Claremont

Had an uneventful trip back to Claremont, am now unpacked after many hours, and I like my room. (Pictures to come once it's actually decorated.)

Anyway, most importantly, I have added a word verification feature, that will hopefully stop the spam that's been popping up in my comments. I'm sorry if it's kind of a pain when you all have to comment, but I'm hoping it will help. If not, we'll try something else!

More to come as things get busy and exciting... ;)

The 60th Wedding Anniversary Party

I am pleased to announce that my grandparents will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary later this year. I think that's absolutely amazing, and I wonder how many people of my generation will make it through 60 years of marraige. So, we (well, really, my mom and aunt and uncle) threw them a party last weekend, and it was lots of fun! Here are some pictures:


The entire family gathered for the occasion. Notice my really really tall cousins. 


The happy couple, Don and Jean Greenfield, married for 60 wonderful years. (Wearing their medals for having travelled over 100,000 nautical miles on their many cruises.) 


The original wedding photos. 

St. Helens/ Oregon

Wow, well, Mt. St. Helens was amazing! I hadn't been in about four years, and I had no idea it would have changed that much! I mean, I should have, because we used to notice changes every year when we were going that often, but... wow. It's green! There are so many plants that you can barely see the shattered trees anymore. Although the pumice plain in front of the mountain is still fairly bare, everywhere else it seemed there were plants growing! It was just incredible. And the mountain has built itself an entire new lava dome! In just a couple months, and it's as large as the old one, which took it six years to build. It's crazy. They said if it keeps up this rate, it will be back to its previous height in 30 years. Which is just incredible. Anyway, I took tons of pictures, I'll put a few here, but if you're a geology person, or you just want to see more, you'll have to ask. :)


The mountain gets active with a puff of steam for us. (View from Coldwater Ridge) 


The hummocks, giant pieces of the mountain that were deposited during the blast. It's weird knowing you're walking on what used to be the top of a mountain. 


So many plants! This area used to be just ash and pumice, and a few spread out plants around all the blown down logs, and stumps. The power of nature to recover is very impressive. 


Oregon was lots of fun. We went horseback riding in this awesome canyon, hiking all over the place, to fossil beds which were gorgeous, and we played miniature golf (during which I managed to get stuck in five sand traps on one hole. The worst one was heart-shaped. I think it truly loved me and wanted me to stay forever. Unfortunately, I couldn't comply. He just wasn't the sand trap I'm looking for.). I also introduced my family to Settlers, and although I won all but two or three games, out of what felt like 20 (it was more like 10, but still only over four days), my family adores the game, which is awesome, because it's a good game. I also got Puerto Rico, and it's coming back to school with me, so we'll have awesome game night. :) Anyway, as all family vacations, we were constantly busy, but it was a lot of fun.


The colors in the clay by the fossil beds were just impressive. It's all 33-40 million years old. 


Here's another set of the painted rocks. Just gorgeous, and the water erosion that made them ripply just makes it better. 

Pre-Oregon Post

So, as the last post before I head off for a week in the wilds of Eastern Oregon, I leave you with some pictures to enjoy. :)

My sister will kill me for this one, but she just got her hair cut, and I think it's very cute.

Kari's new hairstyle. 

And here are some pretty pictures of Scripps I took before I left that I cleared off my camera to make room for the new pictures that you shall have to wait a week to see.


Waterlillies in Seal Court at Scripps. 


The waterlillies are surrounding the seal in preparation for a revolt. Then maybe we'll have to call it Lily Court. 


Pretty. 

Lindy Exchange!

Well, if I actually wrote out all the stories about random sketchy guys, and how great everything was, it would take you hours to read. Random guy missing where he was supposed to put his hand and grabbing my boob... you know, stories to tell my grandchildren. ;) So, suffice it to say that Friday night was good. Emily got her weekend pass, Andrew got the last one that was available, so I got to dance with him again, which was awesome as always. There were some good dancers, mostly from Seattle though, and a couple from CA, but nowhere else that I found. The band was good, and the vocalist was awesome. Matt came in for latenight, and was wide awake for it being 4 in the morning his time. Crazy boy. But really great to see him again. Had to leave early so that I could make the drive home, which was sad, but necessary.

Saturday, Justin made it here in a much more timely manner than I did. We spent the afternoon lounging, and then headed out with Matt for the dancing. The room was really hot, but Mike Emswiler was in the band (went to high school with me)! It was soooo cool! It's been exactly a year since I last talked to him, because I saw him playing in the band Friday night of last year's exchange, which both of us find really amusing. He's doing awesome, going to school in New Jersey, which is quite different from out here. And playing gigs during the summer. As far as I can tell, he's still just as awesome as he was in high school, which is really really really awesome! :) Saturday latenight was awesome, had some really good dances. Stayed out until 3. It was crazy! But definitely worth it.

