What M² Are Up To!

Playing House

2008-10-10T07:06:00.001-07:00

Hello all! Well, once again it's been quite awhile since we did the blog thing. Mostly because facebook has grabbed us and now we're stuck doing that all the time. It's been really great to find all sorts of friends and family and keep in constant contact with them that way. It's a little more interactive than the blog so it can be addicting. BUT never fear we still want to keep up the TeamKlein site because the photos are so much fun to share and it'll be fun to read back over down the road. -The New Zealand one sure has been!

Because the Ironman was such a huge endeavor, mostly for Mike but somewhat for me as well, we were barely able to see past it and into the rest of the summer. Once the big event was over and we made it home after some continued partying with family, we felt like we had the entire glorious summer stretching out in front of us, a clean slate! Hmm, well that lasted about a week I think when suddenly...it's mid-October. Yikes. You know how that goes!

We played and worked (well I made some work noises, but the new job I'd started for the summer, and supposedly into the fall, completely fell through and so after July I was free until school started back up again at my previous job, The Privett Academy, in the fall. Thank goodness they loved me and wanted me back!) hard all summer and fall. We got out camping over the 4th of July with friends near Cle Elem (the town we take note of, and chuckle about, because its motto is "easy through access"),

had an awesome visit from my cousin Madison from MI,

Mike summited Rainier (hey he was bored without Ironman training to do!),

watched movies outdoors at Redhook,

built an addition to the Groesch's cabin in the San Juans,

and took a lovely week-long road trip to CA and back to visit family

Atta boy! Double fisted 1st Birthday!

Wiiiiiiiiiiii

The super burrito

on the way home we got to see lots of National Parks

Half Dome at Yosemite

Hike near Lake Tahoe with Lea

Our hike in Castle Crag State Park, CA

Refreshed at a natural spring on the way back down

Crater Lake, OR --brrrrr cold that day!

School started up again in September and work continued along for Mike, and yet we have managed to stay busy and do lots of fun things this fall so far as well! And the big news is that we finally found a house! It's a great time for buyers, even if the economy is looking pretty scary. We found this cute house that suits us quite well before the most recent troubles on Wall Street, so things have gone along without a hitch. We sign Monday, will close and get the key Wed, and then move on Sat. (big thanks in advance to my mom and our friends who have volunteered to help schlepp our stuff from apartment to house! The Mac n Jacks is on us!)

Our New Digs:

The front

From the front door in through the living room

Out over our awesome deck!

In Sept, Mike climbed Three Fingers with Pete on a really lovely day and had great views!

It's a LOOOOOOng way down

And at the end of Sept we spent a weekend with our good friends Webb, Emily, and Karin and with family in Moscow pressing apple cider, picking apples, and watching Peter in his play (he makes a truly fabulous pirate as you can see),

Michael and the pirate...aarrr!

We also ventured out into the woods for a hike, drizzle and all, in truly Pacific Northwest style...sweet new raincoat and all!

This last weekend we trekked down to Portland so that Mike could give running JUST a marathon (without the crazy swimming and biking leading up to it) a try. It was a quick trip and despite the rain and lots of people, it was a blast!

Ready to get running

Finally crossing the finish

I need food and a beer!

And that's about that for the moment! We are looking forward to a mellow weekend here at home going through lots of stuff and preparing to do the real packing. I've already gotten started on the camping stuff, books, etc that we don't need day-to-day, but the real fun begins shortly! We'll try to keep you posted as the house fills up and begins to feel like a home. =+)

Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2008

2008-07-02T20:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, I am alive and am posting on our blog. It's been a while I know, but... er.. I have no real good excuse. Just plain lazy I guess. But since I am posting, how about a brief recap of what I have been doing for the last 6 months. Ok, ok, not even I want to rehash that. Meghan has done a great job of keeping people informed of my sick devotion and I will keep this to details of the week in Cd'A.

After a week of pulling little sticky notes off of the swim, bike and run course printouts pinned to my cubical wall, on June 17th I finally pulled the last note informing anyone who happened by that I would be "Off to Coeur d'Alene". I dragged Meghan out to Silver Lake for one of only a couple open water swims getting more and more comfortable in the water. That night I finalized the packing which had been progressively gathering gear to the spare bedroom that had more often than not been used as a staging ground for everything Tri for the last 6 months! Ok, who are we kidding, it's the Gear Room. Everything that could possibly be needed was hopefully stuffed into 2 duffles including cold and rain gear as my cousin Julie's experience from Wisconsin proved anything is possible on race day. With a 30% chance of rain/thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, I hoped for the best.

Wednesday morning we packed the car early leaving plenty of time to check and recheck that I indeed had both my wetsuit and bike, as I figured those would be the most difficult components to replace once in Idaho. (How little I knew and Ironman operations center!) Once convinced that my bike was on top of the car and Meghan's on back, we picked up our amazing friend Lea who joined the crazy team Vardo-Klein for the week and were off!

The excitement didn't really start in on me until I found myself picking out vehicles toting road or time trial bikes as we neared Coeur d'Alene. Having trained largely alone, and only really competed in one triathlon, it was cool to finally be amongst people who were here for the same reason I was! Our drive complete, we arrived at Meghan's brother Mike and Teresa's apartment which was to be the main staging ground for the week only a few blocks from downtown.

(Sorry for the jotted notes, a little more for me than everyone else)

Meghan's mom Katy graciously acted as chef
training ride out to the higgin's point then run
steak

Thur
morning swim - kicked out of the pool!
brief look at Ironman booths and registration tent
picked up Julie
Registration and Ironman store
Penne rustica
Royce and Linda arrive
Bike tuned
Relocated to Holly's

Fri
real training swim down and back length of bouys
wander Ironman store
Signs made
Kleins arrive
Planned out transition bags
Dinner for athletes
Erin arrives late

Sat
Morning run in full outfit
wander Ironman store
massage helped tight left calf
lunch at M&T
Checked in Bike and T1 T2 bags
Special needs bags stuffed
chilled
spaghetti dinner
thanks to all
Happy Everyone Day
Early to bed

Thunderstorm in midnight - 2AM

After 30 weeks of training, I made it to the beach at Coeur d'Alene City Park. I had no real concept of what I was about to do, but I was excited.

Ben dropped me off a few blocks away and I walked over to the transition area. It was electric being there with everyone making final preparations that morning. What a feeling. I spotted Meghan, Lea and Teresa and B-lined it to them for my body marking. Quick hug and kiss and I was off to check a couple items in my transition bags, place a beverage bottle on my bike and remove the plastic from my bike, which was nice and dry! Time was getting short and I wanted to see the Pro's off so I ducked unto the change tent and donned my jersey and wetsuit and dropped off the morning gear bag. The throng of people was getting huge, but I managed to see the Pro's start and wander over to find Royce then Julie. I gave my special needs bags to Kari and we began our march to the start. Don't know how but managed to find Dad and Erin who urged a quick good luck and we turned onto the beach with a constant high pitched chime signifying that we and everyone around us were checked in.

Julie and I managed to find a nice open spot on the beach almost in line with the buoys. It was a surreal experience as you knew the final moments were ticking away to the start. We hopped into the water for a quick jolt and the view from the water was crazy; a sprinkling of blue and pink caps atop the sea of black bodies. It was very cool to be there with Julie who made me take notice and not forget the view. We hopped back on shore and said good luck to each other and waited the final seconds looking out to the waiting boats flanking the course

Boom!

The beach all started moving at once and I immediately lost Julie. Aside from the initial jolt of adrenaline the first couple hundred meters were OK! It must have been when everyone began to converge that it got hairy. Bodies bumped all around. I felt hands on my feet. Chop from arm made me gulp water. I started to get a little freaked out. A couple bobs of breast stroke all I could see were bodies thrashing around me. I tried to calm, but it's kind of hard with people swimming up your legs. Little by little I eased into less tangled water and really started to swim. By the first turn everyone bunched up again and I was getting more used to it, but that could be because I kept drifting farther out of the main current to keep from getting swam over. I consciously decided that I had to keep in there a little bit lest I swim 3 miles rather than the 2.4, and that didn't sound appealing. I finished my first lap and was amazed that it was a great relief knowing only one more and I would be done. I scrambled up the beach hastily made my U-turn and flopped back into the water to go again. The second lap was more of the same but I was able to get my head back and swim like the pool. It was a good feeling! I even picked up the pace and passed a couple people.

Having the course a two lap swim turned out to be a great mental relief. It broke the swim up into bite size pieces that I knew I was able to do, Swim out to the end of the buoys, swim back to the mat, and then repeat and done. It still sounds like a lot, but when I was in the mode, I tried never think of the next leg. If you do that it starts to look like a mountain of a day. At any rate, I left the swim feeling great. I caught a glimpse of red Vardo-Klein fans on the steps next to the swim and heard the cheer go up once they realized it was me! It was an even greater boost.

Swim: 1:10:10

I started stripping on the way up the shore and saw the volunteers peeling off wetsuits. Looked left, then right, no one available, screw it, and started taking it off myself. Got it to my ankles and had someone finally yank off the last bit and off I went to the tent. I don't know how but I also suddenly had my transition bag in my hand. Sweet. The tent wasn't packed, but there were people everywhere. I found a spot and tried to take a moment to remember everything before scrambling out. Thank goodness there was a communal stall in the corners cause, damn, I always have to go after swimming. (Sorry, not hard core enough to swim or bike and pee at the same time...) Ran out of the tent and accepted the slathering of sunscreen. As I was leaving, Erin called out that she was the one applying sunscreen to my legs! Quick hug and I was off. I clopped awkwardly to my bike as well as one does with road bike shoes and knobby cleats sticking out. En route I heard dad call out that I had nearly missed him too! Sheesh. No time for a hug, as I had passed him already, I waved and then ran to grab my bike. Now running with a bike and clopping, I made it to the mounting line and clipped into my bike. It was like returning home! What a feeling! I think I even yelled at someone, "So much better than swimming!" and it really was.

T1: 0:06:53

I felt great on the bike. Downtown Coeur d'Alene passed by quickly and I turned onto Coeur d'Alene Lake drive before I knew it. Looking down at my cyclometer to read 28 mph surprised me. I felt good but tried to reign in my excitement as I had a long way to go yet. The one big hill out near Higgin's Point was the first place I was able to see other people climbing and gage myself next to them. It was left side of the lane the whole way up (On your left, quickly became simply "LEFT!"). I will just take this moment to point out that people with tricked out aero-bikes with fancy tear-drop shaped helmets and super-expensive wheels are the sweetest people to pass. Sure a lot passed me, but that was to be expected. The other way around was just Sweeet.

Quick turn around and I was on my way to having a nice dry suit. If only I could get my heart rate monitor to register a pulse. I was barely reading 100 bpm if at all (too dry! or something...). I tried to stop fiddling with it and get my head into pedaling.

