So I am going to run the Winter Pineapple Classic again this year. I have a few people who say they are going to run with me. I would love to have more. If you are interested, the team's name is "Sarah's Surfers." Come join us. It was a lot of fun last year and it will be fun this year.
If you are interested in just donating to help out, you can go here to my personal page on the site and donate or you can go to http://www.winterpineappleclassic.org and click on donate and search for my name. Thanks
Friday, August 8, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Catching up - Vacation and a House Break-in
So it has been almost two months since I last posted anything on the blog. A lot has happened. This will be a longer post.
The first half of July we spent in Utah on vacation. We were able to spend time with family. It was nice to get away from work and spend some time with those we love and those we don't get to see often. We missed my older brother and his family while we were there with some of the extended Blackham family. It would have been really nice to see him, Kim, and the kids.
One of the weeks, we were able to go up to Park City and spend a few days in a condo that my parents have up there. One of those days, we spent time at Park City Mountain Resort, doing the activities there. Lilly and Sarah had a lot of fun on the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster. Lilly did her final run on the Alpine Coaster with me. She told me not use brakes at all. We went really fast and had lots of fun.
While we were on vacation, we got a call from the young women we had left in charge of the house while we were gone. When she came over Sunday, the 6th of July; she found that someone had broken into the house! The master bedroom was ransacked and Jess's computer was missing. We had a friend come over and meet the police who dusted for fingerprints and took a police report. Our home teachers cleaned up our bedroom before we came home. The thieves took a couple of computer's, some electronics, and jewelry. We are still getting stuff put back away and listing everything that was taken. At least there wasn't anyone in the home to get hurt. It seems like they were interrupted, since they only took a few things. They left my computer, as well as the TV and other electronics. We have tried to take the attitude that it is only stuff. However, it is still painful to have to go through and decide what needs to be replaced, as well as those things that can't be, like some of Jess's jewelry that she had since she was a child and wanted to hand down to our girls. Some of it doesn't have much value, but has a lot of value to Jess. We also need to decide what we need to do to the home to make it safer.
June saw us getting the home setup and settling into Summer, with the kids finishing school in their old school and getting out for Summer. Shoreline and Seattle both have school through most of June. The kids finished on June 20th this year. Jess is already ready for the kids to get back to school. We are looking for a few extra curricular things for the kids to get involved with this year. We need to start the kids with piano lessons and do swim lessons as well. All in good time. :)
We planted a garden last week. However, we did have to build it ourselves. There wasn't a spot for it, so we dug out 5-6 feet from the fence line to make space for a garden. It looks like there was a garden there at one point but the previous owner used wonderboard underneath the dirt. We had to pull that out as we cut back the grass. We have a few things planted and hopefully will have some stuff from the garden this year.
We are so grateful for all those who are around us and help us in various ways. Thanks for all the support.
The first half of July we spent in Utah on vacation. We were able to spend time with family. It was nice to get away from work and spend some time with those we love and those we don't get to see often. We missed my older brother and his family while we were there with some of the extended Blackham family. It would have been really nice to see him, Kim, and the kids.
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| Gus with a Sparkler |
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| Gus with a Sparkler |
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| Gus lighting a firework |
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| Lilly lighting a firework |
One of the weeks, we were able to go up to Park City and spend a few days in a condo that my parents have up there. One of those days, we spent time at Park City Mountain Resort, doing the activities there. Lilly and Sarah had a lot of fun on the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster. Lilly did her final run on the Alpine Coaster with me. She told me not use brakes at all. We went really fast and had lots of fun.
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| Sarah and Uncle Chad - Alpine Slide |
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| Lilly and Aunt Kate - Alpine Slide |
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| Gus on the Merry-Go-Round |
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| Sarah on the Merry-Go-Round |
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| Lilly on the trampoline |
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| Lilly doing some flips on the tramp |
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| Lilly doing some flips on the tramp |
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| Sarah on the tramp |
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| Sarah on the tramp |
While we were on vacation, we got a call from the young women we had left in charge of the house while we were gone. When she came over Sunday, the 6th of July; she found that someone had broken into the house! The master bedroom was ransacked and Jess's computer was missing. We had a friend come over and meet the police who dusted for fingerprints and took a police report. Our home teachers cleaned up our bedroom before we came home. The thieves took a couple of computer's, some electronics, and jewelry. We are still getting stuff put back away and listing everything that was taken. At least there wasn't anyone in the home to get hurt. It seems like they were interrupted, since they only took a few things. They left my computer, as well as the TV and other electronics. We have tried to take the attitude that it is only stuff. However, it is still painful to have to go through and decide what needs to be replaced, as well as those things that can't be, like some of Jess's jewelry that she had since she was a child and wanted to hand down to our girls. Some of it doesn't have much value, but has a lot of value to Jess. We also need to decide what we need to do to the home to make it safer.
