Living the Adventure...

Growing up

2011-10-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Because I see them every day, I often don't realize just how quickly our kids are growing up. I guess it is a variation of the frog-in-slowly-warming-water phenomenon. But when I saw these pictures of Drew and Sam from the Sounders game the other night, I was struck by how grown up they both look!

Saying goodbye to 8965 SW Edgewood St.

2011-10-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

So, my parents are moving after 35 years in the same house. Suffice it to say this is a big change. This is the house my sisters and I grew up in, and I have a TON of memories in 8965 SW Edgewood Street. It was a great house to grow up in, and the neighborhood was an amazing place with lots of other kids running around to build forts with or play soccer against.

We took a trip down to Portland this past weekend and Sam and I had a chance to take a last walk around the house and record a few memories.

A necklace for mom...

2011-10-07T10:38:00.001-07:00

I love that Sam made this necklace for Missi. The "chain" is a few pipecleaners and the pendant is a piece of construction paper that says "the best Mom is right in front of you".

Big 'ol update from spring and early summer 2011

2011-07-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the insanely long post, but I figured I needed a big huge update to somewhat make up for my lack of blogging the past few months.

Crazy Dress-Up Days
This year Drew and Sam went all out in their outfits for their school's crazy dress-up days.

Here are Drew and Sam on "crazy appearance day"

This is Sam on "Favorite Character" day. She was Fancy Nancy. If you've ever scene the "Fancy Nancy" series of books, you'll recognize that she absolutely nailed this one.

Drew on "Favorite Character" day. Not hard to realize that his favorite character is a soldier just back from deployment to Afghanistan

Drew and Sam together on "Favorite Character" day

Easter 2011
This year's Easter celebration was one for the memory books. First, our church held one massive service at Qwest Field in Seattle with thousands of people attending. It was an amazing service, even when it started to rain a bit. Second, our son Drew decided that he wanted to be baptized at this service and John was able to baptize him at the Easter service. After the service we had dozens of friends come over for a big meal and Easter Egg hunt.

The set up for our church's Easter service

Drew at the Easter service

Drew preparing to be baptized

An amazing moment

The big 'ol Easter egg hunt

Family picture on Easter

It was great to have Grammy and Grandpa (John's parents) in town to help celebrate Easter

Tee Ball and Sounders FC

Our little tee ball player

"Swing, batta, batta, batta..."

There are few things in life more adorable than watching little kids play tee ball!

Missi and our friend Jessica at the Sounders game

At the Sounders game

Sam's Seventh Birthday Party!
We had a great time celebrating our little lady's seventh birthday. There were about 12 of her friends who came over for a makeover themed party and sleepover.

Sam and one of Drew's friends who came to assist with the party doing an at-home manicure

The birthday girl getting her nails done. (notice how her hair has been crimped as part of the "makeover")

Dance party to Hannah Montana!

Massive pillow fight!

I loved the irony in the fact that the girls had a "makeover" themed birthday and then promptly went out into the dirt and worked on building a fort.

I can't tell if "Pillow Pets" are popular among 6 and 7 year old girls

End of School Year and Visit from Alaskan Cousins

Hazelwood Elementary Class of 2011!

Drew and his great teacher at the graduation ceremony

We LOVED having the Alaskan cousins in Seattle for a short visit. So fun to catch up with them!

Sam and her wonderful first-grade teacher.

It was incredible to have this guy be Drew's teacher for the past two years. He'll be missed! Notice Drew rocking the end-of-schoolyear mohawk

3 Month Hiatus!

2011-06-26T07:42:00.001-07:00

Hard to believe that it has been 3 months since I've blogged. I think that may be a record. There seems to be a very clear inverse relationship between the level of "busyness" of life and the frequency with which I blog. I'm going to post a bunch of pictures that will hopefully update some of what has been going on in the spring of 2011.

Pray for Japan

2011-03-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

Our hearts are broken for the country of Japan. The images of destruction in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami are startling and disturbing. I have a special affinity for the Japanese as I studied that language for a number of years. I also worked for a few summers at a summer camp in Bend, Oregon for Japanese school kids who would come to the United States to do things like going horseback riding and whitewater rafting. Please be praying for the Japanese people and their leaders as they deal with the aftermath of these disasters.

We have some good friends who live here in the Seattle area but are currently in Japan for work obligations. They live in Tokyo, which thankfully wasn't the hardest hit area, but they definitely felt the quake and were affected. Check out The Millerhood if you want to read a well-written first-hand account of the earthquake.

Bracing My Back and Girding My Loins

2011-03-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

I need to mentally and physically prepare myself for about 12 fifth grade boys and girls coming over to the house for Drew's 11th birthday party this afternoon. You read that right - DREW IS TURNING ELEVEN. I had to write it in CAPS just to see if it is any easier for me to digest. Nope. I really can't believe that we have an 11 year old son.

But stepping away from my stage of denial, I'm proud of Drew for the party he has planned. He has invited both girls and boys to the party, and we are going to start things off by going on a hike in a greenspace near our house. Then the group will be divided into 3 or 4 teams and will have to embark on a scavenger hunt. Here are the list of items the teams need to "scavenge":

1. Something orange
2. A coin that was issued on the year Drew was born
3. A piece of string longer than 12 inches
4. A napkin with a McDonald’s logo on it.
5. Something with a Starbucks logo on it.
6. Something written in a language other than English
7. A battery
8. Something that you would get in a hotel bathroom (travel size shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, etc…)
9. An airsoft BB
10. 5 business cards (from different people – not 5 of the same card)
11. One lime
12. Something with the ‘Y’ logo on it (from the YMCA)
13. A balloon
14. A to-go menu
15. A starlight mint (the kind you can get from some restaurants – the red and white mints)
16. Something with a logo of a bank
17. A piece of Bazooka gum (hint: Sweet D’s)
18. A button
19. A Lego piece
20. 20 toothpicks

After that, it will be back to the house for some time playing the Kinect (Drew doesn't know it yet but he is getting an Xbox and a Kinect for his birthday - shhhhhh!), home made ice cream sandwiches (Drew isn't a fan of cake so he and Missi made the cookies and we added in his favorite type of ice cream - coffee - in the middle), and presents. But the fun doesn't stop there: about 6 of the boys will be spending the night and the boys have an airsoft battle planned for tomorrow.

Wish us luck! And I'm sure there will be pictures to follow!

Our Little Capitalistic Entrepreneurs

2011-03-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Lest there be any doubt, our kids look like they will be entrepreneurs when they grow up.

Some context: last Sunday we had one of the nicest days in what seemed like weeks. The clouds dissipated and we were able to accomplish some long-overdue yard work. Drew and Sam were both helping me, and Sam had her friend Kylie over. Kylie lives a few houses away from us, and she and Sam are frequent guests at each others houses.

As first-grade girls are wont to do, Sam and Kylie lost interest in the yard work after a short time, and they decided they wanted to open a rock stand. That's right, they decided they would pick out the best rocks from a gravel area across the street and then sell them to whoever would like to purchase them. Here are Sam and Kylie with their rock stand:

The price started out at $1 per rock, but they quickly lowered it to 4 for a dollar.

Now Drew was being his "I'm almost 11 and way too cool for that" self while helping me with the yard work. But you could tell that he was keeping an eye on Sam and Kylie. And once Sam and Kylie started to see revenues roll in (Missi), Drew sprang into action.

He promptly set up his own competing rock store directly across the street from Sam and Kylie.

Talk about competition! This is like a Stumptown Coffee setting up shop next to the original Starbucks in Pike Place Market! And Drew wasn't just idly sitting in his "rock store" waiting for business - he was yelling across the street trying to get Missi's attention in an attempt to lure her away from the girls' store and to his store. What a ruthless businessman! Well, apparently his tactics worked - Missi made her way over to his store and purchased a few rocks. Here is a short video of their negotiations (the audio isn't great, but you can get the gist):

I loved this whole experience. I loved Sam and Kylie's initiative and creativity in setting up their stand. I loved Drew acting "too cool" and then jumping in to join the "market." I loved Missi negotiating with both of them but judiciously ensuring that each received the same amount of money at the end of the day. And I hope that my kids always follow their passions and dreams, especially if that means that they will be entrepreneurs.

In Which I Blog About What Has Been Going On...

2011-02-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

It's always crazy for me to look back at the last time I posted something on the blog, when I realize that it has been several WEEKS since the last post. I guess I just need to resign myself to the fact that with the current pace of life, that is about the frequency that I can reasonably expect. In any event, here are a few tidbits from our life lately:

- We celebrated our eleventh anniversary! It is hard for me to believe that we have been married for 11 years - it certainly hasn't seemed that long. But what an adventure it has been. We celebrated by going winetasting in Woodinville, where there are dozens of tasting rooms.

"I think I'm getting some notes of blackberry and with a hint spring mist..."

"No, actually I'm getting a nose that consists of wild mushroom and toasted oak..."

- We celebrated the wedding of our great friend Monica Kerslake to her husband David. We met Monica during my first year of law school in Eugene and she has been such a great friend ever since. Missi was radiant as the matron of honor and Sam was completely adorable as the flower girl. After the ceremony, Sam completely stole the show on the dance floor. It is completely apparent that Sam has received her mother's dancing genes. An added bonus of the wedding was the chance to catch up with my friend Ryan, who was up from Eugene to film the ceremony.

Sam coming down the aisle.

Mr. and Mrs. Chin!

This about stopped my heart when I saw Sam in the veil.

Ryan hard at work.

Missi did an AMAZING job with her toast. A great combination of heartfelt encouragement and humor.

- Baseball season has arrived! I have the honor/privilege/burden of being a head coach this year. We are the Cardinals. I am a mixture of excited and anxious.

