The big move

We got Teresa off to Corban College yesterday. It was a beautiful day. We stopped by to get the TV from Laura's and were headed out of town and realized we forgot the DVD player so headed for home again. Teresa drove so she would know the way. We arrived at about 11:15. Everything took longer than we thought and we had the usual trip to Walmart for last minute items. We did get to get a feel for the layout of the city as we hit Wal-Mart and the Kaiser clinic and another comercial district. We left just before dinner amid a few tears during our final good bye prayer. Then Chris and I headed to visit Lucille at her new retirement home apartment. It was lovely and we had a good visit over a kind of late dinner. More glitches with getting the dinner orders correct but it was on par for the day and we didn't let it bother us too much.

Today on our first day of empty nesting we hit a few garage sales, Jan picked some blackberries, cleared the coffee table and dining room table of boxes etc and Chris hooked up the living room TV to the DVD player from the family room. I picked some garden produce and finished my book. Chris took a nap and is out getting a repair cord for the carpet cleaner that has sat in the garage for the last 5 years or so. I have plans to clean the carpet as we rearrange furniture in our living room (which we need to do so Chris and my chairs are closer together). I also plan to take a load to the Good will and do some computer work. We've also talked to Teresa about 3 times on the phone. Thank goodness for cell phones and email/blogs to keep us in close contact. Enjoy the pictures and check out Teresa's blog also http://teresaferg.blogspot.com/

Sorry this is blurry but you get the idea.

Teresa's roomates side of the room. So far everything is very neat.

This is her roommates side.

Looking towards to the door to Teresa's room. She is standing by her wardrobe.

Teresa at her desk in her dorm room. She is in the basement

Here's some more photos from our Mt. St. Helens climb. That little person in the distance is Jonathan standing on the summit!

Spirit Lake and Mt. Rainier.

Mt Adams seen over the crest of the east side.

The west wall of the crater.

The west wall and the dome.

The dome. We saw some wisps of steam in a couple of places, so its still hot. Mt. Rainier in the upper right corner.

Mt. Rainer and the East wall fo the crater. A rock slide happened on this side while we were watching.

This owl was sitting at the top of a GPS antenna watching us eat our lunch on the mountain. This is almost a life-size photograph. He was a little critter. Any idea what kind of owl he is?

More photos of our friend. Tonia named him Charlie. That's right... Charlie Chipmunk. He followed us for about a quarter mile up the mountain.

Jonathan, Tonia and myself made the climb to the top of Mt. St. Helens yesterday. We started fresh and ready to go at 9:00 am. The trailhead is at Climbers Bivoac just past Cougar, WA.

Despite appearances this was good weather for the climb. It was about 70 degrees with a thick fog. We could just see well enough to make out the next trail marker post like the one next to Jonathan here. Although the fog kept us from seeing much of a view on the way up it also kept us from being overwhelmed by seeing the task yet before us.

We often made stops to catch our breath.

And we made friends with the locals.

The summit at last!