It's the End o' the Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to our friends & family! Wendi here, I hope your Christmas was warm & cozy like ours. As Indigo says "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up!"

The boys started Christmas break early due to wondrous S*N*O*W ! We discovered how much Bear loves the white fluffy stuff, he frolicked out there like...well, like a puppy. We have Valley Gear which means our poor boys had to play outside in less-than-perfect snow clothes. Of course neither of them complained but we had to have lots of warm-up sessions with cocoa!

Derek was beginning 2 weeks off work (1 week paid vacation, the 2nd will be without pay) so he was home with the guys while I did some work but I also spent time recovering from a kick-ass cold virus, verrrry glad to have that behind us! Daddy caught it too but it didn't take him down quite as hard. I get to visit the doctor on Monday 'cuz I may have pulled something in my back while coughing, ah gee if only you could see the slow and twisty progression from the seat to walking across the room...

On Christmas Eve we of course had two very excited Little Misters. After dinner we "blessed the house" (translated 'put away toys & tidied up') and then they could each open ONE little present. They opened the gift from the other sibling & were both happy & satisfied JUST ENOUGH to go to bed that night. Casey is our early riser so he had explicit instructions to look at the digital clock in our bedroom when he woke up and if it started with "OH-FOUR or OH-FIVE" it was too early in the morning to get up. He woke up at 4:26, came back in at 5:20, & finally we gave in at 5:57 and it was CHRISTMAS MORNING at last!

We sat in our living room where our pretty little tree sat on a table. We tore thru stockings and gifts and then had a pleasant time munching on candy, putting together Lego things and flipping thru new books. Then Derek got the boys to sit beside him & look over his shoulder at the pictures he'd taken that morning. There was lots of grinning until he got to one photo they didn't recognize, a huge box in the family room where the boys hadn't ventured yet. Alex & Casey looked at each other then BOLTED down to the family room & started tearing into the Big Gift........ a Wii! (Weeeeeeee!) What a hoot! I swear Alex did not Sit for 2 hours as he explored the wonderful world of non-couch-potato Wii games & he worked up a sweat! Casey thought the Wii was extremely cool too although he was crawling into the big box within two minutes of emptying it.... hee heee..... [in fact that box has been a tremendously popular Fort & Store ever since, and tonight is the third in a row that Casey's sleeping in it!!!!]

Derek made Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls (mmmmmmmmm!) and we had a nummy Ham/Yam/Garlic green bean (thank you Jorgen!) early dinner with our friend Pamela. She came over with knitting kneedles (ha) in hand & I enjoyed parking on the floor with her for a thorough tutorial on making a hat with circular needles. Now I'm ready to get together again for the next step as I have a knitted column several inches tall that needs to get smaller & joined together (Pamela!!!!???)

Allrighty it's time to tuck Alex into his bed with a book then sneak back into the family room and work on my Wii Bowling...... Love & Hugs & Happy Holidays !!

We've got our Tree -- Whoopeeeee!

Hey we're gearing up 'round here for a Big Fun Festive Family Christmas!

We're happy & healthy. A bit saddened by the outcome of the Civil War but we're coping. We got our Doug Fir tree from the local boy scouts and decorated it today and it looks lovely. The boys were singing carols as they covered it with ornaments, soo sweet. It's rather late & Derek and I have a date to sit our tooshies on the couch to watch a DVD so I'll promise to update soon & add some pics, sorry I've been neglecting this blog but we've been beezee beavers :)

What's up with you?

Yachats Celtic Music Festival

I went with my buddy to the Yachats Celtic Music Festival to listen to some wonderful Celtic music. The concert featured lots of local music. They put on a pretty good show here and I would like to return next year. We spent the days doing some geo-caching both north and south of Yachats. Wendi's dad and wife went to the concert too and I met up with them for some drinks before the show and during the sets. Wendi and the boys came down to the beach and everyone played at the beach before the concert. All in all it was a great weekend though I missed my family.

SUPER SATURDAY !!

