Our Trip to the Columbia River Gorge

Ed had a Central Region directors meeting in Washington at the Skamania Lodge right on the Columbia River. I got to tag along and was so excited to do so, as I had never been in this part of Washington before, and had never been in Oregon before either. We were going to fly to Portland on the day after Labor Day and then fly home on Friday. We decided to drive instead so that we could see more of the country (and spend some more time at our favorite camping spot in Idaho)

Ed had spent the week in Philadelphia and his flight got him home at 11:00 am on Friday - we had everything packed in the car and ready to go and headed out by 11:3o! We spent Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, camping in the mountains just north of Boise, Idaho. Tuesday morning we headed West to Oregon. It was a beautiful drive - the rolling hills of Eastern Oregon were golden and so soothing. The mountains between LeGrande and Pendleton were lovely. And then we got to the Columbia River and the Gorge.

Gorgeous is the only word that describes that whole area. Miles and miles of driving down past this huge river - being fascinated by the fact that

So here are the pictures -




A gorgeous view from the Vista View looking West toward Portland down the Columbia River Gorge
Turned slightly to my right and took this picture looking up the Columbia River Gorge
Out on a walk at the Skamania Resort with a friend Kris - I was about to take a picture of this beautiful moss covered log when she offered to take a picture of me with it. Since Ed never (hardly) ever takes pictures of me, I said go for it!


This is the view up River from the Skamania Lodge
I am standing on the second floor balcony taking this picture out the front window of the Skamania Lodge
Looking over the same balcony towards the foyer and the front doors of the lodge
HorseTail Falls

We headed up highway 30 to do some sightseeing and this is the first of a whole string of marvelous waterfalls. This one plunges about 280 feet straight down from Horsetail Creek. Ed mentioned that a 'creek' that puts out this much water in Utah would be called a river in Utah!
This is called the Multanomah Falls and it is simply gorgeous!! It falls almost 648 feet total with the main fall being 580 feet down to a small pool - a rock bridge has been built for tourists to get closer - and then another 8 feet farther down. We hiked up to the bridge but didn't hike all the way to the top of the ridge. Then we hopped back in the car again and drove to two more falls but didn't take pictures of them.
Here is Ed leaning back to get the whole fall in one shot!

This is the Bridge of the Gods - about 5000 years ago there was a huge earthquake and rock slide that came down and created a land bridge from shore to shore for hundreds of years. It slowly wore away until all signs of it were gone and the Indians always talked about the Bridge of the Gods. So a bridge was built in the same area only above the water - part of the bridge lifts up so boats can pass under. ..and it was named The Bridge of the Gods. It is a toll road and it cost us $1 every time we went back and forth across it. One side of the bridge is Oregon and the other side is Washington.



Some how these pictures are out of sequence - this, again is the Multonomah Falls...from the top down to the pool and bridge

and from the pool area down to the next level...from here the river turns left and contines on down a slide of rocks. Beautiful
I first saw the mossy trees here and had to get some pictures. You wouldn't be able to trust that old adage that moss grows on the North side of the trunk so if you got lost you could find your directions by looking at the moss.
These are the Cascade Locks built across a portion of the river - there is another 2/3 of the river on the right side of this picture where there are three dams built right next to each other. I would have loved to have seen this river a hundred years ago before the dams were built every 20 miles up and down the river - smoothing it out like a large lake between dams. The locks are here to help the barges and boats move from one water level to the next







This is the paddle wheel boat we got to go on for a dinner cruise up and down the river on Thursday evening with Ed's coworkers. His big boss was there and when Scott told me Happy Anniversary, I told him that I thought it was very nice for his company to treat us to this wonderful vacation for our 43rd wedding anniversary!
On the dinner cruise looking out at the pine covered hills - the weather was very comfortable - it rained quite often but it wasn't cold.
We had a marvelous four days in Oregon/Washington. For our anniversary on Wed the 8th we took off and enjoyed the waterfalls and then went to Tod's chick'n n dumplings for some of the best dumplings we have ever eaten!! It was in Troutdale and it finished off a wonderful day of celebration!

