Tatertot

Sonia & Danny's wedding

2010-04-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Brett and I went to California at the end of March for our friends' wedding - Sonia & Danny got married on a perfect sunny day at the St. Regis Hotel in Southern California. It was such an incredible experience. Sonia is Indian, and as you can see from the photos below, they know how to throw a beautiful wedding. If I was more adept at the whole blog thing, these photos would be in order, but I'm not, so you just have to muddle through :)

We had a fantastic time at the wedding, and Sonia is such a dear friend, i still get a bit choked up thinking about her getting married to such a great guy. Ah, happily ever after ... :)

The happy groom!

Me, Sonia and Lisa, just a few minutes before the wedding started.

Rachel & Sonia

Me and Brett - all decked out in our Indian clothes!

The view from our hotel room, looking down on the wedding site.

My henna tatoos - pretty cool, but nothing close to what Sonia had.

One of the ceremonies on Friday - Sonia with her parents and their priest.

Me, Danny and Brett - right before the Barat - the ceremony where the Groom leads a procession of dancing, drumming and singing with his family and friends to the wedding (traditionally, they'd come from the groom's village and process all the way to the bride's village - in our case, we just came from one side of the hotel to the other) .

Danny walking down the aisle with his mother-in-law-to-be.

Sonia and her dad, walking down to the wedding.

The first dance for the bride and groom.

The reception!

Sonia and her parents.

Me - wearing a bindi!

Getting ready for the Friday morning ceremony - she'll be covered in yellow tumeric shortly.

Sonia getting her henna tatoos - this process took well over 2 hours!

The Thursday evening festivities begin! Sonia with her dad and brother.

2009-09-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just a boy and his Goose Nearly completed summer project Before: After:
Beachball

Tate's 2nd Birthday

2009-08-19T14:58:00.001-07:00

So, he's only two, but already Tate has mastered the art of stretching out his birthday celebration beyond the single-day party. Instead, he had a birthday weekend - including a trip to Salem to have a pool party, a play in the park and a BBQ with his cousins, then a second party with some neighbors who also have birthdays in August - this time we went to the park, played with sidewalk chalk and topped off the day with some water-baloons!
Fun with side-walk chalk

Tate from way-up-high on the jungle gym

He didn't like the hat - we were only able to grab one quick photo of him in it!

Cousin Marissa turned 8 on the 14th, so we had two cakes. The more the better in my opinion!!

Swinging is good any day.

Tate LOVES swimming!

Post-swimming snuggle with Daddy :)

The diving board was a hit with all the cousins - Rhys takes off for a cannonball

Here are all of the cousins - from Left to Right: Tate, Elle, Hannah, Allison, Marissa, Dominic, Rhys, Rhen, Corbin

Seattle

2009-08-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Seattle for a quick weekend get-away and a visit with Sonia and Danny. We took in all of the usual sites like Pike Place Market, the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project.

The EMP also houses the Science Fiction museum (a hot ticket if you're a trekkie) and a Jim Henson exhibit. This photo below includes the muppet characters, and you can almost see the little kids behind/below who are making the band play - it was quite a show!

An odd picture of me, but at least you get to see us standing in front of the market sign.

At the baseball game...

We had incredible seats for the game (thanks to Danny) - this is our view! Doesn't get much better than that!

Gang's all here

Ah, the market again - those fish were flying!

Sunriver

2009-08-19T14:32:00.001-07:00

We went to Sunriver for 5 days earlier this month with my sister Kim and her family, and Mom and Jack. The weather was beautiful, the house we stayed in was plenty big enough for all of us, and we happily spent our days biking around the village, going to the pool, visiting the ponys and playing cards.

Tate's first experience with the ponys! - he has very little fear of animals. Probably because he thinks that Poco is his brother :)
From Left to Right: Rhys, Grandpa Jack, Grandma, Rhen, and Tate out in front. The candid shots are the best - we tried to get numerous photos of the kids on this little bridge, but none of them looked as good as this one.

Tate's first ride on a pony!

One of those post-pool-bike-ride late afternoons - Tate is the only one with any energy left.

Aw, snuggled up with cousin Rhys.

The two cheesey-smilers...

Bouncy

2009-08-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick update! Tater turned 2 this past weekend. It's hard to believe he's already 2....he'll be off to college soon.....getting married.....putting us in a home.....C'est la Vie..:-) I'm sure Tricia will add some more BDAY pics in a bit.

Want Some Chalk? Tate liked using the sidewalk chart at the Overlook Park Birthday gathering.

I think the kids got some talent....his finished picture drew quite a crowd.

WATERBALLOONSSSSS!!!!

Birthday boy!

Tate likes the boucey bridge. Notice how he uses his knees...it's very important to bouce with your needs apparently.

Brett's Birthday

2009-06-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

Brett's birthday was last Friday, so Tate and I decided to make him a cake...

Tate was scared of the mixer, but once he realized he got to lick the cake batter and the frosting off of the beaters, he became a fan of that mixer.

Had to get the frosting off of his cheeks somehow :)

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-29T21:54:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty mellow Father's Day this year. Brett got to sleep in (sleep is a treasure every parent wants more of), got to open a few presents and then we just hung out for most of the day. Here are a few father-son shots of our relaxing day.

