Farm House Progress and Random Birds

The "remodel" of the farm house has definitely gotten out of control. It is looking nice however and we are excited to see how it will come out.






The entry is going to be fun. Walking into the entry you will look right through the house to the view to the north. 3 large all glass garage doors open out to the deck.




The house really blends in with the natural surrounding much better than before. This is the view from down on rainbow lane.


And now for some random birds.


This is the momma Canada Goose who has been hatching babies on the roof of the pump house behind Grandpa Vial's place in Grants Pass for the last 10 years. She had a batch of eggs last year that never hatched however, and it looks like it might be the same situation this year. She may need to trade in her mate!


The Mallard may be a fairly common duck, but I still think it is really beautiful.



I still think that the Wood Duck is one of my favorites. Both the male and the female are beautiful.



The swallows are back, and the Violet Green's are among the prettiest.



Oh yeah, one last thing. Nate tore down the old woodshed, and the view from the lawn is really fun. Mom wants to make it into a giant sandbox. Fun!

Amber's Married!

On Tuesday April 13, Amber Vial married Denzel Kumar, a Fijian of Indian ancestry whom she met at BYUH. Denzel is an accomplished singer who is studying music education. He leaves tomorrow for Asia with the BYUH concert choir! They were married in the Medford Oregon Temple.


It was fun to see my brother John's family all together.


Anna and Aubrey who is now 6, John, Denzel, Amber, James, his wife Nikki and a very tall Devin who at 19 is waiting for a mission call.

Denzel had a number of family there as well, including his mom and auntie from Fiji. Also a cousin from Washington and another cousin from Fiji/BYUH.


Denzel's family are multi-generational Fijian originally from Muslim Indian immigrants. Here dressed in traditional Indian Sari. These sisters were often heard speaking Hindi to each other! It was a really fun cultural experience.

We went down for the sealing with Alicia and Tucker who took pictures at the temple and at Lithia park in the rain! It was fun to watch. This couple appears to really like each other.


Like any family gathering, this one was not without it's bumps. Uncle Dave's family however took the cake. On the way down for the sealing, Monica's husband Dave was driving Dave and Eva's Pontiac Van which overheated and died in Wolf Creek, about 45 minutes north of Grants Pass. Grandpa went up to rescue them and the Van was towed to Grants Pass for repair. After the sealing and the luncheon afterward Eva and the crew (Monica, Dave, Jenny and Leslie) all jumped into the van to head back north to Vancouver. They made it about 10 miles where it overheated again. After having it towed back to the dealer, they then took Grandpa's Surbuban home. So then on Friday afternoon, just Uncle Dave drove the Suburban back down and picked up the Van at the dealer. Saturday morning, he left early to greet the newly married couple at John's where the reception was taking place, and got about 10 minutes out and the car conked out again! Now here is where it get's interesting (I know you were waiting). Once again, Grandpa (the safe driving Nazi of the universe) jumped into the Suburban to go and save Uncle Dave. Backing out of the garage, he hit Mike and Christine's Subaru! Yep, Grandpa!!!!!!!!!!

Mike came into the reception in full glory telling the story!


And of course we had to make a little field trip down the street to see the actuality.


Ok back to the subject at hand. (Oh yeah, Dave was not happy at all, and once again had to drive Grandpa's Suburban back to Vancouver). Meanwhile back at the reception, Grandpa was greeting the new bride.


And attempting to keep track of Galena!


One of the really fun surprises of the reception was the appearance of Anna's cousins from Arizona. These two sisters flew in and rented a car and totally surprised everyone! They, together with Denzel's mom and auntie put on a really fun spread of Mexican and Indian traditional foods!


The couple were really good sports about spending the afternoon in their wedding duds.


They really do appear to like each other.



Mom seemed pretty happy about her little girl's new status!


And by the end of the day, Amber was pretty much done!



Yet another great family event!

Easter Etc.

We started a new tradition this year. We hid an egg for each of the adults and children with their names on them. The adult egg had a nice note from Paula in each one, and all the kids got some money in their name egg. There were then about 8 eggs per person for general finding.