The boys had their last soccer games & both celebrated victories, woo hoo!! Casey scored 4 goals & had 2 assists, Alex sprinted around for 50 minutes (no subs!) starting the game as Defender then switched to Midfielder to push the ball up to the Forwards. Both very excellent games, played in some wonderful Fall sunshine, and fitting ends to the season. They have the Winter off then start up again in the Spring. Now we're back home except for Derek who is hanging out with some buddies playing board games. I'm home with two tired kiddos who are relaxing with Shrek. I look forward to warm sudsy baths & a fairly early bedtime :)

Derek & I got to play with some more apples & put up 3 more big jars of applesauce, num num, but oh my we still have soooo many apples left!

School is going great for both kiddos. Casey came home with paperwork for us to sign acknowledging he's a smart cookie (TAG - talented and gifted, intellectually in the 99th percentile!). Alex has been coming home with very little homework because he's been working so hard in school, and has been on average slightly Ahead of his peers in math assignments, we're so proud! He's learning so much, this has been such a great year for him & we like the teacher a lot. Right now they're studying Mayans, Incas, & Aztecs. As a nosy mother I had to read what his textbook said about these cultures, and I always feel defensive about what a textbook might say about Native Americans. Lordy knows the books I had in school (and I fear more recent ones as well) painted an unflattering (and false) image of these people that were "justly Conquered". Well I was very pleasantly surprised at Alex's textbook. It was respectful of those cultures & honest about the brutality of the "invaders". It opened up a fabulous dialogue between Alex and I.

Bear accompanied Derek to work on Friday, he is looking more & more like he could grow into a certified Therapy Dog. He got lots of positive attention (hugs & snacks I believe) and then layed down quietly in Derek's office when he was supposed to. What a good boy! Follow that with this morning, when Derek took him out in search of Geocaches. Evidently Bear was much more intrigued with nasty smells on the ground & rolled in them quite thouroughly. Well, smart & cute he may be, but he's still 100% DOG which for some reason I find much funnier than Derek who had to drive back home with the smelly pup....

I'm kinda sad that the weekend is already half over! Ah well, time flies & all that....

a busy weekend

We enjoyed a fabulous fall day yesterday. After an early morning rain the weather was kind of Crispy, cool but the sun was out. Started off with two great soccer games, the boys were tickled that each of their teams won with a score of 4-1. We stopped back home long enough for the boys to change out of their sweaty clothes & toss some balls for Bear.

Then we loaded up the car with empty bags & our friend Pamela & headed out to the country to pick Apples at a co-worker's farm. It was so fun for the kids to run around, picking apples with one hand and eating apples from the other. We had a glorious time out there & came away with lots and lots of different apples and also some fresh sweet grapes. Now Derek and I need to get productive and turn them into some applesauce :)

Got home, gave Alex a quick shower & everyone some dinner, and then it was time to drop Alex off at a friend's house for a birthday party. It was extremely weird to put Casey down to bed (we finished a Scooby Doo chapter book he'd checked out of the school library) and then just Derek and I were awake in the house ....... this is the first time we've been home when Alex wasn't !! I kept my mobile phone nearby 'cuz I half expected a call. But at 11:30 we instead had a knock on the door -- Evidently Alex had called our home # (and somehow we didn't hear it) he was "missing us" and the friend's mom brought him back home!! We knew the party was going on Sunday until Noon so we took him back over this morning to do some more partying Well, that was his first attempt at a sleep-over :)

Today is pretty darn busy too, for a Sunday. Get Alex at noon, pick up friend Jon at 1:30, take all the boys to their beloved PokeMon league, I have a soccer game at 4:30 (gotta try and S-T-R-E-T-C-H and take it really easy 'cuz owie I pulled my quads 2 weeks ago), oh & I want to sneak in a trip to the Fairgrounds to see some of the doggie Agility going on there. And oh dear, we still haven't touched our apples!!

GO BEAVS !!!!!

Rout 66 !!!!!!!
Our condolences go out to our Cougar Friends.
But not really.......

Alex Update

It has been two years since Alex has had an EEG and the neurologist wanted to get another peek. He was enthusiastic about staying up nearly all night so he could be "sleep-deprived" for the EEG, he announced that we didn't need to stay up with him, he'd just close himself down in the family room and watch movies/play computer games, and joked about ordering a pizza behind our backs. I thought it would be a struggle to keep him up, but I was wrong -- he had a blast! He watched "What's up Doc" with Barbara Streisand twice (very funny movie), and played a number of games on the PC. He had a shower at 1am (gotta arrive with a clean scalp) then I put him down at 2am & was waaaay more tired than he was.