- We took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with our friends the Foglios. This was one of the kids' Christmas gifts and we had a blast. If you have kids, I recommend checking out Great Wolf. If you haven't been, think of a fairly large hotel with a huge indoor water park included in the price of your room. They also don't allow non-hotel guests to use the water park, and this limited capacity means that you don't have to wait in line for 45 minutes to use a water slide. They also have this crazy treasure hunt throughout the entire hotel called "MagiQuest" where you have a wand and have to point it at certain features (picture frames, plants, lights, etc...) in order to complete certain quests. It was a great time.

Drew hit it big in the arcade.

Sam and her BFF Taylor.

- We went to see The Decemberists in their "Popes of Pendarvia" tour. What a great show. I can't emphasize this enough, but please go see this band if they come through your town. They are total stage performers and you will have a great time, even if you don't know much of their music. Here is a review of their show in Portland, which took place on the night following their show in Portland. Without a doubt The Decemberists are one of our favorite bands right now.

- Speaking of music, I am listening to "Sigh No More" by Mumford and Sons a lot right now. Check it out. It's a great album.

A gem of the Internet

2011-02-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

Every now and then you come across some gems on the interwebs - zefrank, Montgomery Flea Market and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On come to mind - and I have another gem to share with you.

If you are like me and have a strong affinity for awesome vintage t-shirts, then you need to cruise over to Skippy Haha's Etsy shop. Skippy is one half of the former Vintage Vantage (R.I.P.), and she is now providing her great shirts through her Etsy site.

Check out this sweet tiger shirt that I got from Skippy.

Actually, I like to think that the shirt actually shows a liger, which, as you know, are bred for their skills in magic.

So go check out Skippy's Etsy site and buy some shirts!

Christmas 2010 (in sepia)

2011-01-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas 2010.

I love Sam's expression in this photo

Sam on Christmas morning with her new Hex Bugs

Rocking the personalized duct tape scarf I received from Missi's sister Ella

The kids had to solve a puzzle that spelled out "Great Wolf Lodge," and represented a family trip we are taking there in February

Missi and the kids at the Farm on Christmas morning

One of the most fun parts of Christmas was the opportunity to do some target shooting with our good friend Jesse. Drew had been looking forward to this for a loooong time, so he was really excited when we surprised him with it on Christmas morning. Here is Drew shooting Jesse's .22 rifle.

Sam of course loved seeing Jesse and Nicole's daughter Taylor

Missi and Nicole

Here is Drew shooting Jesse's AR-15

Even Missi got into the act, and it was her very first time shooting a gun in her life.

Drew's Oregon Ducks Playlist

2011-01-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

If you've been living under a rock for the past 6-8 weeks or have absolutely no interest in sports, you might be among the very few people who don't realize that our beloved Oregon Ducks are playing against the Auburn Tigers in the BCS Championship game on Monday. Suffice it to say, we are all very excited about the game and will be rooting like crazy for our Ducks.

Drew has a great teacher this year - a really good guy who was also Drew's teacher for fourth grade. One of the many reasons why Drew and his classmates (and their parents) like this teacher so much is because of the CD player he has in the classroom and the music that he often plays throughout the day. He even allows students to bring in their own music to join the playlist.

If I were a mathematician, the equation might look like this:

(Drew's love for the Ducks) + (the BCS Championship game on Monday) + (Drew's teacher allowing students to listen to music) = Drew's Awesome Oregon Ducks Playlist.

That's right...one of Drew's main request for this weekend was that I help him burn a CD full of all his favorite Duck songs so he could take it to school on Monday and play it all day long in anticipation of 'the Natty!

Here are the songs that made the playlist:

1. Call Me a Duck by On The Rocks
2. Green and Yellow by SpeedyGunz
3. University of Oregon Fight Song (original version)
4. I Smell Roses (I Love My Ducks) by Supwitchugirl
5. Return of the Quack by Supwitchugirl
6. Oregon Ducks Fight Song (electronic jazz version)

And, we also had to put I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas on the mix, cause we are really hoping that Monday night will be "a good, good night..." The icing on the cake with this awesomeness is that Drew asked me to take him to school on Monday so we could blast the playlist from our car with the windows down as we rolled up to the school. Love this boy!

The Tooth Fairy Visits the Wilsons

2011-01-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

As you have probably noticed from prior posts, I love getting notes from our kids. I love seeing their handwriting, spelling, phrasing, etc...It isn't uncommon for me to take pictures of these notes or writings so they are preserved as memories.

We had an exciting event in our house last night - Sam lost yet another tooth. The girl is definitely going a phase where here baby teeth are falling out at a rapid pace. As our family's "tooth fairy," I have the honor/privilege/responsibility/burden of writing a note to each of the kids when they lose a tooth. I always "disguise" my writing in some crazy handwriting and then burn the edges of the paper for effect. It's quite a process, especially late at night right before I'm trying to go to bed.

Here is the note the "tooth fairy" received from "Toothless Sam" last night, and the response that was left behind with a few dollars.

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I am Sam. I lost my tooth. I am giv??? [giving] it to you. Please leave me a present.
Love, Toothless Sam

My favorite part of this note? That she signed it "Toothless Sam."

Dear Toothless Sam,

Thank you for your kind note and for your tooth! It is a nice tooth! I have left you a few dollars as a thank you for your tooth. Thanks again and always remember to brush your chompers!

Your friend,

T.F.

Banished Words List

2011-01-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of words, and all the unique "quirks" that accompany them. I'm guessing this has its root in my love of reading and all of the time I spend at work writing. So, it wasn't hard to predict that I absolutely LOVE this list of the most overused words of the past year. The list was put out by, of all people, Lake Superior State University, and it looks as those they receive nominations from the public for these words throughout the year. For those who want a little sneak preview of what words made this infamous list, both "epic" and "fail" are on the list.

Drew and his most recent passion

2011-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Our son Drew is now 10 years old, and his latest passion is something called "airsoft" or "airsofting." If you aren't familiar with "airsofting," it is an activity where you have a gun and you attempt to shoot your opponents with small plastic BBs. The guns are usually battery powered (sometimes gas), and you can usually hold a few hundred rounds of ammunition in your clip. As we have learned, there is a whole subculture of people who really, REALLY get into airsofting. I mean, you can spend several hundred dollars on your gun, then several hundred more on various other equipment and supplies. Many airsofting enthusiasts also produce videos of their battles and then post them on Youtube for others to view. And Drew has been bitten HARD by the airsofting bug. We are now on his third or fourth gun, each of them successively more powerful than the previous gun, and he has a full wardrobe of camouflage fatigues, a helmet, a facemask, etc...Several of Drew's friends are also interested in airsofting, so Drew has organized "battles" in the forest near our house.

But his favorite place is certainly an airsofting-specific facility called "Tacoma Tactical." I took Drew and a few friends down to Tacoma Tactical over the winter break and we had a great time! It's basically a large warehouse with several small "rooms" that provide cover.

Here are a few photos of Drew in action.

This is Drew at Tacoma Tactical. He is on the "red team," which is why he had the red headband on his helmet.

Being completely honest, I have mixed feelings about Drew's most recent passion for airsoft. On the one hand, I recognize that this is an "all boy" activity, and I like the fact that Drew is working on developing traits like leadership, courage, and fighting for what is good and right. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of airsofting because I think it might foster a false impression of war (which is horrible) and firearms (which are dangerous and deadly). When done the right way, airsoft is actually pretty safe. You always wear eye protection, and when you get it hit it feels like you are being pinched. Also, to be completely honest, I wish that Drew would be passionate for a sport like soccer or baseball, but I understand I can't force that on him right now. For now, we are letting Drew explore this recent passion, but we are attempting to moderate it.

Daddy Date!

2011-01-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

It has become something of a tradition for Sam and I to go on a holiday season "Daddy Date" to the Garden D'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. This is a really amazing display of Christmas lights in various landscapes and animal shapes. Before we go to see the lights, Sam gets to pick out a place where we go to get dinner (this year it was pizza) and then we get dessert afterwards. I always love it when Missi helps Sam gets dressed up in a pretty Christmas dress and does her hair. This is always one of the highlights of the holidays for me!

My pretty date!

At the Garden D' Lights!

There are some really amazing lights displays.

At dessert after Garden D'Lights.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind on updating the blog, but wanted to post a short 'merry Christmas' message. Hope everyone has had a great day with friends and family.

Here are a few posts that have been percolating in my mind and I will hopefully have the opportunity to finish before too long.

- hunting for our Christmas tree
- our Totally Tubular 80's party celebrating our 30th birthday
- Drew and his love of airsoft
- Christmas!

A Breakfast Fave in the Wilson House

2010-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite weekend breakfasts is Baked Oatmeal, or "brown oatmeal" as Sam likes to call it. As with many of our favorite things, we learned about this from the Zimels, and we still refer to the recipe card that A-R wrote out for us several years ago now. So you can also enjoy this awesome breakfast food, here is the recipe and a few pictures from this morning.

Baked Oatmeal
Preheat oven to 350

3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1-1/2 cup milk
4-1/2 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt

Stir wet ingredients together; add dry ingredients. Add nuts or berries as desired (and we always add them). Pour into greased glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Here are a few photos from this morning's batch:

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients together.

Layering the bottom of the dish with walnuts and frozen blueberries.

Mixing the oatmeal with the nuts and berries before popping it into the oven.

Mmmmmm....

P.S. apologies for a few out-of-focus photos. These were all taken with my iPhone.

Welcome Isaiah Gordon!

