Our time here is done

It is hard to believe that we have been here for over 4 months.
We are leaving here tomorrow and heading to Portland, Or. to spend a day or two with Alex and Kristin.
Kristin's B'day is Thursday so we will be there to wish her an early happy Birthday.
Heather is coming down on Monday night so we will see her again before heading to our winter quarters.

It has been a special summer for us, as we have learned the art of volunteering in state parks, and the birth of our precious gift, Gracie.

Uncle Kenny with Gracie

She is so beautiful and such a gift. Becky and Fred were not really expecting to have any more children, as Lindsay is now almost 8 years old.
Fred is a doting father and is a real help to Becky with the baby.
He works all week and takes his turn feeding Gracie at 3 or 4am on weekends. He takes her before leaving for work.

He also makes time for Lindsay always has a lap for her to climb in, and he is very attentive to her needs.
You can tell by watching them that there is a close bond between them.

Lindsay has grown so much in our time here. She is becoming quite the little lady.
She loves to wear dresses, but is quite the tomboy, too.
She has a friend who is a boy, and she can keep up with him with ease.
She is pretty popular in school, too. She was elected to be her class representative on the student council. (My, how things have changed since I was in 2nd grade.)
She has spent the night with us several times this trip, and she is here now. She loves spending time with us and her paternal grandparents. We must take advantage of it while she still has time for us.

Both she and Gracie are very lucky to have both sets of grandparents. Becky and Heather lost their maternal grandparents when they were very young.

We are planning to stop in Phoenix for a couple of days to see Beth. We met her at Mike's house while Nancy was so sick. She is a hoot and we get along well. She and Mike became very good friends during his years with Nancy.

We are planning to stay in the Houston area for a couple of weeks, while we visit friends and family and get doctors appointments done.

We probably will be staying at Castaways while we are there. Maybe, park the rig in front of Val's house for a week or so. We will see as time gets closer.

Ta ta for now.

Time with Gracie

Gracie is now 10 days old and her facial expressions and the general look on her face changes every day.

She is a wiggler and she is holding her head up. she moves in your arms so much that you really have to pay attention, if she is awake, while you are holding her.
She is such a God send and such a joy.

The crew

Earth Corps

I went up on the trail on Tuesday and escorted an Earth Corps team up near the middle falls of the Wallace river.
Earth Corps received a grant and is furnishing the labor to repair and improve the Woody Trail.
This crew is all girls except for one guy.
They are all young and enthusiastic about this project. There are several crews and each only work for 4 days.

a small water fall

It is a good hike up there and some of the grade is really steep. I had to stop several times to catch my breath during our hike there.

265 foot drop

Unfortunately, we did not hike up there when Lindsay stayed with us. I was asked by the ranger to take a couple of broken gates over to Lake Sammamish to be repaired. The maintenance shop for this portion of Washington Parks is there, and I knew the route to get there.
I hope that Lindsay will stay with us again and we can hike up the trail.

Top of the middle falls

From the bottom of the middle falls

We are at Fred and Becky's house today and Brenda is volunteering at Lindsay's school.

She really enjoys helping in Lindsay's class and Lindsay enjoys her Grammy being there.

We have just over a week left here and as the weather is getting cooler and cooler. We are ready to start south. We will miss our family, but we will be back next June.
We have to finalize our plans so that we can make reservations and let Beth know when we will arrive in Phoenix.

lurlene suggested that we have a Thanksgiving meal before we leave, so we are meeting at Fred and Lurlene's on Saturday.
They are such nice people and we really appreciate their thoughtfulness.

Ta Ta for now.

She has arrived

Gracie and Mom

Grace Elizabeth arrived at 8:33pm 10/12/2010.
She was 8# 12oz and 21" long and she is beautiful. (No prejudice just fact, See for yourself)
Mother and baby are fine.
According to Becky, labor was easier and shorter this time, and she was in great spirits after Gracie's arrival.

Grammy with Gracie

I was the first after Fred to hold her

Grandma Lurlene holding our newest addition

Auntie Heather

Becky was very hungry after wards and she was given a sandwich.

