Sophia Turns 6

Sophia turned 6! She has been planning this Tinkerbell party the entire school year. If you know Sophia then you know that when she gets something in her head it better darn well be that way or the whole city hears about it! We had a major situation brewing this week before her party that I was working very hard at negotiating through so that we wouldn't have a huge emotional blow out. The pinata..she asked me if I would make her a Tinkerbell pinata...I told her I didn't think I could make one like that and to that she replied "you made a Piglet one for my birthday last year" After I told her Piglets shape is a little easier to replicate in pinata form she says to me " fine, then we will just buy one." I quickly recovered and spent the next couple of days trying to get her to understand that I really didn't think we would find a Tink pinata. I hate the hard cardboard pinata, which is the reason I usually make them from scratch at home. BUT I remembered my favorite little Mexican store in town and that they carry genuine paper Mache pinata's, The day we went there...on the way my mom, dad and I all kept prepping her that most likely they will not have a Tink but we will find something good...she seemed to be handling her emotions ok...until we swung open the door, got two steps in and the very first pinata hanging right in front of us is this HUGE Tinkerbell pinata...I think I really saw fireworks in her eyes. What a way to try and teach the most stubborn girl in Spokane about dealing with things NOT going your way! arghh... Side note the pinata's at this store are amazing! Some of them were characters (i.e. Buzz Lightyear) legs and all and stood about as tall as me! They are really cool! Check it out this store sometime: La Pinata' on Sprague in the Valley.

sickness and visitors

My parents came to spend Spring break with us and this is what they came to on the day of arrival. Maddie was the only one of the kids that stayed strong. Here is a picture with Grandma & Grandpa's dog, Misty Bleu.

Backpacking School

I am starting Backpacking School 2008 this Friday night through the Spokane Mountaineers (www.spokanemountaineers.org) We have 7 indoor sessions on Friday nights from 7:00 - 9:30, an outdoor map & compass/basic outdoor first aid session, training hikes and a graduation backpack over Memorial Day weekend. I'm psyched.

Back to School

Besides being one of the hardest working, least lazy people I know, Tina is also one of the most determined and focused. She has decided to go to school to get Certified as a Nurses Assistant. She'll start her 3-week program, Mon-Fri, next week. She recently completed a CPR course as a pre-requisite to the CNA schooling. She likes to joke that she was going to "take a year off after high school" before going to college for teaching. No doubt that some kids out there missed out on the good fortune of having Miss French in their classroom, but I know my three kids are better off for having had Mrs. Williams at home with them to this point. I am proud of you babe, you make we want to be a better man.

Dead Man Walking

I recently found out that my cholesterol and LDL levels are, in the words of my doctor, "extremely elevated." I may actually have to start mixing some garden products into my diet. I think our dear friend Sarah Hurley (who happens to be an RN) summed it up best after I told her by saying, "Holy S*@$ Dan, that's HIGH!" You said it sister. Man I love getting older.

Bike Maintenance 101

I took Madeline to REI with me a couple weeks ago for a free bike maintenance class on a Thursday night. I took her along so we could spend time together on the way there and back and figured she would just kill time during the class by drawing in her notebook. A little while into the class, however, I looked down to find that she was taking notes. She looked up at me and said, "I was listening to what he was saying and thought 'If I don't write this stuff down, I won't remember it.' " I love that girl. She told me that night that she loved the class and wants to go to REI's free classes "just her and I" whenever we can. If you've never taken REI up on one of their free offerings, I highly recommend it. If you go to http://www.rei.com/, you can search for the store near you by zip code. Then click on 'REI Classes, Events and Presentations'. Lots of good stuff, and it's almost always free.

Oh hey, if you just happen to see the most beautiful girl...

Boom Baby!

Tina and I waded through the haze of smoke and degenerate gamblers out at the casino in Airway Heights a few weekends ago and turned our $20 into $90 on the penny slots. Our winnings funded a great birthday dinner at The Wolf Creek Lodge in Couer d'Alene the next night for Josh with him and Sarah and Jackie & Spencer. No pictures, but good times. Josh crept to the very brink of 30 this year!

Tina's demo tape for local meteorologist...

I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm fairly certain that KREM 2 here in Spokane may suffer in the ratings with my dear wife, Meteorologist Tina, doing the 10 o'clock forecast. Can't you hear the gang in the newsroom now..."Hey Tina, do you own a Mac?" "Why do you ask Bob?" "Because you aren't very PC!!" (insert rimshot/high hat sound byte here) Hah, I kill me!!!

a girl, her dog and a lightsaber

When will the madness end????

