Well we are down to the final days. It's gotten hot here in Moscow the last week or so, and Lindsey is really starting to want the boy to make his appearance. We of course are and have been anxious to meet him, but this heat (and us with out A/C) has really gotten her wanting him OUT!

Life has been pretty busy around here, until about a week ago. At the end of June we both had a series of outings that left us away from home quite a bit. Starting in June I took my soccer team to a tournament in Redmond, Oregon. The tournament was a great one for us to be a part of, unfortunately it was a tale of two days and two teams. On the first day the girls just could not capitalize on their opportunities, while our two opponents found ways to capitalize on the ONLY opportunities they had, we lost both games 2-1. On Sunday, however, the girls got things figured out and they won the first game 4-2 (gave up a goal late in each half) and won the second game 3-0, with all of our goals coming in the first half.

A week or so later Lindsey took off for Reno, NV for 2 days to present at a professional conference. She was one of 5 keynote speakers at the main session, and had been invited to do so, so she felt it was important for her to go. They put her up in a suite at the Grande Sierra resort and casino, it sounds like the room was pretty plush (tv in the marble bathroom).

She was home for two days and I took off on that Friday for the Wallowas (one of my favorite places on earth). My friend Trevor and I left Moscow and met our good friend Jesse Sears (who was getting married in a week, more on that later) in Enterprise, Oregon. We then met up with Roger Averbeck (owner operator of Wing Ski Tours, which is for sale by the way) at the Terminal Gravity Brewery. On Saturday we headed into an area called Wing Ridge, where Wing Ski Tours has a series of wall tents which are used as backcountry ski huts. We spent Saturday and Sunday in there collecting firewood (not a small task, he needs 9 cords for the winter, we got 3).

We got home late on Sunday night, and I needed to get some work done on my research, which is going well be the way. Jesse came back with us (he lives in Boise) and then headed to Coure d'alene with Trevor. They were supposed to pick-up our friend Jon Totten whom had flown into Spokane from Bellingham, WA to be with us for the upcoming bachelor party for Jesse. However, early Monday morning Trevor's mother passed away, very unexpectedly. We delayed some of our plans, and waited to see what was going to happen with the services. Trevor encouraged us to continue on our plans as the services were not until later in the week, and he really wanted us to do what we had planned.

So we proceeded, with heavy hearts of course. Jon and Jesse came down to Moscow, we picked up the Hud (Eric Huddelson, a very good friend and also Jesse's brother-in-law). Finally by about 8.30pm on Tuesday we got on the road. We were headed to the Cascades with our skis and climbing gear. We were pretty sure we were going to climb/ski one of the volcanoes, it was just a question of which one. The basic plan was to buck the traditional bachelor party scheme and do what we loved most SKI and be in the mountains. So at 2.30 am we found ourselves at the Timberline parking lot at Mt. Hood. We threw our sleeping pads down and pulled out our sleeping bags and fell a sleep. We woke to Bram Roll (another or our friends) running over a couple of cones and swinging between us at about 7 am. He was reading and rearing to go, he had been stuck on the other side of the Columbia the night before because of bridge construction. We were hungry, we had some burritos from Patty's Mexican kitchen in Moscow, but they were for the climb. So we hit the lodge, grabbed some food (really roughing it) and started climbing around 10 am. We got to about 9500' and decided that the snow was just too inviting. It was too late to try for a summit anyways, so we made a fast/fun ski decent.

Eventually we found our selves in Olympia sleeping in some one's yard, and with a new quest. Find Jesse a wedding ring (his bride had failed to make a decision on one), we accomplished this task in record time and before long we were in Kirkland, WA (outside Seattle ) to help the bride's family prepare the house for the wedding (the wedding was an outdoor wedding at the bride's home). The wedding went smoothly, lots of good friends and good times. An interesting side note. Jesse and Shelly were actually married this winter, for logisitcal reasons. She had no health insurance, and they wanted to purchase a home, and it was much easier with a court document saying they were married. However, Jesse made the comment that it never really felt real until that day. My take on that, you can stand before the court and say "I do" until you are blue in the face, but who is going to be there to help you make sure "you do" when time get rough? Your friends and family, all the court cares after that is if "you don't". Anyways, I finally made it home to Lindsey (she chose not to make the 5.5 hour trip to Seattle, for the sake of comfort) on Sunday night around 7pm.

So we are back in Moscow, and will probably be here until it is time to take Joey on his first back packing trip, sometime in September.