A Day At The Beach

It has been nice to have some time off to be with each other. On Thursday we traveled to Oceanside, Oregon to spend a sunny day at the beach (see photo above, and more photos here). (We were in fact very fortunate with the day we chose. The day before and the day after were both rainy and wet at Oceanside). We had lunch and walked the beach for over 4 hours. On our adventures we found greater than 20 intact sand dollars, lots of crab parts, and numerous other shells. We even found a largely decomposed sea lion on the beach. Towards the end of the trek we passed through the middle of a large hill to reach a more private beach on the other side. Lastly, before heading home we stopped at the Cape Meares Lighthouse to see if we could spot any of the migrating whales. No such luck. However, it was a great view of the sun coming down into the horizon and a nice end to a very nice day.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

We are sorry to have missed all of you this holiday season! On the other hand it was fun to start some new things that we hope may blossom into family traditions. Some of these things are:

1. Watching "It's A Wonderful Life" on TV together as a family.
- I know it sounds corny, but there is a reason that this 60 year old movie is played every year.

2. Going for a drive or walk to admire Christmas decorations.
- One of the houses we looked at this year in our neighborhood was decorated with lighting that was choreographed to music. The only way to hear the music was to tune your car stereo to the FM station indicated on a sign in their front yard. The signal was only strong enough to hear in front of their house. A video of this house can be found here.

3. Eating a lot of junk food and staying up late.
- I'm not actually sure whether this is a new tradition or not....

Let There Be Light (And Heat)!

We had a baaaaaaaaaaddddd storm here in the Pacific Northwest last Thursday. Wind speeds of over 50mph and thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. Over 250,000 PGE (Portland General Electric) customers lost power. Our power went out a little past 5pm. We didn't get it back until Monday at approximately 11am. Those were 4 very cold nights. We pretty much stayed out of the house from morning until it was time to go home to bed. At night we would huddle around the fire, then head off to our beds and down comforters. It was a little hard to sleep with all of our snow gear on, but we managed. ; )

We contemplated going to a hotel, but kept thinking that at any time our electricity may be restored. On Friday we called our Insurance agent in the hope that our policy may have a provision for this type of thing. He kindly stated that State Farm would pay for a hotel stay for the duration of the outage and all of our meals, but that we would have to pay our $500 deductible.... Bummer.

Anyway, we survived and actually had some fun times and good memories. Did you know that adding an intact candle to the fire really lights up the room? At least for 2 or 3 minutes. Also, did you know that our iMac could survive house temperatures of less than 50'F for over 4 days? Lastly, did you know that our water heater could keep the water it had previously heated warm for over two days as long as you used it sparingly?

Lucky 13!

Lisa and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this past weekend. We managed to get out to dinner, just the two of us, in between the boys soccer and basketball games. We hope to continue the anniversary celebration this weekend by going to a concert downtown. I got Lisa a digital camera for our anniversary (even though there is nothing wrong with our film camera). ; ) It will be nice to see whether the picture looked good or not right away instead of taking 2 or 3 pictures with the film camera in the hope that one is good. So, we spent the weekend playing with it and have included a picture of each of the kids in this post. We are also planning on taking a picture of our family for Christmas cards if we can do it soon....

After a month break, the boys are back into new sport seasons: AJ is on the Beaverton High School feeder team for 7th grade boys and Nathan is playing indoor soccer. It is a lot of fun to watch them. AJ's basketball team had their first tournament this past weekend and came in fourth. He had two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday - although we skipped the morning Sunday game to attend church. We have another tournament this weekend in Hillsboro. The indoor soccer is also very fun to watch. It is a lot more fast-paced and physical than outdoor soccer. There is a lot of body checking and ramming each other against the walls and you can play the ball off of the walls so it gets harder to predict.

I Just Made A Total Elf Of Myself!

Elf Brian wants to wish all of you Happy Holidays! For those of you who did not get the elf Brian email, you can watch me in all my glory here: http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=c31038f95494d926283f800_20061208


Be careful with the negative feedback or I may just Elf you! It was the best picture I had on my laptop, but it seems to do the trick in a pinch...

B

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I will try to do better.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Mark and his family. They stayed from Wednesday to Saturday, but it still felt like a very short time. I hope all of you had your fill of Turkey, etc....