The volunteers were simply great! With little access to the bike route out next to the lake, only a handful of people were out to cheer us along and the aid station staffers filled in mightily. When they weren't trying to hand off a drink or gel pack they were cheering wildly.

A quick dash back through downtown, a mass of crowds screaming and clanging cowbells, a hairpin turn and I was out into the real meat of the course. The flats leading up to Hayden, I was able to work past a few more people and only a few worked past me (yeah they had tricked out bikes).

Hayden was the beginning the real hills and started out with a nice shot pitch up through the neighborhood near the golf course. I heard someone ask if the first hill was one of the more vicious on the course. I tried to break it to them nicely.. "Not at all".

Lakeview has a couple great shots of Hayden lake, but the really remarkable ones were off English Point Rd. You ride above the glass smooth lake framed with mountains covered by thick pine. The day was simply gorgeous and the morning crisp. I was so thankful for the weather.

Having ridden and driven the course, I was waiting for the hard hairpin turn on Lakeview and the climb up to the English point. At this point we are still in neighborhoods and it seemed like everyone that could be out was out watching and cheering us on. Still high on being on out on the bike I would thank people and was able to read the occasional sign. Of particular note was one held by a guy casually sitting on the edge of the road on the hill up to English Point rd: "Don't Suck" was all it said. I laughed the whole way up. It was great!

One more downhill leading to a hard hairpin and we would drop down to the lake. I checked people in my immediate vicinity going into the hill so I would be aware of my spacing if I needed to brake. I had a guy up to my left and a couple farther back. I felt comfortable and road into the curve. The road had a nice 3 ft wide patch of newer asphalt on the inside of the curve. I drifted out to avoid the seam an noticed the guy ahead of me take the sharper inside track. He must have hit the brakes hard as he realized he couldn't hold this line on the curve. His brakes chattered, I barely caught a fishtail, and he flopped down hard on his left side skidding off onto side road where finally came to rest.

I was braking hard once I heard the chattering and cringed at the impact. The mental decision took only a moment. I had to stop as my race time wasn't really going to matter in the long run. Another biker also stopped and we called out a chorus of "Are you OK's". Literally a whimper was the response. The other stopped biker stayed at the crash and I road back up to the neighborhood to find someone. Why wasn't this corner staffed like the last?! I puffed up the hill I had just ridden down (ARG!) while warning bikers to Watch the Corner! I screamed at the first person I saw to call the medics and get down to the corner and then turned to head back down. By the time I returned a car had stopped and the victim had moved to a sitting position. I heard 911 had been called and decided that I wasn't going to be of any more use and funneled back into the flow of bikers. Never heard anything more the injury.

A little shaken, it took me a little bit to settle back into riding again. English point curved along the lake over some incredibly expensive houses and finally turned north for a mile of hill climbing. Dropping into a lower gear and increasing the cadence I started passing people on the hill again. Some people worked hard and other simply chatted on their way up. Nearing the top I noticed the familiar Vardo-Klein shirts and pedalled harder. Mike Beard was the first of a long line of exuberant fans. Even though I was right next to them before they noticed me, I was still grateful for the familiar voices and cheers of doing great. It was definitely one of the harder climbs, but it was muted. The best way to make it up a hard climb is having people up there cheering you the last little bit.

The hills started rolling at this point and each one took just a little more off what was once a fountain of energy. I tried to stay evenly paced and not race up any hills. We passed one more aid station. At this point I had been trying to take down 2 Gu packs and a Powerbar in an hour. I grabbed another pack and a Gatorade as my Powerbar drink was nearly gone. It was hard to remember exactly when I took what but I tried to keep enough food and drink to last to the next aid station 10 miles.

A few more miles and I ticked off the final outbound turnaround on Ohio Match and started my way back in. The roads frustratingly zigged and zagged to gain mileage before finally passing Hayden. Once on flatter roads the dreaded nemesis of biking showed and began to blow directly against any forward progress. The ride back into Couer d'Alene was a struggle and I concentrated on my riding and trying not to worry about anyone around me nor the fact that I really had to pee again! (thankfully the course is stocked with porta-potties).

I picked up my special needs bag grabbing the Gu and Powerbars while ignoring the once thought appetizing PBJ sandwich. Oh, and Fig Newtons are like eating a handful of Saltines; not the best idea. The second lap was oddly similar to the first with the exception that I was not nearly as able to talk to bystanders. I kept a decent pace. Unfortunately it wasn't the reverse split that I had wanted. The second time by the corner on English Point showed a marked improvement with full support should anyone careen off again. Even more welcome than the first pass was the sight of the Vardo-Klein cheer squad atop English Point. Some tired high-fives and encouragement and I was left to battle the remaining miles into T2. I began to think about having to run after biking and was worried a little at my my tired state. I was grateful to see Royce and Lori, one last pack of cheer squad, when riding down Garwood. The last 20 miles were again into the wind but at least it was the last time. Coasting into the finisher lane was a relief.

Bike: 5:38:50

I hopped off my bike handed it off, was handed my bike-to -run transition bag and made my way to the transition tent. Legs felt a little rubbery but would have to see once I started running. The changing tent was pretty empty. I took my time enjoying being off the bike for a few moments and had a couple volunteers ask if I needed help. Just taking my time... Shoes on jersey packed with Gu and Powerbars, I finally handed over my transition bag with my bike gear and started out of the tent, only to remember that I hadn't taken off my biking gloves. An extra bag 281 later (since the T2 bag had already been pitched into the pile) and Now I was ready.

T2: 0:04:14

To my surprise, running felt pretty good, considering. The start of the run heads west along the lake through the park which was completely lined with spectators. It was pretty cool. I was almost excited to get out and run. At least when I didn't think about how much longer I had. I didn't see any Vardo-Klein spectators to send me off, but knew they had to be out on the course bringing Julie in. I took a few miles to get into a stride, and eventually found a person that I forced myself to latch onto. It was quite a challenge at times, but it was about the pace that I wanted to run and seemed close to what I trained at, mind you not having swam and biked for the prior 7 hours. We traded places for a while and once I got out to the end of Coeur d'Alene Lake Dr. I was getting tired. I convinced myself that I wouldn't stop until the half way. Oh the little voice was getting to me. I managed to keep pace until the special needs station and had to make a pit stop. No one needs shifting tatoos (if you don't know what I am talking about, trust me, you don't want to know!).

I took my time at the aid station and it was the only one I walked the entirly through. Getting going again was not the most fun prospect. It is so much easier to keep running rather than have to start up again. After finally lurching into a trot, jog, then finally "run" I was off. I tried a number of times to start pacing again, but couldn't hold onto anyone anymore. Could be that they were first lapers or I was simply tired! Aid stations were my friends and I could focus on getting to the next one a mile away where I might be able to choke on some water or coke, chomp a powerbar and nearly hurl at the prospect of any other food. Again it was easier to just keep running.

The most emotional moment of the whole day was finally seeing the cheer squad on the second lap heading out of town. It was a huge boost and I nearly lost it when meghan ran with me for a while cheering me on and telling me she loved me! It was a great feeling to have such support. I don't know what it would have been like without such great people keeping me going.

Coming up to the last hill and turn around on Coeur d'Alene Lake I finally saw a familiar face on the course that I was hoping that I wouldn't miss when we passed... Julie! She was on her way down and I up. She saw me first and got out coherent chear of encouragement and then we passed. I on the other hand couldn't formulate my own name much less a logical chear, "Way, to.. keep ru.. Go Julie..." Which is still probably much more than reality... After making up the hill and proclaming that I never wanted to nor would I see these gate keepers again, I was off to catch Julie. Having about five minutes to formulate a suitable cheer, I pulled up alongside Julie for a moment and wished her well.

The last few miles I couldn't even consider any sort of solid food and attempted the Ironman's version of Crack... Coca Cola. I also doused the head at every chance with the plentiful cold water sponges held out for runners to cool down. I passed Lori while turning off CdA Lake Dr. and was pumped to whittle the miles off one by one though they now took an eternity even though I tried to really kick. I didn't know exactly what the time was, but I knew I was much faster than my 12 hour estimate and very close to finishing around 11! I tried to give er all she's got! The best moment of the run was hearing the words directing 2nd lapers to the left and 1st lapers to the right. I was outta here! I found myself turning onto Sherman Ave with the street lined with people. The next person was a couple hundred yards away and too far to try to catch and a glance behind me told me that I didn't have to worry about anyone catching me. Thank goodness! The last few blocks were so cool. I could hardly believe that I was finally finishing such a long day. I found cheerers in the bleachers and was elated to cross the finish line.

Run: 4:07:23

Total Time: 11:07:30

What a rush. I helped off the line by some finsh line catchers and soon found Meghan. I was tired and sore, but at least I was still under my own power! I was soon guided to the rest of Vardo-Klein clan where many a picture was taken and hug was delivered. Such a great time.... Now!

We slowly made our way a block north to watch Julie finish her first lap while I began rehashing the day. A brief trip back to Mike and T's race central for a shower and back out we watched Julie cross the finish line beating her goal of 14 hrs!

2 Ironman ready for a nap andsome much needed beer (tomorrow). What a great day. I couldn't have done it without all the support from Family (near AND far!) and friends. I thank everyone who offered encouragement, aid, and advice along the whole journey training and racing.

Thank you Thank you Thank you all!

Whew! 14 days and counting

2008-06-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well good grief. I suggested I'd blog more than the norm in my last blog and mentioned the idea of counting down to the Ironman. heh. right.

Here it is exactly 2 weeks til the big day and it's the first time we've blogged since 16 WEEKS. Ah well. Things are going really well. Mike has been training like a fiend, and well he should. The peak phase ended last weekend so this weekend he's had a bit more free time...he's making us a delicious lasagna dinner as I write this, can't wait. The peak phase of training was very intense and time intensive but he flew through it with flying colors. I am continually impressed with this guy! He is like an energizer bunny (but eats a WHOLE lot more!) I'd have croaked miles and months ago! Can't wait to see him strut his stuff in the real race. And then after the race, he'll be able to work out again for FUN instead of under pressure and with a continual countdown in his head!