When Derek woke him up at 6am he was pretty sleepy, the boys and I took Daddy to work & drove south on Hwy 99 to the hospital. It was a challenge to keep Alex awake for that 45 minute drive in the early morning when the day was foggy and dim!! But he did it, and then got tucked into a queen-sized bed & allowed the technician to scrub his head all over w/ an abrasive q-tip & attach little electrodes with long straggling wires. Then it was Nap Time while the machine kept track of all sorts of little blips and bleeps!

Next we found some lunch & a spot to let Bear run around and chase balls... until it was time to drive across town (Eugene is a big city!) and see Alex's neurologist to go over the EEG results. This guy has a disappointing bedside manner and I had to pull teeth to get any details. In a nutshell, Alex's EEG showed some activity that could have been seizures if he wasn't on his meds. So he'll continue taking that for another year, and then perhaps take another look.

Alex was incredibly fabulous and handled each & every little thing so well, I was extremely proud of him. I'm going to ask our family doctor if we can get a referral to another neurologist, I want to talk to someone who will treat Alex as a King, & I need details about what is in that EEG. I had pencil & paper in hand but couldn't write down a single thing, and he even acted annoyed when I asked him to write it up & send us a letter! That doesn't trouble me a tiny bit, they'll be hearing from me next week to check on the status of that letter! So I'll be making some phone calls next week, trying to be an Advocate!!

Girls Weekend - a very brief account

Like they say about Vegas, baby, many adventurous tales must remain at the beach .... Derek is pretty sure a Girls Weekend involves pillow-fights in undergarments and I'm loath to burst that bubble for him.

On Friday eleven of us took our sweet time getting to the house we'd rented in Lincoln City. Ate some good food, sipped some good beverages, and hit the Outlet Stores. In fact, now that I think about it, that's what we did Each Day -- food, beverages, Outlet Stores!

Other printable highlights:
-- visited the traveling Vietnam War Memorial Wall that was at the Casino. They also had a section for those we've lost in this most recent tragic war :( :( very sobering. I didn't know any of the names (I believe dad knows some folks that ended up on that big wall) but we were all very affected by it.
-- kareoke. We had the good fortune to stumble on extremely good singers. We almost didn't stay as the bartender nearly chased us out with his bad attitide, but I'm glad we stuck it out because the music was phenominal. Our group contributed one duet (thankee Shania!), one solo (Ug, yes, I tried a very sober and sobering Gretchen Wilson "Homewrecker"), and one group song (Good Lord, who knew "RESPECT" had so many *other* words!!??) to honor our sweet girlfriend that wasn't with us since she's saving her energy to battle breast cancer & care for her eensy newborn baby. I'd like to say that our sweet musical notes were on par with the other singers, but, um, I'd be lying. We called our girlfriend so she could hear us, and her exact words were "oh you girls are sure trying!"
-- Lots of games. Catch Phrase for hours. Sequence (good game!!)

I spent the weekend headachy and nauseous for legitimate reasons (never, EVER get a tetanus shot just before a girls weekend!) so I stayed sober & enjoyed free pepsi in the bars as the designated driver :)

Good Times! Good Friends!

Weekend With Grandma & Papa

Hey, it's been awhile since we wrote anything here but I guess we've been too busy with school, homework, soccer practice and soccer games to find any time to write. Well, over the weekend I brought both dogs and both boys to spend a weekend in Astoria. (Wendi made her annual pilgrimage to the beach with her girlfriends and did not attend.) The biggest drawback of doing the Astoria trip this time of year is that both boys missed their soccer games on Saturday.

The trip was great. Both Casey and Alex spent some quality time with the grandparents. They even got to ring the bell of the Astoria Trolley. Later in the weekend we all got to visit with my brother and his family. They have a kiddo about Casey's age and the two boys played non-stop for at least an hour. Needless to say, Casey slept most of the three hour drive back home to Corvallis.

