Noah Graduates From Preschool

The New Puppy

Cub Scout Campout

We did a Cub Scout campout at a state park on the sound on Chuckanut Drive just south of Bellingham. We were fortunate enough to be there during an exceptionally low tide, and the boys were able to find lots of cool creatures. Everybody was pretty tired out by the end of the trip.

He's Out!

An Addition to the Family

Well, we did it. After much thought, we came home with a black and white Newfoundland puppy (that coloring is typically called the Landseer color variation). We decided to name him Tug, since it's likely that he's going to like the water, being a newfie, and, he may share certain characteristics with a tugboat when he gets a little bigger.

Trip to California

Sheryl & Doug were going to be in CA with the family so we managed to get in a trip for a quick family reunion. We hung out at the grandparents place for a bit and explored some of the sights around the Sacramento area.

Visit from a Long Lost Cousin

My cousin Jeanne, husband Jay, and kids were in Seattle for a quick trip, and were able to drop by for a morning. A&N got to meet J&K, their 1st cousins once removed. Hopefully it won't be quite as long until the next time.

Cub Scout Meeting

Aaron has been doing Cub Scouts for a while now. Here he's helping start the meeting; and, Dad is doing a guest session on bike safety.

RainMan Triathlon

Steve did the 1st annual (indoor) RainMan Triathlon in March. It was run of waves of eight people with start times going for several hours and consisted of a timed 500 yard swim, a timed 8 mile bike ride on a bike trainer, and a run around Greenlake. Steve had the fastest bike split of the day but with a mediocre run ended up 6th overall out of about 150 and 1st of 6 in age group.

Don't Mess With Aaron Today

Noah on a Cold February Day

Mid-Winter Break Trip to Silver Mountain

We went with a bunch of school families to Silver Mountain in Idaho after finding pretty good deals on lodging and lift tickets. It wasn't quite Jackson Hold or Sun Valley, but it wasn't Snoqualmie Pass either. We weren't sure about the way the mountain is set up--the village is in Kellog, and there's a three mile gondola ride (claimed to be the world's longest) to get up to the actual ski area base. It all seems to work pretty well however--just don't forget a critical piece of gear in your room! There's also a big indoor water park connected with the resort which the kids loved. The hill didn't have much new snow, but what they had was drier than anything we'd been on that year in the Cascades. Overall we had a great few days of skiing and will probably go back. Of course, they got feet of powder there the week after we left.

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.