Charlotte and the Family Renunion

We had the opportunity to visit with Charlotte, our 2001 Rotary Exchange student from the Netherlands in July. She was here for a few weeks with her family. It just so happened that there was a Smith/Hill and Laseke/Lemmons family reunion at our house on the 27th. Tom and Kathy Hill lived down the street from us in Toledo and had five kids about the same age as ours. We would do stuff together so Jill organized a reunion and Charolotte and her family got caught in the middle.

Charlotte and her family with Goni

Charlotte & her dad and Patrick visiting

Everyone is having a great time visiting.

Kathy and her granddaughter Marley.

Tom and Natalie with Paul in the background talking on the phone.

And of course the food!

Soundview Expedition

Every summer Grover and Goni help out with a summer youth camp expedition in the Columbia River Gorge. For one week we camp, hike, canoe, whitewater raft and in general have fun. This year we had 13 kids and the weather was really good. This year our nephews Drew Bradley and Alex Allen went along and had a great time!

Picture of the group at the very end of the week.

Our tent trailer (aka: The Palace) and Goni's camping kitchen.

The campers and counselors all slept in two man (or woman) tents.

Our first hike was to the top of Beacon Rock

Steve Klump acting the part of Capt Meriweather Lewis

Unloading the canoes at LaCamas Lake for canoe training

Canoeing on the Sandy River.

Whitewater rafting on the White Salmon River

Goni having fun.

What a Busy Summer!

I knew it had been a while since we updated our blog but when we checked today we found it had been over a month. We have been busy with all sorts of things. Goni has had a few catering gigs and Grover has been busy at work (it's not fair that Goni gets the summer off). In between all this we fit in family events, a trip to the Arlington Fly-in, the week long Sound View Expedition with the church kids in the Columbia River Gorge (and yes Goni did fall out of the canoe twice), the reunion with Tom & Kathy Hill and the various children on July 27th, a visit from our 2001-2 Rotary exchange student Charlotte, church work parties, camping at Lower Falls with Pam & Bruce Brown this past weekend, and on & on & on. Grover hasn't been flying since July 9th although he has been down to the airport to visit and work on the airplane a few times.

So there will be some pictures posted and more information in the near future. We promise!

The Garden

We have a wonderful place out behind our house that we like to use during the summer. We remodeled an old wooden deck a few years ago and put in a patio. While Caroline was here she planted all our flowers but because of the cool spring and lack of sun the flowers did not flourish.

The week that Caroline left to go home the sun came out and it got warm. The flowers took off and we now have a really great outdoor space thanks to Caroline. She always referred to our patio as the "Garden" so that is what we call it now.

Grover & Goni enjoying a fire in the "Garden" one cool evening last week.

Summer has arrived!

Summer officially arrived on Saturday, June 21st which is also the annual Woodland Planter's Day celebration (and Ellie's birthday too). The weather started out a little threatening but turned warm as the day progressed. We invited friends and family to join us to watch the parade which goes right by in front of our house. We typically start out with breakfast and then serve lunch after the parade. Something we started last year was airplane rides for those interested from the local Woodland airport. This year we made three trips with eight people getting rides around the area.

Ellie with her birthday cake and before her birthday plane ride.

This was Caroline's last weekend in the US before heading back home to Germany. We have enjoyed having her living with us but all good things must come to an end. She had not been out to the beach (except for a quick flight over the beach one afternoon back in the spring). So on Sunday we took her down so she could put her feet in the Pacific Ocean. We also took her to see Jake the Alligator Man at Marsh's Museum and checked out some of the stores in downtown Long Beach. The weather was beautiful and we had a good time on our last outing with Caroline.

On Tuesday we took her to the Portland Airport and shipped her back to her parents. We will miss her but plan to visit Europe in the summer of 2010 so we will see her again then. You can checkout her blog for her story on the trip home.

Graduation, Baptisms, Birthdays & Father's Day

It was a busy weekend with Caroline graduating from Woodland High on Friday night, a joint graduation party with Caroline, Nicolina & Nathalie on Saturday, a baptism on Sunday morning and a big party on Sunday afternoon to celebrate several birthdays and Father's Day.

Our three graduates Nicolina, Nathalie & Caroline.

The graduation party on Saturday afternoon.

Nathalie left on Sunday and Grover promised her a flight around Mt. St. Helens before she went home to Finland. Saturday evening Grover flew Nathalie & Caroline out of the Woodland airport for a quick trip around the mountain with really great weather.

Elise & Kohen were both baptized at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Longview on Sunday morning. The pastor is Barney Rinkel who is Kurt's dad. So it was kind of neat for Grandpa Rinkel to baptize his grandchildren.

Nellie was dedicated at the ceremony just before the baptism.

Kristopher with his birthday card and cash. We also celebrated Mercedes, Rebecca & Chris Layton's birthdays. We had carrot birthday cake at Chris' request.

Grandpa got to spend some time with Jonah who was his usual animated self.

Noah's school program

This past Thursday Noah had a main part in his the first grade program at his school. He played the scarecrow and was all dressed up for the part. He had some talking parts and also did some fancy footwork with a shovel. The program was excellent and the kids all sang great.Grover got to hold Jonah during the entire program. He loves to make noises but he didn't cry one bit.
The New Couch
Monday afternoon the deliverymen delivered our new couch. Caroline insisted on getting a picture of Goni and Grover relaxing on the couch in the living room.

Mt Hood was conquered!

For the fourth time Grover climbed Mt Hood this past Friday along with eight other brave souls. Jill's husband Shayne went along and the weather was good. The group met in Portland at midnight Thursday night for the drive up to Timberline Lodge. Took off up the mountain at 2:30 AM and reached the top around 10:30 AM. We were back down to the parking lot a little after 2:00 PM and went for ice cream at the Dairy Queen in Rhododendron.

Saturday was the carnival at Goni's school. Caroline went along and she was transformed into a mermaid. Goni helped students dunk the principal in the dunk tank.

Then we went down to Doug's house in Portland for the after Hood climb BBQ, BS session, and photo exchange.