Today was Nate's chance to go skiing for the first time with Grandma Lin and dad at the Bluewood ski area near Dayton. Nathaniel was excited for the opportunity to hit the slopes. We arrived at Bluewood to a chilly day, the temperature hovering around 10 degrees. We got all geared up and bundled ourselves in layers and headed for the platter pull on the bunny hill. Nate did great without much instruction. Then it was time for a lesson to help him be successful. Grandma arrived and went down a few runs with dad then we watched as Nate finished up his lesson. We put in a few more runs then went to the lodge to warm up and eat our lunch. After lunch, we put in as many more runs as possible before closing time. Nate kept progressing each run. Although it was a cold day with some scattered snow showers, it was a great day. The mountain was pretty crowded with winter break traffic but the lift lines were short. Along the edges of all the runs was 3 or more feet of awesome, fluffy powder so we had a ball blasting the powder and by the end of the day we were hitting a few jumps too! We'll sleep well tonight! A great day!
Nate and Justin love snow. Dad's pretty fond of it too. So recent snowfall allowed us to work together to build a snowman. Then the idea kind of snowballed (sorry, bad pun!). We ended up with a snow family! It gathered quite a lot of attention from passers by. Some even stopped to take pictures. Alas, the above freezing temperatures have made this snow family a thing of the past (once there was a snowman...). But we have these pictures to remember them by.
Nate is working toward getting his Eagle Scout award and he's almost there!
His Eagle Scout Project is now complete and he's a little closer to acheiving Scouting's highest rank. His project was to replace some rotten bollards (posts) at Howard Amon Park near our home in Richland. The old bollards were made of railroad ties and were looking pretty sad. Nate worked with the City of Richland to get this all organized. He scheduled the project for November 20th. The city asked him to solicit donations for the project. He contacted a local PVC pipe company and arranged to have ALL of the pipe donated, we just had to pick it up and cut it.
Denise and Nate developed an assembly line and made pretty quick work of cutting the 6 inch, class 200, 20 foot pipes into 36, 5 foot pipes, ready for installation.
It started off a chilly 41 degrees so we made sure we had donuts and hot chocolate for the workers. The first order of business was to give instructions to the 35 volunteers who kindly showed up at 9 a.m.
The volunteers from the ward, seminary, school and family moved all of the old posts out of the way.
The new poles were marked at the 2 foot point and sunk in the ground. Some holes had to be dug out more, some had to be filled in. Then, the volunteers put bags of cement and some water and mixed it in the hole. Sharp eyes trued up the poles so they weren't tipping different directions.
Then, there was gravel to fill each pole. Dirt and more gravel finished off the pole and voila!
You've got yourself an Eagle Scout Project! The weather was too cool for painting but they'll be capped and painted at a future date.
It's time for the annual halloween family jack 'o lantern quiz! Don't scroll down yet!
Don't Scroll down until you guess who carved which jack 'o lantern Match these names to the proper creation: Justin, Mindy, Nate, Denise, Paul. Now, you can scroll down for the answers!
Our family just finished a wonderful week enjoying the magic of Priest Lake in northern Idaho. The water was clear, warm and refreshing! We pulled our tent-trailer up and stayed at Luby Bay Campground. Spots are hard to get at the campground. We had reservations at two separate sites because there were no full week sites open. The morning we got there, I figured we'd try to get a first-come, first-serve spot so we didn't have to move mid-week. As we pulled in, a guy told us he just pulled out of #17 so we hustled over and staked our claim and got to stay in the same place all week long!
The best thing about Priest Lake is the water. We got plenty of play time in as it was just a short walk from our camp site to the beach. We also had the good fortune of a friend who loaned us 2 Waverunners and 2 kayaks for the week. We'll need to sell one of the kids to pay the gas bill but they were sure fun! We enjoyed going out to a couple of beaches on islands in the lake as day bases for our fun activities. We could relax and sun on the beach, play on the Waverunners, swim, kayak, snorkel, chase fish (we saw plenty), see critters (chipmunks, frogs, etc.),
We also had fun throwing Frisbees and jumping off a warning light pier! There's something about Priest Lake, it is so beautiful and relaxing and refreshing.
The moonlight swims were invigorating before bed.
One morning, Nate and I got up to watch the sunrise on the kayaks.