2010-11-28T09:31:00.001-08:00

It was an absolute joy to meet the youngest member of our extended family, Mr. Isaiah Gordon Salwasser, this past weekend. The little man was born about two months ago to my sister Julie and her husband Brian. He is absolutely adorable and we are so happy for the Salwassers!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

2010-11-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

Let me preface this blog post by saying that we have an incredible group of friends up here in Seattle. We have been amazingly blessed with great friends since moving here two years ago. But this morning as I was laying in bed solving the world's problems (as I often do on Saturday mornings), I was struck with the thought about how many great friends we have had that are now scattered throughout the country. This has been due to either them moving away from us, or us moving away from them. We are able to stay connected through sporadic visits (we are coming to the 'burg soon Newtons - promise!) or technology like Skype, but it's just not the same as being able to share a meal or watch a football game with these great friends. So, with absolutely no slight to the friends we have here in Seattle, here are some (but not all) of the really great friends we miss a lot!

And don't forget the one and only Jack.

Another Public Misspelling

2010-11-20T07:54:00.001-08:00

Regular readers of this blog, which, I know, hasn't been updated very frequently lately, will understand that I have "a thing" for publicly misspelled words. These can appear in the newspaper, on advertisements, signs, etc...My reaction to these misspelled words runs the gamut from frustration (as in when a newspaper or print publication misses a very obvious error) to the bemused (as in this picture). In the advertisement below, I just chuckled when I saw the incredibly unique treatment the author had given to the words. I saw this when Missi and I went to lunch the other day at this restaurant. In his defense, it was very safe to assume that the person who wrote this was not a native English speaker.

Beauty

2010-11-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

I love fall. I mean, I. Love. Fall. As a Northwesterner my entire life, I actually get excited for the signs that autumn is here: Rain. Sweaters. Fires. Boots. Hot coffee. College football. And ohhh, those leaves. I get jazzed just to drive around and attempt to count all the different colors I see as the trees start changing...and dieing.

Last year, the Lord used my love for fall as a way to show me my love for the alluring beauty of my sin. It was breaking experience in my heart as He revealed how much sin dressed up in the appearance of "beauty" still appealed to me. He taught me that it's just a moment of pleasure, but in the end, it quickly leads to death. It was a humbling lesson, but it kind of wrecked my feeling for my favorite season.

This fall though, in God's goodness and kindness, He has redeemed this time of year for me. Allow me to explain...

You see, since moving to Seattle, we have been blessed with an amazing community around us. People with the desire to move towards the Lord and seek Him. People that serve well, love well, support well, and enjoy life well. I've also seen them suffer well as God has allowed me to witness the beauty of earthly death with them.
It's been painful to watch them on this path. To see moms and dads miscarry yet another child. To watch two dear couples say goodbye to parents that went Home after battling brain tumors. And now, walking with our close friends and neighbors as all medical odds are against their little boy surviving this pregnancy, which would be the second miscarriage this year. And yet, as crazy as this sounds, it's been so beautiful! Or more accurately, beautifully challenging. I have witnessed our community visit with a meal, wake up in the middle of the night to be in prayer, babysit on a moment's notice, or just sit and cry and pray and cry some more. I have seen faith being birthed and trust being put in the Father for the first time. And faith grow stronger as the situation has gone from green to yellow to orange to red...to fallen. It's been tough chapter to say the least. But it's also been so full of gorgeous colors of joy, peace, hope, and reasons to rejoice, just like these breathtaking autumn days.
To God's Glory, He has giving me this beautiful fall here in the Northwest as a gift to stand in awe of our Creator. Of His detailed and wonderful design in all things. Psalm 24:1-2 says, "The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters." As I watch how truly fragile life here is, I am seeing Him as Creator and Protector in new ways.

And am so dang excited to get Home to see and meet the saints that have gone before me!

Meet Abraham

2010-10-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I've probably written this somewhere on the blog previously, but Adam Zimel is about the closest thing I have to a brother. We've been friends now for close to 10 years, and it is always a highlight of my day/week/month/year whenever we talk or get to hang out (much less frequently than I would like since the Zimels now live in Austin and we live in Seattle). Even better, our families mesh almost seamlessly. I say "almost" because one difference between our families is that the Zimels now have 5 kids while we enjoy just Drew and Samantha. Missi and I consider ourselves to be an "aunt" and "uncle" to the Zimel kids and love them like our own - and I know the feeling is mutual as both Adam and Amber-Rose love Drew and Sam.

So it was with complete joy that we got to meet the newest member of the Zimel family, Abraham, when he and Amber-Rose came to Seattle to meet up with their adoption group. Abraham was adopted from Ethiopia and is about 8 months old. He is absolutely beautiful and we were so grateful for the opportunity to meet him.

A few recent pics

2010-10-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

Been quite awhile since I've blogged - been super busy with work and life in general. Here is a big 'ol batch of pics to update what we've been up to the past few months:

My little lady is growing up. As she often reminds us, she goes to "full day school" now.

Drew is 100% all boy. Fishing, exploring, shooting BB guns, anything related to the military, sports, forts, and sneak attacks. The boy loves them all.

But Sam isn't too grown up to stop putting on performances for us. Definitely a favorite past-time of mine.

It was great to see my niece and nephews this summer. Here is "the little sweetie" as she is known by my sister.

And here is "the little sweetie's" older brother - "Mr. T"

Unfortunately it's pretty rare when my sisters and I are ever in the same place at once, so it was fun this summer to spend a few days together. Here is Missi and my two sisters at Silver Lake in Washington.

The "siblings photo" on our camping trip this summer.

Missi and I had our first on-water SeaFair experience this summer. We were with some awesome people but the weather wasn't great!

Getting ready to head into the forest to have an airsoft war!

Missi with two of her great friends, Nina and Monica.

Missi and the kids took a trip to Bend this summer with our friends John and Kiki. Unfortunately I had to stay in Seattle to work. It was a great trip with sunshine, pool time, floating the river, and other adventures.

First day of first grade!

First day of fifth grade!

Date night. Heading to Staple & Fancy.

Sam and one of her best friends Kylie.

At a friend's wedding this summer.

With my two pretty ladies.

An awesome guy's weekend in the Olympic Mountains

2010-09-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

As I've blogged about in the past, each year I try to organize a "guy's weekend" (sometimes also known as "dude's weekend" or "bro-fest" or "guy-a-palooza") where a group of my closest friends all meet up for a long weekend to hang out. This was much easier to accomplish when we all lived in the general Portland vicinity and were younger (i.e., not as many family and work obligations). Now we are spread out over a much broader geographic area and we have more wives, kids, and demanding jobs among us. So, it takes a lot more effort to find a weekend that actually works for everyone. But, all of recognize how important it is to connect at least once a year, so we try to do whatever we can to make it. Among other things, in the past this "guy's weekend" has included a climb of Mt. Adams and a weekend at the Oregon Coast playing poker, fishing, and racing down sand dunes. Without even the slightest hint of exaggeration, the "guy's weekend" is always one of the highlights of my year.

This year we decided to try to go backpacking in Olympic National Park. I had heard so many good things about this area, and I looked out at the Olympics from my office window every day, so I knew I needed to get over there sooner rather than later. We were fortunate that we were able to find a weekend that worked for everyone, and we lucked out with some great weather. We ended up hiking the High Divide Loop, which wound up being about 23 miles of hiking over about 3 days. If I provided a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of everything that we experienced, it would probably run about 5,000 words and would take me the next several hours to type up. Suffice it to say that it was an amazing weekend of beautiful scenery (including several bear sightings), lots of laughter, and great conversations to catch up with each other. Here are some photos from the weekend:

This last photo was taken at about 10:30PM so the flash was blinding everyone. It was our last group shot together as Adam and I had to wake up at 1:30AM and start hiking out to make it to Sea-Tac airport by 10:00AM. That's a crazy story for another time.

A gem of the Internet

2010-09-04T11:29:00.001-07:00

The Internet has quite a bit of good, useful information, quite a bit of trash, and tons of just meaningless, irrelevant information (no comment on where this blog fits among those categories). But every now and then you manage to come across an Internet site that is absolutely amazing. And thanks to a link posted on Facebook by my friend Harvey, I am now able to share such a site with my loyal blog readers (both of you). Prepare yourself to be blown away, and then go check out Awkward Family Pet Photos. If you cruise to that site, you will be able to see awesomeness like:

Summer Book Report

2010-08-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure that I have ever blogged about how John Steinbeck is one of my favorite America authors. Like many Steinbeck fans, my interest began after reading "Of Mice and Men." After that, I read "Cannery Row," "Tortilla Flat," and several others. On a trip to the world's best bookstore, I ended up buying quite a few Steinbeck books that I had never read. Since then, most of those books have just sat around and gathered dust on my bookshelf.

On a whim, I decided to rescue one of these books from their dust-capturing mission. "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" is Steinbeck's account of his 1960 cross-country road trip with his dog Charley. Not surprisingly, the book was excellent. Steinbeck had a very introspective eye and an unparalleled ability to describe his observations in a colorful and easy-to-read style. One of the things that was so interesting to me was how many of the themes that Steinbeck confronts during his 1960 roadtrip are still unfortunately present in America today, fifty years later (consumerism, fast-paced life, racism). For me, the book was the perfect blend of light summertime reading fare while still being very thought-provoking.

[Sidenote: Steinbeck came through Seattle on his roadtrip. I found a webpage that described part of what Steinbeck wrote about Seattle. As a current resident of the Emerald City, I found it especially interesting.]

Another Pet Peeve Sighting

2010-08-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

This one might take the cake in terms of ridiculous misspelled words in public places.

It occurred on a road near a high school in North Carolina.

Great trip to San Diego

2010-07-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

Missi and I took a great trip to San Diego a few weeks back to attend the wedding of my great friend Dave. Dave was my roommate at George Fox and he is truly one of my closest friends in the whole world. I was honored to stand beside him as he married Charity. Charity is an amazing woman and we are very excited for both of them.

