Jeff and I went to his parent's house last night for dinner and Grandpa Lane was there with such a cool story. The article below is from the Standard Examiner in Ogden, they interviewed him and published his story!! He was chosen to fly to Washington DC to visit the WWII memorial. He talked with excitement about it and said it was a REALLY long day, 4.5 hours there and 4.5 hours back!!

Roy vet recipient of Honor Flight
By RACHEL J. TROTTER
Standard-Examiner correspondent

ROY — Herbert Lane says he's no hero, but there are those who would disagree. The 85-year-old World War II veteran isn't sure why he was chosen by the nonprofit group, Honor Flight
Network, for a free trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II Memorial today. But his son knows why. "He'll claim he's not one of the heroes, but they are all heroes," Ken
Lane said of his father and all the others who fought in World War II. He submitted his father's name to the Ohio-based Honor Flight Network in August 2007 after he noticed a flyer about it from a local newspaper.
Honor Flight's goal is to make sure as many World War II veterans as possible visit their memorial. Time is running out, because they are getting older and many are dying or find it too
difficult to travel, James McLaughlin, president of Honor Flight Network said, in a phone interview from Ohio. The group also wants to send Korean and Vietnam war veterans to Washington once the World War II veterans have had their turn.
Ken Lane was thrilled when he found out his father had been picked. "I just thought we weren't going to hear from them, it had been so long," he said. His father got a call from McLaughlin about three weeks ago offering him the trip and asking if he had a companion who could accompany him.
Herbert Lane has felt a wide range of emotions since that phone call. "I was surprised and then I
thought, 'Gee, that would be neat,' " he said with a smile. But he thought,"the old man isn't as young as he used to be," so he's glad to have his son going with him. He decided to take Ken, his oldest son, on the trip, because he left to go to war when Ken was only 6 months old. He didn't get home until the boy was 3.
Ken Lane said his father doesn't talk a lot about his war days, but he hopes that when they go to Washington he will open up. McLaughlin said that's common. When the veterans arrive at the memorial, it opens the floodgate of memories, and they often start talking, especially with the other veterans on the trip.
"The effect is simply amazing. It's an opportunity for closure," McLaughlin said.

Lane spent more than a year in Germany with the Air Corps and on the front lines in the
infantry near the end of the war. "I wasn't a hero, I was one of the lucky ones," he says.
Herbert Lane admits he's tried to think of those days in Germany"as little as possible. He marched across Germany with the 30th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 3rd Army.
"I was one of the lucky ones. Yes, I had frontline combat, but others paid a bigger price," he said. He remembers soon after he arrived in Germany, the troops got a visit from Gen. George S. Patton, who stood only a few feet from Herbert.
"I still remember what he said," Herbert said. "He told us he was glad to have new
blood, and all I thought was, 'You aren't getting any of my blood!'"Ken Lane feels strongly
about the service of all veterans, but knows the price his father paid by not being able to be with or communicate with his family for three years.
Herbert Lane keeps a handful of photos of himself from World War II in a family album.

Thankful

Sorry I haven't gotten around to Rocky's debut, I promise I haven't forgotten. Jeff and I will work on it tonight, hopefully we can have something posted tomorrow.

"It's an eagle!!"

I'm always on the lookout for eagles, everywhere we go! Jeff is usually driving so I get to watch for cool stuff. Everytime I see a big bird, big enough to be an eagle, I automatically yell out, "It's an eagle!!" Jeff will take a look and say, " no it's not, that's just a hawk, not every bird you see is an eagle!" So, I'll continue to look, knowing what I saw was an eagle (even if it wasn't ;)) and not caring if Jeff agreed with me or not. :)

On my way to work this morning, doing my usual thing, taking my usual boring route, I noticed a BIG bird on top of the lamp post at the top of the freeway entrance. I took off my sunglasses to get a better look and thought to myself, is it an owl??? As I got closer I realized I was looking at a golden eagle!!! Can you believe it? I looked to my left to see what it was staring at and there it was a dead doe- poor mama, right there at Redwood Road and 2-15. The eagle must have been hungry but couldn't get to it because of all of the cars. So anyway, as you can imagine, I was thrilled that I saw an eagle, and so close to home! I called Jeff and said... "guess what I just saw!!"

Our family so far... chapter 1 of 8... Princess Bella

Miss Bella just turned 4 on September 27. I can't believe she's already 4. The first couple of years were kinda challenging. Her mother is a house cat and her father is a feral cat that lives in fields. She always has been more "wild" than domestic. When she was a baby, she would attack anything that moved... yes, that seems absolutely normal for a kitten, but on top of that, if you were eating popcorn, she would growl at you and swat the popcorn out of your hand so that she could eat it, while growling! She also did this with Jolly Ranchers and any kind of fruity sucker. She knew who liked her and who she liked, she peed on Arnie's shoulder and would make evil scary faces at Lindsay. To this day, when Lindsay tries to pet her, Bella will hiss and scratch at her. I don't know why this is and I've tried to tell her to be nice, but she just won't listen! In Bella's older years she has had to adjust to quite a bit of change, moving to and from San Diego, being forced to accept new roommates, Rocky, Rustad AND Kaia! To say the least, she has done an awesome job and I'm so very proud of her. If you notice in the top corner pic, her and Rocky are laying together on the rug! I NEVER thought that this would happen. She still hisses at Kaia, and probably for good reason, but for the most part is learning to accept having to share living quarters with her.

This is the first chapter out of eight more to come. Please check back next week for all about Rocky! What a sweet soul, you won't want to miss it!

I voted today! : )

I woke up bright and early so I would be able to cast my vote for national, state and local candidates. This year I've felt an overwhelming amount of pressure from family, media, friends and emails. On the way to my polling location this morning, I was really feeling the pressure... have I made the right choices on who to vote for? Am I sure I know what I'm voting for? I met my mother at our location at 8:00 am and thankfully she had her voter info pamphlet for a refresher. I was really nervous, I didn't want to cast my vote for something I don't believe in, or reinstate a judge that could possibly sentence an innocent person to prison. This is heavy stuff! I read through the pamphlet once more and felt confident in the choices I had made. After voting, I really started thinking about how important our local votes are for the future of our state. I wish the state or county would have a "voter education course" that all registered voters must attend and maybe it could have a little quiz at the end that they would have to pass. It really scares me that some voters have no idea what they are voting for, much less who is even running! How can that be allowed? To me, it's pure irresponsibility and disrespect to our county, state and country. Good luck in casting your votes today, the line at my polling place wasn't long at all and it took only about 25 minutes. God Bless America! We are so very lucky to have this right as citizens. Please exercise it.