Buick had some friends over for a sleepover for his birthday. They watched football, played xbox live, guitar hero and ATE a ton of food. We all had a great time. Here are some photos (click for larger photos):


Watching football. Casey, Alex, Joey and Buick.


Casey, the total rock star!


Chillin' in the hot tub! Oliver was still xboxing with Connor!


The whole gang! Oliver is the one in the blue shirt getting smashed by the group!


Buick opening Oliver's gift (with Oliver)!

This is all I can think of when I hear "11"!

This is what we see flying around, but rarely landing outside our kitchen window!

Here's just some fun at Alki Beach



Buick also got in a golf game or two with his Dad



Buick played "Fall Ball" this year with double headers every Saturday:




Finally, Buick's soccer team finished first in his division. Here's a great shot one of the team grandparents took at a game:

I've sent out the cards with our BLOG mentioned, so I had better update it with a few new items! We left off with All-Stars. Here's what's happened since:


We went on a week long vacation to SF and to Sea Ranch, CA. Here's a photo from a Giants game:



Buick ate breakfast every morning at Sears Fine Foods. 18 mini pancakes! It was a highlight for him.



Finally, we ending our vacation in Sea Ranch, were our friend Pat Ford tied the knot with a great catch, Marianna Pisano. It was a blast. Here's a shot at the spot where the ceremony was held:

Our All-Star team fought hard, but lost twice to a local team 2-1 and then 3-2 in extra innings. This weekend, the winners are in Vancouver, WA for the state tournament. While we are sad for Buick, we are happy to be home and have our lives back! Our local paper didn't cover the tournament, but our opponets did. Here's a link that mentions Buick's inside the park homerun (near the end of the article).
And here's the link to the story about our final loss Buick pitched into extra innings for the final game.

Tonight it's do-or-die for the 9-10 year old West Seattle Little League All Stars. Brad, Buick, Odis and I have been living and breathing Little League since mid-June. We are two games away from making it to the Washington State Tournament for our age group.

Buick has had some great moments. He hit and inside the park homerun and literally hurdled over the catcher, landing safely on the plate. Last night, he was called in to pitch the last inning with bases loaded and no outs. Buick got the save and his team advanced to the Championship game tonight. If we win, we still have to play one more game! Go Geoducks (that's our self proclaimed mascot).

Here's a link to our team site: WSLL ALLSTARS

I'll report back after tonight's game!

Oh yeah, Buick was announced as "Buck" at our first game and his teammates have made it his nickname!

Well, it's my last day as someone in their 30's. Will I feel different tomorrow? I got nostalgic and got out some old photo albums. This is Hawaii in June of 1985. From left to right, it's ME, Jilleen, and Denise. We rode mopeds from Waikiki to Hanauma Bay. That is SO far and SO dangerous! And we did it all in TUBE TOPS. Those days are over. Perhaps I'm wiser. We'll see tomorrow.

Our team received some good soccer photos this week and I threw them up on the web. Here you go: WSSC KICKERS

As many of you may know, my Mom had surgery last week to remove a large tumor and one of her kidneys. The surgery went well, and although she had a couple of complications after surgery, she's home now and things are looking good. The cancer seemed to be contained to the grafefruit sized tumor that had surrounded her kidney. We are still awaiting lab results.

To all the friends I've been neglecting, I'm back home, back to work, and I'll be catching up with you soon (that means you, Diane!). And a special thanks to my big Sis and JB for a place to sleep for Dad and I, all the dinners and food, and conversation.

Buick had this photo taken on Saturday the 21st. It's the unofficial team photo.

Buick is the second batter in this video! I love my new toy!

Kudos to my friend LORI! She is one of the best shoppers that I know. She recently purchased a 60 minute digital camcorder and posted video of her beautiful little girl on her blog. We have been camcorder free for a few years now. Our VHSC cost $1100 and was big and bulky and who uses VHS tapes anymore! Check it out!

Here's our first video of Buick at his opening day Little League game yesterday:



*The quality of playback is better on my computer than on the youtube upload.

Here are a couple of odd activities at the beach this morning:


You don't see dog sledding everyday!



And Buick got in a little snowboarding!

We are definately starting off the year a little behind the times. The windstorm of December left us without power for a full week before the holidays. No Christmas cards were mailed and we barely made it to California for the holidays. January has brought us more weather, this time in the form of SNOW. I've got a lot of catching up to do here! So, here's a video from Buick's birthday (He's 10 now) and a of picture of him and his buddies.

Last night, Brad and I got last minute tickets to the Comedy Underground to see a comedian we missed at Bumbershoot in September. He was FANTASTIC. His name is Arj Barker. Look for him on Comedy Central. Here's his web site. Here's a peak of his act on YouTube.

Green Bay is here for Monday night football. It looks more like we are all in GREEN BAY. Above is our outdoor thermometer. It's 28 and snowing like crazy at sea level! Buick is so excited. Definately a snow day for him tomorrow and maybe for Brad, too!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Lake Cushman this year. We had only been there on past Memorial Day weekends and at this time of year, we had the whole campground to ourselves. It rained. It was sunny, and on the last day, it snowed. Here's Brad BBQing the turkey:



Buick had a blast with Connor (the Lawson's went too and brought both labs). They were thrilled to wake up to snow on Sunday morning:

We replayed this a million times last night! Too funny!

Buick had two costumes this year. First, he and Brandon looked very cool as the Blues Brothers! Thanks to Emiko for shopping for the suits!


Next, Buick went trick or treating with Oliver, who dressed as a Seahawk Super Fan. Buick quickly threw together his best Raider outfit. They are a great duo because the Raiders will be here Monday night to play the Seahawks!