I think that Dan's exact words yesterday were, "I am going to hunt down Punxatawney Phil and shoot him in the back." I swear we have had more snow in this last winter (and now spring) than the last 3 winters combined!! These pictures were from Wednesday morning. By lunch all this snow was melted, BUT we woke up Thursday morning to more snow and by the time I took the kids to school I was walking out to the car in 2 1/2 inches of snow in my Birkenstocks. What the heck?? I refuse to wear winter shoes. I guess my toes will freeze in my stubbornness.

Mean old Mom!!

This is our beater Jeep that we have had for 10 years. In winter '06 it started having some fuse issues and then the breaks went out last summer and we pretty much garaged it. Well in recent weeks we decided to get it up and going again. I will admit I love the old tank feeling you get when driving it, BUT when I passed this car along as an "extra" when I got the mini van in '06 Dan decided to have a hay day with one of the windows...I think mostly to spite me as he added one decal after another. I kept telling him how I would never drive it again because I look like some BMX hillbilly mom...so he kept adding them, I'm sure just to irritate me...( Side note...he sells decals, banners and all that kind of stuff...so he has stickers coming out his you know what!) In any event this last weekend he told the kids that "mom is making me take the stickers off"....but Sophia wanted to make sure that he left the American flag sticker on. WELL, all but one came down and the flag was a casualty. Needless to say, Sophia shed a tear and a loud roar! I know I am cruel. But I am the MOM!

Dodgeball - Smash

After a couple of attempts we finally our got act together and made it to our first Dodgeball tournament. The parks and recreation department have periodic tournaments throughout the year and we finally got a team in for the St. Paddy's Day Smash event. We had a blast. Just so happened that one of the local high schools decided to have a mass outing that night... they must have had a rowdy bunch of about 60 kids. Despite being the oldest team, we still did pretty well and all those young kids were cheering for us when we were facing our final defeat (against a team close to our ages). I think I recall them chanting, "Let's go old guys!" ouch! Hopefully soon we will get some copies of game shots from some of our fans. But I do have these shots of some of us afterwards ordering up our Maragrita's and appetizers at Applebee's.

Dave, Tina and Sarah
Wes, Josh, Dan and really tired Tristan
Tina, Sarah and Joy

Easter 2008

Another successful egg dying year! Other than the normal frustrations...Dan hates the smell of eggs and of vinegar and the two combined make him want to harf. OHHHH and how can one forget...I had to have the emergency do over for Sophia....the next morning she was taking her colored eggs out to gaze upon them when they all went tumbling to the ground and crashed! AND if you know Sophia, the entire neighborhood heard all about it! It was quite an ordeal. But we managed to make identical copies of all but one. Whew!

The Pup

Dan and I were having fun getting the little badger hound to burrow through a carpet tube. She only got so far in before her little hind feet would slip and she shot right out backwards...she was having a fun time. If you look close on the bottom pic you can see her little eyes...Dan was taking a picture from the opposite end of a 12ft tube.

For Boys Only!

Unless you are male or have a son...or possibly a husband who in secret dreams of being a super hero....you won't understand these photos! This is the..."I found a hole in my underwear so I shredded them to create some kind of superhero cape thing" followed by...."I was jumping, wrestling with Micah and flying off the couch at church and made contact with the concrete floor." The latter pitcure to me looks like a CPS picture...yikes!

Decorations & Charades

I was out one evening and the kids and Dan made decorations for St Patrick's day! They all turned out great!


On another evening, the kids wanted to play a game and I decided that I was getting tired of Littlest Pet Shop Monopoly and Clue and Sorry....so I created some funny things for a game of charades....the kids were hysterical!

St. Patty's Day Parade 2008

St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Spokane has become a tradition with our friends Nick and Somi and their two kiddos. Now we did miss last year when we were out of town, but otherwise we have gone every year since we moved to Spokane. The kids have a blast and the parade walkers throw tons of candy!! I think they each left with more candy than they got on Halloween.
Had to laugh as we noticed this group coming through. They must have had 20 dogs with them...but none like our little Lucy! (or Patches O'Williams as my sister Christy calls her)


Sophia loves the color of this truck...but she kept saying she would rather it be a mini van like ours! Yikes!

These two are our favorites from the parade. Hilarious that the recovery group followed right behind the legalizing marijuana marchers!

Thought I would end the parade march with a little more traditional look!!

Nice weather FINALLY!!

Finally have a few days of dry weather. Now that Sophia and Spencer are on two wheels we took a walk to our park down the road with the new pup. The kids had a blast getting into some Spring fun...kicking the soccer ball and throwing the baseball again. Woohoo...oh and a mother mustn't leave home without the light saber!