Isaac full of energy 

Dave, Isaac & Tanner 

The 5th station, where we begin our climb 

Due to recent requests and for those of you who are interested in our Fuji climb, we are finally recording the details for all to see...
I will begin by saying that despite any setback or quirk in our trip, it was an awesome experience - one that will be remembered and treasured for life. That being said, we began our trip by finding two sitters that were willing to join us for the 14-hour drive up to Fuji and then stay with the six youngsters too small for the hike. We went with a family with 4 boys - very good friends of ours. We were very fortunate to find 2 girls up for the challenge - and they earned every penny!
The trip up was smooth - we made a few stops on the toll roads at the rest stops, where you can find just about anything you might need. We rented vans for the trip since the tolls are ridiculously expensive. Tolls are paid for with rentals from the base. Our round trip would have cost $500 per van in tolls alone, so it was a good investment. It's no wonder Japanese never travel too far from home - it's not affordable!
We stayed at Camp Fuji - a very small marine base at the base of the mountain. Our rooms were modest, but comfortable and only cost us $25 a night. We got a lot of good sleep that night and arose early in the morning for our adventure. After a good breakfast, we bid the kids farewell, and the six of us (Dave, Adina, Isaac, Margo, Rick, & Tanner) set off. We drove to the 5th station on the mountain - where most everyone begins their hike. There, we purchased walking sticks that would prove invaluable on the climb (at least for me). We officially began the hike at 8:30 am. It was cool and misty, perfect weather in my mind. I was surprised at the terrain a little - not a conventional "hike" by any means. More of a climb - found ourselves using all four limbs many times. It was very rocky - just a huge, lumpy volcanic rock. A twisted ankle waiting to happen. Very little vegetation. But it had it's own beauty - and the view (when the sky was clear) was amazing. LIke nothing I have ever seen.
We were very well prepared for the hike, for which I am grateful. We each had a Camelback - each of us carrying 2 to 3 liters of water. Plenty of healthy, high-carb food, first aid kits (which we used), warm clothes, ponchos, yen, cameras, hats, sunscreen (which we used too late), change of socks, etc. We are forever grateful to Brent for hooking us up with some awesome Vasque hiking boots - not one blister or wet foot on the hike. THANKS BRENT!
The mountain has stations that you can stop and rest at as you hike. Each station has a bathroom (but it will cost you about $2 to use it), water (which will also cost about $3-5), oxygen in a can (for altitude sickness), and some offer hot food. You also get your stick stamped at each station - they burn the altitude and a symbol into your wooden stick, so by the end of the hike, you have a really cool souvenier. Of course, that will cost you, too. Nothing is free on Fuji!
We climbed the last weekend in August, just days before the climbing season is over. As we hiked to each station, the workers were covering the stations in rocks preparing for the impending snow that will eventually blanket the mountain. No more hikers until July of 2005.
Isaac and I developed a pretty good case of altitude sickness - fatigue, pounding headache, dizziness - but we took some ibuprofen and trudged on. There was absolutely no turning back. By the last couple of stations, Isaac was beat. I felt for him - his head was really hurting. Each time we stopped to rest, he would drape himself over a rock and lay perfectly motionless. He was just completely drained. Probably for the last 2 hours, I pulled him up the mountain. But he was the first to cross through the Tori gate at the top!
Once we reached the top, the weather changed instantly. It went from clear, blue skies to total cloud cover and rain. And the temp dropped to probably about 40 degrees. We went into the station, where there was a small Buddhist temple, got our sticks stamped, changed into our ponchos, got Isaac some oxygen from a man that probably thought Isaac was going to die right there on his floor, and headed back down. There was no view to enjoy, and we wouldn't see the base of the moutain again until we reached it on foot. The clouds and rain stuck with us til we were done, which made for a very wet descent.
We stopped at a station on the way down and had some hot Udon noodles - very good. It really perked Isaac up. It felt like the Twilight Zone, though. We are sitting in this small, wooden room, eating hot Udon noodles, on the side of a mountain, and surrounded by lots of old Japanese men in their socks and slippers who are smoking and chatting, who don't look like they belong there. But we were all grateful for the hot food in our stomachs and the break.
The hike up took 5 hours - the hike down took about 2 1/2 or 3. I felt like the descent was just a controlled fall, at least for me. Isaac's altitude sickness totally disappeared as we descended. My headache remained, but it felt great to reach the bottom of that mountain!
I am very proud of Isaac and his determination to do something that not many 9-year olds could do. He is very active and full of energy and that is what got him up there - that and the promise of some Mt. Fuji dog tags he saw at the souvenier shop. Whatever works, right?!
It was an awesome experience - highly recommended if you ever get the opportunity.
Love you all...More later...my little brother is visiting and we are doing a lot of travelling and sight-seeing while he is here. Not a moment to spare, it seems.
Adina

