Beach Trip

Racing Delilah to the water!

The shells were still alive and kept trying to burrow into my hand. It tickled!

Dave got his Chinese kite to fly- it was quite something!

That's Dave out there ...

Beach Trip

Some trees that were burned by the "coastal wildfire"

The fountain outside the back door.

Me and Delilah rode the carousel.

Searching for wireless internet signal...

Beach Trip

Swimming in the pool

Me and Delilah at Barefoot Landing

The tigers were very active!

We got a good laugh from the "funhouse mirrors"

Alliance Women's Retreat 2009

Here I am at Women's Retreat (Ok, in that particular picture I'm actually shopping in Black Mountain during the Saturday break...). The theme this year is "Thirst Quenchers". Barb Meier was the speaker, and she was great! It was fun getting out of the house for the weekend and hanging out with the other ladies. The weather was beautiful for us...well, until Sunday when we got a little rain. We were able to raise some money for the Missionaries by selling crafts. The picture in the upper right corner is the Congolese Ladies Choir- they were really good! Bottom middle is a missionary from Russia, and above that is Jennifer singing during the communion service.

Easter and a Visit from Maggie

Maggie, Bob, Oliver and Wyatt came on Sunday for Easter lunch and some egg hunting. The kids all had fun playing together, and all the adults had fun taking pictures of the kids playing together! Haha The weather was beautiful- it was a nice day! We fit in a little birthday celebration for Delilah too, who turned 5!

IN LIKE A LION!

Yesterday it snowed....and snowed...and snowed! It was beautiful to watch. It started while we were at church. We went out to lunch, then home. Then Dave "had to" run to the church to finish making this week's CD's. Then, when he got home...he NEEDED to go out and get some kerosene "just in case". So I rode along on that one. The roads were covered in snow! Even so, we passed quite a few people who were also out driving around in it. It was still falling steadily at that point too, so it was a really pretty- if sometimes slippery- ride. We got home safe and sound and it's still all white and pretty out this morning. The cats don't like it too much though!

Foreigners

Delilah and I got to dress up for the Parade of Nations for Missions Conference at church. I was dressed as a Bethlehem-ite (?) and Delilah wore and Indian Sari!

Roses for my Birthday

It took me a bit to get this on here, but that's because we just got the pics off the camera last night. Dave took this pic of the roses he brought me for my birthday- 2 dozen! They were beautiful!

Moving along

Got a few more hours in on the project. I think thats all the small detailed stuff. The rest should go quickly. I did stray from the plans on this part, hope it still works. Made a model of it in google sketchup, so it should be ok.  Can you tell what it will be?

Rachael's song

The waiter at Outback was a character and could sing good too.

A New Project

I finished step 1 of Kelly's new bed. It has a few custom features so I hope it works out. This took about 4 hours so far. Its the mattress subframe. I'll be able to work on it more this weekend. I thought of putting a picture of what its supposed to look like, but then the suspense would be gone.

Visit from Maggie

 

Maggie, Oliver and Wyatt cam and visited last weekend. Wyatt has grown so much! He's a happy little guy. Dave and Oliver played Superman together and spent some time checking out the crab next to the fish tank. The rest of us played handbells on the Wii- it's a challenge! Delilah and Oliver got to play together, and Oliver got to meet Marshall for the first time (his cousin...ish). It was nice to see them all.

St.Louis

 

Our last year in St.Louis! We had a great time visiting with everyone (though we missed Christie and Brian!). Mom(Carlson) had lots of crafts for us to do. Grampy and Jordan grew some crystals. We ate (oh, how we ate!). And we got to go to some places we hadn't been before, like St.Charles (shopping!) and Hannibal (Mark Twain's boyhood home). Dave and I got to stay some extra days, so we had a nice long visit- almost 2 weeks! It was cold most of the time we were there, but it wouldn't snow for us :(
The first Sunday of the year we went to Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church. It was an awesome service and we really enjoyed the choir too!
It was a lot of fun being there, but it was nice to get home too after being away that long. I missed my kitties!

Christmas Day

 

Christmas Day was a lot of fun! Mom and Dale stayed overnight with us on Christmas Eve, so Mom got up Christmas morning and made her traditional Christmas Sweet Bread which we all enjoyed! Later in the morning Sarah, Greg and Delilah joined us and we opened our gifts. It was especially fun watching Delilah, as everything she opened was "Always what I wanted!". After the gifts came stockings, which were lots of fun too. Then we ate (way too much!) and played Wii and visited until everyone had to head home and we had to get ready for our trip to St.Louis!

Grove Park Inn

Some pics we took when we went to the Grove Park Inn to see the gingerbread houses.

