End of Summer Vaca

Did I take long enough? Apparently Summer is good for a lot of fun things, blogging not being one of them. So I'll try to repent and get back on it with some pictures. I can't remember if I ever showed our garden this year, so I'll give y'all the pleasure at looking at the very few pics I took.

The peas were growing like crazy! And they were delicious. Next year we'll put up a square wire frame so they are easier to pick.

Pretty happy garden with pretty happy pavers. Go dad!
Look! Real corn! I kept getting surprised that stuff was actually growing.

Our squash ended up at least double this size. We ate a lot of squash. It was good.

Also this summer, my old roommate Angie got married and I was a bridesmaid. Very fun!

I have to show off these shoes. This is pair number 3. Remind to make up my mind if I ever have bridesmaids...which I probably won't. But I really do like all the shoes I "had" to buy. oh darn.

Bridesmaids lined up as Angie was coming in.

Cute couple! PS- he was SUPER nervous before the wedding. It was still a couple hours later that he finally started relaxing during the reception.

It was all very beautiful and they had great dinner and dancing.

Me and my old roomie!

So now I can report at the end of the summer how our garden looks. Most of it was done by the time we had a cold front, but the frost pretty much killed off the rest.

:(

Actually there are still beans hanging onto the vines. They're no good anymore, but that thing just kept growing! I think we'll do a little better on portion control for next year's planting.

Oh my gosh! Digging up potatoes was like treasure hunting! It was so FUN! Out of 14 "plantings," with 2-3 seed spuds in each, we had 5 plants come up. I think we would have gotten more potatoes if the frost came later. Oh well, it was still a good haul.

Our corn suffered. Mom finally pulled them all up. We got about 7 tiny cobs, will a sum total of maybe 15 kernals...total.

Mom put flowers in the old pea planters, but I waited too long to get them while they were pretty.

I'm so impressed!!! We grew real potatoes! And this was after we ate a few the night before. They are a red variety- yummy!

This was my favorite one. :)

Happy Fall to everyone and I hope you all enjoy the coming holidays!

Walking...all sorts!

Lazy me! I've certainly waited long enough to get these pics out. I'll just narrate:

Here's the happy grad!With his happy family!

The Marriot Center takes FOREVER to fill up, but the sea of black (except now it's dark blue) finally arrived.

Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson were the main speakers. It was great!!!

I didn't mean to put this after the pic of Pres. Uchtdorf, it just came next- promise! This was the next day and Mark was getting a little "tired". I have to admit, that the ceremonies really are pretty boring. UNTIL........

CONGRATULATIONS WILL!!! You did it!

Here is the adorable and irresistable Heidi! Thanks for letting us all pass her around Shirley. :)

The Maher kids lined up in a row. I'm not sure what is happening to Wes in the bottom right.
"Yay! It's off to school I go!" (Note Griffin's little backpack)

Such handsome guys, after baby Eva's blessing.

We had lots of fun celebrating with all our family and the Hale's!

The next week was my birthday, and Mom and I went to the tulip festival. I tried to restrain mysef in taking pictures. It helped that my camera battery hit low at the start of the day. I also tried to spare y'all from the many photos. :)

It was really big! 55 acres I think.

LOTS of color and tulips in bloom.


One of my favs.

I love it! More please!

Charming brook. Don't mind the fact that it has charmingly murky water.

I know it is a photography sin to take a shot like this, but I wanted to show the columns they had at the top of a neat spiral hill thingy.

Cool gazeebo type structure in the "Fragrance Garden".
Sorry, I can't help it! It's apparently an addiction. Perhaps I should go to FLA ("Flower Lover's Anonymous").

This is the bottom half of a great big staircase with all these pools pouring into each other.

Entrance to the "Secret Garden".

I guess it's not so secret when all these other people are there! :)

This was really cool, but you have to have a bird's eye to see that it forms a butterfly. We are at the top right wing in this shot.


Anyone want a ride on the Merry-go-round?

World's biggest man-made waterfall. And behind us are all the people selling stuff where mom bought a giant clock. Really.

My pretty cake! Mom got creative when she ran out of the needed letters. :)

Thanks for a happy birthday!

Hoppy Late Easter!

I know this is late, but we'll still celebrate a little longer. :) We were lucky enough to get a visit from the Easter Bunny, and he set up a great (if I say so myself) egg hunt in the basement. I've included our own little virtual egg hunt. See if you can find the eggs in each picture!

