Summer 08

"Cooling off in the Yuba River"

Summer is fading fast....excuse me, it's gone! Annie and I did manage to find a warm week in August, but we had to go south to do it. Christian, Annie and I drove to Lake Wildwood where we met up with Sean, Kristin and Annie's family for a fun week of good food, swimming, great dinners, boat rides, fantastic lunches, late night star watching, and of course, a final feast. This year with a Turkish menu that had the girls cooking for hours.

Speaking of "cool"

Ahhhh....

Kristin, Sean and the "Old Man"

Annie, Chris, and Laurie (The "Smith" side)





Of course there are some folks who don't enjoy the sun as much as others. You find these people in the shadow and only in the bright nasty sun for minutes at a time. Just long enough to move from the shade tree to the "covered" boat.

Christian on Lake Wildwood, away from the nasty sun.

Sean acting like, well.....Sean!

This August marked 30 years together for Annie and I. I Wrote a poem that ended with... "this ring is in memory of all this". I read her my poem and when she gave me the look of "What ring?" I handed her a ring box with a special ring I had made for the event. It was a "Man-in-the-Moon ring that was a bit like one given to her by her mother when she was much younger. The new one was in memory of her mom, our meeting, and me getting enough nerve to kiss her...(I lied about a shooting star, and made a wish)

Michael reading his "poem" just before giving the ring.

Annie freaking out

A very emotional time for some....

But....not everyone got all "emotional"

And some "nice" gifts were given... :-))

And we all did the right thing...and had a feast!

Our last night before heading home....nice!

It was a great week, we all enjoyed getting away form the Northwest and soaking up lots of bright sun shine, (except Christian). Here is wishing us all an Indian summer so we can soak up just a bit more summer before the fall truly hits us.

Michael..............................................

Back From Maui

The photo on the right was taken in the Maui Ocean Center & the picture on the left was taken when we were diving. Both are great pictures but I would suggest diving. It's the same price! I give Maui Ocean Center one thumb down

This photo was taken when we were taking a break in the Iao valley.It looks like a big v doesn't it.

Dietzman family

Wendy got new head bands for Matthews birthday. They just love hammen it up.

As you can tell I finally got pictues off my camera...


Matthew was spiderman for his birthday










We hiked so high we found SNOW in August





Glacier Point

Rich is 6'2" kids like to do everything. Including climb trees

As we hiked the clouds came in over our heads. We got to the point and couldn't see anything. Glacier point 6200 ft.

Our vacation this week was really fun. Went to Alder lake to spend 4 days. Took the boat and found that the lake was to low to go for a ride.

Decided to go to Mt. Rainer for the day. We also went to Kanaskat-Palmer State park for 3 days.

We love to go camping. Kids getting big. Matthew just turned 4. Wendy is 6 and starts 1st grade on the 5th. She is really excited.

Jamacia

back from jamacia. it was beautiful, and hot! the first night was pretty funny, right where they set up our dinner was on a home of fire ants! ouch!! we had a great relaxing time, here are some pics. hope you all are well.

also i am having a housewarming party at our house on may 20th. from 12 to 6pm, you can pop in, or stay all day. drinks and appietizers (i am a really bad speller, sorry). all of you are invited, no pressure, but if you are able to come i'd love to see you.

love, devonne

climbing at red rocks

hi there everybody!

I just got back from a vacation on tuesday and saw this blog thing, so here goes. I will now attempt to use this new and exciting resource to share a few pictures and stories from my trip with you all. For those that don't know I have really been getting into rock climbing lately, so it was the goal of this particular trip.

here is my friend rob and I at the airport real early in the morning.








Red rock canyon is in Las Vegas about twenty minutes from the strip.

this is a shot of the rocks as we drove up
(I really like the sky in this one)















Yep, that's me up there, leading the first climb of the trip! It was very steep and scary and I loved it. well ok maybe it's sort of a love hate thing.










I definitely loved margaritas at the pool afterwards though. That is the stratosphere tower behind me. I think it is only a shade whiter than I am.









I just thought this was a really cool half-burnt tree (especially with the background.)



so that is the short version there are about 150 more pictures here if you are interested.

later
-c