Sunday, December 02, 2007

Thanksgiving in Mukilteo

We spent Thanksgiving in Mukilteo with the Bezolds--including Don & Dorothy from Chicago! We continued the family traditions including the Day-After-Thanksgiving picture at Malbak's poinsettia tree. We also celebrated with Kristi after she ran the Seattle Half Marathon.























































































Saturday, November 17, 2007

Garrett & Mary Ellen's Wedding

Last weekend we flew to Seattle for the wedding of Stephanie's high school friend, Mary Ellen. Garrett, her fiancé had cancer last year but is largely recovered. It was great to share their wedding day with them.






























Stephanie's friend Elissa was the maid of honor.















The garter was on a Husky football. I love the feigned attempts to catch it. Art (the clear receiver) led the jazz combo that played at our wedding reception.





























I forgot my cuff links, so Dave loaned me these mafia beauties.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

University of Idaho Homecoming

A few weeks ago we drove up to Moscow for Homecoming. A lot of my buddies came back from all over and most of us stayed with Jason, Kaely and Coleman Randles in Troy. The Mighty Vandals had a tough time with Fresno State, but Stephanie got to see that there's no place like Dome.















Here's Fixter and I outside the Commons with a view of the Kibbie Dome.















Joe Vandal!

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Oktoberfest

Mom and Dad stayed with us during the end of last week while Dad attended a high school counseling conference. Among other events, we went to Oktoberfest at the Idaho Botanical Garden. We had a fun time with them.






































Ste Chapelle Harvest Party

Last weekend Dave and Vicki flew to Boise. We enjoyed the Capital City Market, the Eagle Food and Wine festival, a game of Hearts, and the Ste Chapelle Winery's annual harvest party. It was great to have them here.

















































The wind blew the power out about half way through the afternoon, so the band, High Street came out of the gazebo and played an acoustic set on the lawn for us. They were great as usual.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Labor Day in Glendale

We flew down to LA and spent a great Labor Day weekend in Glendale with Ryan, Amy, Andrea, and Bentley.

On Saturday Ryan gave us a tour of the DreamWorks Animation campus where he works. It's fantastic! The architecture reminds me of the Stanford Campus.

That afternoon we drove down to Newport Beach then caught the LA Galaxy/Real Salt Lake match. It's the first pro soccer game we'd been to. I couldn't believe that (1) they have their own stadium and (2) it was nearly sold out. I didn't think soccer was popular in America. We didn't get to see David Beckham play because he had sprained his knee the previous week, but it was still a good match.

Andrea drove down from Santa Barbara on Saturday night so on Sunday the five of us drove to Salt Creek Beach. It's a great beach (and happens to be where we got engaged). We played in the surf and laid in the sun.

We flew back to Boise on Monday night and have been enjoying the cooler weather here since then.



















This is the patio outside the DreamWorks cafeteria. There are koi over a foot long in their lake and the man-made river that flows into it.



















There was plenty of marketing material up for the movie Ryan recently finished, Bee Movie. He's now working on Madagascar 2 for a while before he starts on Monsters versus Aliens.















Here's Ryan's office. We got some sneak previews from Bee Movie and Madagascar 2.















Here's the Galaxy game at the Home Depot Center. Ryan got us great seats!















A rogue wave took out our first spot on the beach. Alas, it was Davey Jones's locker for Stephanie's cell phone.















Toned and tanned

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Climbing Thompson Peak

This past weekend we climbed Thompson Peak with our friends from church Nathan and Michelle Bailey, Joe Raybell, and his cousin Jonah. At an elevation of 10,751 feet, Thompson is the tallest mountain in the Sawtooth Range. This is the first mountain that Stephanie has ever climbed and the first that we have summited together! As mountaineering always is, it's a colossal undertaking but it's so rewarding.













On Friday we drove to Redfish Lake then backpacked to a nameless glacial lake 5 miles west of Redfish. This took three hours and we climbed about 3,000 feet during this leg of the trip. After camping for the night, we summited on Saturday. It took us three hours to summit from camp. It took us 2:40 to descend back to camp. It took us 2:30 to descend from Camp to the parking lot.















Backpacking in with the Sawtooths on the horizon















Here's the moon passing behind Thompson's southern ridge. It cast a brilliant glow on the east ridge of Williams Peak that night.



















Here's our camp in the shadow of Thompson. The peak looks much closer here than it actually is. ;)















Here's the the saddle between Thompson and Williams Peaks. You can see Joe and Jonah just below the small snowfield to the left.



















Stephanie ascending the face to the saddle between Thompson and Williams Peaks















Nathan and Michelle ascending the face to the saddle between Thompson and Williams Peaks















On the summit!















Here you can see the lake we camped by and the route we took to get there.















Looking South from the summit















Little Redfish (left) and Redfish Lakes from the summit















The town of Stanley behind the ridge of Williams Peak



















Stephanie flexing on the descent now that she's conquered the tallest the Sawtooths have to offer. The summit is the peak to the left above her.