Beach Trip

I am going to post some pictures on this page!? Enjoyed our mini-vacation with everyone so much. I was very happy that the rooms and sleeping arrangements were as nice as I had hoped. The surf was great, the food delicious; a special thanks to Jennifer and Janice for cooking, Greyson and Melanie for their company and for their adorable girls to hold , Bernie and Mom for coming up from CA to be part of our end of summer celebration and conversations, the sand digging girls Kalena and Emma, my two surfing granddudes Gabe and Nicholas who showed great concern, sympathy, and hilarity for their whobbly Grandfather, Brian for his usual high energy, thoughtfulness for others, and really great jokes, and Hazel for her help and love of us all. To my wife, Janice, a special thanks for getting me into the water, into my suit, out of trouble, and letting me go to the casino each day.

best coast trip yet?

I had such a good time with you guys, and appreciate the flexibility and help you gave us with our babies. I have a blast with you every time, but this particular trip seemed quite special. Maybe because we have kids of our own to enjoy. I think too Nicholas and Gabe are growing into a couple of witty and intelligent guys, and I really enjoyed hanging with those two this trip. They were making me laugh pretty hard in spite of some pretty banged up ribs (the surf was ruthless). Glad to meet Bernie, and see Ruby while they were there. Grandma faraway, you have it coming in pinnocle. Thought we were a team there until you started ripping on me. The rest of you...as always, a pleasure. Jenn, the food was wonderful, and I cannot thank you, Jan or the grandmothers enough for caring for those babies while mel and I were in some sort of zombie state. Jan and Larry---coast house was beautiful, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with you both there. Congratulations on the winnings!!! Brian, we'll have to catch up on that beer when our two little punks are caught up on milk and sleep. And I'll miss you most of all scarecrow. much love,
G

At Last!! (From Mom/Jan)

I haven't been able to log in in awhile, hence the silence from here.

The Manger family are sure a good lookin' bunch, and that Noah is the cutest of all. So glad you could all be together for awhile.

We are looking forward to our get together at the beach. We are going low-maintenance on the food this year. Grandma Far Away is bringing her taco soup. I have some cookies left over from the reunion, and Dad has requested some potato salad. I may get that made if he gets the eggs and potatoes cooked, and everything cut up. In other words, I would be able to stir it all together. I'm going to pick up some hamburger & buns there so we can barbecue one night. I think Melanie has decided on picking up a lasagna from Costco.

I talked with Traci today and they are moving into a bigger home October 1st. I'll let her tell you the rest of the news plus details.

Work is very busy this week. Lots of people roaming around wanting to catch up after summer break and lots of meetings. Also, my boss's mother has taken a bad turn, so he took off for California yesterday & doesn't expect to be back for in-service week. That means I get to get up in front of 300+ people to welcome them back to work, facilitate intros at the new teacher lunch, and be responsible for the board goal-setting meeting on Wednesday evening. It doesn't have to be wonderful -- I'll be very happy if I just don't do something totally stupid or embarrassing, like trip and fall down or forget the school board chairman's name, etc. There is an endless list of possible mess ups.

Looks like my school is going to get a "strong" rating this year based on last year's performance. The possibilies range from unsatisfactory to low to satisfactory to strong to exceptional, so its like getting a "B" grade -- I'll take it.

Not much else.

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Wonderful birthday and visit with Stephanie's family

Thank-you, Larry, for your happy birthday wishes.. It was definitely the best birthday yet. As I wrote before, Stephanie and her family came for a visit and it was over too soon. Steph was in a wedding of a college friend in Santa Cruz. We visited with cousin Carolyn and her husband at that very unusual home. I will put on pictures of there yard, garden and koi ponds as a separate blog. Hope you get to see their home, someday.

Then we took the kids over to San Francisco, as Nate had not seen the city before. You can imagine how fun this was as Noah is 4 months old and just a delight. Happy from the time he wakes to the time he goes to sleep. And Grandma and Grandpa got lots of good time and babysitting. Michelle couldn't wait for us to get back to Simi Valley so we could all go to Malibu in the RV. She loves being an Auntie and got her own special bonding time with them as Phil and I hosted the over nighter. It was a blast and the Malibu RV site was fantastic.

Steph met with some friends from highschool at one of our parks. Today was even more special as the baby was baptised and also Nate. You can imagine that this was a very wonderful week for this family. So hated to see them go.

Love to all,
Chris

Happy Birthday Chris

Dear Sister,

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful day, Wednesday, August 8th celebrating your ____ birthday. I have been going insane trying to be able to post this greeting since Monday the 6th and today (11th) I figured out how to reset my goggle account and password so that I could post to our SPRAD blog. Anyway................ I hope your husband took you out to dinner, etc. It is the "etc" that is the hardest. I just ask Janice to get something that she wants and forgo mistakes in color, or size, or usefulness, or ........... . Janice, Hazel, and I will be doing the reunion thing again this Sunday. Hope the relatives show up since last year we had a very small turnout. We have reservations to stay Saturday night at the Red Lion Inn in Kelso, but I was not able to swing the deal I did last year thru Priceline.com 50% off "name your own price". The internet site said I was to low and try again in 24 hours. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm , I could just see us with no place to stay for the night prior to the reunion. I worked three days on getting rooms and gave in on the 3rd day and booked at a much higher price than I wanted to.