I've had lots of me time and time for hanging out with the girls, especially the recent opening of Sex and the City -the movie. I was introduced to the show only last summer by a buddy of mine and am eternally grateful. The friendships and topics in the show speak to just about every girl out there and I'm so lucky to have great girlfriends! A few of us got together and ate lots of chocolate, drank a few cosmos, and watched the old episodes in preparation for the movie early the next morning. It was a hoot. It's been a long time since I've had a sleepover with girlfriends and it was great. Mike was a very good sport and ran off immediately to hang out with his guy friends and watch movies I have NO interest in. How handy. =+)

In other news...the school year ends this Friday, June 13th! I'm going to take a little time off for the Ironman and all the visiting of family that will entail and then I'm going to be starting a new teaching job in Bellevue. Privett was very good to me but I'm ready to get off "the island" (Mercer Island that is) and try a new school. Besides many of the coolest teachers at Privett are also leaving and it just wouldn't be the same! I have had a great year and met some great people, especially Lea, a true bosom buddy, without the Privett job I never would have met so I'm very glad I had the opportunity to work there. EA2 is a school very similar to Dartmoor in philosophy and I hope they will be able to give me lots of students especially Spanish students in the fall. A few other ex-Dartmoor people have also migrated toward EA2 and I've heard great things.

We've had great times hiking and snowshoeing this spring. One day Mike, Anne, and I went up to Snoqualamie and tried out a bunch of snowshoes at a demo day. Then a few months later, Mike surprised me with THE coolest pair we saw up there, a pair of MSR kick-ass snowshoes. We immediately went snowshoeing on a glorious 70 degree day! I can't wait for next winter to do more!

It is slowly becoming hiking season. Lots of places are still buried in snow but we've found some good hikes with and without snow to get us in the mood for summer. Heather Lake and Wallace Falls especially. -And of course with Fred's for waffle fries and beer afterwards. As Leigh likes to say "when you go hiking with the Kleins, you for sure get beer and fries after!" We aim to please.

Another fun event was a quick trip to Boise in April. Mike decided to run the Race to Robie Creek this year and so I got to tag along and visit lots of friends and family! Our newest nephew, Kalob was only a month old when we got to visit and meet him for the first time, what a doll! I was also able to grab some girl time with Karin and Brandi while Mike trained! Jeff volunteered to be his support vehicle and chased Mike all over the place as he swam, and rode the equivalent of a half-Ironman before completing the half marathon over the foothills with a whole bunch of crazies in kilts (Race to Robie!). It was a great weekend, though as usual too short. We can never get enough of family, but it was fun to leave early Monday morning, and so get to spend "Sunday dinner" at the Kleins -a long time tradition we miss sorely being so far away in Seattle.

The very next weekend a buddy of Mike's from grad school had a wedding reception in northern Idaho. I rode along and while he was training and going to the reception I was able to visit with my LONG time buddies Sarah and Katie. It was really great to see the Seidels and to hang out with Jacob, who is getting SO big, and Katie was able to come over for a day of softball and pizza. I have been friends with these girls for 20 years and I love them so much!!! Mind boggling how time has flown=+).

And here we are, early June, a stone's throw from the Ironman that has been off in the distance for months and is now IMMINENT! Can't wait. Lots of family and friends are going to be congregating in Cd'A and we'll all be wearing bright red tee-shirts to support Mike and Julie as they become Ironmen (or repeat this amazing feat!!!). Lea, Teresa, and I are going to be up EARLY (4:30 am) to volunteer as 'bodymarkers' and have tons of fun! The whole thing is going to be soooo much fun. Anywho...until afterwards...that's our story.

~16 weeks to go!

2008-02-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

That's it. From now til June 22 all blogs will be labeled by how much time is left til the big day. IRONMAN! Goodness. The newest phase is the build phase so the intensity and the duration have increased on Mike. Sounds like Julie is increasing too, especially swimming. As for me? Well, I'm just going along and enjoying the fact that I don't HAVE to go out in the weather and run, but I can when I want to. Speaking of weather, we've been having some absolutely glorious weather for the past couple weeks. Blue skies and sunshine. It's perfect for chasing away those early spring grumps that come with gray skies and the fact that it's not quite being time for baby leaves and flowering bushes. It's just around the corner now though with all of the happy sunlight.

Oh what's been happening lately? Well over the past month and a half we've taken it easy around Seattle lots more than the previous months and it's been great! We have done some exploring and spent time with friends. One weekend Mike and I headed over to Port Townsend and took a 6 mile (out and back) walk on the beach to search for sand glass. Once out to the actual locale, we found tons of gorgeous blue, green, white, and brown glass. I even found 4 pieces of red, which was very exciting for my beachcomber soul! We also saw 3 majestic bald eagles and a couple of sweet, silly otters. Sadly while I found lots of treasures, we lost Mike's footpod that he runs with, so all told it wasn't the cheapest of "free" activities we could have done. =+) Se la vi.

Treasure!

Over MLK Jr. Weekend we drove over to Walla Walla, Wa to help surprise a good friend Anne Dwelle on her 60th birthday. We met up with all of the self-titled "codgers" (my parents, the Dwelles, Dawes, and Sities) from Boise and the Boise crew, Janna, Brian, Karin, and Scott.

Surprise!

Moms and Daughters

It was a rousing success and Anne cried...multiple times...as this whole thing was a rolling surprise and we kept springing people on her until we had to stop and give her wine instead to calm her heart. Wine tasting, good food, and great company rounded out the weekend. It was WELL worth all the driving to be able to be a part of the festivities! Well planned Bob and Dad!

Besides all of his Ironman training, Mike has been able to do other fun things too. He went to Vantage with some friends to try out ice climbing -gulp! and loved it! I'm not 100% sure of all that's involved but the photos are nice, and it sounds a little scary. I went to Woodinville with a friend (her husband was with Mike) and we went wine tasting. Rather clever, I know.

Go Guy in Blue!

We also played in the snow a little north of our place and did some snowshoeing with friends another weekend. It was great fun and we laughed a lot over the 4 hours we were out there. By the time we got back to the car we were ready to get warm, dry, and fed so we headed home to make a bunch of pizzas and brownies. Good times!

Earlier in Feb. Lea invited Mike and I to a presentation given by her alma mater Smith. We went as her guests and listened to a really cool talk about "terrior" and how geology affects the growing of grapes for wine! This speaker was a professor of geology at Smith but also has the coolest ever job of "researching" this terroir business which entails traveling around to all sorts of vineyards...WA, CA, Italy, France..... and after digging holes to look at soil, rocks, etc OF COURSE tasting all the wines to see what difference it all makes. LUCKY! It was a fascinating topic and then we all got to do a blind taste test of three white wines and three reds. Apparently I have rather expensive taste in chardonnay, but sadly inexpensive taste in Cabernet Sauvignon. heh heh.

For President's Day weekend, Mike and I got outta dodge and headed to Cannon Beach, OR. Mike took both Friday and Monday off, which was lots of fun!! It'd been awhile since I'd last been there and we had a great time walking the town, watching the glass blowers, wandering the beach, searching for food options and a place to stay, watching the sunset from Ecola Point and hiking in the state park. It was a lovely weekend and we enjoyed playing tourist just the two of us. On the way home we were able to stop and see Uncle Mike and Robin in Olympia for dinner. They were nice enough to share their vat o' sketti with us and it was delicious. It had been too long and it was great to catch up! We came back a day early and spent our free Monday playing in the sunshine around home.

Just gorgeous!

This past weekend my mom came to hang out with us while my dad was in Atlanta for work. While we missed Dad, we were happy to Mom-sit and we got to hang out with Em and Webb too. We went to the book store and Asian market, wandered a bit at Discovery Park, watched movies, cooked good food, and had a great time. When are the rest of you coming to visit?? =+)

Work for both of us is going along, going along. I'm enjoying my students and things are going smoothly. I suddenly have a BUNCH of Spanish II students all in the same chapter so I sometimes feel like I'm a broken record, as I'm sure normal teachers often do! It's been fun though and BOY do I know that material. Whew. Mike seems to be doing well at Boeing although still itching to do something at a smaller company sooner or later. The plane is still selling like mad and happily the landing gear isn't the major hold up, though there's still PLENTY to do.

March is shaping up to be a fun and busy month I think. Can hardly believe that February is over tomorrow. Happy Leap Day! Oh and happy 1st birthday to A.J. Seidel! We love you kiddo.

2008 Off to a great start

2008-01-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008 everyone! Vacation from school and work was fabulous! We played around home for the first part and then headed to family in Moscow. I got out X-country skiing with Ashley the first day of break and the snow sure got the Christmas mood flowing.

Cheese!

Mike and I stayed in for Christmas just the two of us this year. We usually spend our holidays traveling from place to place, and we still love that, but we were ready for a break. We had delicious fruit crepes for breakfast and then headed "up" to find snow. It did actually snow at the apartment on Christmas day, but not enough to play in... We then had a friend over for a gourmet dinner and called it a great holiday.

A Christmas snow angel

After we arrived in Moscow, the Beard clan celebrated Christmas all together, just a little delayed. Us kids headed out to go sledding in the afternoon and managed to get in a few good runs before the light died and we were ready for turkey dinner.

Christmas morning in Moscow

A silly place to nap

So far January has been great to us! We rang in the new year in Moscow and helped my parents celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary! Bunches of good friends came by to eat yummy appetizers and to clink glasses of champagne at midnight. Mike and I were able to spend nearly a week in Moscow/Coeur d'Alene visiting, it was lots of fun. The weather was really snowy so we didn't get to see Mike's parents from Boise, who were going to drive up for the party, which was the only bummer!

The whole family

There was tons of snow and we got out sledding, running, snow shoeing, and shoveled lots of stairs! Sam was hilarious chasing snowballs on Moscow Mountain in snow about as deep as his legs are long. He ran and ran and ran and ran until he was pooped, but would have run more had we not dragged him home! (Mike also enjoyed diving into the snow=+)

Pounce!

Yaaahoo!

We also got to spend some time in C d'A at my brother Mike and T's apartment. We hadn't seen it before so it was nice to get to visit. We watched part of the Brown's game and just hung out. Mike took the opportunity to run down to "ground zero" for the Ironman cuz Mike and T live really close to the route. (wow, can you follow the Mike's in this section?) Peter came up to join us too, braving the nasty, windswept roads to get there after his play rehearsal. He had to shave his head for his upcoming play and he said it was weird cuz his head was cold! Tee hee. Before heading back to Moscow we were able to squeeze in a quick breakfast visit with Sarah, Ryan, and Jacob -who is growing like a weed and absolutely adorable!

After New Year's Day we had to head back to Seattle and the whole work thing. It was hard to go back that Thursday, but it was nice to have only a short, 2-day week to help us work back into the groove of things. The past couple of weeks have been mellow and lovely. We saw Charlie Wilson's War (Tom Hanks is so great!), went out to happy hour with friends, trained for the Ironman (or worked off that holiday food!), watched videos, bought fancy new running shoes, started new photo album projects, etc. We love the Seattle area and hanging with all of our friends here!

Two weekends ago we had our 2nd annual seafood fest with the Girards in Renton. (5 lbs of fresh mussels and 3 whole fresh crabs!) Man, we gotta keep this tradition alive and well, yum! Great friends, food, and beverage, what more can you ask for?