Carlsons St. Louis Report

Thanksgiving with the Carlsons

How Dave Rakes the Leaves...

Visit to Maggie's, November

Avon Walk(ed) for Breast Cancer!

Well, the only camera I took was my phone...was trying to limit the weight I carried. Here are the pics I took...and maybe Dave can get his pics on here later.
OK...going in order from top left: Pic 1 is the view from our room at the Westin (Aunt Sandy went with me!). We were on the 14th floor.
Pic 2: Saturday morning...roughly 4:30am...took a pic of myself in the mirror all dressed to walk
Pic 3: Big canvas pillar at the starting point. Each section was for a different walk (Los Angeles, Boston, New York, etc...) Each section was signed all over by the walkers for that city!
Pic 4: My signature on the Charlotte section!!
Pic 5: Finished the first mile! Woohoo! I walked 21 miles on Saturday!
Pic 6: Cow guy...he was a hoot! One of many interesting characters that showed up along the route to cheer us on. We never walked a mile without encouragment from people like him!
Pic 7: Lunch on Sunday. I was actually nearer to the front of the "pack" on Sunday, so I got to watch a lot of people trickle in for their lunch. That was at 7.6 miles.
Pic 8: Thought this was clever...It says "Ricky Boobie Racing". This was at one of the rest stops.
Pic 9: Here I am at mile 12 of day two- one mile from the finish line!!! Somehow I managed a sort-of smile through the pain (my feet were hurting pretty bad at this point from being walked on and from the 10 blisters I was feeling.) Even so, knowing I was on the last mile somehow made me walk a little faster. We started at 7:30 on Sunday and I crossed the finish line a little before 1:00pm. Dave, Mom & Dale and Aunt Sandy were all there to meet me! I decided not to stay for closing ceremony, since it wasn't until 3:00, so we set off for home. We stopped at a Ham's somewhere along the way for some dinner. It was very good! My hips and knees were objecting to any form of movement for the rest of the night! At home I got a hot shower, doctored my feet and put them up for a while before bed. Dave was very helpful and supportive all evening! I slept great! This morning my knees and hips feel better. My blisters don't hurt too much anymore...my muscles are pretty sore, but I'm feeling good! I walked 34 miles in two days!!! WOOHOO!!

A Good Day

Well, I walked 21 miles today. I got to see some of Charlotte city and some of the surrounding neighborhoods. We walked by some HUGE and very nice houses. People were very encouraging! They waved, honked their horns...people in the neighborhoods came outside to greet us as we passed. Some even had little tables set up with snacks for us. Whole families stood outside offering food and encouragement. At one house there were four small children handing out Dixie cups of grape kool-aid! It was quite a pick-me-up for a tired walker!
There were also "cheering stations" along the way where people gathered to cheer us on. Quite a few of them were dressed in costumes or other silly outfits. The people running the rest stops dressed up too- each had a theme! Some that I remember are: Hawaiian, Hippies, Cowboys, The Eighties (including "Richard Simmons"!)...it gave us something to look forward to as we trekked on.
Now, the full length for today was 26 miles, but my feet would not carry me past 21. I feel good about it. I did end up with a couple small blisters, but I will doctor those so I can walk some more tomorrow. Tomorrow is 13 miles...and I am assured by the "seasoned" walkers that tomorrow will seem quick and easy compared to today! I hope they're right!

Classy Cheeseburgers

Here we are watching the Discovery Channel. There's a show on called "Most Unique McDonalds". Imagine our surprise when up pops a picture of Biltmore Village in Asheville!! They called that McDonald's the "classiest McDonald's in the world". Come visit us- we'll take you there! Ha ha ha

A Birthday Surprise!

Me and Dave rode up to Michigan last weekend with Mom and Dale to be a part of surprising Grandma Florence for her 80th birthday! The drive wasn't too bad. This is the cake they got for her.

Here is Mom with all her siblings! They were all trying to remember the last time they had been all together, and I think they came up with close to 30 years! Front Row: Carl, Cheryl, Diane and Ray Back Row: Linda and Valerie.

Grandma Florence was shocked to see everyone there! She kept saying how surprised she was! Yay!

We stopped by to see her apartment as we left. It's a cute little place! Here is me, Grandma and Mom.

Cousin Kolbie

A couple weeks ago, Greg & Kristen came for a visit to NC so everyone could meet their newest addition, Kolbie. She's a cutie! (And I'm a bad photographer) She was around 2 months old.

Here are Uncle Greg and Mackenzie playing. Mackenzie is two now! She's a lot of fun...and she loved Dave's mac & cheese!

They brought their Wii with them and we all took turns playing. Here are Greg, Gramma, Ben and Kristen trying some carnival games.