Besides the wedding festivities, Missi and I had a blast hanging out with the other members of the wedding party, many of whom I knew from my time at George Fox. It was definitely one of the best weekends we have had in a long time!

An awesome example of a publicly misspelled word

2010-07-12T22:08:00.001-07:00

Here is a sign I found just a few blocks from our house. Can you spot the misspelling? I know summer is here and school is out, but c'mon now.

Sorry it's been awhile...

2010-07-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Been tough to update the blog as frequently as I liked. Sorry for the inconsistent posting!

Samantha's Sixth Birthday Party

2010-05-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

This post is a bit belated, but I wanted to share some photos from Samantha's birthday party. But first, a short aside...

If I were to ask you what type of "theme" most six-year-old girls would want for their birthday party, how would you answer? Probably you would say that most little girls would like to have a princess themed party, or perhaps a tea party, or maybe ballerinas?

Well, what about if that six-year-old girl has a ten-year-old brother who loves exploring in the forest? Well, in that case, perhaps the little girl would like to have a "forest" themed birthday.

And that's exactly what Samantha asked for. She wanted to have a "forest" party. So that's what we tried to give her - we hauled tables and chairs down into the forest, built a fort with all of her friends, and all of her guests painted a "plate" that was made out of a round of cedar log that I cut for them. It was a really great time!

Here are some photos:

Here is the forest party set-up. We have a huge forest area near our house and we set up a few tables and chairs in a meadow. You can see the "plates" that the kids painted. The "plates" were in fact slabs of cedar that I had cut with a chainsaw off a log and then sanded down and coated with polyurethane.

Here comes Sam running down to the forest with her friends in tow. Look at that look of sheer joy and excitement on Sam's face.

Here's the birthday girl.

Our beautiful six-year-old girl.

We were so fortunate to have our great friends John and Kirsti come to the party. They were up in Seattle from Portland and it was great to have them.

Sam painting her log plate.

Sam and her friends painting their log plates. It turned out to be a really fun activity.

Blowing out the candles

Make a wish and blow!

"Mmm....that tastes good!"

Epic Misspelling

2010-05-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Check out the North Carolina State Wolfpack's media guide for their baseball team. How did this get through the editorial process (assuming their was such a process)?

On another note, I've got a bunch of backlogged blogging to do ("backblogging?"). I climbed Mount Hood last weekend and I have a bunch of pictures of that event, and I still need to add a post on Samantha's sixth birthday. I'll try to get to those in the next week or so.

Change in blog policy

2010-05-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, but I'm changing the commenting settings to no longer allow for anonymous posts. We get too many weird spammers leaving comments on this blog as Anonymous so I'm making the switch effective immediately.

Two tidbits of awesomeness

2010-04-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

#1. Check out this ad for Uzbek Airlines. Who comes up with their marketing slogans? "Good Luck" - really?!?

I found this lil' gem on the fascinating world of Twitter. If you're not on Twitter yet, check it out. If you are, follow me!

#2. Check out this bumper sticker that I snapped a picture of. There is just so much to love about this bumper sticker, but I think the best is the picture of the poor logger who is caught in the owl's talons, but he still is managing to hold on to his axe!

A few photos from this weekend

2010-04-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend and decided to take a few minutes to post a few photos. The awesome Newton fam make their triumphant return to Seattle after moving down to Roseburg, Oregon last fall for a job change. They stayed with us one night and we loved having them and their great dog Jack with us.

On Saturday morning we went for a short hike right here in Newcastle and the dogs (and kids) decided that the water looked too good to pass up!

Suffice it to say, we're enjoying taking photos with our new camera!

Saturday afternoon Drew and I had a baseball scrimmage. It went OK but we still have quite a bit of work to do.

This morning I had a blast running the Seahawks 12K fun run with a few great friends from here in Newcastle/Bellevue. Brian, Chad and Curtiss did a great job and we managed to run at a much faster pace than we had had been training at.

If you're wondering what I'm wearing, you really had to see the whole get-up for the total effect. Let's just say there were spandex, short running shorts, and tube socks involved.

It was a great weekend!

Whew! That was a tough day...

2010-03-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

But I loved it. What am I talking about? Last Wednesday I took the day off work (thankfully I'm not crazy busy right now) and did a version of the Cascade Triple Crown. The CTC is an attempt to climb Granite Mountain, Mailbox Peak, and Mt. Si in one day. That equates to about 22 miles of hiking and 11,000 feet of elevation gain. I heard about the CTC from a friend at work who loves to climb, and we decided to go for it to "commemorate" the fact that one of my best friends in Seattle is moving to the East Coast in a few weeks.

We had been advised to do Granite first, Mailbox second, and Si third. The reason for doing it in that order is two-fold. First, that is how the mountains geographically sit east-to-west. It was easier to start farthest east and then progress westward. Second, Granite is fairly challenging, so it was good to start with that one. Mailbox if definitely the most difficult, and Si is the easiest. We wanted to do Si last when we were the most tired.

We met at the trailhead at 5:30AM and started climbing Granite just before 6:00AM. There were four guys in our group, and the other three were definitely all in better shape than me. Granite was a great climb, fairly challenging in parts, but nothing too tough. We took a slight "detour" that we thought would save us some time, but ultimately slowed us down because we were climbing through snow up to our knees. It also got really steep and we didn't have mountaineering gear with us (crampons and ice axe). We did, however, have Yak Trax, and those were really helpful for Granite. If you haven't done this climb and live in the Seattle area, I highly recommend it. Great views from the top and a good trail. It was about 4 miles up and we gained somewhere around 4,000' of elevation.

Here we are at the trailhead getting ready to head out

Two of the guys I climbed with on the way up Granite

This picture does a good job of showing the type of terrain we faced heading up Granite thanks to our "shortcut"

On the climb up Granite Mountain

At the top of Granite

One down, two to go!

Mailbox Peak gains about 4,200' of elevation, but it does it in around 2.5 miles, so you can imagine what the terrain is like: STEEP! The trail heads up and just doesn't level out. My legs felt pretty good after Granite but Mailbox was pretty tough. The other guys powered ahead and reached the summit 5 or 10 minutes before I did, but we all made it.

They aren't joking! Mailbox is very challenging!

Here is the iconic "mailbox" at the summit.

Made it to the top. Looks like I was eating something when this photo was taken.

I was feeling pretty tired heading to Si, but it isn't too bad of a climb. It's about 4 miles up, and also gains around 4,000' of elevation. The first two miles up Si were no problem and I was leading the group at a good pace, but the last two miles of the hike were tough. Part of the reason it was tough was because something I had eaten (probably the energy gels) were not sitting well in my stomach (this is another story in itself - ask me about it sometime). But we made it to the top, and managed to make it back to the cars around 7:30PM, making it about a 13 hour day of climbing.

Here is my buddy signaling to his wife down below. She was able to see us on top from their house!

On top of Si - it was all downhill from here. My smile is a bit deceiving as I was feeling pretty wiped by this point.

Here I am writing this 3 days later, and my legs still don't feel like they've fully recovered. Missi asked me if I had fun, considering the punishment I inflicted on my body, and I can honestly say it was one of the best times I've had in quite awhile. The guys I was with were excellent, I love being in the mountains, the weather was perfect, and I love pushing my body hard. It was a great day!

Really looking forward to the next few days

2010-03-11T23:11:00.001-08:00

Heading to the beach for a weekend with the Zimels! Can't wait!

Trip to the Vancouver Olympics

2010-02-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you know that the Winter Olympic games are underway in Vancouver, Canada. What you may not know (at least I didn't), is that Vancouver is just a short drive - less than 3 hours - away from our house in Seattle. So you can see where this is going, but let's take a step back...

An old friend posted something on The Book of Faces saying that he had 4 Olympic hockey tickets he was trying to sell for a reasonable price (less than double their $80 face value, which was very reasonable). I happened to mention this to a few of my friends and they immediately answered, "Buy them! Buy them! We'll buy them from you!" So I contacted my buddy and bought all four tickets. When I purchased them, I knew I had 3 definite buyers and I figured I would just sell the fourth ticket to make my money back, or maybe a small profit. After all, I thought it would be cool to go to the Olympics but I don't really consider myself to be a hockey fan, and the tickets were for a playoff-round game where we had no idea who we would see.

The error in my logic, however, was that I underestimated the persuasive power of my friends. Through some gentle cajoling and a few persuasive emails telling me how this would be an experience I'd never forget, I decided just to keep the fourth ticket for myself and go to the game. I got a little help when a big case I was working on ended up settling, as it would have been in trial for almost the duration of the Olympics.

So, now fast forward to earlier this week. We all took the day off work and left Seattle around 8:30 a.m. We stopped for some awesome breakfast in Kirkland and headed north. Fortunately, the border had about a 2 minute wait to get through, and after a leisurely 2.5-hour drive, we were suddenly in Vancouver and in the midst of the most culturally diverse, hyper-patriotic environment I've ever seen. There were Canadian flags EVERYWHERE - on the buildings, flying from cars, draped around people's necks, and it seemed like every third person was dressed in red. And those who weren't were wearing the national colors of some other country. Sidenote: I was the only stick in the mud of our group who didn't wear any country-oriented gear. Curtiss was sportin' the Latvia shirt and both Andy and Justin wore their Norwegian colors with pride.

We spent most of the day walking around Vancouver, as the game we had tickets for didn't start until 9:00pm. The only bummer was that the weather was terrible, and we were fighting a persistent rain/wind combination most of the day. But that didn't dampen our spirits and we had a great time. When we wanted to dry out and refuel, we managed to find a booth at a great little English-style pub to watch the Canada-Germany hockey game surrounded by rabid Canuck hockey fans. Fortunately for everyone, the Canadians bounced back from their loss to the U.S. (BOOYAH!) and won easily.

