Bands

Here is the challenge, and I know how you all like a challenge. Look at the picture below and see how many band names you can come up with. I'll give you a hint, one of the band names is B-52s. Let me know how you did.

And the first one to identify the band name represented by the scissors with bows on them get's a prize!

Trip 2

For trip 2 we went to Reedsport, Oregon to ride ATVs at the sand dunes. I knew this would be fun but I didn't know it would be as fun as it was. Holy cow did I have a great time. The dunes are right on the coast and when you climb some of them you have a great view of the ocean (see pics below). Boston and Mason also had a great time riding the ATVs. Joyce, my sister, has 4 ATVs, 2 of which are Yamaha Blasters 250's. These are the bikes Boston and Mason rode (and shared with Joyce and Catie - my niece). The drive there and back was so beautiful. Boston turned out to be quite the rider. He went up and down some pretty steep hills. I was very impressed. I think their favorite part was "carving" the hills. This is when you shoot up a hill as fast as you can and spin a 180 at the top and shoot back down. If you do it right it gives you that faint little tickle in your stomach. I love it too.

Below are some pics for you to enjoy.

We had to drive my truck out to the sand camp spot. This was a little scary since the last time we drove it in the sand Merilee got it stuck. We made it just fine though. Good truck, good truck.


This is our awesome 5 star MOTEL we stayed in. Nothing like the Salty Seagull!

and the inside...


Boston and Mason on the Blaster


View of the ocean from the top of the dunes. If you look carefully you can see a sailboat.


Here is my nephew Nick catching some air off the top of a dune.


Me and Boston "carving" one of the dunes.


The view of the river on the drive home. Isn't it beautiful!

Trip #1

We switched up our vacation plans this summer and decided to see the Northwest while we still could. So here is our first trip. We went to Deer Harbor, Washington, it is located in the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. The island we were on was called Orcas Island. We had to take a ferry to reach the island. It was beautiful. We didn't see any whales, but still a great ride. While we were there it was cloudy and rainy most of the time, but still relaxing. We did some swimming, played some golf, explored the little island towns. I am sure Merilee will post more about our trip. The best part was on our ferry ride back. We all decided to stay in the car and relax during the 45 minute ride. However, we left the key on to listen to the iPod. When we tried to start the car - dead battery. The ferry is fully loaded. We are halfway back on the side. How embarrassing! Luckily the crew of the ferry had one of those car jumpers. We had to push the van forward to let the people behind us off before we got the car started. Looks like it's time for a new battery!

Here are some pictures...

This is where we loaded the ferry - Anacortes, WA


A view from the ferry - Between Anacortes and Deer Harbor


The view from our condo - Deer Harbor, WA


Sidney being silly at lunch - East Sound, WA


Me at the golf course - Deer Harbor, WA


Sidney swimming - Deer Harbor, WA


View from the dock - Olga, WA

The latest...

I was going to focus this blog on what I did today, but when I imported the pictures from my camera there were some other cool things too. So...


Sidney, Mason and Lincoln

This picture was at the house we rented when we went to ride 4-wheelers at the beach. I hear it was a fun trip. I was in bed the entire trip sleeping with a nasty cold/flu. I did make it out to the dunes for about 2 hours for a fun ride.

The dogs playing at the beach on the 4th of July.




Megan and Ruben were there too.


Fireworks... we went to Gearhart and drove out onto the beach - our minivan and Tom's minivan. Both of us got stuck trying to make it back off the beach. It took an hour and 3 different cars to pull us out, plus about 20 people pushing. It was an adventure! But I think Tom had a good time lighting off fireworks (the good kind) at the beach. It really is an amazing experience, one that everyone see at least once!




While Mother is away the boys will play!
Merilee is in Phoenix this week and Sidney is spending the weekend at her aunt Joyce's house (she would much rather be there than here that's for sure) so I took the boys golfing. We went with some guys from work. We had two foursomes and ours won by 1 stroke! That meant each of us won $5.00. The boys were very happy when they realized that each of us got money. I think they may be hooked! Both of the boys played well, much better than I did when I started golfing. Boston has a special talent with golf - he hits the ball straight! This is their second time out, but I have been informed that this must now be a weekly or bi-weekly event. I guess I can handle that.




We all played in style - collars popped!


I guess that's all I got - time for bed.

SYTYCD

This post is dedicated to Brian. Last night when I got home Merilee was laying in bed watching TV. I walked in and she had some reality show on. Come to find out it was Brian's second favorite show! SYTYCD (that's So You Think You Can Dance for you non-SYTYCD maniacs)!!! I watched a few minutes. Just a few thoughts...

1. I can't believe they kept the breakdancer instead of the guy who really could dance!
2. How come they have so many judges?
3. The contestants seem a little overwhelmed with emotion each time they hear what the judges have to say. Is this because they are dancers, full of emotion, stressed to the gills or just lame?
4. The girl at the end, she really needs a PR rep. How could you say to the judges that if they cut you, you won't be back. Duh! And, they kept her anyway???


On a different note...
Mason had a baseball game last night. He played well. He has been pitching really well the last few games. In the 3rd inning I go by the dugout and he shows me his mit. It had ripped in the webbing. He said "Dad, I need a new mit, mine ripped." I asked him if he could even play and he said yes, he wasn't going to sit out of the game for the last few innings, that's for sure! His team won pretty handily. They have won 3 in a row now. Quite suprising actually. I think they have 3 or 4 good players and 3 or 4 players that should be playing a league or two down. Anyway, a very fun way to spend an evening. Tonight we get to see two games. Boston plays at 6:00 and Mason plays at 8:00 under the lights. We need to remember to bring our blankets, these nights games are pretty chilly.

