"As I gaze upon the sea...

...all the old romantic legends, all my dreams, come back to me.” Wrote Henry Wadworth Longfellow. Above, is a picture from the back window of the beach house.
One of the great things about spending time on the Oregon Coast with Lisa's family, is that we stay for a week. That leaves plenty of time for gazing upon the sea. The adults get to relax and unwind in the beach house, while the kids get to fill their pockets with shells and all kinds of stinky beach junk. They explored the tide pools, played in the sand, and spent hours up in the sandy cliffs. We celebrated our nephew, Dylan's, 5th birthday by taking a trip to the aquarium in Newport -- the kids seems to really appreciate it and enjoyed seeing the cool critters...like these crazy spider crabs -- YUCK! Tiffany was commissioned with booking our accomodations. She did a great job; landing us a place right on the cliffs with our own backyard, private beach access, and a hot tub looking out on the ocean. (It's the BIG one on the right.)
Over the weekend we were there, the parking lot of the local casino was filled with participants for a BBQ competition. We had fun walking the little BBQ tent city, filling our bellies, listening to live music, and even watching world famous competitive eating champion, Joey Chesnut consume more than 10 lbs. of ribs in 12 minutes. Next the city hosted a safety fair with exhibits for the kids to learn about emergency services, home fire safety, and poison control and stuff. They also got to play on the emergency response vehicles like the fire engine and jetskis. Our time at the beach house was grand. But, you know what they say... all good things come to an end.

Big-Big, Big-Big...Water

I'm always nervous about the summer time when it approaches. Although most people presume that teachers just take the entire summer off, it is anything but true. My anxiety lies in my being shaken from my routine to manage a complex schedule which includes trips to and from school, for Ryan... to and from reading camp at BSU, for Will...and gymnastic for Abby, two times per week. In the meantime, I try to do a little bit of training at the gym and Lisa takes on two sections of teaching Graduate courses for NNU. Summer is fun, but busy. That makes it nice to get out to Clarkston, WA; where the weather is HOT, the water is frigid, and the family is abundant. I love few things more than the access I have to my grandparents when they move into adjoining trailer sites. How many people can say that their grandparents live next door to one another...even if it is for only one week. My kids love seeing the cousins. I loved visiting with old friends and my aunties Gail Michelle, and Sandi. I must give honorable mention to Uncle Tony and his amazing waterski. Speaking of watersports, Ryan tried wakeboarding and he rode a pair of skis. I am so proud of his effort and perseverance. We had a great time and like the years before...our long-weekend stay of 4 days...was too short.

A little older, a little fatter...

...a little wiser?!?! I talked to my mom yesterday and she reminded me that along with all of those other things, wisdom comes with age. It's good that we get something out of becoming older because I have found that no matter how hard I try, I can't quite pull-off behaving like a kid anymore...it hurts my body and my pride way too much. Seems fitting that the dictionary.com word of the day is patina; The color or incrustation which age gives to works of art. Got plenty of that! I had a terrific birthday yesterday. Ry made me the coolest card I have ever received from anyone...EVER! It featured Clyde Drexler. My friend Andrew brought me banana cream pie for lunch. My wife sent me to the gym to burn it off. I enjoyed a Texas Road house dinner with the Lande clan. I ate strawberry shortcake, furnished by my lovely wife. I held my niece...who is absolutely beautiful. And got cool gifts from my family. My kids put together a giant box of all of my favorite treats - 33 of them. Ryan's Celtics won. I told him that the only thing better than his team playing games on my birthday, is MY team playing games on my birthday. I love my little basketball fans.
With my birthday enters summer; what a great time to celebrate...thanks mom. We're gearing up for lots of summertime fun. Stay tuned.

