Trick or Treat!!

Gary brought a friend Trick-or Treating.

Those silly squirrels will do anything for another peanut.

Snoqualmie Falls in the Fall

This is one of our favorite places to visit. The falls are slightly taller than Niagara, and the mist rising off the water the day we were there was beautiful.

A Fun Trip to Seattle

check out this guy's probiscus

It's been awhile since we've been to Pike's Market, so we made plans to go today. The day started with heavy rain, which kept the crowds down, and worked out great for us. We watched one of the vendors unload a container of live crabs. He told us he always tries to grab them from the back or they pinch. He also told us you never want to put a live crab into boiling water because their legs explode off. --Important Safety tip. He was putting them in a large tank of water. They didn't look or act like they were happy about it at all.

We explored parts of the Market we hadn't seen before, found some great fresh seafood across the street at Jack's. When we were done at the Market, we drove down to Pier 57 on Alaskan Way for Lunch at Fisherman's Restaurant with our 2 for 1 coupon. Larry had the best Clam Chowder we've had anywhere (except Mo's) and delicious grilled Salmon. The shrimp & crab salad was huge and loaded with fresh greens and seafood.

Next stop was the Seattle Aquarium and tanks and tanks of interesting/weird fish.

Lastly, we drove back past the Olympic Sculpture Garden so I could finally get a photo of the giant eraser. We love this town!

Arachnophobia

I'm not a big fan of spiders. Nope. Nada. Uh-uh.

These wolf spiders seem to be everywhere. They are usually about the size of a 50-cent piece, and are not afraid to stand their ground when approached. My invention for 'eliminating' them is to wrap the top of the broom handle with masking or duct tape sticky-side out, and quickly jab the intruder before it knows what hit it. I then dispose of the 'body' in the garbage can, neatly stuck to the tape, and mostly dead. My worst encounter so far?? In the ladies' room at the office building where we work. As the toilet tissue rolled around, a large spider rolled over the top with it. If I hadn't already used the facilities, I would have had an accident on the floor right then and there. Luckily, the lysol was close by, and I sprayed the darn thing till it fell on the floor and met its demise. Did I mention that I don't like spiders.....

Girls Just wanna Have Fu-un

We love what we do here in the Mission Office, but it occured to Sister Elder and I one day, that we really should take the time and go out to lunch together once in awhile, and since the new Neiman-Marcus has just opened, we thought, "hey, No time like the present to begin!" So here we are at our first, but not last, lunch together. We decided to go out to lunch every other week, and enjoy each other's company outside the office. It's been great so far, and today we're off to Nordstrom in Bellevue Square Mall for a quick 'power lunch', because as we all know, all work and no lunch, makes for a cranky office secretary.

Pay it Forward

Sometimes you do a little something for somebody and don't really expect anything in return. Sometimes you get more than you ever expected. Such is the case with this purse I gave to Elder Touli a couple of months ago. His artwork is legendary, back home, and here in the Mission. I asked him if he could draw a little design on my bag, nothing too big, I told him not to spend too much time on it, because I knew he had more important missionary work to do. He stopped by the office the other day with his companion--and my completed purse. It is spectacular. I will NEVER use it for a purse. It is too special to me. And the artwork is phenomenol. Little acts of service. The little things that add up to big things. A special thanks to our family back home who do these little acts of service each day, so we don't have to worry. We love you!

Issaquah Salmon Days

Talk about an amazing sight--hundreds and hundreds of huge Salmon 'running' upstream to the hatchery in Issaquah. So Amazing, they hold a yearly festival to celebrate the return. Vendor booths lined Front Street, but with prices in the stratosphere, I wasn't tempted to purchase. Even scones were $6 each. ouch. I settled for a $1 bag of kettlecorn, and strolled up Front street enjoying the mass of people, and people with dogs. Tons of artwork, which I would have liked to post some photos of, but they all had signs that said "No photography", so just imagine some really great artwork of pine trees, flowers, eagles, bears, and assorted fish and you get the idea.

I did end up buying a pair of $6 hand-knit slippers from a sweet little old gray-haired lady, who invited me to come to the Kiwanas bazaar next weekend. There were 5 stages with entertainment, including a band who did a decent job of covering the Eagles and America.

The best part? I went up there on my own while Larry went to the Priesthood Broadcast, and I managed not to get lost finding my way back home. Victory!!

Conference Weekend

The Elders of the Bellevue Zone gathered at the Stake Center to watch General Conference together.

L-R:Elders Barton, Ball, Young, Gemmell, Samani, King,Winterton, Wall, Langlois, Allegrezza, Howell, Denna, Sharp, Long, Campbell (kneeling)