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| Our Bedroom |
June saw us getting the home setup and settling into Summer, with the kids finishing school in their old school and getting out for Summer. Shoreline and Seattle both have school through most of June. The kids finished on June 20th this year. Jess is already ready for the kids to get back to school. We are looking for a few extra curricular things for the kids to get involved with this year. We need to start the kids with piano lessons and do swim lessons as well. All in good time. :)
We planted a garden last week. However, we did have to build it ourselves. There wasn't a spot for it, so we dug out 5-6 feet from the fence line to make space for a garden. It looks like there was a garden there at one point but the previous owner used wonderboard underneath the dirt. We had to pull that out as we cut back the grass. We have a few things planted and hopefully will have some stuff from the garden this year.
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| The kids helping to build a garden |
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| The kids helping to build the garden |
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| Gus and his chocolate addiction. This was from a fondue night. |
We are so grateful for all those who are around us and help us in various ways. Thanks for all the support.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
New House
It has been a while since I posted since we have been dealing with getting into our new house. Monday is moving day and we are really excited. Here is the pictures of the house.
Thanks for all the help from all those who have helped with this process. A big preemptive thanks to all those who are coming to help move us on Monday. Give us a month and we will be ready to entertain some house guests!!
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| Front of the house |
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| Back of the House |
My mother has been out helping us to clean A LOT and pack for the move. We have some ward members coming to help us move on Monday. While we owned a condo in Utah, this is an older home so it has a number of projects that need to get done. There were only a couple that needed to get done right away. The upstairs dining room/living room had a spot on the hardwood floor that looked terrible. We had a ward member come and refinish that part of the floor. It looks awesome now. We had another ward member come do some electrical work. We got the house sprayed for pests, as well. The house hasn't been occupied for a couple of years and is an estate home. The two daughters selling the property caused a few stresses but that is over now.
I have also had to brush up on all the skills my dad taught me as a kid in doing home maintenance. I painted a couple of closets and a wall. I did something new, as well. I replaced the kitchen faucet. The old one wasn't moving back and forth and started leaking after I tried to fix it. Even after disassembling the faucet, it was still tough to turn. So I replaced it. The new faucet looks awesome, and the house is slowly becoming ours. :)
The house also has a shed out back. It was used by the previous owner as a work area. He had a bunch of tools and wood equipment. A radial arm saw was left as well as some yard tools and shop vac. But the shed was also very dirty. There was tons of saw dust. My mother and I have cleaned it out a lot. It isn't perfect, but it is much better than it was. Here is a picture of the shed before it got cleaned up.
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| Shed |
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Lilly's Baptism, Sarah's Foot, Nathan's Palm and the house
I need to set aside an evening a week and update the blog. I have been saying that I will update it on Sunday's but they are always busy with one thing or another. I have a few things to catch up on, so this might be a long post.
Lilly had her baptism the week after her birthday. She was able to have both sets of grandparents come visit for it as well as two of her aunts (Tonya and Shannon). It made for a fun weekend. It also helped to show how small our current house can be. My parents and sisters stayed in a local hotel, otherwise we would have been sleeping on top of each other. The Baptism itself was wonderful. I was able to baptize Lilly and her grandpa Butch confirmed her. She had grandma Pheobe and grandpa Rob speak as part of the program.
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| Lilly and Dad |
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| Lilly ready to be baptized |
The day before the baptism was the General Women's meeting. Grandpa Rob, Grandpa Butch, Sarah, Gus and I decided to go out for dinner during this. We ended up at Red Robin. It was fun to be with just my father, father-in-law and two of my kids.