Vacation & Visitors

Wow. A lot has gone down since I entered the last post. The family took another trip to Sun River to meet with the Kinnamans. Lisa and I took a much needed vacation to celebrate our 10 year anniversary; our first big trip away since we have had kids.Kevin has gotten out of the Army and he is now engaged to Holly Mishler -- hooray--and their wedding is planned for the beginning of August. Ryan is now 8 years old. We celebrated his birthday with friends at Boondocks and ice cream with the family. May has been crazy fun, with family coming to visit nearly every weekend; first, Kevin came through on his way to El Paso . The kids had a blast with Uncle Kevie...he even face painted them with Army paints! They laid out in the backyard grass and were seriously convinced that they were camouflaged! Next Drew and Courtney rolled through, driving on their way home from SNU. For the second year in a row, Uncle Drew took the kids to the neighborhood pool for the first swim of the season...even though it was only in the low 70's! Finally, Mom and Dad brought Drew, Daniel, and Pepper out for Memorial Day weekend for a nice visit. It was good to see Mom. Abby enjoyed having a dog for a few days.While all of that was going on, Tiffany and Brendan had baby Makena on May 6th. Horray!!!

We are all so excited to have a baby in the family, again. It also helps that she is so darn cute! Whew, it feels like we need another holiday weekend, just to recuperate from all of the fun and excitement we have been having. This spring has been fantastic! To top it all off, out resident Celtics fan Ryan, has been closely following all of the drama that his team has offered in NBA playoffs.

February in Hillsboro

We originally had plans to come out and catch a Trailblazers game with, "just the boys" and our friends Ed and Parker Veeck. We ended up bringing everyone. Our trip actually turned out to be a little longer and more involved than we had anticipated; as the entire family ended up coming to spend a special weekend with Grandma K. It was a great time. Friday we visited a job site and the kids were introduced to their first "gyser" (a broken water line). Saturday we went to the Zoo and enjoyed a mild, sunny February day. The weather was perfect! (I even wore a t-shirt). Sunday we went to church, over-ate on mom's lasagna, and rolled down Sylvan hill to the Rose Garden to catch Blazers vs. Celtics. Brandon Roy sprained his ankle and the Blazers gave up a 17 point lead to lose to the three-headed monster. Ryan got to see Ray Allen win, buy a basket ball, and he was happy. Will and I got to cheer for our team, see Travis outlaw throw down and poster-ize Paul Pierce. We ate pizza and popcorn after the game and finished off our Sunday with a heathy dose of Looney Tunes. Ryan is now a big fan of Foghorn Leghorn. All-in-all it was a great trip and fun to share the fantastic city of Portland with friends and family. Now, back to life in Boise, once again.

Mad Hooper!

Ryan is participating in Upward basketball. He plays on the same team with friends, Jalen Chan, Gavin Hoisen, and Parker Veeck; all are in his Sunday School class a church. He enjoys playing ball and the games are a lot of fun as the boys actually spaces the floor, pass the ball, and score -- far more frequently than you would think 1st and 2nd graders would do. Ryan has played two games. He scored for the first time this week...a little 8foot jumper from the baseline. He looked good. I am most proud of his quickness and the great defense that he plays. He hustles to his man and moves his feet well. What a great time.

Will left his Howie, his turtle, at Sun River. Drew took it to Oklahoma and has been sending Will pictures of Howie's adventures along the way. Will loves getting e-mail from Uncle Drew and it helps them feel a little closer and reminds them of the good times they had together before Drew finished his Christmas break.

It's been a good couple of weeks. It has been snowing like crazy in Boise. We actually had a "snowday" Wednesday. It gave me some time to catch up on things. In fact, it is snowing now. We have about 3" on the ground. It makes me not want to go out...the roads have been slick.

"Sumpter" weekend...in Sun River

Man, I hurt. Drew took me snowboarding up at Mt. Bachelor. Never done it before. I'm getting old. We had fun, though. I used Kevin's equipement, thanks Kev. The kids had a great time playing in the snow with their cousins. Lisa was unable to come due to some scheduling conflicts with work, but it was still worth the trip however, we won't be doing that again. All-in-all it was a good time and always great to be with family.

