Then came spring, the time for road trips to visit the kids.
North from the top of Horseshoe Bend Hill where it's wasn't quite green yet but was trying...
...to Coeur d'Alene for a visit with Kristin... ... including a waterfront walk along the always spectacular Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Then, after a little time at home, it was westward-ho to Oregon, through the Blue Mountains and down the Columbia River gorge to visit Erich.
With Erich on the Corellian at Portland One of the great things about being parents is getting to play with the kids' toys.
Grandsons
They keep growing in every good way, but they're getting so old...
Porter at State
Grandson Porter soars at the Idaho high school track and field state championship meet.
Then came August.
The cake was great but the number associated with it can't be right.
As the British would say with a hint of incredulity, "As much as that...?"
Autumn
In September and October we trailered across the country to Pennsylvania. The sheer magnitude and grandeur of this great country never ceases to amaze.
While in Pennsylvania we docked the trailer at Keystone State Park which was a bit of a nostalgic flashback for us since back in our high school days we had both served as aides at the day camp that the Latrobe Rec Board conducted there each summer. The park has been nicely developed in the many years since but the old familiar reservoir and stone shelter are still there, everything but the haunted house.
After a couple weeks of tidying up some loose ends under the watchful eye of the local wildlife, ... ... we hitched up the trailer and came on home. Pennsylvania is so pretty. It's too bad it's so far away.
Kentucky
On the way home to Idaho we drove through and overnighted in Kentucky, a state we had never been in before and thus completed the circuit of having touched a toe in each of the fifty states, an accomplishment that should surely merit a MAJOR AWARD but, alas, the award seems to have not yet arrived.
Major Award
In early November we went for a fall outing to a favorite lake in the mountains; a picnic, a stroll around the lake in the crispy, crunchy dry leaves and like that. It was a really nice outing; clear mountain air, beautiful scenery, sparkling lake, but the crispy, crunchy, dry leaves part, well, not so much. Sigh.
...and now, once again, the poinsettia is in its place by the hutch, there's a tree growing in the living room, and the Christmas beagle is on station on the piano. There's fruitcake in the fridge and joy in our souls. Hallelujah! It's Christmas time again,
... including a waterfront walk along the always spectacular Lake Coeur d'Alene.
