Day 212

Happy 7th Birthday Gunnar!

Owen, Ayden, Gunnar, Brayden, Lucas

Life is fleeting, years rush past... and little boys grow up so fast! Let me take time out to be thankful mine is still here with me. And though I'm busy through the day, let me take time out to play... Let me take time out to smile, to sit with him for just a while... Let me take time out for walks, for swings and sports and quiet talks, for sharing giggles, tickles, and hugs, for patching knees and catching bugs... for running races, climbing trees, for helping with his A - B - C's... For hatching plots and planning schemes, for listening to his thoughts and dreams. Let me tuck him in at night, hear his prayers, turn off the light. And when my busy day is done, let me thank God I have a son.

~Author Unknown

Day 211

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

~Albert Einstein

Day 210

Jackson Rathbone (aka Jasper) at the 100 Monkeys Concert

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

~Berthold Auerbach

Day 209

Happy Birthday Erik!

A man ninety years old was asked to what he attributed his longevity. I reckon, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, it's because most nights I went to bed and slept when I should have sat up and worried.

~Dorothea Kent



I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

~Mother Teresa

Day 208

I HATE going to the gym!

Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

~Author Unknown

Day 207

Once again I did NOT take a picture...but this photo was taken with my camera on this day.

Romi, Ian, Beau, Jaime at Vince's

For the first time ever, overweight people outnumber average people in America. Doesn't that make overweight the average then? Last month you were fat, now you're average - hey, let's get a pizza!

~Jay Leno

Day 206

Time to go home

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

~George Carlin

Day 205

Manchester State Park

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky.

~e.e. cummings

Day 204

Smores by the camp fire. Coby, Erik, and John

Camping: nature's way of promoting the motel industry.

~Dave Barry

Day 203

In our house we call these "Erik's Famous Oatmeal Cookies". Delish!

Good enough never is.

~Mrs. (Debbi) Fields

Day 202

Isaiah and Gunnar

Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces.

~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Day 201

Now that it's all over, what did you really do yesterday that's worth mentioning?

~Coleman Cox

Day 200

John's Truck


We have a choice every day - to act on yesterday's good intentions or get an early start on tomorrow's regrets.

~Robert Brault

Day 199

Gunnar watching Twilight for the first time.

And how long have you been seventeen?

~Bella Swan/Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, Chapter 9, p. 185

Day 198

Chance 3-on-3 in Snoqualmie


Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game. That's all it is...a game.

~Michael Jordan

Day 197

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.

~C.S. Lewis

Day 196

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.

~W. Clement Stone

Day 195

The Hooded Crusader


A wise man once said: 'There are no perfect men in the world; only perfect intentions.'

~Azeem from Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves

Day 194

Tacoma


It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.

~Lemony Snicket

Day 193

Front porch light


“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

~ Matthew 5:14–16

Day 192

What if you sincerely believed something was true, but you were dead wrong? What if you were so stubbornly sure that you were right, that you wouldn’t even consider the truth? Would the truth be silenced, or would it try to break through?

~Bella Swan, New Moon, Chapter 24, p.527

Day 191

Lucas and Gunnar playing in the fort Coby made.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

~Edgar Allan Poe

Day 190

Gas station somewhere in California.


Be friendly to everyone. Those who deserve it the least need it the most.

~Bo Bennett

Day 189

Fresno, California ~ Heading home


See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.

~Pope John XXIII

Day 188

Hole-in-one (Remind us never to go miniature golfing in 109 degree weather in Arizona?)


Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.

~Jack Nicklaus

Day 187

John with brothers Ted and Dave

Sibling relationships - and 80 percent of Americans have at least one - outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, and resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship.

~Erica E. Goode

Day 186

Ian, Coby, Chance, Eli
Gunnar, Grandpa (Ted), Ethan, Gavin, Grandma (Sandy), Thea


Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own children.

~Ruth Goode

Day 185

On the morning of the 4th of July John's dad called us out to the front yard and explained to us that this was the flag given to him at his father's funeral. Breathtaking!

Happy 4th of July!!

I'm proud to be an American,

where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me.

~Lee Greenwood

Day 184

Gavin, Gunnar, Ethan, and Thea...cousins

If you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pant leg, your schedule is too crowded.

~Robert Brault

Day 183

Grandpa on "Magic"

Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.

~John Wayne

Day 182

John's daddy at his ranch in Snowflake.


Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.

~John Wayne