Happy Monday,

 Thanks to Wendi and Sam I am able to write to you..but I thought we were already communicating with E-mail? ( I know poor communication at any rate) Maybe the pictures are the difference?.. Anyway

 We spent Saturday in Lewiston at the Dogwood Festival's "Art Under The Elms". I had a mission to buy a ceramic bird bath but couldn't find one, but I did buy a homemade tile from two sweet people from Chehalis. Terribly overpriced tiles but earnest artisans and I couldn't resist. The tiles had leaves of various plants pressed into the tiles which left impressions. I picked wood sorrel thinking it was lupine. I was reassured after my mistake by the "earnest artist' that it was an easy mistake because the plants were from the same family. I bought it anyway. :)

 Steve and I are replacing the wine barrel fountain because the old one no longer held water. The wine barrels were from France with the winery stamped on the bottom and the inside stained with red wine, pretty cool. Too bad the stamp is on the BOTTOM!  Amazing how heavy the barrels are. Steve did most of the work. 

 I am supposed to give a talk on "something gardenlike" Saturday the 10th. Sue said it only had to be a half an hour and what did I want to talk about? ( this is for promoting master gardeners and gardens) sigh!!  Public speaking isn't my thing. When I mention this to Sue, she said, "It will be good for you, and there probably won't be very many people anyway". No sympathy there. I will be speaking on perennial gardens for shade if anyone wants to come. :)  

David flies on......

As of last week, David is now an Army-certified airplane pilot!!












We even have a video clip to prove it-- David, steady at the controls, in a steep bank:








Also, David was promoted a few weeks ago....he now has 4 dots on his uniform instead of 3. :) We had a small pinning ceremony in front of his class:

Hey Pups... Am using Wendi's name for now but will hopefully be informed what my Google password is in the next little bit. Went to the Dr. today for my 36th week check up. Only four more to go!! Dr. was very friendly, a little too friendly for my taste. He launched into a long Shackleton tribute while I was sitting there on the little bed, naked from the waist down, with only a stupid pink piece of paper between us. He didn't seem bothered by this but I found it a bit distracting. Hard to think of noble endeavors while you are focused on the rest of your clothes only three feet away. Maybe that is how Shackleton felt- so close, yet so very far away.

We had a wonderful Easter. God gave us the first sunny day in a very long time. We had about 40 people over, which really works somehow. I will have Michael post a group photo for me. I leaned over to a newcomer and said, "This is where we all pretend we are a huge family and try to herd everyone together for the commerative photo." ---- "Cool", she replied. She was a westerner with no Easter family either, so a kind -of- family photo was fine with her.

We are very much looking forward to the Wendi, David visit. I will press them for recent news and get the scoop on how they liked Kelisha's Orrin. Nice to have a new family member. Love you all lots and really liked all the photos. You are beautiful Karuna!! We miss you. Alice

excited! that is my growing feeling as we approach the end of our time in skykomish. we have had a wonderful time with wonderfuland learned much teaching people galatians & hebrews. but are excited abt. getting back to our home in Pend. we willl be there 3/16-18 to take back a load of stuff and to sign tax forms. had a fellow from the Lutheran church do it this year. also to pickup my $10 gary fisher bike (found it at a community parking lot sale (~:] ) from the defunct bike shop. had the guy do an annual on it - grease all bearings; replace brake & gear wiring; and tune up shifting. i usually do stuff like that myself but wanted to get to riding asap. back to skykomish for wed. nite bible study. that will leave us 2 sundays and one more wed. nite. our last day is 3/29. suzy is buzy ordering seeds for the garden - exciting! looking fwd to a relaxing summer. plan to see all of you sometime this year. DAD

elders on track

hah! finally figured it out. but suzy has dinner on so will leave. also monarch of glen disk 3 to finish to send back to netflix. i'm so cheap i hurry to send back to get monies worth. love you lyons.
ps: will next attempt to send photos. 2"new snow today. elderelder

Think Spring!

Hello Lyons...let's get going on the blog! Where is everyone? We're not looking to hear about your exotic lifestyles--we want to know what you're up to! Here's what we've been up to:


The eagles are out all around the Yakima River canyon. We've tried to get out on weekends at least one day hiking and checking out the wildlife. 2 weeks ago we headed south to the sun and warmth along Hwy 12 to Oak Creek Wildlife Center where there is a elk feeding station. I'd never seen so many elk in one spot! Then we headed down the road and took an awesome hike up into the hills. It has been so dreary and grey around Ellensburg that we just had to get to sunshine...amazing what Vitamin D can do for the soul! Thank God for the sun...this is the time of year I am so appreciative of spring. We miss you guys!

Yunnan Continued: Shangri la and the Tiger Leaping Gorge

Having descended from the mountains in a somewhat more graceful manner than the original ascent, we found ourselves in the fabled Shangri la. 5 kilometers out of town is the largest monastery in the region. I think that they said that around 3,000 monks live here!

From Shangri la we took a bus (from this point forth you may assume that nearly all travel took some form of common transportation expect when we renting bikes for the day in Lijiang) to the beginning of the Leaping Tiger Gorge trek. I would encourage you to look it up. It is a two-day (for most people) hike that involves sleeping in a mountain hostel over night) I was a little spooked I must say. In the end no one died and the worst thing that happened was that I got a very nasty sunburn and the shakes from such an intense work out.

We then proceeded on to Lijiang and Dali.