Fall 2010

This fall has brought many changes to my family. Kimberly and the girls have come to live with Kevin and I. We are thrilled but it has been a difficult transition for them to go from a huge beautiful house to my small cramped little rooms but they are doing it with grace and patience. I love having them here. It is fun reading the stories that Jordan writes and watching Torrin learn so quickly. I admire the strength that Kimberly has shown her daughters as they make the most of every day.

Torrin is a goof ball. She has her own unique style.

Halloween was fun with the girls.

One day I came downstairs to this. Torrin did a pretty good job except for the red scalp from where she rammed the clippers into Kevin's head.

Kevin love hanging out with the girls. Here is making ice cream with Jordan and Torrin.

Crystal and Jayson concluded their Hungarian adventure and moved home to Maple Valley. Crystal made the journey home with the two boys and dogs in the first week of November. Jayson followed a couple of weeks later. They returned to their home which Kimberly and her girls had been taking care of while they were gone. We are all very glad to have Crystal, Jayson, Jacob, and Carson home.

Jacob talked about going on Grandpa's tractor while he was in Hungary and was thrilled to get to see it in person.

When Crystal first got home I got to baby sit when she went to her first day at her new job here in Renton. Carson is an angel. He is all smiles and sweetness.

Celebrating Davey

David Christopher O'Keefe

60 years ago on October 2, 1950 my big brother Davey was born. He was named after my father David Patrick O'Keefe and grown to be as kind and gentle a man as my father was. We grew up calling my brother Davey and never stopped.

This is a picture of Davey letting Torrin climb all over him. He is a very patient man.

Paula gave Davey a party at 88 Keys piano bar in Seattle last night. Maggi and Colleen were there lighting up the place with their brilliant smiles.

Jimmy and Jan came over the mountains to help celebrate with Davey. Jimmy looks a little sleepy here. He had a rough day. He tripped an bonked his head and knocked himself a little dingy. He recovered and went to the party with us.

Here are Jan and I having fun drinking beer.

Lee and Kevin were hauled up on stage to dance. Kevin is doing an Elvis routine here. He was one sexy man up there. Lee was hilarious with his very animated dancing.

Paula and Davey.

Quinn and her Dad.

Happy birthday big brother! I love you.

Vacation in Central Oregon

Kevin and I spent last week in Central Oregon at Eagle Crest Resort. It was a very relaxing vacation. The weather was not always the best but at least we were not at work!

We started the week with golf at Juniper golf course in Redmond. It had lightning fast greens.

Monday was a wash-out with rain all day. Tuesday we golfed at Widgi Creek in Bend. There were some great views of the mountains and deep crevasses.

On Wednesday we played at Tetherow. It was quite an experience.

They had a caddy for us which was good thing because there were some blind shots and the greens were ridiculously hilly. I like having a caddy. He would hand me my clubs and take them when I was done. As it should be.

Thursday was spent doing something other than golf. We went to Lava Butte and Benham Falls. It was very beautiful. We learned all about the volcanos in Washington and Oregon.

The hike to Benham Falls was beautiful along the river. The only problem was with the massive amount of mosquitos that ate us alive on the way back.

Friday we golfed our last round at Aspen Lakes. I think I like that course the best. Our time in the condo was spent doing Kevin's homework for his online class and a little painting for me. It was fun just hanging out with Kevin for a week but now we have to head back to work.

Weekend at Chelan

Last weekend I went to Lake Chelan to visit with Maggi, Jan, Colleen, David, Steffan, and Colleen's girlfriend Morgan. It was a very relaxing weekend full of fun and humor. I really enjoyed getting to know Maggi's children better. They are very cool kids who are genuinely kind and respectful. Maggi, Jan and I went golfing at Bear Mountain Ranch. I was a little nervous because it is a challenging course and Maggi and Jan had never played on a real 18 hole golf course. They did fine. In fact Maggi managed to start and finish with the same ball. That is remarkable!

Maggi, always the fashion horse. She was wearing a black bra under her shear white shirt.

Maggi was playing with her new Callaway golf clubs. She has been bitten by the golf bug.

Jan was using my old clubs. They were so bad I made her use my clubs which are not all that great but they are better than those old dogs she was using.

Jan and I were in more trouble than Maggi ever was. Of course there are no pictures of me searching the weeds for my ball or scooping it out of the water.

This is the rare moment when the kids were unplugged from their electronic devices and were playing an old fashioned board game.

Colleen was leaving for WSU on Sunday and was a little nervous about the logistics of registering for classes and rush. This is Colleen talking with her Karl and his wife Suzie.

Colleen was showing Maggi and Steffan how to do the Slide. It is a little like the Hustle.

Halleluiah!

Sunday arrived and Maggi, Jan, Colleen, Morgan, and David all left to drive Colleen to Pullman. They had an adventure getting there but managed to safely drop her off and get her situated. She is going love going to WSU.

Davey's Beach House

Last weekend the girls and I went to Davey's beach house on Hood Canal. We spent the weekend with Davey, Paula and Quinn just hanging out wondering if the sun would ever come out. It never got very warm but the girls had fun any way looking for shells and sand dollars.

This is Davey's beach house. He uses the row boat to get out to his motor boat anchored out in the water.

Jordan hoping for a boat ride.

On Saturday we went to a community event that had local artists, food and fun things for the kids to make. The girls painted wooden snakes, decorated visors, had their faces painted, and made wooden boats.

Torrin lovin' on Davey with Quinn and Paula

Here is Jordan getting help with her wooden boat.

Here are the finished products.

Torrin couldn't wait to try out her boat. She found it worked better without the "flag".

Later we went for a boat ride.

After any exciting day of beach combing, boat building, and boat rides the girls watched movies on these tiny little DVD players.

The Bee (Hornet) Story

This weekend we went on a bee hunt, well hornet hunt. Kevin and I just had a discussion about whether it was a hornet or a wasp. Apparently a hornet is a type of wasp. So we were both right. Jordan and Torrin had spotted a gigantic paper wasp (hornet) nest hanging from the shop eves a few days ago when they were in the hot tub.

This is the nest.

First Kevin attacked the nest with a cheap can of wasp spray. Then he decided to really piss them off and squirted them with the pressure washer. It knocked down the paper outer structure and dislodged a couple layers of the honeycomb with lots of cells for new hornets.

Here is one of the layers still attached.

This is a close up of one of the layers that fell off. It had hornets in different stages of development. The empty cells in the center had been vacated by mature hornets. The white bubbles are cocoons with wiggly hornets in them. On the out edges are the hornet larvae that have not made cocoons yet. We extracted one of the cocoons with a wiggly hornet from a cell.

Close up of the cocoon with wiggly hornet.

We decided to set this hornet free so we cut open his cocoon. It was made of pretty tough stuff so it took some effort to open an end for the hornet to escape.

Here is the hornet crawling out of his cocoon.

After a difficult C-section, Kevin and I gave birth to a hornet. It stumbled around for a while then we lost interest and went in the house. I was planning on showing the girls the rest of the layer with cocoons but a wild animal stole the hornet hatchery during the night. And so ends the bee (hornet) story.

As a side note we did find two other nests but they were last years models and had long since been vacated.