Uncle Lester's Funeral Weekend

I flew down and back on Allegiant Air on the same flights with Lori and Ethan
on Thursday, Aug. 21, for Uncle Lester's funeral.

Mom, Coleman, Karen and Ruthie picked us up at the Clearwater airport Thursday afternoon, and then took us to John's Pass. We enjoyed watching dolphins in the channel.

Ethan just turned one this month and is one busy and happy little guy. He's especially happy when he's "in control" it appears.

I replaced the sandals I had stolen on our cruise this summer. I took Randy's advice and bought TWO pairs of the Pali Hawaii sandals - I'm ready for the next thief!

Uncle Lester would have been 84 in September. He died on August 16 in the nursing home where he'd been for the last 4 years in Zephyrhills. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1998. We reminisced about our many memories of great times with him throughout the weekend. The funeral was Sabbath afternoon at the East Pasco church. I enjoyed helping Karen put together a PowerPoint slide show Friday morning that was shown at the funeral of highlights of his life. She had scanned about 160 pictures that we included in the 82 slides.

There was a dinner at the church afterwards Sabbath evening where we enjoyed visiting with a lot of family.

Karen and Auntie Cork

There's nothing like family being together at a time like this.
"Family lifts our spirits and sticks with us when times are tough."
We know we'll see Uncle Lester again soon when Jesus comes.

Aug. 17 Tubing Fun

We took five of our students out boating a couple weeks ago on Sunday morning, Aug. 17 ~ Molly, Michael, Hannah, Brooke & Elizabeth. There were lots of other boats out so we stuck to mostly tubing.

Where's Molly?!?

Here we go again. . .

The waves overtake Brooke in the video below.

Let's see now - it's Brooke and Elizabeth's turn!

And they survived to tell about it.

Look at the air two of these tubers catch on the end of the spin.

Woops - 2 more tubers bite the dust, or was it swallow the lake!

Bump! Woops. . .

Another disappearing act in the video below. . .

Rollin' on the water

A Visit from Anne, Jess, Heather & Jake

Anne and her three cherubs came to spend our last 5 days of summer vacation with us. What a blast we had. Even though their first afternoon hopes of boating were rained out, we still got to enjoy two trips to the lake.

They enjoyed watching Ryan jump the wake, and then it was their turn to jump in.

All 3 kids got up on the kneeboard like there was nothing to it! We were so impressed.

Anne got into the action when we brought out the tubes. Looks like fun!

Friday we got up at 6:30 to drive to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC for the day.

Anne and I especially enjoyed the gardens. They were so much more filled out and full of flowers than the middle of June when we were there - when we bought our pass for a year.

Jake was intent on catching butterflies while the girls, Anne and I went through the greenhouse. Randy told him he'd give him a penny for each one he caught - so he was hot on their trail and here's one prize catch.

Sabbath we went to Sabbath School and church and enjoyed staying cool inside in the afternoon. Anne, Jessica and I played Bible Mystery Museum (similar to Clue).

It was croquet time Saturday evening for some, mosquito swatting and picture time for others.


Sunday we got back out on the boat for some tubing fun. It was busy with more boats out than Thursday so tubing was the name of the game for the kids and Anne.


Picture time before Ryan and Carrie left to drive the Budget truck of more wedding gifts, their new bedroom and dining room furniture, and Ryan's belongings to Portland.


Jaclyn enjoyed coming out with us too - her first time since July 4. So this makes just 6 times out on the boat this season for us. How pathetic!