Gorgeous Night Caps A Fine Day

Colorful night sky from Alki Beach in West Seattle

We had a full, fun day yesterday.

It all started relatively early. Our nephew, Tim, was running in the Rock-and-Roll Marathon. I had planned to go cheer him on by myself, but Karri and the kids decided to come along and turn it into a sightseeing adventure for our nephew Jeffrey (visiting from Ohio), and to show our support for cousin Tim. We were out of the house shortly after 8 - all of us except Thomas, who had an early afternoon basketball game (and wanted to sleep in a bit).

We were fortunate to catch Tim a few different places along the course. We cheered him near the 8 mile mark, then again as he passed the same point going the opposite direction at mile 11.

There were bands setup all along the course (Rock-and-Roll Marathon, right?!). This blues group was just getting started while we waited at mile 11. They were great. Not sure the neighbors liked it at 9:00 on a Saturday morning though!

Go Tim, Go!

Tim (on the left) running with friend and co-worker, Chris.

One of the many amazing views along the course. That's Mt. Rainier in the distance, from the shores of Lake Washington, near Seward Park.

Tim's personal cheering section!

After he passed us, we hopped in the car, headed downtown and stopped at Planet Java Diner for a late breakfast.

Putting away a short stack while cousin Tim is out pounding pavement!

From breakfast, we headed to the 23 mile marker, along 2nd Avenue in downtown, to catch Tim one last time before the finish.

Home stretch

Then we hustled to the finish area and caught him as he came out the chute after finishing.

Still had the strength to work up a smile! He was wiped out.

The race finished at the Seattle Center - home to many of our summertime festivals - near the Space Needle. There was lot's going on - bands, street performers, giveaways, etc., as well as the thousands of runners and their supporters.

Seattle Center fountain

Obligatory Space Needle photo!

After retrieving Tim's stuff, we gave him a ride home, then dropped Karri, Matthew and Victoria at home. Jeffrey and I immediately headed to Bellevue to catch Thomas' basketball game - the first game of the summer league his AAU team plays in. Traffic was horrible (due to marathon road closures) and it took us over an hour to get there (normally 25 minutes), so we got there 5 minutes into the second half. Glad we went though. We won by 2 in a game that went right down to the wire. T played well while we were there, including forcing a key turnover with the other team threatening to score with 5 seconds to go. (Sorry - too exciting, no pics!)

After a little down-time at home, Thomas went to go see a movie with his buddy Ross while the rest of us headed to Tim and Eang's for pizza and to meet the newest addition to their family - George, a cockapoo puppy that Eang had just picked up from Eastern Washington earlier in the day. He's pretty darn cute. And not lacking for attention...

Tiny George

Happy Victoria!

As might be expected, Tim was exhausted. We left before 8pm, stopped home to grab Jack, longboards & rollerblades, and headed down to Alki Beach in West Seattle to enjoy the sunset and get some evening exercise. So glad we did. The kids boarded/bladed along the waterfront path while Karri, Jack and I walked/jogged (and occasionally sprinted), trying to keep up. We stopped along a grassy stretch to watch the sunset...

Final seconds of sunlight.

Taking a break to watch the sunset.

Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound

It was a perfect cap to a very fun day!

What a Night!

Our nephew, Jeffrey, arrived Monday night from Cleveland. He just finished his freshman year at Ohio State and is visiting us for a couple weeks. We are all very excited to have him here!

Jeffrey spent the afternoon sightseeing with Thomas - who finished finals at 11am today and is done with school for the year. We ended up forming a last-minute plan for the evening that turned out to be great fun...

The US Men's soccer team was hosting Panama tonight in a World Cup qualifying match at Century Link Field in downtown Seattle. I had been invited a few days ago to go with a couple friends. As the day progressed, Karri and I thought Jeffrey and our kids might enjoy the game too. Long story short - we were able to find some last-minute tickets and I took the kids with me.

After some light rain earlier in the day, we had a beautiful night. Decided to take the water taxi from West Seattle to downtown. We just barely caught the 5:30 boat.

