Let's see - what have we been up to lately??

I know, I know, it has been a while since you have heard from us - what can I say? Life is busy - as it is for everyone... so, no real good excuse.

I'll try to tell some of what's been going on in pictures. So here goes...



We had a significant snowfall this past weekend - just in time for the annual Nutcracker performance that Amy takes part in. It was messy, yet beautiful and the show went on with just a few delays.



As usual, it was a lovely performance and Amy enjoyed herself tremendously. She was a flower in the 2nd act "Waltz of the Flowers" for the 2nd year in a row - the only difference was she and her class performed on pointe - which for them was a great accomplishment.


Our niece, Nancy, and her boyfriend, Will, came from Portland to see Amy's performance.

We also brought 4 of Amy's school friends with us for the Saturday night performance.


Last Thursday night was a BIG night in the Olson household and for the whole state of Oregon, for that matter. It was the night of the 'Civil War'. The Oregon State Beavers vs the Ducks of the University of Oregon! It was a well fought game on both sides but, as Dan would say, the 'good guys' prevailed and the Ducks will be going to the Rose Bowl on New Years Day! YEAH!! GO DUCKS!!


Believe it or not - we spent Thanksgiving (or I should say, the week before Thanksgiving) in Las Vegas. The actual day of Thanksgiving was spent in airports and jets. We had a week of timeshare that had to be used before the end of the year - use it or lose it - and the 'best' location available was Lost Vegas. The 2 redeeming features of the location were 1, Dan was able to drive over from CA to spend a few days with us and, 2, we all totally enjoyed our day together at Red Rock Canyon. It was only about 20 miles from the strip and while all the glitz of Las Vegas is fun for a while but it was so good to get out and climb on rocks. FUN and Beautiful!






Amy was Tinkerbell - with a twist - for Halloween this year.




In late September, Dan had an old college buddy - from U of O days - come for a visit. Dick Field is a recently retired chemistry prof from the U of Montana and was doing a lecture circuit thru WA and OR. Dan took the bus over to Eugene where he and Dick attended a game at Autzen Stadium. Oregon beat Cal decisively - it was a great day for them!

Dick stayed with us for a few days and they had a chance to climb some rocks at Smith Rock State Park. Dick was a climbing partner with Dan during their U of O days, so this was great fun!


OK, that's it for now! Enough already!

There's a teenager in the house! Oh, No!

Amy is now 13 (+ 5 days) and in all the excitement that birthdays bring I neglected to write about her special day on her special day. Sorry, Amy - I hope you'll forgive me!

She had a great day, spending the afternoon with 5 friends at Powell's Sweet Shoppe where they had a candy scavenger hunt and gelato. They walked to Drake Park and for the next hour proceeded to act like typical 12/13 year olds - chasing the ducks & geese, playing hide & seek, climbing trees, chasing each other and eating cupcakes. Of course, my camera was not working so I have no pictures to share. Instead, I have put together some pictures of Amy over the past year. I hope you enjoy...

Cruzin' for Cascade '09

Yesterday was the annual 'Cruzin' for Cascade' walkathon at Amy's school. The kids (& teachers) dress up in costume and walk around the track to raise money for the school. This year Amy and some of her friends put together a last minute costume idea - not sure what they are supposed to be - blazers and pink hair streaks?? Oh well, they had fun and are already planning for next year. We'll see how that goes...


Here are some random pictures I took of other costumes - kids & teachers.

OK, I've been a bit remiss....

School started last Tuesday, 9/8 and although Amy said she was not happy about starting 7th grade her actions over this past week "spoke" louder than her words.

Action 1: She now gets herself up @ 5:35am to shower, dress & eat with no 'help' from me. This is NEW! Dan & I still get up @ 5:55am - this is not new.

Action 2: Although there is quite a bit of grumbling about homework she has been totally self starting and even spent all Friday afternoon and evening working on 2 projects that aren't even due for a few weeks.

Action 3: Last night, after ballet, she immediately wanted to start another project involving papier mache and all I could think about was the mess!! and "wasn't she tired?" and "didn't she want to relax?" Then I thought "What am I doing? She wants to do homework! Go for it!" So, she did...

Here she is with her friend, Alanna, who she walks to the bus with every morning.


Charlie & Bella were quite forlorn without Amy but that was about to change!


We had a house guest! Lola was coming to stay with us while her owners, our neighbors and dog/bunny sitters, were going to England for 8 days. It's a great situation - they take care of our animal family while we are away and we do the same for them. Lola is a restless soul - while our dogs sleep away the afternoon, she is constantly on the prowl! Bella is usually the target and they did have quite a bit of fun. Although this next picture may paint a different story!!


The real story of our Lola Saga does not even involve Lola. It involves the mystery of the lost house keys. You see, in addition to Lola there were 2 kitties that needed to be fed daily and someone - who shall remain nameless - misplaced the keys on the 2nd day. Needless to say, our house was searched, the ground between our 2 homes was searched, the river trail where we walk was searched, the neighborhood association, Parks & Rec Dept., & Police
were called and emails flew back and forth across the Atlantic. Finally, our home builders warranty guy came and helped Dan break into the house. The cats went 24 hours without food - not a calamity for cats but... we are still looking for the keys. The Police suggested Craigslist & the newspapers Lost & Found, which we are still checking daily. They will turn up - I know it! Our neighbors are home and they still seem to like us!