This last weekend we got up to the mountains and went snowshoeing with our friend Anne. It was a hoot! Mike found a demo days thing so we could try out different snowshoes for free all day long. It was snowing and beautiful, if a little wet, and we hiked on some trails in TONS of snow. Shortly into the hike, however, we were inspired to build a snowfort and just goof around in the snow. Man it was soooo cool. (literally!)

Snow Angels!

Come on in, it's fine!

Eeek! I had to sit on the bump and ended up in Anne's lap!

Sadly while we were out enjoying the weather, the Seahawks were losing to Green Bay in another blizzard, but what can ya do? Maybe next year? (But they'll have to watch out for those Brownies!)

So that's us in a nutshell for the start of '08. So far so good, on the resolution to blog more often...we'll see if we can keep it up. =+)

Merry Christmas and Happy 2007 Holidays to all!

2007-12-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

Typical of our blog these days it's been AWHILE since anything new has been put up. Tsk. But it's fall and beautiful for hikes, or the holidays and busy with friends and family, or a million reasons!

Our fall was fabulous. We made a trip to Moscow with Webb and Emily for our annual cider making fiesta. The four of us, my parents, and Peter worked together to make crazy amounts of cider in record time. I think the total was somewhere around 29 gallons! Yum. Webb and Emily took two big carboys home for the hard cider experiment 2007. Last year's just wasn't as he'd expected and Webb has become a master brewer so he's enjoying the challenge of figuring out what should be done with this batch.

Geez, have some cider!

For Halloween, we once again headed to Renton to the fabulous Woodside party. We had a great time carving pumpkins, and having delicious Korean soup made by Kim, on Friday before Halloween and then the next night we dressed up and Leigh came along to celebrate with apple cider drinks and LOTS of food. We all created our costumes at the last minute on Sat afternoon, and I must say, we did pretty well! I found fake ears that I HAD to use so I became an elf for the night, while Leigh had some horns and borrowed a devil tail I had from years ago and was a she-devil. I found a lovely (broken) tiara for Emily and she was a princess -happily getting another wear out of the bridesmaid dress from our wedding! And Mike (creative as usual) was a hit-and-run bike victim. You can see he enjoyed using the fake blood and some gravel for a creepily real effect! Webb didn't dress up but since he provided the excellent beer for the evening we forgive him. =+)

All decked out

November 4th is my dad's birthday and this year we were able to all get together in Seattle and celebrate in style. He and my mom went to Vancouver on Friday night and got to chill with Batdorf and Rodney again (a group my dad has listened to since high school!) and then came up to Seattle. Mom and I ran off to browse some Christmas stores in the area and Peter flew in from Moscow. Mike picked him up and they just HAD to try some Lil Mahis at a great little place we know. (a lil mahi is a mini mahi-mahi sandwich with tasty sauce and cabbage, YUM) and have a beer since Peter finally turned 21 on October 11 and we can all go out together now, hooray! That night we celebrated with dinner at Anthony's, a real treat, and in the morning my brother Mike and Teresa drove over to join us for Dad's actual birthday.

That Sunday, the 4th, was also the day that the Seattle Seahawks played the Cleveland Browns. Now we don't get to see the Browns play very often, and certainly not against our second favorite team, nor do we get to be the minority when cheering with good friends who are rooting against us, so it was quite the event. I contrived to import some fellow Brown's fans (my family) and we all went to Renton to party with the Girards (and the people they convinced to also come over and buff up their fan base=+) It was a hoot! Everyone was rowdy and fun and wearing their respective team colors...even Mike since, as an honorary Beard that day, he had to be an honorary Browns fan too, even if just to make us feel better. (normally he doesn't care about any team!) Guess what? The Browns won...in overtime, it was awesome! Everyone who had to drive so far for the festivities went home satisfied.

~Seriously intense~

Peter and Teresa -pose!

Less than serious!

Brown/Orange v. Blue/Green

A couple weeks after that Mike and I got to take a quick trip to visit my great aunt and uncle in Michigan with my parents. It was fabulous to see everyone and to have the opportunity to show Mike the woods where my grandparents used to live and where we used to play and explore as kids. My uncle John and cousin Madison made it up for a brief visit while we were all there too so it was wonderful to get to see everyone. After traveling for 20 hours or so we arrived just in time to trek out to a fallen tree and spend the afternoon chopping it up for firewood. Doesn't sound ideal, but it was WAY fun and we wore camo and hunting hats since we didn't want to ruin our clothes. Sweet!
Hard at work.

A family shot.

After a long trip home and lost luggage we had to jump right back into the work week and, of course, that was the week my schedule filled to bursting and I got a bunch of new students. I was toast by the end of the week. Since then I've definitely been keeping busy with work -teaching every period plus a class after school. Time flew by and suddenly Thanksgiving was upon us. We were lucky enough to get to return to Fresno, for the second Thanksgiving in a row, and visit with Mike's family there. It was great to see the kids, Lexi is growing up the fastest since she's baby, and also get to check out Erin and Barb's new office. I got to see it under construction and it looks MUCH better all decked out, complete with patients!

A Couple of chefs

Sudoku training

Love the dimple!

Handy carrying outfit

It's 11/25 Santa, we're ready!

We missed seeing Winfield and Tracey this year with the little one but we got to talk to them and they are doing well! Baby Peter is growing like a weed and they sent us some adorable photos to enjoy.

About 4 months old with Mom

Since Thanksgiving we've be enjoying the holiday time of year and getting ready for Christmas. We set out for Moscow to see Peter in his big production at the U of I. He played Lysander in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and he was absolutely fantastic. Yes I am biased, but even without that inherent bias, he rocked! The whole production did and it was well worth the drive over the mountains (and back through snow!)

Last week was a crazy one for the Seattle area! After a bunch of snow we warmed up and got more rain than the drainage ditches, holding ponds, and rivers could handle. Monday I was luckily not needed at work so I was able to stay warm and dry at home. Unfortunately, many in Western Washington weren't! Flooding was rampant and really caused havoc for people in Chehalis, Centralia, Woodinville, Bothell.... A real bummer and it made traffic wretched since so many roads were under water or washed away. Whew, quite the excitement with the weather!

This past weekend we just hung out, I went to book club, Mike went hiking, we made cookies, played Scrabble, that sort of thing. It was lovely to stick around and see friends from Seattle! (Odd concept I know.) This weekend is happily more of the same and we are going to spend Sunday concocting our Christmas gifts! I call it being "elfy" and I can't wait. Tis the season! We hope everyone is having a wonderful December and looking forward to a fabulous Christmas and New Year's with family and friends. We will talk to many of you over the holidays and are thinking of the rest of you warmly!

Fall is here!

2007-09-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, the thought of trying to catch up from our last blog is just overwhelming. I'm not even sure I can remember everything we did over the past couple months. Summer is usually pretty full for us and this year was no different. I'm still reeling from learning that it's mid-September already. Where did the summer go? And where was the hot weather? I'm still waiting. Although from all I've heard from those of you who did experience the hot weather this year, maybe we didn't miss out on anything afterall. We did have sunshine but cool temps that allowed us to enjoy the mountains and hiking without all the sweat-all in all a pretty sweet deal. Now we are beginning to see the trees turn red and gold and the pumpkins are appearing at the grocery stores. I love fall!

Last time we blogged, Mike wrote about his new bike. He has really enjoyed riding it all around this summer, racking up the miles! He is now starting to get his head around the fact that he signed on to this crazy Ironman idea. He just bought a really fun heart rate monitor/altimeter/computer program for tracking his workouts/watch/gizmo of many uses! He has been loading his stats onto the computer and planning his attack on the training needed for June. He also just found a snazzy wetsuit so he's decided he wants to try out the lake near our place...brrr! Whatever floats your boat dear.

The weekend Mike summitted Mt. Baker earlier in the summer, I got to use my birthday gift from him to fly down to California for a long weekend with the girls. I flew to Fresno to visit the Duekers where I got to meet our newest niece for the first time. Alexis (Lexi) Michele Dueker was born May 9th, 2007. She is beautiful and, quite possibly, the best baby I've ever met!

Little Lexi Dueker

After a couple days of hanging out with the family and playing with the kids, Erin, Barb, Lexi, and I drove up to Santa Rosa to go to Tracey's baby shower. Tracey didn't know I was coming, so it was a little suprise. The shower was lovely and it was great to see everyone.

The girls

August 3rd, 2007, Tracey and Winfield welcomed our newest nephew Peter Philip Klein into the family! Being an aunt (and I'll speak for Mike and say uncle) is fabulous and we are anxiously awaiting the time this fall when we can get to CA again to meet little Peter! He's already 6 weeks old and smiling, according to his Mama. :o)

After Mike spent all day one Thursday riding his bike up Mt. Rainier!!! we packed up and flew to visit his dad and stepmom in Boise for a mini-reunion and more family time. Erin, Lance, and the kids drove up from Fresno and Granty Linda flew in from Iowa to spend time cooking, having waterfights, eating, going to the pool, eating, having art day, eating, getting our hair done, eating...and all sorts of fun things. We also got more good aunty/uncle news! Mike's sister Melinda is due with her first in March! Babies, babies everywhere!

The hair guru at work

"Art day"...for the kids

"Aarghhh, Uncle Mike!!"

At the beginning of August we drove home to Moscow so I could check out my 10 year high school reunion! It was great to see my friends and visiting with some of the people I haven't seen for a long while was interesting! People haven't really changed all that much, it's amazing. When we came back from Moscow we brought back with us my old roommate Leigh, to be our short-time roomy once again. We are very excited that Leigh decided move to the Seattle area and that she stayed with us for a few weeks while she found a job and an apartment. Since she moved in, I have been introduced (and none too soon, I must say) to the wonderful world of Sex and the City. I'd never seen any of the show and now am hooked all the way. Leigh has the whole series on DVD and we've been watching them in bits and pieces. I'm nearly at the last disc and will be sad when the show is over!

We got to squeeze in a camping trip with our friends Dan and Anne in August too, which was a great get-away with good friends! We mainly just car camped due to an injured member of our party, but we have a sweet backpacking trip scoped and planned for next summer thanks to a quick hike we took near our campsite. Anne and I drank lots of wine and ate as many s'mores as we could hold. In our inebriated state we managed to discover the way to make the best s'mores ever! You must all come camping with us some time soon and I'll tell you the secret.

Field Guac

We only had one wedding this summer that we were able to go to and that was over Labor Day weekend in Leavenworth, WA. Our friends Lisa and Chris graciously let us help out with their wedding and partake of all of the fun activities through the weekend. We stayed at the Mountain Home Lodge about 10 minutes uphill from Leavenworth with spectacular views and wonderful rooms and breakfasts! The guys ran off to go rock climbing multiple times over the weekend, yes groom included, while the girls got pedicures, hairstyles, and plenty of time to visit. The wedding was beautiful and went smoothly all around.

