NOT AGAIN!

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?

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

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

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

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

Text to follow.

Bring Your Child to Work Day

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

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.