Thursday, May 22, 2008

Mother's Day Video

Yikes...need to play some catch up again. Here is the Happy Mother's Day Video I mentiond would get postetd....only a couple weeks late :-) Have to give a "shout out" to Little Haas who turned the big numero Uno (that 1 for those of you dont know Spanish) this week! Happy Birtday Haas!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mother's Day Re-cap

First off, Happy Mother's day to everyone!

Thought we would share some highlights from our Mother's Day 2008. Maddie and I kicked things off by making breakfast for Mommy on Sunday AM. Maddie insisted that Steph stay in bed for breakfast. We then got ready and headed off to Church. Afterwards, we headed down to the Pike Place Market. With our great weather (NOT) we didnt think it would be too busy, but we were wrong. It was packed. Luckily we found a parking spot pretty quick on 1st ave close to the market. We meandered through the market, very impressed by all of the Tulips! With our weather, there was some concern about the tulips, but there seemed to be plenty available. We stocked up on a few bundles, and picked up a few Chocolate Crinkle cookies before heading out. Here are some pics:



Later in the evening, we piled into the Suburban with Mom/Dad Channer/Jensen and headed over to Bellevue for a Mother's Day dinner at Maggiano's. This is a newer Italian place that we have been to in California, but had not been to yet here in Seattle. We were surprised by how much space this place has. It was clearly built with events in mind as there was a massive banquet room that was converted into "large party overflow" for the mother's day crowd. Word from the waiters was that they were going to server over 1700 people that day. The food was great, but it was a bit slow...hey, when you are serving 1700 people, I can only imagine the logistics involved.

All in all, it was a great day. Happy Mother's Day!
NOTE: A special Mother's Day video from Maddie/KK to Steph is coming soon....

Monday, May 5, 2008

Trophy Lake

This weekend I headed out for the Hope Men's Retreat at Miracle Ranch. This was my first Men's retreat, and it was a great experience. There were about 30 guys from the church and we had a great speaker and great program and enjoyed some good times.

One of those "good times" was the pre-retreat golf outing on Friday. Four of us headed over to Trophy Lake Golf and Casting for some golf. This is one of my favorite courses around. First, because it is just a nice course. Second, it is in a quiet setting. And Third, because it integrated Fly Fishing and golf at one location. They have two stocked ponds on the course. In the number of time I have played golf, I have never had the chance to fish it. Well, I had my chance this weekend.

While at the turn, I inquired about fishing....mainly because after passing the 1st stocked pond off of #6, I saw some HUGE fish lurking in the shallow water. I learned that it is only $15 per hour to fish, and 1/2 price if you golf that day.....so for only $7.50 I could try this out for the first time...it was a no brainer. Ironically, I had brought my 4weight fly rod, flies, etc with me in case I had the chance to fish at the lake where the retreat was at. However, I didnt even really need that. For that $7.50 they loaned you a nice Sage Rod and Reel, a net and flies. I wasn't thrilled with the fly selection, so I took my own out with me, but I did use their rod...I hesitates on the net, but then decided to take it as well...just in case. I loaded up the golf cart and headed out to the #6 tee box.

Without rambling too much more, I will let the pictures do the talking. It was AWESOME! The fish were feeding like crazy, and within about 5 minutes I had two hit and finally landed a fish. All in all, I landed 5 fish....all as big or bigger than the one in the picture. I used a small grey parachute adams for a bit and then black wolley bugger. It was a ton of fun. My two buddies who were not as much in to fishing, were spectators while enjoying some cold beverages....Now this is my kind of "19th Hole."

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Baseball bat meets Kenzie

A quick picture of the aftermath of an incident between a bat and kk
during Maddie's softball game last night! Ouch!!!