Oregon Butte Backpacking

Me and the two older boys had a great late season backpacking trip into the Blue Mountains last weekend. We saw an opportunity when we were all available so we took advantage and got away in the afternoon on Friday. We parked at Teepee Trailhead (along with several hunters vehicles) about 40 miles south of Dayton and set out. We got to camp in about an hour. The trail was a bit muddy and we ran across some patches of snow. We stopped about a quarter mile before our campsite at a spring to fill our water bottles. The trough the spring fed into was frozen over so we had to break some ice to get to the water before we pumped it through our filter. It was dark by the time we got there but we each had our headlights. We had some great foil dinners so we got a roaring fire going first then we pitched our tents. The clear night sky made for some awesome star gazing. We got our foil dinners on the coals and they cooked up nice. We enjoyed them around a nice campfire. Then we hit the hay. Our tents held up but the rustling wind made for a noisy sleep. It was a bit cold at night but we all stayed warm. We got up Saturday morning and the boys saw the amazing view from our campsite to the spacious valleys below. We were hungry so we cooked our bacon and eggs. Then we took a little walk to the fire lookout that has views of Oregon, Washington and even into Idaho on clear days. The lookout was boarded up for the winter. We went back to camp and just relaxed and napped and just messed around. We heated up our freeze-dried lunches then packed up and headed for home. Going down was significantly quicker than the trip up. We stopped in Dayton so see grandpa and grandma's house then it was back to the Tri-Cities. A wonderful trip!

Name The Carver

Here's a photo (sorry its a little blurry) of our family pumpkin carving efforts. Your mission (should you choose to accept it), is to identify who carved which jack-o-lantern. Send me your guesses!

"The Best Mutual Activity Ever"

The World's Fastest Production Automobile

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Nate and Spencer had the opportunity to visit with Jarod Shelby tonight for a mutual activity. Shelby has a manufacturing facility in West Richland and manufactures the SSC Ultimate Aero. They got a close-up look at the car and a close-up tour. Shelby even got the attention of Jay Leno. Here's a look at Jay's video of the car, pretty amazing and the boys were all abuzz when they got home.

Columbia River Swim

Well, the river was calling this morning. I missed a day of exercise this week so I wanted to get out and raise the heart rate to release some endorphins. Its sure nice to have Saturdays available for activities and other things. I called my swimming buddy Scott and he was raring to go! He had almost written the swimming season off, he was hesitant to call me but was ecstatic to hear my phone call with a swimming invitation. So, we loaded up the inner tubes and drove the 3 blocks to the river. We had several double takes as people saw us in swim suits with our floaties. A couple people asked if we were crazy, did we know it was October!? We got in and the current was swift with some extra debris on the surface. As I watched the shoreline to gauge our upstream progress, it didn't look like we were moving at all. We've had good workouts before without going upstream at all and I thought this would be one of those days. So, I just buckled down and swam and soon realized some progress. I was surprised when we actually made it up to the first dock. Then, we turned around and headed back. Time in the water was about half an hour. River water temperature 54.4 degrees. You can actually check the real time water temp by clicking here then clicking on "Leslie Groves" dot on map.

Nate Runs in Richland Invite Cross-Country Meet

Nate had a great run Saturday. He set a Personal Record (PR) on the 3.1 mile course at the Richland Invite. It was a blustery, cool day. Teams came from as far away as Everett, Pullman and Baker City. Nate is on the left of the starting group and hopefully you can pick him out in the other shots on the video. He's #1028.

God Bless the USA

On our recent family trip this past summer, we had the pleasure of seeing the water show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. This particular show was awesome to see and made me feel quite patriotic. I hope you can enjoy it too.

Rip Stick Maniacs

The boys have been fine-tuning their Rip Stick technique and wanted to do a little show for everyone. Grandma and grandpa got the Rip Stick for Justin's birthday he has almost worn the wheels off it! The boys wanted to make sure Landon got to see this!