All is well here in Ohio. We are enjoyoing great weather, I love the summer time here, it stays in the mid 70's most of the time! Tom is really busy with school, it is a lot more demanding than last year because he has a lot of lab work to do. He works really hard while he's at school so he still has a lot of time to spend with Hayden and I when he comes home. Our new fish raising hobby is going well. For those who don't know we bought a 55 gallon tank on E-bay and are raising semi-aggressive tropical fish in it. We have three different types of fish and then they will all end up being 8-12 inches long when fully grown! Each fish has a name and personality and it's been a lot of fun to share this experience as a family. Hayden frequently runs up to the tank saying "nack" "nack." He loves to feed the fish their snack. Finding Nemo continues to be his favorite movie, he wants to watch it all day so he constantly brings me the remote and says "Mimo." It reminds me a lot of Sadie when we saw her last Thanksgiving because she was really into watching Nemo back then. I can't wait for them to get a chance to play together now that they are getting older.
Hayden is picking up words left and right and gets funnier by the day. He loves the kids I baby sit, he's always giving them hugs and even cries when they have to go home! However, he doesn't want to go to nursery. He was fine the first few weeks and then he just started to cry and he cries the whole two hours. He gets so upset if Tom and I aren't around, I sure hope it's a phase! Just as we were getting desperate trying to decide what to do about his nursery blues I got called as a nusery leader to work in the same nursery as Tom. We debated putting Hayden into the other nursery his age (our ward has 8 nurseries so he has several choices) but we decided to take the chance that he won't cry as much next year when he moves into a new class because he will still be with all his church friends. We've got our fingers crossed- in the meantime he does great when he is in the class with Tom and I. He's great at folding his arms for the prayer, singing the songs and coloring. In fact, he's obsessed with coloring all the time which can be a problem when he decides to color in Tom's textbooks!! And he calls crayons "bebe's" for some reason...
For Labor Day weekend we went with some friends down to Columbus and took turns going to the temple there. On Monday we went to the beach on Lake Erie and enjoyed the sand and swimming. We've been to several Indian's games and endless softball and football games for Tom. All around it's been a great summer and we are looking forward to having Kim come in a couple of weeks. Hope all is well! Talk to you later!
Tracey

Well, I returned home from Georgia on Tuesday...and while I am enjoying the cooler, less humid weather, I do miss those little girls in GA. They are all so cute in their each individual ways....Jane is getting so old...and definitely friend-oriented! Sadie is a riot walking all over on her cast like a pirate and singing "I know you...." in a variety of voices. She calls me e-ma. The first time any of my grandchildren have been around me at that age long enough to really create their own name for me. Ellyn is sitting up and VERY close to crawling. I do miss them...as I miss my discussions with Brooke...and the more rare ones with Mike due to his busy schedule. I don't miss the humidity!

I am getting use to my non-working status. Wednesday, I was mainly catching up on everything..Thursday, I went to the temple for a session...Friday, I was still working on getting my paperwork and my desk all cleared up. Only did two ding-batty things....mailed a check I meant to deposit (thanks to Brent for his patience!!) and dropped my cell phone in the new Target parking lot (Thanks to a very nice stranger, I did get it back).