Peeps

Last week I took Merilee and the kids down to Arizona to spend spring break with her family. The trip was good, we had a fun time while I was there, but I was ready to come back to the cool weather of Oregon. It was like 87 degrees one of the days while I was there! I was happy to be home where it has been in the 40’s and 50’s. I know Merilee and the kids are enjoying the warm weather though.
While I was gone some people I work with decided to have a Peep wedding on my desk. I have become the de-facto Peep guy in our office, even though I hate Peeps. About 3 years ago while I was out of the office during Easter my co-workers thought it would be funny to decorate my office with Peeps. I had Peeps everywhere! Over the last three years I have “collected” (read “been given) Peep paraphernalia, I guess my office was the perfect location for the Peep wedding. Enjoy the pics.

Original Peep Show - 2005.


Peep paraphernalia (this is only the stuff I have kept!)


The Peep wedding...






The happy couple.

nothing...

I have nothing new to post other than I get to see my wife again! Her wedding is now over and I am hoping to spend a little more time with her now.

Here are some old school pics...

The crew at Silver Falls



Boston was excited about something...



Our first winter in Oregon, not sure what Merilee is doing - probably directing the camera to take the picture like this, wait no like that, hold on go back to the other way...



Mason and Sid, they sure have grown!


Some other crazy family photo

work day

Today may end up being the best "work day" ever. I am working until around 10:30 and then me and the COO of our company are going skiing. Does it get any better than this? OK, I could get picky. I could ask for 12" of new snow and bright blue skies, but at any rate a day skiing is much better than a day in the office.

Music

I find it interesting how important music is to us. It can change our mood just from listening to a certain song. The emotions that are tied to certain music - I just find it amazing. Sidney has inherited a love for music from Merilee. She has this uncanny talent where she can remember the lyrics to a song she has heard only a few times. Merilee can sing along to 90% of the songs on the radio. If you don't believe me, just ride in the car with her and turn the radio up. So, I thought what better way to bring back some good memories than with some 80's rock! Wow, I didn't realize what I would remember.

A few (that aren't too embarrassing to admit to - or are they?):

- Watching MTV with a group of friends every morning during the summer of '88
- "Laying Out" at Hyrum Damn - summer of '85, '86, '87
- Skiing with my two brothers at Brighton
- High school dances
- Driving around Salem in my sister's Volvo cranking G-n-R and Skid Row - summer of '88 and '89
- Camping in the Wellsville Mountains with our group of friends at our secret camp spot - '85, '86, '87, '88, '89
- Multiple scout trips

The embarrassment of growing up in the 1980's. Oh the shame, the shame...

Baseball in Oregon

Saturday was baseball tryouts for Boston. I can't believe baseball is already here, where did winter go? Anyway, the weather has been very warm here the last few weeks - in the 50's and mostly blue skies. (I am not really sure why Merilee is complaining) Saturday rolls around again it's pretty nice out, but it is cloudy. I take Boston to baseball and as soon as I check him in this happens...

(yes, that is hail in this one!)

ugh...

I have realized that I have been very grumpy lately. I would like to take this moment to apologize to all that have felt my grumpiness. I will try and change. I love you all!

Plus, Merilee and I are having a date night tomorrow. I am sure that will make everything better too!

I think the pic below will cheer up anyone!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I am back from my trip and regular life has kicked in. Work, school, kids, etc. I think I was really ready for it though. I had a hard time being gone for that long, even though I had a great time. I can't believe it's almost the end of February. That means that Boston will start baseball soon, Mason is halfway done with basketball and Sidney is saying she wants to play baseball this year too. Looks like spring is going to be busy!

Happy Birthday Dad! My dad turns 73 today.

Friday

Well my trip is almost over. It has been a great trip except for my friend Trevor being sick Tuesday - today. He is feeling better now and even made it up for an afternoon of skiing. While here we met some Germans that are staying at the same resort we are. We have developed a friendship while we have been here. Today I skied with them all day (or at least until 2:30). We hit some great runs. Today the weather was really great, blue skies and very cold. When we came home from dinner the temperature was 14 degrees. I don't think it made it much over 25 degrees today. This morning I saw a fox running outside our condo, this fox was out last night too. The funny part is that both times I have seen it it peed on the same little tree. It must be marking its territory or something. We didn't see any moose today and Trevor is getting upset about that, it seems that he has missed all of the wildlife except for the fox. We ate a great little burger joint tonight. Just a counter that wrapped around the cooking area. There was grease everywhere and it was VERY unhealthy, however it was very good. That's about it, enjoy the pics below.

Here is our little fox.


View from the top of one of the runs. Note how far down the condos are on the left, that's where we take the first lift to get to the top of the mountain a difference of about 4,000 feet.



My new friends (from left to right) Leo, Karo, Michael and me.


Trevor finally made it up to the mountain today after being sick for 3 days.


Some spectacular views.

It's almost Friday already...

Where did this week go? I can't believe it's almost over. Today was kind of a downer of a day. My friend that I came to Jackson with has been really sick since Tuesday afternoon. He didn't ski at all Wednesday so I went up alone. Today I stayed home to give my legs a break and give Trevor some company. We had breakfast and sat in the hot tub and steam room. We also watched some movies. Other than that we didn't do much besides a few snoozes. I missed out on a great day at the mountain I bet as it was blue skies. Tomorrow should be the same though. Here are a few pics from the last few days.

A view down one of the runs.



Me on the slopes Wednesday, the snow was awesome!


The view outside our window this morning. The Grand Tetons are on the right, aren't they just beautiful?


The same view at dusk.