Katie's Mariner Madness

Two weeks!!!

2010-09-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Two weeks from tonight on Sunday, September 26th, I will have just finished walking 60 miles in the fight against breast cancer. I can’t believe that it’s almost here!! I don’t know how I’ll do, but I know that it will be an amazing journey. I have raised the required minimum donation thanks to many family and friends. I have logged many miles in the last month and a half and now I’m working on figuring out what to pack for my 3 Day journey.

Continue to pray for me as I continue to walk, pack, and start on my 60 mile journey.

Below are some of my favorite pictures from my walks. I haven’t taken many pictures, because I haven’t brought my main camera with me. These are actually all taken with my phone. You can see some group pictures on facebook, but I haven’t figured out how to download and save them on my own computer, so I could post them on here.

Some of our group getting ready to walk near Falls Terrace Restaurant:

The picture below is of our caboose team that is always bringing up the rear during our walks (I'm also in this group). We have some people who are very fast walkers and then there’s the rest of us. :-) To the right is Capital Lake and on the left would be the state capital. From left to right are: Sandi, Blanche, Faye, and Aubrey:

This is the view that we had and the hill that we were going to climb. The path makes its way up the side of the hill with several switchbacks, so it takes a lot longer to walk up than what you think. That is actually two different buildings that you see. The closer building is the Judical Building and then you see the dome of the Capital behind it:

This was a gorgeous lily that we saw on our walk through the South Capital Neighborhood:

On one of our Thursday evening walks, the sun was starting to set and as Blanche and I walked around Capital Lake, this was the awesome scene that was beside us:

On one of our long Saturday walks (this was actually our very hot day too), this was our view as we walked towards Priest Point Park along the Sound:

Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure

2010-05-15T00:24:00.001-07:00

This is going to be a quick blog just to let you know what I'll be doing later in September. As some of you know, I'm walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Walk in Seattle on September 24-26th. I am walking in honor of my Mom as she is battling breast cancer right now. First off, I ask for your prayers as I train to walk 60 miles in 3 days. Secondly, I need to raise $2,300 in order to participate in the walk. I'm actually setting a goal of $3,000, since this disease hits so close to home. If you'd like to donate, go to their website at: www.the3Day.org. If you click on the "Donate to a Participant" on the right hand side and type in my full name, it will take you to the donation form page. Any amount that you can donate, is greatly appreciated.

Help me raise this money to help find a cure for breast cancer, so that women don't have go through what my Mom has gone through.

Another Spring, Another Season!!

2010-04-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

The Mariner’s 2010 season is upon us!!! The M’s started the season on the road, so this year’s Home Opener was a little later. On Monday, April 12th, Mike and I headed up to Safeco Field. Mom always got after me for not getting pictures of me and those who came with me. Last season I was very good about getting the pictures, but I have already started this season off bad. I ended up not getting a picture of Mike and I. It was Mike’s first time attending a Home Opener, but I realized it was already my 9th Home Opener (this is our 9th season for our tickets too). I do have to say that this was the first year that we had issues with parking, even though we got up there about 2 hours before game time. I think everyone was coming to see Randy Johnson pitch! :-) I had to exchange some tickets too, so we ended up getting into our seats at 2:58 pm and the Pregame Ceremony was supposed to start at 3 pm. It ended up getting kicked off at 3:10 pm. A local band called “Death Cab for Cutie” started the show. I really hadn’t heard of them before, but Mike knew who they were:

After the band finished, they started the introductions of the Oakland A’s and then the M’s. Here’s the trainers, coaches, and other staff members:

Then the players were introduced as they ran down the red carpet from right field. Ichiro:

Griffey:

Before the National Anthem, we had a moment of silence for the 6 police officers that have been killed in the line of duty this winter in Seattle and Lakewood:

The big flag was held by police officers from Seattle, Lakewood, and Pierce County (I think those were the only ones):

Ichiro being given some of his awards from last season:

Every year the Mariners honor a young kid with health issues, by allowing them to run around the bases and be met at home plate by some big league ballplayers. This year, the young boy got an awesome welcome by Griffey, Felix Hernandez, and Chone Figgins:

Now for the man that we were waiting to see!!! Randy Johnson came out of centerfield and took the long walk to the pitcher’s mound:

Warming up:

Rumor had it that Dan Wilson would be there to catch for him and that Griffey may even come up to “Bat.” At least one was true:

You can’t have the two of them out on the field without some of their old teammates:

Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson (mostly hidden), Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, and Ken Griffey, Jr:

Then we finally started the game with Ryan Rowland-Smith pitching:

We are still sitting behind home plate, so I still have to contend with the net that causes issues with my auto focus camera. Here’s some of my best game shots. Ichiro:

Griffey:

I love these next two shots of Griffey. The ball went towards our right:

The Moose:

I had to take a lot of pics of Griffey, since we don’t know if this is his last season. Here’s two more of him:

The final score:

We were so bummed by the final score, but otherwise it was a great day!

If you read this blog and you know me, contact me if you want to go to any games (with or without me)!!

God’s Creation

2010-04-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

God has created some beautiful things and also some funny things. I thought I’d just post a mix of different photos I’ve taken this winter. One night, back in October, I was watching tv and I kept hearing a frog outside the sliding door. I wasn’t paying too much attention, but after a few minutes, I went to check it out. I had to grab my camera to catch this moment. I don’t know if the frog wanted to watch tv or just come into the warm house, but he seemed to like this spot:

At the end of October, we celebrated my Great Aunt Ruth’s 90th birthday. She’s my Mom’s aunt and so Mom and all of her cousins decided that we needed to have a party for her. She never married and was a Missionary Nurse in Zaire (aka Congo), so Mom and her cousins became her “kids”. I think we had most of Mom’s cousins at the party. We even got to see her cousin Rodney and his wife, Myrna, from Montana. Mom’s cousins that live in Coupeville and run the Knead & Feed Restaurant (www.kneadandfeed.com/), did all the food for the party and one other cousin and her daughter (http://www.alexandrahedin.com/) did all of the flower arrangements. The flowers were gorgeous and I just had to get some pictures of them.

Carnations:

Rose:

In early December, we took our high school and middle school kids from our church for a weekend retreat. The mornings were cold, but Erin, Janna, and I still took an early morning walk. Thought that the frost made for some pretty cool pictures.

A frosty weed:

A branch:

A big tractor tire:

One of our snow days in December:

We usually leave our Christmas tree in the garage for a few days before bringing it into the house, but this time while it was in the garage, it ended up being some of the coldest days we’ve had in a long time. Our tree looked great all decorated:

Then we began noticing that the needles started coming off in bunches a lot earlier than normal. It might be hard to see all the needles off in this picture:

While taking the ornaments off the tree, I kept hearing all the needles falling off. This is the aftermath of trying to take the tree out the front door without dropping too many needles (the main pile by the tree stand has about 3 inches of needles):

On February 14th, Mom taught up on Camano Island and on the 15th in Lynden. We stayed at our previous pastor’s house in Birch Bay on the night of the 14th. Pastor Pete and his wife, Jo, were at our church while I was growing up and Pastor Pete’s last Sunday at our church was the day that I made Public Profession of Faith. We love to visit them every chance we get and always hope for decent weather when we’re at their house. They have a great view from the house and thankfully on this trip we had decent weather. We were able to enjoy some great views, great talks, and just some great down time enjoying our visit with them. Here’s a great view of Puget Sound looking towards the right from their house:

While we were sitting around having lunch, we noticed an eagle flying around. This isn’t that great of picture, but by the time I ran to grab my camera, the eagle was flying away. This view is looking towards the left from their house:

The best view of all is straight out their window. Here’s some great shots of Mt. Baker, including some early evening photos and some with my zoom lens (you can see Birch Bay in some of the pictures):

Spring was in the air in late February (one of our first crocuses):

A few weeks later, Mom taught in Canada and we woke up one morning to this view of snow out the window:

This year all of our plants and flowers seem to be coming up earlier than normal. My favorite flower is the tulip and thankfully I'm 3/4 Dutch and Mom loves them too, so we have a lot of them in the yard. We bought some new tulips last year when we were down at my brother’s and they were the first tulips to come up this year. I thought these were some pretty cool photos:

These are just some of the pictures of God’s great Creation. To see the greatness of the mountains, to the beauty of the eagle, to the tiny frog, and the beautiful flowers, is just an awesome testament to God’s power and his love for even the tiny things.

Last of the 2009 M’s Games

2010-03-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

We are getting closer to another Mariner’s Season (Home Opener is April 12th!!), so I thought I should wrap up my 2009 season pictures. Between August 28th and October 3rd, I went to 5 games. This might be a little longer post, but I wanted to include some of my favorite photos. On Friday, August 28th, I took 4 of my high school girls from church (one is now in college though) to see the M’s play the Kansas City Royals. We were in Row 7, down the first base line, so we had some great seats. Here’s my girls (back to front): Lauren (blue hat, now in college), Erin, Kayla, and Kara:

A shot from our seats:

Felix Hernandez pitching (notice the Moose on the right side):

Mike Sweeney up to bat:

Sean White starting his pitch:

Final Score:

The next night (8/29), I went to another M's game and brought ScottieJo with me. We got to sit in Row 2, down the first base line. We got up there early, so that I could show her the stadium. Before the game, the Mariners honored the Seattle Pilots as they celebrated their 40th Anniversary. The Pilots are the original professional baseball team in Seattle, but only lasted one year (1969):

Ian Snell pitching (Jack Hannahan covering 1st base):

As with anyone and any team, there are always former Mariner players on other teams. Here’s one of our former pitchers, Gil Meche:

Also, one of our favorite former utility players, Willie Bloomquist:

Finally I was able to get a good action shot of one of the KC players getting caught in a pickle:

FInal Score:

On Friday, September 18th, I went up to another game bringing my co-worker, Denise. The M’s were playing the Yankees. We sat a few rows back on the 3rd base side. For this game, the M’s honored Sigi Schmid and the Seattle Sounders, by having Sigi throw out the first pitch:

Felix Hernandez pitching and Adrian Beltre on 3rd base:

Ichiro hitting with a lot of the M’s along the dugout:

This picture is for my Uncle Larry. I guess one of his favorite players is Derek Jeter, so he asked me to get this picture:

This was the score at the end of the Top of the 9th:

Then, the Mariners came up to bat. One of our guys was on 2nd base, when Ichiro came up to bat. I thought that it would be a great time for him to hit a home run, which he ended up doing. He’s in his home run trot here:

This is a great greeting to come Home to for Ichiro, but I’d also be scared going into the middle of that mob and getting hit on the head:

FINAL SCORE!!!!!!

I took a short break from going to games and my next one was on Friday, October 2nd (the last Friday game of the year). I’m finally sitting back in our season ticket seats. One of the things the Mariners do is hand out some awards. I don’t know exactly how it works, but the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) choose a winner in several different categories for the M’s. I’m guessing the BBWAA does this for each team in the MLB. Whatever the case, they named Ichiro the M’s MVP of the year:

Griffey:

Another former M’s (although he played here many years ago and is still going strong), Omar Vizquel:

Final Score:

On Saturday, I went back up for the next-to-the-last game of the season and again I sat in our season ticket seats. I usually don’t take pictures of the dugout, but I thought that this was a great shot (notice how clean it is). Of course, this is at the beginning of the game:

The Aussie, Ryan Rowland-Smith:

If you’ve been to a M’s game during the last few seasons, you have seen the signs for “Rally Fries.” I won’t go into the whole story of why it started, but it has gotten so popular that even M’s fans at the away games have signs asking for Rally Fries. The M’s Bullpen would not be left out this year, so they posted their own sign. It reads “THE BULLPEN ARE PEOPLE TOO.....’RALLY FRIES’.”

Griffey:

This one says it for all the M’s loyal fans:

The moon shining down on the stadium:

The final score for my last game of 2009:

M’s 2009 Record: 85 wins and 77 loses

15 Days to the M’s Season Opener and 23 days until the M’s HOME OPENER!!!

Another M's Game

2010-01-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

I've gotten way behind on my blog, because of a lot of different reasons. Since the M's aren't playing right now, I figured it would be a great time to catch up on some of my favorite photos from the games I went to. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up by the time Spring Training starts in mid-February. On Saturday, August 15th, I headed up to another Mariner game against the Yankees. The day before, my Uncle Larry (Mom’s brother), came down with his friend, Tom, and Tom’s two boys for the Friday night game. Tom and Uncle Larry had come down for a game last summer and sat in my seats. I was at that game, but was sitting in a different seat. This year we ended up not being able to go to the same game.