Denise and I celebrated our 26th anniversary with dinner at Hill's.
It was just an overall wonderful time spent with family. Each night, we had a rousing game of Wizard and we even managed a few hours helping on some remodeling at a friend's cabin! We wandered our way home with a stop at the formal gardens at Manito Park in Spokane.
Video
The video captures most of these things, sorry for the redundant narration and some shaky shots but hopefully you'll get the idea!
Well, I guess its the season for outdoor adventures and boy, howdy, did we have a doozy last week! Nate, Justin and I headed for the old classic Camp Fife early Monday morning with a total of 16 scouters! We were headed for an LDS Aaronic Priesthood Encampment. The fun started just a few miles up the road when one of Justin's friends lost his breakfast all over one of the vans (and on some of the other scouts, like Justin!). We got that cleaned up and got back on the road. I could only stay until Tuesday morning because I had to work Tuesday night. We got to camp in good time. We were worried about getting unloaded because they were cramming 1300 + scouts in a camp made to hold only 300! They did a pretty good job with setting everything up.
Nate, Austin (another priest in our ward), and I got through the tour and orientation then we strapped on our backpacks for what was supposed to be a 8.5-9.5 mile hike for an overnight priest adventure. It was a nice hike that was fairly steep to begin with as he headed out from Halfway Flats Campground. I was a little worried about the youth who were, in many cases without direct adult supervision, just working their way up the trail. Nate, Austin and I kept within eyesight of each other. We trudged up the trail with some beautiful vistas along the way. We were making good time (we thought) but then the trail seemed to be a little long.
We were getting ready to cross a rock slide area when we stopped and pulled out the GPS. It already showed 12.5 miles! We were told we'd come to a road that had a sign to follow down to a meadow but we couldn't find anything. We came across other hikers including President Libbert from the Pasco Stake and we decided to head on the same trail as it climbed fairly steeply and thought we might find some cell phone service (don't know what good that would have done!). Well, we got to the top of the rock slide and heard a yell. They had found the sign! Another mile down the road and we found the camp. We figure we covered at least 14 miles. There were roads into the site so they trucked in our food and porta potties. At least we got there in daylight as there were still about 100 priests and their leaders still unaccounted for as darkness fell. We had a good dinner, then had the awesome opportunity to hear from Bishop McPheters, also known as the Agent Bishop. At 67, he was one of the oldest to hike in with a pack on his back. He had some wonderful, spiritual and exciting stories of being a 4-time bishop and F.B.I. agent. Afterwards, in the dark, we pow-wowed to figure out what to do about the missing scouts and leaders. Some other stake leaders had gone out looking but it was difficult to make contact. Finally, we agreed it would be better to wait out those searchers instead of getting others lost.
We all offered to help if needed and headed for our tents. Needless to say we slept well that night. From the ruckus, one group of scouts got into camp around midnight, and the rest about 2 a.m! We got up the next morning and got our tents, bags and stuff packed up. I got some grub and hit the trail to try and get home for a little sleep. The priests stuck around for some miscellaneous fun like hatchet throwing and some balancing games.
It was a wonderful hike out as the sky was clear and the previously cloud obscured Mount Rainier was in full view when I crested a ridge on the way out. It was a nice hike as I didn't see anyone except for 2 horsemen. I warned them about he 200+ scouts they would likely soon encounter! I enjoyed the beauty of the Cascades and ran across some sort of grouse protecting her chick.
I got back to the car and then drove to Camp Fife to see if the scout who was sick needed a ride home. Turns out he was gone already but I did see a bunch of backpacks and several priests who I recognized from the hike. I wondered what was going on! Turns out the leaders gave people the option of getting driven back to camp or hiking out without their backpacks. I guess I was one of the lucky ones to get the whole 28-mile experience with a full pack on my back! I've heard of marathoners getting black and blue toes and now, I know how they feel as both my middle toes got hammered in the hike. Nate and Austin had a good time hiking back out. Nate had a good time the rest of the week at scout camp. He got to repel down a 100 foot cliff and go scuba diving, among other fun things. Justin, unfortunately, fell victim to the sickness that also hit 3 or 4 other scouts in our troop and he came home early but carved a really cool hiking staff.