The game we ended up seeing was Slovakia versus Norway. Norway was supposed to be the big underdog, but they fought hard and made it a great game. The Slovaks ended up winning 4-3 but they had to score the winning goal in the third period. What made the experience even better was that one of the guys I was with is a former pro hockey player, so he could explain the nuances of the game to this novice, and the other two guys are of Norwegian heritage, so they were cheering lustily for the men in red (even ringing cowbells and waving the Norwegian flag). And I will say this for Olympic hockey - I'm totally a fan. It is a fast-paced, energetic, end-to-end game that is totally fun to watch. It was even better in person where you can really take in the sights and sounds of the game.

It was a really great experience, and one I won't soon forget. We ended up getting back to Seattle about 3:00am, and I had to work the next day, so I was operating on little sleep. But what is one tired day for memories like these, right?

Here are some photos:

Riding the train into Vancouver. The public transportation system worked really well for us.

With Curtiss and Andy on the Vancouver waterfront. You can barely notice the rock cairns that people had built to resemble the Vancouver Olympics logo. They were everywhere!

Requisite group shot

Requisite shot of the the Olympic flame

Requisite group shot in front of the Olympic flame

This guy affectionately referred to himself as "Canadaman"

GOOOOOAAAAAAL for the Norwegians!

Between the second and third periods.

The view from our seats. We were up sort of high but had great sightlines, so it didn't bother me at all.

Final Score: Slovakia 4, Norway 3

This is why I blog...

2010-02-15T10:42:00.000-08:00

...to record stuff like this for prosperity. I came up to bed last night (after watching (500) Days of Summer with Missi - a really good movie, by the way) and I found that our little artist had left a note on Missi and my pillows. Here is what she wrote on my note (my interpretation in brackets and click to enlarge):

Dad I hoop you fenish you’r woock and you aer my valentan I wl mis you be ckas you’r woorck

[Dad: I hope you finish your work and you are my Valentine. I will miss you because you’re working]

To: Dad From: Sam

Here is what she wrote on Missi's note (click to enlarge):

M I love you you aer a grat mallthr to: mom from: Sam

[Mom: I love you. You are a great mother]

Notice also that she included a drawing of herself on each note that has a heart for a body. It has been so fun to see Sam's knowledge of letters and words grow at a rapid pace over the past few months. Her attempts to spell out words and leave us precious notes like this are something I hope I don't soon forget.

Winter Camp, brought to you by Drew

2010-02-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

Drew showed this to me tonight, on the eve of us heading to Cub Scout winter camp:

Winter camp (Cub Scouts)
by Drew Wilson

Tomorrow is Friday, Feb. 5, 2010. We leave around 5:45 p.m. We will come back on Sunday, February 7, 2010. We will do activities, games, eat and warm ourselves with campfires. We will stay in cabins during the 2 days. I am writing this Thursday, February 4, 2010. These are the activities we will be doing.
2/5/10 day #1

Drew also made up this awesome supply list.

Reflecting

2010-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

As John and I were driving back from our wonderful road trip to So. Cal, I was hit by what the Lord has done in and around our lives in the past decade. I thought it would be fun to take a moment and and make a "pillar" of sorts, praising His goodness in all He has accomplished. So, just to give some highlights:

The decade started with a bang. John started at UPS the begining of February 2000. Six days later, we got engaged. We were married February 25, 2000 (yes, he only gave me TWO AND A HALF WEEKS!! But man, it was beautiful, thanks to very special women in my life, helping me like CRAZY!)

And then three very short weeks later, Andrew Samuel was born (March 17, 2000). Here is a little bit older picture of our precious Drew.

The next few years were full of haze as we moved 4 times, John changed jobs, I started working part time at The Difference, and all the while treading through what it actually means to be married and have a child. Needless to say, we messed up more than a handful of times. But by God's grace, with the help of our church family (especially our young marrieds Bible study), and the Lord bringing new friendships into our lives, we pressed on (or, more accurately, He pressed on for us).

In the summer of '02, we bought our first home in Tigard, OR. It happened to be just minutes from where John grew up and where his parents still live to this day. Great starter house. We were able to discover a passion we both have: hosting others. And it was there that we brought home Samantha Kathryne (born May 10, 2004).

Here is our home in Tigard

Our little lady

Then came another boat rocker. John and I had decided before we bought the home that law school wasn't the best idea. Not quite a year later, he came back and admitted that it was something he couldn't get out of his heart. That re-started the process which took another two and a half years. But by fall of 2005, we had sold our Tigard home, bought our second home, and both John and Drew were off to school...in Eugene, OR.

Here is our house in Eugene (before we removed that big hedge in the front yard)

Here is Drew heading off to his first day of kindergarten

Eugene was such a great time of learning for us. We were taught that we could survive as a family, we were able to see our true friendships, the kind that miles apart can't shake the foundations of love. And we learned that the word "organic" wasn't as scary as we once thought it was. It was also a season where we went through a bit of a desert in our faith. As painful as that was, I now see the reasons for it.

All along in law school, the plan was to end up right back in Portland. And once again, God had different plans. He opened no doors there while opening a huge door in Seattle. And as you all know, in the end we ended up here. I could not praise Him more for doing it. We have authentic community, a great neighborhood, and best of all, an amazing church. And again, I am learning the lesson along the way of contentment. He has opened door after door here for me to serve and to be used. For the first time in my life, I feel like He is putting to death some of the demons that have taken a free ride for so long on this journey.

All in all, in the past decade we have been married, welcomed two amazing children, moved seven times, lived in two different states, called three churches home, traveled to Mexico and Disneyland twice and to Austin to visit the Zimels I think five times, owned seven cars, gone to four bowl games with our beloved Ducks, added our precious puppy to the family, met fantastic friends, read countless books, fought with each other, made up, watched too much TV, played Wii, cleaned the house more times than I would like to recall, fell in love with working out, played dozen of games, and learned how to actually cook...sort of at least:)

Thank you Jesus, for through You alone we know true redemption. Thank you John for leading me through these past 10 years with grace and humor. Thank you Drew and Samantha for being the bestest teachers God has given me. And thank you friends and family for keeping me ticking!

I do believe that a life like this is the definition of "Living the Adventure". And as we enter the next decade and all He has in store for it, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Comment weirdness

2010-01-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I hadn't changed over my "comment notification" email address from my old 'uoregon.edu' account. Sooooo...if you've left a comment on the blog in the past six months (?) or so, I probably didn't read it. I just went through and scanned a few of the comments, so thank you to Neal, Katie, Janelle, Brenda, Jessica, etc... for the comments.

And thanks to everyone else for checking out the blog. I apologize that my posts have become so infrequent!

Fun with Photo Booth

2010-01-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

One of the fun programs included on my MacBook Pro is Photo Booth. This software, combined with the built-in iSight camera, have quickly become a favorite of my kids. OK, OK...I've actually had fun with it too. Photo Booth does this fun 4-plex series of photos just like you would have taken in the photo booth at the carnival.

Check these photos:

The Great Rose Bowl & Disneyland Road Trip!

2010-01-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

On Christmas morning we surprised the kids with a book that informed them that we would be taking them to Disneyland, Legoland, and the Rose Bowl! This was something that we had been thinking about ever since it became a possibility that our beloved Ducks might make it to the "Grandaddy of them All"

We packed up the 4Runner and left Portland on Sunday, December 27. Our first stop was in Roseburg where we were able to see our great friends the Newtons. They used to live in Seattle and have recently relocated to the 'burg (boo!) but we were really happy for a chance to see them for a few hours. The Newtons also have a really great dog named Jack.

We woke up at 3:00AM on Monday morning and drove all the way to Anaheim, where we checked into our hotel a few blocks from Disneyland. Here is Sam in her jammies in the car watching a movie.

On Tuesday we hit Disneyland and the kids loved it!

Wednesday we headed about an hour south to Legoland. While it was an experience we don't necessarily regret, we probably won't be going back to Legoland. It seemed to be focused on much younger kids, and after the thrill rides of Disneyland we were a bit "let down" with what Legoland had to offer.

This is a picture of Drew being forced to go on a ride that he wasn't all that excited about. As expected, he ended up loving it.

Look at that look of glee on Sam's face!

Drew with the Lego Indiana Jones

Legoland featured this huge and very impressive models of various cities around the globe made entirely out of Legos.

Thursday (New Year's Eve) we returned to Disneyland and fought huge crowds everywhere we went. The kids were troopers and we managed to make it to midnight, even though Sam was basically falling asleep in my arms.

Friday we packed up and headed to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl! Even though the Ducks didn't get the result we had hoped for, we had a really good time. After the game we hit the road and pushed it hard all the way home to Seattle, driving through the night and finally getting home about 12:30PM on Saturday. We were exhausted but it was a great time!

Here is Missi setting up our little tailgater. It was great to see a bunch of friends from Eugene and Portland who had made it down to Pasadena for the game.

Here are the kids passed out in the back of the car.

Check out these sweet photos

2010-01-04T21:21:00.001-08:00

Here are some old family pics I came across while at my parents house over the holidays (and yes, I fully realize that my sisters will probably hate me for a long time after I post these):

Paper Airplane Flying Contest

2009-11-12T21:36:00.001-08:00

What do you do in the evenings when it's getting dark at 4:30PM and you don't want to just turn on the TV or the Wii? You have a paper airplane flying contest. It was Drew/Mom versus Sam/Dad. The Drew and Mom team was called the "Lightning Bolts" and Sam and my team was called the "Gold Stars." Here are a photos of Sam with our plane (the second one shows our main rival in the background).

Here is a picture of the Lightning Bolt's plane, although I couldn't get a great shot of it because Drew claimed it was "top secret."

The contest had five rounds. Each person had to stand behind a line and throw their plane as far as possible. The plane that flew the farthest was the winner of that round. The "throwers" for each round alternated between kids and parents.