Let the hunting begin!

hmm... where can it be???

There are two in this pic.
Two more...

3, but two are impossible to see in this picture

Hannah came off victorious! Only a few hints needed. :)

Aaaaannddd here's Will. Most entertaining!

Lights, lights, and more lights!!!

At last!!! We have very exciting news (and footage) of the instrument panel working! And as promised I will deliver the results. Dad figured out that his wiring was actually fine (with a few adjustments), but that it was the power source that he was using to test it that wasn't sufficient. Once he got enough voltage everything worked great. So here we are with the awesome and illuminated instrument panel!

The elusive battery!

One of the Grand Rapids screens. I got to adjust the altitude on the right! We are really at 41-30. I assume that's 41,300 feet? That sounds like too much to me, but they know what they're talking about.

This is the pilot's screen, but dad had switched it over to another setting. Neat-o!

Dad was changing it to Autopilot and other fun things from the control stick. They have yet to get the radio working, I suggested it was because they had no antenna. Dad'll figure it out.

The maplight!!! And that's the mapbox just below. The little switch to the right of the light turns the white LED's on if it's down, red LED's if up, and off in the middle. This is my favorite. :)

Here is a video of dad running the flaps. They aren't connected to the wings yet, and that piece of metal that's covering the rod will be riveted down eventually.

This is really cool! Dad can turn the key and the engine will go for a second. You can see where the propeller will be spinning!

Well I hope everyone enjoyed this VERY exciting update! I'll try to keep sharing new events as they come. :)

Out of date updates

So I noticed that I've been slacking on updating the plane pictures. However, since Dad is still doing essentially the same thing I'll show what I've got anyway. He's checking all the wiring, and making several rennovations.

The first thing he's done is checked that all the connections on those blue strips are correct; that they match what his graphs show.

Unfortunately there have been several "oops" and he had to redo some connections. He also went back and redid his graphs on the computer.

More checking...

He finally got to the point that he could start flipping switches, but that has also been interesting. Sorry I don't have pictures of that yet. But dad says that not everything really works right. For example: he will get a bunch of stuff lit up and then the switch for the fuel pump or something turns all the lights off. Sooo... there is still more to do. I'll get pics when everything is working like it should. :)

In the mean time dad has been learning how to weld!

His first project was a welding table. We were really excited that he got 4 joints welded! And then they all fell apart except for one when he set it down. But since then he's gotten MUCH better. Go dad!

PS- he has replaced his old clip-ons, and now he keeps them in its original plastic packaging. And for some reason he won't let me hold them.

Sorry for the tardiness!

Okay, okay- I know I'm way late on this, but Melissa has done a stellar job at getting the first post out. She has all the stats and covers the story of the day (so does Nancy's blog), so I'll just add the pictures I got.

Nancy's nurse at the time is Pam in the background. Nancy was able to find some comfort on her side. You'll note dad in the foreground- I think he did upwards of 30 Sudoku puzzles that day.


This was after they wheeled Nancy out to get ready for the C-section and Will was the patiently waiting, soon-to-be daddy. They came and got him just before they got Eva out.

FINALLY- Will pulled some strings to get the baby to Nancy. She was dying to have the chance to hold her.
And here's the happy new family! They are doing very well and get to go home today (Tuesday)!

Here is the little whiteboard from their first room where we took down everyone's guesses for time and/or weight. Ellie came in champion with only 11 minutes off the time (and that was hours before they decided to do a C-section!). And Melissa was closest to weight. Actually, ater Eva lost the first couple of ounces, Mel's guess was right on at 7 lbs. 11 oz. You can see her official stats at the top left of the board.

Memorial for Dad

No, he's not dead. (Thank goodness!!!) But, yes, his beloved clip-on sunglasses had their final hurrah today. After an evening game of, you guessed it, 10,000 dad got up and revealed to those present (mom and me) that his faithful friend had perished in his shirt pocket. I suggested we hold a memorial for them and express our gratitude for the protection they gave to his eyeballs. But instead mom and I each took a half and hung them in the middle of our own glasses and danced around looking like Koala's at a Grecian Urn festival. I think they enjoyed it. Now, let us all have a moment of silence for father's former protective eye wear and ponder on the many times we saw them in all their glory.

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