The Eucker Family

2011-03-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's wonderful to have Ruthann with me after 6 weeks on my own. We have enjoyed relatively warmer weather since she arrived. The Sunday before while talking on the phone with Mom I went outside to enjoy the sun on the snow (and to get better reception on my cell phone) and I had to run back inside to grab my camera.

I am beginning to appreciate why Eskimos have so many words for snow. There are several things that I have not seen before where I lack the vocabulary to describe. One of the more spectacular (at least to me) is how snow accumulates in quantity and the effects that has on the scene. I noticed the effect of plowed snow in creating what I call "glaciers" since the have such a harsh and tumbled texture ... and of course in my previous experience that would be the end of the snow since it would warm up and the pile would melt.

But what happens when more snow falls, not just a little, and not just once but repeatedly? With the sun adding it's effect, I call these "snow dunes."

The pristine and gentle slopes of fresh fallen snow with the sun highlighting the contours is really an unusual scene for those of us from more moderate climates. And of course the variations in lighting and color are really interesting with the sun setting.

I especially liked the sun through the trees and the variations in color and texture of the snow in this shot

2011-02-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

OK, so we are having one of the more snow filled winters than in some time. Great time to move to New York!

View from my door - you can see my solitary footprints.

The big storm that cut across the north U.S. left us with about another foot of fresh snow. As you can see by the shots around my temporary apartment it has been piling up.

Apartment front

Cleared sidewalk that shows the buildup of plowed snow

Great fun four-wheeling!

Snow in New York!

2011-01-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

So by the end of my first week I had a number of exciting things happen: it snowed, my first box arrived, my pickup was delivered and we sold our house! Pretty eventful week.

Here is the view on Saturday morning of the apartments in the snow ...

New York

2011-01-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

Well, so we don't have the pictures from the great time at Christmas in Washington where Grandma, Grandpa and Alyssa got to have Christmas morning with the Howells and then had the whole family together the following Sunday ... since the picture drive is in a box in transit ...

Speaking of transit ... I am now blogging from Saratoga Springs, New York!

The Saratoga Ward building

I arrived in the evening of New Year's day and then after a late night shopping and unpacking I spent my first Sunday at the Saratoga Ward.

Here are some shots from downtown Saratoga Springs on a bright and relatively warm (low 40's) January day.

And then the apartment complex where I am living temporarily - "The Paddocks" is nestled in the country just northeast of the town ...

View of "The Paddocks" from the entrance

The clubhouse

Building 13 where I have a upper story apartment

Kitchen / Dinette view from living room

Living room view from dinette

Master bedroom

It is quite a spacious 2 bedroom when I was expecting a small 1 bedroom.

Anyone want to come for a visit? I've got the room!

Pullman Trip - November 2010

2010-11-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in Pullman the first week in November for an early celebration of Ben's 4th birthday!

We had an interview trip to New York that pre-empted our previous plans to join in the celebration the following week on his actual birthday (November 11th) but this gave him the opportunity to extend the birthday partying for over a week instead!

Grandpaparatzi had fun capturing the grandkids!

Aren't they adorable!

GC 2010 - Day 4

2010-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was a much more subdued day with our usual morning breakfast routine and after a leisurely morning the girls enjoyed cookie making after lunch.

Lydia enjoyed helping scoop out the cookie dough onto the pan ...

While Ellie suffered with my favorite role - cleaning those nasty mixer tines. (someone has to do it!)

They both had a good time frosting the centers.

Notice Lydia's new dragon skin cape ... she loves it!

After Alyssa came home in the afternoon we went to Rose City Ceramics to work on some ceramic projects.

Ellie finished her tile painting early and so she and Grandpa decided to walk to Pirate Park ahead of the others. Only it was a warm afternoon and the walk (about a mile) was a bit longer than we thought. The girls picked us up before we arrived at the park. Ellie is quite the hiker! I was nearly out of breath keeping up with her.

After hamburgers and corn on the cob we watched Princess Diaries 2 and found that another day at Grandma Camp 2010 had wound down (and so had we).

GC 2010 - Day 3

2010-07-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, another bright and early morning with the standard omelet and french toast breakfasts ...

