Photoalbums...

Wendy finished revamping our adoption photo album - the book they give to birthmothers who are interested in finding out about waiting families. It's the impression they get from this album that allows them to find that "link" with just the right family... Our first album was too bland, and it's been more than a year now so we put in more current photos.

I took pictures of the album (odd thing, taking pictures of pictures!)... then converted to Adobe Acrobat files so you can take a look at Wendy's excellent job with the new album! (I spent 6 hours editing photos, and she spent probably 16 hours putting them all together...)

Check out our *new* 2005 Birthmother Photo Album.

Oh, AND, I also built a digital photo album on my site too - built from the many different albums I've been putting up over past months. It's more secure. You have to have the login/password. If you are family, and want to take a look - email me and I'll let ya know what it is. There's hundreds of pictures up - all indexed and paged and everything - and it took like 10 minutes to do (no really, it's magic, when ya know what tools to use... and how to use 'em!)

Photos from Discovery Park (Seattle, WA)...

Here's photos from our hike to West Point Lighthouse at Discovery Park (where Erika works as a Naturalist guide for Day Camp for Kids). We'd just planned to go to the park to see Erika's classroom, but the tide was way low on Puget Sound and we couldn't resist the mile hike down the South trail...

Glad we went! Got good photos! I even entered one of them in Discovery Park photo contest (you'll have to click through the slideshow and read the descriptions to figure out which one!)

Discovery Park hike - June 25th 2005

Summer Nights Concerts in Seattle on East Lake...

Wendy and I were in Seattle for the weekend, and took in a couple of "Summer Nights" concerts on East Lake with Erika and Hunter. Was pretty cool since Erika's apartment was within walking distance...

We got to town late Thursday night. Had to work late on project so didn't get to leave until after 7pm. Took a bit to shrug off the weight of work stress too - just about the length of a drive up I-5 from Salem to Seattle did the trick.

Friday we saw John Doe and Linda Williams. It was a good concert. Weather got kinda overcast and windy, but not too cool. Crowd was as interesting as the concert. There was one guy that was groovying out, but it seemed like he was at a different concert. Then there was a drunk guy that was passing out a few rows up and the security came and escorted him away. The security was even as interesting to watch as the concert was.

On Saturday, we went to Discovery Park where Erika works as a Naturalist guide. Went for "short" hike out to the lighthouse there. Was a great trail with good view of Puget Sound. Took lots of pics, will post 'em later. The tide was way out so we got to check out cool things in the tide pools and stuff.

Saturday night we went to Lyle Lovett concert at same place on East Lake. It was a perfect night for concert - weather was clear, just a little wind. Seagulls flying by, seaplanes on the lake, and jets flying by every 5 minutes like clockwork (making surprising little to no sound).

Lyle puts on an AWESOME concert! Was way better than the night before. Thoroughly enjoyed it! He had a big band so there was lots of dynamic music going on, and he's funny and engages the audience well. We saw the same guy that was at the concert the night before and he was groovin' again, and this time it actually fit the concert mood.

We're going to go to brunch this morning (Sunday) with Erika and Hunter (at a place they swear I've been to with them before but I don't remember ever going there), then head back home and pick up the dogs at the kennel.

Watermelon Ride 2005...

Way back on June 19th, Wendy and Erika rode 50 mile route of Salem Bicycle Club's Watermelon bike ride. They rode the Monster Cookie last month, and plan to ride the Peach of a Century (100 mile ride) in September - they'll earn the Salem Bicycle Club's "Road Animal" award if they complete all three rides. Wendy's been wanting to do all three of these ride for a few years, but we always ended up skipping out of the Peach - for one reason or another (one being it ALWAYS rains that day!)

I put up 16 pics of them at the finish of Watermelon Ride (which started and finished at the Rickreall fairgrounds near Salem).

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Basic Training area build update

We've put in a 3' drop that will make it easier for people to progress from the 2' "Frankenstein" drop to the 4' drop. It was a big leap in skills between 2' and 4' drop, so we decided to put in something to ease the transition. This new drop also sets you up better for hitting the step up (a dirt jump up to a 8' high platform that you drop off from - only about a 4' drop).

