Cali Trip and Kids B-day/misc...

DOH!

We had a great time in SoCal visiting Molly's parents and sister. Long drive both ways but the kids and dog did quite well for 13-15 hours of driving. No more dog trips though. The weather was typical Oregon weather that we were hoping to escape. I think it rained at least 5 days, with some of those days raining sideways rain. I was glad we paid to have our stinky dog cleaned before our trip only to have her rained on and muddy after our first day/night in cali. Jessy has a shepard as well (a shaggy version) and the dogs are the same age. The played/fought pretty much all day and night. The grandparents took the kids for a day and night and checked into a hotel pretty close to Jessy's so the kids could swim. Molly and I took Jessy to a gig in Studio City one night were she played a few songs with Jim Peterik (lead singer for 80's rock band Survivor). He wrote and performed "Eye of the Tiger" and "Vehicle" (when he was in the band Ides of March). Pretty entertaining show at and infamous Italian restaurant Vitellos, which is where Robert Blake allegedly killed or had his wife killed. Food was okay.


(Jim is guy to Jessy's left....still rockin')

As you can see from the photos, we went to Universal Studios a couple of days. Kind of cold for cali residents but there were plenty of Oregonians with t-shirts like me. The kids loved the Simpson's ride along with Jurassic Park, The Mummy's Revenge roller coaster, and my fav the Studio Tour with King Kong 360 3-D. If Universal could add 2-3 more good rides then it would for sure compete with Disney. We ate out a lot. If I see someone wearing an IN-N-OUT t-shirt I might just punch him in the face! ha

Here's few more pics from Universal:





The next time you see our kids in person ask them about the House of Horrors, which I'm sure will bring back some pleasant memories for them! ha

Okay, the kids b-day party will be this coming Sat. the 9th at Oaks Park. The party will run from 1-4 or so. Of course all are welcome. Not much else going on other than the kids started a spring track program and Caleb is doing Saturday flag ft-ball over in Tigard. We should have a busy spring.....don't know how I'm going to get all the house/yard projects done and still try to catch a fish or two???

Only one year later!

Really, are you serious it's been a year since we did anything on our blog? I guess I blame myface (as Molly used to call it) err..facebook for taking me/us away from this blog thing. So I guess we'll try to keep something on here for the sake of journal writing like we said last time.

Nothing too exciting going on here as we get closer to spring. Other than we are going to Cali for spring break and taking a 80 lb. German Shepard in our new rig. The kids thought it would be fun to bring the dog as Jessy has a German Shepard the same age so they wanted to make sure they could be friends. Jessy has a nice dog kennel so hopefully the two FEMALE dogs will not kill each other or get jealous...haha. We're trying to break up the drive a little by driving to Roseburg and then leaving the next morning for Cali. So I'm looking at 12-14 hours behind the wheel with kids and a dog.

We're looking forward to seeing Molly's family in SoCal. Molly's dad's been sick and let's just say the health care options are not the greatest (Kaiser). Don't really want to go to Disney but I'm sure we'll do at least one day. Molly and I want to go to Santa Monica, Huntington or Newport Beach and just relax and visit, but you all know with kids it's go, go and go some more. Maybe Universal Studios this time around.

My job with the county has picked up quite a bit. I'll be honest, that first month I was wondering how and what I'm suppose to do for work. That has been solved. I mainly cover the Clackamas County sheriff's office and all their risk/safety related issues. We're about $1 million into claims this year already, which is not good. Just completed re-designing a more ergonomic friendly shooting range with better office/work stations at the public training facility. It's nice and I try to shoot there at least monthly. The 4 day a week thing is really nice, although I need to start doing more house projects instead of fishing!

Molly's had to work more hours lately because of people leaving, getting hurt/sick, and mainly she's just the best therapist they have so they get her to work as often as possible. She is going back to SoCal in April for some training on pulmonary testing equipment and will be able to hang out with her family some evenings and a weekend so she's happy about that. We've been able to catch some movies of late (Kings Speech, True Grit) and on DVD Winters Bone and 127 Hours. All good films but we agree that Kings Speech was the best.

Caleb finished up bball last week with his last game and a fun pizza party. He told me after comparing all his sport trophies that this new one was the best and I have to agree. His coach won best sportsmanship coach of the season and the league is paying for his whole team to attend a Blazer game next Tuesday in good seats. I will go with. We decided not to do baseball this spring but instead flag football. It's a 5 on 5 league and only on Saturdays (practice 1 hour before game then play game...simple/done).

Alia and maybe Caleb might be joining a track club here in Milwaukie. Basically a well known track coach is putting on clinics/training sessions 2-3 nights a week to let kids decide what they would like to run and then train accordingly. There are youth track meets in the metro area every Saturday so they can sign up and we pay $10 per event. Alia is a good runner (it must skip a generation). Both the kids are learning the recorder during school music.....oh the sweet sounds they make (ha).

I think I'm done typing for now.