TOAST

Washington, D.C. II - Nice Pictures of Famous Things

2008-05-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007
Subject: Washington, D.C. II - Nice Pictures of Famous Things

As you may recall, Beth and I were in Washington D.C. at the beginning of December. Here are some pictures that are kind of neat. Unlike the previous pictures that were sent out, these are uncluttered by Trumbles in the foreground.

Dan

The White House

The Washington Monument with a bunch of flags (I don’t know why the flags were there)

The Washington Monument and a Tree

The Washington Monument near sunset and after sunset

The Washington Monument with the Reflecting Pool in the foreground

The Washington Monument and some colorful trees

The Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool (again).

The Washington Monument through the trees. The Tidal Pool is the body of water.

The World War II Memorial

A quote by Gen. George C. Marshall that I like from the World War II Memorial.

The World War II Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background

The Reflecting Pool with the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln statue inside the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial with cool clouds

The Jefferson Memorial

The Jefferson Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background

Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capitol Building at the end of the street.

Pennsylvania Avenue looking the other direction. The arrow indicates the White House.

The OEOB (Old Executive Office Building)

The Capitol

The Supreme Court Building

Wash D.C. Monuments & Stuff

2008-05-08T09:40:00.001-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007
Subject: Washington, D.C. I - Trumbles w/ Monuments and Stuff

Greetings.

As I send this I am in Lima, Peru where I arrived this morning from Bolivia with my colleague, Dave Reed. Before I came to South America, Beth and I had the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. to witness a promotion ceremony for Bill Chambers, my Brother-in-Law (more on that in a separate message). We arrived at night on Friday, 30 November, and we rented a car (which turned out to be PT Cruiser). While Beth was on the cell phone with Bill getting directions to their house I was already driving and I missed a turn because I passed it before all of the directions had been relayed by Bill. We would have been better to get the directions and THEN to leave the rental car place…Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, the turn we missed was off of the George Washington Parkway which is a very nice road to drive on but it has relatively few exits. So, we basically ended up going about 9 miles until it ended and we could turn around and come back. It was a nice little drive. After some additional touring of the city as we took the ‘scenic route’ we eventually arrived at Bolling Air Force Base where Bill and Bonnie live and where Bonnie had arranged for us to have some of the visiting officer quarters (more on that later as well).

On Saturday morning, 1 December, Bonnie led us to a place where we could park and take the subway into the city. She helped us figure out what fare we needed to pay in order to get there and back and we bought the tickets, boarded the subway, and off we went. Well, at some point we needed to change subway lines but we kind of messed things up and exited through some turnstiles that we should not have. We then needed to re-enter since we shouldn’t have exited at that place so that little extra exit and entry meant our tickets no longer had enough money loaded on them to get us back we had wasted it on an extra exit and entry to the subway system. Oh well. We figured things out and emerged on the National Mall from the Smithsonian subway station.

It was a pretty nice day (as you can see from the below pictures) but it was pretty cool and when the wind blew it was not very comfortable at all. Perhaps a heavier coat or a windbreaker or something would have been helpful. We tromped around and saw a lot of the famous things and some of our experiences are documented in the photos below. These photos are not always the ones that best show the monuments but they do have Beth and/or me in them (at least for the most part). Some better photos of the monuments and stuff will follow in a different message.

After a long day of seeing many neat and historic things, we purchased the additional fare we would need to get back to our rental car at the subway station where we had parked it in the morning. We managed to negotiate the change of trains this time but when we arrived at our final destination we emerged from the wrong side of the subway station and came out on the side where people catch busses rather than the parking garage side where our car was parked. It was dark out and it would have been a little bit of a hike to hoof it over to the parking garage so we ended up buying one more ticket each so that we could re-enter the subway station, walk to the other end, and emerge where we needed to emerge. So, in the end, the subway cost us twice as much as it should have if we had done everything right.

On Sunday morning, 2 December, we went to church with Bill and Bonnie and then after having lunch we headed back into the city (this time we drove) and walked around the area where the Capitol building, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court building are. We also visited the National Archives and walked over by the White House. It was kind of a rainy night and you will see that we look pretty rough in the White House picture but it was still a good time.

On Monday, 3 December, we attended the promotion ceremony at the Pentagon and then after returning to Bill & Bonnie’s and having some lunch we stopped by the National Archives again to pick up our phone that we had left the previous day when we’d gone through security, then we went back to the airport and Beth came home and I went to Bolivia.

A good time was had by all.

The Washington Monument

We are actually not holding the Washington Monument in our hands and fingers here. It is just a trick of photography! In the second picture you can see someone a bit farther down the steps trying the same thing.

World War II Memorial

The shadowy images in the lower picture are the shadows of Beth and Dan

This picture was taken from out front of the Lincoln Memorial.
A – US Capital Building
B – Washington Monument
C – World War II Memorial
D – Reflecting Pool

The Lincoln Memorial
This picture is taken from basically the exact same spot as the one above except I moved over to the other side of Beth. I’m not sure she moved at all. Perhaps this is of little interest to you, but there you go.
Clockwise from top: Abe, Dan, Beth
Korean War Memorial (the Lincoln Memorial can be seen in the background)

Vietnam War Memorial

There are books with listings of the names that are inscribed on the wall and the location of each name. I could only think of a single name of someone who had given theirlife in Vietnam but I was able to find his name (James W Widdis Jr).