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| Grandpa Butch |
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| Grandpa Rob and Gus |
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| Sarah |
A week after Lilly's Baptism was General Conference. The kids were good and we enjoyed listening to the words of the prophets. We decide to grill hamburgers after the final session of Conference. I have a metal spatula that I was using to pry the frozen patties apart with. I ended up getting the hamburger patties apart, but I also sliced my palm with the spatula in the process. It went through the skin and I had to get three stitches in the ER.
The following day Sarah and the other kids were running away from a bee in the front yard, and she ended up with a broken foot. It has been difficult to make sure that she is not walking on the broken foot and that she is healing fine. She has a wheelchair at school and we got one for home as well. But at home it is hard to keep her in it. She has been crawling around the house when she remembers that she isn't supposed to walk on it.
The last update I wanted to put was that we found this week that our landlord is not renewing the lease that we have. While we had planned on finding a new place this summer, it accelerated our plans. We have been looking at a number of houses to buy. If we don't find one quick, we will have to just rent for a little while.
The last update I wanted to put was that we found this week that our landlord is not renewing the lease that we have. While we had planned on finding a new place this summer, it accelerated our plans. We have been looking at a number of houses to buy. If we don't find one quick, we will have to just rent for a little while.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Lillian's Birthday - The big 8
Lilly turned 8 last Thursday. She is super excited to be baptized on Sunday. Her baptism is 5pm at our church building. We are all excited to see the steps that she is making in her life. My parents and Tonya and Shannon are in town and Jess's parents arrive tomorrow.
We celebrated as a family on Sunday. She got a few presents and we had cake, pictured below. I am starting to feel old with her getting older. I am sure it is worse for my parents watching their grand children grow and hit the big milestones.
We celebrated as a family on Sunday. She got a few presents and we had cake, pictured below. I am starting to feel old with her getting older. I am sure it is worse for my parents watching their grand children grow and hit the big milestones.
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| Lilly's Birthday Cake. It is a Penguin face |
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Large update, Backfilling the last few months
I am really behind on posting to the blog. There have been a number of times that I have wanted to posted but thought that there was too much to write about and I didn't have time to post anything. Hopefully, I will cover the highlights over the last few months without missing too much.
We stayed in Seattle for Christmas. It was nice to have just our family. We tried a new Christmas dinner tradition of having crab. It was fun and the kids loved it. We will have to see if the tradition sticks.
The kids and Jess were sick in December and January. I had to take Jess to the ER in December because of it. The doctor thought it might have been pneumonia, but it ended up being bronchitis exacerbated by some asthma. It took her a few weeks to get over it, but has been fine since. She has also been going to a doctor about her stomach and reflux issues. She is trying a hefty dose of Protonix, which is seeming to help most of the time. She also found out that she has anemia, and has been taking iron supplements and enjoying some good steaks to help with that.
I flew to Utah the end of January to attend a co-worker's wedding. It was a nice wedding and it was great to see them take that step in their family. A couple of our co-workers from Germany were in town and came down to the wedding as well. One, Frank Becker, stayed an extra day and went skiing with me to Deer Valley. It was fun to have some time on the slopes.
We had a snow day on a Sunday early in February. We took the time as a family to have some fun together. It doesn't snow much in Seattle and it was nice to be able to have some fun with the snow as a family. All the kids loved to throw snowballs and build some snow men.
Lilly and I have been skiing a few times. Sarah has come once. We need to just take a ski vacation as a family and put all the kids in lessons for a few days. They are at different enough levels that it is hard to teach them together.
I am currently in Dresden on a work trip. I took Friday off and went with Frank Becker and son as well as Frank Arnold to Austria to ski in the Alps. It was really fun. We stopped outside of Munich on Thursday evening. We headed to the Tux valley, where we skied a glacier on Friday. The slopes were different from where I normally ski but it was still lots of fun. We skied another resort on Saturday lower in the valley, so we could leave to head bak to Dresden early in the day. The rentals I got were really good for carving, so I had lots of fun on the snow. I can say that I have been in Austria, skied in the Alps and seen /skied on a glacier.
Lilly will be turning eight years old on the 20th of March, and she is getting excited to be baptized!
