Carol's 74th

Carol's parents were excellent long range planners. We decided to come to Seaside to celebrate her birthday and the weather is absolutely beautiful.
We drove down on highway 30 coming through Astoria. There we found the greatest little place to eat where I got the best oyster stew I have eaten in years. Of course, it is the only oyster stew I have had in years. But it really was good. Lots of big pieces of oysters and not loaded down with lots of potatoes.Carol wasn't interested and had a burger.
Our hotel it a timeshare apartment--very reasonable--very nice.
So here's to Ray and Mary Simmons producers of the greatest woman and even on a sunny day at the beach.

Backing away from facebook

Janelle's comment in a recent blog made me realize a frustration I have been having over all the emails, blogs and facebooks--and now Twitter..I can't keep up with it all.

I have decided that I won't be very active on facebook. If someone sends me a message

through facebook I will be able to answer, but as for those comments on"Robert is....."

I won't be entering that much. About three reasons:

1. I am not that much of a public person eager to let my extended world know what I am about.

2. It is too time consuming-although interesting.

3. I would rather devote time here where mostly only family and close friends will know what I am doing and thinking. Just saying..

Another picture from last week---Carol and great grandaughter Geneva

... and Culture

After weeks of inactivity on this blog. Life has become full. Marty and Nikki gave us a wonderful Christmas present this year. It was tickets for two-right down front- for a concert with Itzak Perlman where he both played and conducted.. Now we don't go many concerts, much less down front but last night was a treat. From Jazz one week to symphony the next.
We were close enough to see the expressions on his face. What a sight to see this man who painfully drags himself to the podium because his legs have been weakened and twisted with polio and see and hear this genius of the violin perform.

Now to be totally honest here, I enjoyed the jazz last week-its more my style. But I wouldn't have missed last night for anything. I not only enjoyed, but I marvelled at the gift of creativity God has given us in the wonder of music and human beings gifted to compose and play that music. Perlman has overcome much to use and honor the one who gave him that gift. Carol and I both noticed that before every number whether playing or conducting, Perlman bowed his head and closed his eyes. I wonder....

.....Jazz

Carol and I really get into this Jazz festival thing. Which is not that surprising that I do since I played sax and clarinet in college.
But Carol wanted to take in as much as possible also. We went to concerts, adjudications, including 5 performances of our mk friend Jonathon Tobin. We also saw some outstanding perfomances by some famous well known musicians. probably the highlight for many was a perfomance by Bobby Mcfarrin of Don't Worry be Happy. His vocal performance was outstanding


Our grandparental buttons flew off our chests when Morgan performed. He had one guitar solo which electrified the place. No kidding he is awesome. The crowd was roaring it's approval. It was the highlight performance for us.







Here are a couple more pictures. Adam and Jaime with Carol and Morgan and Mason. Mason is doing great in school and
has many friends and is active in Campus ministries. Adam has a new job computer programing and loves it.

Birthdays and.......

We had a greaat time in Moscow and the University of Idaho last week. We celebrated Jaime's and Morgan's birthdays.
It was a great family time as we also went to a lot of the festival events together. Morgan's girlfriend and her family were with us on
some of those occasions as well.

We stayed with Adam and Jaime, enjoyed their little girl (our great granddaughter), as well as Scott who came down from Alaska to see his boys and hear Morgan perform. FUN Times.

First the Snow and then the Blow

As you can tell by this picture out our window, we live in a park-like setting. Quite unusual for most condo settings. It does have its downsides occasionally. Like in the recent once-in-forty years snowstorm. The roads in this complex were almost impassable.
Then came the winds last week. It tore off roofing of quite a few units. Some need replacing like below. Ours needs repairing.

The worst was the damage to the beautiful trees that make our grace our properties. Quite a few were destroyed. In fact trees around our area suffered great damage. At nearby Mt. Hood College they had $100,000 damage to their campus trees
The tree above was left standing but had to be taken down due to it's danger of falling. It was a magnificent fir tree that swayed so had in the wind that a passing tree specialist stopped by to warn us. I went with him to see this tree sway so hard in the wind that the root system actually breathed and broke the soil around it while the gusts came. The residents in unit below had to leave for a couple of days. When the wind died down we had to have it taken down.
A reminder: We can look great and seem to have it altogether but if our roots are not anchored in God's truth, winds of adversity will destroy us.
Psalms 1

Canada Again! and another wedding

Carol and I spent a few days in BC in Canada after being up there less than two weeks ago. At least the roads were more driveable than last time. We went to a wedding of a son of a dear missionary friend. Alice (above) was able to attend from Ontario. We were so concerned about her since she has had severe seizures for the last two years. She was able to function and enjoy her son's wedding. Her husband Rick could not attend due to Dr orders not to travel with and inner ear infection. We prayed that Alice could make it but forgot to pray for Rick!!

Alex married a high school friend. A lovely couple.

The piper played as the couple left the ceremony and to bring them into the reception.