Washington D.C. World War I Memorial

FDR Memorial
The FDR Memorial is a big sprawling thing and is not all that great as far as memorials go but it is quite pretty. It would be a good place to go to sit and read a book on a nice Spring day.

Jefferson Memorial

Library of Congress
That is Beth in the foreground

The Capitol Building

The Supreme Court building
This is the back of the building. Beth is the one out front.

The White House
Beth is pictured here with some hoodlum (it’s Dan)

The National Archives

Ben Franklin statue in front of the Old Post Office

Bent's Old Fort

2008-05-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007
Subject: The Trumbles at Bent's Old Fort

Greetings! On Thursday, November 15, the Trumbles visited Bent’s Old Fort near La Junta, Colorado.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, trade moved west and a good business was to be had trading for beaver pelts (and later, buffalo hides) with the American Indian tribes. Brothers William & Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain formed the Bent, St. Vrain & Company and had a booming business trading their goods and transporting freight along the route between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe (which was in Mexico at the time). In 1831 the company had a $500,000 profit. They decided that it would be beneficial to have a stop along the way and in about 1833 built the Fort on the U.S. side of the Arkansas River, which marked the boundary between U.S. Territory and Mexico at the time.

For a time it was the only major permanent white settlement along the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and Mexico. It provided a safe meeting place for traders and travelers passing along the Santa Fe Trail. During its heyday, diverse peoples could be found at the Fort and at least 7 languages were spoken including English, Spanish, French, Sioux, Comanche, Ute, and Cheyenne.
Eventually, the U.S. Army wanted use of the fort to support the efforts against Mexico. There were negotiations between William Bent and the Army to sell the Fort to the Army but a price was not agreed upon and in 1849 the Fort was basically blown up, very possibly under the direction of William Bent himself…So much for the Fort. In the mid-1970s the Fort was rebuilt and that’s what we visited.

Sources include http://www.sangres.com/nationalparks/bents.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent%27s_Old_Fort, the brochure handed out to folks who visit from the National Park system, and information obtained during our visit.

Bent’s Old Fort is located along the Arkansas River in Southeast Colorado.

Map from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent%27s_Old_Fort

Bent’s Old Fort

Will, Jim, Stephen, and Elizabeth in the bright sun on the 2nd level of Bent’s Old Fort

Gunpowder storeroom

Will defending the fort. Stephen & Jim defending the fort. Stephen warming himself against the wall.

Note the relatively few number of stars on the flag

Jim

The Family

A storeroom

At the rear of the fort is the animal area

I’m not at all sure that peacocks were customary in the Old West but they can be found today at Bent’s Old Fort

The carpentry shop

The Blacksmith Shop

In the middle of the courtyard is a press that would have been used to tightly compact the buffalo hides for shipping. Inset: Will and the press.

Iowa Summer 2007

2007-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

In late June we drove to Oskaloosa, Iowa where Beth is from. We stayed in her folk’s basement which was very nice. Mom Boender had set up curtains and stuff to sort of make separate “rooms” for each kid. We had quite a nice time.

The day we arrived in Oskaloosa Stephen managed to ride a bicycle without training wheels for the first time. He enjoyed riding around while we were in Iowa.

One day Grandma Boender went to Des Moines to be with one of her sisters for her sister’s birthday. Grandpa Boender and the rest of us also drove to Des Moines and went to the Science Center of Iowa (http://www.sciowa.org/). They have lots of hands-on stuff you can do and Channel 13, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, even does some of their weather broadcasts from there. During the mid-day news, the kids got on TV and Grandma Boender saw them. During times when they are not broadcasting they also let you play around with the green screen and you can see how you look on TV doing the weather. Kind of fun.

We also heard a talk from one of the weather people on storms and stuff. Lightning is 25,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface of the sun is 10,000 degrees. Who knew? They also had things where you could play with bubbles, work with magnetic tracks for balls, see giant bug replicas, work with hydroelectric power, and other stuff.

The Southern Iowa Speedway (http://www.rlpromotions.com/oskaloosa/) is located in Oskaloosa and on June 27 the boys and I attended the races. The night we went they were having the Preacher Feature (or the Faster Pastor as the announcer referred to it) where local clergy race in an exhibition. Brian Oschner, our nephew, is an ordained pastor living in Michigan. He and his wife Becky (Beth’s brother Steve’s daughter) were visiting and he raced in the race. He took 3rd. There was also a prize drawing for kids and Jim won a prize so that was good, too.

Beth’s brother Steve has a 3 acre pond that he has built on his farm. A large new building was also in the process of being built and it provided a good place for the many cousins and some other kids to ride bikes one night when the family gathered at Steve’s place. One afternoon our kids spent some time with some cousins swimming in the pond and their cousin Mark gave them rides on a jet ski. The kids had a lot of fun.

Our family also went to Mark and Stacy’s farm where we had a cookout and the kids did some fishing at Mark’s pond. His pond is quite a ways off the beaten path and you have to drive through an old coal mine area to get there.