We went to see Napoleon Dynamite on Friday night...strange but very funny.

I have an interview with a consulting company tomorrow...we'll see whether my vision of intermittant work will actually develop as I have thought it would. I am still having a hard time remembering not to schedule things on Mondays!!

For those who didn't hear, Gramma was taken to the hospital on Friday night with heart pain and dizziness. She stayed overnight but they just needed to change her medicine and she is home and doing better. Her 94th birthday is on October 4. She really is amazing.

More people need to write in the blog.......I love Anne's regular bulletins on her games....need more on the rest of your lives. I am amazed at how grown-up Isaac is...and how athletic!

We love you all!

Mom

Hey Everyone! I think I am going to get a beach cruiser for my birthday so that explains the picture. I really want this one but it is a schwinn and Sport Chalet doesn't carry it so it is probably a little too much. But I just like the colors anyway, i just need to find a bike with these colors that we carry. Looks cool though, huh?

Everything is good with me. My stake had Roadshows last night and I was in my ward's. It was fun and everything went well. A little hot but fine. It is really humid and hot right now in San Diego. Today is actually a lot better though.

Last night I also went and saw Garden State. Very good. More for the younger generation, sorry Mom and Dad. I also saw Hero last weekend. Very good. If you like Chinese subtitled movies or if you just like film you would like it.

School is still going on. I am realized how ridiculously busy I am. I don't have any time to do my homework. I just need that to take priority over playing! :)

Hope you are all well. I miss you all! Have a great Sunday!

Marnie

Well we went 1-1 today. We losed to U of Oklahoma in 4 but beat U of Memphis in 3. We are now 3-2 and are doing very well. We didn't play so well in the Uof Oklahoma game but we played really well in the other game. Sam (our coach) told us that if we won the memphis game he would take us out to dinner, so we all went to TUCANOS!!! Oh it is soooooo good. I ate too much. Peter is bummed cuz he never goes out to eat with us because he would have to pay. We would be poor if he went out with us every time. We had lunch and dinner paid for today. It was great.

All is well, and we will be in Portland next Wednesday for our Tourney up there. I am very excited to see Mom and Dad and Kim. My team is coming over for dinner on Friday, and we are so stoked.

I am beat and need to rest. Love you All!

WE WON AGAIN!! We beat Central Florida in 4 games, and it was a very close match. It was very exciting to win our first home game and improve to 2-1. Volleyball is great. I got two more aces tonite and played all four games.

We play U of Oklahoma and U of Memphis tomorrow, and we are so excited to play more teams for the chance to end this weekend with a 4-1 record.

We love you all and continue to think about each one of you. I hope Grandma is doing fine now and hope that she is able to return to her normal life.

Love, Anne and Peter

WE WON! We are now 1-1 after beating University of Montana in 3 games. It was an awesome match. And so far we are looking pretty good overall and I am stoked to be able to play tomorrow night against University of Central Florida (at home...first home game) and then we play University of Memphis and University of Oklahoma on Saturday at the BYU Mizuno Classic. And no we don't play BYU until October 26th. We've play 6 games so far within the first two matches and I have been able to play in 5 out of the 6 games.

So far, school has been pretty good but I have a heavy load with taking Biology, Chemistry, Cell Biology and Physics. But so far I've been getting As on all of my quizzes. Tests start next week, so I will get back to you on how things are after that.

Peter and I have purchased a new laptop from Dell and we are very excited to finally not have to use my old desktop computer that seriously has wanted to die on us for the last couple months. Anyways, it is a great computer and we still have a printer coming with it. It is great because I will be able to take it with me on the many many roadtrips with volleyball.

All is well and we are having lots of fun. For those of you who have not seen Napoleon Dynamite yet, you must...most hilarious movie. My volleyball team quotes it every chance we get.

"Napoleon give me some of your tots"
"No go find your own!"
"Idiot!"

We love you all and miss you! Hope you all are doing well.