Learning to Shoot

This month I went with Shawn and Ed to an all day training class to learn how to handle a gun. I had taken the class and earned my concealed carry permit but knew that I needed to learn how to handle a gun properly. It was one of the hardest things I have ever in my life done, mainly because I COULDN'T do it!! Eight hours of nonstop training and I was still struggling to get my gun out of the holster!
Most of the morning we spent learning safety and practicing different ways of standing and shooting. Mark is checking here to make sure that I have the correct grip on my pistol
Ed took me out the week before the class and bought me my own Smithfield Arms 9mm pistol. I had been having elbow and finger knuckle pains for several months and I wasn't sure that I could even cock the gun because of the weakness in my hands and arms. Shawn switched pistols with me the morning of the class as his SM 9 wasn't as tight and difficult to operate because he had used it lots and lots before. Mine was still very stiff.
Here is Edward shooting around corners and under "cars"Mark is saying (for the umpteenth time) 'keep those thumbs together'!
This was actually at the end of the day, one of the final exercises where we were 'playing' like we were firing around a parked car or other obstructions. I was really proud of my moves as I went from a standing position to rolling onto the ground and firing and hitting the target and then moving back into a kneeling position as I continued to fire. Then I attempted to stand back up and knelt on an empty shell casing....owwwww....all training went out the window as my old age caught up with me - trying to stand up, get off the casing, waving a loaded pistol around...those poor instructors had their hands full with me!Most of these shots were taken in the afternoon as we attempted, one trainee at a time to shoot on command at different targets, while taking cover behind the barrels. Again - once I got the pistol OUT of the holster and get the RIGHT grip I did okay. But time after time I would attempt to pull the pistol out of the serpa holster and not hold it right because of the angle of the holster and the gun would refuse to fire. Once I checked my grip and held it the right way, I was able to fire and hit!
Got him!
here's Ed firing. Shawn took the pictures.
Aim, shoot, fireI am not sure at what point Shawn took this picture but I am really really close to tears here. It seems like I am a total clutz with no ability to LEARN! All day long the instructors had drilled the same stuff into my head, grip the pistol correctly - grip the pistol correctly...and I kept forgetting to do it. I was so disgusted with myself at the end of the day and any and all confidence I had in my ability to learn something new was totally gone. I figured that if I ran into a bad guy and had a full two minutes to pull my gun from the hoster and get my grip right then I could probably hit him!!


However, I told Mark at the end of the day that I WOULD BE BACK! I knew now what I needed to practice and how I needed to do it. Once I overcome the holster draw and get my thumbs together I will be back to show him that I did learn a lot from the class -

And, Mark is using me as his poster child....even old ladies can learn to shoot http://www.realworldpds.com/default.html

MAYBE! Actually, throughout the whole day once I got the right hold of the gun I was a pretty good shot.

The Week of the New Carpet

I took these pictures and downloaded them to this blog site two weeks ago - but never finished the post. So here it is. As you all know we recarpeted our house at the end of May. And I love it - I am finding myself DI'ing a whole lot of stuff that is just plain clutter - pretty clutter but clutter never the less.

This is the living room with the old carpet - it really wasn't in terrible shape, at least in the livingroom but I had NEVER liked the color - when I bought it at RC Willey's it looked like a pale mauve but when I got in home (in 1994) it turned gray...literally! With the white paint on the walls it looked awful. When we bought our new living room set in 2002 after returning from Texas we put our large beautiful area rug on top of it and its looked fine for the last eight years. But I was tired of it and it was past time to change.

It still has a lot of good wear in it though and happily it is being recycled in Glenn's new studio in Orem... whatever is left over there we will probably give to Dirk to use in front of his new trailer to give the kids some good play area when they camp places with sticky weeds and broken glass like we had in Beaver Memorial weekend.
above picture and below picture - Our bedroom - with all the furniture moved out -



Extra bedroom upstairs - that carpet really really needed to be pulled out and thrown away
above and below - our poor kitchen the night before the install - Shawn came and helped us move all of our livingroom furniture and the kitchen table into the toy hauler.
Then we moved all the bedroom furniture into the kitchen!!

May 25th - the guys showed up at 11 am and put down the red pad!
here they are out in the street where they rolled out my new carpet to cut it to size!! Luckily we don't have alot of traffic on our street!
the carpet is down in the livingroom - and they are working in the bedroom now with pieces of carpet and pad just laying around. I really don't understand this picture though as it looks like my curio cabinet is in the living room and it was actually in the kitchen - I don't know how it got into the picture!!!!
New carpet - so pretty - in the pictures you really can't see the beautiful pale dusty green color that it is!! It looks almost like my old stuff but it is a much prettier color in reality - you will have to come see it!

Ira came over and helped Ed move the furniture back inside - what would we do without our kids?

I have rearranged the furniture also besides decluttering and really love the living room now. I now that today's 'style' is leather and painted walls but I love my flowered furniture and matching droopy drapes. And I am thrilled with my new carpet. The bedroom is all put back together also and NOW I get to start on moving my office upstairs and putting the extra bedroom in the basement - still lots of work but its surely worth it!

Kecia wants to win this!

This looks like a fantastic deal - good luck Kecia...I put it on facebook and here...now what do I do?
Kecia wants to win this mixer -

Bosch has always been known to have some of the best products on the market. Kecia I wish you luck.

