Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Winter 2022

 

Mountain view from the airplane flight south from Deadhorse to Anchorage.
Just before landing in Anchorage.
Went to Reno for New Years to help my parents and got to drive Dad home from the hospital.  Here he is looking great in the sunglasses Tibor & Dora got him for Christmas. 
I made some flower arrangements in Hungarian colors for them.
We took some pics before I flew to Boise to drive home.
Dad & I with flowers.
Dining room selfie.
Back in McCall we took our drone out for a flight on Payette Lake.
And up on Lick Creek Road in front of the Snowdon Wildlife Sanctuary.
The deer got very brave in our neighborhood and walked up to our garage.
Payette Lake with the bear sculpture.
Flowers that Dave bought me to celebrate my Birthday.
This is Tamarack Resort's Village and view of the ski hill.
Tamarack's Village construction is coming along beautifully.
Our townhome photographed from the back (our unit has the windows on the left.)
Winter pic of our condo building.
South from work my Anchorage flight got cancelled so I was rerouted through Juneau.  These are the mountains outside of Juneau on the descent.
Winter Carnival fireworks in McCall!
The fireworks show from above.
They lit the lake and sky up beautifully.
Dave and ice carving in front of the chamber of commerce.
Always love seeing the snow and ice sculptures during Winter Carnival.
Cafe 634's sculpture.
The Mill's sculpture.
Our friend Todd came to town and we got to go on a great walk around town with him.
Another one of our favorites.
We flew to Colorado to visit our sweet Palmer Station friends from 2004, Johan & Sonja in Boulder.
It was a bittersweet visit as we had to say goodbye to our good friend Johan who recently passed away. He gave us all the penguin rocks we wanted to remember him by, so Dave and I chose one from each island.  Penguins choose the smoothest rocks to make their nests out of.  This one was from Dream island.
Before returning to work, I flew to Reno to visit my brother and parents, take a Red Cross Instructor course and celebrate my Birthday.
They left the Christmas decorations up so that the Tia & Hanna could celebrate Christmas with them.
It was a short visit, but great to see them and catch up, and especially enjoy after class hours with them with a meal.  Wonderful Indian food, thank you again!
Back in Idaho after work, Dave and I got to flying our drone more often.  This picture of us on the bridge is off of Warren Wagon road at the Snowdon Wildlife Sanctuary.  We practiced flying in the narrow canyon over the river.
This day of flying was on frozen Payette Lake.  There was warm soup in the insulated thermos I'm holding.  
The photo above is of our property on West Mountain Road.  You can see the road on the upper left hand corner, the roundabout with our car parked on the lower left hand corner.  What a cool arial shot!  And below is a pilot selfie which we have gotten into doing also.  Nice to get a pic with both of us in it!
It seemed that we had a lot of fun outings this winter, with the drone flights and mid-week hot springs soaks with our friends.  Love you, more soon...


Sunday, April 24, 2022

Oregon Beach & Early Winter

What a treat, a last minute trip to the Oregon Coast in November.  We drove right from the airport on our return from work to Bend, Oregon.  Then onto the coast the following day.  It had been pre-Covid that we took a vacation, so when this seaside Airbnb popped up, we decided to go.

Bend is always a sight to behold!  Love visiting and walking around downtown!
So excited to be on the beach.  This was our first walk along Gleneden Beach.
There was a lot of beautiful sea foam everywhere.
Loved seeing the wind move it about.
I think both of us took hundreds of photos; glad to be back on the beach.
This was the view from our couch and porch.  First time for us to ever stay ocean front and we were mesmerized!
The view from the living room of our Airbnb.  Dave admiring the view outside.
We basically relaxed, drank coffee and took walks on the beach. What a perfect schedule!
I got a drone as a reward at work and so we tried it out inside at first. Love at first sight for Dave.
Couldn't believe how many changes of light and colors there were throughout the day!
Amazing storms!




Rob, Amy and Zach joined us for an evening of walks and catching up.  Was awesome!!!
What a great get together!  Loved our walk on the beach and Thai dinner.
Lots of beautiful blossoms in the beach towns and gorgeous views on the drive home.
Back in Idaho, this was one of our first drone flights.  We got hooked by the photo quality!

We bought a new couch and Ruggable (washable) rug for our condo.
The snow and wintertime crept in to our town.
Still not fully winter, but the transition had begun.
Practicing with the drone in a park near the Aspen Condos.  
Dave put these lights on a convenient switch and we bought a new runner for the top of the cabinet.
Lots of days for new recipes during the autumn.  Lots of stir fries and this one with Indonesian Sambal.
Back at work on Spy Island this was one of my last stays as I had taken a new job in the company.
I got to frost my own goodbye cake and it was a hard goodbye to old friends of 3 years.
Back at home, Dave installed the new television we bought for our townhome.
We got to see the lighting of our McCall town Christmas tree.
Dave changed out our car's headlamps and the difference is incredible!
He also changed out our water heater at the condo, the washer's gaskets and painted the master closet!
The snowfall stuck around and winter began. 
This is a new art installation in our park; a Log Mill work whistle just like the historic one.
Dave enjoying the toy (practice) drone I got him for Christmas.
At our new front door.
Christmas day, we tried on gifts.  This one is a jacket from Mom and Dad.
Our McCall town tree was beautifully decorated with wooden hearts this year.
Christmas cabinet from my parents in our living room. Got gorgeous wool pants and French perfume from Roger.  And amazing Christmas cards from so many people this year.  Our refrigerator is full of them. 
We had Em and Sean over for the holidays and treated them to Koehlinger grits and we made snowmen.
I made yarn balls as usual for the cats at the local shelter.
And my amazing Xmas gift from Dave was a sous vide machine that makes pickles in two hours!!!

I still can't believe how fast the days, weeks and years fly by! The Oregon coast was a huge highlight for us as it was a relaxing vacation, opportunity to see Amy and her family, and our first vacation since Covid began.  We busied ourselves with updating the condo and flying our drone as the winter snow began to fall and the colder temperatures crept in, as well as decorating our townhome.  We celebrated Christmas together early and went up to work for the actual event.  Love you!