Dan and a few friends will climb the South Sister on Saturday. We have been watching the weather because this is their 3rd attempt, so far. The first one was planned for early August and there was just too much snow still blocking the trail. The 2nd attempt was for 9/5 and the mountains were socked in by clouds with "white stuff" revealed the next day when it cleared up. So, we'll see if it's a go this weekend.
We took this picture on our walk this morning - the clouds are above and below Broken Top with a bit of snow showing up on South Sister just hidden by the tree on the right. I'm sure Dan will post some pictures if all goes as planned on Saturday.


If we hadn't stopped to take a picture this morning I don't think we would have made this discovery.

It has to be the skull of an elk - it's just so big! We brought it home and will try to place it somewhere in the backyard landscape where the dogs can't get to it.

Hopefully, Amy will not be too grossed out!

Musings from Late Summer

Summer is essentially over so I thought I would add some thoughts from the past few weeks.

While we had a good time in Florida during our annual visit, it was different in one regard. About the second day there we were all anxious to get back to Oregon rather than wishing the beach vacation would not end. Anyway, there were some highlights in Florida. The first was meeting up with Nancy and Amy in the Orlando airport; they flew from Albany and I flew from Portland. We ran into a really good hotwire deal (more than $100 off the going rate) and stayed at the hotel right in the airport, which turned out to be a 4-Star hotel. The photo is of Amy on our balcony above the main area of the airport; notice the fashionable hat.


A second memory from Florida concerns the ocean. The surf was pretty rambunctious, as shown in the pictures in the post below. Hurricane Bill was hundreds of miles away, but ol' Bill raised a ruckus on the beaches. On the last day, one of the larger waves got us all, but especially Amy. It battered her to the point where she thought she was going to drown and left her with a really sore arm for a couple days. Otherwise it was really fun getting blasted by the waves.

This is an aside, but one of the news items I read this summer was that "global warming" had raised the temperature of the ocean to the low 80's as far north as New Jersey. What the anthropogenic global warming believers fail to mention, however, is that the ocean in Florida is unusually chilly this year. Whereas we normally look forward to water temperatures of 80-82 degrees in Florida in August, this year it was only 74.

The third memory from Florida: On our last Sunday we stayed in Orlando while waiting for our flight home. We decided to take advantage of proximity to St Andrews Church, where Dr RC Sproul is the teaching pastor. It was like a little bit of heaven. The parking lots are a couple blocks from the church building, which looked to me like stereotypical Scottish architecture. The walkways to the church wound around ponds with fountains, and it was almost magical to walk along with others on the way to worship while listening to bell chimes play familiar sacred music. During the first 15 minutes of the service, the well dressed congregation sat in reverence while the church orchestra played familiar classical music written by Bach. RC Sproul spoke on the miracle of feeding the 5000 and somewhere in the middle of his sermon he quoted from a Nobel prize winning scientist who had written something to the effect that science has progressed to the point that it can now be concluded that spontaneous evolution of life took a miracle. I think he said that it might be called the greatest miracle, where a miracle is something that is rare and does not obey the natural scientific laws. It was really enjoyable listening to a man who is well read with a great mind talk about the real truth of things. Anyway, the service concluded with a piece from Handel's Water Music, one of my favorites.

On a lighter note, we went to Crater Lake National Park on Tuesday of this week. This year, there was hardly any snow left, which is a little surprising given that the average snowfall each year is 45 feet. It is a spectacular place with the bluest water I have ever seen. Amy delights in scaring the petunias out of her parents by perching on rocks. In the photo below, she was feeling her oats after being cooped up in the car for 2 hours. This particular location was not too scary,

but the one in the picture below really gave me the heebie jeebies. It is a long way down, straight down!

NY & FL 8/09

Just a few pictures of our time away! ;o)

The kids were the official corn shuckers for the family BBQ @ the Benoits our 1st day in NY

The "Noble" Family

The Whole gang - some Saylers, some Benoits, some Hoerls, some Olsons, some Nobles


The 'Noble' kids - in age order, of course. Cindy, Kathy, Bob, Nancy & Sue

Sue, her 3 boys, Amy & I spent a day in NYC. Here are Jeremy, Luke & Mike as we just got off the train and were walking from Grand Central
Station to Times Square.


Amy enjoying a stop at the M&M Store in Times Square.

We took the Staten Is. Ferry to see 'Lady Liberty'. She looks pretty good!


We also spent some time @ the Museum of Natural History - you could spend a whole day there and not see all of it! Walked through Central Park and enjoyed the people watching and serenity in the middle of 'the city'!
"Dinner" was ice cream sundaes at Serendipidy3 -YUM!- I bought some fruit to eat on the train ride home. Something healthy to counteract all that fat & sugar! It was worth the calories - not something you could do everyday or week for that matter!


Amy & I had a chance to spend time with friends while in NY. We met MaryBeth & Margaret Burrill for some shopping and lunch @ Crossgates. Amy stayed overnight with Laura Divirgilio and we were able to see Laura compete ( and WIN!) her horseback riding event @ the Altamont Fair.
We spent time with Bev & James Currier, Ranu Manocha & her kids and Amy got together with Lydia Parker for some fun @ Indian Ladder Farms and puppy playing @ Crossgates Mall all in one day!



Then it was on to Orlando to meet Dan @ the airport and end up @ our time share in Ormond Beach. We had a great time relaxing in the pool, and riding the waves. Hurricane Bill was making his presence known with high surf and tremendously strong under tow. It was a constant battle to stay standing. It you let it, the current would take you to Jacksonville in no time at all. The surfers were having a ball!






All in all, we had a great time, but it sure was good to be back home in Bend!