Jess and I can hardly believe we will have an eight year old in the house soon, (makes us feel OLD). Grandmas and Grandpas will be coming to Seattle to help us celebrate, we can hardly wait!!
We stayed in Seattle for Christmas. It was nice to have just our family. We tried a new Christmas dinner tradition of having crab. It was fun and the kids loved it. We will have to see if the tradition sticks.
The kids and Jess were sick in December and January. I had to take Jess to the ER in December because of it. The doctor thought it might have been pneumonia, but it ended up being bronchitis exacerbated by some asthma. It took her a few weeks to get over it, but has been fine since. She has also been going to a doctor about her stomach and reflux issues. She is trying a hefty dose of Protonix, which is seeming to help most of the time. She also found out that she has anemia, and has been taking iron supplements and enjoying some good steaks to help with that.
I flew to Utah the end of January to attend a co-worker's wedding. It was a nice wedding and it was great to see them take that step in their family. A couple of our co-workers from Germany were in town and came down to the wedding as well. One, Frank Becker, stayed an extra day and went skiing with me to Deer Valley. It was fun to have some time on the slopes.
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| Sarah and her snowman |
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| Lilly with Snowballs |
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| Jess and Gus |
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| Dad and Gus |
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| Sarah fixing gloves |
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| Lilly and Gus |
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| Lilly |
Lilly and I have been skiing a few times. Sarah has come once. We need to just take a ski vacation as a family and put all the kids in lessons for a few days. They are at different enough levels that it is hard to teach them together.
I am currently in Dresden on a work trip. I took Friday off and went with Frank Becker and son as well as Frank Arnold to Austria to ski in the Alps. It was really fun. We stopped outside of Munich on Thursday evening. We headed to the Tux valley, where we skied a glacier on Friday. The slopes were different from where I normally ski but it was still lots of fun. We skied another resort on Saturday lower in the valley, so we could leave to head bak to Dresden early in the day. The rentals I got were really good for carving, so I had lots of fun on the snow. I can say that I have been in Austria, skied in the Alps and seen /skied on a glacier.
Lilly will be turning eight years old on the 20th of March, and she is getting excited to be baptized!
Jess and I can hardly believe we will have an eight year old in the house soon, (makes us feel OLD). Grandmas and Grandpas will be coming to Seattle to help us celebrate, we can hardly wait!!
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| Countryside of the Tux valley |
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| Hintertux Glacier resort |
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| Hintertux Glacier resort |
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| Me in the Gondola going up Hintertux |
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| Hintertux Glacier resort |
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| View from Spieljoch resort |
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| View from Spieljoch resort |
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Thanksgiving and two major milestones.
Thanksgiving was this week. I took the week off of work as well. It was nice to enjoy some time at home with the family. We had the Barlow's over for Thanksgiving as has been tradition the last few years. They brought Salmon, some Thai curry, bart potatoes, and Asian Broccoli. We provided the traditional Thanksgiving fare. It was a great meal and we loved having the company.
We are starting to transition Gus into a toddler bed from his crib. He is taking his sweet time as the crib is still in the room, and he doesn't quite get that he has to stay in bed to go to sleep. He has successfully taken a single nap in his bed but it did take a while for him to go to sleep.
We hit two major milestones with Sarah this week. First on Monday, I took Sarah to the hospital and she had a surgery to get her port out. She was scheduled for an early morning slot but didn't get into the O.R. until 3:30pm or so. She was fasting the whole day and did a good job of trying to stay upbeat and happy.
We are starting to transition Gus into a toddler bed from his crib. He is taking his sweet time as the crib is still in the room, and he doesn't quite get that he has to stay in bed to go to sleep. He has successfully taken a single nap in his bed but it did take a while for him to go to sleep.
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| Gus sleeping in his bed |
The second milestone happened on Friday. She finished her last day of medications. She is now done with her treatment. Her chances of a relapse has dropped. She will still be seen in clinic once a month for the next year, after which her chances of a relapse drop again. I think she will then move to a quarterly visit to check her blood. It is exciting to be at this point. We are excited for Sarah's body to get back to full health. Thanks for all those who have supported us in this trying time. We have seen many miracles through this process and know that the Lord is involved in our lives. He may not cure every sickness, but he will always help to buoy us up so that we are able to bear our trails and our burdens.
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