Tucker and Alicia hid the eggs. I know it looks like a lot of easy pickin's, but some were really hard to find. Like Thuy's which was hidden in a wind chime!


Kyle's was so hard to find that Tucker who hid it forgot for about 30 minutes where he had hidden it. He finally remembered that it was in one of the sprinkler boxes! The limit was supposed to be 8 eggs per person, but Jacob doesn't seem to be able to count!


Uncle Chuong was the lucky finder of the golden egg with $15! He was pretty excited. Maybe we need to pay him more?


As with any family function the number of camera's was nearly equal to the number of people!


Cuong had his I-phone video phone going the whole time. How about this shot of Me taking a picture of Hui taking a picture of Cuong videoing with Kayla flashing the peace sign.


The adults of course had as much fun inventorying the haul as the kids.


It is a fun and beautiful place to have an Easter Egg Hunt!


Another developing family tradition is the birthday parties at Burgerville on Barber Blvd. It has a huge play area, and the noise is pretty daunting, but it is really kid friendly. In this case it had better been, as there were a bunch of kids! This was Dillan's 8th birthday, a big one!




Finally a few local birds. Spring is here!

Red-Breasted Sapsucker




Our local Scrub Jay


And a very tiny but lovely Bewick's Wren.

Jean, Terry, Paula and Rich to Florida

Our home teacher and friend Terry (the guy who helped us with the floor on the Rainbow House and got a scar on his head for his trouble), his wife Jean and Paula and I spent a week in south Florida. Hundreds of birds, a lot of sun and altogether a great time.


This picture epitomizes our trip. An Ibis, an Alligator and a Purple Gallinue all sharing the same swamp with us and getting along great!



We were in Ft. Lauderdale on the Friday night of spring break. Party on our floor kept us up until about 4.




We took pictures of 5 courthouses, but I gotta admit, I was primarily there for the birds.


Anhinga's!


Note the blue around the eyes. Birds develop blue around the bare eyes when they are breeding.


The beautiful Great Blue Heron's were very busy building nests.


Some of the Heron's were really active in feeding. This one had a tough time choking down a pretty big fish.





This Barred Owl was not too concerned about us. Nor were the Burrowing Owls in this subdivision near the public library in Cape Coral.



I always love seeing the Pelican's whenever we are at the beach.



The Birds of Prey are especially numerous in Florida.


The Red Shouldered Hawk



The Osprey, with many nests on top of poles in the open.



Of course the Vultures. This Turkey Vulture is eating a wild Hog out in the swamp.


The Crested Caracara is really beautiful with its orange and blue beak and dark crest. This one had just found a grub in the dirt.


The endangered Snail Kite is found only in the Everglade swamps, and in this picture we caught him hauling a snail out of the mud.


Lot's of shorebirds.


Like this Lesser Yellowlegs. Lesser only because it is somewhat smaller than its cousin the Greater Yellowlegs.


On some beaches, like here at Tigertail in Naples had thousands of "peeps".


The Glossy Ibis is one of the truly beautiful residents of Florida.


This little "Hooded Warbler" must have been lost. They are normally found much further north, not here on the beach!


The Fulvous Whistling Duck is also somewhat rare.


As is this Black Bellied Whistling Duck.



One of the most beautiful of all the birds is the cousin of the Coot, the Purple Gallinue.


Equally beautiful is the Painted Bundting.


And of course it is always fun to see the Pileated Woodpecker.



These fish were new to me. Chuong tells me they were common in Vietnam. They defend their young in these holes that they dig with their tails. Apparently they have the ability to suck the minnow's into their mouths if danger appears.


I took about 17,000 pictures on this trip, but didn't get near enough of the beautiful flowers.


There were many species of turtles. Not sure what the deal is with the one on the left!


We saw a number of lighthouses.


We even stopped at Edison's winter home in Ft. Meyers. He had a beautiful estate with great gardens. Paula and Jean are under a huge Kapok tree.


I didn't get a picture of Paula in her scuba gear. But she was really happy that she had done the dive!




Peace, Out.