Love, Anne and Peter

Ready 

Swim 

Swim 

Race 

Race 

Race 

Hello everyone. Good to hear that Dad hasn't waivered in his opinions. I love it and totally agree, but maybe not with the red face and increased HR. As you can kind of see from the picture, we are getting another typhoon. However, this is different than all the others, because it is hitting just to our west, which brings us the strongest winds. The one last week went pretty much directly over us but petered (no offense Peter) out upon landfall. This one puts on the side where the winds plus the movement of the storm equals a pretty good typhoon. They say it'll be the worse winds in 60 years here. And, the howling outside is proving it. Very strong winds and gusting. Again, I am thankful that I don't live out in the cho (Japanese community), because their houses are made of cardboard and I feel there will be a lot of damage. Here, we are in reinforced concrete and can barely hear the wind. Very comforting. This typhoon was not supposed to come anywhere near us. It was supposed to go directly to China, but did a 90 degree turn and is nailing us. Another day off!
Adina's brother, Ray, is coming to visit us (At least some family is coming to visit us...Marnie excluded from that one) the day after tomorrow. He'll be here for 2 weeks and we are going to give him a good introduction into japanese culture, history, and cuisine. Should be fun. He just got home from his mission in Ecuador about a month ago or so.
Isaac ran/swam in his first Duathlon on Monday right before the storm came. It was a 50m swim with a 1.0k run. There were 8 kids in his division and he took 3rd. He is not a very strong swimmer, although he could be with some practice. He has big flippers and a slim body. His strength comes in running. He really has a long stride and some good endurance. He can run forever. Even though he is really thin, he is solid muscle, not a lick of fat on his body no matter how much crap we feed him. When I was that age, I am sure I was chunkier than he.
Marnie, good to see that you are enjoying school. I hope this advertising class gets you some exposure and hopefully a job doing what you love to do.
And just to let everyone know, we will be coming back to visit the states from 28 January - 18 February. We will mostly be with mom and dad, but we will visit the Archuleta's as well. But, my primary reason for coming is to secure employment for August 2005, since my papers are in to be released from active duty.
Hope everyone is safe, happy, and healthy!
Dave

Typhoon Songda

So, I can find my way into the writing portion of the blog....but the photo part will have to wait. I've tried to upload a couple of pics and I have no idea where they went.

Kim and I went to Seattle on Saturday; had a good drive up and back and a good time there. We went to see the Rock and Roll museum at Seattle Center, which was originally placed as a memorial to Jimi Hendrix but has expanded to include many more individuals. I would suspect it is a mini-hall of fame compared to Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall. It is tied into the Science Museum if you desire to pay the extra $$$ to view that part. We just did the R and R part; that was enough. We drove down close to Pike's Place Market and had some dinner at a "hole-in-the-wall place that she knew about??? Actually, she and Tim went there a year ago when we all went for a Pacific NW Dental Convention there. Kim is a good companion and does very well away from Bradly. She has an interview on Thursday at the GAP. I know she is excited to travel to Cleveland and Ft Benning. If she had the time off to do so, she'd be going south to Cali...but, hey....she has to get a job and make some $$ for next semester.

Work has been busy...one of my old residents is applying and interviewing for an OMS job with Willamette Dental on the 10th of September. It might help to have him in the area so my access time can improve. If you tried to get a consultation with me right now, they would book you for January 2005. And, then you'd have to wait 4-5 months after that for surgery. That is not a good thing. I told them they need to hire another OMS and have him take on some of this backload. I really don't see it hurting my income or my amount of work. Just gets things closer for patients...and I think I'll have fewer "no-shows".