Happy cousins - heading to the game

Our seats were on opposite sides of the stadium - very close to the action. The kids were about 10 rows up. I was in the front row!

The kids seats were on the right side of this photo - about 10 rows up.

Moments before the 2nd US goal

A raucous crowd - 7th largest in US World Cup Qualifier history!

It was an exciting game. The US dominated most of the action and came out with a 2-0 win! The fans were awesome - most on their feet from start to finish. The crazies in the above photo sang songs/chants the entire game... seriously!

We reunited after the game and hustled back to Pier 50 to catch the water taxi. Once again - running to just barely catch the boat!

Showing off our (free giveaway) scarves on the ride home. A gorgeous night!

It was great listening to the kids rave about how much fun they had! Hopefully not a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Jig is Up

Matthew and my bonding weekend is coming to a close. No better way to cap it than with a greasy spoon breakfast...

Sitting down to eat

We had some leftover home fries from our Greek feast last night. I diced them, browned them, then scrambled them with eggs, sausage, ham and cheese. Matthew loves breakfast like this. Me too.

Karri and Victoria just pulled in the drive - just as we were cleaning up the last of the breakfast dishes. It's like Christmas here as they are showing off and passing out some of the purchases from the Nike outlet store. Not only were things heavily discounted (most were 50+% off), there's no sales tax in Oregon. We should be stocked up on sports gear/attire for a while (hopefully)!

Mathew just got invited by a friend to go to the Mariners' game today. Victoria's got a soccer game at 1. Thomas should be home soon after (they are playing their last game as I type - hope they are doing well).

Divide and Conquer

Kids activities pulled us in separate directions this weekend...

Karri, Thomas and Victoria headed 3 hours south on I-5 to Portland, OR, where Thomas is playing in the Rose City Showcase - a basketball tournament sponsored by Nike. They left mid-day Friday, spent the night and had 2 games today - a win and a loss. They'll have 1 more game (possibly 2) tomorrow. Karri and Victoria need to head back early for Victoria's soccer game at 1pm Sunday. Thomas will catch a ride home with friends.

Matthew played in a lacrosse tournament today (Saturday) in Snohomish - about an hour north of Seattle on I-5 (near where the bridge collapsed a couple weeks ago). 4 games and 4 losses. A tough day for the kids. It seems we didn't have much business being in the tournament in the first place. Our team was a combination of kids from 2 squads who expressed interest in playing in tournaments after the season ended 2 weeks ago. We haven't practiced in those 2 weeks. We played in a 7th/8th grade bracket with mostly 7th graders against select teams that were much bigger and faster, and more skilled. But we still had fun...

A few of the parents organized a 'tailgate' for between games. Each family brought something to contribute - burgers, dogs, salad, fruit, chips, desserts, beverages, etc. It worked out great and made for a fun way to pass the time between games.

Big tournament with dozens of teams and lots of tailgating!

Team Wolfpack relaxing between games

The tournament took place in a large, open field next to a regional airport. They must have a skydiving school there, because skydivers were circling overhead all day and landing about 100 yards from the lacrosse fields. It felt like the pre-game festivities at the Rose Bowl! Made for good entertainment.

Plane taking off in the background

Matthew and I stopped on our way home at Kokoras Greek Grill, a great local spot here in West Seattle, and picked up a couple gyro platter dinners. We brought them home and enjoyed them on our patio.

Bachelor dinner on the patio (that's my Pacifico - not Mattew's)

After dinner, we watched a movie together. A great father-son bonding day - not something we get to do very often.

Sounds like Karri, Thomas and Victoria are having fun together too. After the games today, they met up with a college friend of Karri's who lives in Portland, whom she hadn't seen in over a decade. After a stop at the Nike outlet store and a team dinner, Thomas went to watch more tournament games with the team while Karri and Victoria had a girls night. Good stuff.

Final CYO Track Meet

A beautiful day for the last meet of the year. Matthew and Victoria both ran the 800m - a race they've rarely run. Matthew also anchored a 4x100m relay team. No medals, but both ran great races. Very proud of them. I think everybody is glad to be done with track though.

