Well, the holiday weekend is far from over, but I thought I'd better get this blog post in this afternoon. The Posenjaks are on their way down, and if I wait till after their visit, I'll have way to much to blog about! So...that post to come next weekend...

Anyway, Friday after work, Becky, Jack and I headed out to Astoria to stay in a yurt at Ft. Stevens. We sure lucked out on the weather. 55 and sunny both days...pretty unusual for an Oregon Coast weekend in January. We definitely took advantage of it.

The yurt was perfect for Jack. He had plenty of room to play and we weren't worried about him wandering off. Apparently, he thinks he is hot stuff....

Jack is a constant wiggle-worm, and its a little difficult to get a pic of him sitting still. But sometimes I like they way they turn out.

We got to enjoy a nice fire both evenings.

Saturday morning we had breakfast burritos...one of my camping specialties...just ask Trent, Eric and Jim. After breakfast, I went for a run, so Becky pulled Jack along in the bike trailer to keep me company...they did great - 5 miles!


This is a pic of Jen and me at the wreck of the Peter Iredale sometime in 1987 or so.



It was fun to see the same spot 20 years later...and take my son with me!

Jack was more interested in watching the little doggies running around the beach than he was in posing for pictures with mom and dad.

We drove in to Astoria for dinner and some sightseeing on Saturday evening. I've always wanted to drive across the Astoria bridge, so we did! It's enormous. We got to Washington and then turned around and came back.

Becky and I are such nerds...we've gotten hooked on "The Deadliest Catch". Its a Discovery Channel show about crab fishing in Alaska. We're watching them back to back on DVD. We were driving around town, and stumbled across this boat docked in Astoria. It's the Aleutian Ballad - one of the boats featured in our show!! We had to get a picture. Appartenly, they've turned it into a crab-fishing tour boat, but it was awesome, nonetheless.

Jack enjoyed the drive around town, but spent most of it napping.

Today was another beautiful day, so we went for a bike ride - this time, I got to pull Jack. It was so nice out, we rode for about 2 hours, and visited some of the historic sites around the state park.

Some seriously steep stairs (talk about alliteration) with the Lewis & Clark batter in the background.

Becky and Jack keeping an eye out in the West Battery Command Station.

We were so fortunate to have nice weather, but it just accentuated how joyful we were to be spending time with one another. I'm a pretty blessed guy.

Like Jim said, we drove up to Mt. Hood yesterday morning to play in the snow, and to give me my initiation into telemark skiing. Telemark is a style of skiing that utilizes a free heel binding system with a more flexible boot. Just as in cross-country skiing, only your toe is attached. But telemark skis are designed very much like downhill alpine skis. Because of the free heel, telemark skiing requires a telemark position for going downhill, which is basically a deep lunge. So lunging, back and forth down the mountain...sounds like fun, right? It's hard work! But, the benefit is, you can "tour" on telemark skis, just like on XC skis. By affixing climbing skins (think of them as one-way nylon carpet), you can actually ski UPHILL. Since we like to get outside so much, and lift tickets are expensive, telemarking is a great way to enjoy the sport. This really gives a new versatility to something that I absolutely love.

Here I am putting on my skins at the car. Yes, they are a very awesome purple. The skin-manufacturers put a glue on the skin that adheres the skin to the bottom of the ski, but still allows it to come off very easily when you want it to (at the top of the hill). There's a loop in the front, and a clip in the back which keep them in place all the way up.



Climbing up at the Timberline Lodge resort before the sunrise. We left town at 5 and were climbing at 7, so with the exception of a few climbers, we had the place to ourselves.

Looking up toward the summit of Mt. Hood.



Taking a picture of Jim...taking a picture of me.

We passed Silcox Hut and the top of the Magic Mile, and continued climbing above the groomed runs toward the top of the Palmer Chair for a while. But the snow got a bit too windblown and icy for my first time on tele gear, so we turned around and I (not-so-gracefully) made my way back down to the groomers. Jim looked good, but unfortunately...there's no video proof. Once we got to the groomers, I was getting more comfortable with the telemark position (my only practice had been in the living room at home), but sad to say, my quads were burnt! So it just got uglier and uglier. Jim caught a few of my turns on video. Nothing too pretty, but I was just glad I didn't get a facefull of snow or knock my teeth out on the tips of my skis.

If nothing else...enjoy the view of the mountain.

***WARNING: MANY CAKE PICTURES TO FOLLOW***

Jack is now officially ONE! His birthday was Dec. 20, but because of the snow storm...we postponed our family celebration of it until this last weekend. Jack had a great time, and Mike and I felt especially blessed- thanking God for such amazing people that influence his life and encourage him as he grows...blessed that we get the honor of raising such a wonderful little guy, and blessed by the incredible joy he brings us each and every day.

A proud mom and dad....wearing our "golf attire" to go with his party theme.

The grandpas (AKA Poppie and Bapaw)


His party friends..minus Sydney and Nathan.

"Oooh...a hammer, son! You'll love it!"

The golf cake. You don't want to know how much frosting was used on that golf ball. Can you tell who daddy works for??

Eating the cake (I love that you can see Ethan's head poking into this shot....when cake comes out...kids come a runnin'!)

A taste of the frosting.

Confirmation that frosting is DELICIOUS and a move for the cake.

"I'll just try a little bit of that."

A very satisfied birthday boy!

A few other happy cake-eaters.

And just when you think I'm all out of cake pictures....here are a few more. Because we had to postpone his party, we thought it would be fun to give him a little treat on his actual birthday. My mom just happen to have a mini chocolate cake at her house she'd been gifted, and a few brave souls took on Arctic Blast '08 to help make it a special day.

Mom even decorated the cake just for Jack.

The boys watching Jack enjoy his cake and looking pretty excited about maybe getting a piece.

The boy likes his cake!


"Cake? What cake? I don't know what you're talking about."

blah, blah, blah...should have posted more often...etc.

Here's Jack's first golf lesson! I gave him some pointers in the bedroom before we got the camera out. But he seems to have forgotten them by the time we got to the living room. He's got a really natural swing though...I do think he needs to hit the weights a little harder though if he wants to drive 'em 300+ by the time he's two.

We'll get a post of Jack's 1st birthday festivities sometime soon!