November's Friday Night Movie with the Laurels...and their friends.

I have really enjoyed teaching the Laurels and one of the fun things that we do is get together for a movie and pizza at the house. This month we watched the movie, "Walle" abut a cute little robot.

Sitting on the sofa are Megan, Dar, Heather, and Stacy with Kyle, Patrick, Anna and Lindsey in front.

Christmas Tree Expedition 2008

One of the fun traditions our family has is we get up early the Saturday after Thanksgiving and head for the hills of Estacada. On the way, we pass through Sandy and stop at Joe's Donuts for...well, the biggest and best donuts you have ever tasted. Krispie Kreme doesn't stand a chance next to Joe's Everyone that tries them agrees. We used to save the donuts until after we had tree and everyone was tired from sledding. Over the past 18 years we have become smarter; now we buy enough donuts to eat on the way up the mountain and then later we enjoy another with our hot chocolate!








Some years we trudge through thigh high snow to locate the right Noble fir tree. This year there was no snow and we all got sopping wet going through the brush.
Here are Ian Scott and Dulanna We see some pretty interesting things while searching for the 'perfect' tree.


After searching and searching....and searching some more, James was wanting hot chocolate and donuts....and dry clothes.

"No James! Not that tree!"












Here are Matt and Katherine, Josh and Kaija.





After putting the tree on the Rodeo we all were able to enjoy our hot chocolate and donuts.

Thanksgiving Day--2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Matt and Katherine were with us as was Josh and Kaija. We missed Aaron and Lauren but knew they were having a great time in North Carolina with the Lewis's. The morning started off with James and making Swedish Pancakes for the family. Grandpa and Aunt Mary joined us and we had a wonderful time together. The rest of the day was spent preparing the meal for that evening. I commented to James how as a young girl I would run around with cousins, enjoying all the sweet smells coming from the kitchen, I didn't fully comprehend the work that Mom and Dad put into the meal. It is a lot of work, but I am so apprciative that my family helps. Katherine's mother Rosemary and sister Angel came to dinner too and we are always so happy when they join us. (Rosemary makes wonderful Peacan Pie!) For some reason, I did not get a picture of the 10 of us, but I did get a picture of the food!

A Saturday with Miki-san

Miki-san flew from Japan to America for a week of business and shared a Saturday with us. James and Miki worked together for six years at Toyo Tanso USA and during that time they developed a friendship that spanned more than just work. We were able to get together with Miki, Mitsue, Sotoro and George many times to go boating, or have dinner and always had lots of fun and enjoyed our visits. We were sad when they moved back to Japan.

James, Matt, Katherine and myself met Miki-san and his friend Kiku-san at 'Salty's' a restuarant on the Columbia River for a magnificient all-you-can-eat buffet of seafood, beef and anything good you can imagine. It was fun to sit and talk about families, work and past memories. Miki-san said that everyone in Japan remembers James-san and what a wonderful engineer he is and misses him. Miki-san brought us beautiful gifts, Japanese table runners, purses and mirrors.

After lunch we drove to Multnomah Falls and hiked up the trail as far as the bridge.

We then drove back to our home for a short time where we sat and talked and looked at pictures.









Our day ended with a trip to Niketown in downtown Portland so that Miki-san might purchase some Nike shoes to take back to his sons in Japan. We have many friends in Japan; people James worked with and then moved back and people that James has met on his four trips he made to Japan while working at TTU. Miki-san and his family are such good friends and we hope to someday visit with his family in Japan as well as our other friends from that wonderful country.