2008 Year in Review

Since this blog is still new, I'd thought I'd post a few pics of what we would have put on the blog had it existed.

In January, we went shooting with the Allens in Caliente. Bullseye!

We also got a kitty and a new car. Please don't ask us to say which one we like better!

OK - Ollie the cat wins, but the car is a very close second ;)

Also in January, during Tony's residency, we discovered two new favorite places: the view from Ecola Park and ...

...the Peter Irendale shipwreck at Fort Stevens.

(Yes, we do love that kitty!)

In February, I got to go down to Vegas for Laura's 16th birthday and to see her in the Green Valley High School production of Beauty and the Beast! Fantastic!

Also in February, Tony was invited to give his first reading. He was the "opening act" for the poet Dorianne Laux at Pacific University. He did a great job!

Over Spring Break in March, Randal and Venice came out for a visit. We met them in Coos Bay and drove out to the New Carissa shipwreck. (They have been dismantling it finally this fall. I don't think it exists there anymore.) We couldn't get too close because of the snowy plovers.

Randal challenged us to a pepper-eating contest ...

Hot!

In April, we drove as far as we could up Mt. Hood. Look at all that snow! We couldn't see the wagon wheel ruts. We also took a drive through Hood River valley. What a beautiful place.

Also in April, Bryan was awarded Business Student of the Year at SUU in Cedar. Tony went down for the occasion. They spent time looking at family history sites in Santa Clara.

And they also hiked out to the temple quarry site near St. George.

In May, I went down to Vegas to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom (and talk to Sis. Suzanne Walton who is coming home in just two months now!!).

In June, Tony and I ventured out to Cape Lookout. We just happened to pick one of the windiest days, but it was so much fun.

Yep, windy and rainy!

Also in June, I was hired at Via Training as an associate instructional designer. I LOVE my new job, and I LOVE Via!

In July, we went up to Seattle to watch the fireworks over Eliot Bay.

Then we went out to Mt. Rainier. But it was so cloudy that day, we couldn't see the mountain.

Still, we got to get a stamp in our National Park Passport book, so the trip was worth it. ;)

In August, Tony's cousin Kimmie got married in Logan. We headed out to Clarkston to see the grave of Martin Harris.

Nice to be in that Utah heat! We start to miss it a bit in the Northwest.

In August, my family came out. We did the hike again at Cape Lookout. Look, no wind this time. (We still had rain, but the pleasant "we're in a temperate rainforest" kind of rain.)

We also enjoyed the view from the Astoria column...

...and a day at the Japanese Gardens.

In September, Tony and I headed to another national park: Olympic. That place is so big. We drove hundreds of miles and we could only get to half of it. It just means we have to go back!

Olympic is home of the Hoh Rain Forest.

And on that trip, we wandered into Twilight country.

The attendant at the Forks Chamber of Commerce set us up with a map of all of the Twilight locations and even told us stories from her tribe that fit right into the books. It reminded us a lot of our trip to Preston, ID right during the height of Napolean Dynamite's popularity.

Here is Tony admiring the view from La Push. That is one of the most beautiful spots on the entire Washington Coast. (And trust us, we did our best to see as much of the WA coast as possible on that trip.)

This fall, we met the wonderful Portland Estonians and joined the Tulehoidjad folk dance team. We LOVE going to practice with them! And we're hoping that everything will work out to go to Tallinn next summer with them for the 2009 U"ldlaulupidu.

In September, we picnicked at the Chapman school to watch the annual flight of the swifts. Can we say Hitchcock-like? (But fascinating!)

In October, my mom came up to Seattle to sing with Gladys Knight and the SUV Choir. We had breakfast at this soul cafe in Seattle ... Mmm!

And then we dropped her off for her sound check. That concert was FABULOUS! We didn't want to leave! They're bringing such an important message.

Tony and I headed down to Tacoma to check out the Museum of Glass. What a fun place.

Here is some of Chihuly's work that is on display there.

In November, Tony finished his THESIS! Here he is dropping it off at the bindery. Yay! He's all done with school after his January residency. (Can't believe it!)

