Weekend-long birthday party for Abby and Becca

Abby's family visited this weekend, and we had a great time celebrating both Abby's 28th and Becca's 9th birthdays. Technically, Abby's b-day is Friday, May 22, and Becca's is Saturday, May 23, but we celebrated a week early because Abby and I will be in the Cayman Islands for her birthday. (Nice b-day present, huh!?)


Abby, Marty and Becca playing lasso golf. We played that game a lot over the course of the weekend.


Becca and her cake. She was REALLY excited for it. We ate cake all weekend.


Abby and I got Becca a horse ride for her birthday. We drove out to a farm in Ferndale where a coworker of mine has a horse. She LOVES horses.


Group picture in front of the horse: Me, Abby and Becca.


We spent the better part of Saturday at the beach in Semiahmoo. We packed lunch, kites and lasso golf, but we forgot the sunscreen. We all got sunburned.


The whole family (left to right): Becca, Abby, Andy, Marty, Bob and me.

Please join me in wishing Abby (and Becca) happy birthday. Happy Birthday girls!

To all the mommas out there

Happy Mother's Day! You deserve a whole year of celebration, not just a day.

Abby and I drove to Tacoma on Sunday morning to surprise Abby's Mom and family at Life Center Church. They knew we were coming down, but they thought we were just going to see my family. They were surprised and excited to see us at church. It was nice to be able to spend an hour worshipping God with them.


We then proceeded over to my Mother's house to cook her and the family dinner. We had giant-sized Costco steaks and they were delicious. My sister and her husband brought the desert. We had a great time together as a family.


Mom (Marion and Terpening), thank you for everything! You're the best!

A little Miami wedding and my $200 dance move

Abby and I snuck away to Miami, Florida to celebrate a destination wedding with some great friends. We had an absolute blast while we were there. The trip was far too short. But it was so nice to be away from the rainy, cold Pacific Northwest, even if it was only for a couple days.

Here are Abby and Anne Marie soaking up the sun at the pool. We spent most of our time lounging by the pool when we weren't partaking in fun wedding activities.


Here are Peter and I also lounging by the pool. The average temp was 80 degrees and SUNNY!


Out to lunch at Nexxt Cafe on the main shopping strip in South Beach.


Here's Abby with the bride - Mrs. Emily Hooper (formerly Bynum). This was taken at the bowling alley the night before the wedding. Bowling Alleys in Miami aren't like bowling alleys in Washington. They're very "chic" and "classy," if you will. The beautiful couple rented out a portion of the alley and we had a blast bowling and mingling with friends and family of the bride and groom.


Here's me with the groom - Mr. Andy Hooper - and Brett Lumsden. This was also taken at the bowling alley. Side note; Brett bowled a 195 that night - incredible.


Here's me hitting on Abby at the Playwright bar. We went there after bowling and after dinner so that Andy and Emily could recreate the first time they met. Needless to say, it was a late night on Friday.


Here's us shortly before the wedding. Andy and Emily got married at a hotel on the waterfront. It was beautiful. The guests all dressed in black and white. Emily wore a red dress.


Oh, here's us again... after the ceremony.


And, this is the last picture I took on the trip. It's the bride with Abby and Anne Marie after the ceremony.


If you've made it this far down the post, you're probably wondering what the $200 dance move comment was all about. Well, there's a reason why that last picture was the last picture I took on the trip. The reception was crazy; the dance floor was rockin'. The music took over me and I busted this sweet jump, jive move on the dance floor. Next thing I knew, my camera was lying in the middle of the floor. Some how it flew out of my pocket. Unfortunately the fall cracked the LCD screen. It's no longer functional. Boooooo!

This is the second time we've broken a digital camera at a wedding. The first time Abby did it. Now I've done it. Weddings are getting costly.

Tulips are red, tulips are blue...

It's tulip time again in the Skagit Valley. Abby and I made our annual trip to see them and they didn't disappoint.










(Technically, these yellow ones are daffodils.)

We had a couple of Husseys stay with us

It was a homecoming of sorts this last weekend for Kevin and Becky Hussey. They returned to Bellingham to visit us, and a number of other friends, whom they left behind when they up and moved to Oregon last summer. (I'm not that bitter about it.) It was fun having them stay with us, and a great opportunity to catch up on life.

On Saturday we toutled around town with them. One of the many places we visited was the Bellingham Farmers' Market.

(Kevin and Becky)

We met up with some other friends at the market - Tim and Jessica.




We had lunch together at Boundary Bay Brewery right across the street.


On Saturday evening we hosted a BBQ at our place for all of Kevin and Becky's friends to attend. The weather cooperated and a good number of friends showed up. We had a blast together. It was like they had never moved away. We definitely miss them.

My wife is amazing

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all how wonderful my wife is. I weed-whacked and mowed the front lawn after work today. I then ran out the door to my soccer game. I returned home to find that she had ran Lake Padden, washed the Jetta, mowed the back lawn and had dinner waiting on the table. How amazing is that? She is a blessing.

It gets even better. First off, she ran 2.6 miles in just over 25 minutes - amazing. Second, she mowed part of the lawn for only the third or fourth time in five years - amazing. Third, she washed the car, which she normally does - amazing. Fourth, she cooked chicken on the grill for the first time ever - AMAZING!

I tell you what, she doesn't stop surprising me. Isn't she just AMAZING?!

Mariners' home opener

We cut out of work early on Tuesday (April 14) and jetted down to Seattle for the Mariners' home opener. There was no way I was going to miss the return of the prodigal son - Ken Griffey Jr. We weren't dissapointed either. While he didn't hit a home run in his first at bat, as I predicted and bet he would, the Mariners did win in dramatic fashion.



Abby's family joined us at the ball game.



We also celebrated Drew's 26th birthday.





Peter and Anne Marie were also at the game, we so hooked up with them before and after the game. We went to last year's home opener with them; it snowed on us at that game.