We all spent the night at Emily's, because her family is awesome like that, and got up at about 9:30 to start watching the SeaFair air show. Her deck was really crowded with my family, her family, and all kinds of neighbors and people when the blue angels flew. It was awesome, as always. They are such amazing pilots, although I can't say flying that quickly upside down has any appeal for me whatsoever, I admire them very much for doing it. But yeah, awesome planes, all day. Lots of fun just sitting outside on the deck and eating (all day). Watching Justin and Andy nap (amusing). Playing cards, spilling my pop and having Emily's dad say that I might look pretty, but no one can take me out anywhere. Soooo embarrasing, but really funny too. Sunday night was also good.

My fast dancing was pretty on this weekend, so that was awesome, especially because, it's Seattle, and there's lots of fast music here. But yeah, the exchange was great. Not as good as last year, but still, so many good times. And Andrew and Justin and Matt all being there was just so so much fun! I'm so glad they all could make it out.

Anyway, I'm running on a total of eight hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, so I'm going to run off and do things with my family! No sleep for the exhausted. Seems to be the way of the world. ;) Mt. St. Helens, and Oregon in two days! Then there will be pictures for you to see. It's exciting!

My Space Shuttle Take-Off

So, rather like Space Shuttle Discovery, my plane yesterday had some issues. The first was that it was late coming in, but we got boarded, and would have left not too much past our original departure time, except that one of the fuel gauges was malfunctioning, so we had to de-plane. So, like the astronauts, we all got off the plane so that they could attempt to determine what was causing the fuel gauge to malfunction, and fix it. Apparently, during that time, they unloaded about 30 bags off the plane so that they could make the repair. These bags didn't make it back on the plane before it left.

So, after eight hours in an airport and on a plane, I finally arrived at SeaTac, only to find that apparently neither of my two bags made it on the plane. I was a little peeved. They said they would have them to me last night. But no, they still haven't arrived. I'm a little annoyed. I want my clothes!!

Anyway, it was a frustrating day. But, I'm back home and safe, and it's chilly up here, even though it's 80. It's so sad. *sigh* Anyway, you all should think happy thoughts about my luggage getting here. :)

Update 1:21pm: My luggage is still not here. Apparently they put it in some bin because I asked them not to leave it on my porch at midnight. So they couldn't see it, and therefore didn't deliver it yet. It's supposed to get here before 3. Hah. If it does, it'll be a miracle. I swear they're trying to lose my luggage completely.

Update 2:35pm: I have luggage! And I'm now unpacked and can actually go about a normal life, since I have clothes and things now. Gotta love clothes. And it actually came before 3! It's amazing! I shouldn't be impressed by that. *sigh*

Ahhh!

It's August! Run for your lives!

I can't believe the summer has gone so fast! I'm leaving the day after tomorrow! For a month. My last month of summer, maybe ever. And that would make me so very very sad. *sigh*

Ah well. It's going to be a very busy month at home. So posts here may not happen quite as often, but I'll do my best. First thing that happens is the Seattle Lindy Exchange. The awesomeness that is lindy hoppers descending on Seattle for three full nights of dancing to live music. Sooo excited! And Justin will be there, and Matt too, which will make it even more fun. And hopefully we can get Emily a weekend pass, since the entire thing sold out, it's going to be dicey. But it just wouldn't be the same if she's not there. Who else would I share silly comments about the boys with?!

Anyway, stories from the past: Sandor and I hiked to the top of the hill behind his house Saturday, which was really really steep, but had a very nice view. I think if I did that climb once or twice a day, I would be in really good shape! It's approximately a 45 degree angle uphill, we decided. It was a good workout. And I got soooo dirty! But it was fun. The best part though was seeing the covey of quail, and the snake. On our way back down, there was a lot of rustling up above us off to the side, and we looked, and there was a whole covey of quail! And they stopped moving, sitting on branches and looking at us too. We eventually started moving again, and then they started rustling too. It was amusing. Sandor's comment was that they were probably watching us too, saying Oh no! We scared them off! *chuckle* I love quail. And I found a snake, that Sandor had walked right over. It was amusing. But it was a really good little hike, with the exception of the getting dirty part, since I wasn't exactly wearing my icky hiking clothes. But, it was definitely worth it. :)

It was altogether a really great weekend again, except for the whole his extended family is falling apart thing. So hopefully they'll all be out of the hospital soon. He helped me take my stuff to storage yesterday, which was incredibly nice. But also solidified for me the fact that I'm leaving in two days! It's insane! Having dinner with Dan tonight, to get together one last time before I leave.

So much craziness. I wish there was more summer. But don't we all. For 16 years we wish there was more summer, and then we graduate, and suddenly there's no such thing as summer. Sounds like a bum deal to me. ;)