Also in November, we got to meet Kadri-Riin, who came from Estonia to a wedding in Portland. We had a great time getting to know her!

This December, we experienced the most snow Portland has seen in a looong time. Wehoo! Our Christmas trip to Nevada has been a blast, too! (We even had a white Christmas) but we'll get those pictures in soon.

All in all, it's been an eventful year. Can't wait for 2009 ... We know of lots of good things already on their way!

--Leslie

Bury them with my ashes...

Yesterday we went to see Grandma Paul. She gave us books out of her library for Christmas--recycled gifts, she called it--giving me a word finder that my Grandpa Paul had used when he wrote talks and a book on forms from her own poetry-writing days.

As we were talking, she told us a little anecdote. When my Grandparents were packing up their library for their move down to St. George, my Grandma said, "We sure have a lot of books, don't we?"

"Well, there are two things we can do with them," my grandpa answered. "We can give them to Venice's family or you can set them on fire and bury them with my ashes."

NOW I know where I got it from.

Tony

Sad News Just Before Christmas...

Well, on Monday, December 22nd, we got the sad news that Grandpa Buzz had died that morning. After his signs of recovery last week, it was sad to hear. He wants to be buried out at Point Loma in San Diego. So, he will be cremated. We will likely have a memorial service for him in March, after Suzanne returns from her mission in Ohio.

--Leslie

Sajab Lund ... Juba Terve Tund

(Snow is Falling ... for already an hour)

But really, already for a week. This little Estonian children's song has been in my head all week because the snow has been falling on and off since last Sunday. The city of Portland has almost entirely shut down. The schools were closed all weeks, Christmas parties were cancelled. Jurors were told not to show to court. Urgent Cares were closed. And, they even canceled church. Today it has snowed nonstop since the early morning hours. Tonight, Tony and I went for a walk. You can see in this picture how much snow has piled up on our car. Thanks Venice and Randal for those scarves and hats. We've been using them!! Oh, and by the way ... I LOVE snow. I wish it would snow like this more often.

Happy Snow Day!!

--Leslie

Grandpa is Doing Better ...

Here is an update from my dad I received this morning:

Wednesday, Mom called me at work and said that Sandy had called and said if she wanted to say good-bye to her dad that she better get down there on Thursday. So we drove down Thursday morning. When we got to the hospital, he did not look good at all. He was all hooked up with tubes and a ventilator, which was a long large tube that went down his throat all the way to his lungs. He was very weak, but he did seem to recognize Mom, and Sandy said he could understand what people were telling him. After talking to Sandy and asking some questions, we found out he had a very weakened heart, had fluid in his heart and lungs, and may not be able to breathe without the ventilator. Sandy was wondering whether to allow the doctor to remove the respirator because he had filled out papers directing that he not be kept alive by life support. Kathy came down also and Bill came over to the hospital as well. We all thought he was about to die. The hospice lady told us that if they removed the ventilator and he lasted for at least four hours then he could be moved up to the hospice. As Mom20talked to him, I witnessed one of the most tender and touching scenes of my entire life as Mom thanked him in detail for the many things he had done for her when she was growing up and over the course of her life. I still get choked up thinking about it.

At 6 pm, they made us leave so Mom and I and Kathy and Bill all went to Grandma's for dinner. Kathy then flew back to Las Vegas. We were all quite discouraged. After dinner, about 9:45 pm Mom and I went back to see him again, but to our surprise he was much more awake and alert (the difference was like night and day) and he looked all around and tried in the worst way to talk, but that was impossible because of the tubes. We tried to get him to write a message, but his hands were so swollen that he could not hold a pen. We explained to him what had happened and why he was in the hospital and why he had to have the ventilator in his throat. He could answer questions by nodding yes or no. The nurse was very nice and she explained how he had been pretty sedated earlier in the day. She also explained how without the ventilator he may not be able to breathe. We left quite encouraged but confused about how he could breathe.

