Aspen Extreme

Margaret, Jackson and I flew back to MI on Monday evening to start a few weeks of Christmas celebrations/parties/work. I have high intentions of reading a book while flying, but I always seem to watch a movie instead. This trip was no different. I started watching Aspen Extreme - a classic ski movie from the 80's.

Best line of the movie - "These guys are good dude (Dexter says to TJ)", TJ's response - "Yeah, but none of them are from Detroit" - Solid Answer.

Markers...again

We got the markers out again last night. Jackson wanted a beard, i started it, he finished it

Then, he needed glasses and an earring

Margaret couldn't resist the fun, so joined in

Here is the happy couple!

It was pretty funny!

St. Helens

One benefit of missing my flights was being able to take Jackson to preschool on Wednesday morning. This was our view on the drive in:

Tahoe

Last weekend, I took a little trip down to Lake Tahoe. This trip was scheduled to be on the front end of a business trip to Springfield, IL to see a customer. I flew in late Thursday night and my brother picked me up. He and my uncle had flown in earlier in the day. We woke up Friday morning and I worked most of the day. Later in the afternoon, we decided to go out for a little hike. It was an awesome day, sunny and somewhat chilly.

We got back, hit the hot tub, had a few beers and cooked up some great burgers and sweet potato fries! We all ate too much, but it was worth it. Our friend Jason flew in on Friday night and got to the house about 11 PM.

Saturday was again a beautiful day. We started out with some breakfast at a small local cafe. It was fantastic. We then headed to a local ski shop in search of some advice on where to snowshoe. No real options presented themselves so we just headed off for another hike. We did a great hike that was about an 11 mile round trip out to a moutain lake and back.

Not sure why we didn't take a picture of all of us. Anyway, we headed back to the cabin and again enjoy the hot tub, some beers and good conversation. We sat around for a little while and had a Wii tournament. Then headed out to Squaw Valley for dinner. We ended up at a Pizza place in the Squaw village. Good pizza, bad game on TV.

We woke Sunday morning to a little snow falling so decided to just relax and chat before my uncles flight left Reno. By the time we left for the airport, it was snowing a little more, but reports were telling us it was going to get nasty. It was a pretty uneventful trip down to Reno. We swang by the airport, changed rental cars to a Subaru instead of the go kart we had rented before and started back up the hill. Jason was driving and it was a sketchy drive all the way back. We were told the highway was closed in multiple spots, but no one made us pull over, so we just kept driving. The snow was coming fast and furious. We stopped in Truckee for about 30 minutes for some lunch, just to find a couple inches of snow on our car when we were done. Finally back at the cabin, we had some wood to move, but the reward was the hottub with beautiful snow falling all around.

Jason, Chad and I ended up just chatting, sitting by the fire, and playing a little Wii on Sunday night. My flight was leaving at Reno at 1, so I was planning on getting up early on Monday to head back down the hill. When I got up at 7, this is what i saw:

It was unbelieveable. It think we had about 3.5 feet of snow on the ground. I had never seen that much snow! Jason and I took off to test out the roads as we had about 50 miles back to the airport. We drove about 4 miles down the road to a 7-11, and the roads actually seemed ok. On our way back, the roads seemed a little worse, as it was snowing pretty good. As I was making, the last turn in our street, I put the Subaru in a snow bank. Good thing the snow was as fluffy as it was. We walked back to the cabin, donned some warmer gear and headed back to shovel it out. Jason was the first one back and by the time Chad and I showed up, he was almost done. So, we got the car back in the garage and then had desicions to make. Drive to the Reno airport, to get on a plane to fly across the country for a meeting, or realize the flights will most likely be delayed and stay in Lake Tahoe to go skiing in 3.5 feet of fresh powder. Easy decision, right? We cleaned the cabin and headed out. It was a tough decision, but I really felt like I needed to give it a go so that I could meet with my customer.

We had two cars to get back to the airport. The Subaru that I had rented and a Ford Focus that Chad rented the day he got in. He got stuck at the end of our driveway, and then again at the end of our street. It was going to be a long 50 mile drive. Before we left, we checked the weather one more time. Highways closed, avalanches in the area, didn't really sound like a fun time to be in the car. Long story short, we did make it down to Reno in a few hours. It was slow going, but we made it safe.

Once I got to the airport, the worst case happened. My flights were delayed, shocking I know. I had a small window to catch my connection in Salt Lake City. We boarded the plane quickly and looked like everything was one schedule. We then proceeded to sit on the plane for about an hour before finally taking off.

Once airborn, I pulled out my laptop to check on the status of my flights (internet in the air is great). I had already been rebooked on the red eye out of Salt Lake City (8 hours after arriving in SLC), to Atlanta, a 1 hour layover and then finally into St. Louis. From St. Louis, I have a 2 hour drive to my final destination of Springfield, IL. Here is the problem. I would get to Springfield at about noon - meeting starts at 9.

I called one other guy from my company that was going to be at the meeting as well and he said he could handle on his own. So, I made the decision to just fly back to Portland instead of flying all night, driving, sitting red eyed in a meeting that I was already late for, just to drive back to St. Louis that night and do it all over again.

I am impressed if you read this far. You win a prize if you did.

p.o.d

Margaret just whipped up this beauty. nuf said.

p.o.d

- o - sauras

Roadie up to Seattle

Jackson and I took a little road trip up to Seattle yesterday. We had many things to do and see while in town for a short period of time. I tried to take pictures throughout the day, but keep in mind they are all taken off of my phone.

We left our house at about 8:30 with the sun finally pecking out and laughing at us while we drove away unto what looked like a very rainy day.