The day was sunny and bright yet still nice and cool, so we embarked on a bike ride to Pirate Park.

and then on to Great Grandma Schutz's where they consumed mass quantities of Root Beer ...

They were very thirsty after all.

Quite a ride for little legs. (7 miles to Great Grandmas via Pirate Park)

Ellie of course, peddled more than any of us. While she was frustrated with Grandma and Lydia pulling away from she and Grandpa, Ellie kept pushing along and did a great job on a very grownup ride.

After peddling up the hill back to Grandma's house the girls were deserving of the cooling off that came from the Oak Hills pool.

We cooled down quite nicely and then enjoyed a relaxing indoor picnic upstairs in our home theatre watching the Princess Bride ...

and a relatively early bedtime to recover from a more physical day 3 at Grandma Camp 2010.

GC 2010 - Day 2

2010-07-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

The day began with Lydia up and pacing the house waiting for time to pass so that we could go to Powells book store. She reported having dreams about going there and woke at first light and could not go back to sleep. So it was just Lydia and Grandpa for first breakfast of omelets which she devoured. An hour later second breakfast for Ellie (French Toast encore) was equally enjoyed and then the older girls arose and we were finally off to Powells.

The enthusiasm for the destination was contagious!

And, I have more shots of Ellie once again since Lydia was less of a model ...

The girls (all of them) had a great time checking out the possibilities and were tickled with their choices.

We really expected to be there longer but there was some intense decision-making in a short period of time and then they were anxious to enjoy their purchases...

On the way back from Powells we watched as a pigeon played chicken with MAX. You can see the small blurred spec on the tracks in front of the train (on the right) ... fortunately the bird was experienced enough to fly away just in front of the train and avoid becoming a lasting impression of our time together.

With the new books in hand the next step was to make some cool bookmarks...

And of course, read ...

For FHE later after dinner, we read the history of the Star Spangled Banner and watched School House Rock stories of the history of our country and what Independence Day was all about.

We had a reading party until dark.

And then we enjoyed the fireworks.

The sparklers were a hit.

I found some really interesting and fun effects of the dark and slow shutter speeds ...

Another fun day at GC 2010!

GC 2010

2010-07-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Grandma Camp 2010 has arrived!

Lydia and Ellie were really excited about the opportunity to spend another short week with Grandma Eucker. We drove home Saturday night after celebrating Ellie's birthday and pretty much went to bed after talking about books with Auntie Alyssa for awhile, although Ellie had to practically beg to go to bed.

The next morning we started our morning pretty gradually, with the girls up at around 6:30 am

Lydia doing some reading ...

and Ellie in the play area ...

After a french toast breakfast for the one non-fasting person we got ready and went off to Church.

After Church it was time to ...

Read ...

[notice the slightly blue lips ... that was from the blue sucker that Ellie's teacher gave her during Primary ...]

And play games ... (in this case Clue)

After a short game where Grandma inserted a character and two weapons (no room) in the final clue envelope ...

it was time for a fun craft!

(or at least the first steps - more to follow tomorrow).

After Ellie finished decorating her washers, she naturally ....

Got back to her book ...

Then it was time to prepare dinner.

That blur on Grandma's left is Lydia trying to move out of the picture before her Grandpoparatzi can get the shot ...

This will be sort of a pattern throughout the imagemaking process ...

Along with Ellie reading ... in this case she was enamored with the Church News ...

Then it was time for treat making ...

Where Lydia tried her hand at the hand mixer ... while also trying to avoid Grandpoparatzi ...

Quite the challenge. Even for a well trained image avoider like Lydia ...

Before the treats were finished we got to join in with the weekly Skype session with the Pulman Euckers ...

The girls were a great help in showing cousin Ben the toys ...

But the real treat was to see how much Emma had grown!

The finale of the evening was to watch Saturday's Warrior ...

only the old video cassette had seen too many playings over too many years in what has become an archaic technology.

So they listened to the audio CD while painting their nails ...

And that wound down the first day of GC 2010!

Stay tuned!