Mr. and Mrs. Sampson

Another happy couple

The biggest of my news for the summer is that I left Dartmoor School. Many people look at me with open mouths at this fact as I had always gushed about how much I loved my job, and it was true...until about mid-July -the 16th to be specific. At the beginning of July our beloved Campus Manager Lisa resigned and found a new, happier place to work and we were very bummed, but until the "new regime" took over, it wasn't the end of good things at Dartmoor. The new manager, aka the you-know-what, did not go over well, needless to say. Things changed so drastically that after only three weeks of sticking it out, I resigned. I woke up every morning with a stomachache, dreading facing this woman and being picked at over everything and felt life was too short for such things...especially for what they were paying me. Hah! So with Mike's full support, and that of all of my other co-workers I might add, I left to find a new place to work. The unemployed part of the summer wasn't the best, and it was stressfull as job searching is wont to be, but I perservered and have found another, better paying, teaching job where no one yells at me! Glorious.

I now work for The Privett Academy on Mercer Island. Yes, it's even further away from home but not by much so I'm at least familiar with the traffic I must face each day. It's a great school that works primarily with Mercer Island High School students so I get to work with high schoolers (my top choice for age group) and I'm teaching primarily Spanish (my top choice of subjects)- how can ya beat it?? And although I dearly miss my friends and students from Dartmoor, I'm enjoying the new challenges, people, and experiences at my new job already. I made some fabulous, fabulous friends at Dartmoor, and found a passion for teaching that will last me forever and for that, I'll always be greatful that I worked there. Besides I've stayed in touch with my friends at Dartmoor, those who are still working there -and those who have also left to find happiness elsewhere, and they know I love them!

And here we are, deep into September already, time sure flies when you're having fun! In a few weeks it'll be time to pick apples and make cider again, amazing, it seems like it was just here.

Holy Freakin' CRAP!

2007-07-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know what I did right, but I hope I do it again... Monday the 2nd I was dumbfounded to find a surprise awaiting me at home. Meghan has been plotting for the last few months to enable my addicting habits. No intervention needed, yet, but my sore butt may call for one because I won't be able to stay off of it. Behold! The newest member of Team Klein.

Trek Madone 5.2 SL!

My reaction - Sweeeeeeeet!

Oh and by the way, my butt really will be hurting. For all of those of you who don't know how completely insane I really am, hopefully you will join in the party to celebrate. My awesome cousin, Julie and I will be in Coeur d'Alene next June 22nd.

http://www.ironmancda.com

Mt. Baker

2007-07-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

So it's finally raining in Seattle. Yes, I know it is supposed to always do that, but I tell you it's generally a lie in the summer. If it's any indication, I think we have every weekend planned out for the next 3 years. Be that as it may, the brief lull before the sun comes out again has given me the opportunity to FINALLY jot a few things down. I can't start back at the beginning of the year, but I will try to recap July. Then who knows!

The weekend right before the 4th of July I had it all planned out. Mt. Rainier, Fuhrer Finger and two days of climbing should finally bag the summit that eluded me last year at about 12,000ft. Alas it was not meant to be again seeing as my climbing partners pealed off and I was left with the desire, but not the means. BLAST!

Alternative plan B!

Called up my buddie, Pete (who would said he would climb anything BUT Rainier since he already knows the pain and is smarter than myself), and told him he was climbing this weekend. The new target Mt Baker. After the usual knee jerk reaction to why on earth would we subject ourselves to the inevitable sunburn, full body aches, and mistaken notion that somewhere below the blister was indeed a foot, he caved. Deep down we both had unfinished business from last years failed attempt on Baker.

Needless to say we FINALLY made it. The only items of note, besides the aforementioned pains, would have to be (1) a word to the wise...

When stopping to removc insulating clothin that is no longer needed for the blasting wind on top of the mountain, DO NOT put your helmet on the glacier business side down. For if you do, you will either have the glacier swallow it whole, or you will get to trek down the glacier to find it in a snow boulder field because the climbing gods smiled on you and your beer logo-clad helmet.

... and (2) volcanoes stink, but the view is great!

High Camp on the Coleman Glacier

Just how far is it to the top?

Summitting at Sunrise

Let me take one moment to draw attention to the gorgeous day it would have been on that mountain in the distance. Rainier. BLAST!

The second half of the Baker Party, Pete Schupp!

Look at all the ants still on their way up!

~Been awhile~

2007-07-04T12:13:00.001-07:00

Well, good grief. It's July already and we haven't blogged since Jan. Tsk. Our spring was lots of fun. We had a nice mild spring after the crazy winter around here and so we are back on friendly terms with the weather. Especially now that the June rain is over. I haven't minded the rain throughout the winters here, but in June it needs to be sunnier sooner, even though we need the rain! Glad not to be on fire or flooding though, so really we can't complain.

Brief synopsis of the spring since Hawaii is:

Mike went to England for a week for Boeing, which was quite fun. I wished I could have gone, but work at Dartmoor was swamped and we didn't have much notice. He stayed a couple days longer than business required and found a hostel and the tube nice cheap ways to see London. He didn't get to do anything in depth, but probably walked 8 miles in a day and did a great reconnaissance for when he takes me back next time. =+)

We spent many weekends hanging out with friends and finding good hiking (and then drinking) spots all around our area. In April Mike and I went up to Victoria for the weekend. We also got to explore Buchard Gardens and drive around the Victoria area. It was really beautiful in the spring and we must go back on foot to check out the city. (we had the car but no Canadian coins for the parking meters when we were there, hee)

We also enjoyed the tulip festival in Skagit County again on our way to the ferry. Stunning once again.

We spent Mother's Day in Moscow with my parents just before they embarked on a three-week tour of Italy. Pretty nice huh? We were jealous but were excited to see my mom get to Europe for the first time. They have a million photos we haven't gotten to see yet, but the stories are lots of fun and they really hated the cheap, delicious wine.

For Memorial Day, we went to Leavenworth with some friends for camping and ... gulp... rock climbing. Mike loved the challenges and new things he learned from our friend Chris, while my buddy Lisa (who has only been climbing for a year herself) helped me gather the courage to give it a whirl. I climbed two pitches, little ones, and it was fun. The adrenaline rush lasted long after I descended and was on solid, level ground again, however!

Us girls went wine tasting in town later in the day and let the boys happily climb a multi-pitch climb that didn't look even remotely fun to us. The camping was fun, the weather was lovely, and the company was great!

Shortly after that outing, the rain came back for a few weeks, but in June we were able to get out and hike Mt. Pilchuck one weekend. It was over half covered in snow still, but we were game. Mike kicked steps for me all the loong way up to a beautiful view of the surrounding area at the tippy top. And the best part? Glisading down. Man I can hike big snowy hikes like that any day when coming down is one long happy sled trip. Wahooooooooo! Mike thought I was a bit silly laughing like a loon all the way down, but man was it a hoot.

And the obligatory beer afterward!

A couple weeks ago, Mike had plans to climb Mt. Baker so I took myself off to Spokane to visit Sarah and Ryan and their new baby Jacob! Well, to be honest he's already 4 months old so it took me awhile to get my boochie over there. Poor Mike ended up not climbing at all due to terrible weather, but my weekend was wonderful. It was great to see Sarah and Ryan's house, it's sooo cute and they have a garden the size of our apartment that I'm insanely jealous of! And Jacob, what a doll. We watched a few softball games, had a BBQ, loved the baby, and just caught up. I'm definitely not waiting another 4 months to see them again!

Work has been busy for both of us. Dartmoor has been slammed with students all spring, way over full and not enough teachers to go around, but we persevered and I love the people I work with to pieces! As the roll-out date (7/8/07) gets closer, things get busier for Mike at Boeing too. He spent most of the night watching the landing gear put on to the 787 and it looks like it should!
And that sort of brings us up to date...until later.

Starting 2007 off right in Maui!

2007-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Well, after that snowboarding and seafood fest, Mike and I made our way north to our place and preceded to spend New Year's Eve at home, quiet-like, and SORE. Well, Mike actually wasn't all that sore, but I could barely even lie down! I hurt everywhere, but especially my push-myself-up-off-of-the-ground muscles in my upper body. Yah, well I used them a lot! =+)

After New Years we had just two short weeks (ie less than five days of work in each) before we flew off to Hawaii to meet with the Klein/Dueker/Hall/Vardaman clan. It was glorious. The Duekers, Julie, Mike, and I got there a couple days earlier than the entire crew and were able to get our beach on immediately. The kids were in heaven and we were all just indescribably glad to be away from freezing weather and insane traffic. Julie signed herself up for some running fun for EARLY Sunday morning so we all piled in the car with Scooby-Do videos (he was fighting the Tiki Monster in Hawaii!!) and drove to Lahaina for the afternoon on Sat. to get her registered. We also managed to find Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch and a lovely little beach, sans waves, where we sat in the sun and built sand castles. Don't mind the odd, naked, clepto baby that ran amok on the shore, or his little brother that we don't like to remember...

"Cheese" at Cheeseburger in Paradise!

We got to try out all sorts of room locations those first couple nights and Lance managed to wrangle us awesome rooms towards the front of the complex, right near the beach. Late Saturday night, Granty and Gruncle, Jeff and Jeanette, and Dick had all arrived making us complete. Mike and Gruncle Royce got up early to cheer Julie on in person, while the rest of us cheered from afar (in bed still) with all our might! It was great to return to a place we'd been in the past, where we could just relax and not feel the urge to run around exploring and experiencing all Kihei had to offer. Instead the week took on a more leisurely feeling and we all soaked in lots of family time along with the all important sand, sun, and water. Little Miss Ally has us all happily wrapped around that little finger of hers! We love being Aunt Meghan and Uncle Mike to these two, and can't wait for the next two coming summer of '07! (one from Erin and one from Tracey=+)

Who has their cool sunglasses on??

Ally and Aunt Meghan

When Monday came around some side trips began happening, a quick run up Haleakala for the Halls, the aquarium for the Duekers, but it was back to the beach for the rest of us bums. We packed a cooler with sandwiches, chips, salsa, oranges, and of course beer. Well, as we focused so hard on making sure we had enough beer, we forgot some sort of salsa recepticle. No matter, Julie to the rescue. She peeled the orange with exceptional skill to create mini salsa bowl for our dining pleasure. Sure was an odd sight, but it worked and we were quite proud of Julie's ingenuity.

It works! Well done Julie.