Happy New Year

Bringing in the New Year; watched a little football and completed a few projects. We spent the Eve and New Years with the Landes and the Goehners. We just hung out and spent some good family time together. We are easing our way back into the grind of regular life.Lisa had to do some stuff in her office, which meant that we had to get up to the sound of an alarm, once again. The rest has been nice. We took it easy a couple of days ago, and went over to check out some Mayan art down at the museum. There is now an interactive art display set up for kids...and there was also an art activity set up for families to do their own Mayan Art. My yarn art was a yarny-portrait of Rick. The kids had fun, and it was a nice break from being inside.

Go Blazers!

Time to Blog

Wow, when I logged on to this, I realized that I hadn't posted on the blog since Nov 1. Sheesh! It's been busy around here. I have been enrolled in two courses, working on an internship as an administrator, and oh yeah, working a full-time job as a teacher. It also hasn't helped that our little digital camera came up missing for a bit.

Anyway, it's Christmas break, and we have our camera. With Christmas behind us already, we have plenty of fodder for blogging. Beginning with Thanksgiving, we went out to Hillsboro, to hang with my family, attend a riveting Blazers' victory over the Kings, and take the Camero for a little spin. It was a great time. The boys loved spending time with their cousins, which they always look forward to. Abby is so charming when we are with family. Those Thanksgiving Holidays are alway so short, but so sweet.

It seems as though the weeks that followed were the fastest and yet the slowest. Lisa and I have been incredibly busy with all that has gone on. With her being in the first year of this job, in many ways her schedule and events that she is committed to are all set by people in other positions. Next year, I don't think it will be the same, and she'll have a better handle on how to schedule her responsibilities. I choose to not attend any more school! Ironic that a teacher could HATE school so much, but I'm there. I believe that it generates a healthy level of empathy for my students. I'm tired of assignments and deadlines. Professors too; they have a funny way about them and seem to be a little out of touch with what's really important. I have never in my life been so grateful to have a Christmas break...it's truly a break.

Having Children at Christmas is awesome! It's more fun than being a kid myself (well, almost). I get to pick the toys, watch them open them, (let E-pa put them together) and then play with them too.

It has also been fun to work through the Santa thing with Ryan. He came to me after Thanksgiving, very frustrated, and declared that he wanted to go to the North Pole to see for himself whether on not Santa was really there. Near tears, he proclaimed, "I don't believe that Santa is real! Reindeer and Sleighs can't fly...it's magic, dad, I don't believe it. The only magic are miracles, and I don't think that Santa is a miracle." I'll never forget that precious moment, just he and I confirming his faith, there on the floor, in my closet. I explained that he is right. Miracles come from God, and yeah, there is no one man who is Santa. However, I explained that Santa is real...he is real because we all help to remember him as a Christmas tradition...that everyone is "in on" the Santa game. He asked "why?" Because it's fun. Fun for kids and fun for everyone who knows. It's not lying, it is a fun Christmas tradition that helps kids learn the spirit of giving. He loved knowing how and why we all play the Santa game. I explained that it isn't right to ruin it for anyone else who has fun believing.

Christmas is so much more fun when the kids know what's going on. They had a hard time being patient, but they did great, and I am proud to say that they were so gracious and grateful for the gifts that they received. Each of my kids were into different things, which made it easy to shop this year. Abby received a bazillion little Pet Shop toys. Will is into Star Wars guys. And Ryan is into Pokemon. Toys and Christmas...Wow!

Lisa and I put the Christmas gift funds that came to us into a new Canon XT digital SLR camera. Hopefully more pictures will translate into more frequent fodder for blogging. Thank you everyone for your gifts and Merry Christmas. Keep an eye on the blog. We have time for fun, sleep, and catching up on all of those little things we have had to pass over for the last month. That means I'll have a little more time to let you know what's going on.