South Africa

2010-05-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Now that I am semi-recovered from the travel I am able to post some of the pictures from my time in South Africa. First of all, most of us in the U.S. know very little about Africa and many have expected that in my journey to the farmland south of Johannesburg that I might see wildlife and that the terrain might be similar to what we have come to know through movies. Well, the South Africans laugh at our misconceptions ... as you can see the scenery is very much as you might see in California...

On the left is a beautiful bay on the east coast just south of Durban on our road trip to Kokstad.

The trip showed quite a range of beautiful countryside and farmland as shown on the right.

And as you can see here on the left some mountains and gorgeous views.

There are even a fair number of forests that are harvested for paper. We passed mills and log camps along the way. We could have been in Oregon!

Here is a common homestead that make up the "villages" although they vary considerably from very well built tile roofs and stucco to thatch roofs and mud walls.

Here is Willowdale Lodge, the bed and breakfast where we stayed - a 140 year old ranch house.

OK ... so there were some interesting creatures such as this Orb spider. They were all over the grounds of the lodge.

Here is an image so that you get a feeling for the size of this little wildlife specimen ...

Some of the most compelling scenes occurred in the morning from the front of the Lodge ...

It was a beautiful place and a very enlightening experience.

Orlando 2010

2010-03-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Florida this past week! Tom had a conference to attend while Ruthann and Alyssa played at Universal Studios ...

Of course they posed especially for this photo.

We had a lot of fun on the various coaster rides at SeaWorld ...

And also at Busch Gardens ...

Tom was very pleased with the new zoom lens for his camera as he captured some decent shots of the dolphins and killer whales from the stands at SeaWorld.

We had a great time there in sunny Florida!

Surprise Snow!

2009-12-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

We were definitely surprised by the accumulation of snow today!

December with the Howells 2009

2009-12-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed a visit from Rachael, Lydia, Ellie, Carver & Grace this month.

Christmas Cookie decorating was one of the fun activities that were enjoyed.

Grandma also helped Lydia and Ellie make quilts

The kids got a chance to visit Santa

We also enjoyed a tour of the Christmas displays at Portland International Raceway

Next week ... Pullman!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

We have had a mild and wet fall, and while the leaf season was mediocre we did have some nice color.

Ruthann demonstrated her jungle decorating skills for the pack meeting in October

Alyssa enjoyed her 24th birthday!

We had an enjoyable Turkey Day in Dallas with the Bowmans

And we completed our traditional decorating tasks on Black Friday!

Fall has come!

2009-11-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

So while it has been some time since the last posting, much has been happening in our lives.

Leah and Ben came to visit in September for a few days. Of course aside from the Cozy Coupe we enjoyed the Zoo ...

And as always, the highlight had to be the ride on the zoo train ...

We really enjoyed having the time with Leah and Ben while the summer lingered and look forward to Ruthann and Alyssa's visit to Pulman for Ben's birthday.

Speaking of birthdays we had a good time with the Howells for Carver's 4th Birthday ...

Carver had a group of friends join in birthday party fun including painting little cars, duck-duck-goose, london bridges, and of course enjoying birthday cupcakes!

Clearly Carver's favorite gift was his power tool set. He was very safety conscious. He wore the goggles regularly and loved playing with the various toy power tools - just like daddy!

We also had a chance to watch Lydia's soccer match in the beautiful autumn sunshine ...

We have been enjoying the color of the season!

And hope you have too!

Grandma Camp - Day 4

2009-08-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

The morning began with German pancakes for Lydia and Grandpa while Ellie scarfed down some Reeses Puffs and went off to draw.

After breakfast it was Lydia and Grandma's turn to draw some too ...

Then it was sewing time!

The girls had requested capes, and so while Grandma worked on Lydia's black cape, the little monkeys were a bit restless swinging from the posts ...

So Grandpa loaded Kit Kitridge: An American Girl to tame the restless wildlife ...

As soon as the first cape was done it was worn and the drawing boards came back out for the duration of the movie, while Grandma sewed ...

And sewed ....

While the girls watched and drew ...

Until Auntie came home and then it was time for divide and conquer!

Ellie and Grandma enjoyed a tea party ...

While Lydia and Auntie worked on Origami ...

After dinner we had a visit with our home teachers and the girls showed their magical talent, then we ran off to $1 scoop night at B&R.