A group of adventurers flew to Pearl Harbor one of the days we were there to see the historical sights, but the only time Mike and I ever really got out and about was Wed. Mike and Jeff kindly accompanied Jeanette and I to the end of the Hana Highway. We found out about an awesome horseback riding tour of the jungle with waterfalls and the like, but of course it was about as far down this twisty, turny, one-lane-bridgy, road as possible. Mike and Jeff were up to the challenge though, and while we were riding to see a huge waterfall from above, they spent the time hiking along the valley to see it from below. Fun times, even though my horse was being a punk and brushed me off under some tree branches. 'Ass over tea kettle' is, I believe, the appropriate saying. Wish I could have seen myself! Glad I had a helmet on, and I came home with a great bruise on my elbow to show for the effort. The drive out there was actually even better than we had expected. Yes it was slow, and long, and there were some seriously scary drivers, but it was lush, green, huge rainforest and truly amazing to see. Gorgeous!

As the week moved past the half-way point, and we could all begin to see the end, we spent lots of time brushing up our tans, went on a whale watching trip where we saw one breach!!!, and enjoyed dinners and games with everyone close by. Our last night we went to Lulu's, a second story restaurant/bar with a fun outdoor atmosphere and a great view of the sunset. We all dressed up a little (no one wore their bathing suit) and made a party of it all!

All tan and spuzzy

The whole fam

After coming back we've taken it easy, gotten back into the swing of things at work, and begun looking forward to spring. I've seen a couple brave daffodils and one or two trees with flowers peeking out, even though I'm sure we're in for a little more cold stuff before spring really blooms. For President's Day weekend, Leigh came up from Boise to check out some hospitals and neighborhoods here in our area, and we did our level best to convince her that she should move here when she's finished with her ultrasound program this summer. We'll see how successful we were...Leigh! Move here!...couldn't resist in a few months when she decides. We both drank too much Mac and Jack's at the Kangaroo and Kiwi in Green Lake (thanks for driving our butts home, Mike) but we laughed a lot and didn't feel too hung over the next morning, in fact, Mac and Jack's cured Leigh's cold! The stuff of gods. It was great to see her and we got to catch up on, and do, girly stuff when we drove up to Bellingham (shopping etc) on Sun. Mike was happy to escape and go skiing with some friends. =+)

And that's us for the moment. Looking forward to keeping busy with work and SPRING just around the corner. Ta for now!

2006 Wrap-Up

2006-12-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

Since it's now New Year's Eve 2006 and we are zipping up to January without us having blogged since the beginning of November, perhaps our New Year's resolution should be to be better bloggers. Hmm. Well, you know what they say about good intentions...

November and December were sneaky, though, and really flew past us without our knowing what was going on. I can't believe it's 2007 tomorrow and that Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone. Seems a little scary, actually, how fast time is going! November and December were a time for family, as they should be, with the holidays. Before Thanksgiving, my parents drove over for a weekend just for the heck of it. It'd been awhile since my dad had been to see us in Seattle and the break was much needed. We visited lots of wineries and wine stores and ate lots of good food, which seems fairly par for the course when our families get together. We went into Seattle one of the days they were here and ate lunch at Elliot's, down by the water. The food was fabulous, and adventurous. Dad got the Cioppino, and got a little more than he bargained for...even with the bib! There was nearly an entire crab in the dish but it hadn't been shelled so he had to crack and pick it apart, while it was covered in tomato-y goodness. Wow, what a mess! We'll spare you the after photo...

For Thanksgiving we headed south to visit Mike's family in California. Winfield and Tracey picked us up at the San Jose airport on their way from Petaluma to Fresno where we all congregated to celebrate the holiday. We had a fabulous time seeing everyone. The kids sure grow fast! Jake is really growing up and is Mr. Social. He is in pre-school 5 days a week and loves his new friends! Ally loves princesses and playing dress up and has both of her uncles wrapped around her little finger!=+) We were lucky enough to be there from Wed through Sun and so had lots of time for family. Here's the whole crew gathered for dinner the first night we were there.

Thanksgiving was spent chopping and cooking and organizing all the dishes. Good thing Erin and Lance have two ovens! Finally for dinner, Jake and Ally's buddy Hannah and her baby brother Henry came over with their parents so that they could play dress-up and watch Christmas cartoons in the play room, while the adults did boring stuff like drink...

Friday night we had another delicious meal prepared by Erin, Winfield, and Mike for Barb's early birthday dinner. Chicken marsala, fancy salad, and asparagus, all followed by a very chocolatey chocolate cake. Mmmm, had to work out extra when we got home! Saturday we worked to get out the Christmas stuff at the Dueker household. The kids could already, not wait for Santa!!! It promised to be a long month of "can we open it today?"... =+)

The weekend right after we were in California, Erin came up to Mill Creek to visit her good friends Angie and JD Huleen and their new baby Alicia. The Huleens live just a couple miles from us so it's a very handy set up! Two birds with one stone and all that. Erin was here alone, we missed you Lance, and without the kids. We missed them too, mostly...So we took advantage of the freedom and whenever she was free, did whatever Erin felt like doing! One evening we ended up in Bellevue for dinner just Mike, Erin, and me and we ate with a gorgeous view of the sun setting over the water!

Much of the rest of December was taken over by wild weather here in Seattle. Sheesh. We had snow and ice that shut down the highways and MANY other streets, which unfortunately caught me mid-commute and I was stuck on the bus for 5 hours! It was terrible and I didn't get home until close to 6 1/2 hours after I left work. Sheesh again. To make up for it, we had two snow days that followed the storm, so I was well recovered and ready to try the commute again...eesh.

After the area recovered from the winter blast and the passes cleared, Mike and I drove to Moscow to watch Peter perform in a play at the U of I. A hilarious dark comedy, where he played "the perpetually stoned son." He just gets better every time we see him perform! We also got to eat at the Red Door to celebrate our friend Bob Dwelle's 60th birthday. Yumm!

We got back and another crazy storm hit, though this time it was wind that did the damage! We were among the hundreds of thousands of Seattle area residents who lost power, but we were lucky enough to only be dark for about a day. Our area was very randomly affected and we were back online by the next evening. Not everyone was so lucky. Webb and Emily in Renton were without power for 5 days! Eesh. We did trek down to their neighborhood for a holiday party (in the middle of the power outages) at the only house in their neighborhood with a generator. Great food, some Webb special beer, and everyone within shouting distance made for fun times. Then we had Webb and Emily to our place for a warm dinner, a movie, and to let them use our laundry facilities!!! A couple people I worked with were without power for the whole week! Sheesh. What a way to get ready for Christmas.

When school wrapped up and Boeing let out for the holidays we relaxed and began thinking holiday thoughts. We got together with some friends from Mike's grad school days and had a great time chatting and eating at an alehouse nearby.

The next morning around 4:00am we were both randomly wide awake, so opted to begin the trek to Moscow for Christmas. We knew there was a snow storm brewing up at the pass and it was perfect timing for the drive. Conditions were terrible but we were nearly alone on the roads at that hour and were in no rush to get home. We made it though and all the way to Moscow by noon and by then the pass was being closed off and on for avalanche control, stranding lots of people during their holiday travels. Whew.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Moscow with all of us kids home...including the youngest who just had to shred every piece of wrapping paper he could get his teeth into!

To wrap up the year, and this blog/novel, this weekend we headed to Renton to hang out with Webb and Emily. The boys made beer and Emily and I just hung out and chatted. We played games and laughed a lot Friday night and then got to bed early. Yesterday, first thing, we all trekked out to Snoqualamie to try our hand at snowboarding. It was a first for all of us, but Mike and Emily are downhill skiers. The whole escapade was hilarious and I spent a lot of time on the ground. With the initial help of a quick lesson, some liquid courage at lunch, and a ride up to the top of the bunny hill, we had no choice but to make it to the bottom...and we did it! I'm no pro and boy am I sore, but it was a blast and I'm ready to try it again, or will be when my "push up off the ground muscles" unclench.

When we limped our cold, sweaty, bruised selves back to the Girards house, Webb's mom Sherry was there waiting for us with a ton of seafood! Live crab, clams, mussels, and prawns to celebrate the new year...and not killing ourselves on the slopes. We ate all the deliciousness we could hold, THANKS SHERRY!, and drank far too much wine. It was a great time with lots of laughter and good friends. What a way to end 2006! Happy New Year to you all, and we'll see you in 2007!

"Up a Mountain, Down a Beer"

2006-11-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

Well, again it's been awhile since we've posted, but Mike was feeling the urge to write a couple weeks ago and then never did get around to it. I know, I know slacker, but he'll write one of these days and, I'm sure, get me back for calling him on it. Heh.

October was a fabulous month, it went by insanely fast and I'm in November shock, but mostly it went so fast because it was fun and full and busy. After I blogged last, -let me tell you- I had a whopper of a fun time the next weekend. I got my wisdom teeth pulled early Friday morning and spent the weekend moving rather slowly on some serious pain drugs. Heh. Luckily the medicine didn't affect me overly much but I didn't feel a thing til Monday morning (when I went medicine free in order to teach!) My mom drove over to help ferry around the loopy one and was the one who took me to the surgeons to be my "driver". Mike got to come home early that night since he didn't have to take the morning off to Meghan-sit. It was perfect.

The surgery went rather well as far as I know. Initially, I was a little weirded out knowing that I wouldn't remember anything, but all in all I think that it was the best way to go after all. ;+) The surgeon was great, I took out the gauze he packed my mouth with about 30 minutes after we left in order to swallow medicine and never put it back in. The gauze wasn't even soaked, so to all of you that gleefully told me your bleeding stories I say HA! to you. The only time I felt super sleepy was in the evening but otherwise I was just chillin on the couch all day watching movies and eating all sorts of yummy soft things. (I will admit that I was heartily sick of sweet, no-chewing-required food in about 2 meals flat, but I hung in there because even the threat of dry socket was sufficient to make me behave.)

My brother Mike and his girlfriend Teresa came over for a day or so as well. They came, supposedly, to get some ideas about their New Zealand trip from us experienced Kiwiland visitors, but in reality they just wanted to use us for our sweet REI flagship store access. It's ok guys, we understand completely. It's the coolest REI and boy did they find a bunch of stuff to take home that day! =+) After they left we managed to convince Mom to stay until Monday morning so that she could drive me to school on her way south to I-90 for her trip home. So we had all of Sunday to hang out and explore the gigantic Molbac's nursery/store in Woodinville. Wow that place never ends, it has tons of plants -outdoor, indoor, tropical, everything- and a huge indoor area full of Christmas decorations, fall decorations, crystal, dishes, everything. That day for lunch I ate some delicious soup and even soggied some saltines in it to tongue to death against my front teeth. I know, delightful, but hey it made me feel like I was actually eating something and went a long way to restoring my sanity.

