After my assignment from Dad and all my nagging ... the first newsleter to Ben is complete. I promised everyone that I'd send them copies but this is so much better. Hope everyone likes how it turned out. Thanks for still loving me after all the badgering.
I was just browsing back through my 'many' old posts and realized that I hadn't said anything about Family Vacation 2009. I don't know if I need to go into to many details as everyone else in my family has already written about it. So, short and simple here we come.
Prior to the departure, the family decided to go river rafting. This adventure led to two of the three rafts popping which resulted in Michelle and I walking/swimming/rolling down the river. You will not be surprised to learn there is no picture of this event. Good thing no one had a camera as they would have all been destroyed by the 'perilous' river.
The actual vacation took place on the Oregon Coast. Mom loves the Oregon Coast so we go to the Oregon Coast ... a lot. We rented a house in Depot Bay and brought the sun with us.
Visited the Sea Lion Caves ... I cannot adequetly express how smelly they were.
Stopped at Devil's Churn ... how can you pass up a place with a name like that?
Spent a lot of time on the beach
Had a photo shot with the newest niece. Look at all this talent ... me with my camera and Adelyn with her adorable mug.
I did not want my favorite holiday to pass quietly into the night without me expressing my love for this wonderful dress-up day. I got to do a lot a makeup and I'll upload a picture of Jadyn's Cat Ballerina as soon as Kathryn releases it from her clutches. I was a harlequin for the night of festivities and had quite a wonderful time building my 'mask'. I hope that everyone enjoyed their own disguisable night ... I added another picture after the great poem, themed to Halloween, so that everybody could see just how high this southern girl got her hair.
THE DANCE OF DEATH by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
THE warder looks down at the mid hour of night,
On the tombs that lie scatter'd below:
The moon fills the place with her silvery light,
And the churchyard like day seems to glow.
When see! first one grave, then another opes wide,
And women and men stepping forth are descried,
In cerements snow-white and trailing.
In haste for the sport soon their ankles they twitch,
And whirl round in dances so gay;
The young and the old, and the poor, and the rich,
But the cerements stand in their way;
And as modesty cannot avail them aught here,
They shake themselves all, and the shrouds soon appear
Scatter'd over the tombs in confusion.
Now waggles the leg, and now wriggles the thigh,
As the troop with strange gestures advance,
And a rattle and clatter anon rises high,
As of one beating time to the dance.
The sight to the warder seems wondrously queer,
When the villainous Tempter speaks thus in his ear:
"Seize one of the shrouds that lie yonder!"
Quick as thought it was done! and for safety he fled
Behind the church-door with all speed;
The moon still continues her clear light to shed
On the dance that they fearfully lead.
But the dancers at length disappear one by one,
And their shrouds, ere they vanish, they carefully don,
And under the turf all is quiet.
But one of them stumbles and shuffles there still,
And gropes at the graves in despair;
Yet 'tis by no comrade he's treated so ill
The shroud he soon scents in the air.
So he rattles the door—for the warder 'tis well
That 'tis bless'd, and so able the foe to repel,
All cover'd with crosses in metal.
The shroud he must have, and no rest will allow,
There remains for reflection no time;
On the ornaments Gothic the wight seizes now,
And from point on to point hastes to climb.
Alas for the warder! his doom is decreed!
Like a long-legged spider, with ne'er-changing speed,
Advances the dreaded pursuer.
The warder he quakes, and the warder turns pale,
The shroud to restore fain had sought;
When the end,—now can nothing to save him avail,—
In a tooth formed of iron is caught.
With vanishing lustre the moon's race is run,
When the bell thunders loudly a powerful One,
And the skeleton fails, crush'd to atoms.
Check it out ... it was at least 4 inch from the top of my head. I'll also be sure to smile more in my next round of pics.
