Is it Really the End of Summer?

I can't believe that summer is over and fall has begun (although you couldn't tell by the nice weather we have been having). This last week was a busy one at work for both of us but we survived and entered another beautiful weekend. On Friday after work Grover took a friend, Andy Malchert, for an airplane ride from Kelso to Toledo and back. Andy has never been up in a small airplane before and he took 57 pictures of the flight. He will be posting some of these pictures on his blog "Andy & Renee & Boys".

The flag of the City of Chicago flew on our flag pole over the weekend. Grover has had this flag for over 15 years and it has never been flown outside his office. It was probably the only Chicago flag that was flying west of the Mississippi on Saturday and Sunday.

Several weeks ago Grover sold our old canoe because it wasn't a safe river canoe. Saturday morning Grover went with Steve Klump to the end of the summer sale at Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe at Jantzen Beach. They had one of their rental canoes for sale and it is just what we need to hit the river canoeing safely. So Grover bought it and Steve took it to the house on the top of his van (Steve must have figured there would be a canoe purchase because he brought along his canoe rack). Grover will be trying it out on October 11th when there will be a canoeing trip either on the Cowlitz or some river in SW Washington.

On Saturday afternoon Grover and Goni went up to Napavine to Jim and Wendy Pea's 25th anniversary party. Jim was Grover's campaign manager in his run for sheriff in 1994. He works for the sheriff's office in the jail. Ran into some old sheriff's office friends and had a good time. Afterwards Goni wanted to go out to dinner so we went to the Red Lobster in Kelso. Melody & Bruce, Shelly & Tim and George & Jane joined us for the impromtu dinner date.

Wendy and Jim at the Party.

Mike Pea, Jim Pea and Grover. All now retired except for Jim.

For those who don't know it Grover finally got a hanger for his airplane at the Kelso Airport. On Saturday night Goni went with him down to Troutdale to clean it out the old hanger. We will be moving the plane into the new hanger in the next couple of days. It will be nice to have it closer and only 20 minutes from Woodland.

We are getting ready for a garage sale this next Saturday. We are trying to get everything together over the next few days so it is a success. Report to follow in next week's blog.