Sunset view

A while back we posted a short video about how one of the houses behind us cut down the trees in their yard subsequently revealing an amazing view of the Olympic Mountains. Tonight we viewed an amazing sunset from our deck and thought we should share.

Welcome Mack!

Grace's reaction when she heard she was no longer the youngest Templin. Congratulations to Jeff and Terri on the birth of their baby boy, Mack!

Kirby Visit

Sou meets Grace for the first time!

Family Dinner

Grace joins Grandma and Grandpa and Scott for a home made Philly cheesesteak dinner.

Do it in the Rain

Living in the Pacific Northwest provides it's own unique challenges to daily life. Fall has come and with it the return of the (in)famous cloudy skies and drizzle. As one might expect, it rains here a lot, but less than you might think. Seattle/Tacoma do not even get close to the top ten list of most rain in the contiguous US, but we do win the battle of most days with rain per year. (LINK to some stats) There are rarely thunderstorms, it just barely rains enough all the time to keep everything grey and wet. This is why most people think we get so much rain. Perception is reality.

A common question I get from friends is, "If it rains all the time, how do you get things done?" A question I often asked myself when I first moved here. The simple realization is this: Plan to do everything in the rain. If it doesn't rain, well that's a bonus. This leads us to the photo... if you want to go running, join a gym to run on a treadmill (which I hate) or enjoy a nice refreshing sprinkle as you run in the rain. If you do this regularly, it does require several pairs of shoes on a rotating drying schedule, but other than that, until the temperature drops into the low 40's I'm pretty OK with it. Porter is attached to me via a leash belt which I believe Sarah got me for x-mas a while back. It's really great as I can stay hands free and Porter pulls me up and down hills. One might think that with the pulling force of the dog, I would run faster, but after stopping all those times for him to use the bathroom, I think he actually slows me down.

Porter has been helping me train for a 50K run in October. He's run as much as 14 miles with me on training runs. Other than when he wants to stop to sniff stuff, which is almost every 100 yards, he is incredible at keeping a constant pace throughout the run. As I get tired and want to slow down, Porter reminds me that we need to keep the pace up to his minimum effort trot speed. I think Porter is part sled dog, and I've been greatfull for his company on many a long training run.

For information on the 50K in October - try HERE

For the reasons why I shouldn't have told you my goal about running a 50K go HERE - Let's just say psychology is so cool! ...and don't ask me about the run until AFTER the event.

First Concert

We bought some hearing protection for Grace when we thought about going to the McChord Air Show. Did't go to the air show but we are getting some use out of them now at Grace's first concert. David Grey, concert in the park at Marymoor.

Tummy Time

Grace is starting to enjoy time on her belly more now that we learned to prop her up on a pillow. She gets less frustrated that way. Here she just babbles at herself in the mirror, it's hilarious. Thanks to Jeff and Terri for such a wonderful gift!

This is also a great shot of her evolving mullet. As Scott says, "business in the front, party in the back!"

Bumbo II

Still ridin' the wave of excitement.

Grace gets Cookin'

Just put Grace on the Bumbo chair for the first time. I think she likes it. No, I didn't put her on the stove to keep her warm.

Cookie lunch

Sarah makes cookies, Scott eats them for lunch with milk. Just the milk for Grace.

Wonderland Trail II

I recently reviewed my post last Tuesday of my trip on the Wonderland trail and realized it was a bit sparse on information so I decided I needed to add some more. Fist, I'll give you our route, and daily mileage. We started in the NE corner of the park, and circled the mountain anti-clockwise.

Start Point: Sunrise Trailhead

Night 1: Carbon River 15.5 miles

Night 2: S Mowich River 9.9 miles

Night 3: N Puyallup River 11.8 miles

Night 4: S Puyallup River 6.5 miles

Night 5: Cougar Rock 12.9 miles

Night 6: Nickel Creek 12.7 miles

Night 7: Summerland 10.9 miles

End Point: Sunrise Trailhead 9.8 miles

Although none of the days includes an astronomical number of miles, it was really the vertical profile that truly determined the strain we would all go though to complete the day's miles. The national park service has a .pdf document with the entire profile for download available HERE - however, I've included a small screen shot (very small now that I've got it uploaded) to give you an idea of what our days were like. Most days had both ups and downs, but day 7 was almost entirely UP - for about 7 hours.

I also wanted to include a Google Earth file you can download to explore the trail interactively. It even has the ability to overlay the USGS Topographic maps if you like. This really allows you to get the true feel of the trail. Download the .kmz file HERE.

Finally, I decided to upload the video Gabe made on my computer with about 15 minutes of editing. It's mostly B-roll footage of things he decided just needed to be filmed with video instead of still. Hope you enjoy.

Tree Trimmers

The house behind us recently sold, and the new owner was concerned with some of the old trees beginning to lean toward the house. Over the past couple of days, tree trimmers have worked tirelessly to cut down the 75ft plus trees. I took some photos yesterday and after seeing them in sequence, realized it was almost like viewing a time-laps video... and so I put them together into a short video. Our view of the Olympic mountains has significantly improved. I'll post a photo at sunset when we get a good one.

Grace Finds Her Thumb

We found Grace already has the gift of improvisation - no pacifier...use thumb. Although the thumb sucking is a great thing for now ( demonstrates continued development as well as the ability to "self sooth" to help her fall asleep on her own ) I'm uncertain of the long term implications for a baby to start sucking it's thumb so early...

Flower Girl

The dahlias on our back deck are Sarah's favorite flower and I think quickly becoming Grace's too.

Grace finds her foot...

Grace spent about 10 minutes looking at and grabbing her right foot. Developmental milestone? I think so!