Mark and his boys joined in on the Turkey Bowl this year. It was very, very cold and very, very wet, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Austin and Michael (Mark's son) even lasted the entire game.... I will post some video clips of the fiasco on YouTube.com soon. (Check future posts).

On Friday we went to HomeTown Buffet for lunch because Thanksgiving just wasn't enough of a feast (see picture above). After that we worked/played it off in an indoor aquatic park in Southeast Portland. Lots of swimming, water slides, diving board, and hot tub action. We had a great weekend.

Now on to Christmas....

This is from last weekend at Phillips farms in Lodi.. Just after I took this picture the goat reached out and took Calins popcorn. I should have kept taking pictures but instead I tried to get it back for him. He didn't care about the popcorn.. I thought he was going to be mad (but remember not much gets Calin mad). He started picking up the pieces that fell and feed those to the goat also.





I liked this picture... Ashley and Calin had a great time climbing on this stack of hay. As you can tell the weather was awesome... The following day we went to dads and watched the Blue Angels fly over SF. We did WAY to much walking that day but the kids did great with it. I hope everyone has a great week and I'll be in touch.

Paparazzi

Yes, that is Sean Penn. This week Sean Penn, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, and Vince Vaughn were at Lisa's work filming for a movie Mr. Penn is directing. The movie is based on the real-life story of Christopher McCandless as told by Jon Krakauer in the book Into The Wild. Coincidentally, Lisa was in the process of reading this book when they showed up to film at her work. As far as I know, the beginning of the book takes place in Atlanta. Sean Penn thought that the neighborhood near her work looked like an Atlanta neighborhood in the early 90's. Now there are Christmas tree lights, etc... on the houses for the shooting of the film. For those that don't remember, Lisa works at a Presbyterian pre-school that is run out of a Presbyterian church. Mr. Penn wanted to use the chapel to film a scene. They spent about 6 hours there for what may well be a 10 second clip in the movie. In any event, they have filmed in many other places around Portland as well, so it will be interesting to watch this movie once it comes out. My question is: If Vince Vaughn is in town, then does that mean Jennifer Aniston is here too?!

Good Morning Portland!

I took these pictures this morning from my desk at work for obvious reasons. The view of St. Helen's looked really clear and you can see what may be the smoke it perpetually emits. To it's left (see the red arrow in the 7:23am picture) you can see what I think is Mt. Rainier. Rainier is in fact larger than St. Helen's, but it appears smaller in this picture because St. Helen's is so much closer to Portland. Not a bad view of downtown Portland also. In the bottom right hand corner of each picture (above the time) you can see a portion of the Willamette River.

We had a good weekend. I'm driving a Chevy Impala for the next 2 weeks or more until my car is fixed. For those who didn't know, I was backed into a week ago and it will take at least 2 weeks for my car to be repaired. Fortunately, the guy who hit me had insurance and is paying for everything.

Lastly, the Broncos play the Ravens tonight. Be sure to send some positive thoughts their way if you happen to read this before the game....

Touchdown Tunquist!

Notice anything strange about the picture above? (Hint: take a look at number 81) How many 12 year olds don't hesitate to smile even when their team threatens the penalty of death? With a smile like that, you just have to show it off! We are also pleased to announce the first ever TOUCHDOWN of Austin's football career last Saturday! He caught a pass while playing tight end and was brought down in the endzone for his first ever touchdown. The only thing better was if I was videotaping at the time. You'll just have to trust me on this one. Incidentally, I finally posted the video of the force fumble and fumble recovery by Austin during the kickoff of his first ever football game. I also posted the first goal of the new season by Nathan.

Finally, things are progressing well here in the Pacific Northwest. Lisa and the boys have re-adjusted from summer living back to work/school. We had a good visit with "Grandpa Dave" this past weekend. We kept him pretty busy with all of the boys sports, etc.... Some pictures from his visit can be found here. It was nice to have some days of good weather to get out and do some things with him. Lastly, who cares about the Chicago Bears (3-0, but playing in a weak division) when the Broncos finally look like they are rolling on a full head of steam. They will be the team to watch! ; )

Tonight Michelle and I are taking the boys on their first campout. Although it is supposed to rain, I think the boys will really like sleeping in the tent and making smores. I will post a picture of the trip as part of my next post.

