Photos: In Memory of Florence Crane

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Florence Crane

Note: Florence (whom Lydia knew as Grandma Florence) was 83 years old when this picture was taken.

Special Note: Al Crane, Florence's beloved for the last 59 years of their marriage, called us with the sad news this morning (October 10, 2009) at 10:00 AM with the news that Florence, at the age of 85, had passed away today at 9:47 AM at the Anderson House, a skilled care nursing home located in Shoreline, Washington where she had been staying for the last month.

After receiving this news, we went to the nursing home to see Florence and to comfort Al. We shall miss Florence dearly, but we know that she is with Jesus because over the years, she often spoke about her relationship with Jesus and her joy that all of her children, Beverly, Steve, and Carolyn, had accepted Christ, had committed their lives to Him, and were serving Him.

March 11, 2007

Living room of our home

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Grandma Florence is observing Lydia as Lydia plays the harmonica.

Note: Grandma Florence regularly commented to us that "God gave you a beautiful daughter."

March 24, 2008

Living room of our home

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Al and Florence Crane

March 11, 2007

Note: Florence lived at home until two months ago when her family decided to place her in an assisted living facility, Rosewood Court. This is a picture that I retouched, printed (at Super A# size, which is 13 inches x 19 inches), matted, framed (in an 18 inch x 24 inch frame), and gave to Al, who hung it in her room at Rosewood Court.

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Lydia is eating lunch with Grandpa Al and Grandma Florence

Note: For many years, Al and Florence made it a daily routine to eat lunch at the Old Country Buffet because they no longer cooked at home. SiowFong, Lydia, and I would occasionally join them for lunch, usually after church ended. This was one of those occasions.

November 9, 2008

Old Country Buffet

Lynnwood, Washington

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Lydia and Grandma Florence

Note: Lydia often brought a smile to Florence's face.

November 9, 2008

Old Country Buffet

Lynnwood, Washington

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Grandma Florence and Lydia are giving each other a goodbye hug in the parking lot.

Note: Because Lydia saw Al and Florence each week at Shoreline Community Church and because we ate meals with them (either at our home or at a local Old Country Buffet), Lydia became quite close to them.

November 7, 2008

Parking lot outside Old Country Buffet

Lynnwood, Washington

Photos: September 28, 2009

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The concrete subcontractors poured the foundation footings earlier today.

Note: "The tee or spread foundation is perhaps the most commonly used type, so named because its cross section looks like an inverted T [the horizontal part of the T is the footing, and the vertical part of the T is the wall]. . .On a flat site in temperate regions, a shallow tee foundation is usually enough to support a house while creating a crawl space that allows joist access and ventilation.

Where the ground freezes, foundation footings need to be dug below the frost line, stipulated by local codes. Below the frost line, footings aren't susceptible to the potentially tremendous lifting and sinking forces of freeze-thaw cycles in moist soil (thus most houses in cold climates often have full basements)." (Michael Litchfield. Renovation. Taunton Press: 2005. page 201.)

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Lydia and SiowFong are posing for this picture.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 28, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: House, September 26, 2009

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SiowFong and Lydia are touring the job site.

Note: The long wooden boards are the concrete forms, into which concrete will be poured for the footings of the foundation. After the footings are done, then the foundation walls will be built. The vertical rods planted in the dirt are steel reinforcing bars (rebar) that "carries and distributes load within foundation, transferring the loads from high pressure areas to lower-pressure area. It thereby lessens the likelihood of point failure, either from point loading above or from lateral soil and water pressures." (Michael Litchfield. Renovation. Taunton Press: 2005. page 202.)

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"Little Princess" and "Big Princess"

Note: Both of these pictures were taken on September 26, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: House, September 23, 2009

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This is our family picture as we are in the three to four foot deep excavated area.

Note: As Erik Wickman, the excavator, was removing dirt from the site, he found an old oil tank buried underneath the soil. Marine Vacuum Service, a firm that pumps oil out from old oil tanks, vacuumed 300 gallons from this tank to remove all of its contents before Erik used his heavy equipment to extract it from the site.

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Lydia is standing on a bale of straw at the job site.

Notes: The straw will be used as insulation over and around the concrete footings to protect them from frost. The black plastic is covering a pile of dirt that was removed during the excavation. This will be used later to backfill the excavated site after the foundation (footings and walls) and footing drains are built. Most of the excavated dirt, however, has already been moved off-site by several dump trucks.

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Lydia, who is standing at ground level, is holding onto her mother's hand as SiowFong is standing in the excavated part of our future home.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 23, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: Farewell Peng

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Auntie Peng (Peng Liew) is reading a book about ballet to Lydia, and Lydia is giving Auntie Peng her undivided attention.

Note: Ever since she was introduced to this book a few months ago, Lydia has aspired to be a ballerina, and because of her interest, we enrolled her this month in a "Mommy and Me" pre-ballet class, which she thoroughly enjoys, through the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the region's oldest and most well-known ballet company. This book is one of Lydia's favorites, and she often asks SiowFong to read it to her at bedtime.

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Auntie Peng is making a point about something in the ballet book to Lydia.

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Lydia, SiowFong, and Auntie Peng are playing Candyland.

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One thing that Auntie Peng likes to do is to hug Lydia.