After exchanging some of my season tickets, I was able get some awesome seats for this game, I was in Row 3 just outside of 1st Base:

Being so close to the field on the Mariner dugout side, I got close to the M’s players warming up. It made for some interesting pictures. Jack Hannahan stretching:

A long standing tradition for the rookie pitchers is to give them very cute girly backpacks for them to carry out to the dugout. Here’s Chris Jakubauskas and his cute little backpack:

Sean Kelley and his cute little backpack:

During the singing of the National Anthem, several of the guys had lined up along the base path:

FIreworks during the Anthem:

Mark Few, men’s basketball coach at Gonzaga University, threw out the first pitch at this game:

One of the drawbacks of sitting where I did, is that the pictures of the players on the field (looking towards home plate) are not very clear, because of the crowds behind them.

Ichiro jumping back from a bad pitch:

Griffey waiting for his pitch:

Griffey’s sweet swing:

Ichiro warming up between innings right near me:

Hannahan on 1st base (I think the Yankee player is Mark Teixeira):

Griffey made it to 1st base also:

Sean White pitching:

Yankee Closer, Mariano Rivera:

Final Score:

A Different League

2009-10-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

At the end of July, Mom and I went down to Elliot & Yvonna’s house to celebrate April’s 3rd birthday. That Friday night (July 24th), we all went to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes minor league game. They are the Single-A Short Season Minor League Team for the San Francisco Giants:

I have to say that it was completely different than going to a Mariners game. Elliot and Yvonna have season ticket to the Volcanoes, so they just had to get a few extra tickets for us to go with them. Yvonna’s parents, her sister and her daughter (about 1 1/2 years old) also joined us at the game. Here’s the view from the seats:

I don’t know any of their players (plus they didn’t have a program to check the names), but here are a few pictures from the game:

This is one big difference between the Majors and Minor stadiums--The Dugout (where the players sit during a game):

Another big difference is the Bullpen (where the pitchers warm up)

During the 7th Inning Stretch, they bring a bunch of kids onto the side of the field to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame:”

After every Friday night game they have fireworks. April’s birthday was that day (July 24th), so Elliot and Yvonna kept telling her that they were going to have fireworks for her birthday. We had to laugh during the fireworks, because April ended up covering up her ears, yet her cousin was listening and enjoying the sounds of the fireworks. :-) These are some of my best fireworks pictures:

Sports Day-July 11th!!!

2009-09-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve gotten a little bit behind on posting, so I’ll try to get you caught up on all the stuff I’ve done this summer. It will take a few posts, but you'll get to see some of my favorite photos. Last year when Mom and I were in Houston, I was able to go with our cousins to a Houston Dynamo Major League Soccer game. Their son has front row seats, so I was pretty spoiled (see previous post from 2008). :-) When I found out that Seattle was getting a MLS team this season, I wanted to go to a game and thought it would be great to see the Sounders vs Dynamo. I played soccer for many years when I was younger, but hadn’t been to a professional soccer game, since the Tacoma Stars played back in the 80s.

I was able to get a ticket a few months before the Sounders-Dynamo game and I’m glad I did. It has been very hard to get tickets for their games. What made the day even better was that since I was up at Qwest Field (where the Seahawks and Sounders play), I figured I might as well go to a Mariners game too. The stadiums are next to each other, so it made for a perfect sports day. I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to join me for the day, so I went by myself and was able to get some great tickets for the games.

For the Sounders game, I was able to get a seat in the club section. I didn’t know what this meant, having never been to Qwest Field for a game, so I didn’t know what to expect. I got my food in the main area and went to find the Club Section. I finally found it and also found that we had our own food area with several different choices of restaurants. Oh well, what I got was good and I wasn’t going to eat much, since I’d be having dinner at Safeco Field before the M’s game.

I guess it is a MLS tradition for the teams to come out with little kids, because Houston did the same thing when I was there. I’m assuming that the kids are on soccer teams, but I’m not exactly sure. I don’t know who picks the colors for the teams, but they sure don’t pick very fashionable colors. Here’s Houston Dynamo (orange) and Seattle Sounders (lime green):

One of the funny things is that when Seattle became a MLS team, they had a special draft and were able to chose some players from other teams. Two of the guys that they got were Patrick Ianni (left side in green) and Nate Jaqua (right side in green), who played for the Dynamo last season when I saw them.

Nate Jaqua fighting for position with Brian Mullan:

Here’s one of our star players--Freddie Ljungberg going against Craig Waibel (former UW Huskies soccer player):

Several game photos:

Celebrating after one of our goals:

Hometown boy, Kasey Keller:

Action shot:

Here’s another star player--Fredy Montero:

Final score at the end of regulation time:

After the game, the players walked around the stadium thanking everyone:

After the game, I had about 3 hours to hang out until Safeco Field opened for the M’s game. I hung out at the Sounders/Seahawks and Mariners Team Stores until the gates opened at Safeco. I had a great seat for the M's game--just to the left of home plate about 10 rows back. I had also gotten tickets for Mike & Malissa (from church) for his 30th birthday. Since I didn't get their tickets at the same time that I got mine, they ended up being several sections away from me. We did hang out before the game. Ten years ago Safeco Field first opened, so there was a short ceremony. This banner was out near centerfield:

Many people call Safeco Field the “House that Griffey Built,” so who better to catch the Ceremonial First Pitch at the game:

I think this is Howard Lincoln, who is the chairman and CEO of the Mariners. He has been with the team for many years and one of them who pushed for the stadium. He threw the pitch to Griffey:

Joining Griffey and Mr. Lincoln on the field were others from the M’s front office and those who are on the Public Facilities District Board (those who run Safeco Field)

First pitch of the game by Jarrod Washburn:

Some of the guys (Griffey’s in the center):

Ichiro leading off the game:

Jose Lopez:

Griffey:

Franklin Gutierrez:

Franklin (in back) and I think the front one is Jack Wilson (we had recently got a bunch of guys called up, so I’m still learning who they are):

Ryan Langerhans (left fielder):

Rob Johnson (catcher):

Jarrod Washburn pitching:

Jack Hannahan, who the M’s had just gotten the day before in a trade with the Oakland A’s:

Griffey:

Jack Hannahan on 3rd base:

Mark Lowe:

M’s Closer, David Aardsma:

After the game, the winning team always comes out on the field to high five each other:

Final Score:

Saludo a Beisbol latinoamericano!!

2009-07-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

Salute to Latin American Baseball

I’m a little bit behind, so bear with me. On June 6th, Michelle joined me for a great game of baseball. We actually took my new Mariner up for its maiden voyage to its first Mariner game!! I had just gotten it back the day before after they put the sunroof and heated seats in it. The weather was actually cold enough that we did use the heated seats. :-) Michelle took a picture of us, which I haven’t gotten yet. We did get our picture taken by someone for MLB. We could see it on the M’s website (we do look very cute!!). To download it, we would have had to pay, so I haven’t gotten it. We were actually in my regular seats for this game. It was Salute to Latin American Baseball night, so they brought the flags of all the Latin American countries out onto the field. If you know them, send me an e-mail with the name of the country that goes with each flag. :-)

The person who threw out the first pitch, was the Mariner’s greatest Latin American player, Edgar Martinez:

He threw the first pitch to Ken Griffey Jr:

Using the sport setting on my camera, I was able to get this series of shots of the starting pitcher, Jarrod Washburn:

Adrian Beltre batting (I love that the ball can be seen clearly):

I had almost forgotten that my college had a get together at the game. The only problem is that you have to get the tickets for both the BBQ and game together (I’ve tried to get only the BBQ ticket and they don’t allow that). Since getting my season tickets, I have picked the tickets for this game before knowing that it is the reunion game. One of these years, I’ll not have tickets for the game and be able to join my fellow George Fox alumni. This time they were mentioned on the board, so I got this picture:

In honor of the Latin American Night, they had some dancers on top of both dugouts. These are the ones on the 3rd base visitor dugout:

Griffey hitting (check out where the ball is at!!):

With Jeremy Reed being traded, I’ve had to find a new favorite player (s). One of mine is Brandon Morrow. One thing I find amazing is that he is a Type 1 diabetic (I’m Type 2) and is able to still play at the MLB level. I think that is awesome!! He’s also been able to help fellow teammate, Mark Lowe, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year. Here’s a series of Brandon’s pitching:

Another M’s pitcher, Chris Jakubauskas. I thought this next one was a great picture, because of the placement of the ball above his head:

The M’s closer, David Aardsma:

As a tribute to Latin America, they had the names of the teams in Spanish (thankfully they didn’t have everything written in Spanish or else it could have been a very interesting game):

The final score:

New Toys!!

2009-06-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Back in February, we were having a few problems with Mom’s car, but didn’t really think anything of it. Then we were heading down to Elliot’s house and only got about 2 miles down the road from our house, when we had some major issues. We turned around at the gas station behind my office and went back home to switch cars. My car hasn’t gone that far on the freeway in awhile, since we’d always take Mom’s car, but I was happy that it made it all the way down to Salem. After getting home, the car went into the shop and we were told that the transmission was shot and that it would cost quite a bit to replace it. Since it would cost more to replace it than what the car is worth, we decided that Mom should get a new car. This would be her 4th car ever, which is a testament to how great her cars have been and how well taken care of they were.

We didn’t want to leave Mom’s car for too long at the shop and I didn’t want to drive the car, so one of the men at church borrowed a trailer and we picked up Mom’s car:

We weren’t exactly sure what to do with Mom’s car, so our neighbor beside us (garage side) allowed us to park the car in her parking area. Here’s a picture before we got rid of her car:

We were down to one car for about three weeks, but Mom and I made it work. Mom finally picked out the car that she wanted, a BLUE 2008 Mercury Milan. During one of the test drives, we noticed that it was pretty loud in the car. but only near the back passenger side door. In talking with the Lincoln Mercury dealer, they agreed to fix it, so we were able to borrow a car. It turned out that the problem was different than what we first thought, so it took about a week, but we finally got her car back:

I’ve been wanting to get a new car for about two years and finally was able to go ahead with it. My dream car is a Mustang convertible, but with Mom’s new car, we recently found that I could not get a Mustang in the garage. With a soft top convertible and our Washington weather, I don’t want to be parking outside and I also don’t want Mom to park outside. I’ve also been interested in another vehicle, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to go towards a small SUV and I wasn’t sure if it would fit in the garage. I decided to check it out and according to the website, it looked like it should fit in our garage with Mom’s car. On one of the test drives, I brought it home and it fit in the garage perfectly. So on Saturday, May 23, I bought a 2008 Mercury Mariner (this picture is a little dark):

This one looks a little closer to the actual color (light blue):

In a way, it is hard to get rid of my old car, because my Dad bought it in 1999, the year before he died. :-(

It’s going to a good home and I thought it was time to get a new vehicle, plus this is my first car that I got to choose. The other two cars were given to me by Dad.

I went from a 1988 tan Nissan Sentra to a 1997 red Mercury Mystique to a 2008 blue Mercury Mariner. Mom went from a 1967 blue Dodge car to a 1977 blue Dodge Aspen to a 1994 blue Buick Regal to a 2008 blue Mercury Milan.

PLAY BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

These are two of my favorite words this time of year. The Mariners started their Season a week later than normal because of the World Baseball Classic, but that start was in Minnesota. This meant that the boys didn’t have their Home Opener until Tuesday, April 14th against the LA Angels. As many of you know or guessed, I was at the game. I took Katelin, an 8th grader from church, who has gone to several games with me. She was excited, because she got to get out of school early and got to ride in Mom’s new car. Mom complains that I never take pictures of those who go with me to the games, so I’m going to try really hard this year to get a picture of who came with me. Here’s my pic with Katelin, taken on my phone:

It was a 3:40 start (pregame celebration starting at 3 pm). The gates opened at 1:10 pm, but we couldn’t get there for that, because of work and school. Usually I could get to a game about an hour and a half early and not have any problem getting into my favorite parking lot (just south of the Safeco Field Parking Garage), but we ended up parking about 2 blocks further away and it was quite expensive. Let’s just say that you probably had to park at least a mile away from the stadium to get any parking under $20.

Gates were open when we got to the field, but I had to exchange a few tickets. I was thrilled with the ones I got (row 14 for a July game and Row 3 for a M’s vs Yankee game!!!) We finally got into the stadium and headed to get some food before sitting down. All the lines were very long and we got back to our seats with one minute to go before the Pregame ceremonies. We have some great seats this year, just to the left of home plate. As you will be able to see in pictures, we have the foul ball net between us and the plate again, so I have to switch my camera to manual focus mode. If I use the auto focus, it isn’t a guarantee that it will focus on what I want and instead it will focus on the net. Here’s a picture from our seats from my phone:

The M’s honored the World Baseball Classic by having the flags of all the nations that participated in the WBC. The M’s had two players (Ichiro and Johjima) on the WBC’s winning team (Japan). I know you can’t see all of them, but the Australian and Canadian flags are at the front, the Japanese flag is towards the middle, and the American flag is towards the end:

If you haven’t gone to an Opening Day game, I highly recommend going. It is so awesome. After the country flags were brought out, they had the team introductions. First they introduced the Angels and then it was the M’s turn. The whole coaching staff, trainers, and interpreters were all introduced:

Then the players came down the red carpet under the balloons. I have pictures of all of them coming to the lineup, but I won’t bore you with all of those pictures. Here are a few highlights though.

