Jacob's Shower

Today was the last scheduled day for taking pictures at church.  As I was waiting I took this picture of Vera's friend Carole (on the right) who was the greeter today greeting the last member I got a picture of today.

This afternoon we went up to Harry Gardener Park for Debbie's shower for baby Jacob.

They had onesies and wash clothes to decorate for baby Jacob, so I did one of each.  Boy was it hard to keep the cloth from moving around under the markers.

It was nice to see Cathy and Dianne, they are always fun to visit with.

Kyla in the blue jacket must have said something funny.  Kyla organized the shower and it turned out great!

At first we thought Jordon was driving, but then we found out the Jeep is radio controlled and Bev was running it.  It covered a lot of ground before the battery finally ran down.

I had to laugh as I watched Bev herd Jordon back towards the tables, he wanted to stay on the play set and did not go willingly.  It was a nice afternoon with lots of laughter, good food and family.

More clearing brush

James came up again today and we did more clearing brush.  I also fell a couple of cascara trees.  When we got things cleared out we could get to some old railroad ties to pull them out.

I was messing with the phone when James asked for another picture of him holding the tie.  It was sure a lot easier moving those ties with James helping, Vera and I had to use a pry bar to lift them high enough to put the strap around them.

This is the area we were cleaning up.  When we started I could hardly see the bushes we had planted years ago.  I plan on putting down fabric and bark chips when we are done.  I got the control horns installed on the Vortex and started making up the linkage this afternoon.

Clearing brush

I made more progress on the Vortex, the Hitec receiver for it came today.  I got it bound to the transmitter and programmed in an hour or so, that was much better than the Futaba I have been fighting with for several days.  James came up this afternoon and we cleared some brush that I have been wanting to get rid of.

He hauled away several loads to our compost pile.  A lot more gets accomplished when he is helping me.

The third time is a charm

I finally found a paint for the cowl that matches the covering pretty well after three times of painting it.  The first color was too dark, the second was too pink but I am really happy with this last can I picked up at Walmart.  There are only a couple of more steps and it will be all done.  We did yard work today, James came up and ran our aerator over the lawn.

Easter

Bob and Cathy hosted the Easter celebration again this year.  As always there was lots of good food.

There was also plenty of snacks and desserts, I tried to sample most of them.

Here are all the younger cousins, I heard someone say twenty one was the cut off point.

Jordon did great hunting Easter eggs and opened them right away to see what was inside.  He even gave me a piece of candy.

I think Jordon is pointing at the little fire truck we got him but Vera thinks he was pointing at the water feature in that direction.

Before the adult Easter egg hunt they lined up the older cousins for a picture, they are a great bunch of young adults.

Cathy is explaining the rules for the adult Easter egg hunt and contest afterwards to the three teams.

The eggs had crafty materials inside that the teams used what they found to create a scene that would be judged by the kids.

Jordon was really interested in what Bridget was doing.

This is the team James was on creating their scene.

All the teams made nice looking scenes, it is surprising what they can make from a random bunch of things.

This is the winning team!

The next event was the egg roll, I didn't get any pictures of the kids doing their egg roll because I was having so much fun watching Jordon play with some of the eggs.

This is the start of the adult egg roll, I counted over thirty lined up to try it.  Steve ended up being the winner.

This is the first throw of the raw egg toss.

Rielee's friend probably will try to catch the egg to side next time.

By the time it got down to four teams left they were really throwing them a long ways.

I think Kevin went out on this round.

Then there were just two teams left.

Some of the catches were pretty acrobatic.

James is spiking the egg after they won!

James and Dan were the final winners.  Kalyn and Will came in second.

James and Dan are now two time winners as a team, James had been on the list three times.  It was a great day, one of the best for quite awhile!