Start of the 4th-5th girls 800 - Victoria is 3rd from right

Getting squeezed on the inside

Strong finish!

Start of 7th & 8th boys 800 - Matthew at far left

Battling off a challenge in the home stretch 

Finish of the 4x100

And So It Begins

Hard to believe it's June 1st. Even though the kids still have a week+ of school - and summer never (really) starts in Seattle until July 5th (after inevitable rain on the 4th) - it feels like our 'summer' starts this week. I told Karri last night over dinner (another impromptu 'date night') that it feels like we've been slowly click-clacking our way to the highest point on the roller coaster. This weekend is the crest where you catch your breath, stick your hands up in the air, and get ready for the ride that will be Summer 2013.

It's a relatively uneventful weekend for us. No lacrosse, no basketball tournaments, no entertaining. Just a track meet (last one!) and a soccer game on Sunday.

Last night felt very similar to last Friday. Thomas had a buddy over after school, then basketball practice, then back here for a sleepover. Matthew had a CYO dance - last one of the school year. Victoria and a friend spent the evening at the pool with a gaggle of their classmates. In between shuttling kids around, Karri and I were able to sneak in another quiet, though quick, dinner together.

As for 'shuttling' kids around... I drove six 7th grade boys - and one brave 7th grade girl - to the dance last night. We've apparently become the go-to family for driving kids to the dances. Matthew said it felt like every boy in his class asked him at school if they could have a ride to the dance (about 15 minutes away). For many of the dances this year, he's had a handful of boys come over right after school. They play basketball, jump on the trampoline and do general, goofy, 7th-grade-boy stuff. Then we feed them pizza and drive them to the dance. We are happy to have the boys congregate at our house. The nice part is, somebody else gets to pick them up at 10pm and drop 6 or 7 kids at their respective homes.

About 20 minutes before we were planning to leave, Matthew (somewhat sheepishly) asked if we could take 1 more person to the dance - a girl from a nearby school, who the boys know from the pool, who apparently couldn't find a ride. Emma showed up a few minutes later with her dad who, understandably, wanted to check out the situation. Soon after, we were piled in the car. We had to drive with all the windows down to avoid asphyxiation from all the 'AXE' deodorant body spray each of the boys had generously applied moments earlier! I don't remember having the same obsession with how I smelled when I was 13.

Need to get on with the day here. I'll be sure to include some pictures in my next post.

Spring Sports Wrapping Up

(Wow, two posts in one night!)

A brief, belated wrap-up from our weekend...

The Spring sports season is coming to a close. We had nice weather and, fortunately, remembered to bring our 'good' camera to the events on Saturday. After all the cellphone photos I've posted of the kids competing, I couldn't resist including a few sharper images from Saturday.

Matthew had his last regular season lacrosse game. There are no playoffs, but the team may play in one or more tournaments in June - so we may not be done yet. Matthew has had a lot of fun playing and would like to play in at least one of the tournaments.

We lost a close one on Saturday (3-2, I think) against a good and very physical team. Things got a little chippy at times on the field and there were some hard hits. Matthew got blindsided by one and quickly found himself on the ground. But he got up quickly and played on. We only had three subs, so Matthew got lots of playing time.

The orange socks make him much easier to pick out on the field!

Defending the goal

Cutting off an attack.

Matthew had a great season and learned a lot. I think he'll be back again next year.

After lacrosse, we headed to the Individual Championship track meet. This is the event where they award individual (and relay team) performances. In 2 weeks they'll have a Team Championship meet where the school with the most points will be crowned the overall winner (just an excuse to have another meet!).

Neither Matthew or Victoria qualified in an individual event, but Victoria's 4x100 relay team barely qualified last weekend. So we had the pleasure of running in the last event of a 5+ hour track meet! Fortunately, we didn't have to stay for the whole thing - although Victoria had to be there to check in at the beginning of the meet.

The girls did great - finishing 5th in a fast field. Victoria ran the 3rd leg.

Outside lane, just after the hand-off, heading into the 3rd turn

Final turn

Happy trackster

Cassady, Victoria, Alena and Emma with 5th place ribbons!

