Farrow Amelia Yoder

Welcome Farrow Amelia Yoder.

Born 12:34am 12/29/08
Wt: 7lbs 9.3oz
Ht: 19.5 inches

Mom and daughter happy and healthy. Big Papi approves. Happy New Year. More pictures to come.

Merry Christmas

Here's to peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

Snowpocolypse 2008 (UPDATED MONDAY AFTERNOON)

As the first day of winter approached Seattle, it brought with it 3 pretty interesting snow storms. School has been cancelled for 4 days, and the roads are covered in snow. Perhaps you caught the Seahawks and Jets game on TV and saw the Chicago or New England type seen.

It's not so much the amount of snow that is causing all the mayhem, but more likely because they don't salt or sand any non-arterial roads and the fleet of plows and dusters is lacking. The city is then left with buses careening through barricades dangling over highways, and cars routinely sliding down one of the many hills in the city. Seattle doesn't have the reputation of being very hilly but outside SF, I don't know of a city with more of them.

Of course, no one cares about the negatives of snow days. So everyone is cross country skiing down the streets (it IS Seattle after all). They're pulling dogs and babies to the grocery store, and sledding on any hill they can find. Everyone talks on the street. Neighbors are laughing about digging out cars, and as bars close at night, spontaneous sledding runs and snow ball fights with 50 people are breaking out.

It's not often we get this type of winter blast and EVERYONE is taking advantage.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the Snowpocolypse.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattyoder/Snowpocolypse2008#

UPDATE: You can see I am not the only one noticing people having fun in the streets:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2008/12/22/whose_streets_1

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It snowed Saturday night and at midnight I took this picture of our house. Needless to say, Teri could not be happier (unless she was not pregnant).

Snow and cold all week. Christmas is here. The baby is close.

Happy Birthday to me!

The forces of the world clearly knew my birthday was today and blessed us all with this great video. For some reason I cannot imbed it, but you should go to this link and, as the kids say, rotflol.

(Nate, if for anyone else, this is for you, too.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhW76BIwP4&eurl=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

It's a giant!

Change is coming to the America. And by America, I mean the Yodkamps.


Here is the last ultrasound of our child. It was taken last week and we were told it is 6.5 lbs., has a full head of hair and tracking in the 90th percentile for weight. Now for all of you who had before January 12th in the poll, you are going to win. The latest (fifth) due date is now 12/29/08. This made us throw up a little in our mouths.


Two things about this. One, this is Teri's birthday. It could now be born on Christmas, Teri's favorite day of the year or her birthday. And two, tax write off! Woo hoo. Already bringing in the big bucks.


On a different note, it's my 31st birthday Friday. Tyler and Shoshana get back from Southeast Asia this week and we will be celebrating with them. It should be fun.

'Tis the Season

Unfortunately, this is not our house. Ours is in the meager beginnings this awesomeness. But with our strategy of a few new 100 ft strings every year, in a few more Decembers, we too will have our electric meter spinning like a 45.

The lights are up all over the neighborhood. And this past weekend we discovered the lights in the neighborhood just north of us. There are streets of houses decorated like the picture above. All next to each other almost competing Christmas glory. Clark Griswald would be proud.

Most importantly, this past weekend our mothers came to town. Ellen and Debbie were such gracious guests, helping us finish the nursery and getting things finalized for the new kid. Teri's friends threw Teri a shower as well and the moms were happy to attend. From what I have heard, the shower went great. I wasn't invited.

We're quickly coming to the end, and Teri is ready to pop. The room is now ready (thanks, moms) and all we need to do now is put the car seat in the car.

Thanksgiving was a Success

I'll let the pictures describe:


Here we are eating the great meal listed below. Then here we are an hour later watching The Last Waltz until dessert.


Yeah, it was awesome. Thanks to all who came

Happy Thanksgiving

We at the Yoder household wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Be safe.

Teri and I will be making dinner tomorrow. If you are curious, here is what we are having with Keith, Vanya, Aubrey, Ben, Cherie, Evie, Seth, and maybe Suzanne.

- Deep Fried Turkey (I bought a fryer yesterday)

- Chestnut, sausage and cranberry stuffing

- Warm Autumn Beet Soup

- Mashed Potoates with Celery Root

- Roasted Sweet Potatoes

- Cranberries

- Cranberry Relish

- Green Bean Casserole

- Macarroni and Cheese

- Pies and other provided desserts

Then Teri is allowed to listen to Christmas Carols.