I won't brag about who won other than to say that it was a decisive victory. I'll let the score sheet speak for itself:

Drew's Journal #2

2009-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

11/2/09
1:30 p.m.
Drew

"My dog Zeke"

I have a dog named Zeke. Zeke is a friendly, loving and comfortable dog. When he is outside and is energized up, he runs around the yard at a very high speed. He is funny to watch and play with. He is an alaskan malamute. Zeke is strong to pull sleds and to go into dog races. I know he is in the wolf family. He is black, white, and a little bit of gray. Zeke is a dog of prey. When I went fishing once I pulled in my claim and he bit it. He has killed chickens, birds and that's all.

Zeke likes to sleep anywhere in the house. He mostly likes to hop on the couch during the night. Sometimes he will just crash in his bed. He is sad when I leave for school. Zeke is lazy sometimes. Some people think he is scary. He is very, very happy when he meets somebody new. He is scared of only a few things. The vacum cleaner and the lawn mower. He thinks the vacum cleaner is a loud monster invading his sleep. He isn't afraid of the the lawn mower unless it is 3 feet away. Zeke is brave. He is bad because he breaks boards and he ever broke a hinge about 10 feet high! Zeke loves to run, swim, and sleep. I think everybody would want to have a dog like this. He also likes to explore. We have a big backyard. A lot of squirls are around. At about nine each night Zeke goes outside to start barking and howling at an animal on the other side of the fence. Zeke was born in Bend, Oregon. We got him at the age of 6 months. He was scared at first. On the ride home he hid his head.

Drew's Journal #1

2009-11-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

Drew has been writing a journal as part of a school assignment. My understanding is that the teacher will give the students a topic or question and they have to write a paragraph or two on this topic. I'm going to try to post a few of Drew's entries, exactly as they appear on the lined paper that he writes them on.

"Why Kids Should attend"
Drew Wilson
11/2/09
9:15 a.m.

I think kids should attend school from ages 5 to 15. The reason is because if kids didn't attend they would be smart and couldn't get into a job. If I hadn't attend school and wanted to get a banking job, I wouldn't know how to add numbers. Reading is fun and I wouldn't be able to if I hadn't gone to school I wouldn't have met any friends. Men wouldn't be able to learn how to handle guns in the pioneer times. Girls wouldn't be able to learn how to prepare food. There are many reasons why people like kids, adults, toddlers should attend school.

Our daughter is artistic

2009-11-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Sam definitely got what very few artistic genes are spread between Missi and I. That girl absolutely loves art. Lately it seems like she has been coloring for several hours per day! I come home from work and am greeted by several pictures of hearts, butterflies, and our family. I'll have to try to take some pictures of some of this great artwork and post it here. Tonight I told the kids that I wanted to make something out of popsicle sticks. Drew - acting like the "too-cool" nine-year-old that he is - told me that he didn't want to do it. But Sam was really excited. She ended up making a star and then painting it. The center section ended up being a square of types and so she called it her "picture frame." How cool is that?

Here is a picture of Sam sitting up at the counter and painting her star (what you can't see is that she was also wearing her "footy" pajamas while doing this).

Halloween at our house

2009-11-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Halloween weekend at our house. It was a lot of fun!

This is our attempt at an original,timely, and creative couples costume - we're the swine flu! I'm the "swine" (dressed as a pig) and Missi is the "flu" (sort of a play on the words flu/flew with fairy wings). It took a bit of explaining to people to let them know what we were but it went over pretty well.

Here are Drew and Sam in their costumes - Indiana Jones and the Cowgirl Princess

One thing this picture doesn't show you is the whip that Indiana Jones is carrying in his satchel!

Hey Dawg fans, check out this sign: "Will trade UW degree for beer. It has to get me something right?"

The Burger King, Peewee Herman, and Pancho Villa (also known as Andy, Rob, and Matt)

Indiana Jones and the Cowgirl Princess. I love Drew's expression in this one.

Here is Drew and his good buddy Jakob out trick or treating. Jakob dressed up as a knight and made this entire costume by hand!

Of course, Halloween night was made even better by the Ducks HUGE win over the USC Trojans. We're now in solid command of first place in the Pac-10, but we have several tough games to go.

Recap of a great weekend

2009-10-25T20:37:00.001-07:00

This past weekend actually started on Thursday night, when our friends Ryan and Susan came into town and stayed with us for the night. They had come to Seattle to see the Ducks play the Huskies on Saturday and to see several friends, including our family. Ryan and Susan are some of the great friends we made while living down in Eugene for three years and we are thankful that our friendship has endured since moving to Seattle. They have two great kids - Cade and Avin - who Drew and Sam loved playing with.

Sam catching some air catching a football as she jumps into the pillows

Drew snags the football.

Cade doing his best Superman impression! Check out that air!

Sam and Avin "working" on their laptop.

Check out that smile on Avin's face - love that!

On Saturday we went to the Ducks football game against the Huskies. If you didn't already know, this is a HUGE rivalry game, despite the fact that Oregon has won the last six games between the two teams. The Husky fans who we tailgated with were remarkably welcoming and only gave us a bit of a hard time. We were fortunate enough to get great tickets from Jay Jones, and it was a blast to be able to watch the game with two VERY knowledgable Duck fans (Jay and Ryan Welch). And if you haven't heard - the Ducks rolled in a 43-19 victory.

Following the game we were at our friends Andy and Shannon's house for some Rock Band and pizza (sorry, no pictures).

Today was a really great family day. We finally got around to carving pumpkins with the kids. The two pumpkins we ended up with were (1) a queen with a tiara, and (2) a crazed/angry looking jack-o-lantern. Can you guess which one was Drew and which was Sam's?

My daughter is creative

2009-10-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sure we've all read those blog posts by certain parents bragging on and on about how their kids are so awesome and so great, blah, blah, blah...Because I'm not a huge fan of those types of posts, I try to just keep it "to the facts" with my kids, i.e., I just post photos or very generic descriptions rather than raving on about how my kid will probably win the Nobel Prize someday. But tonight I was genuinely impressed so I thought I'd share. Sam got an arts and crafts kit awhile back. She got it out tonight while Drew and I were playing the Wii and when I turned around she had created this little spider, which she appropriately named "Charlotte." It was made from a little puff ball, some pipe cleaners, and a few little eyes. She even used some of the letter stickers in the kit to add her name to the bottom of the spider. How good is that?

Nice face decoration Sam

2009-10-19T22:01:00.001-07:00

Operation Backyard Chickens

2009-09-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

We are very close to embarking on the adventure of owning our own backyard chickens. I've spent portions of the past few weekends converting Zeke's doghouse (which he never used) into a coop and fencing off a portion of my yard into a chicken run. By this time next week we'll be the proud owners of four Rhode Island Reds. Why are we doing this you ask?

- We already spend nearly $4 on a dozen free-range, organic eggs each time we grocery shop. Why not just produce the eggs ourselves in an environment where we know that the chickens are being fed and raised naturally?
- It will be a good experience for the kids to help raise the chickens
- I've always wanted to give it a try

Now, all that being said, there is a chance that our dog will use his Houdini-like abilities to break into the Fort Knox-like structure I've created and help himself to our flock. Our dog is about the gentlest thing ever, but he is by nature a hunter, and he has killed mice and birds before. If that happens and he manages to serve himself up a chicken dinner, I'll just chalk this up to a fairly expensive and time consuming failed experiment. Certainly wouldn't be the first time it happened (and definitely wouldn't be the last!).

Here are a few pictures of the coop and run.

Our little kicker

2009-09-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is Sam's first year of organized sports (not counting the ballet class she took last fall) and she is just absolutely adorable out there on the field. Her team is the Thunder Tigers and they play little 3-on-3 games. I love this first photo because you can really tell that Sam did her own hair before the game and she managed to get about three little ponytails sprouting out of her head. It was too cute.

Check out this typo!

2009-09-24T22:24:00.001-07:00

My love/fascination for public typos has been well documented on this forum (see here and here and here). But this one may take the cake. By way of background...the people up here in Seattle are all atwitter over the fact that the Washington Huskies have a decent football team for the first time in about the last decade or so. And as a result of a close loss to LSU and a HUGE win over USC this past Saturday, the Dawgs have found themselves actually ranked among the top 25 football teams in the country. But because it is such a rarity for the Huskies to actually be ranked, check out what one online sports site did (please click to enlarge!):

Special thanks to the Shonk for tipping me off to this!

Blogging from a new computer

2009-09-24T22:19:00.001-07:00

I think I blogged awhile back about how our 4Runner was broken into. Well, as a result, I am now blogging on a new MacBook Pro computer. I haven't fully explored all of the features of this awesome computer but it was definitely love at first...sight/touch/feel. This is a great computer.

Goodbye old friend

2009-09-24T22:10:00.001-07:00

Well, he/she/it is finally gone. After being an integral part of our family since 2001, our old Volkswagen Jetta has finally flown the coop. Thanks to the amazing Craigslist, I was able to find someone who would take the Jetta off our hands for a little more than $1000. At the end of its time with me, the Jetta had over 195,000 miles and had lots of weird little quirks: the sunroof wouldn't enter, the fuse for the wiper blades would frequently blow, there was a huge hole in the dash as a result of a break-in, and the front passenger seat slid back and forth all the time. But nonetheless, the Jetta was a great car for and and very reliable to the end. We put a lot of miles on that car; while I'm not exactly sorry to see it go, we definitely have a lot of memories that we experienced with that car.

Tigard High Class of 1999 Reunion

2009-09-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

I had a really great time at my 10 year high school reunion. It was tons of fun to reconnect with friends that I hadn't seen for a decade (just saying that makes me feel old)! It was interesting to hear where life has taken everyone and remember the fun times that we had back at good 'ol THS.

