Golden Gardens in February

We went down to Golden Gardens which is on the Puget Sound. The boys have been watching Survivorman so they decided to build a quick emergency shelter. Looks like it should be OK as long it doesn't rain.

A Yellow Belt for Aaron

Aaron and Dad have been taking karate one day a week with a great program that's run through the Western Washington Shotokan Karate Club at the Boy's Club that is fairly close to our neighborhood. Aaron finally gets his yellow belt!

More Snow in Seattle

We had more snow in January. This is a view off our back deck at around sunset.

Happy New Year 2009!

A Snowy Day at Greenlake

We had quite a bit of snow in Seattle in December, with snow on the ground for a couple of weeks.

Noah at the Tree Lot

We usually do a few shifts down at the GreenLake Elementary XMas tree lot in December, which is a big fundraiser for the PTA. Noah decided to take a little nap.

A Halloween Message From Noah

Olympic Coast Trip

Steve took Aaron and Noah for an overnight trip to Ozette on the Olympic peninsula. From there we took s a three mile mostly boardwalk trail through the rainforest that goes to one of the most remote sections of coastline in the continental US.

Birch Bay Camping Trip

The whole family went for a camping trip at Birch Bay State Park which is north of Bellingham. Aaron finds a few crabs, and we left a bit of food on our picnic table and had a late-night visitor.

Noah Turns 4; Aaron Turns 7

We had separate birthday parties for the two boys this year. Noah's party was at the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, and Aaron's was a swimming party at the Mountlake Terrace pool. Here are a few pictures from Noah's party.

Sledding

We took the boys up to go sledding near Alpental on Snoqualmie Pass. Here's a clip of Aaron and two of his friends taking a run.

Christmas Visitors

We spent Christmas at the Cozzas in Ashland Oregon as usual. As often happens we had a few visitors pass through the back yard.

Early Small Xmas

It turned out brother-in-law Doug had to be in town for a corporate thingy and was able to bring sister Sheryl and the rest of the family over, so we decided to make it an early Small Xmas get-together. We took the opportunity to take Mom & Dad Small to Canlis, who came up from CA, for an early celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary which is coming up the end of the month. Pictures will be up soon.

Triathlon Season Wrapup

This turned out to be a big triathlon summer for the Smallzzas.  These pictures are from Aaron's last triathlon of the year (for a total of four) on Labor Day and Noah's first ever.   Cynthia also did the grownups race and Steve was a spectator and athletic supporter. Noah finished the whole race including the one mile bike ride on his own and insisted on not having any help.  

Steve finished a bunch of races over the summer including two half ironman distance races.   The longer races have been a bit of a learning experience.  Here's a race report Steve wrote up for the Seattle Triathlon Club on his first attempt at the half iron distance at the Troika Triathlon in Spokane. Despite a run leg that needs some improvement, Steve ended up 3rd in his age group in the Best Overall Triathlete category for 2007 in the TriNW rankings.

Aaron's First Triathlon

On the morning of July 4th we headed over to Elma WA for the Firecracker Triathlon. This is a small very laid-back race that had a sprint for the grownups, which Steve did, and a kids race as well. Unfortunately Aaron wasn't feeling too well and in fact barfed a couple of times before the race, a couple of times after, and again after we got home. He still wanted to do the race though and did OK although he ran out of gas a bit on the run. We think his condition was probably a reaction to a chickpox booster shot he got the day before rather than flu or other illness. That night Aaron crawled into bed with all his clothes on at around 9 PM and slept for over 11 hours.

Getting ready for the start.




They're off! For the swim part of this race, the little kidlets are allowed to run through the water along the shore.



Aaron has a smooth T1 with a little help from Dad and is off on the bike.



Heading in to start the run!


Steve finishing the run in the grownups race. He ended up 4th overall.

Dad and Aaron before the awards ceremony. Dad gets a trophy and Aaron gets a nice finisher's medal--his very first one!

Trip to California

We headed down to California for a few days to visit Grandma & Grandpa Small, relax for a few days, and see some local sights.

Trip to the moon via the science museum.

Going out for dinner.

Train ride at the zoo.




We were able to go to a nice local clubhouse that has two outdoor pools which were usually very empty. It was a nice change from the wall to wall people in Seattle area pools.

Reading a few books before bedtime.

Outside in the backyard garden.

Noah gets a bit of coaching on the cornet from Grandpa.

Aaron's Swim Lessons

Aaron's kindergarten class has swimming lessons every Thursday morning through the local pool at Greenlake. Some of the parents helped out with the class. Steve made it one of the days and Cynthia helped out on a few. He's not quite ready for the swim team yet, but he's improved a lot this year.

Mrs. Harrington's Favorite Student!

Aaron's First Day of Ski Lessons

Aaron started his first round of ski lessons today at Snoqualmie Summit Central, formerly Ski Acres. For the first day the kidlets rode up the 'Magic Carpet" and practiced snowplowing down the bunny hill. He seems to be getting it down just fine. I did a few runs on the telemark skis during the lesson. It started out cold in the AM (around 11 degrees) but warmed up nicely with all the sunshine.

Christmas at Cozzas

Aaron & Noah are checking out the wildife from their bedroom window at Grandma & Grandpa Cozza's. They're hard to see but there are four deer just outside the window.



Aaron gets the mother of all Lego sets for Xmas. Some assembly required.

We ended up taking a couple of trips to the science center in Ashland. There were lots of cool exhibits for the kids including one that lets you make really big bubbles, as demonstrated here by Noah & Grandma Cozza.

Noah's First Reception

OK, all we need is ONE good picture for the Christmas card . . .

Early Xmas in Seattle

It so happened that Uncle Doug had a work trip to Seattle in early December, so we decided to make it into an early Small Xmas trip for the Small family. Sister Sheryl and cousins Sam & Sophie came over with Doug, and Grandma/Grandpa Small came up from California. We got a chance to take the cousins up to the snow for a bit of sledding.