My friend Gene and I had a little time to go Geo Caching in the Astoria area. We were able to pick up 18 or so. The best hidden one was underneath a sand dollar buried in the sand! The coolest hide was off one of the docks where someone had "hidden" it on a rope, submerged in the Columbia River.

SEASON & LEE'S WEDDING

Our beloved Season got married! We got to know this young lady when Alex was three years old and she’s been part of the family since. She hooked up with a super nice guy, he’s funny & kind, and happy to loft either of our boys gleefully into the air. Ya gotta like that!

We arrived early enough to explore the Gray Gables in Milwaukie, which is a lovely old house with tons of gardens and ponds and fountains. The boys had the honor of being in the wedding. Instead of full-blown tuxedos they wore vests and ties over long-sleeved cotton dress shirts. They looked so fabulous and charmed everyone… Alex stood up with the groomsmen & even got to escort a bridesmaid down the aisle! He said it wasn’t embarrassing, just “weird”. Casey was the ring-bearer, paired up with a sweet little girl that we met last year at the Zoo Lights festival (by the end of that visit they were holding hands.) Casey had several one-on-one conversations with the father of the bride.

This was a huge thing for these boys, they were completely independent because Derek & I were simply part of the audience! We weren’t able to make the rehearsal due to first-week-of-school conflicts but they just stepped in and did sooooo good, and we were sooooo proud!

The reception was lovely and we enjoyed meeting the folks at our table. Soon the boys got to relax a bit & remove their vests & ties, still looking sharp in their button-down white shirts & black slacks. Season (bless her!) dropped off a goody bag at our table with toys & colored pencils & very useful hand-held fans. Why were the fans so useful? Because soon the music started and CASEY WAS THERE TO BOOGIE! I’m not kidding, he was BREAKDANCING out there! And he was good! He did spend some of his time out there as instructor because there was a lot of interest in what he was doing. [I think the last person to lay such moves had a run-in with fire ants.] Anyway, soon we were all out there. I enjoyed the slow dances with hubby, & also dancing with Alex, gosh we don’t do that near enough!

After dancing & visiting until around 11pm we finally decided it was time to scoop up our boys & make that 1.5 hour drive home. They were awake longer than we expected, but still Derek and I were the only ones awake for most of the trip. Mostly me.

Wow – what a great celebration!

School Starts!

Here's some pics...

Alex - 5th grade. Has a big locker, enjoyed being with all his friends. Alex & Mama had a great bike ride home, & then he cranked through his homework.

Casey - Kindergarten. Met lots of new little buddies, and had recess!

Both reported a great first day!!!

Tuesday 09/02 - Tomorrow is the First day of school !

Franklin Elementary had an Open House today. Casey got to check in & get acquainted with his kindergarten teacher & classroom, find his seat & the all-important cubby! He’d met the teacher last Fall but this time the room was crawling with his classmates so that was fun. He was a bit shy but I’m sure will warm right up. He’s such a smart cookie, I think he’s gonna love this school thing!

Alex was, shall we say, ambivalent about going today. He has missed his friends this summer, but is perhaps dreading the homework & saddened that the summer went by so fast (me too!). It was fun though because when he walked by his classroom, Alex was positively Mobbed by his buddies, his “guys” :) That put a smile on his kisser…

We brought along the sweet young lady that’s been hanging out with them late this summer & she enjoyed the trip. She’ll be picking Casey up from school at least until her classes begin at OSU at the end of September. We hung out for awhile at the playground & let the guys run around a bit. Now they’re off to pick up a few important items (crayons & colored pencils). There’s just something extra special about starting the school year with a new box of crayons……………

Our bed is covered in school supplies from last year. Many of them are still useful (glue sticks, scissors, pencil-sharpeners) but we’ll do the final sort & see what last-minute items we need to purchase tonight! Derek woke their little selves up early so we’re working on this school schedule. Early bedtimes, then rise & shine!

Labor Day Weekend

SILLY HIKING BOYS!

This morning we took advantage of some sunshine & got the "boys in blue" out for a hike with the pups in nearby MacDonald Forest.