Ichiro (who wasn’t starting, because he was on the Disabled List):

Some of the pitchers and non-starting position players:

Now the person who most people came to see and who got the biggest and longest applause out of everyone.......KEN GRIFFEY JR!!!!!!!!

The new manager and most of the starting lineup:

The team:

A close up of the pitchers and some position players:

A close up of the starting lineup (minus the pitcher and catcher):

For the National Anthem they had the Navy Band Northwest perform, which was awesome to hear:

Here’s some of the fireworks and smoke:

This July is the 10th Anniversary of Safeco Field and so they had Dave Niehaus read a tribute and had a video up on the big screen:

Every year they have a child, who is sick or has been sick, run around the bases. This little boy was lucky when he got around to homeplate. He was met by Junior, Ichiro, Felix Hernandez, and I can’t remember who the fourth one is:

If you remember some of the old M’s players, you’ll most likely remember this guy. His name is Harold Reynolds and he played several years with the M’s and now is a commentator for ESPN. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch:

If I remember correctly one of his last seasons with the M’s was Griffey’s first season, so Junior is the current player who caught the throw:

First pitch of the game by Carlos Silva:

Now for the star of the game!!! Griffey’s first at bat, which is what everyone was waiting for. I thought it would have been awesome if it was a night game, so that I could have seen all the flashbulbs going off. You could see some in the daytime, but it wasn’t as powerful (he’s in the batter’s box here):

Although he didn’t hit the ball on this one, I thought it was a sweet swing:

This is as the ball is coming towards the plate:

This is the ball leaving after Griffey’s hit:

The Grounds Crew doesn’t dance at every game, but for the Opening Day game, they always do:

Before the game, we had a moment of silence for several previous players, managers, announcers, and others in the baseball world. One of the players that they honored was Nick Ardenhart, the Angels pitcher who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Wednesday night, April 8th, a few hours after his pitching debut. What I didn’t know until later (after getting home from the game) was that he was actually supposed to be the starting pitcher for the Angels for this game. Another person that we honored was the “Tuba Man.” He was robbed and murdered by a bunch of teens back in late October. He would play his tuba before and after the M’s, Seahawks, Sonics games, and events at the Opera House. I remember hearing him play many times. During the 7th inning stretch, we had a group of tuba players play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for us. It was a great tribute:

Towards the end of last season, I learned a new thing on my camera. It is a “sport” setting and allows me to hold open the shutter and it will take multiple pictures right after another. I wish I would have figured it out sooner, but now that I know about it, I use it a lot, especially when taking pictures of the pitchers. Here’s one of my favorite players, Brandon Morrow, in a series of photos:

Here’s the score after 9-innings!! I think this might be only the second extra-inning game that I’ve been to:

We won in the bottom of the 10th!!!!!!! Here’s the celebration at Home Plate!!!!!

The hand operated scoreboard after the run was added for the 10th inning, but before they added it to the total:

Here it is with the run added to the total:

It was a great start to the new season. I’m sure they’ll have a better record than last season. :-)

Chris Tomlin Concert

2009-03-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night, March 8th, Lucas, Michelle, and I drove up to Kent (just south of Seattle) to go to the Chris Tomlin Hello Love Tour concert. It was held at the Showare Center, which is where the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team plays. During the concert Chris announced that this was the first concert held in the arena!! We were excited to kickoff the concert life of the arena with an awesome Christian artist.

I took almost 110 pictures at the concert, but because we were towards the back of the dark arena, most of them didn’t turn out very well. I did bring my telephoto lens to take shots of him on stage and on the big screen (these are the really close up shots of him). Below are the best pictures that I got.

The stage just before Chris entered:

On stage:

Playing the piano:

This photo is from the big screen just as it transitioned from one shot of Chris to another:

Rockin’ Out:

Missing an eye:

Looking into the future:

Cool color of pants, but I’m pretty sure it was the lights making them purple:

After a lot of singing, he stopped for a few minutes to talk to us:

Interesting facial looks:

Rocking out at Center Stage:

Worshipping at Center Stage:

This was just before the end of the concert:

Chris’ opening band was Israel Houghton and the New Breed. Chris brought them out at the end of the evening too (Israel’s playing guitar):

Still looking good at the end of the night:

Both bands are on stage together at the end of the night:

It was an awesome night and I know that we had a great time. Lucas and Michelle--Thanks so much for going with me.

M's 2008 Season (A little late!)

2009-03-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

With a new season coming soon, I thought I’d post some of my favorite photos from last season. I got way behind on posting my M’s pictures, so I’m not going to post a bunch of pictures from each game. I went to a lot of games during the season and had many different people attend with me. Our seats during the season were right near 1st base on the field level (our seats for the 2009 season are back behind home plate again). Since I couldn’t sell all of my tickets, I traded some of them for better seats. The closest that I got to the field was in row 4, down the 1st base line (right near where Ichiro stands in the right field). I was also in row 8 and 12 of that same section. I also sat down the 3rd base line near the field, along with our normal seats.

From our (traded) seats on the 3rd base line, just behind the visiting dugout

Felix Hernandez:

Jeremy Reed:

Ground’s Crew Dancing:

M’s outfield (Raul Ibanez, Ichiro-just made a spectacular catch, and Jeremy):

Ryan Roland-Smith (lefty from Australia):

I know there are probably some Boston fans who are reading this, so here you go (Ortiz, Ramirez, and Lugo):

Now for down the 1st base line (near the outfield):

Mark Lowe in his pitching motion:

Towards the left of home plate (visitor side). Some M’s fans will recognize this guy, Carlos Guillen, former M’s player, now with Detroit:

Ichiro just hit the ball, which you can still see on the left side:

Jeremy Reed (again), just before he got on base with a hit:

Richie Sexton hitting and Jeremy Reed on base:

Jeremy ready to run:

Jeremy making a spectacular catch:

Back to the first base side, but a few rows closer. Here’s three of the M’s pitchers:

Ichiro in the old M’s uniforms:

During the game, we had a drunk fan run out into the outfield. He’s on the ground, being handcuffed by the sheriff. I got some closer up pictures of him using a zoom lens, but I don’t want to add any more to his 2 minutes of fame. The security guard on the right, was the one who was standing right in front of us. He ran all the way across the field pretty quickly. If he could hit the ball, maybe the M’s should sign him for this next season!! :-)

Now for two of my favorite pictures. I was sitting in row 4 along the first base line. Jeremy was warming up before the game (Willie Bloomquist is bending over):

During the game just before this one, Ichiro had gotten his 3,000th career hit, so they presented him with a plaque for his achievement.

Here’s a great action shot of Jeremy coming down to 1st base:

Ichiro is deep in thought......or just waiting for someone to bat:

As a surprise for Uncle Larry, Aunt Marlene, took two of my tickets for the M’s vs Yankees game for Uncle Larry and their friend Tom to come down from Alaska. Tom is a pilot for Alaska Air and was able to get a great deal for them to fly here. Since I only had two tickets to the game, I ended up exchanging some other tickets for two other tickets to this game. Uncle Larry threatened to wear a Yankees hat (he grew up listening to the Yankee broadcasts in Alaska). He decided that he didn’t want to stand out at the game, since he’d already been on national tv that week. He came down around the time that the GOP announced Sarah Palin as the VP nominee. She attends the church that Uncle Larry is the pastor at. I went over to hang out with him for a few minutes and Tom was kind enough to take our picture:

A few games before, Adrian Beltre was the 4th player in M’s history to hit for the cycle, so they presented him with this:

This picture is for Uncle Larry, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it!! Since I was in row 12 behind the batter’s circle of the visiting team, Uncle Larry wanted me to get Derek Jeter’s picture:

For those who have followed UW Husky football, you’ll recognize this name. Matt was the 2nd Tuiasosopo to play football for the Huskies. His brother Marques is still playing for the Oakland Raiders and their younger brother Zach should be graduating this year. Their dad, Manu played for several NFL teams, including the Seahawks. This wasn’t Matt’s first major league hit, but I thought it was a great shot:

While Kara was living with us during their move from Long Beach to Olympia, she went to a few games with me. This game we were able to sit down the third base line about two seats from the field. She loved using my camera to check everyone out, but I had to grab it several time to take some pictures. Here’s one of Ichiro on third base with Jose Lopez up to bat:

I hope you’ll be able to read this reader board sign clearly, but if not it says that Miguel Cairo did, “Last night: 1-4, double, triple, RBI & run scored.” I noticed it first and then a bunch of people around us started reading it. We were all cracking up, since you can’t have a double and triple and be 1 for 4. They never did change it. :-)

This off season was one of the worst for me, since one of my favorite players (Jeremy) was traded to the NY Mets. It would have been worse if it was the the Yankees. We did get great news though. GRIFFEY is coming back!!!! I know that this season will be better than the last one, so looking forward to the new season.

APRIL 14th is the 2009 Home Opener and I already have my tickets to go!!

Snow, Part II

2009-01-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

We never did have the wind that they thought we’d have. We never lost power, but it did flicker some. On Saturday, December 20th, we got a lot of snow during the day and evening. My car was outside from about 1 pm to 8 pm and ended up with about 4 inches on top of it:

Church was cancelled on Sunday, so it seemed to be a very wierd day without going to church. Sunday afternoon I took this picture of the top of our picnic table (about 11 1/2 inches):

I worked my way to the middle of our backyard to stick the ruler in the snow. It might be hard to see, but the ruler is about 3 inches below the top of the snow:

The snow piled up on the picnic table and bench:

After checking out the backyard, I had to walk to the front and measure it up there (about 12 inches):

Here’s a wider shot of the front yard. You can see where I walked. The snow is also covering our walkway lights.

Growing up, we always teased Dad about his Christmas trees. They were often crooked in some way. Have to say that the one Mom and I picked out looks pretty good:

I think the true definition of a white Christmas is to have snow falling. In the true sense of it, we didn’t have a “white” Christmas, but it sure was so pretty outside:

With all of the snow and wind, we had a lot of smaller branches come down in the backyard:

Our front yard was a different story. The corner by Mom’s study always gets a lot of branches, since there are five big trees right there. We ended up with a huge pile of branches, with several of them about 15-20 feet long. Thankfully none of them did any damage to the house, though one big one hit our neighbors house:

Christmas Eve, Mom and I attended our church service. Choir sang and I also played flute. To get to church, I had to move some of the snow to get Mom’s car out og the garage. I didn’t remove enough. When we got home from church, the car ended up sliding on the driveway and I got Mom’s car stuck in the berm of snow that I had made next to the driveway. I had to shovel down to the bare pavement to get Mom’s car out and into the garage. I didn't feel too bad, because Elliot, Yvonna, and April came up the next day (Christmas Day) around 1:30 pm. They were having a little problem getting in the driveway, with all the deep ruts (he then made even deeper ones) and the ice:

Because of all of the stuff with April, Elliot has asked that I don’t post pictures of her here yet. Christmas was a blast with a little one around. Almost all of my pictures include April, so I can’t put any on here.

To end the year, Mom and I just stayed around the house and rang in the New Year quietly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU IN 2009!!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

2008-12-20T23:55:00.000-08:00

I’m getting this one on quickly, because we are supposed to be hit with a major snow/wind storm this weekend. Snow is awesome. We’ve had several days of snow around here and we aren’t done. We are also being hit by pretty cold temps, but not as bad as our families in Wasilla, Alaska and Malta, Montana are having right now. Our first snowfall came on Sunday the 14th. You could barely see the snow coming down, but you could see our neighbor’s roof has some white stuff on it:

Three hours later we had a thin blanket on our front lawn:

My Tuesday Night Bible Study, decided that this past Tuesday (Dec. 16) we would go Christmas Caroling at one of the nursing homes in town. Here’s a great picture of our group. Left to right are Brian (with baby Abee), Mark, Eric, Tom, Nate, Lisa, Michelle, Melissa, Kristin, Sean (in back playing guitar), and Lucas:

After singing, we went back to Brian and Melissa’s for English Muffin Pizzas (I just had an English Muffin with jam though) and then we did a White Elephant Gift Exchange. Here’s some pizza making pics:

Mark:

Eric:

Melis:

Brian and Abee:

Lisa and Abee:

The gift that I brought was very popular with Abee. She loved to hand out the candy to all. Mark opened it first and Eric ended up with in the end:

The next snow we had fell before the morning of December 17th. I got these pictures before work. Backyard picnic table:

Front Yard:

By the time I came home for lunch, we had this much snow on the picnic table:

Lunchtime in the front yard:

We were allowed to go home early Wednesday through Friday, so I took advantage of it. Here’s the picnic table around 5 pm that same afternoon:

I then had some fun and built a small snowman. Our neighbors on both sides of the end of our street built two snowmen and they were much better than mine. It was getting dark and I was working by myself and in a hurry, so I didn’t make it much bigger. Here’s my beautiful work:

Here’s our front yard from the street:

The next evening, i actually went out and measured it. Here’s what it looked like before the measuring. Isn’t it so awesome:

It measured just over 5 inches:

I went to the middle of our backyard to see and it was almost 9 inches there:

Lastly, I went to the front yard and stuck the stick in the middle of the yard:

More pictures from our weekend storm coming soon.....

