Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day is the start of the holiday season for us (and this year was Goni's birthday too). Grover always does his traditional hike to the top of Angel's Rest in the Columbia River Gorge on Thanksgiving morning. This year Shayne and Andy (his blog is listed to the right) made the hike with him. Weather was cold but reasonably clear. We got some good views of the river and worked up an appetite for turkey. Goni stayed home and cooked two big turkeys and some rolls for the celebration.

We went to Darren's (Goni's brother) house for dinner and ate to our fill. The only down side was there was no pumpkin pie. They had some kind of pumpkin desert but it was not the same. We will make sure that doesn't happen on Christmas! We sang Happy Birthday to Goni and a good time was had by all.

Later Laurel showed off her enormous belly while playing a game of Sequence. We are waiting patiently for the arrival of Rowan around the middle of December. Charity said that Jonah was pretty sick on Thanksgiving so they didn't get to go down and have dinner with Chris (who was working) at the fire station. Patrick and Kurt both had to work too although Patrick got to come have dinner before his shift.

Later that evening Jill came by the house and got some turkey for sandwiches. Notice the beautiful flowers on the counter that Grover got Goni for her birthday. Nellie made some noise with one of Grandma's pans and a wooden spoon.

G&G spent most of the remainder of the weekend at home suffering from colds. We did sneak out Friday night to see the movie Australia and a quick shopping trip to Target & Fred Meyer on Saturday afternoon. Other than that we stayed home. We are hoping for a trip north on Sunday to visit grandkids. Seems like everyone we know has been sick with this cold.

Posting with no pictures

We thought we would see if anybody read what we had to say without any pictures. Are you visually stimulated people bored already? There will be a test!

Since we got back from San Diego we have been busy with life and getting back to the grind. Grover caught a cold on the trip home and is now back to normal (well as normal as he gets). Goni got back to school and is now fully registered to take her required teacher certification college classes through Seattle Pacific University. I'll bet there will be some winter weekends spent inside working at the computer.

On October 26th we went on a train ride out of Yacolt that had a Halloween theme. The Headless Horseman Train Ride was a lot of fun. We rode the train for about six miles and sure enough the Headless Horseman rode by. We stopped and got a chance to see him up close and get some refreshments. Weather was good and we saw lots of trees with leaves changing.

Grover went to the memorial service at our church for a neighbor, Leota Balch, who passed away from cancer. Grover taught a Community Emergency Response Team (aka CERT) class and attended a Presbytery Meeting in Lacey with Steve Klump. He helped wrangle together a 2009 budget for the Presbytery in his role as the chairperson of the Presbytery Finance Committee.

For the weekend G&G went up to Seattle to visit Tom and help him with some projects around his house. We left on Halloween night and stopped to see Jonah and Noah in their costumes when they trick or treated at Kirsten and Gary's house. Noah was dressed up as a chef and Jonah was a rat (from Ratatouille). Jonah is such a happy baby and loves to smile and talk. We helped Tom paint his bedroom and run electrical wiring out to his new shed. Then he took us out to Red Robin for dinner.

On Sunday, November 2nd, we came back from Seattle early so we could see the Mwamba Uganda Children's Choir during the worship service. They were great! Nellie came up with Jill and seemed to enjoy the program. She has quite the mouthful of teeth coming in.

Sunday afternoon was spent with taking naps, working around the house, and Goni met with Melody to discuss the food for Clark & Courtney's wedding reception next weekend. The reception will be on Saturday at the Calvary Community Church in Longview starting at 7:00 PM. Later in the afternoon Grover went flying and got in 12 takeoff and landings with six of them after dark making him current to carry passengers for the next 90 days. Anybody want to go flying?

Tonight it will be time for the G&G team to fill out our ballots. We still haven't figured out who to vote for but decision time is here. Our new president and other elected officials will need our prayers as we enter the new year and an economy in recession.

So how was a Blog without pictures? Couldn't take it? Here is an old picture of the airplane for those who must have something to look at. Look for pics from the wedding reception next week.