You can see them acting cool in the photo :) We explored an “old growth trail” which was very nice & shady & moist. Then up to a cool spot, an old quarry which is full of water & red newts, at least some of the year. Evidently they’re scarce in the Fall, so the boys played in the water without them. Until we were leaving & one last rock was lifted to reveal a teensy little baby newt! All of about 2 inches long! That was a great adventure! The entire weekend was a great adventure and I was sorry to see it end...

We do sooo love having our house full.

This was the last summer weekend, school starts for our boys on Wednesday (Alex 5th grade, Casey enters Kindergarten). So we were thrilled to fill up the house this long weekend with some dear friends. We had 4 boys running around the house, most often traveling in a herd. Or is it a pod? Or a gaggle?

We also enjoyed seeing our doggy friends Miriam, Tinka, & Zoey, although Bear does not yet embrace the “invite a dog to your home” idea so he spent some of that time on a leash attached to a parent. He really wanted to sneak in and give Miriam a nip on her back leg (trying to herd her??) but he doesn’t try it in the back yard, on hikes, or at Miriam’s house…humm…. Well, canine company is simply something he needs to get used to, so each experience is a good one. He's still off the charts cute :)

We played some good board games, enjoyed lots of food, drink, & companionship. We had a bit of drop-in company and managed to suck her in to drinking a beer & playing a game with us. We had fun at a local pet store looking at all the fishies. One of our little friends is a budding marine biologist, although he’s keeping his options open & may be an RV designer. Anyhow we enjoyed touring the fish place & later introducing a few new critters to our freshwater tank 

The big guys managed to move a verrry long couch from Point A, to Point B, whoops it doesn’t fit at Point B so on to Point C. That exercise earned them a pizza  Bear tagged along on his first ever Mountain Bike ride (up Dimple Hill) with Derek & some other buddies. Bear was one of two Border Collies on that trek & behaved very well, so yay! we have another activity to burn some of that pup’s fabulous energy! Another bike ride (of the road variety) took Derek & a buddy to Adair Village, where they met another buddy & found one of the many Geocaches they logged this weekend. That fellow, by the way, was driving because he had conveniently “forgotten” some essential bike gear!! A likely story!!

Now it's Monday evening & we're putting the boys to bed, we'll wake them early in the morning & enjoy their last day of summer vacation!

Jack Johnson In The Gorge Amphitheater

So, Wendi and I drove five plus hours (dropping the kids off with friends in Portland) to central Washington to see Jack Johnson play in The Gorge Amphitheater in George Wa. Wendi has been a fan of his for awhile and I have been recently exposed to his music. It was a great concert. He played for two hours often bringing parts of the opening acts back on stage.

Wendi and I were wondering if maybe we have "outgrown" the concert scene though because there were lots of twenty-somethings doing lots of imbibing and acting a lot younger than their age, which was on some levels very entertaining. (Remind us to tell you the story of the young couple just down the hill from us!) Actually, the worst of it was a tie between the guy behind us using disparaging language to describe my beloved Beavers (I was wearing my OSU hat) and the group of girls sitting behind us while we were standing, throwing small foil balls in our direction in an effort to get us to sit down.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. One we would like to get on the schedule again for next year. We had a great time together. It was good for us and good for the soul to get away like that once in a while.

My First Century

On Saturday a good friend and I rode from his house in Vancouver WA. to my house in Corvallis OR., a distance of over 100 miles! This has been a goal of mine since I started road riding several years ago and it finally came together this weekend. I did manage to get myself dehydrated and couldn't finish the last 8 miles or so but my odometer read 101.2 miles before I called Wendi to pick me up. My friend did finish the ride but so far he has not gloated that he rode farther than me. ;)

Mama Notes - thursday night

This week has flown by like a tiny bird working with a stiff tail wind! In other words, yeah, it went by really fast!

Tomorrow we're heading up to Vancouver to stay w/ buddies. I get to attend my 20th HS reunion ... I haven't kept in touch w/ anyone & there are a handful of folks that I'm very excited to see again! The downside is that my dearest hubby won't be there with me for a variety of reasons, instead he'll be hanging out w/ the boys at our friends' house.