Florida--More Pictures

2008-12-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

I know that while we were in Florida, Uncle Jim took some pictures of us that I didn’t have. Because of schedules, vacations, hurricanes, and time, I wasn’t able to get them. At the end of October, my Grandpa (Dad’s dad) passed away, so Mom and I had to make an unexpected trip to Michigan for his funeral. My aunt and uncle were there, so in the midst of everything, I asked my uncle if I could transfer his photos. Since I had posted most of our trip, I decided to just add another post with just his pictures.

While touring the Naval Museum, we spotted a replica of the Navy ship that Uncle Jim served on.

Uncle Jim took our picture in front of one of the planes:

In my post, I had a picture of a Navy ceremony that we watched. We don’t know what it was for, but I thought I heard someone mention something about honoring them for their work in the community. The first one was taken before the actual ceremony and the second one is right after the Color Guard made it to the front of the room:

Aunt Diane (left) and Mom resting in some old plane seats while touring the museum:

Having lunch at the Shrimp Basket at Perdido Keys:

At the Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Shores, Alabama:

Mom (taking a picture) and Aunt Diane next to the Gulf:

The four of us at the Gulf:

That night we took some pictures in the backyard. I had posted pictures from that time, but I hadn’t taken one of the four of us. Here’s Uncle Jim’s photo:

Here’s two of Uncle Jim’s photos from the Blue Angels:

Uncle Jim was far enough away, so he took our picture as we got ready for our walk through Fat Albert:

While we walked through, Uncle Jim took a great picture of the tail:

As we came out of the back:

Uncle Jim got a picture of us near one of the cannons at Fort Barrancas:

Mom and Aunt Diane on the walkway to Navarre Beach:

I’ll end with the one thing that I loved to do while we were on our trip. Putting my feet in the warm water:

This concludes our Houston and Florida trip. Thanks for bearing with me on this long journey of posting. Now I can get to my summer fun of softball, baseball, sun, and fun!!!

Just to note: Tonight there are reports that one of my favorite Mariners was traded to the Mets along with one of our best Closers (JJ Putz). So, so long Jeremy. :-( I'll post some pictures of him that I took this summer, but not tonight.

Florida, Day 7

2008-11-17T23:45:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Florida started out early in the morning. Uncle Jim had found out that the Navy Blue Angels were having a practice around 8:30 that morning. Since it took about an hour to get there and park, we had to get up pretty early to get all of us through our morning routines. It was a cloudy day and we weren’t sure if they’d still practice, but we decided to head over anyways.

Sorry, but this is another long post. I had so many great pictures from the Blue Angels that I wanted to include. I’d never seen the Blue Angels in person, but we’ve always watched them on tv when they come to Seattle Seafair every summer. Seafair is a huge fair that last for two weeks (or so) and includes a big parade, the Hydroplane races, and the airshow that includes the Blues. When the Blues come to Seattle, you know that their part of the show is starting when you see Fat Albert flying across Lake Washington. Now for Fat Albert’s close up (on the ground):

Behind me is the list of the pilots:

Aunt Diane and Uncle Jim at the start of the show.

Here’s some of their first flybys:

Now for a close up of Plane #3:

Smokin’:

They started out with 6 planes, but the #6 Plane dropped out. We’re not sure why it dropped though:

I couldn’t decide which one of these three to post, so I’ll post all three. I’m using my zoom lens to take these, the only drawback of this was trying to find the planes all the time and getting my camera to focus on the plane and not the clouds. How close are they!?

Here’s Plane #5:

I still can’t believe how close they fly to each other, even while flying upsidedown:

More flybys:

After this the #5 Plane disappeared and the other 4 planes finished the practice. Flying over us:

After they flew over us, they had to end the show. The clouds were pretty low, so they couldn’t do the rest of the show for us. When they land, they stay in formation and lucky for us, they came right in front of us after landing:

Plane #1:

Plane #2

Plane #3

Plane #4

Planes #1 & 2 in formation:

Planes #3 & 4 in formation:

Close up of the pilot of Plane #4:

All four planes from the back:

We got to take a tour of Fat Albert, so here’s my picture as we get closer to the entrance:

Now here’s the back end of Fat Albert:

Behind the Naval Museum they have a huge hanger (closed to the public) that they use to restore planes that they find. After the Blues show, we were able to stop in the doorway of the hanger to see what they were working on:

I’m guessing that they have the door open at least when the Blues are practicing, because it was roped off and they had a sign that talked about the plane:

As we headed to the van, I spied this plane that people were taking pictures in front of. Aunt Diane took my picture:

After the Blues, we went to another area of the base to see Fort Barrancas:

At the entrance to the visitor center, I saw this beautiful Amarillis:

We had to walk a little bit from the visitor center to the actual fort and I had to stop to take a picture of this cute purple flower:

Here’s the view straight out from the top of Ft. Barrancas:

Towards our left we could see Fort Pickens:

Fort Pickens is actually on Pensacola Beach and the road out there was very badly damaged during the 2004 and 2005 Hurricanes, so it is still closed. Using telephoto, I was able to get a pretty good picture of it. You can still see the cannons on top of the ridge. The Bay is below us and the Gulf of Mexico is on the other side of Fort Pickens:

This is where I was standing to get the pictures and the white area is called the Water Battery and has an underground passage way into the Fort. It was found that the cannons fired from the Battery would skip over the surface of the bay to hit ships at the waterline below. The Water Battery was originally constructed by the Spanish in 1797 and named the Bateria de San Antonio:

Mom (can barely see her with the red shirt on), is standing on the bridge that goes across the moat into Ft. Barrancas:

Now I’m on the bridge crossing the moat. I just have to say that I didn’t get too close to the edge of the bridge:

This is one of the locations for the soldiers to be with their guns:

We didn’t explore all of the passageways, but there were a bunch of school kids that we could hear running around in them all. Look at how thick the inner walls were:

We made our way outside to the top of the fort. At left center, you can barely see the water that we were looking at earlier. In front of us are all of the places that they had cannons:

Uncle Jim (taking Mom and my picture) and Aunt Diane, just coming outside from the inside of the fort:

Aunt Diane (towards the left) and Mom (center in red) as they walk around the Parade Grounds:

After visiting Fort Barrancas, we decided to tour around town. We were leaving in the late afternoon, so we had some time to kill. All growing up, whenever Mom needed pictures of old churches, we’d stop at them and Dad would take a picture. If you’ve taken some of Mom’s classes, you can see a lot of those pictures. To keep up that tradition, I am now taking pictures of old churches for Mom. This one is called Christ Church. It was organized in 1827 and the church building was built in 1832. I think it was moved to this site, but I could be wrong. It is located near a bunch of old buildings that make up the “Old Town.” It has beautiful stained glass windows, but access to the back of the building was blocked and the view through the front windows wasn’t very good:

Pensacola is the only place in the U.S. that could claim that it was under 5 different nations. Just before going across the bridge to Gulf Breeze, they have the 5 flags that represent the 5 nations. I don’t know if the flags are big enough, but can you name the 5 countries?

Answers are: U.S., France, Great Britain, Spain (Castile), and the Confederate States of America.

Next year (2009) Pensacola will be celebrating their 450th Anniversary.

After checking out the town, we headed back to Gulf Breeze to head east to Navarre Beach:

Along the way, we saw some of the destruction from the last hurricane in 2005. This used to be full of trees:

The Gulf of Mexico from Navarre Beach. Part of the pier was destroyed in one of the hurricanes:

My feet in the Gulf of Mexico:

After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the rules changed for building near the water. I guess if you were flooded, you had to build on stilts. I was amazed at how big some of the houses and buildings they were putting up on stilts. This isn’t the biggest one, but I have to say that there were some big mansions and hotels on stilts. I didn’t get pictures of the bigger houses near my aunt and uncle’s, but this is one out at Navarre Beach:

Water tower at Navarre Beach:

Gulf of Mexico from our drive back to the house:

After packing up, we headed to the airport. The whole time there, I kept trying to get pictures on our drive between Pensacola and their house of the destruction at the Naval Live Oaks National Seashore. On the way to the airport, I was finally able to get some of it:

On our flight home, I got these awesome pictures of the clouds and sunset:

Florida, Day 6

2008-10-04T00:30:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we got up and headed to Naval Air Station Pensacola to go through the Naval Aviation Museum. This is where the Blue Angels are based and where my 2nd(?) cousin, Toby, has done some training. Thankfully they let us in after checking my uncle’s license. :-) Here’s the entrance to the base:

The first picture is at the outside entrance to the Naval Aviation Museum and the second picture is just inside the doors:

I took so many pictures, that I had a hard time narrowing it down. Sorry I don’t know the names of all of the planes, but here are some of the best ones:

While we were there, many navy guys came in, along with others. We don’t know what the service was about, but I think it was to honor the service men for their work in the community. Just don’t quote me on that.....

Above where the group was gathered, were some of the Blues:

We also saw another dress up Pelican by the cafeteria:

One of the best pictures from there is:

I have a photo of the inscription, but the writing was too small, so here is what it says: “It was customary for Japanese soldiers entering World War II to carry a flag into combat. This flag is an excellent example of those that were presented by the townspeople and co-workers bearing their signatures. It was earnestly believed, by the Japanese soldier, that the flag would protect them, and return them safely to their homes. The hand painted tiger symbolized the bravery that they should exhibit in combat, to be prepared at all times, to die gladly for the emperor. This bravery was necessary in order to not dishonor one’s ancestors.”

After the Museum, we went over to the Pensacola Lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters. Last year when Elliot went down to Mississippi to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, he went over for a very short trip to Aunt Diane and Uncle Jim’s. They took him up in the lighthouse, but since then it has been closed. It was first lit on January 1, 1859, and is 140 ft high:

Now the view from up at the lighthouse:

A water tower on base:

After the base, we headed west to go to Alabama. We stopped in the Perdido Keys area (right around the “292” on the map):

Me in more water:

We ate lunch in Perdido Keys at the Shrimp Basket (http://www.shrimpbasket.com/index.html). I did get my hamburger and I have to say that it was good and the view from our seats was good too:

Here’s three more pictures from the Perdido Keys area:

Had to get this picture:

Now for some shots in Gulf Shores, Alabama:

This was a building that was being rebuilt after Katrina:

This was a fishing pier that was damaged in Katrina:

Me and the Gulf in Alabama:

From Gulf Shores, we headed north to Foley and then east back to Pensacola.

More water towers in Foley:

Elberta:

Perdido Bay:

Back to Florida:

After we got back, we decided to take some family pictures in the backyard. I don’t have any of the formal pictures that we took, but I got some others. Uncle Jim took all of those pictures and because of many issues, I haven’t gotten those pictures yet. Here’s one of Mom and Uncle Jim talking:

This is one type of palm tree in their backyard:

Now for the front of the house:

I had been trying to get a picture of the Spanish Moss during our whole trip, but we always saw it when we were in the van. Our last night in Florida we wanted to see the sunset on the water. We drove just a few minutes away and then walked the rest of the way to the beach. On our easy walk down, we came across this moss covered tree:

When we got down to the beach, we realized we were on the wrong side of the land to see the actual sun setting and didn’t have enough time to drive to the other end. We still got to see a great sunset sky. Across from us are some buildings on Pensacola Beach:

This was our last night in Florida and the next day we headed home in the afternoon.

