Jordon and New Years

12-30-17 We babysat Jordon today.  He did a good job holding his bottle while watching cartoons on the TV.

He is such a happy guy, every time I talk to him he smiles and tries to talk back.  It is going to be great fun when he can talk.

We didn't do much else this week, I worked on my planes getting them ready for my annual New Years day flying.  We did stay up until midnight and I got this picture of some fireworks down on Old Hwy 99.  It would be interesting to know how much was spent on fireworks.  These were pretty good sized as they were coming up level or slightly above us and we are 340 feet and Old 99 is about 60 feet above sea level.  It has been a great year and we are looking forward to 2018.

Christmas Day at Mik, Michelle and James'

We went to Mik, Michelle and James' for our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange.  Rome is holding the awesome prime rib Mik cooked on his Traeger.

Mik and Michelle just before they started serving it.

I think Elle is giving Mik a hard time about something.

Rich and Bev enjoying the prime rib.

Jordon was sure popular, he got held a lot.

Here is a link to a Facebook video of Jordon and I playing.

Video of Jordon on Facebook

Michelle and Debbie's traditional Christmas picture together. 

Vera thought this spot looked like the queen's chair so she took it over for the day.

Malik and James kicked back waiting for things to start.

The battery in my camera died so I didn't get as many pictures as I normally would.  I took a few with my phone but they are never as clear.

My BFF James and I.  It was a very enjoyable day.  Thanks Mik, Michelle and James for having us over every year.

Christmas Eve

The weather forecast didn't have a white Christmas in it but this is how it was looking about 1 PM.

By 5:00 we had over two inches and it was still coming down.  James came up to visit us until the party at Uhlenkott's and told us about the a wreck just down the hill from our driveway.

Josh and Jordon came to follow us down as he had never been to Dan and Robin's.  The wreck, wrecker and WSP were still there when we went down the hill.

 We had plenty to snack on as we waited for Santa to arrive.  This was just the start because much more showed up as the evening went on.  Dan and Robin provided turkey, stuffing, gravy and soft drinks, that along with what everyone else brought made for a great dinner.

It is always fun watching the kids interacting with Santa.

Jordon was really interested in the candy cane Santa gave him.

When I went out to the car later I noticed that Santa had forgotten one of his reindeer.

After dinner it was time for the gift exchange, Michelle is trying to see which package to choose or maybe steal one from someone.  The rules of our exchange are that after the third steal a present can not be stolen again.

Here are Parker, James and Ty trying to figure out what James had choosen.

During the evening we all had our pictures taken in front of the Christmas tree.  Jordon was sure good all evening.

James, Michelle and Santa oops, Mik.

Vera and I had a great evening, it was sure fun seeing all the family.

There were forty two of us there tonight.  It took Lynne and Peter two hours to get there from Vancouver and they saw some pretty good wrecks on the way.  Charb and his family had to turn back because of the ice and snow in the Gorge.

Cora's new doll

Jackie sent us some pictures today of Cora playing with the doll we got her.

It looks like she really enjoys it. Jackie said that the opening and closing eyes really caught her attention.

I got the EPP foam P-51 finished this week.  I am looking forward to test flying during my annual New Years day flying session.

I got the wing bolted to the fuselage this week so I could line up the stabilizer with it.  I have gotten quite a bit of the sanding done on the fuselage and it is starting to look like a Skylane.

Piano Concert

Tuesday I was asked to video a piano duet concert at the church.  The concert was to honor one of the pianist's mother  who had turned 90 this month.  They played 19 songs with a break in the middle for cake.  The next couple of days will be busy as they need about 15 copies on DVD.

A new project

Friday Barry sent me a picture of his new toy, a Can-am Commander 1000.

On Saturday they took it out for the first time, an 80 mile ride in the mountains.  He said they were up to 7600 ft elevation and had to do the last 15 miles coming home in the dark.  He was amazed with where it would go.

As we came in from the shop Saturday night I took a picture of the house with the new lights on the rail.  The set James and I put up was only lighting half the lights so I ordered this set with 600 lights.

I have been working on a new project this week, one of the planes I carry in the motor home and fly quite a bit does a few things I don't like so I am replacing it with this one.

Flying

No rain forecast so I might as well go flying.  Four of us showed up today and I got to test fly a brand new plane for one of the guys.  It flew great and he was able to put the second flight on it without any problems.

Mr Heater was my friend again today, I stood in front of it every time I flew, Doug was over getting warm several times.

I had a text from Barry with a picture of their new Mazda CX5.  He said it has everything he wanted on it along with 3 manuals.

This twin was shooting touch and goes for a long time, we started wondering how much that was costing.

The cloud layer stayed like this all day so I never saw the top of Mt St Helens or any of Mt Rainier.

Parker's Power

When I started out to the shop there sat these PUD rigs, they were doing the push of conduit under the driveway to get power to the shop he is going to build.

This is how they were sat up most of the time, they moved when a couple of people had to get in or out.

I figured they would have a hydraulic cylinder to push the pipe through but instead they just use the bucket of the excavator to push with.

In this picture they have the pipe pushed through.  Then they put a mandrel on the other end and pulled it back through with that chain and using the backhoe bucket.

That enlarged the hole to where they could push the plastic pipe through and then glue ends onto it and set the box on the North side.

They have this truck set up so it only took them a few minutes to load the backhoe.

By 11:30 they were gone, the holes were all filled, tamped down and things cleaned up.  You can see Parker's power connection by the rhododendron.

Debbie and Jordon stopped by after she had picked him up at Dianne's, so naturally I got the camera out for some pictures.

This evening we went to the Lewis County Radio Controllers meeting at Sahara Pizza in Napavine.  The club provided the pizza, it was the first time we have eaten there and it was pretty good, I would go back if we are in the area.

Our friend Horty sat at our table and we had a good time visiting with him.  I am thinking of him a lot today (12-14-17) as he is having back surgery and we hope it goes well.