Enough Said.Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Our Short Trip to Oregon
This weekend we went to Beaverton, Oregon to visit the Nortons. While we were there we also went to the Apple Store and bought a MacBook for Drew. He decided to "defer" his high school graduation gift until after his mission so he could have an up-to-date computer for the bulk of his college years. His MacBook is a white 13-inch, 2.4 GHz intel core 2 duo processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive and has a double-layer superdrive (in English that means it burns DVDs!). Since he is a college student he received a discount on the computer and a free iPod Touch
(although he decided to pay to have an upgraded model).
On the way to the Portland area we stopped at Multnomah Falls just as the sun was leaving the gorge. There was a beautiful rainbow at the top of the falls which I tried to capture with my digital camera. I don't think this photo does it justice.
Drew, Kyle and Bruce were ahead of me as I went under the bridge to the falls area. When I came around the corner Kyle was laughing, but I didn't see Drew right away. I looked where Kyle was looking as he laughed and there, up to my left, stood Drew in the pose you see below:
We drove home through the Columbia Gorge today. This time we chose to cross over the Columbia River on the "Bridge of the Gods" (kind of scary!) near Cascade Locks, just upstream from Bonneville Dam (open Google Maps). That means most of our trip was on the Washington side of the gorge. Since the highway on the Washington side never leaves the gorge, we had a view of the river all the way to McNary Dam, where we turned north.
Along the way we stopped at Sam Hill's "Stonehenge" monument. It was the first World War I memorial in the United States. Sam Hill, a pacifist, erected the monument to honor those of Klickitat County, Washington who died in the war.
While on the bluff, below the Stonehenge, Kyle mentioned that this would be a great place to hang glide, since it was steep and there were lots of thermals on a hot day. We got back in the car and went about five miles down the road. As we were going around a corner and down a hill, we looked up and saw two paragliders. Bruce took lots of pictures of them. I'll try to post some good ones here tomorrow.
On most days, the Columbia River generates very stiff winds in the gorge. This makes it a great place to windsurf, hang glide and generate wind power. There are many wind mills up on the bluffs of the Washington side (don't think Oregon likes windmills!). I tried to take a few pictures of windmills as we drove along. Although, this being a calm day, the windmills were not turning. When we drove through on Thursday the wind was howling and the mills were spinning at about 12 RPM.
(P.S. Pictures with random cut-off daddy bits are my favorite.)
I wanted a shot of the windmills with the power line towers. The towers almost obliterated my view of the mills.
(although he decided to pay to have an upgraded model).
On the way to the Portland area we stopped at Multnomah Falls just as the sun was leaving the gorge. There was a beautiful rainbow at the top of the falls which I tried to capture with my digital camera. I don't think this photo does it justice.
Drew, Kyle and Bruce were ahead of me as I went under the bridge to the falls area. When I came around the corner Kyle was laughing, but I didn't see Drew right away. I looked where Kyle was looking as he laughed and there, up to my left, stood Drew in the pose you see below:
Benson Footbridge over the lower falls
Kyle and Drew in front of the lower pool of Multnomah Falls
Upper falls
Video of the Falls
There is a tree at the top of Multnomah Falls that looks as though it is ready to crash into the upper pool.
This sign is in front of the Nortons' next door neighbor's house. We couldn't resist seeing if Kyle had some "junk in the trunk."
Kyle and Drew in front of the lower pool of Multnomah Falls
Upper falls
Video of the Falls
There is a tree at the top of Multnomah Falls that looks as though it is ready to crash into the upper pool.
This sign is in front of the Nortons' next door neighbor's house. We couldn't resist seeing if Kyle had some "junk in the trunk."
We drove home through the Columbia Gorge today. This time we chose to cross over the Columbia River on the "Bridge of the Gods" (kind of scary!) near Cascade Locks, just upstream from Bonneville Dam (open Google Maps). That means most of our trip was on the Washington side of the gorge. Since the highway on the Washington side never leaves the gorge, we had a view of the river all the way to McNary Dam, where we turned north.
Along the way we stopped at Sam Hill's "Stonehenge" monument. It was the first World War I memorial in the United States. Sam Hill, a pacifist, erected the monument to honor those of Klickitat County, Washington who died in the war.