Florida, Day 5

2008-09-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we went to Aunt Diane and Uncle Jim’s church. Before we left home to go down, Aunt Diane asked Mom if she would sing a solo on Sunday morning. Mom agreed, so we got to church a little early. I took a picture of Mom practicing:

After church Uncle Jim took us on a driving tour of the Gulf Breeze area. The back windows of the van are tinted, so some of my photos appear darker, although it was pretty cloudy the whole trip. Here’s a heron that we saw on our tour:

We spent the afternoon lounging around the house. That evening, we had to drop Uncle Jim off at church for a meeting. Us three ladies headed to the beach and then went back to church for their Talent Show and Dinner. Our next stop was Pensacola Beach:

The next picture is the view from the toll bridge as we crossed over to Pensacola Beach. It is on the darker side, since I’m taking the picture through the dark window of the van:

We stopped at several areas on Pensacola Beach, so I could take pictures. I had to step in the water at every beach, especially when we were on the Gulf side. Mom took this one of me in the Gulf:

We were going back to my aunt and uncle’s church after the beach, so Mom didn’t want to get too wet:

Now for some surf pictures:

I was trying to get a great close up picture of this little guy, but he was very quick and if you know what kind of bird it is, please let me know:

As we were driving back through Pensacola Beach, Aunt Diane was showing us some of the damage from the two previous bigger hurricanes, Ivan (2004) and Dennis (2005). When you look at some of these pictures, you’ll see some rebuilt homes on stilts and some empty spaces where hotels/homes have not been rebuilt:

If you want to check out more pictures from right after the hurricanes you can search for them on the net, but here’s one of the local websites:

Ivan: http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOGALLERY0101

Dennis: http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOGALLERY0103

These are on the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) website and you can also see pictures of the area after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, and more. We know that my aunt and uncle did not evacuated for Hurricane Ike, but there are some pictures on the PNJ website of the flooding in their area. We don’t think that Mom’s cousin and her husband evacuated from Houston, but we haven’t heard from them.

Here’s my last shot as we were leaving Pensacola Beach:

This is one of their water reservoirs and I loved the painting on it.

We then went to church and enjoyed a great potluck dinner and talent show. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out at the house and planning our next day.

Florida, Days 3 and 4

2008-09-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

We flew from Houston to Pensacola, Florida on Friday (4/4) afternoon. During the flight over, I was trying to see if I could see any areas that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but it was too cloudy. My Dad’s sister, Diane and her husband, Jim, met us at the airport. They took us to an early dinner at a restaurant on one of the bayous that had a pretty good hamburger. Then we headed out to their house in Gulf Breeze. Below is a map of the area:

I always had to remember that between the cities of Pensacola and Gulf Breeze is the Bay, between Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach is the Sound and beyond that is the Gulf. For the picture below, it was pretty cloudy out, but I’m also taking the picture through the van’s window. This is a view of Gulf Breeze as we crossed the Pensacola Bay Bridge:

The Bridge is 3 miles long, carries 4 lanes of US98 across Pensacola Bay, and they even have signs before you get on it about making sure you have enough gasoline in your car. I’m guessing that they probably had one too many people stall in the middle of the bridge during rush hour traffic. :-) If you look at the map above, this bridge is the one on the left, that heads to where the star is. My aunt and uncle’s house is off of 98, just passed (to the right) of where 281 comes across the bay. History lesson on the bridge: It was opened to traffic in 1960 to replace a two-lane road that was next to it. The toll bridge was left intact, although the middle of it was destroyed some time ago. The two halves (one from the Pensacola side and one from the Gulf Breeze side) became fishing piers. Most of the rest of the fishing piers were destroyed in the 2004 Hurricane Ivan. By the time we were there, the rest of the fishing piers were pretty much destroyed.

The rest of the day was just hanging out at my aunt and uncle’s house.

(Day 4)

I was able to sleep in!! We then headed out to Joe Patti’s Seafood store to get some really fresh seafood. I was able to pick up some recipes, although I know I’m not going to be trying most of them: alligator, catfish, Mahi-Mahi, oysters, lobster, shrimp, and swordfish. If you want any of these recipes, check out: http://www.fl-seafood.com/recipes/index.htm.

Their boats and building:

Their pelican friends on their boats and docks:

As we drove around town, we saw pelican statues. Each one was painted in a different way. For those who know Seattle, it is the same as what Seattle did with the pigs. It’s also what Olympia did with the fish around town. Here's one as we were driving away from Joe Patti’s (I think we were near the Navy base):

Some nice homes that were built out in the Bay. This is just before we went over the long bridge. It is a gated road, so these are taken from a moving van. I have to say that I wouldn’t want to be in them when a hurricane comes in:

For those who know that I work with Drinking Water, you will understand some of my pictures:

If you didn’t figure it out, this is the water tower for the Midway Water System in Gulf Breeze. I just thought the painting on it was pretty cool, but after taking one picture, my aunt, uncle, and Mom would point out every single one we saw. I was hoping to take the pictures back to work and see if I could get “work” hours for taking all the pictures, but I figured that wouldn’t work to well. :-)

Hopefully I’ll be able to get the last few days of our trip on this blog soon, so I can catch you up on my summer happenings.

Stay tuned for more!!

Houston, Day 2

2008-08-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Since I chose the activity for our first full day in Houston, Mom chose what we did on the second day. I at least started the day by sleeping in. Since it wasn’t raining, I got outside and took a few pictures in John and Sue’s yard of their house and view. Some of you may know my love of home architecture, but for those who don’t, now you do. Here are some of my favorite house pictures from our vacation (you’ll see more later). Mom and I have gotten into watching HGTV and are thinking about what to do in our house, especially in our kitchen, so you’ll also see some of my “idea” pictures. John and Sue live in one of those planned communities that is built around some rice patties that were filled with water:

The back of their house:

Never got a chance to be in the pool, since it wasn’t very warm, but we did use the hot tub:

This is one idea for kitchen cupboards:

This is one of the views that they have from their house across the pond (I have my zoom lens, so that’s why the house looks so close):

Now for a picture of the front of their house:

Their house is in a small cul-de-sac and on the water side, they sit on a point, which gives them a great 180+ degree view. Since they sit on a point, Sue had a brilliant idea. Although no boats are allowed on the waterways, she found this cute lighthouse that does light up at night:

After eating breakfast and getting ready, we decided to head over to their son, Eric’s house. They are building in the same neighbor hood as his parents, but in a different section. By water, his parents are just around the corner from him, but it was a drive to get there. I think by the time we left their house for Florida, I had an idea of how to get around the neighborhood, but don’t ask me to find my way back there. The rice patties (ponds) are all connected, so some roads go over bridges but other ones have to circle around the ponds. Which is the case to get to Eric’s house from his parents. Here’s the kitchen cupboards of their house:

John told us that Eric got to chose what kind of kitchen stove they would get, so Kristie got to choose what type of tub for the master bath. I have to agree with her choice, because I’d love to have one of these too:

Here’s the view from their upstairs computer room:

Celebrating the Lone Star State (the front door):

Now a view of the front of the house:

Since we weren’t going to have enough time to see too much, Mom wanted to do a little driving around Houston, so we could see some of the city. Mom’s plan for us was to then go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They had a great exhibit about the Americas that she wanted to see. We were hoping to see some stuff on Honduras, since she was going there a few months later with our church. We didn’t make it into the IMAX Theater there, but we were able to see some Texas Wildlife, African Wildlife, Gems and Minerals (these were so beautiful to see, especially all the purple ones). These were both in jewelry and by themselves. Many of them were very expensive and they were actually in a dark vault that you were able to walk through. I’m assuming it was locked every night. The most expensive jewlery piece was millions of dollars.

We really enjoyed the Americas exhibit and wandering through the other ones. Mom and I decided to then split up. There was an exhibit called Lucy’s Legacy that Mom wanted to check out. We found out that it is coming to Seattle too, so she wanted to see if it would be worth it to go when it comes here. It is about some of the history of Ethiopia over the last 5 million years. It will be at the Pacific Science Center from 10/4/08 through 3/8/09. I wasn’t too sure I wanted to see it, so I decided to try out the CSI Exhibit. I have to say that it was so cool. First they put you in a room to watch a short video clip that includes messages from the actors on the orginal CSI (which is the only one that Mom and I watch). You then go to another area where they give you a sheet of paper that has certain questions and places for notes. After that you go in to look at your crime scene and try to solve it.

WARNING: These next pictures aren’t for the faint of heart!!

Here’s my crime scene:

After checking out the scene you go into their “Crime Lab” and get to solve the mystery. I got to learn about getting digital evidence out of cell phones. Checked out how to match finger prints, tire tracks, and DNA. Also got to check out toxicology and entomology. After all of the tests, you get on a computer and enter your findings, which are then reported to Gil Grissom. After watching a lot of CSI and Murder She Wrote, it was pretty easy for me to solve. Right after solving, I saw the list of sponsors and found that the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) was one of them. If you want to check out their website, go to: www.csitheexperience.org. It also shows that the exhibit is going to be at OMSI during the summer of 2009. I highly recommend going to it.

After leaving the Museum, we drove around downtown Houston to check out some of their older homes, see their church, check out some of the old buildings, and whatever else we could see. We ended up at a little Pub for dinner, which was really good (hamburger!!). We headed back to their house to watch some tv, which I forgot to get a picture of (it is a 72 inch tv). Many of you know that Mom does a lot with our family history and Sue had a bunch of old pictures that Mom didn’t have, so they had me take pictures with my camera. I’ll put a few here, but I won’t say who they are of:

After awhile, we headed to the Hot Tub for some relaxation. Then to bed for our last night in Houston. We got up early the next morning to head to the airport. On our way in, I took this picture of two of the domes in town. I took this picture, because after Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleans people came and lived in these buildings. We also passed the Convention Center, which housed thousands of evacuees, but I couldn’t get a picture of it:

Next up--Florida!!

Houston, Day 1

2008-07-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long posts, but I love taking pictures and can never chose which ones to use. Since the post was getting long, I'm breaking it down into a few of them. I’m finally getting around to posting about our vacation back in April. We put off our trip, because I was going to the M’s Home Opener on March 31st. We flew south on April 1st hoping for nicer weather. Although it wasn’t that great of weather at least it was warmer than home. Our first stop was Houston. We stayed with Mom’s cousin Sue and her husband John. It had been many years since we had seen them, so it was great to catch up with them. We were only there for two and a half days, so we had to pack a lot of sightseeing into that time. Mom and I had never been there, so we wanted to see as much as we could.

We had an early flight, but weren’t sure if we were going to get out with all the fog. There was hope since we could see a little of the sun:

We had an awesome view of Mt. St. Helen’s on the flight down:

We got to Houston in the late afternoon and hung out at Sue and John’s all evening. We were able to jump in the hot tub too. The weather wasn’t warm enough to go in the swimming pool, but the hot tub was great.

NASA

Our first full day in Houston was spent at NASA Space Center Houston. When we got there, John, Mom, and I went on the Tram Tour of the Johnson Space Center (JSC), which took us out to some of the NASA training buildings. Sue decided to stay in the main building (she’s been on the tour before) and scout out our plan of action after the tour. John and Sue have been there before and they did say that before 9/11 the tour went to more of the buildings, including the training pool (world’s deepest pool). Had to take a picture of Mom and John before our Tram Tour left:

Since I can’t remember where all of these pictures were taken, I’m not going to try to describe everything. Here’s some of the flags of the different shuttles:

These pictures are taken in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the JSC. This is where the astronauts, engineers, and other space flight professionals learn and practice their skills. There are some shuttle orbital trainers, International Space Station trainer, and more:

This is the grove of trees that are planted in honor of all of the Astronauts that have perished in flight, such as those on the Challenger:

These are some older rockets and shuttles that were around the Center grounds:

This was some kind of rocket that I think might be called the Saturn V and there are only two or three left in the US:

As we were riding around, I came across an awesome car, so I had to take a picture. I’ve narrowed my car choices to two and here is the Mustang convertible in the same color that I’d love to have:

If you want to learn more about the Johnson Space Center, visit their website which is pretty cool: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html.

To learn more about Space Center Houston go to: www.spacecenter.org.

After the outside tour we headed inside to find Sue. She had planned out the rest of our visit, so we were able to see the most stuff.

Our first stop was the Starship Gallery, where we watched a movie about the space flight program in the US and then traced the progress of the space program with artifacts and exhibits. Mom and I were even able to touch a moon rock:

This picture is for my Uncle Jim (we saw him later in Florida). He worked for HP for many years, so thought he’d like this one:

We watched an IMAX movie on life inside the Space Station. I remember seeing another Space Shuttle movie at the Seattle Science Center IMAX theater, when I was young, but I can’t remember what it was about. We were able to feel the sensation of a Blast Off, before we learned about the current shuttle mission. We also got to learn about the challenges of living and working in space. Here’s some pictures from that demonstration:

John and I took our turns on the Flight Simulators. I’m not sure how well John did, but I crashed once and went “where no one has gone before” (probably back into space).

John:

Me:

Mom and I went up into a “Shuttle” and were able to look into the controls area:

This is the shuttle. Either I’m short or the shuttle is just very tall:

DYNAMO

You probably don’t know what this is about, but the Dynamo is the Major League Soccer (MLS) team in Houston. Sue, John, and their kids and grandkids are into soccer. Two of their sons have season tickets to the Dynamo. Their oldest son, Eric and his wife, Kristie, are in the front row right near one of the goals. It also happens to be on the Dynamo sidelines, so we had great views of the guys warming up right in front of us. Their youngest son (Mark) has season tickets in the row behind his brother. The Dynamo were playing in an international tournament and had a home game on Wednesday night, so Eric and Kristie got an extra ticket so that I could join them (they assumed that I’d like to go and they guessed correctly--I would have gone anyways, just because it was in the front row seats to a major leage team). Mark was in Europe, so he wasn’t able to join us. We had John, Eric, Kristie, Susan (Mark’s girlfriend), and myself, while Sue and Mom took care of the grandkids.