After warm baths we settled in with story reading by Grandma ...

While coloring with the special Auntie drawings continued ...

Thus ending another full day at Grandma Camp ...

Grandma Camp - Day 3

2009-08-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Monday morning began with gradual waking up of Ellie followed shortly by Lydia and then Grandma. The first activity of the day was to decorate the drawing boards.

The results:

It was then time to pick a movie for the lunch time theatre ...

After some debate it was "Molly - An American Girl on the Home Front" that was selected and the girls enjoyed lunch and a movie before we headed off to Pirate Park!

After some preliminaries ...

The focus then became the sand holes and Grandma helped to create a tunnel ...

that when water was poured into the the channel it emptied into the hole via a waterfall!

The day was so nice and warm that we then changed into swimming suits and enjoyed some time in the fountains at Bethany Village ...

After cooling off at the fountain we returned to Grandma's for some drawing time and then it was off to find the dinner movie - "The Wizard of Oz" After some search we found a copy in Beaverton and then order our Papa John's Pizza and sat down to our Pizza and a Movie party ...

After the movie we spent some more time drawing ...

before going to bed and ending another fun filled day at Grandma Camp '09!

Grandma Camp - Day 2

2009-08-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday at Grandma Camp is of course much more subdued. Sleeping in until 8:00 am and a biscuit and eggs breakfast to start the day. We had an enjoyable time at the Skyline Ward, sitting with Grandma and Auntie Alyssa in Sacrament meeting while Grandpa conducted. Then primary for Lydia with Auntie Alyssa as one of her teachers and Ellie off to meet new friends in her class. After the block it was time to bake some cookies while waiting for Grandpa to come home. After a nice big Sunday dinner of pork roast and mashed potatoes it was game time!

While Mousetrap has a compelling apparatus it lacks an interesting game play, so it was fun to set up but not really to play ... although it served the purpose of distraction while Grandpa finished the dishes prior to excursion to Great Grandma's for beading with the Great Aunties!

A highlight for Ellie was that the Aunties had scored several dresses at a garage sale that happened to be Ellie's size and a spontaneous fashion show erupted ...

And Grandpa learned that a fashion show with Ellie is more like a sporting event that a portrait sitting in terms of the camera work ... far more movement than I had anticipated (note the many blurred body parts and bodies)

Then it was time to be creative in the making of beaded jewelry ...

While Ellie was the first to be done, Lydia was also ready to wrap up long before Grandma and the Auntie Joannie had re-organized the beading supplies and we were ready to return home to Grandma's house and beds.

Another fun day at Grandma Camp 2009!

Grandma Camp - Day 1

2009-08-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

Lydia and Ellie joined us on Saturday morning at the VF outlet in Centralia Washington to begin Grandma Camp 09. We had a brief farewell to Mom and then after a pit stop to visit the restrooms and load up on snacks, we hit the road south back to Beaverton.

First on the agenda was to pick up Auntie Alyssa and then head straight to the Sunset Transit center to pick up the MAX into Portland ...

Then we transferred to the Streetcar ...

And soon found ourselves in biblioheaven!

Also known as the Rose Room in Powell's Bookstore home of the largest selection of children's and young adult books in our known world... Of course the challenge was - how many books can $15.00 buy?!!

Mission accomplished after much deliberation and debate ...

The purchases were made and we were back on the streets of Portland ...

A return trip on MAX ...

And then ... the resolve - the sun shall not set on any coinage remaining in the purses!!!

Another stop at the Bethany toy store to again engage in the battle of the balance ... what can I get for the remaining money?!

Whew! mischief managed ... and then on to Grandmothers house we go to enjoy the purchases while waiting for dinner to be prepared.

After dinner there was just enough time to decorate handbags ...

Before a bubble bath in the big tub ...

Then settling down to an American Girl flick with Grandma ...

Quite a full day!

Eucker Family Reunion

2009-08-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

We all gathered at our home in Beaverton as a family in August to enjoy some time together and to have some fun with Family Olympics ...

We first spent some time at the Portland Zoo ...

and especially enjoyed the Zoo Train ...

to Washington Park where we played ...