While on the bluff, below the Stonehenge, Kyle mentioned that this would be a great place to hang glide, since it was steep and there were lots of thermals on a hot day. We got back in the car and went about five miles down the road. As we were going around a corner and down a hill, we looked up and saw two paragliders. Bruce took lots of pictures of them. I'll try to post some good ones here tomorrow.
On most days, the Columbia River generates very stiff winds in the gorge. This makes it a great place to windsurf, hang glide and generate wind power. There are many wind mills up on the bluffs of the Washington side (don't think Oregon likes windmills!). I tried to take a few pictures of windmills as we drove along. Although, this being a calm day, the windmills were not turning. When we drove through on Thursday the wind was howling and the mills were spinning at about 12 RPM.
(P.S. Pictures with random cut-off daddy bits are my favorite.)
I wanted a shot of the windmills with the power line towers. The towers almost obliterated my view of the mills.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Sleepy Sunday
Today was Drew's first Sunday home. Everyone let him know how glad they were to see him. It must have been an exhausting morning. Below is what I found when I went into the family room to see what was going on.
Sleepy Boys
Sleepy Drew
Sleepy Bruce
and the cutest of all...
Sleepy Kyle
Friday, July 4, 2008
Drew parla l'Italiano!
Since Drew learned such a COOL language for his mission I thought everyone might enjoy hearing him carry on a conversation in Italian. I asked him to describe two things:
1. The best pizza he had.
2. A crazy man who lived near him in Pozzuoli.
Anziano Cornwell is Home From Italy
Wednesday, July 2nd at 5:25 PM we were waiting at the Pasco airport with a few of our friends and family members for Drew to arrive from the last leg of his flight home from Italy. Spencer Houck brought his airport scanner radio and told us that the flight was on final approach at about 5:20 PM. He kept saying, "Well, they're still on final approach. That's all I know."
The next thing I knew, people were coming through the security gate (Pasco has one door to the gate area and only one flight comes into the airport at a time). There was Drew. He was about the third person into the security area. I hurried and turned on my video camera and filmed the video you see below.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
June Showers Bring SNAILS!!
Richland finally had a thunderstorm at about 6:00 PM on Saturday, July 21st. The thunder and lightning weren't much, but the wind really gusted and swirled. The rain was fairly intense for about 20 minutes.
At 8:00 some of Kyle's friends went out on the patio. Zach Sant said, "DUDE! Look at all the snails!!" I was worried he would peel the shells off of them (you know Zach). My next thought was, "Step on them and kill them...kill them ALLLLLLLL!" They have been decimating our garden this year, so it was a logical reaction.
I told the kids to go get a bucket and start collecting them. Bruce got in on that action, too. Then he got out the slug and snail bait and did a maneuver that strangely resembled how Vinessa Shaw spread salt around herself in "Hocus Pocus" (look it up!). He even put the bait in the bucket, too.
About an hour later the rain started again. There was no thunderstorm this time, just rain, rain, rain, rain. It was not the usual Richland rain, but hard rain like in Ohio, or someplace else like that (a place with natural vegetation). This rain lasted until about 10:00 PM.
This morning Bruce was excited to see how many snails he had killed with his bait. He could see at least as many as they had put in the bucket the night before. Hopefully this will slow down the crop destruction this summer.
At 8:00 some of Kyle's friends went out on the patio. Zach Sant said, "DUDE! Look at all the snails!!" I was worried he would peel the shells off of them (you know Zach). My next thought was, "Step on them and kill them...kill them ALLLLLLLL!" They have been decimating our garden this year, so it was a logical reaction.
I told the kids to go get a bucket and start collecting them. Bruce got in on that action, too. Then he got out the slug and snail bait and did a maneuver that strangely resembled how Vinessa Shaw spread salt around herself in "Hocus Pocus" (look it up!). He even put the bait in the bucket, too.About an hour later the rain started again. There was no thunderstorm this time, just rain, rain, rain, rain. It was not the usual Richland rain, but hard rain like in Ohio, or someplace else like that (a place with natural vegetation). This rain lasted until about 10:00 PM.
This morning Bruce was excited to see how many snails he had killed with his bait. He could see at least as many as they had put in the bucket the night before. Hopefully this will slow down the crop destruction this summer.
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