I was excited for the game, because there happened to be several players from Seattle. The Dynamo’s color is Orange, but I don’t understand the reasoning behind that color. There are a lot better color choices and no one looks good in orange. I would have chosen another color, but......Here’s the two teams on the field at the University of Houston just before the start of the game (Houston in orange and Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica in Blue):

The goalie, Pat Onstad:

Some action shots:

Craig Waibel, from Seattle, warming up (no telephoto was used):

My tradition for the Mariners games is to get a picture of the final score, so for the Dynamo, here it is after 90 minutes of play:

Yes....the final score was 0-0 and there was no shootout either.

Where did Spring go?

2008-06-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

I think Spring missed Washington this year. Hopefully summer won’t. April showers did bring some May flowers, but not a lot of them. We did get more rain again last week, but this weekend was beautiful with sunny skies and highs right around 70. Around Washington we do say that summer doesn’t start until July 5th, so we still have some time. Below are some of my favorite photos of the flowers in our yard.

Some of the first flowers of the season taken at the end of February:

I love surprising Mom with flowers throughout the year, so around Easter I got some tulips for her, which is our favorite flower. Here’s a few pictures of the one that I had sitting on the counter in my bathroom (there is only one flower, so you also see the reflection of it in the mirror:

A few days after I took these pictures, we had a surprise:

About a week later (first week in April) Mom and I flew to Houston and Florida (more about that later) and we thought that when we got home we’d have spring weather. Boy were we wrong,

Here’s a few pictures from our surprise on April 19, which if I remember correctly is the latest that we’ve had snow.

Backyard:

Front yard, with the snow still falling:

Front yard and neighbors with the falling snow:

Although it wasn’t too much, it still coated the grass and rooftops:

After all that late snow, the tulips finally did come up in our yard:

One of my favorite snow pictures was one that I took on Christmas Day. We were hanging out opening gifts when we realized that there was snow falling. I grabbed my camera and ran outside. You may recognize this tree as the one in some earlier snow pictures:

Hopefully we are done with snow until wintertime. Last week we did get snow again, but this time it was only in the mountains. It did get pretty cold around here though. Now we're waiting for our strawberries to ripen.

Back in the Game!!

2008-05-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

During our vacation I had part of my computer crash (internet, e-mail, and presentation program). After a week of trying to fix it myself, I ended up taking it in to the shop. They had it for over a week and now I thought I was back in the game. I'm typing this with a bum left hand. Last night our Bible Study group played basketball. I blocked a pass and ended up with a sprained, swollen, and hurting thumb. Thankfully the x-rays didn't show any breaks.

Now, my reason for posting. On March 31st I heard two of my favorite words again, “Play Ball.” Just in case you don’t know, I was up at beautiful Safeco Field for the start of another Mariner Season. This season we have some new seats just inside 1st base (we were behind homeplate last season), but we are about 6 rows closer to the field. This is a shot without telephoto:

Now for its closeup:

If you’ve never gone to Opening Day, I highly recommend it. It is so much fun and everyone has great expectations for the season. One of the traditions is announcing all the players as they run in from the outfield. This picture was taken just as they started:

Here’s the lineup just before the National Anthem:

After that, they give out some awards, but don’t worry I won’t bore you with the pictures or names.......Next came the Ceremonial 1st pitch. They honored one of the greatest guys, Dave Niehaus, who’s been the Mariners announcer since they started. He is being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown this summer by being the 2008 Ford C Frick Award Winner given to a broadcaster. My understanding is that this is the only way a broadcaster can be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Here’s a photo of him getting ready to throw the pitch:

Now, here’s the awesome car that he road in on (I couldn’t get a great picture of the car when he was in front of our section, because there were too many people):

Now for some action shots. Can’t remember what he did during this at bat, but here’s Adrian Beltre swinging for the fences:

Coming in to close the game is J.J. Putz:

Here’s my final picture:

Final Score: Mariners 5 Texas 2!!!!

First Time for everything!

2008-03-12T00:40:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago at our Tuesday Night Bible Study, Brian invited us to join him and Melissa at Paradise at Mt. Rainier. Several of us said that we’d go, so on Saturday morning (March 1) we loaded up my car and Brian’s and headed to the Mountain. For more pictures, you can check out my link (on the right) to Brian and Melissa’s website.

Don’t Brian and Eric looked relaxed and ready to build an igloo?

They opened the gate at Longmire about 5 minutes after we got to it, so we were some of the first vehicles up the road to Paradise. We had lunch at the visitor center and then started getting things ready to hike out to find our perfect spot. Eric decided that he needed to supervise things from above:

After snowshoeing for a little bit, we came to the perfect spot for our igloo. Kristin, Brian, and Eric start to clear the area.

Eric and Brian work on getting the ice blocks cut out of our quarry, which later became the center area of our igloo:

Here’s the trail that we blazed to our spot. The trail goes off to the left through the tree clearing.

At one point during the afternoon, Melissa headed back to the visitor center to warm up and cheer up little Abee. They came out awhile later to spend a few minutes with us, but then went back again.

There were some cool shadows from the trees, so I tried to capture the beauty of it:

After getting several levels up on the igloo. Eric had an idea to build an arch over the doorway. It stayed up for a few seconds after Kristin and Michelle moved, but then someone touched it and it fell down. Because of the short lifespan of the arch, I got the only picture of it:

After the arch collapsed, we used our poles to support the entryway. Michelle, me, and Kristin take a break from shoring up the walls:

We ended up having to move our quarry, so here’s Eric taking a break at the new one to pose for a picture:

By this time, we realized that the bigger ice blocks work the best, so Eric and Brian were trying to cut the biggest ones they could, while still being able to carry them:

Since I had some time, I was playing around with one of my favorite pictures from that day. This is the original picture:

This is the same picture in Black and White:

This is that same picture in Sepia:

Since we knew we didn’t have enough time to finish the roof before darkness set in, we decided to hike up the hill next to us to see if we could get a glimpse of the Mountain. Checking out the view are Michelle, Kristin, Eric, and Brian:

Here’s the view that we had:

On the ride up to Paradise, Eric told Michelle and I that he wanted to do some tree jumping and here he took the opportunity to try it:

This wasn’t his best landing, but he still sunk in the snow a little:

After hiking or sliding back down the hill, we took a few pictures of the igloo, before we had to destory it. Brian and Eric are admiring their handiwork and contemplating their next moves:

Action shot of Eric throwing an ice block to destroy the igloo:

I took still photos and Michelle took video as Kristin, Brian, and Eric destroyed our igloo:

After all their hard work destroying it, they needed a quick break before heading back to the cars:

Once we got back to the vehicles, we hightailed it out of there, since they closed the gate at Longmire at 7 pm. We wanted to have dinner, so we stopped at a great little place not too far out of the Park, called the Copper Creek Inn. We had a great time and can’t wait to go again and to finish our next one.

TNBS

2008-01-18T00:10:00.000-08:00

Our Tuesday Night Bible Study (TNBS) loves to get together, whether it is Tuesday night or during the weekend. We wanted to do some fun things during the Christmas Season, while also helping those in our community. Our first activity was to put some gift bags together for the Boys & Girls Club. To put a fun twist on it, we decided to go as a group to the Dollar Store to buy all the gifts. Before we left, I had to take this really cute picture of Abee (Brian and Melissa’s sleeping baby):

Once we came back, we got to work getting the bags together. Left to right are Brian, Michelle, Nate, Eric, Melissa, Kristin, and Danae:

We were able to make 28 gift bags and it turned out to be evenly split with 14 boys and 14 girls bags. Here are the ones for the boys:

Here’s Michelle and Danae with the girls bags:

Our next get together was a White Elephant Gift Exchange on Wednesday, December 19. I was out sick from work that day (at the start of my now 4 weeks of being sick), so I may be a little fuzzy on some of the details. We did play a game of “Name that Tune,” but I can’t remember if the guys or the girls won. I’m sure someone will remind me though.

Have to say that I was curious about the definition of a White Elephant (besides it being an animal), so I decided to look it up.

From Webster’s Dictionary: n 1) A rare whitish or light-gray form of the Asian elephant, often regarded with special veneration in areas of SE Asia. 2) a. A rare and expensive possession that is financially a burden to maintain. b. Something of dubious or limited value. 3) An article, ornament, or household utensil no longer wanted by its owner. 4) A conspicous failure.

I was laughing when I saw the different definitions and I’ll let you decide which fits with what gift. This picture is of Nate trying on his funky new glasses that were a part of the gift that he selected. I don’t think he ended up with them though. Peering over his shoulders are Kristin and Adam:

Eric was happy to get some gift certificates to Baskin Robbins, but I don’t think he ended up with them at the end:

Mike was back home for Christmas, so he joined us for our party. He chose the gift that I brought, which was a hollow cone shaped thing stuffed with lots of candy. He was able to keep it, but it had less candy when he left:

Brian selected a gift that turned out to be little wooden puzzles that are very complicated to put together, let alone explain what they are. He did end the night with them and I know that he was still trying to figure the puzzles out when we got together on Saturday.

Charlotte opens her gift with Eric looking on. It was an airplane with a santa that came off to reveal some goodies inside:

It took a long time, but Kristin finally unwrapped her gift to reveal two books on CDs. I know she didn’t end up with them, because her roommate, Michelle, took them away. Here’s proof that she had them for a few minutes:

Now the party could begin with the party favors that Danae opened up:

Adam ended up getting a football, thankfully the guys didn’t start playing in the living room, since there wasn’t enough room:

Lastly is Tom and the teddy bear that he got. I don’t think he left the house with it though:

Somewhere in there I was able to select a gift. Since I was taking the pictures, I don’t have one of me. I got some sparkling blueberry cider and two glasses. After opening all the gifts, we all just sat around, talked, played ping pong, ate, and talked even more.

Our next get together was that Saturday night (December 22). We were going caroling at a retirement community in town and then going back to Brian and Melissa’s for our First Annual Soup-er Fest (not sure if we officially named it or not). Anyone in the group could bring soups/chili/stew and we’d vote on who had the best. We were joined by Melissa and Michelle’s parents, Hildred and Clair, who were here for Christmas from Utah. Brian and Kristin’s brother Steven also joined us before he headed to their parents place in Idaho. As we started to gather at the retirement community, I took this really cute picture of Abee in her little Santa outfit, which her Great-Grandma knitted:

Last year, Brian, Melissa, and I, along with our old Bible Study group came to this same place for caroling, but we walked up and down the hallways singing. I actually liked this time better, because we stayed in the dining room, sang, and then got to spend quality time with all those who had joined us. Left to right are: Brian (with Abee), Michelle, Kristin, Melissa (Hildred hiding behind her), Steven, Lucas (in front), Tom, Eric, and Clair.

A close up one from left to right are: Brian (with Abee), Michelle, Kristin, Melissa, Steven (back), and Lucas (front).

The rest of them are left to right: Hildred (back), Melissa (front), Steven, Lucas, Tom, Eric, and Clair.

While hanging out with the residents, Abee was with either her parents or her grandparents. She was enjoying the attention, but she eventually got really tired and hungry. A great picture of her after a long night:

After caroling and visiting, we went back to Brian and Melissa’s place to get ready for our Soup-er Fest. To pass the time, Eric (front) joined Tom (back) on the piano for a great performance:

We then dug into the soups. Getting ready to chow down are left to right: Tom, Melissa, Michelle, Clair, Hildred, and Eric.

Kristin’s trying to decide what to have, Steven’s getting ready to pick something out, and Clair knows what he wants:

For some reason, everyone decided that there was something more interesting in the living room than the food. Here’s the backs (and some profiles) of: Steven, Melissa, Hildred, Michelle, Clair, and Kristin.

There were lots of different soups and I better not try to name them all, since I know I won’t be able to:

After trying them all, we scored each one and then they announced the winner. Eric was the winner and I’m not even going to try writing what his was.

Answers to the Questions

2007-11-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry I didn’t get this on here sooner, but with a second trip to Michigan in about two months and Thanksgiving, I’ve been busy. So, how do you think you did? Check these answers out.