Its been almost two years in the making but the Yamaha XVS650ATR that has been sitting in the back of our garage has come alive! The main holdup was the engine. I got this bike with a blown engine from a guy who didn't want to pay the big repair bill. We saved up some money and had the time to finally find a good, used engine on eBay with only 10,000 miles. We did have Todd, at Yamaha Country go through the carburetors. We came to find out that was the easy part! There were several long hours and late nights figuring out where all the parts went. We cleaned up the bike from the frame up. Then, the whole family got in on the project. Shoehorning the replacement engine into the frame was quite a challenge. We used a rope from the rafters of the garage as a hoist. Denise, Paul and the sons all pried and slid and lifted and grunted and, after almost an hour we slid the engine onto the driveline and into the frame! We got all the wires and hoses and lines hooked up where we thought they should be. Then, to our neighbors chagrin, we wanted to try and fire it up at 10 p.m. without the exhaust just to see if it would run. Well, it fired up and we all said yippee! Then, we got the exhaust on the next day and did some finishing touches. We fired it up and took some rides around the neighborhood. Then, I took it into Todd to get some fine tuning. We had that done and now it runs like a top! It is a V-Star 650 Silverado and it came with the windshield, saddlebags, studded seats and bags and the backrest.
Spencer and I decided to get a morning hike in yesterday. We headed up to the Rattlesnake Mountain area since he hadn't been there before. We started up a different trail which took us up a ravine. We wanted to get up on the hill so we ended up going cross country as the trail wasn't heading up the hill. On our way up, we came across the area's namesake, a Rattler. I just happened to look down as I was about to step on the snake and said whoa! and stepped aside. It didn't rattle to give us warning but appeared to be a little slow as it was a cool morning and seemed to be sunning itself to get a little warmed up. It did end up rattling a bit at us. We estimated it to be about a meter long.
We decided not to stick around but got this nice picture and continued up the hill.
Then, Spencer let out a whoa! and another snake was stretched out in front of him. This one appeared to be a bull or garter snake.
We got this picture and then headed up the hill.
We got to the top and looked over at Mount Adams and took in the vista. We took in the view of the Hanford site, Benton City, Prosser, the Horse Heaven Hills, the Tri-Cities, the rivers and more. There were plenty of wildflowers out too!
Up on top, we came across another critter, this small lizard.
It was kind of spiny and puffed up to try and look big but we held it and it seemed calm and non-threatening. A good hike of about 6.5 miles, a beautiful day!
We took advantage of a nice evening the other day to take a family hike up Badger Mountain. News in the paper that morning said there was a newly opened trail and I hoped we'd come across it. We got on what I call the "Family Trail" at the park at the top of Shockley Road in Richland and started hiking. At the top of the first ridge was the sign directing us to the new trail! We headed off to the east and found a nice change of scenery as we followed the trail through the beautiful sagebrush. Of course, there were plenty of wildflowers. We followed the trail to the radio towers at the top of Badger Mountain and then we came back down the "Family Trail" making a loop of about 3.75 miles by my GPS. Here's an overlay of the GPS route on a Google Earth image. If you've never hiked up Badger Mountain, we encourage you to enjoy one of the wonderful things we have to enjoy here in the Tri-Cities. Just for your orientation, the image above is looking towards the southwest.
We were fortunate a few of my days off corresponded with the boys spring break so we took the chance to get away to play. We started in Kellogg, Idaho at the Silver Mountain Resort. Its the same place we went last year, we enjoyed it so we went back. We stayed in a nice condo and played the first afternoon at the Silver Rapids indoor water park. It was a lot of fun. It isn't that big (compared to Silverwood or Roaring Springs) but you may have guessed I love to play in the water so it was still a blast. We had fun squirting other unsuspecting people on the kiddie play structure (probably our favorite thing to do, even if the lifeguards give us a few stares!). We also had fun on the family tube ride, basketball area, lazy river and so on. Justin and I had a good time on the Flowrider. The Flowrider is an artificial wave machine you can board or surf on. The first video has a few seconds of us each on the water.