Aunt Julie (Beth’s brother Bill’s wife) had a Cousin’s Camp one day at their farm. The kids had a good time. The painted big pictures on the wall that told a story, they made pretend lava lamp things and they made log cabins with popsicle sticks. Elizabeth would like to have another Cousin’s Camp.

The boys and I played Monopoly. Will won. We also played a game with all 6 of our family (which is rather too many for Monopoly). Jim won that one.

On July 4th I worked with Beth’s brother Doug on putting metal sheets on the door frame he had built for his building. No one died and it actually has held up since that time. Given my substantial lack of ability on this sort of thing, this is really something.

Kids in the whirlpool at the hotel in Nebraska

Stephen on his first day ever of riding a bike by himself without training wheels. Elizabeth and Jim in the background.

The Science Center of Iowa. Grandpa Boender and the kids pictured.

Jeriann Ritter, meteorologist for channel 13 in Des Moines. Trumble kids in the foreground.
The little picture in the center on the right side shows Ms. Ritter and the kids.

Trumbles doing the weather.

Elizabeth with the big bubble thing.

Clear Toilet

The Southern Iowa Speedway…very loud!

The prize that Jim won at the races.

See the last entry under the results for June 27 to see the Preacher Feature results. http://www.rlpromotions.com/oskaloosa/results_article.asp?NewsID=3768 . The results are also pictured from the newspaper below. Brian is married to Beth's niece, Becky (and they are pictured below).

Below is a picture from the summer of 2005. Brian (indicated by the arrow sitting in the bulldozer) was not technically part of the family yet but married in within the next couple of days (he married Becky who he is pictured with above). The various shirt colors indicate the different sibling’s families.

Gray: Mom & Dad Boender and Brother Dan
Red: Steve and Jan’s family including Brian (mentioned above), 3 other sons and their wives and families plus the twins (currently in their senior year of high school) pictured on top of the bulldozer.
Orange: Donna and Roger’s family. Donna lives in Colorado and only Devin made the trip with her. Roger and the other 3 boys in the family are the only ones in the Harry & Elizabeth Boender family not pictured (Harry and Elizabeth are Beth’s folks).
Blue: Doug and Ginger’s family – since this picture, Doug and Ginger have added a 4th child.

Green: Bill and Julie’s family and their six kids.

Yellow: Beth's family and our four kids.

Brother Doug (on the big bike) and some kids riding in the unfinished new building.

Kids riding. Sun setting.

Mom and Stephen playing some baseball.

Elizabeth, Stephen, Jim, Will (all Trumbles). Amelia & Ethan (Mark and Stacy’s kids). This is the pond at Mark and Stacy’s farm.

Fishing at Mark & Stacy’s pond.

Mark giving a ride to Elizabeth.

Brother Steve’s pond in the background. Boender and Trumble kids in the foreground.

Farm stuff and Jim.

Cow and Dan. If all goes well, when we visit Iowa in November or December, Cow may be available to be consumed. Good for Dan, bad for Cow.

Here is the garage door I helped Brother Doug with. He lifted that brownish metal thing up with the fork lift and we climbed up there to do the upper level of the panels.

Camping May 2007

2007-06-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

In late May we went camping with our friends, the DeKams. Beth and I are not big on camping but the kids enjoy it. Chad DeKam is big on camping (want proof? check out his blog at http://flyfishingthe50states.blogspot.com/) and it is good to go with his family because he has the gear and the know-how to make things go much smoother than they otherwise would go (besides that it's fun to spend time together).

We camped at one of the national campgrounds between Woodland Park and Deckers, Colorado. Chad brought along some bocce balls and we had fun playing bocce on the forest floor. That was the first experience I'd had with bocce balls but it was really fun. I ended up getting a set of bocce balls for Father's Day so there is more bocce in our future (don't know much about bocce? Check out this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocce).

We were close to Manitou Lake and we spent some time there. Chad had a canoe along and most of us went out on the lake. Chad also used the canoe with the kids in the little stream that runs out of the reservoir and that was fun for the kids (and a lot of work for Chad!).

Both nights I slept in the tent with most of the kids while the other adults slept in the little camper. One night Analise slept in the camper and the other night Fischer slept in the camper. Fischer fell off his bunk onto the floor during the night but managed to sleep through the fall.

The second night Stephen woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom so I got up to help him. We went outside the tent barefoot and that wasn't fun for him so I carried him over to a tree where he did his business (perhaps I should have taken him all the way to one of the outhouses but I didn't...he we had our dogs along and they don't use the outhouses so how bad can it be?). Anyway, we did avert potential disaster in the tent but the next morning after all of my help, he didn't even remember...oh well.

Anyway, we we had a good time.

About ready to leave

The camp set-up.

Marshmallows with Elizabeth, Dad, and Stephen. Note Steve's very cool Classic Broncos apparel.

Kids burning sticks

Good Mornin'...argh!

Fischer and Will doing dishes

The boys playing Candyland in the camper

Bocce

Fun with the hammock

Beth, Analise, Elizabeth and Alison on Lake Manitou with Pikes Peak in the background.

