Oh What a Night (mid-September back in '08)

For reasons I still don't fully understand, I got the idea that it would be fun to have a sleep-over in the tent with Abbey and Mylie. We had a ... time. The girls finally got to sleep around 10:30. Around 3 am, Mylie started an epic tossing fit (in a strange half-sleep state that was nothing less than eerie). We later determined her not to be epileptic, but to simply be searching for nannies (she sleeps with at least 3) - besides, she comes by this behavior naturally: her mom is world renown for her sleeping 'death rolls' that have been registered by seismologists. Speaking of Emily, she slept comfortably in her own bed and decided to make her grand appearance at 7 am, when I got up to go to work. Anyway, here are the photos.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

(for some reason I'm logged in as Emily, but this was Brandon.)

Off My Chest

OK, I'm just going to say it:

I've never seen a black-and-white photograph that I think wouldn't have been better in color. Embrace technology, people.

Brandon

Firsts

(Sorry Nettie, I copied your title, but it fits)

Abbey's first day of preschool was 2 weeks ago (yes I am behind). She loves it and it's fun to hear all about it when she comes home. I wish I could peek in a watch her for one day, it's fun to observe your kids when they don't know your watching.

I'm a preschooler!

Mylie wishes she was a preschooler!

This is Abbey and her friend Ashley, who we carpool with to and from preschool

Finding their name tags. Her teacher, Miss Cindy, is on the left. She has converted her basement into a preschool.

Minutes after this last picture was taken, I left with Mylie kicking and screaming because she wanted to stay and play.

Another first... I ran my first half marathon on Saturday. It took place over the mountain in Huntsville. When we got there it was a freezing 38 degrees, but once the sun came up it turned out to be a perfect day for running. Brandon and the girls came and cheered me on about half way through. It was fun to see them and it gave me an extra boost of energy.

About Mile 8

My friend/running partner Nannette. I never would have done it without her.

Me with my cheering squad.

It was a perfect day weather wise and the scenery was beautiful. I finished in 2 hours 9 minutes. It was a fun and rewarding experience and I hope to do it again some day.

Flaming Gorge

A couple weekends ago we went to Flaming Gorge and met up with Brandon's parents and Jud and Ashley. It was a nice relaxing weekend, a little of everything in the weather, good camping food, fishing, boating, kayaking, swimming... we had a great time!

The Fam on a boat ride while Brandon fished (yes Abbey is really asleep)

What do you do when you feel like taking a swim, but forgot your swimming suits? Abbey just swims in her underwear, Mylie chooses her birthday suit, Brandon strips down to his bottom G's, at least Jud has the decency to wear his shorts and the rest of us stay dry in the boat.

Can anyone guess what Abbey is doing here?

Back at camp...

James is loved

Abbey and Mylie playing "basketball" (thanks for remembering Ashley)

Notice the tent in the background. That is what we like to call our "RT" (recreational tent) as opposed to the two RV's in the above picture. Juds and Ashley's on the left and Terry and Kathy's on right. We found that there are many advantages to having an RV over and RT... besides the fact that it is a house on wheels, when your fellow camp neighbors blast their butt rock at 3:00 a.m. the people in the RV's sleep right through it.

Abbey met Smokey the Bear, Mylie was afraid of him

Mylie and I at sunset with the moon. The moon is one of Mylie's favorite thing in life, she always knows where it is, day or night.

Abbey and I in the Kayak. She's not a bad rower for a 4 year old. (We've had a lot of fun with our kayak this year, you should all get one and we could have a kayak caravan or have kayak races. It would be a really good excuse to get together.)

This is what happens when Brandon tries to go for a tube ride with Abbey.

Notice there aren't any pictures of fish... is that because they didn't catch any or maybe because there was no camera around when they caught them??? We may never know.

Olympics

For a few weeks every four years it seems all I do is watch tv. I love the Olympics, especially the summer games. Here are a few of my favorite moments:

How about the mens gymnastics team! Who needs the Hamm twins anyway.

And can you believe that this...

Turned into a gold medal finish for this relay team!

I think that race might be the highlight of the whole olympics (even though we're only 4 days into it). There have been many records broken, some by a long shot in both the mens and womens swimming. Is that swimming pool a couple inches shorter than standard olympic pools? Or are they really that good.

I know you are dying to touch it...

This beard and a few pounds of fish are my last physical mementos of my trip to Alaska. I know what you are all thinking. Yes, I am exceptionally attractive with facial hair...