Insidentially, congradulations go out to A.J.--a.k.a. the "hawk"--for putting the beat down in his football game. Also, congradulations to Nate for leading the league in scoring so far this season.

By the way, the Bears are 2-0 with the NFL's leading passer and defense. And come Sunday night, we will likely be 3-0. Looks like the Lombardi trophy is coming back to sweet home Chicago!

Football and Futbol (Soccer)

A lot of our time was involved with football and futbol this weekend. First the good news, Austin and Nate both won their first games of the season. Nate even made the first goal in the first game of his season. His team, "The Turfburners", went on to win 7-1.

On the kickoff of Austin's football game he caused a fumble, recovered it, and headed for the endzone. He was dragged down short of the endzone, but his team was able to score right away. He played starting defense and special teams. He had a forced fumble, fumble recovery, and a sack. He played wide-receiver twice, but actually prefers playing defense. I operated the scoreboard and clock. It was fun to watch from the shade of the booth. Lisa did some superb videotaping. I'll try to post some video of their games soon....

Now the bad news, our NFL team, the Broncos, suffered an embarassing loss on Sunday. Not a good way to start a Superbowl season. Losing to the RAMS!?

Hey everyone..... I just wanted to mark my spot here on this new blog page. Everything is good here in Lodi.... The kids are doing GREAT. When I have some time to learn how to put pictures up I will.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a really nice 3 day weekend. On Saturday Lisa, Nathan, and I hiked 3.8 miles and saw 4 different waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park. We even got to walk behind 2 of them. It was pretty amazing! (You can see more pictures by clicking here or by clicking the family pictures link in the links section on the left.) Austin spent all day Saturday traveling to Eugene with a friend to see the first Oregon Ducks game of the season. They beat Stanford 48 to 10. He had a great time.

On Monday we went to the beach for some surfing (Austin and I), boogie boarding (Nathan), and relaxation. The sun came out and we even got a little burned. It was a really nice day. We made it home in time to shower and go to a friends' home for a barbeque. The boys start their first day of school today and Lisa will be heading back to work. We had a really nice time this summer and I know it will be painful for them to re-adjust to school life.

Brian

Goings on in Chi-Town

Hey,

Things are good here. Spence is standing up and contemplating his first steps. Thomas has become enamored with searching for golf balls when we go for walks. He seems to find a couple each day. As for Michelle and I, we have been tied up with church stuff. Her primary program has kept her busy while I have been involved in planning the 11 year-old scout camp. We'll be glad to have both things done. That is about it for now.

Jason

Are you ready for some football?

I know it hasn't been long since my inaugural post, but I just couldn't wait to add more information. At the same time, I wanted to learn how to add pictures to the blog. This post should accomplish both. Austin (aka AJ) had football pictures last Saturday and I caught this picture with my camera phone. Not bad for 1.2 megapixels....

The temperature was in the 90's and he and his team wear all black. They look good, but are grateful for cold Gatorade. They scrimmaged 4 other area teams non-competitively - the head coaches stand behind their players on the field to give instruction and witness areas they need to improve upon - playing 4 games in 2 hours. He plays wide-receiver or tight end on offense, and outside linebacker on defense. He is number 81. His first game is the 9th. Nathan also has his first soccer game that day. I'll fill you in on the start of Nate's soccer season soon hopefully.

Brian

The Inaugural Post

Well, this is it. Finally. I set-up the blog (naming, background, fonts, etc...) weeks ago, but I am finally putting it to use. This is the inaugural post of what I hope to be a handy, rapid, and efficient "family newsletter". I've always admired those who create a monthly, quarterly, or even annual newsletter. I know we all enjoy reading them - especially when multiple relatives contribute. Now I hope to contribute information about my family on this blog, and have other family members make comments, etc.... Ideally, it would be great if every family established a blog here on blogger.com so that we can link our blogs together. That would be the best way to stay in the know. The worst-case scenario would be that this turns into my own little online journal that I write and few read. I can live with that too.

Anyway, I'm happy to kick things off with this mediocre post and welcome comments from all!

Have a great Labor Day weekend,
Brian