The guys (except for Fischer)

Stephen's big catch (it's a stick).

Chad and Steve on the stream

Chad and Jim

Chad and Will

Chad and Elizabeth

In 2002, the Hayman fire burned 137,000 acrs (214 sq miles/554 sq kilometers). This link will take you to a site with some impressive pictures of the fire. http://cbs4denver.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_158191120

Our campsite was fairly close to the Hayman Burn area and after spending some time near Manitou Lake we took a drive up into the burn area.

Here is Elizabeth in the Hayman Burn area with Pikes Peak in the background.

part of the burn area

Sand Dunes May 2007

2007-06-14T19:34:00.001-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we spent some time at the Sand Dunes with our friends, the Smiths. The Sand Dunes in Colorado are the tallest sand dunes in North America. One evening we ate at a restaurant in Alamosa that is owned by the brother of our neighbor, Brent.

More on the Sand Dunes:
http://www.nps.gov/grsa/

On the way back home we drove along Skyline Drive near Cañon City.

More on Skyline Drive:
http://downtowncanoncity.com/skylinedrive/index.htm
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/colorado/coalbum/corockiescanoncity1900.htm

Here are both families...Smiths and Trumbles

It's fun to do civil engineering water projects in (or beside) Medano Creek. Here is a before and after look.

Jim and Dan

At the restaurant owned by our neighbor's brother

Elizabeth on the dunes

Bruce, Lisa, and Clara went on up farther than Elizabeth, Emma, and me.

The kid in yellow is some mystery kid. In orange is Will, in blue is Jim, and in the water, is Steve.

Jim, Greta, Emma, Clara, Elizabeth, Will, Stephen, Tobin

Trumbles witht the Dunes behind us

Skyline Drive

Trumble Family - Easter Sunday 2007

2007-06-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii IX - Misc stuff and FINAL MESSAGE

2007-06-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble

Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007

Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii IX - Misc stuff and FINAL MESSAGE

Hello. Thank you for letting me share some of our time in Hawaii over the past couple of weeks. Here are a few final miscellaneous pictures.

We had a great time. The weather in Colorado was cold and the weather in Hawaii was very, very nice. We stayed with Andy and Amy and their three kids (Amy is my sister) and just had a lot of fun.

I have sent an invitation to you to view my pictures on Snapfish (except for all of you Compassion folks whose email addresses aren’t in my list in the correct format…if you are receiving this in your Compassion email account and you want an invite to see all of the Hawaii pictures that I posted to Snapfish, send me a message and I can arrange that). If you’ve enjoyed all of these pictures I’ve sent over the last two weeks or if you are very bored and have lots of time on your hands, then you may enjoy viewing more. Many of you have probably had enough so don’t feel obligated. There are almost 400 Hawaii pictures posted to Snapfish.

Did you know that the Hawaiian language has only 12 letters? The 5 vowels plus 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w).

Luhapelowu ahunani okaamenewi enikipi - Thanks for letting me share!

Actually, that’s not really Hawaiian; I just stuck a bunch of letters together.

P.S. Some of you have not been on the list of folks that received the prior 8 Hawaii messages (yes, this one makes 9). If you are interested in seeing those other messages, please just give me the word and I’ll be happy to pass them on to you.

God bless,
Dan

__________________________
Some final pictures…

This is a picture Elizabeth took from the plane on the way in.

A - Airstrip for Honolulu Airport and also for use by Air Force
B - Ford Island
C - (white spot just to the right of the letter) U.S.S. Arizona Memorial
D – Pear Harbor
E – roughly the area where we saw the subs and other military boats that passed by
F – Approximate place on Hickam AFB where Andy & Amy live

Some of the kids prepared a little Parent Appreciation deal. Note the snacks and the lettering on the wall. They made the leis and there were 2 or 3 little speeches of appreciation.Picture of Mao in Chinatown.
Aloha Stadium where the NFL Pro Bowl will be played in a few weeks.

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VIII - Foliage and Other Nature Stuff

2007-06-13T19:58:00.001-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VIII - Foliage and Other Nature Stuff

There is a lot of pretty stuff in Hawaii (duh!). It is, of course, humid and tropical and all sorts of neat things grow there. There are also rats and mongooses (mongeese?) that were brought in by people. The rats came on ships and the mongooses were brought in to control the rats but mongooses are out in the daytime and rats are nocturnal so they pretty much peacefully co-exist. We didn’t see any rats (thankfully!) but Beth and I did see some mongoose (mongooses? mongeese? whatever). There is a lei (purple and white kind of on the edge) but the rest of this stuff was collected while out on a walk. The boys enjoyed these seed pods that they liked to think of as “boats”. The other picture is a cattle egret (also known as a buff-backed heron. As it turns out, it’s nothing all that special. According to www.honoluluzoo.org/cattle_egret.htm it is now on six continents and in 45 of the 50 United States…oh well.

Dead crab or maybe just a crab shell. How should I know? I don’t live near the ocean!
Bird More plants (this is at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial).
Cool tree.