Yard Work

I had James come up and thatch the lawn today, it needed it badly as there has was lots of moss in it.  This morning I went out and cut down a vine maple by the PUD box that has been bugging me.  It grew side ways and was covering up one of our rhododendrons which made the rhododendron grow out into the driveway.  When the rhododendron is done blooming I plan on doing some pruning on it.  Update on the new neighbors, I learned their names today when I wandered over there during a trip to the motor home.  There are four of them, Henrietta, Cocoa, Rosie and I forgot the forth ones name.

Spring Flowers and new Neighbors

The magnolia tree is just coming into bloom at our place, we see them in Longview that are already losing their blooms.

Vera spotted the bleeding hearts so we took a picture right away because they are another flower that doesn't last long.

We have been having a good time watching the new neighbors getting used to their area.  They are up and down the ramp many times a day.

Leonard's Service and the Vortex

This is where I quit covering the Vortex on Saturday, it is looking pretty good.

Today I did the picture taking at church again.  A couple of people had their picture retaken as they did not like the ones from last week.  The Palm Sunday service was nice.  After church Michelle came up and rode with us to Leonard's funeral service this afternoon.  They had a military service for him with a twenty one gun salute, it was quite moving the way the Navy personal did the presentation of the flag to Sherry.  We got a chance to visit with family after the service.  We took the slow way home, had a nice visit with Michelle and showed her the things we check on each trip.

Vortex

I felt better today but not 100 percent yet.  I made a couple of trips to the shop and got quite a bit of covering done.  I have one more leading edge piece to do and the wing will be all covered.  Then it is just the rudders and elevons to cover and I can start gluing in hinges.

Dentist and the Vortex

I didn't accomplish much yesterday except cover the aileron and rudder servo mounts.  Then I had a tooth pulled in the afternoon and didn't feel like doing anything the rest of the day.  I do like the soft diet the dentist suggested, one of the things he recommended was ice cream.  I had Vera stop on the way home and pick some up.  I kind of dozed last night until about 3 AM when I took another Tylenol and then I slept good the rest of the night.  When I woke up there was no pain so I haven't taken any since.  I finally went out to the shop this afternoon and  got the first piece of yellow covering on the top of the wing.  I was a little tired after that and called it a day.

Marie and the Vortex

The first thing this morning we ran to Chehalis for a meeting with Marie's lawyer.  That went good and we just have one more thing to do once Marie's Income Tax Refund gets here.  The second leading edge went much faster using the pattern I made yesterday.  I also covered one aileron servo mount and cut out the opening for left retract.

Vortex covering

It was a lazy day for me, I mainly watched YouTube videos until about six when I finally went to the shop.  I got the Leader cowl painted and it didn't wrinkle this time.  Then I started figuring out the shape of the piece of red for the leading edges of the Vortex.  I ended up making a paper pattern and using it to cut the covering.  The piece fit with no modifications so I can use the pattern for the other three pieces I need.

Jordon and James

I am taking pictures of the church members for the next couple of weeks.  Today was the first session and I got pictures before and after the service of thirty two members.  This picture was taken after the service at the refreshment table.

We had a pretty good turn out for church and refreshments afterwards.

This afternoon Debbie, Josh and Jordon stopped by to check the wiring on our heat pump.  Jordon headed right for his favorite toy, the airplane Dianne loaned us.

He is sure active and talking quite a bit.  Josh said sometimes complete sentences.

Not long after they left, we got a big surprise, Michelle called and said she was going to bring up my birthday present.  When I heard the normal "Woo Hoo" I thought Michelle must have a sore throat.  It was a big surprise when it turned out to be James.  Mik and Michelle had went down to Reno to help him move back home.  We had a nice visit and found out he hated Reno.  He made the trip in nine hours, a little faster than my fourteen hours.  We went over and surprised Steve and Dianne, Dianne called Parker who came over to see James.  It was a lot of fun hearing those two tell stories.  Then we all went over to Parker's to check out his new place.  After we got back home I asked James if he wanted to have pizza, of course he did so I called in one to Papa Pete's and sent James down to get it.  When he left we sent the remaining pizza along with him to share with Malik.  It is sure nice having James back!