Silver Rapids Flowrider
The next night, we headed for Spokane. We found a decent hotel and just kind of relaxed. We enjoyed a dinner out at Chili's and we got a little bit of a scare as we weren't sure where the car was parked when we got done (I was wondering if it was stolen!). Turns out, we were just a block off on our calculations (I should have had my GPS).The next day, we explored Spokane. Though we lived here for about a year when we were first married (we liked living in Spokane), we didn't enjoy all the activities available. We had a good time at the IMAX theater watching Hubble. A fascinating movie with amazing pictures (even though it was only 2D). We wandered around Riverfront Park a little and took a spin on the carousel. We actually got snowed on and hailed on for a few minutes but it didn't dampen our spirits. We also went to Manito Park, just a block from where we lived. Denise had us turn up one road and we found the beautiful Gaiser Conservatory. Watch this video and it starts out with the green house which has color galore. Vibrant reds, purples, yellows. There's a neat, small tree called a "bottle brush" tree that actually has red blooms that look like bottle brushes. There was a living, plant, Easter Bunny (for the season). Then, watch for the cactus green house with prickly plants from all over the world!
Gaiser Conservatory On our journey home, we wandered through the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. In the middle of nowhere, we stopped off at Palouse Falls. A beautiful waterfall that was running strong with the spring runoff. We wanted to take a hike so we ventured up river and got above the big falls.
Upper Palouse Falls
There we found some more falls and hiked out to the point above the big falls. We hope you enjoy our pictures and videos just as we enjoyed our spring break trip!
Well, the desert is really blooming and I coaxed the family up the steep trail to look at the beautiful colors before the summer dries up Badger Mountain. It was a little windy (see the grass picture) but we had a great hike. I'm not sure of all the names of these flowers but I hope you enjoy them. The trail is from the Country Ridge area of Richland. It's a steep trail, that's why I like it. It gives me a good workout. Normal time to the top is 18 minutes or so. I hope to improve my times throughout the year. Enjoy the flower pictures and I included a Google Earth overlay of my GPS route. If you know the area, you'll see how outdated the image is as there are several homes now in the trailhead area.
I'm a father of 3 with an amazing wife. I have two super sisters and one awesome brother. I love family time, especially when we're enjoying the great outdoors camping, backpacking or hiking. I love riding my bicycles (road or mountain). I love swimming the Columbia River. I love hiking around the Tri-Cities. I started this blog to help people discover some of the beauty that is right outside our doors here in the Columbia Basin. I hope you will take advantage of these posts by either by enjoying the content, video, pictures and maps or going out and exploring these areas on your own. Please give me feedback as I am always looking for new adventures and I am imperfect so I will make mistakes and welcome corrections. Please browse around, take advantage of my advertisers if they can benefit you and enjoy!
Today was Nate's chance to go skiing for the first time with Grandma Lin and dad at the Bluewood ski area near Dayton. Nathaniel was excited for the opportunity to hit the slopes. We arrived at Bluewood to a chilly day, the temperature hovering around 10 degrees. We got all geared up and bundled ourselves in layers and headed for the platter pull on the bunny hill. Nate did great without much instruction. Then it was time for a lesson to help him be successful. Grandma arrived and went down a few runs with dad then we watched as Nate finished up his lesson. We put in a few more runs then went to the lodge to warm up and eat our lunch. After lunch, we put in as many more runs as possible before closing time. Nate kept progressing each run. Although it was a cold day with some scattered snow showers, it was a great day. The mountain was pretty crowded with winter break traffic but the lift lines were short. Along the edges of all the runs was 3 or more feet of awesome, fluffy powder so we had a ball blasting the powder and by the end of the day we were hitting a few jumps too! We'll sleep well tonight! A great day!
Well, I guess its the season for outdoor adventures and boy, howdy, did we have a doozy last week! Nate, Justin and I headed for the old classic Camp Fife early Monday morning with a total of 16 scouters! We were headed for an LDS Aaronic Priesthood Encampment. The fun started just a few miles up the road when one of Justin's friends lost his breakfast all over one of the vans (and on some of the other scouts, like Justin!). We got that cleaned up and got back on the road. I could only stay until Tuesday morning because I had to work Tuesday night. We got to camp in good time. We were worried about getting unloaded because they were cramming 1300 + scouts in a camp made to hold only 300! They did a pretty good job with setting everything up.
I enjoyed the beauty of the Cascades and ran across some sort of grouse protecting her chick.