Note: All of us shall miss Auntie Peng as she has been like family to us. Her friendship with SiowFong dates back over ten years. She served as the greeter for our wedding reception in Seattle at the Sea Garden Chinese restaurant in Bellevue, Washington several years ago. As an accomplished architect who holds a number of certifications, including the American Institute of Architects, Green Building, and LEED, Auntie Peng was one of the many employees adversely affected by this year's economic downturn; as a result, she is leaving this area to relocate to St. Louis, Missouri for her new job, which will require her to work for many months in China.

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Auntie Peng and Lydia are playing with Tiger.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 14, 2009 in the living room of our home.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Nature

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A wide angle view of the wilderness and a lake from Sunrise Point, which is the last major turnout before reaching the Sunrise (this viewpoint has a huge parking lot)

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Point

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Mount Rainier before sunrise

Note: Ashwin Rao, our good friend, and I were at Sunrise before sunrise, which occurred at 6:51 AM. This photo was taken about a half hour earlier at 6:23 AM.

September 20, 2009

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Mount Rainier after sunrise

Note: This photo was taken at 7:12 AM. Note the pink and orange hues that are seen on the snow and ice. Such colors only appear around sunrise and sunset; as a result, most visitors who are making day trips to Mount Rainier miss nature's light show on the mountain. We stayed overnight for one evening just to have a chance to see a nice sunset and / or a lovely sunrise. Clouds and fog blanketed the mountain yesterday, so that eliminated any opportunity to witness a sunset, but the clouds cleared this morning to give us a nice sunrise.

September 20, 2009

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Tipsoo Lake

September 20, 2009

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View of Mount Rainier from Tipsoo Lake

September 20, 2009

Note: All of these pictures were taken in the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Up and Down Trails

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Lydia and her mom are walking on the Tipsoo Lake Trail.

Note: Just behind them is the Lake Tipsoo.

September 20, 2009

Tipsoo Lake Trail

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Lydia and SiowFong are approaching Lydia's dad.

September 20, 2009

Tipsoo Lake Trail

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Both SiowFong and Lydia have paused to look at Lydia's dad.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Rim / Wonderland Trail

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Happy hikers

September 20, 2009

Tipsoo Lake Trail

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Lydia is showing her mom how far she has gone.

September 20, 2009

Tipsoo Lake Trail

Note: All of these images were taken on at or near the Sunrise section of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Lydia and Group Pictures

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Lydia, SiowFong, Ashwin Rao, and Tom are standing in front of a colorful Sitka mountain ash whose leaves are changing color in response to the lower temperatures.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise parking lot



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Tom, Lydia, Ashwin, SiowFong

September 20, 2009

Road from Sunrise to Tipsoo Lake

Photo note: An off camera flash to the left of the camera that was mounted 7 feet off the ground on a lightstand provided the illumination on the group. When taking an outdoor picture of a person or a group in which a large expanse of sky is present in the background, some fill flash is needed to make sure that the person (or people) in the foregaround are not too dark.

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Lydia is jogging down the trail, excited to show her mom or dad a picture that she had taken.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail



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A closer up view of the same image

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail

Photo note: The simplest editing tool, which is available in all photo editing programs, is the crop tool, and frequently this tool is the only one needed to enhance an image.

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Lydia, SiowFong, Ashwin, and Tom

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail

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Lydia is standing beside a Sitka mountain ash shrub.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise parking lot

Note: All of these pictures were taken in the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Lydia's Snack-A-Rama

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Lydia is ready to eat her granola bar.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail

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Lydia must be thinking of the word that means "delicious" as she is savoring the granola bar.

September 19, 2009

Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail

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Lydia is peering into her snack bag.

September 20, 2009

Trail to Tipsoo Lake

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Happy snacker Lydia

September 20, 2009

Trail to Tipsoo Lake

Note: Using Lydia's Canon SD1100 digital point and shoot camera, SiowFong took all of these pictures in the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Roasting Marshmellows

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Lydia and SiowFong are gathering their roasting sticks and marshmellows.

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Ashwin Rao and SiowFong are roasting marshmellows in the camp fire while Lydia holds her mom's hand.

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While uncle Ashwin is roasting a marshmellow, Lydia is sitting beside him and eating her smore, which is a sandwich in which the roasted marshmellow is sandwiched between two pieces of graham crackers.

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The campfire

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 19, 2009 at the Alta Crystal Resort at Sunrise at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Alta Crystal

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Lydia and Ashwin Rao (uncle Ashwin)

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Tiger, Lydia, and SiowFong

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Lydia is playing with the fingers of uncle Ashwin's left hand.

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Lydia is sitting on the ladder that leads from the first floor to the second floor loft.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 19, 2009 at the Alta Crystal Resort at Sunrise, which is part of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Walking Stick and Drawing

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Lydia is gazing at the lines that she just drew in the dirt using her REI walking stick.

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Using both of her hands, Lydia, the artist, is at work.

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Lydia's favorite activity while walking on this trail was making the dirt drawings.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 19, 2009 at the Sunrise Trail / Wonderland Trail at the Sunrise section of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Photos: Mount Rainier, Squirrel

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A squirrel is eating a red berry from a Sitka mountain ash shrub.

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The same squirrel is eating an almond that another tourist had tossed towards the animal.

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After finishing the almond, the squirrel is eating another red berry.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on September 19, 2009 in the parking lot at Sunrise at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.