The “Hitachi Tree”

http://www.hitachi.com/IR-e/library/annual/2005/ar2005e_01.pdf

A cool tree near the “Hitachi Tree”
Flower.

Some seedpod thing or something.
Elizabeth, Kimberly and Caleb with a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree.
Snails.
Praying Mantis.
Trumble family with nice foliage in the background. We wore these shirts to church in Colorado today.
A banyon tree.
Another banyon tree. Note how the roots come down from the branches and create a whole bunch of stuff (roots coming down from branches, I guess).
Sunset near Ko Olina.
Hickam AFB and the Leong’s minivan (straight ahead).
Another sunset picture.
A crab or something.
The state flower of Hawaii is the Yellow Hibiscus.

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VII - Kids (mostly) and some parents

2007-06-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VII - Kids (mostly) and some parents

Ages of Kids

4 – Josiah
5 – Stephen
6 – Caleb
7 – Will
8 – Elizabeth
9 – Kimberly
10 – Jim

This is by a beach near Ko Olina.

Andy, Amy, Kimberly, Caleb and Josiah
Kids

Kids aged 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 jumping

Josiah & Stephen

Kids & a submarine.

Lunch at a beach near Ko Olina

Before church
Kids aged 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10

Bellows Beach
Bellows Beach
Jumping kids.

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VI - Food and Eating

2007-06-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii VI - Food and Eating

You can probably tell by looking at pictures of me that I like to eat (sadly, some of the XL shirts I bought while in Hawaii don’t fit very well…the couple XXL shirts I got are better and are the ones you see me wearing in pictures below). Hawaii offered some special opportunities.

The place where we ate breakfast one day.
Breakfast
Romy’s, a shrimp shack.
Shrimp (with eyeballs attached).
Shrimp meal in process.
My sister, Amy, and me eating shrimp while kids mostly do not eat shrimp (mostly they ate sandwiches).
Fried rice, eggs, and Spam for breakfast (Spam is big in Hawaii).
Ahi Poke (raw fish). I ate a bit of it but it was not my favorite.
Bulgogi – My sister, Amy, made it. She makes some pretty nice food!

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii V - Kualoa Ranch

2007-06-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii V - Kualoa Ranch

We visited Kualoa Ranch which is on the windward side of Oahu (instead of referring to the eastern or western sides of the island, people refer to them as windward and leeward). This is a working cattle ranch with about 400 head of cattle (there was even one cow that was struggling trying to give birth to a calf…yikes!). It also has some stunning mountains and has been used over the years to shoot parts of several television shows and movies including Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers, 50 First Dates, A Very Brady Sequel, Godzilla, Mighty Joe Young, Magnum P.I., and LOST.

After the attack by Japan in 1941 the military built several concrete pillboxes and at least one bunker. After the war the ranch was returned to the owners.

Stephen & Josiah
A real horse.
Pillboxes built during World War II.
A bunker built by the military and also used for a shot in the movie Pearl Harbor.
Various movie stuff inside the bunker representing different movies that have been filmed (at least partially) at the ranch.
Our tour guide said that the filming of LOST had completed the day before and he had witness a submarine being blown up (that might be part of the season finale). I don’t think that was being filmed at the ranch but there’s a little “sneak peak” into what is to come (assuming our tour guide was correct).
Godzilla’s footprints - in the movie these were very deep (10 feet deep or something) but this is a working cattle ranch and that was too deep to be safe for the cattle so they filled them in most of the way.
Footprint
Kids running down a hill.
One of these houses was supposedly the one that was Mr. Mayagi’s house in one of the Karate Kid movies.
This is the cave that Bobby got lost in or something in A Very Brady Sequel.
At some point during Mighty Joe Young (maybe during the credits) they show two kissing gorilla heads in the mountain. The below is a picture of those kissing gorilla heads.
Cattle

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii IV - Military Stuff

2007-05-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:14 AM
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii IV - Military Stuff

Of course, while we were in Hawaii we visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The Arizona was sunk quickly during the attacks of 7 December 1941 and more than a thousand men lost their lives. Many were entombed in the ship and their bodies were never recovered.

Andy and Amy live on the base at Hickam AFB and it is a short walk to the water of Pearl Harbor affording the opportunity to see some of the equipment of the U.S. Navy. Pretty neat.

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

The kids and an anchor from the Arizona. According to the sign (inset) the anchor weighs over 19,000 lbs.
Depiction of ships in the harbor and those that were sunk or sustained damage.

The Memorial sits atop the sunken ship.

A list of lives lost.
While standing on the Memorial you can see the ship resting beneath the water (and sticking up out of the water a bit). Oil still leaks from the ship 65 years after it sunk.

Ford Island is the island that sits in the middle of Pearl Harbor. This is a picture of the kids on Ford Island with the Arizona Memorial in the background.

____________________

Other Military Stuff

Jim and a ship.

The boys as a sub passes by.

Dan and a big ship.

The U.S.S. Utah was also lost during the attack in 1941. The Memorial for the Utah is on Ford Island.

The bunch of us (except for Andy) at the Utah Memorial.
Will and a big ship.

Jim and a big ship.

Several of the kids and a big ship.

