Vacation Days

I have arrived at the point where I need to take some of my vacation days or forfeit them. I do not wish to give away my hard earned vacation so I have decided to take today and tomorrow off work. Today is a very nice day as you can see from the photos on this post. The sky is really as blue as it looks. I took the opportunity today to install a little bit of rain gutter over the bay window. The design of the house is such that when it rains or snow melts from the roof it drips onto the bay window. We have talked about how to fix this for some time as there is not a good way to get the rain water down to the ground because of the location of the deck. Hopefully we have come up with a possible solution. You can see the red colored pot on the deck. We plan to use that as a "rain barrel". When the rain barrel gets full we will just dump it out, or more likely with the small amount of rain we get here it will just evaporate. The only question remaining is how to get the water from the downspout into the pot. We have seen a log chain used to direct rain water from a rain gutter and we are going to give that a try. I just wanted to get the rain gutter in place so I would know how to work with the log chain.

Fall Update

Pack is over. I have spent the last week in California for work. Everything went well until the last leg of the flight home was delayed so it was after one in the morning when I finally got to put my head into my wee bed.

The Yakima Stake is 50 years old this year. It was formed from the Richland Stake in 1959. Twenty years later it was divided into the Yakima and Selah Stakes. This past weekend the stake had a celebration. Saturday was a fun day with hamburgers and hot dogs behind the stake center and displays in the cultural hall. On Sunday evening the stake held a fireside where the previous stake presidents who are living and the current stake president and their wives spoke.

Family Reunion-Day 2

On the second day of the reunion we went to Glendale Reservoir. Most everyone had a good time. I am not so sure about Sheila and Nonavee on the tube behind to boat.

Family Reunion

Here are a few photos from Friday's visit to Franklin. We had a weiner roast in the park, shared memories from grade school days, and visited the Pioneer Relic Hall.

July 4th II

Heather and family came for the Fourth of July Parade in Toppenish. I think the parade was a bit smaller this year. For the second year in a row there is no Pow Wow Rodeo so that may have been part of the reason. Still it was fun having family here for the 4th.

July 4th

I have been very lax in posting lately. Maybe it is because nothing exciting happens or maybe it is because when it does I am too busy with it to get a post done.

With it being Independence Day weekend I have been thinking a bit about patriotism. You know how we learned the Pledge of Allegience in school and recited it everyday in grade school and then when we got older we said it less and less. Now there are only a few occassions we attend, usually associated with Scouting or a Patriotic Program that the church does, where we have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegience. As far as singing the national anthem it seems that it is only a prelude to an athletic event. Still we are able to do these things and reaffirm our patriotism. I have been out of the United States a few times in my life and while I liked the people of these other countries I was glad to return to the Good Ole USA because of the basic freedoms which we take for granted.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Independence Day.