A new angled road drop is now complete. Finished putting the rungs on earlier this week. It's steep angle from road makes it psychologically challenging, but the drop and landing is smoother than the other straight 6' drop from road we built a couple month ago. It's a ton of fun to drop from this and gain a lot of speed - heading straight for the large dirt jump. People are clearing 30' of distance on this dirt jump now! I generally just try to clear the wooden part (about 14' out).

See photo gallery of pics taken June 21st of the new 3' drop and towards the bottom some shots of the angled drop.

Adoption update - waiting, waiting, and waiting...and?

We knew up front that "waiting" was going to be the bulk of what we, as an adoptive waiting family, would be doing in this process. But at first, we were holding out hope we'd be one of the lucky few who were matched within months instead of years (average was 8 months). After waiting so long (coming up on 1 1/2 years if ya can believe it!)... we're starting to experience, uh, psychological limits I think. Like, "what's wrong with us anyway?" type thoughts.

Since Wendy's now on summer break and will have time on her hands (3 month vacation!! makes me want to be a teacher)... We've decided that perhaps it's time to update our birthmother photo album (we're going to use updated photos and change the format a bit). Going to make it more "friendly" - we'd originally made it professional - nice and neat, and thought it reflected our personalities well... but see now the "what's wrong with us?" factor is creeping in - we're going to revise it to be more warm and friendly (stickers, actual photos with corners instead of printed page with fancy edges, and stuff like that). Since this is the only thing that they see which gives them an idea of who we are it's important to get it "right". If you think about the album long enough it starts to drive you insane - like, should we put in photos of us riding motorcycles, or me freeriding... or would that make them think "these are dangerous people" or would it make them think "wow, this couple is cool..." Ya just never know. Do we have "too many pets"? Is it good we have pets at all? Maybe they don't like dogs?... Geesh. Insane...!

In the end, we're left with just the one thought: You just never know what or why they'll be drawn to you as an adoptive family... it's a Divine sort of thing.

So, we'll revise our photo album, not because it isn't "right" but simply because it's really the only thing we can DO... besides wait and pray, and sometimes wonder, "what's wrong with us? why hasn't anybody chosen us yet?". Starting to get that "last picked" feeling when kids are choosing teams on the playground... It's not a good feeling. It makes you think all kinds of crazy things.

Oh, and we're exponentially more jealous of people with babies now. At first, we always imagined ourselves like them... "soon"... But now, it's "why them and not us?".

We'll survive. But the waiting is killing us.

Road gap + tree + ground = crash

Wade, Wendy, and I went up to Blackrock tonight. After messing around at stuff at Basic Training (trying out the new angled road drop into jump bowl), we pushed all the way up to top of Mt Brown. Really wanted to see the new "wall ride" that was completed up there a few weeks ago. But something made me think I was ready to try the road gap first.

I wasn't ready.

Too much speed. Elbow glanced off tree next to jump, and that's NO way to start a high speed jump across a road. It started badly and therefore it ended badly with my bike crashing to the ground right after the jump but me flying/flailing through the air over the road attempting not to stiffen up for the impending impact with the ground... My left foot hit first, and I kind of rolled to absorb full impact better. That didn't help a whole lot.

Bruised but not broken.

I can still ride, just can't walk real well (ball of foot is bruised to the bone). Who needs to walk anyway? It'll just be incentive not to get off bike and push up hills - will have to pedal thru!

Wendy's graduation from Western Oregon University...

Wendy's all "gradjiated" now! She walked for her Masters degree in Education today. WOU's commencement ceremony was at the campus in Monmouth, Oregon on the football field. It rained a bit. But I'd rather get rained on than roasted in the sun, so it's all good...

I took lots of pictures (of course!)

See Wendy's graduation from WOU - June 2005 photo album for 30 pics (I took 80 but a lot didn't make the cut - was experimenting with telephoto lens and learned that a tripod is absolutely required for clear photos - when using a cheap telephoto without image stabilization!)

Salem Concert Band - Deep Wood

The band Wendy plays clarinet with had a summer outdoor concert at Historic Deep Wood Estates in Salem today. Gene and Pamela were in town for Wendy's graduation (walking for her Masters) tomorrow, so they also took in the concert as well.

Here's some photos from the event...

SCB - Deep Wood - June 2005