"Throughout this vale of toil and sin, your head gets bald, but not your chin."
-Burmese Shaving Rhyme

Visitors

It's always fun to have visitors. Kim and Aaron stayed with a for a couple days. The girls had so much fun together, but I think their favorite thing was climbing on the rocks in our backyard. Now if I had the mind set of a seasoned blogger, I would have remembered to take pictures of this.

We wanted to ride the gondola to the top of Snow Basin, but it only runs on the weekends. Instead, we took the kids to the Treehouse Museum.

Ashley, Kailyn, Abbey and Mylie playing in the boat.

Playing the drums

Having a tea pary

We decided to take the scenic drive to snowbasin anyway...

Climbing the bear statue

This is the only picture I got of Wyatt. Poor kid, he's the youngest and he was the only boy. Mylie thought she was pretty cool though, she enjoyed having someone younger than her to be in charge of and boss around.

Wyatt and Mylie

I think this picture is funny. It started to sprinkle and the girls were trying to catch the rain drops in their mouths.

After everyone left Abbey kept asking all day "Mom do you miss Ashley and Kailyn" and "Are Ashley and Kailyn still driving".

Thanks for coming to visit Aaron and Kim. We welcome visitors anytime!

An Open Letter Invitation/Allurement/Enticement/Plea to Marty Sorensen

Dear Marty,

We know you are out there... reading this blog, catching up on your children's lives via cyberspace. I hereby issue you a public challenge: post a comment on the comment board. I know you can do it. We're all dying for it to happen.

C'mon. Make me proud...

Brandon

Offshore Conference

Sometimes, work can really be a drag, you know? Meetings, stress, office politics, travel...

Not this week, my friends! I just returned from an 'offshore conference' in Alaska's inside passage, courtesy of my cool boss. The Inside Passage is the series of coastal islands that run the southern panhandle of Alaska, toward British Columbia. The area is loaded with thousands of islands, and it is seriously the most beautiful place I've ever been. I was surprised to learn that the entire area is a rain forest - albeit not a tropical one. It is lush green and JAM-packed with life.

We flew to Juneau and took a float plane to an area called Funter Bay. It is fairly uninhabited, except that it contains the highest density of bears in the world. The entire island is about 1600 square miles - and it contains over 1600 bears (for those who are counting, that means there is about one bear every square mile). As the plane touched down in the water, 2 bears poked their heads out of the woods to greet us.

There was a crew of 5 of us, and we spent 3 days on this 42' tugboat. It was brand new, and loaded with everything we needed for survival (steak, eggs, milk, M&Ms, Pepsi, plasma screen TV, etc.)

Have I mentioned that Alaska is absolutely beautiful?

The main goal of the 'conference' was to catch fish. And we definitely managed to do that.

Coho Salmon

3 Big, Fat Things


Halibut (the pretty side)



Halibut (the ugly side)

Crabbing (don't tell my wife or my mother that I'm not wearing a life jacket)

Crab (we would set crab pots when we anchored at night)

Other Strange Creatures (Irish Lord)

This is some kind of starfish. It grabbed on to my bait, and was moving all around.

We were joined on the conference by a bunch of wild visitors. All day long, we would see bald eagles, deer, bear, whales, sea lions, otters, dolphins, etc. It was unbelievable. Occasionally, a whale (or an entire pod of them) would come to within about 25 feet of us. I was not only blown away by the sight, but also the sound. Unfortunately, I never really grabbed a photo that I considered satisfactory.

Look close. There really are 2 bald eagles in this tree.

Finally, here is a video I shot of a whale breaching. I don't know how to edit the first part of it, or I would have made it shorter. Also, excuse the crappy camera work. I was on a boat on the ocean, for crying out loud. This was by no means the most amazing jump we saw (there was about 30 minutes where about 6 of them would do this at the same time, jaws open). I don't really mind that I wasn't able to capture it all with my camera, because no photo or video could ever do justice to the beauty and majesty of seeing this. The whole ordeal was absolutely stunning.




Yes, I'm keenly aware that I sound like the world's biggest idiot in this audio commentary. I was really caught up in the moment.

When the boat portion of the trip was over, we spent a day and night in this little fishing village. It was an awesome little place, where 850 people live year-round. I hear they got 22 feet of snow 2 years ago...

Hoonah, Alaska

View from the front porch of our cabin


Inside the cabin

Also, I have 100's of other photos I'd love to share. Stop by sometime, and I'll probably talk about it for hours...

Anyone interested in a future vacation to the area? I'm already dying to do it again.

(FYI - I don't know if blogging is my thing. This could be my first and only entry. I really enjoy just leaving snyde comments on other people's blogs)