So the one other thing I failed to mention is the other lovely lady of note in the baby blessing pictures is our favorite Erica with a darn cute hat! It was fun to be with you all that evening!

So here we are with the rest of these beautiful baby pics, the proud parents, four generations with Grandmas Lynn and Julie and Grandpa and Grandma Shaw. Oh and Aunt Katie was back on those earlier shots.

So the Snow Geese, stop in Delta Utah to eat, on their way back to Alaska, after flying all those miles from "down south." My Sister Ann, Randy and I were up at the crack of dawn to see them before the hunters did, but everywhere we went it was "birds down!" Randy said he thought they looked like white garbage bags but Ann and I weren't so sure. They all looked like goners to us but after our breakfast burrito and nothing but slow moving fields of birds we came across a couple of out of town game wardens, there to help maintain the safety and peace of Delta what with all those orange vested hunters on the loose! They informed us that they (the hunters) hadn't been getting anything that morning because the wiley Snow Geese are so hard to shoot. When we asked about the field after field of dead geese we had been passing all morning they kindly told us, after a good LOL that those were white plastic garbage bags, (yes Randy!) which ARE the hunters DECOYS and that we'd have to delete all those pictures from our cameras we'd been taking earlier. We finally caught up with the live ones at the resevoir and there were over 1,000 beautiful white geese, honking their hearts out. It was a fun adventure and we'd recommend the hotel, the breakfast burrito and the local guide next February! I'm too tired out to tell you about the Tundra Swan adventure last week. Maybe Katie and Brandon or Kirk and Joy would be so kind! xoxo Randy and Joan

Birds and Babies

This winter has found Joan gone to the BIRDS! Here's a bunch who were enjoying left over apples and then hopped up on the shed to digest. Then we were thrilled to celebrate the new baby in the family, Bryan and Jess Davie's sweet Addison June. Here are some highlights of her baby blessing. And it looks like all the other pictures I pulled up of that are not here so maybe I'll have to go back and try and get them here. Maybe picassa only lets me do three at a time. Anyway, just in case they're here and I just can't see them, it was a beautiful evening at Bryan's Mom and Dad's home and it was a delight to be with them for that. And the last pictures you'll see will be the Snow Goose Festival in Delta Utah which was amazing and there will be some more 'splainin' to do about that!

In My Defense

So I was sure I had it all figured out this time, Becca, to start with the first picture and end with the last to be in the right order for my blog. Well as you can see it's still not in order because I did four pics at a time and the first might be last some of the time but the last will not be first all of the time!!! Anyways, I'll keep blogging along! And I needed to include this beautiful picture of Ann, which reminds us all that as we take time to consider the past, perhaps we see ourselves more clearly in the present.

Aye, Aye, Captain! Watch the boom there tall guy. We spent an hour getting about four miles out into the bay and then it was time to turn around and head back. We could see a huge ocean going "car" ship loaded with vehicles waiting for their dock date in Baltimore.
The Chapel at the Navel Academy. The stained glass windows are all stories from the Bible related to water. A pew is reserved with a beautiful candle/floral tribute for those who have not returned from sea.

Our Colonial walking tour guide of Annapolis in front of one of the big guns. A bell from the Japanese is a gift commemorating Commodore Perry opening up Japan to the west and a bell from England like the liberty bell are in front of the huge dorm which houses over 4,000 students.
It is the end of the journey for us. Mums and Pums forever. Thanks to our harried shuttle driver, (he also made three stops to pick up a pilgrimage of Ghanaians who had already started partying, they were so excited to be going home!) we made it to Nat'l Airport with about 30 minutes before boarding, wheeew! We were blessed beyond measure, with rain when it was tolerable and blue skies when they were delightful.

We have also a renewed appreciatiion of the great privilege it is to be Americans and the personal price innumerable families have laid at the alter of sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy. God Bless America!

Annie at the Washington D.C. Temple. Our taxi driver told us that "Mormon" temple is the prettiest of all the temples in Washington. Our taxi drivers were all from African countries, first generation.
One of our GREAT restaurants, Filomena's in Georgetown, (she likes to decorate!) We saw the old stone house, the oldest building in the area, and then after a glorious day, walked across the Key Bridge to our hotel and a wonderful bed!













The next morning we took a shuttle to Annapolis and discovered that our hotel was two doors down from the Market Slip, were the slaves, (including Kinta Kunta of Roots fame) were unloaded to be sold behind the taverns. The waterway is lined with quotes from Roots and a peaceful, beautiful place for all the tragedy that happened there.
Our shuttle driver couldn't imagine why we wanted to leave at 8:15 am to go to Annapolis???!!## It was, however the perfect day to the end of a perfect trip, to have wind and just enough people for our Chesapeake cruise. Captain, Jack and his Crew Hannah and Kate, with a few draftees for good measure!

A downpour the night we drove into D.C. but still a thrill to see the scale of the monuments and consider the scale of the courage and challenge of nudging our country into birth and to a cradle of ideas to nurture freedom and democracy.
On our own Sunday. After a Sacrament meeting with our tour group, we went to St. John's, the Church of the Presidents and stood behind Abraham Lincoln's pew where he came late and alone and left early to get back to the White House.


Monday, we went to Arlington and the Iwo Jima Memorial, we said good-bye to our tour friends and did some more of the Smithsonians. Tuesday am we had an amazing tour of the Library of Congress, went to the Senate Gallery where we learned that all the floor speeches are now transmitted closed circuit to Congressional offices the only people listening in the Senate Chamber are the tourists! Something odd about that. We heard a senator from Washington and John McCain encourage more unemployment and the unmanageable immensity of the Health Care bill respectively. We then went to the Post Cereal Heiress' Margery Merriweather Post's estate where the largest Russian imperial art outside of Russia is collected. It was RICH! The Grounds were beautiful. We then were blessed to enjoy a session at the WDC temple, which, thankfully had just opened that night after being closed for a broken water main for a week. Tender Mercies!
Hillwood Japanese Garden