Hi everybody I am starting to do photography and photoshopping here are some of the things i have done so far.
On September, 3 2008 Brianna took a field trip to the aquarium with the Fifth and Sixth grade, here are some of the pictures she took.
Hi everybody this is Ryker, I am now going to help make the website, since my Dad doesn’t have much time.
Wow, looks like I’ve already let things slide blog-wise and suddenly it’s November. Looks like I need to do some updating. Stay tuned…
Since I tend to be the tech support guy for the immediate family (you know who you are… 
) I’ve been toying with posting some semi-regular tech tips and security stuff on this site. There is a lot of great info on the web to help you secure your computer against all kinds of internet threats, most of it free. So I’m going to start writing little reviews and recommendations on some of the stuff I come across in my day-to-day stuff that will help you get a little more tech and security savvy.
Fortunately, one of the security sites I visit frequently has started a great podcast series geared to consumer security that I would highly recommend taking a listen to. The first podcast is a discussion of Operating System and Application Updates and why it is important to keep everything patched to the latest versions.
Just as an FYI, I have recently started a professional security blog over at www.JeffBolden.net as well that I plan on posting more technical security-related issues I deal with in my professional life, feel free to jump over and take a look.
Last night I added some new features to make it easier to know when I add new posts to the site. For those of you that want to get emailed when new posts get added, just take a look at the links at the bottom of the left menu. There is a link to subscribe to the website via email as well as a RSS feed for those of you that read sites via RSS and Feedburner. I’ll explain RSS in another post… 
Summer is finally here! The kids got out of school on the 8th and I took the next week off, so we headed to the coast for a few days to kick off the summer break. Per the kids rather loud requests, we drove through Tillamook and stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where we proceeded to load up an all kinds of cheesy snacks for the trip. They have a great tour there if you get a chance to head over, with lots of free cheese and some really great ice cream!
After eating lunch, we then headed down to Lincoln City and hit the beach, then later drove down to Depoe Bay and caught a few short glimpses of gray whales. Then dinner at Kyllo’s Seafood & Grill for a relaxing end to the evening watching the sunset over the ocean.
The next morning it was up early and to the beach for some low-tide exploring. The weather was pretty good, no rain although it was pretty cloudy until mid-day with temps in the low 60’s. it was warm enough we had a heck of a time keeping the kids from jumping head first into the nearest tidepool.
Kody (the dog) loves the beach and I spent the morning wearing him out throwing the ball up and down the beach. I thought the poor guy was going to drop as he’s a little out of shape from the winter. I got lots of sleep the next day when we got back home.
We hope to get back down there a few more times this summer.
Well, it’s been a busy few weeks after grandma’s funeral, and life goes on. It’s now full-blown soccer season at our house, and both kids are playing on teams. The soccer league has about 8 teams from the different Christian schools around the area and are broken up into 3-4 grade and the older 5-6 grade.
This is Brianna’s first year at soccer and she’s really excited about it. After sitting around most of the winter, it’s taken her a few weeks to get into shape but her endurance and skills are coming along nicely. They had their first game last Tuesday and won hands-down.
This is Ryker’s second year of soccer, as he played indoor soccer last year in Spokane. He’s having fun as well, although it poured rain during his game last week and he ended up looking like a drowned rat during most of the game. The 5-6 grade team is a good one and I think they will give everyone a run for their money this season.
The funny thing about Ryker’s team is the difference in size between the players. Ryker is probably one of the smallest out there but still gets in there well against boys that are towering over him. I was afraid he would be more intimidated with some of these matchups, but he surprised me by stealing the ball from the opposing team’s best player 4-5 times during the game. Hopefully he will gain some confidence as he goes and start wanting to play other slots besides defender. He’s currently perfectly happy with others doing the scoring, thank you very much.
For those in the family that haven’t heard, my Grandma Shaw passed away Friday night around 11pm. I have yet to get all the details, but she was checked into the hospital Friday morning with heart problems and things went downhill from there.
At over 103 years old, she had a good run and a full life, and I know I’m glad she went pretty quickly and without too much pain or suffering. I know I’ll miss her, she was one tough woman and someone I’ve always admired for her faith and kindness.
Goodbye Grandma. You know I’ll be expecting an apple pie next time I see you… 
We wrapped up Spring Break with Ryker’s birthday last weekend, hard to believe he’s 11 already. I told him last year he was to have no more birthdays and was to stay 10 until further notice. But as kids tend to do, he ignored me completely. Grandma and Grandpa were here for dinner as well as our friends from Seattle, and we had a great time. The theme was SpongeBob SquarePants, and Brenda outdid herself with this cool Spongebob cake.
The kids stayed up late playing the Nintendo Wii for hours. You have got to love a video game that makes you sweat! For those of you not familiar with the Wii, it’s a new video game console that uses controllers called “Wiimotes” and are motion-sensitive. So when you play a tennis game, you swing it like you would a tennis racket. It’s a blast and can be a real workout. The kids played a bunch of doubles tennis as well as many other games.
It was a great ending to a great week off. Unfortunately we all had to go back to the school/work grind. I really need to start buying some lottery tickets so I can retire and spend my time doing fun stuff all day.