My younger sister Julie got married this weekend. She married a great guy named Brian Salwasser, and we are so happy for both of them. We went up to Portland Thursday night and visited with my sister Jessica and her family from Alaska. The kids had a “camp out” with Grandpa in the backyard (see more on this below) and Missi helped organize Julie’s bachelorette party. I drove up to Vancouver on Thursday night to work on a slideshow I was creating for the wedding with my future brother-in-law (now he is my brother-in-law!). On Friday we ran some errands and had the rehearsal. The wedding took place at Peoples Church in Vancouver, the church that Brian had been attending since grade school. Drew was a ring bearer with my nephew Trevor and Samantha was a flower girl. I’ll post some pictures later but I haven’t had a chance to download them to my computer yet. The wedding was on Saturday afternoon, and it went really well. Missi was a co-matron of honor with my older sister Jessica and I was an usher. It was a real honor to escort both of my grandmother’s and my mom down the aisle. The ceremony was great and fortunately there weren’t any tech glitches that got in the way of the slideshow. Creating the slideshow was part of our wedding gift to the new couple and I put A LOT of time into it (probably 30-40 hours). It ended up being about 8 minutes long and showed pictures of Julie and Brian growing up, photos of family and friends, and then some shots from their relationship. At some point I may try to throw it onto Youtube and post it on my blog. The reception was held in the reception hall of the church and was a lot of fun. Missi and I were the unofficial emcees of the reception, which was fun. It was also great to see so many old friends who I hadn’t seen for a looong time. Julie and Brian left that evening for their honeymoon in Jamaica, and we are so happy for them and wish them the best as they begin their life together. Here are a few pics I used in the slideshow.
Moving on…The journal competition has come to a close. As I may have mentioned in other posts, I was one of the main organizers of this year’s competition and I felt good about how it turned out. We had a good turnout and now begins the tedious process of grading and tabulating all of the materials. While I wouldn’t say that developing the materials was as difficult as competing, it certainly was a challenge and I’m glad that we were able to pull it off.
On Memorial Day our family was in Portland. Drew really wanted to go camping since so many of this friends were doing that. To appease him and to hopefully create some memories, we staged a “camp out” at my parent’s house. They have about a half-acre lot and we set up the tent way in back so it felt like we were really out in the woods. My parent’s were great – building a campfire for us, cooking breakfast for everyone, etc…We had Missi’s sisters Ella and Elizabeth with us and it was a really great time. Missi and I didn’t sleep very well (owing in large part to the high school party going on next door and to the fact that we were sleeping on a slope), but it was still a fun experience.
Another highlight of Memorial Day Weekend was Missi’s grandfather Ralph Hillier’s birthday party. There was a party at his home in Beaverton and it was good to see a lot of the Hillier family members. Here is a picture of him lighting the “piñata cake” that Missi’s step-mom Cyndy made for the occasion.
Now that summer is officially here, I’m working full-time at the same job I had last summer. The new group of clerks has not arrived yet since they haven’t been given a security clearance, so I’ve been pretty busy “holding down the fort.” I often enjoy working in solitude, but it will be nice to get some help with the many projects I have waiting for me. I’ve also been spending a lot of time in court watching the sentencings of the defendant’s who perpetrated a series of arsons throughout the West from 1995 – 2001. These crimes were committed under the mantle of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. The proceedings have been exceedingly interesting both factually and legally, and the courtroom has been packed with observers and media. You can read more about it here and hear about it here.
Drew’s baseball season is quickly drawing to a close. His team has done really well, racking up a record of 12-3. They are in first place and I would describe this as a “growing season” for Drew. He is one of the youngest guys on the team and he has struggled at various times, especially at the plate. I had to umpire a game last week when the real umps didn’t show up, and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to call my own son out twice for striking out (it wasn’t as bad as “real” baseball – each hitter gets six pitches from a pitching machine. Drew fouled off a few and missed a few so he, and everyone else, knew he was out after the six pitches). That experience certainly gave me a new-found appreciation of umpires.
Summer has also brought the unpleasantness of allergy season here in Eugene, a.k.a. the pollen capital of the world. Because of the copious amounts of grass seed grown in the Willamette Valley, our town consistently has high pollen and grass seed levels. If you see me around town sneezing or rubbing my eyes, you’ll know why.
