On Saturday the 10th, Adina, Peter, and myself were able to participate in the 24th, wait, check that, the 23rd annual Columbia Gorge Aluminum Man Sprint Triathlon. It was as beautiful a day as you could ask for. We headed out there early to get our packets and such. It was a beautiful ride out there as we passed over the Bridge of the Gods and through the lush vegetation that Washington and Oregon both have to offer. The race took place in The Dalles, OR, previously known only for its location on the 84 as you travel out to the east. There were 111 men and women participating in the event. It was composed of a 550 m open water swim in the Columbia River, a 13.2 mile bike ride, and a 5K. So, not great distances but when you put them all together and try to do it as quickly as you can, it can push you. We started at 930 am for the men and 935 am for the woman. Suffice to say, we all had a great time. The water was cool but very refreshing and nice. The bike ride was totally manageable and pretty through the country. Peter was constantly mocked as he rode his mountain bike amongst all the road bikes. The run could have been better but all in all we were all very happy with how we did. Since it was my first Triathlon I was not sure what to expect but I was able to do it much quicker than I thought and finish ahead of all the other people in my age group and get 17th overall. Adina was 4th in her age category and missed getting a medal by only feet. Next time she will be there. We will be there next year for anybody interested. Thank you Tracey for all the great pictures.
As I am sure most have noticed, the activity on the blog has slowed down quite a bit since we all moved to the same area (ish).
A supplement has been proposed to possibly get a little more frequent updates to and from the fam: Twitter.
Don't be scared. It's really a pretty great solution (idea courtesy of Mike). Everyone can only follow the other family members if you don't want to follow anyone else. And you can set the security settings so you control who sees your posts and can limit that to the family.
Twitter allows shorter updates and photo and link posting so you don't have to feel like you can't post unless you have a novel to write (but by all means, still post your novels here if you write them!) or a major announcement. Plus it is a lot easier to post to Twitter than the blog from your phone or iPad via the Twitter app.
Mom & Dad signed up today and I know that myself, Mike, Anne and Kimberly all have Twitter accounts already. Would love to see the rest of you on there!
Most of you already know due to the world of text messages and Facebook, but I figured I would put on here for all who read our blog.
We had our ultrasound yesterday for the baby and found out that the baby is a GIRL!
We are so excited to have another little girl join our family. She was very stubborn and was moving SO much that the ultrasound tech couldn't really get everything she wanted to see. The US tech would almost get the picture of what she needed and then baby would start moving again. Because of that, we now get to see our baby girl again in about 4 weeks. Everything looked great on her and she is developing well.
For the first time, we don't know exactly what the name is going to be. We are going back and forth. One name that is being thrown around is Brie.
Well that is our news. :) Baby Girl to come on or around January 21st, 2012.
As most of you know, my good friend and old roommate, Nicole Cannon, was in a terrible scooter accident on Saturday night. I wanted to share the latest update and this link to her family blog where her mom will be updating with the details of what is happening. Feel free to read and please keep her and her family in your prayers.
Here's the latest update:
UPDATE:Nicole is making slow progress. She moves her legs and arms and can respond to some simple commands. She gave us two thumbs up tonight!!! She remains in critical/very serious condition. Please pray now that her brain will continue to heal and she will get enough oxygen and blood to her brain to bring her out of her coma.
We will be down in Portland this Saturday. Is anyone up for doing something together somewhere after about 2 p.m.? Let me or Brooke know...thanks!
EDIT: We will be staying at the crib Saturday to Sunday. Going to bring some board games. All are welcome. If nobody shows we will just play amongst ourselves.
We need to get the second team signed up ASAP. It is now $80 per person on the team so if we have the four men (Tom, Peter, Dave and Brent), it is looking at $320. Split between all 9 participants (Anne, Adina, Tracey, Marnie, Brooke, Tom, Peter, Dave, Brent), it will be $36 per person. We can sign us up but must get the money as soon as we sign up.
First of all I want to give a huge shout out to Anne to thank her for all her great work organizing this years trip. I know you put in a ton of time planning, coordinating and organizing and it was awesome. THANK YOU!!!!!!! The trip was a dream.
(I wrote this blog before I got Anne's email about next year... I guess it's on everyone's mind. Here is what we are thinking:)
I miss Lake Shasta so much already I have to look ahead to next year. We would love to do the houseboat again but in an effort to have enough space for everyone to come and to make it a little more affordable we are looking at renting this vacation house instead. We could just try it out for one year to see what we think, we hope there are still many more houseboats in our future but we can just change it up once in a while.