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii III - Dole Plantation

2007-05-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:50 PM
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii III - Dole Plantation

On Thursday we visited the Dole Plantation. They have a lot of pineapple stuff there. They also have the World’s Largest Maze (at least according to the 2001 version of the Guinness Book of World Records). It has 1.7 miles of pathways and the object is to get to six different stations inside the maze. The record time is 8 minutes (see picture of record times below). I think I did the best of all of the people in our group by finding 5 of the stations but it took me more than 45 minutes. Some people had gotten a map and Jim was able to show me the sixth station. We wanted to leave but took a while to find Kimberly and Elizabeth so by the time we got out it was something like 52 or 53 minutes from when we’d started. It was HARD (and pretty hot too).

Pineapple questions you've always wondered about...

Clockwise from upper left:
Elizabeth & Jim…Kimberly…Caleb…Josiah…Elizabeth & Kimberly…Elizabeth & Kimberly…Josiah & Will

More pineapple information.

Beth & Stephen inside the maze.

Amy & Josiah in the maze…

Elizabeth and Kimberly in the maze...

Dan in the maze...

Maze times.

“Mahalo” means “Thank You”

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii II

2007-05-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:54 PM
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii II

On Tuesday we visited Moanalua Gardens, a very pretty park with many large, very cool trees. This park also has a monkeypod tree that is used in a Hitachi commercial in Japan and Japanese tourists come to get their picture taken with the tree. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jun/27/bz/bz01p.html

On Monday we visited Chinatown (who knew there was such a think in Hawaii?!?). While there we visited a fish/meat market. There were some fairly large gray fish in a shallow bit of water that were still alive and would sometimes squirm around (I have a little movie…if you’d like to see it, let me know). There were vegetables and many other things including various parts of a pig that I don’t usually see in the grocery stores I frequent (unless it’s in sausage) like a pig head and pig blood…yuck!

We ate at a Zippy’s which is a Hawaiian restaurant chain. I had chili moco (chili, rice, hunks of hamburger patty, and eggs). It wasn’t bad.

Limousines for the Japanese tourists who were visiting the famous tree from the commercial.

The famous tree.

Kids jumping in front of the famous tree.

A palm tree.

Another cool tree.

Some kids and some koi fish.

Chinatown. Will & Elizabeth.

Clockwise from upper left. Squid --- Will with pig blood and goat meat --- Pig head --- Pig liver, stomach, and bone --- My sister, Amy, and a large avocado.

Steve, Will, and Jim with chickens hanging in the background.

Zippy's

Chili Moco from Zippy’s!

Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii I

2007-05-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 4:04 PM
Subject: Aloha! Trumbles in Hawaii I

Aloha! The Trumbles are in Hawaii visiting my sister’s family. Major Andy Leong, my brother-in-law is stationed at Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu and we’re staying with him, my sister Amy, and their three children Kimberly (9), Caleb (6), and Josiah (4). We arrived on Thursday, January 11th after about an 8 hour flight from Dallas which followed an early morning flight from Colorado Springs. This was the first time any of the kids remember being on an airplane and they did really well.

On Friday Andy had to go to work but the rest of us walked around a bit on the base. We walked along the channel that boats use to move between Pearl Harbor and the ocean. We didn’t see any big boats moving while we walked but later in the day we saw a big ship and a sub in the distance. We had a picnic lunch at the park area by Hickam Beach and spent some time playing on the beach. I got sunburned.

On Saturday all of us, including Andy, drove out to Bellows Beach and spent some time. Many of us slept some on the way back from the beach…very tired!

Note the slight difference in temperature between Hawaii and Colorado on Saturday night. It warmed up some in Colorado Springs by the point where the below reading was taken. According to the local Colorado Springs newspaper, The Gazette (http://www.gazette.com/) it was only 4 degrees at noon Saturday (that’s about -16 C).

This weather data is from http://www.wunderground.com/

Steve has the airline travel deal figured out pretty well.

Here we are at Andy & Amy's house
Welcome greeting on the door to Andy & Amy's house

On Friday we took a walk on the base

Here are the seven kids. Will, Caleb, Jim, Stephen, Josiah, Elizabeth, Kimberly

At Hickam Beach

Stephen & Josiah and an African tulip tree.

Saturday at Bellows Beach

Jim running. Kimberly, Elizabeth, Will and Stephen in the background.

Stephen, Elizabeth, Will, and Jim

Dan in the water

Jim & Will

Elizabeth...Jim & Stephen...Will

The kids and a hole in the sand.

A crab

Ice cream after the beach.

Happy New Year!

2007-05-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 10:25 PM
Subject: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Today our family went sledding.

Elizabeth

Stephen

Jim

Stephen

Dan & Beth

Elizabeth

Dan & Will

Some mystery kid with Jim standing in the background.

Another mystery kid.

And yet another mystery kid. Wipeout!

Mount Rushmore 16 November 2006

2007-05-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 3:47 PM
Subject: Trumbles at Mount Rushmore 16 November 2006

Greetings.

On Thursday, November 16, the Trumble family visited Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore is in South Dakota and depicts the images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in the side of the mountain. The size of these guys would be about 465 ft tall or approximately 140 meters.

