Christmas '07

It was a great Christmas this year. Both of the boys really got into the whole thing. For the first time, Brennen really understood that Santa brought presents & he had to be good.

It's so much fun for Bryan and I to see Brennen grow & begin to realize things that some of us forget about or take for granted. We always have a great time remembering when B was that age and reminding him how much he cried on Christmas when he was about the same age. He opened one present and just wanted to play with that one present. Brennen, like most aspects, is 180 degrees from B. He dove in headfirst and started opening all of his ... and then some that weren't his.

All in all it was a great day and the boys had a great time. Their annual gift from me (some sort of Nerf dart gun, ball launched) sparked an all out fight between Bryan, B, Brennen, Tim & PJ. Good times had by all, every once in a while it's good to break out the nerf guns and just start shooting at each other. War games in the house!

Brennen was most happy to get his monster trucks from Santa, BJ & his uncles Tim & PJ. Bryan and I were also "thinking" when we bought our kids a hockey / soccer set complete with little goals to fit in the hallway. Only after we were thinking ... "seriously, did we really give our kids sticks to play against each other with?" Good times!

Yea! More monster trucks for Brennen
Don't forget those yummy stocking stuffers early in the morning

Then it snowed! Something we Seattleites are not accustomed to! In fact of all the people I talked to today, none of us could remember the last time we had a white Christmas. B took the opportunity to have a snowball fight with his uncles & managed to hit uncle Timmy & take him out for most of it, I guess it takes one hit just right for a guy and he's done with the snowball fight. It made the day complete!

B playing with his sled on the little hill in our back yard

Maybe he's getting ready to go snowboarding?

Brennen with one of his new toys

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Holidays are coming

It's been a very busy year and so far, a very busy holiday season. We're doing well and today BJ started his winter break. He's very excited for his next couple of weeks off for the holidays. So, things in our house have been buzzing and hopefully 2008 will have many good changes to come!

It's been crazy & I haven't been able to post near as much as I'd like. With the holidays & a little time off, I'll have more time to post! I will post more here soon, I promise.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Torrential Downpours & the Flooding Caused

For those of you who live here in Western Washington, you are all too aware of the storms and the damage it's caused. Just thought I'd reflect a bit, it has been crazy. I went to bed Sunday night and thought "wow, there's alot of rain coming down". Didn't realize how much it really was until BJ's school called around 1:00 Monday and said, most roads to his school are flooded out and we're asking parents to come pick up their kids as soon as they can.

Instant panic ensued. So of course, I got Brennen ready to go and headed off to pick him up. The main road to his school, 228th was closed just past Canyon Park so I had to go on quite the detour. Tried to get on 405 - HWY 522 and it was closed as well. Then it was through the Bothell Business Park (Northcreek), which had been evacuated earlier in the day, to try and go to the back of Woodinville to Kokanee. The wait began, it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get to B's school to pick him up. What is normally a 10 minute, 5 mile drive ... an hour & 40 minutes ... what the heck! At least it only took us an hour to get home ... much better right?

I didn't realize until I got home, just how bad Woodinville really suffered. 522 was closed for 2 days, something I've never ever encountered in all my 31 years in the area. On the I-5 corridor between Seattle & Portland it's even worse, Centralia / Chehalis are completely decimated. I-5 has been closed since Monday and will be closed at least through Friday. Seeing as how I work at UPS, and all my trailers come through the I-5 corridor, you can only imagine the trouble we're having at work. I'm sure many, many other businesses are feeling the pinch as well. What a crazy week of weather.

Check out these pics of some of the flooding:

This is right off of the 522 exit on the left, right across from DQ & the 76 station.

Can you believe this is I-5 in Chehalis about 1/2 way between Seattle & Portland?
That's right, one of the main arteries of the west coast, with all the water on it!