Family Pictures - August 2009

2009-09-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

We were fortunate enough to have some family photos taken by the very talented Marcy Dorschel. Take a look!

Summer 2009 - Trip to Austin

2009-08-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Summer 2009 - Fun Activities

2009-08-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Summer 2009 - Concerts!

2009-08-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Summer 2009 - Gotter Family Get Together

2009-08-30T22:09:00.001-07:00

The blog went on summer break, but is now back!

2009-08-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay from posting - I was busy with work and having too much fun doing summerish-type activities. Prepare for a bunch of photos to go up on the blog from the past few months.

NOT AGAIN!

2009-07-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Look what I found this morning when I went out to our car:

The bummer thing about this is that Missi's iPhone and my Mac PowerBook laptop were taken. By way of background, we got home very late last night and were absolutely exhausted. We didn't pull the car into the garage because of a few things that had been left in the parking spot. Both kids were totally zonked out, so we carried them inside, locked up the car, closed the garage, and went to bed.

For those keeping score at home, this is the THIRD break-in that we've suffered since moving to Seattle 8 months ago. My car has been broken into twice at the park & ride, while this is the first time Missi's 4Runner has been broken into. Let's hope this isn't a trend that continues!

What!? More than 3 weeks since my last post?

2009-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where does the time go? Summer is now upon us and we are enjoying this great weather that Seattle has had over the past few weeks. Yesterday, for the Fourth of July we headed up to the Hood Canal to visit with the Hillier family. They have a family vacation house up there that Missi went to as a child and I've heard a lot about it over the years but never actually visited. It was lots of fun to swim, kayak, water ski, and eat good food!

Some recent pictures

2009-06-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

When the Wilsons come to play city league softball, we come dressed for success.

This is my Award Winning Wife

This is why my wife married me.

Sam after her preschool graduation

Our little graduate

Family bike ride around Mercer Island

The view from the climb up Mt. Hood

My buddy Aaron made the trek down from Seattle with me to make the climb

Jeff, Aaron, and me

We stopped a couple hundred feet below the summit because the conditions weren't great, but it was still a great climb

My Pet Peeve Strikes Again

2009-06-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

2009-05-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! We left Seattle late Friday evening and headed south to Portland. After crashing at my parents house in Tigard, we had a very full day lined up on Saturday and Sunday. Missi had to work on Saturday but the kids and I got to head out to my grandfather's house in Scholls (after we had breakfast at Davidson's Restaurant - where I worked as a server and busboy 12 years ago!). After working in the garden at the farm, playing a game of Wiffle Ball, taking a tractor ride, and getting some lunch at the quaint "South Store," we headed off to swim at Tualatin Country Club. One of the biggest factors to making this an amazing weekend was the consistent 72 deg temperature and blue skies. The swimming was part of the birthday party for Missi's younger sister, Ella, who was celebrating her ninth birthday. After the kids had a BLAST swimming for a few hours, it was off to Maggie (my MiL) and Fred's house for a BBQ. Sunday was spent going to church at our old church, having a picnic with some of our closest friends, and then to Missi's grandfather's house for his birthday party. After a few hours with the "Hillier" side of the family we bundled the kids back into the car and headed north. What a whirlwind!

And that was only Saturday and Sunday!!! Today we had a lazy breakfast, went for a bike ride around Mercer Slough, swimming with friends, dinner on the back deck, capped off by a great game of croquet with neighbors. To sum up this weekend, I pass along a thought that passed through my mind tonight: "This weekend was so great it almost seemed like it was out of a made-for-TV movie!"

Our beautiful five year old little lady

2009-05-13T06:26:00.001-07:00

Text to follow.

Bring Your Child to Work Day

2009-05-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to bring Drew to the office with me for our firm's "Bring Your Children to Work Day." The interesting thing about this is that, even though Drew just turned 9 years old, this is the first time he's had an opportunity to be part of an official "go to work with dad"-type event like this. I guess that's what happens when Dad has been in school for the past 3 years! But I digress...
The day started off with a bus ride into the city, which I think Drew enjoyed. The firm did an amazing job of scheduling out the day and planning a whole variety of activities for all of the kids to take part in. The theme of the day (which came from a larger national organization) was "Building Partnerships to Educate and Empower." Toward this goal, the kids were split up into three different "teams" and were tasked with planning a community service project that would require them to build partnerships. Interestingly enough, two of the three groups chose a service project related to helping animals and/or animal shelters in the community. When they weren't working with their teams to develop the service project, the kids also had some "computer training" time with our awesome IT trainer guy (this was actually just some Internet research on their chosen service project) and some "shadow" time with their parent or guardian. Drew and I also went to lunch in the Columbia tower, which is Seattle's tallest building and features a huge food court with about 15 different places to choose from (Drew chose pizza).

I'm not sure that Drew came away with any greater concept of what it actually is that I do for work, but I know that he had a good time and that's all that really matters, right?

A few pics from Easter

2009-05-06T08:42:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from an Easter egg hunt and cookie decorating party we attended at Sam's school, along with the requisite family photo from Easter brunch. You'll notice that we also brought one of Sam's best friends Kylie to the egg hunt. Kylie is a neighbor and the daughter of our great friends Andy and Shannon.

Mariners games

2009-05-06T08:31:00.001-07:00

One of the things we were really looking forward to about moving to Seattle was the chance to attend Seattle Mariners games. Safeco Field is a great place to watch baseball and our whole family enjoys the sport. Fortunately my firm has a number of seats that they make available to employees, so we've already been able to attend a number of games this year. Here are a few photos from the game we went to with Drew and Missi's mom Maggie.

"Thank you for your patients"

2009-05-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this latest occurrence of my pet peeve (misspelled words in public places)that was documented during last night's rain delay in the Washington Nationals baseball game. Obviously I wasn't actually at the game in DC, but I found out about this from reading this article. Classic!

Now THAT'S a wish

2009-04-27T10:29:00.001-07:00

I was working out in the yard this weekend and Sam came up to me holding one of those puffy dandelions seeds. What followed was this conversation:

Sam: "Dad, did you know that you can blow this thing and make a wish?"

Me: "Yes, I did know that. Are you going to blow it?"

Sam: "Yes."

Me: "What are you gong to wish for?"

Sam: "I'm going to wish for a unicorn that is rainbow colored and that has wings!"

How sweet are these!

2009-04-27T10:27:00.001-07:00

Wow. Words cannot begin to describe. If you're looking for ideas for my next birthday/Christmas gift, consider this a subtle hint.

Crazy Busy = No blogging

2009-04-22T08:35:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm still here, but my work life has been pretty insane lately, so I haven't had the time or energy to update the blog. We are in the midst of a complex multimillion dollar trial and the run-up to trial meant people were literally working round the clock. I have lots of recent pics to post and a few topic ideas so I'll try to make it happen soon.

Building Drew's Pinewood Derby Car

2009-03-25T21:36:00.001-07:00

Drew took part in his first Cub Scout pinewood derby last Saturday. We didn't exactly set any land-speed records with our performance (to say the least), but we had a good time working together on building the car and getting it ready to race.

Tracing the car design

Tracing the car design

I tried to keep my assistance to a minimum (unlike most of the other dads, who appear to have side jobs as NASCAR engineers, but I did help by cutting the block into the desired shape.

Drew sanding it down.

Still sanding

The paint schematic.

Drew working on making the car look good. He really succeeded on this score as our car looked a lot better than it performed.

The track.

Drew and a few of his Cub Scout buddies.

The proud car owner/designer/manufacturer.

Really, Seattle Times? Really?

2009-03-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

I would have possibly let this slide if it had appeared in the Seattle P-I, what with the fact that the P-I shuttered their print operation this last week, but this latest occurrence of my pet peeve comes courtesy of The Seattle Times, now Seattle's only daily newspaper. For those of you who may not remember, I have a slight irritation when I see misspelled words or poor grammar in public places (See here, here, and here for examples). The qualification about "public places" is important, as I have no problem with misspelled words in emails, letters, text messages, or other personal form of communication. My hackle is raised (yes, I did just use the word "hackle") when someone who obviously should know better (i.e., journalists) make very noticeable mistakes. But enough background, check out this misspelling that appeared on the front page of yesterday's online version of The Seattle Times (I've drawn a yellow box around the text at issue but click on the photo to see a larger version):

"100,000 in state breating easier"

The tooth fairy visits Seattle

2009-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Do you want to see a letter to and from the tooth fairy?
Drew had a tooth pulled the other day and wrote a letter and drew a picture. He also got $5 and a note in return.

Dear tooth fairy,
another tooth is gone! It hurted very bad because the dentist had to pull it out. It is very big and pointy. I hope you take care of it.

Your friend,

/Drew/

Drew Wilson

P.S. My birthday is on the 17th wich is tomorrow. Here's a picture on back.

BYE

To: tooth fairy
From: Drew

A pondering on language from this morning's commute

2009-03-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

As the two or three regular readers of my blog know, I am a fan of language and words. I think part of this stems from the fact that I love reading the written word and part from the fact that I spend most of my waking hours either reading or writing (or, perhaps its the other way around: that my love of reading and career choice have root in my love of language). Regardless, here is pondering I had while riding the bus to work:

The "big idea" is that it is very interesting to me how moving one little word around a sentence can have a significant effect on the "flavor" and tone of the phrase. Here is an example, taken from a real-life experience this morning:

-I overheard a woman speaking Russian into her cell phone on my bus this morning.

-I overheard a Russian woman speaking into her cell phone on my bus this morning.

-I overheard a woman speaking into her Russian cell phone on my bus this morning.

-I overheard a woman speaking into her cell phone on my Russian bus this morning.

OK, I know this isn't the most profound, "Deep Thoughts" type of observation, but I found it interesting how different the sentence was just by moving the word "Russian" around. Perhaps you did too?