Here are few reasons this house in intriguing: Still in the nice hot sunshine of Shasta Located right on the water, we can walk down and swim and boat Fun amenities at the house include volleyball, basketball, swing set, horse shoes, darts, pool table, air hockey, games Fire pit with chairs all around for late night hang outs Amphitheater for the talent show and water drinking and bug eating contests Large living area but not too big so we still get that family "togetherness" feel Half the people get to camp so there is still an opportunity for star gazing and the outdoor feel Real showers Flush toilets that don't stink Sleeps 30, 5 bedrooms in the house plus cabins in the adjoining campsite Read more on their website
Okay, so this is just a thought we are throwing out there. Cost would be less, somewhere around $5,000 for the week depending on how many people come and we don't have to pay for gas for the house! Check out the video and let us know what you think! Next summer can't come soon enough!
i guess i'll continue the trend cause, you know, i'm so trendy after all...
it was a terrible idea of someone (probably me) to give every employee in our company of 1000+ employees new name tags for our new brand launch that i am putting together in just over a month. good news is i think i may know the names of all of our employees by now...
pomegranate white tea from trader joes is a lifesaver.
getting to the gym only to find out that your ipod is out of juice is probably one of the greatest tragedies that can happen in a day.
i now have an assistant of sorts in a new college intern for the summer helping me out at work. he has bright red hair so now we are the redheaded twins in the building since we are the only redheads. that and we are both children of company docs. so fun...
sanctum is not a good movie. i don't care what you say, dad.
i was not happy when i heard the rain this morning as i woke up. it is july. go away.
it's amazing how i can be so organized at work but the more i have to do there, the less gets done in my out-of-work life. i do acknowledge that i have emails from all of you about various things that i need to get back to. let me get right on that...
i found a chinese food restaurant that delivers to my apartment. and it is good. and not expensive. and close. dangerous.
i can't believe the last harry potter comes out on friday. i think i am in denial and am ignoring all news about it because of that. that may also be aiding that i don't even have plans yet for when i am going to see it. shameful.
speaking of geekiness - i am happy that i will be doing ragnar with you all but a bit of my heart is breaking that i won't be going to comicon this year. the programming just came out last weekend and it is quite the line up.
i want a boston terrier without the responsibility of having a pet. has someone figured out how to do that yet? if so, let me know.
i'm really excited about seeing the avett brothers this weekend. concerts are fun.
Life in the U.S. continues to be wonderful and we are having a great time. Here are some pictures of the fun we had up in Sammamish. We never got a good group shot so these will have to do.
We went to the Science Center in Seattle, it was awesome. Here is Tom and Randy (also a dentist) at the phobia exhibit We road on this bike that was balanced way up high and wasn't attached but couldn't fall off do to the balancing weight... it was a lot of trust to put in science and very scary! We went swimming in the lake by their house. Alyssa was brave and enjoying it. Danica agreed with the rest of it: It was COLD!!! Where is our warm Okinawa water?
We had lots of fun hanging out with everyone while in Washington. The kids loved seeing their cousins and getting reacquainted.
Thankfully we just got the letter accepting the short sale so on our house and we have a closing date of August 17th. Hooray!!! We can’t wait for the day to come but luckily have a ton of things planned between now and then!
Our vacation continues and we are in Utah right now until the 18th. We are hanging out with my family and having a good time. We've been to Lagoon, hiked to a small nearby waterfall and then went to a pioneer day fair with tons of free games and activities. Apparently Hayden didn't get enough military stuff in Oki and was enthralled by this army tank and it's guns on display at the fair! The girls worked hard and made all sorts of awesome crafts at the fair. Next week we are going 4-wheeling and to Snowbird and visiting more family and friends among other stuff. The kids have really enjoyed their cousins and all the time with grandma and grandpa. Poor Alyssa gets so confused, every time we go to a new place she asks if it's our new house and if we've finally moved. It started with the Westpac and hasn't stopped. Even the hotel we stayed at in Boise on the drive to Utah she asked if it was her new house. Her birthday is August 17th so that will be a wonderful day to get the new house then!!
I haven’t done much shopping but did hit Target once and thoroughly enjoyed Costco and bought so much stuff just because I couldn’t believe it. Hayden finally said “Mom, really, when are you going to stop be so amazed by everything.” But really Hayden, did you see the price of those apples??!!! Getting used to driving has been okay, only once did I go to the car and get in on the wrong side. Tom's done it a few times but just gets to pretend he's a gentleman opening my door. I still have moments when I try to make sure I have my I.D. ready for something but that is fading. I'm okay with some things fading away but look forward to hanging on to some of the memories forever! Here are a few pictures from some of the memories of the last days:
Here are Danica and Alyssa with their great friends on our last big outing to a Japanese garden, the spot on our bucket list! My most amazing next door neighbor and our crew. This is moments before they left on the shuttle to the airport the day before we did! On our last night on the island we went to Coco's Curry House and got great food and took it over to eat Araha Beach with all our friends. Although many members of our wonderful Oki Family had already moved we still got some fun pictures with the rest of the gang. I can only hope to have friends even half as good in the future!
