked at my watch and said "it's a quarter to 9, get up". Turns out I didn't see it right, it was actually a quarter to 7, so we got a nice early start. After breakfast we went to the Thurston lava tube before the crowds got there. There are 2 sections, one is clean, smooth and lit, the second one, behind a gate is natural, no light, low ceiling in places, fallen rocks, roots hangin down, etc. We used our flashlights and hiked in to the end of that. Then we went to another spot that ade me wish I had my friend Suzanne with me called Bird park or Kipuka Puaulu. It had tons of birds and huge old trees and was the perfect temp, we could have spent the whole day in there if she could have come with me. From there we pretty much just went back to Hilo so Dane could do some more shopping, I needed to rest, the van made my back hurt and I suddenly got a headache so I went and laid down in the van for an hour or so and Dane went to the mall and shopped. Then we ate up the rest of the food before we went to the airport . We got back to Kauai yesterday evening and slept great finally back on a real bed. Today I'm getting caught up on this emailing stuff and just kinda resting. We're gonna start painting and weeding eventually, mom bought a sprayer and scaffold and she's working on assembling all that and learning how it works. Saturday Dane and I will go play here on Kauai while the folks go to a friend's memorial. He was the brother that had their book study at his house and died suddenly 2 days before we came, he was only 46 but had lots of health problems.

A Very HOT Day!!!

Well, we just got home from the dentist. Dane just got 5 teeth pulled. He never got any of his 12 year molars, well, he got one but it was sideways. There was one wisdom tooth, below that molar. The others were badly impacted. So we had all four molars and the wisdom tooth all pulled. I guess the Dr wasn't very good. They didn't numb the upper very well and that's where they were really impacted. Normally that process should have taken an hour but it took 2, the guy that brought him out to the car said he hasn't seen teeth that badly impacted for 4 or 5 years. They brought him out in a wheelchair and he was crying heavily, so much pain. We removed the gauze just long enough for him to swig some chocolate milk and pills. Now he's laying on the couch with ice on his face, waiting for the pills to kick in and grunting through the throbs as they pass. He couldn't eat or drink for 8 hours before surgery (at 4 PM) so he went all day without eating and drinking only what he absolutely had to. Just so happens today was a record breaking hot day (100º+)and he works in the sun with rocks and concrete. So he was very dehydrated when he came in, they hooked up some IV fluids and he got 3 bags (liters). Not a great day for him, poor kid.

Poor Heather got dehydrated as well. Didn't know what was wrong, started freaking out (paranoid since she lost the last baby) had a panic attack. Called people but no one answered so she called the ambulance and went to the hospital. She's fine now, resting and taking in lots of fluids. The baby is a boy, they'll name him Hunter.

Gonna go drink my beer now, anything to cool off.

Class of '007

Well, child number 4 has now officially graduated high school, yay!!! Only one more to go.

All the kids came to the ceremony. The seating was very crowded, as usual. I got there early to save enough seats. Then this one lone woman decided to grab one seat at the end of my reserved area. She quicly became about 4 people and we all had to turn sideways to fit. Oh well, it was just an hour or so. The little boys were so good.

The Auburn congregation had a grad party for both Dane and Chad Morrison. They had cake, food , music and a few gifts. But it seemed more like Chad's party than Dane's. The Bushnells actually came and talked to me.

After graduation I decided to throw together a last minute party for Dane. It turned out very nice. About 4 families from Covington came and the older kids crashed the party. Dane got tons of gifts and cash. We had a fire, ping pong, a trampoline, a game from back east called "cornhole". It was a great success.

I hope Keith can have as nice a party when he graduates.

Family Day 2007

I'm trying to establish a new tradition. I want to have a "Family Day" in the summer so June 9 was our day this year. Last year the weather was great so we were outside. I bought some nice steaks and we all dressed nice and I took photos, they came out very good. I also bought everyone gifts. The idea wasn't to get gifts but to stimulate a gift exchange. The kids are catching on, they all got me something. Rach and I were plant shopping in the spring and I saw a concrete bench made with large maple leaves as a pattern that I fell in love with. She got that for me. Kevin and Denny got me other backyard gifts, Kevin got me solar powered tiki torches that actually flicker and Denny got me a portable firepit. The weather was cold and rainy so we were inside mostly but when the weather cleared for a while the kids all took over and started doing all kinds of stuff outside. Tony dragged out the ping pong table, Kevin started setting up the tiki torches and Denny started a fire in the firepit he gave me. We cooked up our steaks and had a nice dinner. But since we were mostly stuck inside I didn't take pictures. So, maybe I'll do photos every 2 years instead of annually. And because it was so grey and cloudy we all had the sleepies so the party didn't last too late, everyone went home to nap. But I think everyone enjoyed their gifts and time together.

Since we all enjoyed the kite festival so much and we all want to do that every June I'm gonna see about combining the 2 and make the kite festival wknd our Family wknd as well. The beach is always a great place to take pictures, even if it is grey and cloudy.

Dane gets Baptized

OK, so yesterday we were at the Ocean. Today we went to our special assembly day. The family were all gonna come but they couldn't get up and out of the house by 8:30, too much work getting the house cleaned up and emptied out. They still had to take Joe out to fly the kite his Grampa Phil gave him too.

We had a great speaker from Bethel who was originally from South Africa who gave great talks with some wonderful illustrations, his dutch-like accent was fun to listen to too. Dane, Daniel Garcia and his wife Cassandra (8 months pregnant) all got baptized from our congregation. Bill Tallent and Rick Bailey did the baptisms, as usual. 14 got baptized all together and there was about 1200 in attendance. I ran into Laurel, Sue Zolezzi's daughter there, she and Travis came to see someone else get baptized.

The Garcias had no plans for dinner and we did so we included them in our group. We went to a little Italian place in Puyallup, Casa Mia. The server was great, the food was good too. They messed up and forgot 2 of my meals, mine and Keith's so the server said my forgotten meals would be on the house. My bill came to only $11 so the server got a nice big tip. The Garcias, Daniel's mom Leticia and her husband Adam and sister Finesse came. All the Parrs, Sarah Garner, the Haydens, the Holmans, a couple other young friends of Dane's, all together 25 of us.