P.S. For the grammatically obsessed among you, check out Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

Adam visits Seattle

2009-03-11T08:15:00.001-07:00

In the next day or two I will try to post a recap from the great weekend I had last weekend. My buddy Adam flew from Austin, TX to Seattle for a few days and we jam-packed our time together full of fun experiences. We were also fortunate enough to have our friend Peder drive up from Portland late Saturday just to hang for a few. Instead of posting the many photos from the weekend individually, I went ahead and set up a slideshow. The only bummer about this slideshow is that I can't describe each photo, but I will try to add some details in when I post the recap.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Seen in a Seattle church

2009-03-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

I went to a wedding a few weeks back and it was held in this huge old church near UW here in Seattle. The ceremony was very nice, and after it concluded we all went downstairs to the reception. As I walked one of the hallways outside the reception hall, I saw this sign on one of the doors. I had to take a picture because, to me, it seemed a relic of ages past, when nearly everyone smoked and it would not have been a crazy thought to smoke in church. The fact that they had a "no smoking policy" implies that people would have felt comfortable smoking in church in the absence of such a policy.

The best kind of gifts

2009-02-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

I got home last night fairly late after a few days spent down in Oregon for work. Sam was already in bed but still awake. I went in to her room to give her a hug and she presented me with an envelope full of "treasures" that she had collected for me. She was so excited about them she could hardly sit still!

I opened the envelope up and this is what I found:

Two drawings (one by Sam, one by her friend Kylie), a piece of plastic string or twine, and a broken off bolt and washer. Missi told me later that Sam had found the bolt and washer and had been carrying it around all day waiting to give it to me.

Here are all the treasures laid out and the Hello Kitty envelope that they were in.

This is one of the drawings I received. Notice all the hearts - hearts are a big deal to Sam right now.

The other drawing. Again, notice that there are over 10 hearts in this drawing. Do you see a theme developing?

The string and bolt/washer I received.

Music I'm currently listening to...

2009-02-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

I love music. I'm not a musician, although I did play saxophone and drums in middle school band and I've got a guitar gathering dust in the garage (doesn't really qualify me as a musician, does it?). I've often thought that in another life it would've been fun to be a music critic or work for a record label. Going to live music concerts is one of Missi and my favorite date activities. I usually have music of some type going - whether it is soft, instrumental piano music while I work, or music playing off the computer while I work around the house or cook breakfast on a Saturday morning. If you don't know about it yet, you should definitely check out Pandora. This is a great service that allows you to enter any artist you enjoy and then Pandora will find other artists with similar sounds. It's a great way to learn about new artists and listen to them before buying their entire album.

Besides Pandora, here are a few of the artists I've been listening to lately:

Blind Pilot

I first heard about Blind Pilot when I was back in law school and someone sent around an email to the student body saying, "Check out my friend's band called Blind Pilot." I listened to a few songs on their MySpace page, didn't think too much about it, and totally forgot about them. Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago, when my coworker invited me to go to their concert. Missi and I went to The Triple Door, had front row seats, and were completely mesmorized by what we heard. Blind Pilot hails from Astoria, Oregon and is technically only a two-piece, but they travel with a six-piece band backing them. Plus, I think it's pretty cool that the band actually toured up and down the West Coast by bike. That's right...they rode their bicycles, hauling all their gear behind them. There is even a documentary in the works called "We are the Tide" (the name of one of my favorite BP songs) that should come out later this year. I cannot recommend this band highly enough.

Here is Blind Pilot's MySpace page.

Here is Blind Pilot's blog.

You can also find quite a few videos of them on Youtube, just search under "Blind Pilot"

The Decemberists

These days, The Decemberists are really well-known. They are an indie rock band from Portland who often base most of their songs on some type of historical story or myth. For example, the title track from their album "The Crane Wife" was based on a Japanese folk tale that lead singer Colin Meloy came across in a Portland bookshop. I am very, very excited about their new album called "The Hazards of Love" that is coming out in March. I'm sad to say that I haven't had an opportunity to see them live in concert, but if you want a taste of what a Decemberists show is like, I highly recommend listening to the recent concert available on NPR's All Songs Considered. NPR is also going to be streaming a concert from SXSW where the whole "Hazards of Love" album will be played. Another testament to the band's theatrical side came from a friend who saw their show in Bend, Oregon and said that the band staged a reenactment of Lewis and Clark's discovery of the Northwest. How cool is that?

Another thing I like about The Decemberists is their quirky sense of humor and their unique vernacular (I am, after all, a huge fan of the written word). Take, for example, this recent excerpt from an email I received from The Decemberists:

"Adored Mailing List Recipients,

While it has been less than a week since our last petulant Relatively Unobtrusive e-Missive graced your inbox, we Decemberists feel it important to remind you, gentle Recipient, that the public ticket on-sale for Phase One of The "A Short Fazed Hovel" Tour 2009 starts today! Simply follow this simple, user-friendly chart to deduce the applicable date for your city"

Ray Lamontagne

Ray Lamontagne is a soulful, dark, introspective character who plays stripped-down music, which I love (and conversely I can't stand "over processed" music). He recently put out an album called "Gossip in the Grain," which is great. I also highly recommend listening to his concert from the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., also available on NPR's All Songs Considered.

I'm also dabbling around with M. Ward, Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket, DCFC, ALO, Tea Leaf Green, and a few others, but I'm always looking for suggestions for new music. Got any?

Social networking sites

2009-02-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

There have been tons of articles written over the past few years about the advent of social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. A certain law student even wrote a law review article about some of the legal issues that arise on such sites. Well, Missi and I are fully immersed in the movement/trend/fad. We both have "profiles" on MySpace and Facebook, although we don't check our MySpace profiles very often. We also update our Facebook "status" on a fairly regular basis, which just gives a tiny snapshot of what we're doing at that moment. If you're not on Facebook, I would encourage you to join! It's a great way to connect (or re-connect) with people.

This is my Facebook profile.

This is Missi's Facebook profile.

Conversation with Drew

2009-02-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

Drew: "Dad, I heard somewhere that old coins are worth a lot of money. Is that true?"

Me: "Well, sometimes certain coins can be very valuable if they are rare or unique."

Drew: "So if I have I have a really old coin I could maybe sell it to someone and get a lot of money?"

Me: "If it was a coin that was really special you could possibly do that."

He rushes off to his room to empty out his piggy bank and look through all his coins. He excitedly rushes back to see me 15 minutes later.

Drew: "Dad, you're not gonna believe this! I think I found I really old coin that could be valuable!"

Me: "What is it?"

Drew: "It's this nickel right here. And it says 1966 on it! That's so old!!!"

Me: "Hmmm...[trying to suppress laughter] Well, there might actually be some coins that are a bit older than 1966 and they might be more valuable."

Drew: "Oh....well I also have one from 1969. That's really old also."

Some Photos from the Weekend

2009-02-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from last weekend's trip down to Portland to visit with my sister Jessica and her family (brother-in-law Phil, Trevor, Oliver, and newest member Linnea).

Always a classic...

2009-02-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

The other day I randomly thought about one of my favorite Youtube videos of all time - if you haven't seen the Mini Mall you HAVE to watch it.

A few recent photos

2009-02-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

These were all taken on my cell phone. I definitely appreciate the opportunity to snap photos of interesting sights during my daily life.

Here is a photo from today of my friend Richard and me. Richard is a "Nickelodeon" - a resident of Nickelsville. I posted a photo of him a few posts back. He is quite the character and he really has a head of hair on him!

P.S. Look at Drew poking his head into the photo (he is wearing the "W" hat)

You know you live in a big city when they have "needle collection boxes."

I took a photo of this sign because it seems incredibly deceptive. In HUGE letters it says "$6" but in little tiny letters it says "price is per half hour." If you were in a car looking for a parking lot, wouldn't you see the $6 and think you were getting a great deal, only to discover that it was actually $12 per hour?

I may have posted this previously, but I couldn't believe that "Denve at Portland" showed up on the front page of the Oregonian's sports section. This is yet another example of my pet peeve - misspelled words in public places - showing up.

Found in Drew's Room

2009-02-02T20:49:00.000-08:00

Sectert Mission:
Topic: Spiing
belogns to: agent drew wilson
mission: kill bad guys

Now I'm even more glad the Steelers won...

2009-02-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Please read this great story of why we should all be glad that the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

For Terrible Towels, A Wonderful Legacy

Here are a few photos of the people mentioned in the story (all photos from NYTimes.com)

Nickelsville

2009-01-24T20:11:00.000-08:00

Some of you who don't live in the Seattle area have wondered what this "Nickelsville" is that I've spoken about. Missi and I have been developing relationships with some of our friends who live in a tent city in the U District of Seattle affectionately called "Nickelsville" after Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. There are some incredible people who live there, and I find myself trying to find more and more opportunities to go over there to see my friends. Here are a few photos (I can't take credit for these photos - someone else posted them on Facebook).

It has been tough for the Nickelodeons with the burn ban in place because of poor air quality. The burn barrel is often the only source of heat for the residents.

This is my friend Richard. He looks quite different in this picture because he is almost always wearing a hat and sunglasses. The first time I went to Nickelsville, Richard was asking me to sue Mayor Nickels and President Bush on terrorism and racketeering charges!! He's a great guy and full of personality.

This is my good friend Gus. Gus had been a resident of Nickelsville since the beginning, but I recently had to help Gus move to a new location because he was barred from Nickelsville because of some petty disagreement. Nickelsville has a team of 3 arbitrators, and if they vote to bar you then you have to leave the camp. 2 of the 3 arbitrators held some type of grudge against Gus so he had to leave. Gus now has a job at UPS and is hoping to find permanent housing in the next month or so.