Monday came all too soon for me, as I wasn't exactly thrilled to head to school looking as chipmunky as I did, but hey everyone could sympathsize, and the driving arrangement worked great. I took the bus home and I've been riding the bus as often as possible ever since. I LOVE THE BUS. Commuting by myself, in the car, for over an hour each way is for the birds. I get my homework done on the bus, talk on the phone, take a nap, space out the window, whatever -it's brilliant.

I was a little off that week but the swelling did eventually go down, I did eventually graduate to more solid foods, and the glorious green bruise on my jaw did eventually fade. And by the weekend I was ready to tackle Mt. Dickerman!

It was THE most perfect hiking day imaginable. No breeze, no clouds, sunshine, cool fall air, incredible fall colors on all the leaves, you name it we had it. So Mike and I headed out to conquer the mountain. It was lots of fun and everytime we turned the corner there was another breathtaking view. It was amazing.

A bright red meadow surrounded by blue mountains.

Us in front of a sunny, bright yellow, glowing bush. -What a backdrop!

Just hiking along!

One view from the top.

The hike was beautiful but definitely took some doing. Overall we climbed 3700 feet in elevation over about 4 miles. It was up and up and up, but as I said we took our time and took lots of photos, soaking in the day and the views. We had a 360 degree view from the top and could see from Mt. Baker in the north to Mt. Rainier in the south, the Olympics to the west and this view to the east! And though we were tired going up, down was actually worse. I usually feel the downward hike much more the next day and sure enough, Sunday and Monday saw me hobbling around with cramped up calves. Mike thought it was hilarious but although he was pooped when we finally got to the car, he must hike correctly cuz his calves were no worse for wear. Hmpf.

After our 6 hour round trip hike we meandered to Snohomish in search of our well-deserved reward....beer. As the title of this blog indicates -quoted directly from the shirt Mike was, in fact, wearing for the hike- the next step was to "down a beer." We ended up drinking the best beer I've tasted in a long time (there really is something about drinking that beer after hiking a long way!) and eating a delicious meal at a little ale house that we really enjoyed. We'll be returning there for sure!

Where's the next mountain...?

Cider-Making Fools

2006-10-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the annual trek to Moscow for apple picking and cider making at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA. We've been going to Bishop's for close to 18 years now and have become quite good friends with the Bishop's themselves along the way. In fact, we arrived with a wedding gift for the Bishop's oldest daughter, Jenny, and her mom Sally handed Mike and me our wedding gift, a little late, but there's a long story involved, of course, and it's lots of fun to keep celebrating!

My Aunt Chris and Uncle Pete live in Michigan and are like a second set of grandparents to my brothers and me. Uncle Pete is my grandma's (Mimi's) little brother and they've always been close to my grandparents. When our family moved to Moscow in 1987, my grandparents also left Cleveland to move to northern MI where they bought land on a lake way back in the woods with Aunt Chris and Uncle Pete. We were always lucky to have them all so close to each other when we visited! Aunt Chris has been battling cancer for a few years now and just had her SECOND stem-cell transplant a year ago October 6th! She's doing really well now, thank goodness, and is finally able to travel a bit. Her family lives in California so they are making the trek (by car!!) from MI to CA and were able to make a stop in Moscow to visit us! It worked out to be perfect timing because Mike and I had already made plans with Webb and Emily to go visit Moscow the very same weekend for cider making fun. Webb is bound and determined to make hard cider this year and so brought along 2- 6 1/2 gallon carboys to fill up! We had our work cut out for us!

I drove over EARLY Friday morning to surprise eveyrone with a few extra hours to visit since I had the day off. Mike, Webb, and Emily drove over after work that evening to join the fun. It was great to visit with Aunt Chris and Uncle Pete as well as both my brothers and Teresa, Mike's girlfriend. Mike and Teresa are staying in Moscow with my parents at the moment cuz they are in limbo for about a month before they head to NEW ZEALAND!!! They just bought tickets and are going to go travel around for 5 weeks for fun, man, Mike and I are pea-green! But we also can't wait to hear all their adventures and we hope they can make it to the Mapua area and visit our NZ family and friends.

The group was complete around 10:00pm on Friday when the rest of the Seattle crew arrived and we all chatted until far too late in the evening before finally retiring to our respective air matresses. Hotel Beard was sold out this weekend and it made for a great time!

Saturday morning we all got up, had breakfast, took turns showering, and headed to the orchard. We picked crazy lots of apples...83 pounds, and made enough cider to float ourselves home! Total I think we made 24 1/2 gallons! Yum. Everyone got to help do both and we cranked all that work out in less than 2 hours! Whew, are we good or what?

They just kept multiplying! And this doesn't even include Webb's giant containers!

Had to have the typical "long-arm" shot in there! Or we know you'd all be sad.

Saturday night we had a delicious feast and drank Victor Specials. For those of you who are uninitiated a Victor Special is fresh pressed cider, gin(can be any kind...don't waste the good stuff!), and a squeeze of lemon. Sounds hideous, I know, but it's divine, even for those of us who "don't drink gin". Most of the guys watched football later that day, while Mike, Aunt Chris, and I did Sudoku puzzles and got brain work outs. And laugh muscle workouts cuz Mike had to convince Aunt Chris that guessing wasn't such a great strategy!

Sunday morning we had to say our farewells and head back home. Aunt Chris and Uncle Pete were staying til Tues before heading south but work was calling us home.

A family photo! We sure missed having them at the wedding, but they had to get Aunt Chris better before making the trip out! We celebrated plenty this weekend with Victor Specials!

This week was spent laying pretty low. I had come home with a cold before we traveled and it pretty much kicked my butt until just a couple days ago. Mike got a little stuffy, Mom reported she had some sinus pressure, and the Girards were a little under the weather but nothing too bad. whew. I'm glad I was the only one to have gotten the full ick cuz it definitely was my fault! Just about every teacher at school was hit full on by this thing and all took turns being gone from work, except me cuz I rock of course, so we had a slow-moving, but hectic week that included a day-long training on Friday. Bad timing! But we made the best of it, had fun, whined about it all together, and actually managed to learn some stuff!
As for this weekend, we just chilled out yesterday and Mike is off climbing a mountain today while I do homework and catch up on some things around the house. Looking forward to another week, and getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday the 13th! Bleh.

But a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Peter (turning 20 on Wed. Good Lord!) and Jacob (already turning 5 on Thurs!!) from your sister/bro-in-law and aunt/uncle! We love you!

Summer Cliff-notes

2006-09-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hmm, well so much for grand intentions of writing more religiously but this summer was nuts! Great, but nuts. We were busy every single weekend through July, August, and so far into September. So much to do, so little time. I suppose if we were better at writing we wouldn't have to condense our many many fun adventures into a quick cliff notes version. It's much more fun to blab about things when they are fresh, but we're working on it...

The weekend after Grandma Klein's bday party (way back in July) we drove to Moscow to watch Peter perform in the U of I's IRT program. They put on A Comedy of Errors and it was wonderful. Mike and I also went with my mom and dad both Sat and Sun morning to the city pool for "adult swim" time. Hah, we did no swimming, we rode the slides over and over...little kid and line free, it was great. The weather was broiling too so it was great to play in the water and laugh lots!

The last weekend in July was spent in Boise for our friends Scott and Tammy's wedding. More roasting weather but we were able to squish in a leisurely float down the Main Payette with Jeff, Jeanette, and my buddy Leigh while we were there. On the day of the wedding it was really hot and the wedding was outside at 3:00 in the afternoon, but that didn't deter them from having a lovely ceremony and a great reception that lasted into the night. The engineering guys had a blast pulling all sorts of shananigans on the groom's truck -pay back is hell...and he's nearly the last of this group to get hitched!

That Sunday in Boise was Mike's birthday! The end of Mike's 8-week-a-year-I'm-younger-than-you-baloney. (for the 8 weeks our ages differ I get to hear HOW much older I am than HE is...tsk) I spent the day battling with an obnoxious pie crust but in the end succeeded in creating a tasty strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert, Mike's fave. We didn't leave until evening so we had an early birthday dinner and Melinda and Roger and Paula were able to join us to celebrate.

August brought more fun times. We went deep sea fishing with some mountaineering friends off the coast of Westport. Unfortunately our grand plans of catching our limit for salmon didn't come about, and the water was quite rough causing some unhappy moments, ahem, but we did come home with two salmon to enjoy. Webb and Emily were fantabulous friends and offered to both fillet our catch for us and smoke the smaller of the fish for later deliciousness. We for sure shared with them a few weeks later when they came to our house for a belated July-birthday party. (Emily's bday is the day before Mike's). All in all the fishing was a great experience that taught me that I am, without a doubt, a fair-weather fisher. Weather being most the important keeping-the-waves-small aspect of the entire outing. Hah.

The week following the fishing trip, mid-Aug, my dad had to work on a very important article around the clock and needed to do so sans distruptions from anyone --namely Sam the puppy. My mom wasn't hurt by this, no, instead she embraced her banishment and jumped at the chance to venture wherever she wished. We were more than happy to house her for a bit. We got to visit and hang out with her for nearly a week! It was wonderful, she forced me to go shopping for work pants (sadly I haven't had new ones since I began working at Key Bank however many moons ago)and I forced her to try on and buy jeans (which she hasn't purchased new in 6 years!) Whew silly us! But we had fabulous success and boy is getting ready in the morning fun now!

The third weekend in August we finally had the chance to make it up to the San Juans to Mike's Uncle Mike's cabin. We've been talking for years about how Mike and Scott Anderson would be able to go up to Uncle Mike's and dive for a lost mooring buoy. Well finally finally we all had a weekend that matched so we headed north after work, getting into Friday Harbor around 6:30 that night. Uncle Mike was there to meet us and boat us out to John's Island where their cabin is. We almost got to see some Orcas and we did see some harbor porpoises, pretty awesome. Uncle Mike and Mike headed back into Friday Harbor not long after arriving to pick up Scott, Tammy, and all their scuba gear! I stayed at the cabin with Robin and we read our books all cozy in the cabin watching the sun set over the water. Glorious. The weekend was full of fun. The boys dove for the mooring buoys while Tammy and I soaked up sun and chatted and then when they were frozen enough we had lunch and hunted yellow jackets. Mike is the champ and managed to kill 5 with one swat using tuna as bait. (guess you had to be there...) We went crabbing and had ice cream in Roche Harbor that evening and a great big pot of fresh crab for dinner! Divine. Sunday we all hung out, played cards, and then headed into town to get the Anderson's to the ferry. Since the ferry was sold out nearly for the entire day we had to browse in shops, eat more ice cream, and have a quick dinner before seeing them off and heading back to the cabin for the evening. It was tough! Mike, Uncle Mike, Robin, and I all got up and packed and headed into town to catch a ferry ourselves Monday. It was lovely to have the day off and we got home around 4:00 and still had the evening to unwind and get ready for a really short week!

