The Ocean Provides Fun Things

It was to be a rainy weekend in Prince William Sound, but we headed out determined to enjoy a little quiet time on the water, watch an evening movie and just relax.  As we were heading to Surprise Cove, Doug spotted a small white foam buoy in the water....we did a slow drive by and I was able to pluck it from the water.  A short distance later I noticed something yellow in the water so we went to investigate. A yellow buoy with a long line that was covered in heavy kelp.  Where did this thing come from?  So we pulled it on board and Doug would remove the buoys from the mess later in the evening.  On a side note, a couple weeks after we got the buoy home, one of the little barnacles on it was still alive, when you touched it, it would close......spooky.  Reminded us of the small plant on the "Little Shop of Horrors"......"feed me!"

A boat was parked near to where we anchored and we thought the lady to be nice when she yelled hello to us.  Turned out to be Jack and Nicole!  They stopped by to say hello.  Their 3 kids were with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, so as they had gotten a break from their kids, they weren't interested in joining our chaos for an evening drink or movie!

Peanut Farm

Tonight after work we all headed over to the Peanut Farm for appetizers and drinks to wish Bob well in his new adventures with Newfield and Phil Clingman in his move to Alice, Texas with Halliburton.

Robert McDaniel presented Bob with his gold pan.

Bob and the gold pan.

Bob presented Phil, Cement Manager, with a gold pan.  We wish Phil the best of luck in the future in Alice, Texas.

Donna Martin, current HR manager, and Karen Zemba, past HR manager.  It was nice that Karen came to join the party tonight.

Good luck Phil!

Missing Furniture

My boss, Bob, "retired" today. He said after 30 years with Halliburton he was entitled to call it a retirement. All of his children have left the house and Newfield Energy in Denver made him an offer he couldn't refuse. We are all happy for him, but what a great guy - we are going to miss him.  I had gotten wind that something was up before he made his announcement on Monday.  It was nice to have had a few days to prepare for the formal announcement. I have worked for Bob on and off since 1998 and he has been a great person to work for.

By Thursday evening he had taken all of his personal items from the office. I took off his wall the 1958 Halliburton business license for Alaska that I had found in old files and framed.  I had it hung in the lobby where everyone can enjoy it.  Not more than 15 minutes later, Donna in our Human Resources group was telling Bob that she wanted the certificate and then another guy commented that he wanted Bob's credenza and a small circle desk. I commented that "we will have your office stripped by morning". I told Doug about it......and that is what we did.

Doug, Zach, Sam and I removed everything in the office last night...including the light switch/outlet covers and most of the ceiling tiles. We replaced it with small furniture from Zach & Sam's playhouse.

It was hysterical! Bob was really appreciative, after 30 years there are a lot of emotions. Finding the office like that made the last day comical....a little comedy relief is good!

 

Cold Stone Ice Cream

We are out for ice cream tonight.....celebrating a successful "prank". You will have to wait until tomorrow to see what we were up to this evening!

A Day to Live For!

We really enjoy doing things with Chris, Sarah and Jacob Leonard.  Chris was out of town this week with friend, Mike McDaniel (former BP Environmental - knew him well years ago), so Sarah and Jacob were going to join us for a boating weekend. They arrived at our house early on Saturday morning and it was beautiful out!  That fantastic, warm weather would follow us all the way to Whittier!

Zach and Jacob kayaked and all the boys enjoyed riding about in the Zodiac with Doug. Sarah and Jacob had such a good time with our kayaks that they would end up going to REI next week and getting one to take to their cabin up north.

Of course the nice weather and Surprise Cove water temperature at 60*F lead to some jumping off the boat.  Even Sam got into it this year!

We didn't have a cabin and with not knowing what the weather would be like for camping, Sarah reserved a hotel room in Whittier at the Inn at Whittier.  Her, Jacob and Zach would spend the night there.  

Sarah and Jacob.

We don't often get a picture of all of us!

A big cruise ship was parked in Whittier.

It is hard to see in the photos, but a little otter was playing about near the falls.  Today would have been a good day to be an otter!

Loving life in the kayak!

Taking the shirt off!  It is hot out!  My look at those skinny little arms!

Swim suits are on.....ready to jump!



GO SAMMY!



Now that is a crazy looking outfit.....rubber boots and a shorty wetsuit! 

Sam was wore out!  He fell asleep on the table on the way back to Whittier!  We would drop off Sarah, Jacob & Zach at the hotel and Sam would not wake up until we had returned to our evening cove!

Now you ask.......what about Sunday?  Well, Sunday was a complete turn of events!  Doug commented to Sarah that we would be back to get them at 8:30 - 9 am the next day.  I should have said......no 11 am. I know us, we aren't going to be up that early.  Plus, we went to Shotgun Cove to anchor, but didn't feel comfortable about getting a good anchorage, so we went down further to Decision Point.  In the morning, it was raining and the seas had kicked up.

In hind sight, we should have gone to cell phone range and told Sarah to hang tight at the hotel and that we would go get the shrimp pots and come back to Whittier.  Instead we went back to Whittier (about 10 am or so) and then took the whole crew to get the shrimp pots in the choppy seas.  Sarah and Jacob weren't feeling too well.  We pulled them fast and headed back in.

How can one day be so spectacular and the next so miserable?

The only picture of Sunday......quick, get those pots on board!

Big Boat!

Pete had some work done to his boat, so had it at home for a couple of weeks.  He was heading back down to Whittier and swung by our house to use the air compressor to check the tire pressures on the trailer.  His boat looks huge sitting in front of our house!

Operation Overboard

Zach and Sam have been going to Vacation Bible School (VBS) all week.  This year's theme is "Operation Overboard - Care to Go Deep with God!"  VBS has evolved quite a bit since when I was a kid.  The program used by our church is put out by Cokesbury and is the "whole package".  The t-shirts, crafts, songs, videos, stickers, brochures, Bible lessons, are all spelled out.  I envision "VBS in a box" arriving at the front door of the church once a year.  It is well done and all the kids have a great time.  The water theme was one that Zach and Sam enjoyed. 

On the first day, Zach informed me that there were several fish in small bowls that would be raffled at the end of the week.  He was excited that there was a chance one of them could come to our house.  On day 2 he informed me that most of them had died overnight.  Yep, I had a few as a kid that did that too!

With Doug out of town this week, it has been a bit of a challenge with the VBS logistics.  I would drop them off at 9 am and then pick them up at noon to drop them off at Anchor Lutheran (Sam's school) for the afternoon).  A friend at church offered to help, but she has 2 little ones of her own and I didn't need to burden her with 2 more!  So, we made it work every day except Wednesday when they had to go to Anchor Lutheran all day as I was in a meeting from 8 am - 2 pm.

On Friday Doug was home and we were both able to attend the final performance. Zach sang his little heart out!  We then went to McDonald's for lunch.  A good time.

Zach and Timothy.  Timothy is in our Cub Scout troop and also attends our church.