Concerning the upcoming election: you know how I feel. Is there any doubt? I have absolutely no trust in Hanoi John. I can remember very well the antics of Hanoi Jane and the added cruelty given to our POWs because of her visit to Hanoi. I absolutely place Kerry at the same level as Jane as they both actively spoke out against our troops, actively joined the ranks of the garbage that worked with anit-war activists to cause a breakdown of the American will to fight to the end. He and she, were outspoken critics of the administration and the policies of the US. You have a right to be against any policy that the administration issues forth, BUT, to do it the way they did it...and by doing so, added credibility to the anti-US policies in Viet Nam and the US.....AND....contributed to the inhumane treatment of POWs and the loss of more lives of our servicemen and women who were in-country. Kerry is as low as you can go and his sleething dogs are out here again, protesting at conventions and at campaign meetings...using exactly the same tactics as were used in the 60's and 70's. Look as the low-lifes who are hired off the street to battle the administratioin. They pay the activists to go out and disrupt the general order of the public during these rituals of theirs. Throw in a few "veterans" and that makes their point appropriate. Anarchy before our eyes and the Dems don't see it. Their eyes are blurrred by images of....PEACE, LOVE, etc..... well, wake up and smell the smoke and gunpowder of the people who would like to destroy the good old USA from within and without. 911 has not gone away. Maybe we need to review the footage of the carnage of that terrible day. Just remember that on election day, Benedict in on one side of the ticket......the dark side. You vote how you may, but there is no question how my vote will be cast. I don't like our young men and women being killed and maimed by the enemy....however, that is a given in war. BUT, I really don't like our young people being killed and maimed because of the likes of John Kerry and Jane Fonda.
Has dad lost his mind? Wake up sweet peas.......smell the artificial roses for what they are.

Yeow, that was a real release. Kim really did well at calming me down when we walked by the kiosks of Bumbershoot at the Center on Saturday. There were more of the anti-Bush folks out there with very demeaning tee-shirts (hey, they are lucky this is a free country; they'd be shot in commie lands).

It'll be nice to get the election behind us. Then, we can see which way the US is turning.

So, that is my blurb for the Labor Day 04. Read it and smile. Enjoy your day. I have to go get ready for my "Professional Driving Day". Peace and Love, man.....Dad

So school has started up again. Last week was a good intro to what this semester will be like. Two of my classes will be pretty much repeats and the other three should be really interesting. I am really excited because my professor for my advertising creative development class is the head of an advertising agency in San Diego called Lambesis agency and his name is Nick Lambesis! His agency does the Skyy Vodka, BeBe, and Airwalk (when it was big) ads. He has some really cool ideas for the class, one of which is doing an ad campaign for Rubio's Baja Grill and we are going to have to present it to Paul Rubio, the owner, himself! Kind of intimidating but it should be a good experience.

It is SO hot in San Diego right now. Mostly just where I live though. San Diego State campus is probably 20 degrees hotter than anywhere else in San Diego. It is making start to dream of when I will live in Seattle or thereabouts.

So I may be moving again. My landlord at the condo I live in now is planning to buy a house in San Diego and so he wants to sell this condo. So me and my roommates are going to stick together and move most likely. We are looking at a small house right now that is very close to campus, like across the street. It is a cute little house. The yard needs some revamping but the inside is like a cabin with dark wood paneling and vaulted ceilings, pretty cool. So we may move there if we have to move. That would probably be the beginning of October so at least i can get into my routine before I have to throw that in there.

I am in the ward's roadshow right now and that is going on this Saturday. Should be a corny little show but fun nonetheless. Hopefully Kimmy will be able to come visit sometime this month (mom and dad), that would be cool. But I guess that is all from me now. Hope you are all well and not roasting like I am in heat!

-Marnie

Mike- Nothing---he had his eyes dilated today so was blind for half the day...and he beat Brent at football last night.
Brooke- went out to the backyard today and wiped off a counter
Jane- she is having a sleepover with her best friend this weekend
Sadie- has to have her cast on for FOUR MORE WEEKS!
Ellen- got fully up on her hands and knees with stomach up...crawling is not far off!

Mom- did not break her foot after all when she fell on the stairs taking the dog out...just black and blue. I got a very attractive ortho shoe (ha!ha!) but it really does make it feel better.

Georgia is hot, hot, hot!!!

Mom