Assorted pics from the last couple of months

After my trip to the Dominican, and subsequent (painful) flight back. I spent some time in Sault Ste. Marie for Christmas. SSM is not quite the Dominican…. At least the weather sure wasn’t.

As an example…

My dad had to shovel off over a foot of snow before being able to BBQ dinner:

This year was the first year not all of my brothers were home for Christmas. Jamie and Michelle continued their Honeymoon in the Dominican Republic over the holidays. The good thing was that I spent the entire previous week with Jamie and Michelle, so I was still able to touch base with all my brothers regardless.

Here, we’re opening presents on Christmas morning. Michael is not in this shot unfortunately, this is mom, Steve, Adam, Nathan, Missy, and Dad.

 

I flew out on boxing day to head to Kitchener to visit with Cheryl’s family. We had a great time playing with Ryan’s new copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, and tubing in the local tube park just five mins from Amy and RJ’s house. In this shot Ryan, Lindsay, and Cheryl are just getting ready to head down for another run.

Back in Seattle, we’ve been having a wacky winter. Lots more snow this year than I’ve seen in the past 7 years I’ve lived in Seattle. This is a shot of my driveway that Cheryl took after one particularly big dump of snow. Nowhere near what you see in Northern Ontario, but more than usual for Seattle. The strange thing is that Jan and Feb were bad in terms of ski conditions. It’s almost as if it snowed more in Seattle than on the slopes…

Just after getting back from Ontario we found out that both Cheryl and I received our Green Cards. This was a process I’ve been in for a long time, so when Henry and Trang found out they decided to surprise us with red, white, and blue cupcakes. Cheryl and I decided to celebrate with some filet mignon, and sparkling wine (not real Champagne - that stuff is too expensive for our tastes.)

Cheryl’s dad took a job just outside of Vancouver, so he’s now within a short bus drive of visiting us. He came down to spend the day with Cheryl and I, and we went on a tour of the neighborhood.

I brought home massive paintings from both Africa, and the Dominican Republic. They go for $30 or $40 there, so when I found out it was going to cost me over $150 to frame each painting I decided I’d take matters into my own hands. Here’s Cheryl getting ready to stretch my Dominican painting over the frame I built. Much cheaper than getting it done professionally, but we didn’t get all the crimps out of it, so we didn’t do as good a job as we would have gotten if we shelled out the cash. If I ever buy an expensive painting I’ll definitely get it framed professionally.

Cheryl’s mom came up to visit for a week shortly after we got the painting up and running. We ate at our favorite breakfast spot (B&O Espresso), they went to the Northwest Flower and Garden show, and also to the Lion King musical. Here they are on their way over to Bainbridge Island on a ferry. It was still pretty cool to be up on the top deck, but again, not quite as cool as Northern Ontario.

I’ve been snowboarding a few times in the last month, but also had a chance to help out the DirtCorps. They are now working on a legit trail just outside of Issaquah. It’s called the Duthie Hill Bike Park. The next week I went out to another trail to race, but since my bike is out of commission I decided to take photos instead of trying my luck on Cheryl’s bike.

Here’s one of the local riders sucking it up to maintain speed (not height) through a jump:

Anyhow, that was Christmas/Jan/Feb. Hope all is well!