The Rest of September: Elaine's Birthday, Stenciling our Entryway and Kent's Retirement

This year my birthday was on a Saturday, so we had time to go out to dinner. 

We went to the fanciest restaurant in Stafford County and had a delicious steak and crab dinner

. They also gave me a chocolate creme brulee for free since it was my birthday.

After dinner we went to stake conference, and after stake conference our friends the Burkett's had us over. Susan had made me some peanut butter brownies for my birthday. They were tasty!

My Bible Study friends had gotten together to make some pretty crafts for the table for my birthday lunch. Everything was very pretty.

I made my own cake, which was a maple pecan cake with browned butter frosting with toasted pecans on the top. It was REALLY good! I especially like the burned butter frosting.

I was ready for another change in our house since we've been here over TEN YEARS now, so I convinced Kent to work on stenciling our entry way.

It's such a small space I thought it wouldn't take very long, but as with most of my grandiose schemes,

it took much longer than I thought it would. Kent ended up finishing the project while I was visiting my parents in Oregon.

I was very pleased with the results. Thanks for all your hard work, Kent!

A sad event that happened in the middle of the month was the passing of Kent's mom on the 19th. We're glad we were able to see her at the beginning of the month, when Kent had spent quite a bit of time with her. She was 90 and had been in poor health for months, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.

At the end of September was a milestone for Kent--he retired after 36 years of working for the Federal Government. His bosses all had nice things to say about him.

Kent gave a nice farewell speech and had even written a poem.

He gave some special awards to some of his employees.

Some of his former employees came back to attend his retirement ceremony. It's obvious Kent was universally well-liked and had been a good worker and a good boss.

Farewell to ANC

By the Poet Engineer

As I go away and leave you

It’s retirement time for me

I always will remember

Exploring things of ANC

The sparkle of the sunlight

On the dew-soaked grass in spring

The beauty of the autumn days

From the blaze of “flaming” trees

The young daughter and hermother

Sitting by her daddys grave

Father sitting by his son’s headstone

Remembering the sacrifice, he gave.

The pageantry of the honors

For so many funerals every day

The horse drawn caissons and the rifles

The final tributes on display

The many projects that we worked on

As the “Engineering team”

Orange fences mark our progress

Of reconstructing everything

And buildingnew improvements

So the cemetery lasts

Many years into the future

And keep honoring our past.

And of course, the many people

I have worked with through the years

We had our times of laughter

And se whared some times of tears.

It is an Honor working here

On that I know we can agree.

These are some of the many things I’ll keep

In my heart from ANC

Thank you all for your friendship!

And the years we’ve worked together

Auf Weidersehen

Sayonara

And farewell

Until we meet again.

One of our New Favorite Places--Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania

We bought season passes to go to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, so we've gone several times. 

 Almost every time we go we find a new corner of the massive grounds to explore.

It's also interesting to see the different flowers in bloom at different seasons of the year. 

Pictured below are the Italian fountains.

 An awesome looking tree house, tucked away on a less-traveled path.

These monstrously huge lily pads are quite a sight!

 This fountain is in a grotto, and looks very different when it's dark and the colored lights are turned on.

Our favorite thing to do is to watch the fountain shows that are shown on weekend evenings from May to October.

I put this photo in to show that we were there on the night it was a full moon in August.

 Here are some still photos of the dancing fountains from our visit to see them in August and September.

In August the music played was from Broadway plays, and we were disappointed that there weren't many familiar songs.

 The lights on the fountains were still very pretty.

In October the music played was from Disney movies, so we enjoyed it much more.

 Those are flames on top of the water in the picture above and below.

                           

We also went to the Philadelphia Temple before or after we went to Longwood Gardens, so they were wonderful trips!

Visit to my Parents in September

I took another trip out to Oregon just a couple of weeks after seeing them at the end of August.

I took some pictures of them in their every day lives. My dad stops to talk to everyone and tries to know all the names of the residents and the workers at their assisted living center.

They eat in the dining room with Harold, who is 100 years old.

Mom uses her walker to walk the over 500 steps to the dining room. Dad won't let her shuffle or walk slowly. Sometimes Mom gets tired and needs to rest on the walk back to their apartment.

                                      Dad bought this fancy Pacifica a couple of years ago since it's higher up and easier for my mom to get into. 

Mom and Dad on their way into church.

I put a picture of Mom and Dad's bed in here, because every morning my dad makes the bed and places all the throw pillows. My mom used to do it before her stroke, but now my dad does it since Mom isn't able to.

Here's my mom at her exercise class she attends every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after breakfast, and Mom visiting with another resident. My dad does a very good job of taking care of Mom, and I'm glad for the time I'm able to spend time with them.

August Visits to our Parents

In August, Elaine and I both went to Oregon to visit our aging parents again

Elaine with her parents

 Mom's sister Norma and her daughter from Spokane were also visiting 

Joe and Joyce were with me at the nursing home where mom is getting care until she gets over the infection she is fighting.

 Joyce with a Dalia flower  she grew at Moms house

 I bought her a milkshake she was craving.

She is so weak she cannot sit up straight.  We wheeled her out to the garden to see the end of season flowers and get her out of the room for a bit. 

Looks like the Garden Fairies followed me to Vancouver!

A group of us guys went to Lake Merwin to put a new temporary roof over the trailer. 

Nephew David Hassa constructing the trusses

 Marty and me assembling the truss sections

 Then lifted it all onto the roof

 Matching the two sections together

Stapling the tarp to the structure 

Joe with the sign we made for his wood pile.  He loves to bring up wood and make fires at the lake.