Here is Jackson on the way there watching a movie

We stopped off at Chad and Becky's apartment to pick them up on the way to lunch...Paseo's (according to Chad, the best pulled pork sandwich around). It was slammed when we got there, but it was worth the short wait. Anyway, we ate lunch and then went over to Evo where we needed to try a helmet and ski boots on Jackson and I needed to finalize my ski boot selection and grab some skis.

Helmet on...check - skis on...check...

Where are the skis?

Chad, Danny Niffin and I poked around Evo for a while as Becky and Jackson went to get some hot chocolate. I didn't capture a picture of Jackson drinking that, but it was quite amusing with large amount of chocolate creating a very sexy mustache. We then drove back to Chad and Becky's, dropped off the car and we off on the next adventure...riding the bus downtown to the Pike Place Market. If you haven't ever been to the public market, it is quite a treat. It always smells the same, looks the same, and sounds the same, but always draws you back. Jackson has two favorite things to do there, the first is the fish market where the throw fish from one person to another in order to package it all up.

Chad and Jackson in front of some nice looking Mahi-Mahi

Jackson's second favorite thing about the market (and his mothers first favorite thing) is heading over to the donut stand for some fresh donuts. I will admit, they are good little things. You buy a 1/2 dozen or a full dozen for about 4 bucks, and they are hot off the greaser!

Once we stuff our faces full of greasy cinnamon donuts we headed back to the bus stop. Wait that is not the right stop, let's walk over the over one 2 blocks away. Shoot, let's now run back to the original stop to pick up the one we thought we missed. As we ran back to the stop it turned into a race (shocking, i know) and Jackson won. We caught the bus and headed back to Ballard for some dinner.

Ride home

We settled on Thai food. Jackson had some chicken noodle soup. Per the usual, he ate just part of it and then said how full he was. After dinner, Jackson and I hit the road to head back to Portland. So, we said our goodbye's and were on the road for the 3 hour ride. But, before we could leave Seattle, we needed to add a little more sugar to our systems. Thanks to Molly Moon's we did just that!

Creamsicle Flavor!

Yeah, I had some too.

Alright, we are now officially on the road. It only took one movie and 5 minutes of crying before Jackson fell asleep. Before we knew it, we were home. Man, was I exhausted. It was a great day that I will remember for a while. I'm think Jackson was pretty tired as well!

p.o.d - downtown PDX

we went for a little stroll today downtown. it consisted of Starbucks (sorry, we were cold and it was the closed coffee shop), thai, mexican, chinese, and a hot dog, and jackson finding a new friend

Thanksgiving

Well, here we are, Thanksgiving. This year has been full of changes. We have so much to be thankful for...safe travels across the county, health of the family, and so far a good pregnancy for Margaret (well, mostly a good pregnancy - only one trip to the ER!) Here is a picture of Margaret and Sharky Shark today (a few days ago actually)

I think most important to be thankful for is our family. We have already been visited by both sides of our family. Jackson still has books read to him by both of his grandmothers almost daily over Skype. We truly are blessed to have a family that is so loving.

We did have one loss this year, he was an awesome friend of mine for 10 + years. He lived with me during numerous jobs, 3 houses, a marriage, a son, and many hours on the bike. Here's to you Mo

Happy Thanksgiving

p.o.d

Jackson and Mt. Hood

p.o.d (thanks for the idea dear!)

I almost forgot about the picture of the day (p.o.d). This one is for Dan, Fred, and John.

newest member of the family

I would like to introduce you (all 2 of you that read this) to the newest steed in fold. Still not sure what we should call her, any ideas?

work attire

I am finding it is more difficult that I thought with being a remote employee. In the past if I had a question for anyone in the company, I would simply get up from my chair and walk into whomevers office I needed to speak with, ask my question, and then move on. That was the good life. Now, it may take a day or so to get a question answered just because of conflicting schedules.

The cool part about being remote is literally getting out of bed and starting to work right away. I usually look like this:

Actually one part that I really enjoy is being able to have breakfast and usually lunch with Margaret and Jackson. Almost every morning, Jackson brings my breakfast to me in my office. I just love that. Right before pre-school, Jackson runs up stairs to give me a hug. Then during Jackson's nap, I am at home so Margaret has a chance to run out.

I guess if M & J can handle me looking like this some days, it is worth it, right?

a day in the life....

this is what my day looked like today. Get up 6:30, take shower, eat breakfast, wake jackson and margaret up to take me to airport...get to airport at 8 for 9 am flight. catch an early flight to seattle...get to seattle 30 minutes later, grab a bus to downtown seattle...my brother picks me up downtown and we head over to ski shop...get fitted for a pair of ski boots...race back to airport to catch flight to St. Louis. While going through security i run into a couple that are carrying one 3 hamsters, 2 birds, and a cat....please take the train, or drive yourself to your final destination, don't bring that crap on an airplane... anyway, fly to St. Louis, grab a rental car and head for Springfield, IL...arrive in Springfield two hours later, grab some dinner, check into hotel, blog. now what?

is that what i think it is....

So, I have been living vicariously through Margaret's blog and figured I should give this a go. It will most likely turn into a blog about my bikes and my family, let's just hope not that order. I am hoping to post many pictures and like the idea of the picture of the day. Let's start that today. Oh, and by the way, there will most likely be multiple grammatical errors...live it be, that is just how I roll!

We had our 19 weeks ultrasound today, and much to our surprise, we are having a....

As a frame of reference, here is Jackson's ultrasound picture from the same timeframe...

If these pictures are any indication, our new son will be much more shy than Jackson