1. What is Katie’s real name?
a. Katrin

2. Who is Katie’s favorite Mariner? Outfielder Jeremy Reed (#7) -- He was only with the M’s for part of this season (the rest was with the minor league Tacoma Rainiers), but has been with them fulltime for several years. I even got his autograph when Mom and I went to Spring Training last year. :-)

3. Does Katie prefer Colgate or Crest? Crest

4. M & M Plain or Peanuts? Peanuts

5. Where was Katie born? Vancouver, Washington

6. What type of car and color is Katie going to buy? Dark Blue Mustang Convertible with a black top, but I’m also looking at a BMW 3-Series, Volkswagen Eos (World’s first hard top convertible with a sunroof), or the Toyota Solara. All are convertibles.

7. (T/F) Katie’s first born is going to be named ICHIRO? False

8. Katie plays what position on the softball team? Catcher

9. (Problem Solve) Katie has 1st row tickets to see the Mariners, but is on the worship team that Sunday - What is her excuse for missing church? Actually, I wouldn’t miss church. I know how to exchange the tickets. :-)

10. What college did she attend and what was her major? George Fox University--International Business and Economics

11. The name of Katie’s childhood pet was?
a. Snowball (who was actually my brother’s dog, but I loved her anyways)

12. Katie’s favorite fast food is?
a. Subway
c. McDonald’s
--Either was fine with me, since I love them both. For those who really know me, you should know that I don’t like pizza.

13. (Hypothetical) Katie wins the lottery, what does she do with the money?
a. Gives Mom and brother a little bit
c. Buys a car and travels around the U.S. as a Mariner groupie
--Of course I’d give my family some, travel, buy a new car, give to my church and other charities that I love.

30 Years and Counting

2007-11-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, the long awaited birthday posting is finally here. You gotta give me a break, I’m now 30, so I'm allowed to go slower, right? My birthday was Saturday, October 6, but we celebrated it with several events during the week leading up to the big day. On Saturday, September 29, I went to a Mariner’s game (my last one of the season) with my co-worker, Debbie. It was her first time at a game and we had a blast. She’s more into hot rods and drag racing, so she’s planning on taking me to the track some time (hopefully when it’s warmer). I was also at Friday night’s game. You can read my last post below to see more pictures from both games.

Now, back to Saturday’s game. During the 2nd or 3rd Innings of all M’s games, they have birthday and anniversary messages up on the big screen. well, I’ve never had my name up there, so Mom thought that it would be great to surprise me with a birthday message for me. Debbie knew about it and spoiled it, because she was making sure I was watching the screen. I had put my camera away, because I was going to go grab a snack, but Debbie stopped me and told me I had to watch the messages. She had her camera trained on me to get my reaction to it, but the stadium lights were reflecting off my glasses and it didn’t turn out well. Since we didn’t get a picture of my birthday message, here it is:

“Happy Birthday! Congrats Katie on your 30th. Love Ya! Mom, Elliot & Yvonna”

Here’s a picture of me in my Mariner gear (I didn’t have my M’s pants on though). This was taken before the game when Debbie and I walked around the stadium. As you can tell it is after we went into the team store. I did buy a bunch of great things, but I also shoved my jacket in there, so the bag looks really full:

I don’t usually take pictures of this creature, but couldn’t resist. Here’s the Mariner Moose:

Surprise!!!

On Friday, October 5th, one of my Small Group Bible Studies that I’ve been a part of was supposed to be having our last meeting together. I knew that they’d do something to me, since last year for my 29th birthday they gave me a “With Sympathy” card, with messages about how sorry they were that I was in the last year of my 20s. They told me to watch out on my 30th, so I was prepared for something. I went over to Steven and Pam’s house knowing that my group was going to do something. When I pulled up their driveway, I noticed that there were too many cars for our group, even if each spouse had their own car. Pam then came out to meet me, which she’s never done before, even when we scrapbook together. She then held the door open for me as people started singing to me. I noticed that most of my Tuesday Night Bible Study was also there, along with several others that I’ve known for many years. Several people who weren’t there did talk to me at church on Sunday.

The biggest surprise was that my brother showed up. He lives in Oregon and Mom had told me at dinner that she had talked to him just before I got home from work. Elliot had driven up his truck, which I hadn’t seen when I drove up. It’s hard to miss his huge truck, but it was dark and I couldn’t see the Oregon license plate. Yvonna was coming up on Saturday mid-morning and then they were driving back after my birthday dinner Saturday night.

We had a great evening. We ate, I opened some gifts, ate some awesome chocolate cake, had some great conversations, and then those of us who were left after all that played “Shout It Out.” Enjoy some pictures from that night. Thanks to Mom and Melissa for all the pictures. Mom was not there right at first, but she came a few minutes later. Brian and his sister, Kristin, dropped by our house to pick Mom up. I guess they actually saw me turning the corner, so they knew the coast was clear.

I came into the house while they sang Happy Birthday:

Not long after that, people started to get hungry, so I started the food line. Here’s Mary and I after we got some of the great food (Mom--notice the veggies):

My brother and I:

Elliot and Sue:

Mom and Jack:

Steven, Kim, and Pam checking out the food:

Juanita, Kristin, and Michelle:

Dave and I (I’ve known him for almost 30 years):

Jack, Kristin, Brian, Kelly, and myself (I didn’t count, but I don’t think there were 30 candles on that cake):

I finally get to blow out all the candles. I got them all out in one breath. Leah, Brian, and Kelly are looking over my shoulder:

I then got to open the gifts:

Here’s Bill, Chris, Steven, Dave, Kelly, and Pam watching me open my gifts:

Here’s Kelly, Pam, Kim, Jack, and Elliot watching me open my gifts:

At the end of the evening, Steven and Pam’s daughter, Madeline, wanted to be like me. She’s my little buddy, so I was happy to have her join me. She gave me a great gift too, a little beanie bear. Here’s the two princesses:

Many thanks to those who put this evening together. Thanks to Pam and Steven for hosting the party. It was a blast and made me feel so loved by all who came and those who couldn’t be there, but later gave me good wishes.

During the party, those who attended filled out a questionnaire to see how much they knew me. Thought I’d give those who couldn’t be there a chance to actually see how much they know me. I’ll post the answers in a week or two. For those who actually read this and know me, you can send me your answers via e-mail if you want to. If you were at the party, you can try it again and see if you get a better score. :-) Here’s the questionnaire:

1. What is Katie’s real name?
a. Katrin
b. Katherine
c. Katyana
d. Katerina

2. Who is Katie’s favorite Mariner?

3. Does Katie prefer Colgate or Crest?

4. M & M Plain or Peanuts?

5. Where was Katie born?

6. What type of car and color is Katie going to buy?

7. (T/F) Katie’s first born is going to be named ICHIRO?

8. Katie plays what position on the softball team?

9. (Problem Solve) Katie has 1st row tickets to see the Mariners, but is on the worship team that Sunday - What is her excuse for missing church?

10. What college did she attend and what was her major?

11. The name of Katie’s childhood pet was?
a. Snowball
b. Calvin
c. Katie’s Kitty
d. Griffey

12. Katie’s favorite fast food is?
a. Subway
b. Pizza
c. McDonald’s
d. Snacks after church
e. None of the above

13. (Hypothetical) Katie wins the lottery, what does she do with the money?
a. Gives Mom and brother a little bit
b. Does nothing
c. Buys a car and travels around the U.S. as a Mariner groupie

How do you think you did? You’ll just have to visit again to find out. By the way, the winner at the party got to have a picture with me. Here’s the winner:

Jack was so sure that he’d get every question right. Turns out that he missed a few, but he tied with his wife, Sue, for the most correct answers. Have to say though, that of those at the party besides Mom and Elliot, Jack and Sue have known me the most. In December, they’ll have known me for 30 years. Jack also knew my Dad and his family back in Michigan.

Here’s two quick pictures of our family birthday dinner. We went to Budd Bay Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants on the Puget Sound. Mom and I:

Elliot and Yvonna:

Mariners In September

2007-10-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can’t believe the season’s over already--at least for my Mariners. I haven’t watched any post season games, since the M’s aren’t in it. I may catch parts of the World Series though.

I had the priviledge of going to 3 M’s games during the last three weeks of the season. My first game was on September 14, against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Katelin, a seventh grader from our church, went with me. She’s come with me before, so we had a lot of fun together. Below are a few pictures from the game.

The mighty Ichiro leading off:

Here’s Felix Hernandez throwing one of his fastballs:

Closing the game is J.J. Putz (the M’s Closer) who is winding up for one of his fastballs. Check out his pitching form:

Although my favorite player, Jeremy Reed (#7) was sent down to the AAA Tacoma Rainiers this season, he was able to come back up to the M’s for the month of September. For those who don’t know Major League Baseball (MLB) rules, teams have a roster of 40 players, but they only have 25 men during the season. For the month of September, MLB rules allow the teams to have all 40 guys on the active roster (meaning they are all suited up and can play) as they head into the playoffs. The M’s brought Jeremy up, but he didn’t play in this game. :-( Here is a picture of Jeremy by the dugout (he is in the center-to the right of Ben Broussard (#23):

Here’s my traditional scoreboard photo (for those who haven’t gone to Safeco Field, this is their hand-operated scoreboard). Notice that this was taken in the bottom of the 9th inning with the score tied. The M’s scored in the bottom of the 9th with a bases loaded sacrifice fly that brought Ichiro in from 3rd Base:

Final Score: Mariners 2 Tampa Bay 1

FRIDAY, SEPT 28TH--FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT

On Friday, September 28th, I went to another M’s game, this time they were playing their division rival--Texas Rangers. It also happened to be the Mariner’s Fan Appreciation Night. They have a ton of stuff to give away, although in my 5+ years of going on this night, I’ve never won anything. Oh, well. The Lord must know that I don’t need a new big screen tv or a trip to Hawaii or a $250 M’s Team Store shopping spree or........one of many other prizes. I went to the game by myself (one of many games that I’ve been to by myself over the years). Mom’s cousin, Kathy, had my other 3 seats, but I hadn’t connected with her before the game to find out if she was coming. Three younger people came during the 5th inning, but I didn’t ask them how they got the tickets. I ended up talking with the four people in front of me. We had a lot of fun even though they were from Eastern Washington and were Wazzu fans. We did get in some discussions about that when they found out that I was a major Husky fan. I found out that the son who was there had not been to Safeco Field yet, so he was so excited to be there. I gave him some tips on what he should see and do. He was hoping for a foul ball, but that’s hard for us to get in our seats. We’re under the Press Boxes and we have that pesky (at least for photos) screen in front of us. Check out these photos from the game.

Here are the pennants that the M’s have won:

Since this was the M’s 30th Anniversary Season (yes, they started the year I was born), they honored the Season Ticket Holders who have been coming since the beginning. The M’s invited them onto the field before the game (have to say that I don’t think all of them were over 30 years old though):

The M’s then came out onto the field to thank everyone too:

Here’s a picture of that night’s pitcher, Jeff Weaver:

I think Adrian Beltre is trying to figure out where the ball went:

Notice that the score is tied in my traditional shot of the scoreboard:

Game is tied in the bottom of the ninth with one on and two outs. Jeff Clement is up to bat and the count is 2-1 (walks-strikes). I took this picture of him just as he was going to start swinging for his 2-run walk-off Home Run:

Final Score: Mariners 6 Rangers 4

SATURDAY, SEPT 29TH

For Saturday’s game, my co-worker Debbie came with me to the game. We met some friends of hers there, so had a lot of fun with them. Deb hasn’t been to a M’s game before, so since we got up there early we walked around the whole stadium. Some of the areas I haven’t been by for several years, so it was great to see some of them again.

Mom always teases me, because I have a tendancy to take pictures of everything, except of myself and those I go with. As an example, when Katelin and I went to the M’s game in June, I took about 115 pictures (including Edgar’s Mariners Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony), but none with Katelin or I in them. I have to defend myself here though, with the cameras I have, I don’t let just anyone touch them, especially my new one. Since I’m often at games by myself, I don’t give my camera to a stranger. When I’m with others, they usually don’t know how to handle my cameras. I work with Debbie and both of us use cameras a lot, so I knew she could handle mine.

Debbie took this pic of me from our seats before the game:

The M’s always have someone come to throw out the First Pitch and at this game they brought Kevin Durant (wearing the M’s shirt). He is the Seattle SuperSonic’s rookie basketball player. I don’t follow the Sonics, so I don’t remember which position he plays:

Even though Sammy Sosa is not a Mariner, I do have to get his picture since he is a great ballplayer:

The hero from the night before, just before he walks up to the plate:

This is the last of my traditional scoreboard pictures for this season:

There was an awesome surprise for me during the game, but you’ll just have to read my next post to find out about it. I should get it posted sometime this week.

I’m so amazed that the season is now done. I had a great time at all of the games I went to, with and without friends and family. Hopefully more of you can join me next season.

M’s Season Record: 88 wins and 74 losses for 2nd Place in the American League West!!!

Don’t worry, I’ve already got March 31, 2008, blocked out on my calendar for the Mariners 2008 Home Opener.