This is the link to the site http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-bosch-mixer.html

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy - Trying saying that three times FAST!!!

Its also called an EGD (now I know why!) and I am scheduled to have one on Friday afternoon. Since the CT scans and the colonoscopy didn't show any problems this is the next test the doctor is coming up with. They will sedate me (I don't know if they will take me all of the way out) and I can't have anything to eat for 16 hours prior to the scope - then they will insert a thin flexible, lighted tube called an endoscope down my throat. Hopefully I will just have a slight sore throat after. Maybe they will find the answer.

One positive thing though - it is time for my 6 month lab test for my diabetes - Friday morning after I've fasted for 10 hours I will go up to HAFB and let them draw blood and then Friday afternoon I will go have the EDG - I will only have to fast ONCE!

Meet Alex

I took Ben and Simon to mama and daddy and baby Alex at the hospital yesterday - we lasted maybe 20 minutes....Ben was very shy of the new baby as we walked in. Da was holding Alex and Ben immediately stepped back closer to me ...didn't know what to think. ..so I suggested tht he might want to set up on the bed with mama...his eyes lit up and he said YEAH! So up he went - mom took Ben and I took Alex. I got to check Alex out - talk about one solid little guy - I'm still not too sure how long he was but he truly handles the 9 lbs 5 oz without any problem. Ten toes on the long Willden feet, soft brown hair, didn't get to see the eyes. He surely can pull some faces though!

This is my favorite picture - you can tell from his ears that he isn't premature - such a softy!

Another good frowny face.

The whole family -this lasted a few minutes, long enough for me to shoot a couple pictures with Dirk's camera and a couple with mine. Then the boys wanted down. they got tired of running in circles around the room (although the room WAS twice the size Glenn's was at the Provo Hospital!). Then they discovered the push buttons on mama's bed and that was the beginning of the end - about the time they had mom folded nearly in half we decided the visit was over!!

However, today Dirk was giving Ben a hug and telling him that he was going to the hospital to see Mama and Baby Alex Ben held up three fingers - and said "three boys!!"

You gotta admit they make cute kids!! Congratulations Dirk and Da. And, Melinda, you better get your rest while you're in the hospital cause you are going to have your HANDS full for the next couple of years!as I unloaded the pictures on my camera I found several cute ones of Emma from when I stayed with her after Glenn's accident. I loved the poignant look on her face in this picture!

old pictures

my dad Merritt has had this picture for some time and has puzzled and puzzled over it. He knew that the oldest boy was Wallace, his father, and going down in age would be Theron - he really thought that the five year old was Clinton and the baby Uncle Bill, but couldn't figure out the seven year old - Peter was younger than Clinton not older. After examining the picture very closely I can see that both the 5 and 7 year olds look very very similar - I think that the picture is indeed Louis and Mary's five sons - Wallace, Theron, Clinton (age 7) Eldon Peter and Lawrence Dewayne (Uncle Bill)
This is the picture I lost somewhere between scanning and my blog - does anyone in the family know who this is?
This is a picture of me (Susan) and Kecia Lynn at Merrilee's wedding in 1982 when Kecia was about 19 months old.
This is a picture of my Grandmother Viola Yates Nielson and her oldest son Legrande (who went by Dan). They are picnicking in front of an old steam engine that was used for threshing - this picture was probably taken in 1920 or 1921
from left to right - great grandpa Louis Nielson, grandpa Wallace Nielson, great uncle Marlen Nielson with dog in wagon, Great Uncle Theron Nielson. The man kneeling in front of the wagon is Gerhardt Hansen, my Aunt Marie's uncle.
My Uncle Evan thinks this is a picture of my grandfather Wallace Nielson
Uncle Evan told me that he remember's his mother showing him this picture years ago and he believes that the lady is the rocker is his Grandmother Susan Isadore McCarthur Yates. The baby on her lap would be his mother Viola Yates Nielson and the girl standing between the two ladies is Aunt Dora (Grandma Viola's older sister, Susan Isadore Yates Bradfield). The other lady is Aunt Mary McArthur Mathews, sister of Susan Isadore McCarthur Yates.
Legrande Nielson, Darnae Nielson, Harlan Nielson, Evan Nielson, Wallace Nielson, Merritt Nielson, Larry Nielson and Sterling Nielson. This picture was taken in front of Grandpa Louis and Granma Mary Nielson's Leamington home at the time of Grandpa Lou's death in December of 1947
Merritt, Harlan, Darnae, Aunt Beryl, Grandpa Wallace, Legrande, Grandma Viola, Evan Nielson, Sterling Nielson with Larry in front. The two girls are Great Aunt Della's girls - Carole and Diane King.
My cousin Debbie Linge Frehner - her mother was a sister to my dad - my Aunt Jeannine