Holiday Greeting

Home Camping

What a night we had last night. First, the Seahawks played the 49er's on national TV, then a huge wind storm ripped through the Puget Sound region. The wind was so strong and loud, we feared that a tree would fall through our house into our bedroom. In the middle of the night, with the power out, we fumbled and stumbled our way around the house, searching for blankets and pillows, to set up 'camp' in the dining room, away from the large trees in our back yard. After hours of tossing and turning, we realized that the wind had calmed down, so we gathered our pillows and blankets and moved back into the bedroom in an attempt to get a few hours of comfortable sleep. In the morning, all our trees remained standing, but they were all missing a few limbs.

On the drive to work this morning, a listener called in to the radio station and said, "I don't know which blows worse, the big storm or the Seahawks offense."

Around 12:30, Susan called and told me our power was back on. On my way home, I heard that over 750,000 homes were without power and the temperature was dropping into the low 30's. The few hotels, restaurants, and gas stations that had power were completely swamped, with all rooms sold out and one or two hour waits for food and gas. We were among the lucky, that's for sure.

Preparing for the Holidays

It is mid-December and we're just days away from traveling back East for the Holidays. We're flying out on the red-eye on December 19. We'll be in Ohio for one day, then it's off to Pittsburgh to catch a train to Richmond, VA. We'll be in Richmond until the 26th, then it's back to Ohio via Amtrak. Finally, we'll be flying home on the 31st.

Traveling with a two (nearly three) year old may or may not be tiresome. Andrew has done well on previous long flights and I'm hoping this will be no different. The first is a red-eye, so I expect he'll sleep through it - I wish I could say the same for myself. The second is a short hop from Detroit to Pittsburgh, so I don't expect any problems. A bigger concern is the fourteen hour train rides that follow the flights. Andrew is a train fanatic - I wonder where he got that from? We've taken him to Seattle and back twice on the Seattle Sounder; once on the special Mariner's train and once on the special Seahawk's train. Then for Thanksgiving, we rode the train to my brother's house and back. Of the six trips, he slept through only one. The other five, he had his face to the glass watching switches and 'ding-dings' (crossing gates) go by or he wandered up and down the aisle, gleefully making the sliding doors open and close. Luckily, our holiday train trip has stops in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, so we will have a chance to get off the train for a bit.

Before we go, I have a few items to take care of. Last weekend, we went to Flower World and shot some family photos for our annual holiday card. I created the card and copied it to a memory card, but I still need to make some prints and get them in the mail! Click the image below to see the Web Album.

Christmas 2006

I also need to put the finishing touches on my Summer 2006 DVD project. I completed it last weekend, but the quality was not up to my standards so I'm reworking it with an older version of my editing software. Then there's all the packing that needs to be done. How many sweaters, jeans, shirts, etc. does one need to take for 11 days? I always seem to take too much stuff. Mom says we're going tubing at Seven Springs, so we already shipped a box with our boots, coats, gloves, etc. a couple days ago. No sense carrying all that extra weight through the airports.

Weekend in Eastern Washington

Andrew walks along the curb at the Apple Tree Resort in Yakima.

Andrew and Susan look on as a hot air balloon is inflated in Prosser.

Throwing Rocks in Leavenworth

Andrew finds a nice big rock to throw into the river.

Andrew is impressed with the "big splash" the rock made.

Andrew Meets Thomas

Andrew and I enjoy our ride behind Thomas the Tank Engine

Andrew and I pose beside Thomas after the ride

Andrew and Susan pose with Thomas in the distance

Thomas Drive By

Thomas the Tank Engine is in town for two weeks. We have tickets to ride next weekend, but we went to see him today.

Chasing The Ball

Andrew chases his beach ball down the ramp

Andrew prepares to kick his beach ball up the ramp

Picnic Point County Park

Andrew proudly shows me his shovel full of sand and gravel

Andrew dumps his scoop of sand and gravel into his bucket

A Day at Hill Park

Today we went to Hill Park in Snohomish. At first, we played on the swings.

Afterwards, Andrew played in the water, with all his clothes on. As expected, he fell in and got everything wet and we did NOT have a change of clothes available.