SOME PICTURES AND THOUGHTS ON MY WEEKEND IN ASHLAND

I was so impressed with Evan, who is 8.  He loves to take care of the baby, and he knows how to carry him comfortably, how to rock him and comfort him when he is crying.  He holds the baby for long periods of time and never gets tired of holding him.  What's more, he can be trusted to be responsible.  Sandie is very blessed to have such a good son as Evan.  He is a really wonderful boy,  and I am so proud of him!!!

We spent a pleasant afternoon on a walk and swinging in the park.  The weather was beautiful: in the 60's.  

Seth loves Star Wars and plays long imaginary games with this weapon that he gladly posed for me with.  I forgot what he called it, but it is the most important toy in his possession, and he can do all kinds of holds with it (he reminds me of some kind of martial arts expert with a big stick!)  He and Emily carry on long pretend fantasies simultaneously----she talking about Mommies, Daddies, princes and princesses, he talking about Star War characters and warriors, with constant dialogues going on.

CHRIS, SERA, AND MILO'S SNOWY CHRISTMAS IN PORTLAND

Chris's home in Portland and Milo with his snowman


2008 brought an unprecedented snow storm to Portland, Vancouver, and Tri-cities, where, Chris, Joe, Nathan, and Val and I were holed up for Christmas.  We couldn't get to each other, but we had a lot of fun in the snow.

STEVE AND SANDIE'S CHRISTMAS

We welcomed our new grandson, Samuel Vernon Jensen, on December 6, 2008. And here are our other beautiful grandchildren, Evan, Seth, and Emily, who all took a three-month trip with their parents across the USA in a motorhome this year.

OUR CHRISTMAS LETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY



Christmas at our house---a few favorite things and a lot of music, Vern's art, the family.  What are we doing?

We have a big Christmas recital for my 50 piano students on the 23rd in an auditorium, a very large production, so I must prepare my students.  Val is usually found singing in choir and choral productions.  We love to bake good things and have friends over.  In the quiet evenings Val studies his German and we listen to Beethoven and Handel, and we try to take in one or two of the many concerts available here before Christmas.  Then the kids, our family, converge on us for Christmas, the fun part, when the noise and celebration begin.  The house gets messy, kids are everywhere, the smells of good food and the familiar "Hey Mom" remind me of years ago.  Life is so good.

Judy and Val

THANKSGVING

The day before Thanksgiving was Sofia's birthday.  She turned six.  She like blueberry cheesecake  (in the background with candles).  She and her sister Evelyn spent the summer picking their father's blueberry plants clean every day and coming in with purple faces and hands.

My camera stopped working so I couldn't get pictures of everybody, a big disappointment.  But we had Chris and Sera and Milo, and also Nathan.  We ate 8 pies, as I had to make both sugar free (for Nathan and Joe who are type 1 diabetecs--Joe being on insulin) and also sugar for everyone else.  We ate a healthy meal----lots of yams, brussels sprouts, salad, as well as turkey and all the trimmings.

Nathan and Joe brought their poetry.  They are almost better writers than their father was.  What a gift in our family.  And Nathan is so well-read.  He reminds me of Vern in his learning.  Joe reminds me of Vern in his personality and temperament.  And Chris reminds me of him with his gentleness, humbleness and humor.  The three of them are their Dad!  Now Steve---I think he takes from me.  But we make a great family;  I am so thankful for our family.  Thankyou Vern for our fine sons. 

I just finished a quilt for a new grandbaby to be born to Steve and Sandy in December.  We don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, so it is appropriate for either!  Very soft and fluffy.

The colors in our yard are so beautiful right now,  so I photographed some grasses and aspen trees and the Bradford pear.  We have had a very mild and beautiful fall.  In fact, we are still eating our blackberries, and it is November 10th!

A WALK ALONG THE COLUMBIA

It's nice that Chris and Sera, Joe and Griselda and families live just across the Columbia from each other now. Just a 15 minute ride. Last weekend the brothers and kids got together for a hike and found a deserted beach on the river. Not only did they find a deserted beach, a very appealing discovery to those boys of yesterday, but they found some old abandoned bricks. Wow! Something to build with! So they spent a pleasant Fall afternoon building a castle, while the kids built sand castles and watched an ocean-going vessel come up the channel. I wish I could have been there, but I chuckle to think of the fun they all must have had.

HALLOWEEN AT THE JENSEN HOME

Chris and Milo proudly display the four pumpkins they grew themselves!!

A LITTLE FAMILY REUNION IN ASTORIA

Linda and Herb sailed in on the Princess to Astoria where Nathan lives, so we came to visit, as did Chris and Milo on Oct 1st. We had a wonderful day together. We visited a mansion, went to the historic Astoria Column on the hill and saw the view. Then Herb took us all to lunch. Linda and I saw some beautiful things in a shop there but had to rush along to the Boat Museum (as Milo called it----actually the Maritime Museum), where Milo loved the sailboat. He took his shoes off and laid down on the bunk in the boat. He also loved navigating at the controls.

After all this fun we had to say goodbye to Linda and Herb. We then took Milo on a trolley ride and then said goodbye to everybody and went on to Vancouver and spent the night with Joe and Griselda before heading home. So here is our wonderful trip!!

This is a beautiful old mansion we toured. Inside everything was so beautifully crafted; we just oohed and aahed. Every window was covered in wooden slats and panes and sashes, and wooden workmanship was everywhere. There were lovely oriental tiles in the fireplaces and oriental wallpaper. I've never seen such an elegant mansion anywhere. The owner was a very wealthy Danish shipping magnate.

Astoria is built on hills, and almost feels like a miniature San Francisco with its streets going straight up and down. The houses are victorian and there are many beautiful old mansions. People are buying them and fixing them up, and it is becoming a nice retirement community. Linda and I would have loved to shop at the many crafty bohemian little shops downtown!

Nathan's house is on the hill. He has a great view of the mouth of the Columbia, the ocean beyond, the bridge, and the ships that come in.

Linda and I in front of Astoria's bridge; Herb and Nathan on an old sailing vessel.

After dropping Herb and Linda off at their boat, Chris and Milo, Nathan and Val and I took the trolly car the whole length of Astoria, as it follows the Columbia river. The man who "drives" the trolly narrates the history of Astoria as we go, and it was very interesting. The town was settled by many Scandanavian immigrants who came there as fishermen, and they built their houses with very steep roofs to keep off the show, not knowing that it doesn't snow in Astoria. We saw many very interesting houses, many of them old Nordic mansions with steep roofs on the hillsides in the east side of Astoria.

OCTOBER IN THE HIGH DESERT

Here in the TriCities we have a lot of color, but in the desert around us, fall color consists of mainly the sage brush, poplar and aspen trees, and the brown hills. It has its own beauty.

Our October garden has sunflowers as tall as trees and ripening fuji apples, squash and pumpkins, grapes, hordes of tomatoes, and of course the ever faithful zucchini and summer squash, green beans, chard, and lettuce. Val dug up the yukon gold potatoes yesterday to store with the squash.

With this cooler weather our plentiful summer blackberry crop is dwindling. We go out to pick every day and still have blackberries for breakfast, but we find fewer and fewer ripening ones.

At the end of August Steve and Sandie and our grandkids came to visit on their big journey across the U.S.  Evan, Seth, and Emily loved picking fruit in the backyard, riding bikes, swimming over at the Villas, and playing with our neighbors' boys, although Emily would have enjoyed a little girl to play with.  We filled 'em up, fixed up the Minnie, and sadly saw them off after a wonderful visit.