I have been mowing, weedwhipping and chainsawing at Holley School at my wife's request. Next week I will continue and then pressure wash the entryway and concrete steps. My mower is in the shop again, but when it is fixed I will mow next to the school's fence where the custodian can't access with the district's tractor. She also asked me to chainsaw some more dying trees and remove limbs that get in her way when she is mowing. The burn pile is growing! Well.............. happy birthday again, Chris. Keep on posting!

various stuff

My brother Marty and his wife Janie sent some new gear for the babies. We took this pic for them, and I thought I'd share with you guys.

Other than that, I'm doing work for the port and chamber of commerce for Skamania these days. I will be working on bahma coffee bar's website in the near future.

And I am helping assemble the port of skamania's first official ordinance of conduct for the waterfront property as commissioner. People have been jumping off of the Stevenson Landing pier into dangerously shallow waters, and my particular focus has been on that. we'll start handing out $250 tickets to those that continue to break those rules. I think in my day we did things like that, but now, there is a great invitation for multi-million dollar lawsuits. Helping introduce the CMA concept to the port.

Also, I'd like to put an invitation to the family for a large network game day, as the weather begins to sour. Halo 3 arrives in september, but we have plenty of non xbox 360 options also. We also have a less intense game called bomberman for 4 people at a time, and it's quite fun and simple to play. I'm thinking late september some time, but you guys let me know if/when or if you even want to make it. Pinnochle is always an option as well, and for some of the day, we could keep the louder network Halo games exclusive to the upstairs and weight room location, while people can visit, play cards, and do other lower key things.

Babies first walk

So I decided the babies were big enough to take their first stroll. They are supposed to be 8 weeks according to the stroller manufacturer but I figured with creative swaddling and propping up of the heads that they would be fine. It did feel good to get out of the house and get some exercise. The babies slept the whole time and then continued sleeping in the stroller while I lifted weights and cleaned out our "new" truck. And then I even got some lunch eaten before they woke up.

Greyson and I have been contemplating getting some sort of truck for years now. We decided to finally go for it. A friend was looking to get rid of his '79 Ford truck and the price of $300 was right. It looks like it will just need a few simple cheap fixes and it should be a great vehicle for going to the dump and getting loads of dirt. It has a number of dents but that just makes it an official work truck. Brian is coming over in the morning to work with Greyson to check it over completely.

We will be at the Shull family reunion in just under two weeks to show off our new babies to who ever shows up. And Grandma Shull- I will have the lemonaide.

-Melanie

California News/ The RV has a washer/dryer

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd share a little bit about California Grandma Sharp's new "friend". Phil and I had breakfast with Grandma and Bernie yesterday. Each time we spend time with Bernie we like him better; he's quite a guy. I'm so happy you will get to see Grandma again and meet her friend, yourselves. He is such a gentleman and could't be a nicer man; they are very cute together. His sense of humor and positive outlook on life makes him so fun to be around. He and grandma have taken dancing lessons. I guess he likes to be on the go and has always enjoyed dancing. At first grandma was too embarrased to dance with him and told me " he'll have to take someone else out to dance". Well, that certainly has changed and I don't think there is any chance of him asking another woman out to dance; at least at this time.

They are together everyday and are on the go, constantly. They never miss their Saturday bingo at the senior center and eat out all the time. Grandma's new car was hit while she was grocery shopping and Bernie arranged all the insurance and car rental. Since he used to own an car repair shop, he knew which auto body company that he wanted use and the insurance company agreed.

I feel very comfortable around him and usually say pretty much what I want to say. Yesterday I told him I wanted to give him a compliment and hoped it wouldn't make him uncomfortable. Told him I think Dad/ Grandpa would have liked him a lot. And he replied " from what I hear about him, I think I would have liked him, too". I thought that was a great answer and he didn't seem awkward about. It's important to me to be able to talk about Dad and his life with Mom and his family. Doesn't seem to be a problem at all with Bernie.

Larry, I think you will really like Bernie. I think it can be harder on sons when they see their mother with another man. I know it still feels a littlestrange to me, but mom is so happy and they laugh constantly. Look like two teenagers; I'm a little envious.

So I'll give the space to someone else. I agree, please keep those baby pictures coming. You'll see new ones in a couple weeks, as the Stephanie and Nate will be here with Noah to attend a wedding in Santa Cruz. And we get to babysit; then over to San Francisco, back to Simi; on an overnighter in our RV and Noah's baptism. It is even more special because Stephanie's husband Nate is also getting baptised with the baby. How cool is that?

Love to all,
Chris and Phil