It's so hot here. In-N-Out never tasted so good. I miss my family, but I know Mike's got it much worse. I'm going to try to run 15 miles at 3am when it has cooled down to 90 degrees. I love teaching CEREC. It's invigorating. There are some weird people out there. I've been people watching... Adina is becoming a techy genius. Isaac is a busy young man and faster than lightening. Taylor might just be a millionaire before he is 25. Anyone want to bet me on that one? Parker is going to be a cop. He is a rule enforcer. He calls me on my speeding from the back seat. Morgan is growing up too fast. The gospel is true. I'm happy.
- Gold Medal Squared camp begins Monday for Sprague High School. I have been busy getting things prepared for it. I look forward to the camp but I will be happy when Thursday night comes.
- Peter is working on a big proposal for a list for City of Salem. It is a list that they pull from when they do projects around the city.
- Camie is beginning to talk up a storm. Of course you can't really understand what she is saying but she is talking a ton. She loves Dora now and will get up on the couch and clap/dance when we put it on for her. She loves to sing along as well.
- Beck is stubborn as ever but the cutest kid at the same time. He is on a Power Rangers kick and loves to go around acting like a Power Ranger beating up the bad guys.
- Andrew is counting the days until his birthday/Lake Shasta. He even includes the number of days in his prayers each night. He is so excited!
- We are enjoying the summer in Salem. I am busy with lots of volleyball stuff but we are taking time to go to the park almost everyday. I saw the pregnant lady at the park by our house that we saw at Riverfront Splash park. Made me think of Marnie and Kim and laugh.
- We are so excited for all the things to come this summer still. Peter brother Dave will be here with his family next weekend for a visit. It will be fun to see them. Then Ragnar, Visit to Peter's Parents' house, Lake Shasta, Hood to Coast, and all the birthdays to celebrate. Crazy how busy it is going to be for the next few months with that stuff and volleyball.
Well I gotta go, Camie is being a little terror right now. Gotta love the girl.
I think I'll break my long silence...I have a pile of things to do but both Noah and Avery are asleep and I was just reviewing my visiting teaching changes and pondering what I should do next...looked at the blog at the great pictures that Marnie took over the weekend and decided that I would write finally. I think about it...I'm just not good at actually doing it. It is so wonderful to have all the family here but I know we have others that read this who may not know what is happening...so here are some highlights!
1. Had a great trip to Max's wedding and enjoyed Lexi's family and seeing Sean, Ashleigh and Paige. And, of course, any time with my sisters is much enjoyed!!! There is just something about siblings that is special. Especially with Mother and Daddy gone, every time I talk to Martha or Beppie Anne is a highlight!!!
2. Tom and Tracey are off to Utah to visit her family for a week...I'm going to be helping Brooke move into their new house up in Lacey next week...very fun having both of these families so close. It has been party city here as you can see from the pictures. I am really counting my blessings and savoring the time as I'm not sure how long I will be so lucky to have all seven families so close!!!
3. Without adequate training, I did manage to finish the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon on Sauvie Island on the 4th with Brent and Buffy. I'm glad Kenn and David accompanied me on their bikes for the last 2 miles as I don't think I would have made my PR if they weren't there. It was HARD!!! I finished in 2 hours, 37 min and 2 seconds..best ever. I'm looking forward to the Ragnar Relay on the 22nd with all family runners. Hopefully, I can hold my own.
4. Relief Society has been busy, with the stuff I should be doing never really done. Kenn is going down to some races with Mike this weekend so I'm using some of the time to catch up on my calling.
5. I have finally emptied all the boxes that I filled as we moved out of the rooms that we remodeled. I love our new study. There is lots of storage...not yet completely filled and it is fun to sit across from Kenn as we work on the computer instead of him downstairs and me upstairs occasionally yelling things at each other. He will still have his workstation downstairs but is using the upstairs more. The sewing exercise room is great. Now that I'm winding down on the organization part for these rooms, maybe I'll get to work on my quilting squares. However, my need for organization has no end.
6. The inspector came for our problems with Trex on our deck...we now wait for 30 days to see what Trex will offer...We are still waiting for our boat repairs. Hopefully, that will get resolved soon so that we can have at least one shakedown outing before heading off to Shasta at the end of the month.
7. The temple is closed for a month for maintenance so I'll be having my Wednesday mornings free for a while. I will miss it though. There are so many friends there and such a great boost for the week.
Well, I'd better go get the mail and focus in on all the little things that now have to be put away to REALLY finish!!!
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