Young Peoples Reunion

2007-09-18T00:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 4th, Mom and I journeyed down to Mossyrock Park (south of Olympia) for a Young Peoples Reunion. For those of you who don’t know,Young Peoples was what our high school youth group at church was called for many years. We had all grown up together in the church, although we didn’t attend the same schools. We were all in Young Peoples during the 1990s, but I won’t say when each of us were. :-) Since family is important to each of us, our parents, spouses, and kids were also invited to our reunion.

Seven of us kids were there (Dave, Aaron, Sarah, Kim, Lisa, Michael, and me). I was the only one without spouse and kids there. My Mom was there along with Jack and Sue (Aaron, Sarah, and Rebecca), John and Mary (Kim, Lisa, and Michael), John’s parents (Lawrence and Gwen), and Bob and Jane (Rob and Julie, who couldn’t attend). Those from Young Peoples who we missed were: Ron and Jo (our Youth Leaders and the parents of Dave, Sam, and Andre), Elliot (my brother), Raymond, Alieda, Renee, Rob and Julie, Marc and Kara, Anna, Sam and Andre, Ian and Matt, Anneke, Rebecca, and Heidi and Chris. I’m sure I missed some, so if you’re reading this and you were in our group and aren’t mentioned here, I’m sorry.

We had a great time reconnecting with each other, eating, swimming, canoeing, boating, relaxing, and playing volleyball. Mom and I didn’t camp, but the rest were out there all weekend. Many thanks to Sue for setting this event up. Hopefully we’ll be able to do another one in the near future and get more to come. For those who were there and are reading this, if you have pictures that you want me to post here for others to see, please e-mail them to me.

Here are some of my favorite pictures. Hope you enjoy them.

We started the afternoon by gathering together for prayer and then ate. From left to right are Jane, me, Mary, and Bob:

Here’s Mike (Sarah’s husband) cooking on the grill and I’m in the background:

Michael and Keri getting ready to eat their juicy burgers:

Enjoying lunch and a great conversation are from right to left: Jack, Dave and Nikole (Dave and Juanita’s daughter).

Keeping cool in the shade are Jeremy, Sarah, Sue, and Aaron (holding Dylan):

Here’s Caden (Aaron and Jen’s middle child) taking a ride around camp:

Here’s a cute one of Caleb (Lisa and Brian’s son). I personally love his hat. Already showing his Mariner spirit:

Although they moved here after all of us were out of high school, John’s parents (Kim, Lisa, and Michael’s grandparents), Lawrence and Gwen, joined us for a few hours:

Nikole is hanging out in the shade with her mom, Juanita:

Relaxing in the shade are from left to right: my Mom (Karyl), Sarah, Jane, and Kim; with Nikole and Juanita in the background.

Caden loved playing with the water:

After eating and hanging out at the camp, we went down to the lake and relaxed some more. Here’s Bob and Jane floating in the lake:

Taking a dip are Aaron and his oldest son, Jorren:

Tired and cold, Jorren and his cousin, Annika (Sarah and Mike’s daughter), hang out on an air mattress:

Not wanting to play in the water, Caden and Nikole relaxed on the beach:

Wanting to show off their power to Michael and Kim, Jakob (Dave and Juanita’s son) and Gabriel (Kim and Jeremy’s son) row the last few feet to the shore:

Lisa and Brian are trying to coax their son Caleb into the water. He did go in for a minute or two, but then wanted out:

Aaron and Jen take their oldest two, Jorren and Caden, out for a ride:

After hanging out at the beach, we went back to camp, changed, and started a volleyball game. Here’s some pictures from our very competitive game:

Dave, Kim, me, Keri, and Aaron

Me, Jeremy (back to camera), Jen, and Sarah

Keri, Brian (#34), Michael, and Jen

Not long after these pictures were taken, Mom and I headed home.

Where has this season gone!?

2007-09-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

There’s only one month left in the regular season and I think my team needs a pick-me-up. I won't dwell on how they are doing right now, but will go into the past to celebrate how they were doing.

On June 23, I went to a Mariner’s game with Brian and Melissa, and Melissa’s mom Hildred, and her sister, Michelle. We didn’t sit in my normal seats, but were way out in the upperdeck (towards centerfield). We had a great time, although we got our workout climbing all the way to our seats. Here’s a view of the Seattle skyline from our seats (using telephoto lens).

Since many of you have not been to a game with me nor have used my season tickets, here is a view of where our seats are (one with and one without telephoto lens). Our seats are directly under the “C” in “Welcome.” Notice where homeplate is.

This weekend was Ken Griffey Jr.’s homecoming to Seattle. It was great to see him again. Rumor has it that he might return to the Mariners before he retires. Only he knows if it will happen. Here’s a picture of him in the outfield below our seats and one of him up to bat.

When we left to go to the game, we were all worried that the roof would be closed and that we’d end up with rain. Instead, the Lord gave us a beautiful sunset to enjoy. Here’s two of my favorite pictures of that sunset.

For those who were supposed to go with us (you know who you are!!), you missed an awesome game, although I'm sorry that there were no stolen bases (I guess the M's didn't get my memo). We were with great friends, had good food, and an awesome view, plus my guys won!!!! We saw Raul Ibanez hit a grand slam, Richie Sexson hit two solo homeruns, and Ben Broussard hit a two-run homer.

Final score (this is a traditional picture that I always take during the top or bottom of the 9th inning):

On July 28, I drove up to an early afternoon Mariner’s game. I met my college friend, Leslie, there. We reconnected at my cousin, Brittney’s basketball games at Seattle Pacific University. We have gone to a game together for the last few summers, just to catch up on each other’s lives. We sat in my normal season ticket seats, so here is a photo of homeplate from our seats (one with and one without telephoto).

We knew that it was our college’s Alumni Day (George Fox University), but I had forgotten that it was also State Employees Appreciation Day too. We didn't see anyone from our college, but it was our understanding that those who were attending the BBQ before the game were older or we didn't even know them while at Fox.

Leslie and I had a lot of fun talking and cheering for our Mariners. The only bad thing that happened during the game, was that someone ran onto the field to meet Ichiro. We’re assuming the guy was drunk and/or was dared to run out there. He did make it all the way to Ichiro, but then was captured by security. I did get some pictures, but won’t post them here. He’s already had his 15 seconds of fame and doesn’t need any more. We did get to see Kenji Johjima hit a two-run homer and Yuniesky Betancourt hit a solo homer, plus we won!!

Final Score:

My next games will be September 14 and then September 28 and 29, unless they go into the playoffs. Hopefully they get into the playoffs and then maybe I can actually go to a game on my birthday. The last five years, I have gone to the last Friday and Saturday games as a gift to myself for my birthday. Because of that, I have seen Ichiro break the hits record, Edgar and Dan retire, and the M’s knock other teams out of the playoff race (even though we weren’t going). Don't know of any players planning on retiring this year, but maybe the M's will be in the playoff hunt, so these games would really matter. No matter what, the games are just a lot of fun to go to.

35th Anniversary

2007-08-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but we've been busy and then we were in Michigan for two weeks. More about that visit in another post. I wanted to get this posted before I left, but time flew by and then we were on vacation.

Sunday, July 29th, my parents would have celebrated their 35th Wedding Anniversary, if my Dad was still alive. I thought I’d pay tribute to them with a few pictures and words. Here’s a picture of Mom and one of Dad when they were babies. Mom was born in Everett, Washington and Dad in Muskegon, Michigan.

Mom went to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and Dad went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They both went to New York University for Grad school, but at different times. They met in New Jersey, while Mom taught at Eastern Christian School and Dad worked for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City. They were married in Anchorage, Alaska, where Mom’s family had moved to in 1959. This picture is from their wedding on July 29th, 1972. Left to right are: Dad’s sisters (Debbie and Diane), Mom and Dad, and his parents, Jeanette and Rich.

They lived in New Jersey while Dad worked in New York City. After my brother was born, they moved out to Vancouver, Washington, where I was born. We moved to Shelton (December 1977) and then to Olympia in 1988 to be closer to our church. This coming December we will have gone to the same church in Olympia for 30 years. This is a picture of the four of us not long after I was born. Also, here are two of my favorite pictures of my brother and I growing up.

So I don’t bore you with details, I’ll skip a bunch of years and include some more recent photos. These last pictures are of Dad in May 2000 not long after his second round of chemo. We were celebrating his birthday (May 18) and Mom’s birthday (May 20). The next picture is of Dad with his two sisters in July 2000. Aunt Diane and Aunt Debbie came out for about a week to spend some time with Dad, since he couldn’t travel much. Dad died on November 17, 2000, of complications to colon cancer. He was 53. The last picture is of Mom, my brother, sister-in-law, and myself on Mother’s Day 2007, six and a half years after Dad died. As you can see, we are doing well, which we give all the credit to our Lord. He has provided an awesome family and a wonderful church family who have supported us throughout our lives and I know they will continue to do so.

So although Dad’s not around to celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary, I know he’s with us and will never be forgotten.

July 13-15 Campout

2007-07-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

What can you do when people bail on you? Our big Youth Group Campout was supposed to happen July 13-15 and by Thursday morning all of our high schoolers cancelled for various reasons. The Youth Leaders decided that we still wanted to enjoy a weekend of camping and hiking, so we headed out to Lake Cushman (north of Shelton). Tom and Alan went early Friday evening, while Brian, Melissa, and I went up after our softball game (which we lost). Juanita came up on Saturday afternoon with her family. There was a burn ban in effect on Friday, so we missed out on S'mores and campfire stories that night.

Saturday morning we ate and packed lunches for our hikes. It was a grand affair and the guys spent much of their time trying to decide where to go on their hike. Have to say that we never went hungry on this trip. Here's a picture of Brian, Melissa, and Tom preparing their lunches.

The guys decided to conquer Mt. Washington and with Melissa at almost 8 months pregnant and I not having hiked in awhile, we had already decided to head towards Lower Lena Lake. Below is Melissa and I about halfway to the lake.

We ate lunch under the trees on the far side of the lake. Melissa thinks that we were next to the campsite where she and Brian stayed at on a previous trip. Here's the view:

Here's another view of the lake on the way back:

Melissa and I had hiked about 8 miles roundtrip and were happy to get back to camp. The guys had beat us back by a few minutes and we also saw that Juanita and her family had come up. To see more about the guys climb/hike, check out Tom's and Brian's websites (Links are to the right).

Since the burn ban had been lifted, we relaxed around the fire before we enjoyed a dinner of Hobo pies. Here's Dave, Alan, Jakob, and Brian sitting around the fire. The second picture is of the makings used for the Hobo pies.

Dessert was S'mores and doughboys. Dave and Juanita's son Jakob made his first S'more and then Dave taught Brian, Melissa, and I how to make doughboys (we added jam and frosting to ours). They were so good.

Brian, Melissa, and I walked down to the lake, so that Brian could show us where they had climbed today. The first picture is of Mt. Ellinor (on the left) and Mt. Washington (on the right). You have to climb Mt. Ellinor first and then climb over to Mt. Washington. The second picture is a close up of Mt. Ellinor and several of the peaks that they bagged.

Breakfast on Sunday morning was pancakes that were made and served by Dave. He did a great job. Here's Dave at the grill.

Brian and Melissa brought their dog, Matty with us. She went with the guys on their hike and then slept most of the evening and through the night. She was entertaining us after breakfast on Sunday morning. She is in the midst of one of her tricks in the picture below. Brian had placed a piece of pancake on her paw and she is supposed to wait for his command to eat it. She did pretty good at waiting, but once she tasted one, she wasn't so sure she could wait any more.

Brian, Melissa, and I headed back home to get showers in before church (Tom and Alan went back home Saturday evening). Dave and Juanita planned to drive in just before church. All of us did make it to church on time. I was sore since my twice-a-day walks at work aren't this hard. Monday was my most painful day and I still had to work. I was back to full strength by Thursday and I'm ready for another hike.

My 1st Post!!

2007-07-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. I've had several people tell me that I need one, so thanks to some encouragement from Brian, Melissa, and Tom, here is my attempt at a blog.

Don't worry, unlike what my blog name implies, this will not be ALL Mariners, ALL the time. I love my Mariners, but I don't want to bore everyone, plus I'm sure some of you might not care about baseball. You will have to put up with some M's pictures and stories, especially after I go to a game. Of course, when the M's go to the playoffs this year, you may see more M's stuff here.

I want to apologize right now in case this blog ever gets boring for you. I don't think I lead an exciting life, but I've been told that I do. This blog is mainly for sharing my pictures with family and friends. Many people want to see them and I can't print or e-mail them to everyone.

Hope you enjoy this blog. If you don't, I'm sorry and I hope your life is more exciting than mine.

Thanks for visiting and may God Bless You today, tomorrow, and always.