Then on Saturday I'll be w/ the boys providing a wee bit of support while he & his buds BIKE their biggest one-day cycling adventure yet! A CENTURY! 100 miles! Sheesh, I can't even imagine, but how cool for them! So stay tuned, I'm sure he'll add an update once he's pried his stiff fingers from the handlebars....

Kingdom Of Loathing

Okay, one more post tonight. A good friend of ours has gotten us hooked on this internet game called Kingdom of Loathing. It is a text game so the graphics are funny stick figures. The writing is sharp and funny. I haven't quite figured out the goal of the game but you have to complete certain adventures and gain experience in several different categories to improve your character. As your character improves, you get to do more challenging adventures. One of the things I like most about it that all the items and monsters encountered have funny twists to them. For example, you need to create meat paste in order to put things together and you may meet a Weretaco in your travels. Anyway, it is a very fun game. I suggest taking a peek at it.

Cycle Oregon The Weekend Aug 1st - Aug 3rd

Again Warren and I volunteered on Cycle Oregon The Weekend. He drove the SAG van while I did radio communications with my ham radio. My call sign is KD7PEL. This weekend there were 1500 riders doing several routes. They stayed two nights at Fort Stevens State Park. We had fun meeting several riders and spending the weekend together. It was especially nice to be in a car after spending four days on a bike.

Bike Trip July 28th-July 31st

Again, our tires hit the road on anther four day bike ride. We were planning on riding from The Dalles Oregon to Astoria Oregon, about 200 miles, east to west. After planning out the route we noticed that the prevailing wind is west to east. So instead of 200 miles of headwind we reversed the legs.

Day 1: We went from Vancouver WA to Cascade Locks Oregon. We rode about 47 miles today. At first we had to ride surface roads in Vancouver which is always a bit unpredictable. Then we hit highway 14 and made some great time with the tail wind. We made in after several hours of riding but would have made it sooner though we stopped several times to look for geocaches. The picture here is of me and my riding buddies in Vancouver as we started out.














Day 2: We started in Cascade Locks OR and rode to Horsethief Lake State Park WA. This was a fun day for us as our tail wind allowed us to average 14+ miles per hour! Many times we were doing 20-22 mph. Very fast for us as we usually average only 10-12 mph. This picture is of us leaving Cascade Locks.













Day 3: Vancouver WA to LL Stubs State Park OR. This day, I believe, was only 39 miles. We rode MAX (the city transit) and saved ourselves many miles. Our legs were tired from riding the last two days and at least I didn't want to ride many more miles than that. LL Stubs is Oregon's newest State Parks and it has lots of hiking and biking opportunities. On the way one of my riding buddies finally got a flat tire and he broke two spokes. He went with our ride support vehicle back to a bicycle shop. While they were gone, I search and found four geocaches in the park. This picture is of me trying to put up the sun fly.













Day 4: LL Stubs State Park OR to Astoria OR. This day was over 77 miles, the most I have ever ridden in one day. We spent the morning trying to find four or five geocaches, which put us a bit behind schedule. We rode over the coast range and got into Astoria about 6:45pm. We felt surprisingly good after having biked that far. The picture I have here is of us at the Astoria Column after the ride.

Family Reunion July 25th-27th

The Gale-Sedlacek-Westerberg family reunion was held this year in Cascade Locks Oregon. We usually have lots of food and fun and this year was no exception. We try to look for places with a pool and the KOA in Cascade Locks met the bill. In researching campgrounds, we knew that the Union-Pacific railroad has a mainline that travels the Gorge and comes quite close to the camp. We were told that "after a few trains go by we wouldn't even notice it". Well, we noticed it. And noticed it. And continued to notice it, all day, and all of the night.

All the kids (big and small) played so hard both in the pool and in the campground. At night we had campfires and got a game of Catchphrase started. During the day, the Gale family went on a hike to search out more geocaches and to exercise the dogs as well as the humans. We also spend some time at the fish hatchery, where we met Herman The Sturgeon. Herman was longer than both Casey and Alex laid end to end.

We have pictures but alas, I don't have them on this computer right now. We'll publish some of them as soon as we get them.

Agility-Mama's post July 18

Last night Bear & I went to our third doggie agility class & wow is that fun!!!! This "Agility Confidence Course" is an intro to the sport.