Grandpa Fred

Fred and Lurlene (Fred's parents), Brenda, Heather, Lindsay, Katrina (Becky's friend from Walmart) and I were present, and we were allowed back in the room after the delivery.

Katrina

We came home this evening and was greeted by Binga.
She knew something was going on for the last several weeks, now she knows, but can't figure out just what Gracie is.

Ready for Travel

Big Sister

Lindsay did not want to hold Gracie at the hospital, but the first thing she asked when they got home was if she could hold her little sister.

Ta ta for now

Still on baby watch

Gracie has chosen to delay her appearance. and all are anxiously awaiting her arrival.
Becky thinks maybe Lindsay left some toys in there and Gracie is not through playing yet.
Anyway, if she doesn't make an appearance today, Becky will be induced tomorrow. There doesn't appear to be any danger to Gracie, but her doctor thinks it is time to induce.
Becky hasn't had an ultrasound in about 5 weeks, and the baby was almost 6 pounds then.

We are settled in to our park and we are enjoying our time here.
It is hard to believe that we will be leaving here in 3 weeks.
We are looking forward to getting back on the road again.

It has been cool and rainy here and the Wallace river is way up.
It rained all night Saturday night and into late Sunday morning, so the river is running pretty fast.
The leaves are changing and the colors are pretty.

Lindsay spent the night with us last night and we are going on a hike this morning. We are going to try to get to the middle falls. These are the longest and most spectacular of the 4 falls on this part of the river. And with all of the recent rain they ought to be spectacular this morning.
It is only 2.1 miles up the middle falls, but it climbs almost 800 feet over that distance.
Pictures to follow.

Ta ta for now.

New Assignment

Friday we moved over to Wallace falls State Park. The trip was uneventful, but the preparations to move was challenging to say the least.
When you sit for 2 months without moving, allot of 'stuff' gets left out. Sometimes remembering which compartment or cabinet it goes into can be difficult, especially as we get older.

We arrived at the park and was met by the park manager. We were shown where to park and told that they would get together with us later.
I spoke with the assistant ranger yesterday, and was told to take the day off. We have not seen a ranger today.
I guess we will meet with the ranger tomorrow and given our keys,and told what is expected of us.

This park has 5 cabins and 2 tent sites and no other camping.

There are many miles of trails and we are at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, and the terrain goes up from here.

We are parked next to a bath house, which is for the use of the staff and a spider is busily building a web from the coach to the roof of the bh. I can watch it work as I sit at the dining table and look out the window. It is so interesting to watch it build and repair the web. It is quite industrious.

There are trees all around us, so there is now satellite tv.

We are so close to Becky & Fred's house that we can watch tv over there and borrow movies from them for when we are here and not working.

Speaking of Becky, she still has not had the baby yet. She is due on Tuesday, and her doctor made an appointment for her in her office if Becky doesn't deliver before Tuesday.
Fred is ready for Grace, and Lindsay is so excited about being a big sister.
One of Lindsay's teachers told Becky that she is really excited.
She is with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, so we haven't see her since last Tuesday. We will probably see her today.

Today is now Monday, and we saw Lindsay, Fred and Becky last night. We all went for a walk to see if we could help Becky progress into labor. No Luck!

We worked today, 5 hours.
We walked all of the common area and hiked just passed the small falls on the Wallace river. The next time we hike it we will take our walking sticks. We don't want to get too far away from home, so we will be able to just go when Becky goes into labor.
The trails are in really good shape and the walk was not too stressful.
The elevation at the trail head is 330 ft and climbs up to 1700 ft. The trail gets progressively steeper as you move to the upper falls. We got up to about 550 ft today.

We cleaned the cabins and stripped the covers off of the futon and beds so the the ranger can wash them.
I cleaned all of the BBQ pits in the park and cleaned out the fire rings at all of the cabins.
The park is open all year, and the cabins are rented mostly on weekends this time of year.

I think we will enjoy this assignment.

Ta ta for now.