Final meet is in 2 weeks and we will be done!

Welcome Back Victoria; Busy Saturday Ahead

Happy Camper

I picked Victoria up at school around noon yesterday. Was there as the buses pulled up from Camp Seymour. Lots of tired-looking but very happy kids. Sounds like Camp was a huge success. Victoria definitely had fun. Some of the highlights she mentioned included holding a variety of reptiles (a turtle, some sort of lizard, and 3 snakes!) and bonding with her cabin-mates (learning camp songs, putting on a skit, night-time bunk chatter, etc.). Good, clean, 5th-grade fun!

Full day today. I just dropped Thomas and his friend Nicole at West Seattle Bowl. Thomas' AAU basketball team is hosting a bowl-a-thon fundraiser to help pay for their trip to Las Vegas in July for a basketball tournament. I'm sure he'll go 'hang out' with friends after - likely won't see him again until tonight - possibly tomorrow if he angles for a sleepover at one of his buddy's.

Matthew has a lacrosse game today - 2nd-to-last game of the year (I think). We play Bainbridge Island which, apparently, is a very good team.

Then Victoria and Matthew have an afternoon track meet. This is the 'qualifier' meet - you have to compete in this one to qualify for the championship. That means lots of kids competing. And that means a LONG track meet. I'm planning on 4-5 hours. I've volunteered to help with one of the field events, which I've never done before, but it should help pass the time. Fortunately, it looks to be a nice day.

Karri should be coming in the door any moment from her massage - an early Mother's Day surprise from the kids and me!

Monday Miscellany

We enjoyed another weekend of nice weather. It was great to be outside enjoying a bit of sun (when not inside watching March Madness). Hard to believe that fresh snow was falling on most of our relatives in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Conflicting sports schedules meant divide-and-conquer on Saturday. The results: 3 victories, 0 pictures. Sorry.

I took Victoria to her volleyball match in Sammamish - about a 40 minute drive east of our house. We spent more time getting to the gym than the entire match lasted. But it was fun. The girls played really well and won 2-0.

Karri took Matthew to his lacrosse game in Shoreline - about a 30-minute drive north. Sounds like we dominated an undersized team, 13-0 (I think). Matthew got his first goal of the season and really had fun.

Then we met back at the kids' school for Matthew's volleyball match. We missed the first game, but arrived in time for him to play most of the second game. Another 2-0 win.

Thomas has basketball practice on Saturday. Their first tournament isn't for 2 more weeks.

My nephew, Tim, and his wife, Eang, stayed with us last week. They are moving from an apartment to a rental house (both in West Seattle - close to our house) and the timing left them 'on the street' for a week. It was fun to have them here.

Tim got up Sunday morning and ran the Mercer Island half-marathon, got home a little before noon, showered, then headed over to unpack their new place. All this while I was barely on my 2nd cup of coffee! Ahh... youth.

Sunday afternoon, Karri and I took the boys to see 'The Life of Pi' (Victoria went to Tim & Eang's). We had wanted to catch it on a big screen, rather than watch it at home. I'm glad we did. The cinematography was really amazing. I enjoyed the story, though didn't love it. 3.5 stars (out of 5).

I also managed to cut my grass this weekend - 2nd time this year. Our yard looks it's best this time of year - reaping the benefits of all the Spring rain.

Blue sky, green grass

We leave Friday morning to spend Easter in beautiful San Diego with my in-laws. Always fun. We are anxious to see Donna (Mimi) and Bill (Pop-Pop).

Hectic Spring Weekend

Busy start to the weekend...

Friday night, Victoria and I attended the annual Father-Daughter Glow-Bowl hosted by our school at West Seattle Bowl. It's a great event for all grades (K-8).  We take over the entire place (30+ lanes). They turn on the black lighting and turn up the music. The girls wear white and/or sparkly clothing and write on themselves with highlighters so they 'glow' under the black lighting. They really get into the bowling at first, but interest usually wanes after an hour or so - once the pizza is served. After that, it's dancing and general silliness for the girls, while the dads finish off the open bowling frames. It's a great opportunity for the dads to connect too (over pitchers of beer, of course).