With pockets full of irresistible treats we gathered with a small & varied pack of dogs; 2 border collies, lab, golden, schipperke, aussie cattle dog, & mixed breeds. First the doggies had to "warm up" their muscles just like any athlete , so we trotted around & Bear followed treats in circle after circle.

Then we got to play with the equipment! I am amazed at the good nature & trust of this good pup. With me running along side him, he tackled:

--> a long straight tunnel
--> a long curved tunnel (more tricky 'cuz there's not a direct view of the end)
--> a 12-inch wide "walk" that has a ramp going up, straight section, then ramp down
--> a steep a-frame
--> small jumps
--> weave poles, set not in a direct line but slightly apart & with guiding wires, so the pup can begin to get the idea)
--> a teeter-totter with the instructor's help (she held the end of it & when he reached the 'balance point', she eased it gently down while I fed him incredible nummies, it was all very rewarding!!)

After working on these individual obstacles, we got to try a few in a sequence and that was a hoot, I fell flat on my arse once and I wasn't the only one on the ground, ok next class I'm wearing my sneakers as it's not easy to keep ahead of a pup!

During & after class Bear was all grins & it felt good to make him "think". It was a blast!!

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday was spent locating and logging geo-caches in the Waterloo area just east of Lebanon as well as lots of fun in the sun on the Santiam river with a friend of ours and her two small rafts. We let the dogs play in the river first while the kids looked for treasure. Then we moved to a little better location where we could "put in the river". Needless to say we used lots of sunscreen.

We found seven of eight geo-caches we went in search of. One was listed as being easy but it eluded us. After reading some of the logs others posted, I think I know where to look next. If you want to know more about geo-caching, go to www.geocaching.com.


Sorry, no pics.

Free walking sticks

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Alex intro

Hi... I am Alex Gale. This is my familys blog. I have no idea what to write. I will just use it for...
watever I want! Yeah. Whatever I WANT! So I'll use it for uh... Something!yeah something!

Day 6 Saturday June 28th

This is the last day of the ride. We started fairly strong and finished even stronger. Another day with a tail wind! This first picture is of the south end of Willapa Bay. The next picture is of Astoria with Saddle Mountain shrouded in the background with smoke. The third picture is of the Colombia River where I stopped to fix my first flat of the season. The last series of pictures are in Astoria enjoying a cool glass of sparkling apple cider and a celebratory bike lift. All total, 6 days and 323 miles. Up next, I think we are riding part of the Gorge.

Day 5 Friday June 27th

My legs hurt so much this morning that I decided that I couldn't make the entire ride today. My buddies left on time and I stayed to play on the beach with my family. We collected more Sand Dollars than we could carry and found a nice place out of the wind to watch the kids play. About noon I realized that it was a north (tail) wind and I thought I would start and see how far I could go while Wendi wrapped up the rest of camp. She caught me 25 miles later and we stopped for lunch. At this point I was feeling great and decided to continue the rest of the way. I completed the ride about 45 minutes after my buddies did, over 50 miles.

The top two pictures are of Willapa Bay. The third picture is of a make shift shop, where we sometimes have to work. The last picture is my buddy enjoying a well earned rest.

Day 4 Thursday June 26th

Today we rode from Lake Quinault to Twin Harbors State Park. The original plan was to ride the ferry across Grays Harbor saving many miles but alas, we found out only after the ride started (by Wendi calling us and leaving a message) that the guy who runs the ferry was not doing it this year. :( So we changed course and headed to Aberdeen. This day was tough for me and I decided not to ride the last 20 miles from Aberdeen to the park and arranged to get picked up. My buddies thought this was a good idea as well and we were all picked up and shuttled into camp that night. Still, we rode 50 miles, a very respectable day.

Day 3 Wednesday June 25th Part 2

While the big boys rode down the coast, Wendi and the boys went with some friends further south and stayed a couple of night at the beach in some yurts. As you can see from these pics, they had a fantastic time both climbing around in the trees and at the beach getting very wet and sandy. Lastly, a nice warm campfire warmed and dried everyone. Of course the smores were a nice addition.