Friday we went by the hospital before leaving for home. He had just been given more sedation so that they could do a procedure on him. When we finally got to see him, he was asleep and very much unaware of what was going on around him. I was able to give him a priesthood blessing, we said good-bye and then we left for Las Vegas. We did not really hear much mor e until later on Friday when Mom talked to Sandy and she said the doctor was surprised but he was improving remarkably. On Saturday, they took out the ventilator and he was breathing on his own. Today we heard that he is still too weak to talk, but that he is still being cared for by the doctors and nurses and has not yet been transferred to the hospice. For now, we are cautiously optimistic that he will continue to improve and we are hoping that he can talk soon.

--Leslie

Some of My Favorite Memories of Grandpa

Last Saturday, my grandpa had a stroke. He has been in and out of the hospital a couple of times this year with heart trouble, which has been strange because he's hardly been sick a day in his 91 years on the earth. In fact, he is so fit that he has gone to the gym almost everyday of his life, even this last year.

Right now, he is in the intensive care unit at a hospital in San Diego. The doctors are saying that he won't be coming home. Today, my mom and dad drove back to see him (they were there just two weeks ago for Thanksgiving) to say their goodbyes. Just the thought of that trip made me so sad thinking about it last night. I don't relish the day that I go to say goodbye to my parents. [The thought of having a memorial service without Suzanne also makes me very sad tonight.]

My grandpa is a World War II vet. (On Sunday, they said on the news that 1000 WWII vets die everyday. I thought of him right away. This was before I even knew about his stroke. It was a strange way to foreshadow the events of this week.) He was on the USS Nautilus during the Battle of Midway. He was a radioman, listening to the sonar when the battle began. In 2007, the Navy brought him to Washington, DC, to honor his service. He said that he was just doing his job.

Later in life, he honed his art skills. He took as many classes in art that he could find in San Diego. For many years, he and his wife, Sandy, would spend about half of every year travelling in Europe and Asia and Africa. He would bring his camera and take the most amazing pictures of people and the sights.

He would come home and create artwork of the things he had photographed. Every spot of practically every wall of his house was filled with his creations, all of them unique...quite the collection after years and years of painting. [We also always loved about his house the feature that the radio was tied into the light switch in the bathroom. Turn on the light and you get your music ... gotta have your tunes. :) ]

He was a great example of learning. He always loved to learn. He spent years of his life taking classes at the community college. He even took Calculus because he had always wanted to know how to do it (even though it took him a couple of tries). And, he loved crossword puzzles. I have many recollections of him working on the New York Times puzzle with his felt-tip pen and trusty crossword dictionary book.

If you were really lucky, every once in a while you would receive a type-written letter detailing some aspect of his family history or a trip he'd been on or a note of congratulations. I believe every Republican in the White House received some of those letters, too. The first George Bush even wrote him back. My grandpa framed the response and hung it on his wall next to all of his art.

There were always a couple of constants with Grandpa:

1. He loved to tell the stories of his life. He had had some interesting voyages with all of his travels. (I especially liked the one about bumping into Ernest Hemingway.) He loved to entertain a group of people with his adventures.


2. He always had a black cat named Inky. I don't know how many hundreds of cats he's had in the role of Inky, but the number has got to be up there.


3. That blue shirt ... no matter the year, he always looked the same ... jet-black hair and that blue shirt. Hah!

The world is going to be a darker place without you in it. We'll miss you, Grandpa. Here is a video with all of us singing happy birthday for his 90th. He gives his own wish for all of us. I'm the voice behind the camera.




--Leslie

Resurrecting the Blog

A couple of years ago, Tony and I tried to get both of our families to keep a family blog. It was fun, and we enjoyed posting our adventures there. Unfortunately, time passed and those blogs have faded into the background.

Over Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago, we had the real pleasure of meeting Kadri-Riin from Estonia. She was here to celebrate the wedding of one of her missionaries, Courtney Silvester. Kadri-Riin shared her blog with us, and it has caused a great deal of excitement with us again about blogging. So, we decided to try the blog again--but this time, we decided to create one just for us. If we're diligent here and it is enjoyable, we may bring our highlights out into the Allen and Walton family blogs to try to resurrect those, too. We salute you, Kadri-Riin. Thanks for the wonderful idea.

--Leslie