We had visited in May 2002 and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Keystone, the town right near Mt. Rushmore. However, it turns out that much of the town of Keystone shuts down during the offseason and November is certainly part of the offseason. The Holiday Inn Express we had stayed in before was closed for the season and the place we ended up staying has lots of rooms but only keeps 6 open for use during this time of year. The guy at the hotel said there are two places in town to eat. During the summer there would be numerous options. We ate at a pizza place and it was really good. One of the pizzas we got was Ta Tanka (Buffalo).

The Mountain

A deer running in front of the mountain

The “devil eye” thing is just the reflection of a light on this picture but this gives a feel for the scale of the faces.

This is a picture of a display that shows how the faces in the mountain compare to some other large things in the world.

Trumble family

Will, Elizabeth, Jim, and Stephen

George & Stephen

George, Abe, and Elizabeth

George, Will, Jim, Elizabeth, and Stephen

George (in the distance) and Jim

The Presidents and the Kids

Dan & the Presidents

Beth, Will, and Jim and a mountain goat

Pizza

The Corn Palace and Laura Ingalls Wilder

2007-05-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 2:49 PM
Subject: The Corn Palace and Laura Ingalls Wilder

Let me take a moment to answer a couple of burning questions that you probably would like for me to answer:

Question #1:
Dan, has your family ever visited the famed Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota?
Oh yes, we’ve been there (although Beth stayed in the car while the rest of us looked around).

The Corn Palace is a structure where conventions, basketball games, and presumably other good stuff, can happen in the fine community of Mitchell, SD. Each year it is decorated differently using Corn. This year’s theme is the rodeo. This is not the original Corn Palace but this one has been there since 1921. The Corn Palace, in some form or another, goes back to 1892.

_________________________________________________________

Question #2:
Dan, has your family ever traveled along the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway?
Oh, yes, we’ve traveled it (at least part of it).

Near DeSmet, South Dakota, is an old homestead property of Pa Ingalls (Charles) and it has been turned into kind of a museum. Included are a couple of representative dwellings (a sod house and a regular, above ground, house), a schoolhouse, a barn, and other good stuff. It is closed for the season but they allow people to walk around and check things out and we did some of that. My, but it was cold.

Quoting from a description posted inside “Ma’s Little House”:

In the Spring of 1880, to shelter his family of six, he [Charles] built a “half-house” of 140 square feet [13 sq meters]…In 1881, he added the second half, (an additional 140 square feet…While Mary attended the Iowa School for the Blind, Pa and Laura worked hard and saved money to purchase an organ as a surprise on her arrival home. Pa built a 16 foot x 20 foot addition to make room for the pump organ…This reconstructed claim shanty was built according to the description Pa wrote on the papers he filed with the government.

We visited the Corn Palace & the old Ingall’s homestead on Friday, the 17th of November before we got to my Aunt’s house in nearby Brookings, SD. After spending time with my family on Saturday, we left to drive to Iowa on Sunday at which point we continued down the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway which eventually took us through Walnut Grove, Minnesota. There’s even a Nellie’s Café there.

Corn Palace Stuff

Trumble Kids at the Corn Palace

Dan at the Corn Palace (I took the picture myself)

In these two pictures you can see how the ears of corn are used to make the pictures. That’s art, people!

Inside the Corn Palace there are pictures of many of the prior year versions.

1905

1997 (that’s me in the reflection!)

Laura Ingalls Stuff

Stephen & Elizabeth with “Ma’s Old House” and the stable in the background

Will & Jim in front of “Ma’s Little House”

Elizabeth & a windmill

Windmill at Sunset

Pa & Ma. Pa sure doesn’t look much like Michael Landon!

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument Aug 06

2007-05-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: Trumbles at The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument Aug 06

Listen, this is not as exotic as the whole “travel around the world” thing but it is what it is (and the family is along for this one).

We’re on our way to Oskaloosa Iowa where Beth’s folks live (as I write this sentence I’m sitting in a McDonald’s in Council Bluffs, IA). So, we did the Arch thing in Kearney, Nebraska. It’s not all that cheap ($29 for our family) but it is quite nicely done. It’s basically a museum documenting the travel to the west from the early pioneers to the miners to the cross-country railroad to a road for cars. Apparently Kearney is about 3 miles from the middle of that automobile road that ran from Boston to San Francisco (1733 miles to Boston, 1733 to San Francisco).

Outside there is a maze that kids can go through (that was $10 for the four kids). This morning, outside of the hotel was some thing. Steve thought it looked like a crust but it was really a flat frog. I had battery issues with the camera and didn’t get a picture. Somewhere I have packed some rechargeable batteries but I don’t know exactly where they are. $4.38 for 2 batteries at the place where we stopped for gas. I had a couple of batteries I had purchased in Indonesia in the community where we visited the project. I paid something like 70 cents for 4 batteries but when I put them in the camera the camera said to change the batteries.

What lessons can we learn from this?

Have a good battery strategy so that you’re prepared to take pictures of flat frogs and other wonders.
If you have rechargeable batteries, know where they are.
If you pay 20 cents or less for a battery, don’t get your hopes up
If you have to buy batteries at a convenience store/gas station, you will pay through the nose…ouch.

