Happy belated 4th of July! We’re having a fantastic weekend here. Friday was a holiday, so I got up early and went hiking with a friend to Granite mountain which isn’t too far from Snoqualmie Pass, where we take the kids skiing in the winter. The hike was incredible; 8 miles out and back with lots of elevation gain and beautiful views from the top. You’ll have to click on one of the pictures below to check out a slideshow of my favorite shots. I also took my Garmin 405 with me on the hike, so you can see the specific route we took, plus a bunch of data that will show you just how out of shape I still am despite my triathlon training

The day after Cole’s birthday we hopped on a plane to San Diego to watch Kate compete in her second 1/2 Iron Man at Oceanside. The day before Kate’s competition, we took the kids to the beach and despite the frigid water temps, it took them all of 5 minutes to decide that they wanted to be in the water. Click on any of the pics below to see a slide show and I’ll post more pics (from the Iron Man and other parts of our trip) shortly.

It’s the middle of April and this is post #2 for the entire year! Where does the time go? Erin pointed out to me this morning that I need to do better updating our blog because not EVERYONE is on Facebook and that is where I’ve been spending what little free time I have on the web. So you’ll be happy to know that I’m processing tons of photos from our trip to San Diego last week. I’ll try my best to get them posted this weekend; I know famous last words right?

Anyhow, to tide you over, here are a few shots of Cole on his birthday. The little guy was quite the trooper; the week prior to Cole’s birthday, we decided to have our kitchen cabinets restored, so the kitchen was ripped up (notice the canvas tarp under the cake?) and Cole couldn’t have his little buddies over for a party. Our plan ‘B’ was to take Cole and his friends to see the Monsters Vs. Aliens movie, but at the last minute I had to cancel since I was needed at work and we were flying out the next morning to San Diego. It worked out in the end though. One of our close friends joined Erin to help corral the kids, so I wasn’t too far into the doghouse

Yesterday, Erin and I were practicing some photography techniques using our flashes off camera and grabbed some good shots of the kids. Click here, or on any of the photographs below for a slide show.

Happy New Year!

This was our favorite of the three of them together.

Cole loves to have his picture taken. He posed for probably over a hundred shots.

Nathan posing for a rare shot.

Happy Holidays!

We’re managing to keep warm despite the cold temps and snow that we’ve been receiving daily for more than a week now. Cole is playing his Indiana Jones XBox game as I write this. Ian is psyched to finally have a Nintendo DS like Nathan; they played a network game against each other for a better part of the morning yesterday. I smoked a 13lb roast on the green egg despite the fact that only three adults were going to enjoy it. Erin was annoyed enough to take a picture which I’ve included in the slide show below, but she decided it was a good thing today when I used the left overs (at least a small portion of the left overs) to make prime rib panini sandwiches. Thanks Amanda for the panini grill!

We’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Click on any of the pictures below to launch a slide show

Cole posing for pictures with a snowman

Cole wearing the elf hat that ‘cookie Gramma’ gave him

Ian showing off the snowman cookies he made

Cole

All three of our boys posing with Christmas hats

Erin captured this shot of Cole sound asleep on Christmas Eve with his book still open.

This was taken 1AM Christmas morning. It snowed all night!

Our boys on Christmas morning. Cole is watching Ian and Nathan play Nintendo DS.

Erin went back through all of our pictures and pulled together a few that represent the last 8 years of Christmas celebrations we’ve had in North Carolina, Ohio and Washington.

Click on the picture to launch the slideshow and Merry Christmas!

Cole visiting the lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens in 2007

We’re up to five Christmas trees in our home. One in the living room, one in the family room and one in each of the three kids bedrooms. In my family, we have a tradition of purchasing an ornament each year that is symbolic of something that happened during the year. The kids have a blast hanging their ornaments from years past and asking us what the significance of each one is.

The living room

Cole decorating his tree

Ian decorating his tree

Nathan working on his tree

Another shot of the living room

Happy holidays everyone!

Erin found an article in the Issaquah Reporter back in September saying that a famous sushi chef (James Kwak) had just come to Ika Sushi and Bento down the street from us in Sammamish.  I finally tried them out this past weekend and liked it so much that I offered to pick up some more on the way home from work tonight. 

tonight we had these four sushi roles (rainbow is our fav)

If you live near us, you’ve got to try ‘em out! 

Ika Sushi & Bento

(425) 836-8323

482 228th Ave Ne, Sammamish, WA 98074

We had a great Halloween again this year.  Two days later and the kids seem to be adjusting well to their elevated sugar intakes.  Here are some pictures for Halloween night; as usual, you click ‘em for the larger sizes.

Ian (skeleton pirate) with his friend Luke.

Cole as Indiana Jones

Nathan as Sasuke, a character in the Naruto cartoon

‘Sasuke’ trick-or-treating

Cole and his friend Drew both dressed as Indiana Jones

I’ve posted additional photos to Flickr.  Click Here to visit the site.