Christmas 2007

Here are a few shots from the last few days........warm, cozy, making memories........what a blessing our families are to us!!!

Little Snowmen

Limited snowfall makes for tiny, little snowmen! But they're still snowmen! Had a short, but sweet little weekend over the mountain in Bend.

Our little "gnome"!

Guess who? See Susan's blog at: http://laterorsooner.blogspot.com/

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We've had a beautiful, colorful fall. Our Japanese Maple and the Ornamental plum gave us lovely color, but those leaves are down now. The final seasonal color for the year is from the barberry under the front window. The yellow in the foreground brings a cheerful note during our many gray, wet, winter days.

Happy Thanksgiving to all this coming week. We're thankful for all of you!

Long weekend on Maui!!

We spent Thursday to Monday in Maui! Floyd is doing some recruiting work for Linfield, and he "twisted my arm" into going along with him! With the Veteran's Day holiday, he had 3 unscheduled days, so we explored the east side of Maui. We "survived the road to Hana"!!! An incredible 52 miles, which included narrow winding roads with 54 single lane bridges! Took 2 hours to drive. At the end of the road, we found a quiet little town, with excellent accommodations, and beautiful beaches, and flowers all along the way.

Floyd is spending the week there, while I returned late last night - actually very early this morning. I got in at 2 am.

Eli and his Daddy

Eli took this one!!

Four generations hanging out together - very special time!

Grammy and Pop-pop Great

Good times at Great Uncle Jim's house

Curren at 4 months

October Saturday

Today was the first free day for Floyd since September 14th! After sleeping in, which we're learning to do in our old age, we got up and had a warm bowl of oatmeal, then we headed for the hills - of course with a good cup of Dutch Brothers coffee in hand from one of the many drive-thru coffee houses here in the Northwest. We weren't sure where we'd end up, but Floyd knows most of the logging roads in the hills, so we headed generally west. The higher we went, the clearer the sky and the more colorful the leaves. Sure nuf, we ended up at Oceanside, a small community along the beach. We had early dinner at Roseanna's Cafe, a cozy little place with a view of the beach (see photos above) - I had Basil Butter Steelhead stuffed with Shrimp!! Delicious!

Harvest Time

Fall isn't my favorite season, but once I accept the fact that summer is over, fall kind of grows on me. The leaves are turning to gorgeous yellows and reds. The fields are changing from the dry browns to the refreshed greens as the rains reappear. Days are shorter which makes evenings more conducive to quiet, indoor activities.

Floyd was home and is gone again, this time for only 3 days to Vegas for a college fair. The city holds no charm for him, but a ride into the desert in a rental during his free time does.

We are blessed with so much to be thankful for, and I'm thankful right now for all of you, my family!

Reporting from S.E. Asia

Yes, I (FS) am currently on the other side of the planet, having bounced from Hong Kong to Manila to Jakarta to Singapore and now to Kuala Lumpur. In another 36 hours I'll be in Bangkok, and then I can start thinking about getting back home and catching up on sleep and laundry. In the meantime, my list of names of students and their email addresses keeps growing, along with my collection of snapshots of skylines from my hotel room window and streets scenes observed from the bus as we head off to another international school.

Recruiting in Southeast Asia

Floyd is recruiting students in Asia for the next two weeks. I embedded the clocks to keep track of the time of day where he is at the moment.

He left Friday, 9/14, for Hong Kong for two days. Today, 9/17, he is traveling on to Manila (that's the reason for the current clock). Then it's on to Jakarta, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok before returning to Oregon on 9/30. (In the meantime, I'm going to spend some time in PA with Susan, Eli, and Curren!!)

Camping at Big Lake with a 3 year old!

We spent 21 hours tent camping with Eli in the Cascade Mountains at Big Lake, in the shadow of Mt. Washington this past weekend. You can see above our view of the lake from our campsite in the trees. Eli's favorite activity, I think, was throwing rocks in the lake. Although Eli thought the tent was really "cozy", he also found sleeping in a sleeping bag a bit restrictive. We enjoyed corn on the cob, hotdogs, and applesauce for dinner and bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. It was a memorable time for the three of us!!!

Day Trip

Jonathan and Floyd did a hike on Saturday to a lovely spot in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area (a two hour drive from home). They followed the Whitewater creek on a 5 mile trail to Scout Lake, accessible only on foot. For Jonathan, this was a preliminary run for a future mission of reaching the summit of Mt. Jefferson via this route next year. The weather was perfect, with warm sunshine (in the 70's) and a cool breeze.

Curren at 2 1/2 months

One sweet little boy! Curren is smiling and "talking" now. We can hardly restrain ourselves from going over the mountain every weekend!

Family things

Alan has worked very hard this summer building us a beautiful patio on the back of our house. We really enjoy sitting out on it esp. in the evenings with friends and a fire.

Also we are hearing good things from Amanda at Woodstock, seems like she is settling in.
She love emails, but would really like to get real mail.
The address there is

Midlands
Woodstock School
Mussoorie, Uttaranchal 248179
India

This photo was her and some of the other girls from the Sage Program dressed up for Indian Independence Day.

Alan's patio

Eli took this one!

Eli wanted to try out Peter's camera, and he just started shooting and caught this one! Fun times!

Beach Party Prior

The post below reminded me of another picture, that I apparently don't have, but in the process of looking for it, I found this one and thought everyone might enjoy it...

Clam Chowder at Mo's

We can't spend time at the coast without some Mo's Clam Chowder!

Beach Party - Lincoln City

Floyd and Mark made a perfect fire pit with rocks, Floyd went out a logging road and found some dry wood and some hot dog sticks, and then we enjoyed roasted hot dogs, corn on the cob and S'mores. A good time was had by all!!

Cape Kiwanda sand dune

An exhausting climb to the top, but worth it when you feel the ocean breeze and see the view!!

Tumalo Falls near Bend - The Hikers

We had a great time visiting Mark and Susan, Eli, and Curren in their new home in Bend. We did alot of hiking in the mountains and along the Deschutes River. Now we're laying low for a few days before we go the the coast. It's a real special time being with family.

I've arrived.

After many long, laborious hours of trying to get to be able to post on this blog, my brilliant son (pictured above) finally figured it out. So hopefully you'll be seeing more of the Halsel family in days to come.

Lois and Mary in Oregon

Here we are in the backyard the morning after the long flight. Gary, Lois, Ben and Laura arrived last evening in Portland around 10:30 pm, but by the time we got home, fed, and in bed it was 1:30 am here, and 4:30 am to the Pennsylvania bodies. Needless to say, everyone slept in this morning!
We are looking forward to heading East to Bend tomorrow for 2 days, and then back to McMinnville for a few days before heading to the coast at Lincoln City for 4 days!!!! Looking forward to good times!!

Grace, your photos of Amanda's departure to India are great. Thanks for sharing them. Glad to hear that Amanda arrived safely.

Our visit with family

We had a wonderful visit with family before taking Amanda to the airport. Jim, Beth and Andy are as always the most gracious of hosts. We had a very nice meal and visit with Grammie and Poppie. It is good to hear that Jim's surgery went well. Our home is quiet....but how happy we are for Matt, Jon and Amanda that they have rewarding lives. We had a 3 minute phone call from Amanda,Thursday 1:20am, 11:00am her time, she was in New Delhi, said the flight was really long, they landed in a scary thunderstorm, and the hotel was not as nice as Das Dutch Village Inn. She sounded happy and said the group of students was getting along really well.
Keep putting up photos Mary, etc. we love seeing them.
Grace