Here’s some pictures from the Kearney, Nebraska area.

Arch spanning I-80 and four Trumble kids in the bright sun.

Big Bison.

Bright Sun.

Beth helping some cross-country travelers push their wagon.

Four Trumble Kids and a bunch of Mormons with handcarts

I-80 from the Arch

The Maze. There are 4 corners and the goal is to get to each tower and punch a card and then return. It is timed. The Trumble kids did not break any records for speed.

Jim in the maze.

Sunset 3 Aug 06

Broncos/Trumbles/Newspaper

2007-05-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

From: Dan Trumble

Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 12:25 PM

Subject: Broncos/Trumbles/Newspaper

This is an article that starts on the front page of the Metro section of the January 21, 2006 Gazette (the local paper in Colorado Springs). The article mentions me and the lady who lives across the street from us (June Nash). The article is copied below. The version in the newspaper includes a picture of me and some of the kids but the online version does not include the picture. Here is that picture.

a staged picture that was not in the newspaper but is pretty good, nonetheless

And yet one more that is also not in the paper.

Here’s the article:

Dearly devoted
By CAROL McGRAW - THE GAZETTE

They swaddle themselves in team colors. They grow shaggy beards not even a mother wolverine could love. They collect lucky charms that only work if they are positioned just so on the coffee table. All this makes them endearingly irritating to friends, family and strangers alike. It also makes them the best of Broncos fans.

Mayor Lionel Rivera has proclaimed this Broncos Weekend for Colorado Springs and is urging everyone to wear the orange and blue. The AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers — deciding who goes to the Super Bowl — is Sunday at 1 p.m.

If you’re not sure how to join the stampede, study how these Broncos maniacs do it:

- There are fans and then there is Reggie Lopez. Pat Holmes found that out plenty fast when he purchased Don’s Auto Body Shop, 202 S. 21st St. in Old Colorado City, about eight years ago. “Reggie came with the business. I offered them $10,000 more to take him, but they wouldn’t,” joked Holmes, a transplanted Californian who races antique motorcycles.What would make a boss say that? Well, Holmes wanted his new place to sparkle, so he told Lopez, the parts man, to paint over the doors adorned with gigantic Broncos logos. No way, Lopez told his new boss. The logos stay. The first had been up since Broncos quarterback Craig Morton’s era in the ’70s. Lopez painted the second after they won the 1998 Super Bowl. “Wild horses couldn’t have dragged me to paint the doors,” Lopez said. Holmes now understands he bought a landmark. Broncos fans ask to have their photos taken out front. Customers tell him they chose the shop because of the logos. Holmes, now a fan, said, “The only way I could ever get rid of Reggie would be to paint a Raiders logo on the third door.”

- Sunday is June Nash’s 72nd birthday, and the greatgrandmother of five will be in a seat overlooking the south end zone at Invesco Field on Sunday. She and her three sisters have had tickets since the ’90s. Sometimes she gives her tickets to son-in-law Doug Dean, but not this weekend. “There wasn’t a chance,” she said. Nash has a photo of herself with Broncos superfan Barrel Man, two seats from the old Mile High Stadium and a Broncos throw that her daughter crocheted. She’ll take a bus from Colorado Springs to the stadium, lugging her Broncos blanket, padded Broncos seat and Broncos pompoms in her Broncos tote. She’ll wear her gold Broncos earrings with tiny bells that chime when she shakes her head after a touchdown, plus Broncos garb head to toe. What does she want for her birthday? “A win.”

- Barry Dunlap, chef at Garden of the Gods Gourmet, has watched Broncos football since he was knee high to a Viking (stove, not Minnesota). “I remember the Broncos getting beat by the Cowboys in 1978,” the 32-year-old said. “That’s what made me the fan I am today.” Alas, he’ll have to watch the game on a 5-inch TV while he quarterbacks gameday fare for customers: Mile High Blue margaritas; blue corn nachos with Mike Vanderjagt cheese; Tom Brady’s Green with Envy Chili; and Smothered Ground Roethlisbergers with a “sack” of chips. (Don’t get the joke? Ask any fan, who’ll be thrilled to explain in excruciating detail).

- You could call Dan Trumble’s Broncos fever a-mazing. He has laboriously — and apparently joyfully — spent hours drawing Broncosthemed mazes for friends and family. Trumble, who works for Compassion International, is hopeful the “indoctrination” of his kids will work. Four-yearold Stephen already knows the difference between the classic Broncos logo, with the big D, and the new one.

- Camille Colt Mills has worn her John Elway jersey for every game since about 1998 — and hasn’t washed it because that would be unlucky. “It doesn’t smell too bad,” she said. “I use Febreeze and wear a turtleneck under it, and I’ve been careful with the beer.” Mills, 27, who works for a defense contractor, grew up eating pumpkin seeds and watching Broncos games with her mom, Joanne Colt, owner of Giuseppe’s Depot Restaurant downtown. Mills’ husband is deployed to Iraq, so she’ll watch the game with Leo, her golden retriever. “He pretends to be watching to make me feel better,” she reported.