This year, we 'adopted' two of Victoria's best friends, Emma and Natalie, whose dads were both out of town for the weekend.

Emma, Victoria and Natalie 

Her Grandpa and Great Uncle Frank (Euclid Elks Bowling legends) would be proud!

Thomas had basketball practice and slept over at a buddy's house. Matthew had volleyball practice and then he and Karri went out to dinner together, came home and watched a movie - a fun mother-son bonding night too.

Saturday has been a whirlwind of kid activities... as usual.  Victoria had a 9am volleyball match (lost in 2 games, but played really well). Thomas had basketball practice, followed by a driving lesson (yes, in the 'Student Driver' car). Matthew had a 2pm volleyball match (won in 2 games!) followed by a 3pm lacrosse game!

This was his team's first official game. They played Lakeside middle school, whom we heard have a really good program. We got there after the game had started (due to the volleyball match) and expected he would have to wait to get in the game. Before Karri and I could get situated on the sideline, he was in the game, had picked up a loose ball off the face-off and was running up the field toward the goal. So much for warming up!  He had a great game - no goals, but was 'in the action' and had a lot of fun. And we won - 8-4!

Waiting for the face-off

On the attack

Each game ends with 'Honor the Game' - both teams meet at midfield and each coach compliments the opposing team, then awards helmet stickers to 2 or 3 opposing players they felt played particularly well or showed outstanding sportsmanship. Very cool.

Post-game player photos

Did you happen to notice Matthew is squinting from the sun?! Not something we expect this time of year in Seattle. It's been a beautiful weekend and is supposed to continue through Sunday. Karri got out for some yard work today. I plan to cut the grass tomorrow. Our cherry tree is starting to blossom, leaves are sprouting on our hydrangeas, and buds are formed on our lilacs. Ready for Spring!

Quick Update

I've struggled to find time to post. Thought I'd give a quick update for those keeping track at home...

Karri and my Mexico adventure ended much too soon! We had a fantastic time with plenty of rest and relaxation. We need to find a way to do that more often. Until we do, I guess the pictures will have to suffice...

Ahhhh!

We jumped right back into the fray upon our return. We got back Thursday night, both of us worked on Friday and then we had a full weekend of activities. Fortunately, Donna/Mimi was able to stay with us for a few extra days. She and Karri got some mother-daughter time Friday night over dinner at Phoenecia - a wonderful restaurant on Alki Beach here in West Seattle. Donna had an early flight out Saturday morning (the same flight Karri and I had taken a week earlier... 6:50am departure!) to San Diego, where Bill/Pop-Pop joined her and they boarded a plane for their own turn at R&R in Puerto Vallarta!

We are so fortunate that Donna was willing and able to come up and stay with the kids. They all had a ball, as usual. 

The rest of the weekend was filled with kid activities: lacrosse practice, volleyball games, basketball practice, ski bus to Crystal (for Thomas), etc. I wasn't very good about taking pictures, but snagged a couple with my phone during Matthew and Victoria's volleyball games.

Middle blocker

Ready for action!

Matthew had his first ever lacrosse game... an intrasquad scrimmage. He really enjoyed it and, I must say, did pretty well considering he's played the game less than 2 months. His coaches appreciated his effort and recognized him after the game for his attitude and hustle - presenting him with a sticker to add to his helmet. Pretty cool.

Saturday night, Karri and I went to a team outing with some of her co-workers. We went to see Cirque de Soleil's 'Amaluna' - a live performance under a 'big top' tent in Redmond (10 minutes east of Seattle), then to a delicious dinner at Koral in Bellevue. Neither of us had been to a Cirque de Soleil performance. We both enjoyed it very much, though both agreed it's not high on our list of things to do again.

We've had chilly, but Spring-like weather in Seattle and have even seen the sun a bit. Monday evening, Karri and I took Jack for a walk through Lincoln Park and got to enjoy a nice sunset.

Snow-capped Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Beautiful sunset!

Happy dog!

That gets me caught up again. Hopefully I'll get back into the habit of posting more frequently!