For labor day Mike and I planned to go backpacking. Despite our best intentions to the contrary, we seem to always end up having very few opportunities to get out in the mountains during the summer and backpack. The three day weekend was a perfect time to go. My brothers happened to call and ask us to go camping that same weekend so we ended up convincing them they did in fact want to backpack instead of leisurly fish on the Clearwater with coolers of beer. Backpacking is great but much more minimalist. This trip was a first for both of them. After a little hemming and hawing we all met up in Levinworth with great plans of leaving early and hiking to an little alpine lake. Wow, after all the hustle and bustle and lists of stuff I wrote to my brothers of things not to forget, what do I do? Forget my hiking boots. HellO???? Sheez, so we had to go into town and find a pair for me. They were great but it's never ideal to buy your hiking shoes the day you have to hike in them for a couple hours so I was pretty happy to arrive at the lake! Fishing, hiking, cooking, swimming, hanging out. That about sums it up and I think the Mike and Peter will voluntarily give 'er another whirl next year after all! Boy that real food tasted good when we got back to town!

That was our busy summer in a nutshell. It was a blast but sure went by quickly. Sept. 5th was the first day of school for Dartmoor. Yes we have year-round school but we have a huge influx of full-time students right at the beginning of regular public school in the fall, so we were psyched! It's been a crazy couple of weeks but so far so good and we're off and running. We also just lost one of our full time instructors to another campus. She was so awesome she got promoted! So now we have two new instructors that started just this week. They are great and everything is settling into a pattern. I'm teaching a bunch of language arts classes and so have between 4-6 novels to read from each night in order to keep up! I'm definitely getting caught up on all those school classics I missed in high school! Mike's staying pretty busy at work too. The 7E7 is getting close to deadlines and such things and so everyone is hopping.

The weekend of 9/9 we took a trip down to Boise to see Mike's sister Melinda get married. It was a great weekend of family and a beautiful wedding. Melinda's colors were fall colors and the flowers were gorgeous. I know it's just us girls who will appreciate details like that, but way to go Melinda on the color scheme! Hats of to Jeanette too, who helped plan and plot and get everyone where they needed to be. It all went off without a hitch, or rather just a couple very minor ones that go with any wedding and make it more real. Melinda was gorgeous (Roger sure is a lucky guy), the ceremony lovely, and the couple drove away smiling and married at the end of the night, a success! And no one knows who TPed their car.....

Last weekend the Duekers, Mike's sister and her family from Fresno, came up to our neck of the woods for a visit. Well, they really came cuz Fresno State was playing UW in Seattle, but we like to pretend they came to visit us instead. We also got to hang out with some of their buddies JD and Angie, who, sadly enough live just a mile or two away from us and have - for over a year. This was the first time we'd connected, tsk. We had talked on the phone a couple times and made some plans but they seem to always fall through. JD and Angie hooked us up with names of really wonderful people in New Zealand before we went. It saved our sanity to have someone to touch base with after landing there and feeling lost, and in the end we became pretty close with one of the kiwi couples and are soooo thankful for Angie and JD sharing their friends with us. =+)

The day the Duekers left Mike and I left early in the morning to drive down to Yakima to do a little last of the season river rafting. We took a friend of ours from mountaineering, Pete, and met some friends of mine from work Lisa, Chris, Gary, and Angela and rafted the Tieton River. It was a hoot if a little chilly and we were very glad for our wetsuits, jackets and helmets. The river was narrow and very fast but we rode the rapids without any mishaps and some great laughs. On the way home we tried to detour through Rainier to see the mountain and the park, kind of like we did when he was trying to propose a couple years ago, and whaddya know? It was socked in with fog and rain again! I'm jinxed. But only so far as the mountain is concerned, and that I can live with!

Now it's Monday after the first weekend in months where we didn't do anything but stay home and hang out. It was glorious. We slept in, read books, watched movies, went to Costco, went grocery shopping, went for a bike ride, all manner of relaxing things we thought up at the last minute with no planning at all. Hooray.

Now the idea is to keep on top of this blog and not have to fit a gazillion things into each posting...we'll try honest!

An amazing party for an amazing lady!

2006-08-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

By Sunday night, the 10th, Mike was finished with Glacier and I flew in from Montana, via Spokane, to be scooped up at the airport on his way home, just in time work for two days, pack up again, and head to Chicago. On July 13, 2006 Mike's grandma Ruth Klein turned 100 years old!!! She's an incredible lady and we were able to get nearly all of the family (we missed you Steve, Tina, and girls) together to celebrate. We all had a wonderful time visiting, eating far too much cake, and meeting all sorts of extended Hevenor family memebers. On Grandma's actual birthday we celebrated with just the immediate family who had already congregated, a small cake, and a few little gifts. The main event was Saturday the 15th, an open house for extended family, friends, and fellow Plymouth Place residents followed by dinner with the family. What a success! Granty Linda you're awesome! Thanks for all your hard work. We enjoyed photo albums, stories, and some rather chaotic "everyone" photo sessions.

Our trip home was long and delayed and fairly typical of my experiences flying in-to or out-of the windy city. Arriving home at 4:30 with dawn lightening the sky and work to look forward to later that day...not my favorite. In fact Monday was spent in a sort of exhausted fog, but some of my students rescheduled and that made things easier. I crashed around 7:30 that night and slept all the way through til Tues when we woke up much refreshed and ready to be in the real world again.

So that's us in a very quick nutshell considering all the fun we've had over the past year. That time between New Zealand and our Kiwiblog and the wedding? Well, it was spent planning the wedding, working odd jobs to earn a little cash, and plotting the next moves. It was a great 6 months but far too long ago to write about here. We are back on the blog now though so info should be more up to date, and though perhaps not as exotic as our adventures of the last blog, we do have lots more fun planned (weddings, rafting, fishing trips, Shakespeare fests, etc. )

Stay tuned...

Montana Trip

2006-07-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

There we met up with the Beards and had a great time at Gaynor's Cabins in the Woods visiting and getting to scope out the new digs Mike has been working so hard on. What a fantastic place, and just a few miles outside Glacier National Park. Beautiful country. We watched a couple World Cup soccer matches, drank some beer, sang to guitars around the campfire, and ate 4th of July cake. On the 5th Mike (not my brother)had to head back to Seattle in order to get ready for his Rainier trip, so he plugged in the ipod and away he drove. I got to stay a little longer and my parents, brother, and his girlfriend Teresa, drove through Glacier the next day. Gorgeous!

Busy Busy Busy!

2006-07-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well Mike (I know it says Meghan posted the last one, but it was Mike, he just couldn't remember his password to get in here!) mentioned our year had been harmless. Not exactly sure what he means by that but if I had to use one word it would be busy. Good busy, fun busy, traveling busy, moving busy... This past year has flown and we are now (I've been informed) old married people. =+) After we all met up in Moscow for the big fiesta in July of 05, we lived and worked in Boise for two months, moved to the Seattle area and lived with some very generous friends for a month, and finally then settled into our own apartment in Mill Creek, about 20 miles north of Seattle. Mike has been working at Boeing for close to a year, I spent a REALLY long stretch of months searching for a job, myself, sanity, what have you, and finally fell into a job teaching Spanish at a private school in Bellevue.
-I love it!

We have done lots of fun things too in that span, but I figured I'd summarize quickly or we'd be here all day. The Tulip Fest earlier this spring was outstanding and any and all of you are welcome to come visit us whenever you like, but if you come when the tulips are blooming you'll be in for a real treat!!!

Mike took a mountaineering course through Boeing this spring that was incredible and he has oodles of photos of the magnificent views (or the foggy ones) he's seen from the various trips he's taken up mountains all around our area. Just a couple weeks ago he headed up Mt. Rainier but I should really let him tell you all about that...

I've been wallowing happily in photo albums and my new job for the most part. I've been lucky enough to get to visit friends and family fairly regularly this spring/summer, gettin' out of Dodge when Mike was off scrambling up mountainsides to pop in on the unsuspecting. In April I buzzed over to Moscow to watch Peter in the main U of I theater production, which was hilarious! (Everyone be sure to watch Home of the Brave with Samuel L. Jackson when it comes out next year, you might just see Petey who was asked to be an extra!) For Mother's Day we enjoyed a visit from Mike's mom and stepdad Dan, we saw the sights, did some shopping, some glass blowing, and learned to make sushi! A quick Boise trip at the end of May was fantastic, I got to visit J&J, see Karin and Scott's cute new house, watch hours of Dark Shadows (the 90s version of course), and witness a couple of truly inspiring thunderstorms.

Amazing photo by Scott to come...

In June Mom and Dad came to visit for my birthday and we had lots of fun visiting the Mac N Jack's brewery in Redmond-yum! I got a new digital camera, and it's way too much fun so beware! We also had a blast, in June, hanging out at home and with Webb and Emily who are only a few minutes away. Mike and I got out hiking and exploring a beautiful area north of us and found some fun lakes and mountains. We rafted some class III-IV rapids on the Wenatchee River too and it was awesome, we're going back for more mid-September!

July has been, and continues to be, a whirlwind of fun activities! The week of the 4th, Dartmoor (my school) was closed so Mike and I headed east, stopping first in Moscow, to celebrate my dad's full time return to the faculty at the UI Law School after 6 years as associate dean. You made it Dad, and you kicked butt! Oh and my parents know how to throw a party!! Whew.

On our 1st anniversary we got up early in Moscow, not as early as planned though, and drove to Helena,Montana. Why Helena you might ask? Good question indeed! There really isn't much IN Helena even though it's the capital of the state. We pulled in around 4 on a Sunday and thought perhaps we had missed a turn and ended up in a ghost town. We quickly called a mountaineering friend who happens to be FROM Helena and was there visiting family for the 4th, desperate for some human contact. We had a nice dinner and visit with Pete and then took a quick walking tour of the outdoor mall before he headed back home and we went in search of some overnight accomodation. We had all our camping gear but since it was about 9:00 by this time we weenied out and settled for the Days Inn. The next morning we got up early and headed northeast from the city to find the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine, which was our actual goal in this whole excursion to the area. We spent the entire morning digging and sifting through gravel in search of great riches and actually found a decent sized (7.14 carats) sapphire! That afternoon we again spent driving, back west to a ranch just outside Whitefish where my brother Mike is working currently.

We're BACK!

2006-07-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

After such a long wait, we have finally returned to the World of Blog. Call it a sequel, perhaps the long overdue encore, or merely the next iteration. Whatever it is, or shall be, we'll keep you informed from this end.

What happened to the last year and a half you might ask? Lots... But we arrived this morning at 4 AM from a flight from Chicago, had a full day of work and am not about to go into any sort of Short Short recap. Well, ok, in a word;

Harmless.

Or if you need a little more explanation;

Mostly Harmless.

That will have to do for now.