Update Summer 2009

2009-06-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

We have been horrible about updating this blog - I wish I could blame Brett for the delay... So, to avoid finger-pointing, I'm diving in to figure out how to update the blog myself (Brett showed me how to do it about a year ago). As my blogging skills are still weak, i haven't figured out how to upload the photos and re-arrange them in a manner that makes chronological sense, so you'll just have to bear with me while I stumble through. The important thing is the update after all.

Here's a candid shot - Tate eating lunch with Sonia and Danny - notice how he's stealing Danny's fries while everyone else is distracted by the camera? Takes after his father.

We rented a house on Vashon Island for Memorial Day weekend with our friends Pamela, Mitchell and Andrew. (Andrew and Tate are only 4 months apart). This is a photo of the boys down by the water, throwing rocks into the Sound.

Tate and Brett down on the sand learning about shells, rocks, and waves. Later that weekend we saw two Orca whales swimming out in the Sound - they were so close, it was incredible. Unfortunately, they're also fast, and we couldn't get a shot of them.

The May birthday cousins get ready to blow out their candles - icecream cake for everyone! The green frosting was especially colorful after Tate got it all over his mouth/teeth/face/fingers.

On Mother's Day, Tate learns to blow bubbles with Grandma.

A visit to the water play station at OMSI (we visit this place frequently :))

This is from our Christmas gathering at my sister's house. Tate got a great book from his cousin, Rhen (it has over 100 flaps!- he loves that book!)

Christmas morning - present time!!!

This is at the Macy's Christmas Village - in line to get a photo with Santa.

Photo of us in the snow by our front steps- you can see that Brett has a snowball in his hand. He's sneaky like that.

This is from a post-Christmas family gathering at our house. The snow over the holidays kept us from being able to see everyone. Someone thought it would be good to see how many people they could shove onto one chair - kinda like clowns in a Volkswagon :) The clowns in this photo include my sister, Kim, her children, Rhys & Rhen, and Tater on top.

Getting ready for the Easter Egg hunt at Grandma's house!

Tate opening his Easter basket on Easter morning - in his Laker's pajamas from Gina (oh, our L.A. friend thinks she's so funny!).

Pumpkin Patch 2.0

2008-10-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

The Great Pumpkin Patch! We went to grab some pumpkins this year on Sauvie Island....same spot as last year. This year however Tater was a bit more aweare of his surroundings! He blended right in and had a great time!
(Click on Pics for larger size)

Now where did litte man Tate get off to?? By the way....how much for the goofey little Pumpkin?

Mud Mud Mud....never a match for a kid with froggy boots!

Cheesing it up for the Camera....must come from Tricia's Side :-)

Long Overdue Updates

2008-09-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

So...it's been a while...too long as I'm being told, and I have to agree. There has been lots of stuff to ocver over the last few months, so here is a re-cap. Tate Celebrated his 1st Birthday on August 16th! He's also started walking....going from a few steps, to long distance runner in about 2 weeks!! I won't wait so long to post next time....too much happenings to put into a simgle blog!

We've also been taking the Max Downtown..... To the Childrens Museum.... I was in Europe for a bit for work....Tricia had her High School Reunion....things have been good and busy! Random clip posting. (Can't beat a Baby's Laugh)

Big Sky

2008-07-15T20:17:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we headed out to Montana...Big Sky Country for Lee Rahr's big Bithday celebration. The Trip was absolutley fantastic. The Ranch was amazing and had just about every type of landscape to explore....and we did just that! Here are some pics just to give a taste of how beautiful it was. It's truly the way to live!

Don't forget to click on the picture to get the full size! Some of the shots don't look as nice in the minimized image.

Of course it's the people that really made the trip.

Dogs are people too....

And I love to take some Flower shots. Hard to mess up when they are that beautiful.

Even more shots on Snapfish!

Family Update

2008-07-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while, so this one is going to be long....but anyway, here's an update! Tate is growing....and growing....and then growing some more. Still only two teeth....but there's a 3rd just about to show. We got a backpack for him to tool around in and he loves it!

Backpacking has been giving the little guy a big appetite. He's really been digging on the cheerios lately!

Swimming with his cousins helps keep the leg rolls to a minimum (doesn't seems to be helping though)

A little video time!

Lastly....I've just changed jobs to a company called Vestas GO Green! They are based in Denmark and I believe are the biggest producers of Wind Turbine Energy in the world. I just took a trip down to Wasco (Dalles area) where PGE has a wind farm with 78 of Vestas's turbines. These things are HUGE...the pictures don't do them justice. They stand between 180-220 ft high and the top part of the turbines (called the Nacell) can fit @ 8 people standing in them for maintenace & servicing.

The Best part is I get to Bike to work! If you see this bad boy one the road....make way :-)

Random Poco Pics

2008-05-24T19:34:00.003-07:00

This weekend we traveled to Long Beach WA for Memorial Day. We're spending the weekend with our friends Pamela and Mitchell and their son Andrew (who is just a few months older than Tate). The weather has been a bit touch and go, but we made it out for a walk on the beach a few times each day and loved it. The sun came out, and everyone was enjoying the beach. Poco has been especially happy playing in the sand and the surf.