Sasquatch Militia Wins Championship, Defends Cascadia

On Saturday, the great men of the Sasquatch Militia defended Cascadia's honor by capturing the Gentleman's Saturdays Flag Football Championship in a rout, 39-13 over the impossibly matched Throwbackers. QB Scott Baker completed 5 TD passes and ran for one, while Zach Gray was on the receiving end of 3 of those, adding an interception on D as well.

The team made quick work of their semi final match up earlier in the day, housing The Buschmen 33-20, and never letting them in the game. Matt Yoder, Keith Van Essen and Ben Katt each had many key receptions throughout the afternoon, while Tim Ramseyer, Seth Doyle, and Chris Holder were stifling on defense. Jim Curtain, coming back from a broken wrist earlier in the season rounded out the Militia attack.

"Doesn't it feel good, boys?" laughed Gray, a 6 season veteran and the team's senior player. His mood suddenly changing, tears welling up in his eyes, he exclaimed, "I have been waiting for this for so long. You don't know what this means to me; nearing the end of my career. I only wish..." He then fell sobbing into team minister/star flag grabber Katt's arms, unable to finish his sentence.

Katt himself was a monster, preventing any opponent receivers from escaping his patented 'Hand of God" defense Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile on offense, Baker was making quick and easy work of his unworthy opponents. "I can't remember the last time I accounted for 11 touchdowns in consecutive games. Is that a record,"Baker asked? Baker, who's family had made the trip from Bainbridge on a ferry, played inspired, scoring on nearly every drive started. Signing autographs after the game, he winked to his parents and girlfriend, signed the game ball, and chucked it to the adoring crowd.

Next season begins in January, but the team isn't worrying about that just yet. "We have some celebrating to do," Holder told the assembled press after the game. For all our fans who want to come out, we'll be at Floyd's, Saturday. I guarantee bedlam."

The bedlam, perhaps fitting, is something of a tradition for the Militia. It is doubtful that the memories from this fantastic season will fade any faster than their trophy T-shirts, worn proudly as they exited the stadium. "The only thing missing was the championship champagne shower," Yoder mentioned nearing the end of the celebration on the field. "I guess we'll have to do it on Thanksgiving."

Bedlam indeed. As the sun sets in Cascadia this autumn, know that its shores are defended by an elite few; proudly stomping out victims every Saturday, in the dark and rain. They are the Sasquatch Militia, Champions of Seattle. You should be proud.

32 Weeks

Well, I'm deep into my 32nd week and my third trimester. I've been feeling the effects of being uber-pregnant lately - meaning, I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable and awkward. The kid continues to move like crazy. I've started feeling kicks on opposite sides of my stomach at the same time and it's freaking me out a bit. Honestly, though, is anyone really that surprised to learn that this kid is active? Seriously ...

We've been keeping busy getting the nursery together and attending our birthing classes. The classes are six weeks long, and held at the hospital where I'll be giving birth, conveniently located 1 mile from our house. The classes have been really educational and are really helping us understand the whole birthing process. Plus, we've met some really great couples who are in the exact same boat as we are.

We'll post more soon, we promise.

Halloween with the Davis Family

Meet the Davis Family. Katie, John and Ava are our friends and next door neighbors, though it is probably more appropriate to call them our roommates. At least twice a week we eat, hang out, or do something together. If you have visited, you have met them, or seen Wrigley, one of their dogs, jump the fence and run into our house. They are new friends, but close ones, and it has been really great to watch them raise Ava. Their advice has been invaluable, and it is exciting to think about our kids playing together in the next few years.

We have a tradition, albeit new, that we spend Halloween in our front yard with a small fire and hand candy to kids as they come to our house. Last night we did this for a second year and everything started out great. Many of our neighbors came by with their kids, some stayed and chatted about what was going on with the election, or our collective lives. Some asked about Teri's pregnancy or our house projects. And others still came by to introduce themselves to our group of 5. It was really a nice evening.

Then the Fire Department came. Some jerk neighbor (I think it is the old hag piano teacher across the street) had apparently called them on us. Our fire, though contained in a Home Depot clay pot, burning clean wood on a ground freshly wet from 2 days of rain, scared some neighbor to the point she called the Fire Department. There was no warning or conversation of "Hey, that tiny safe fire worries me, can you put it out?" Nope, none of that. Instead it was just a chickenshit call to 911. Ahhhh tax dollars. The big truck, with four firefighters in full gear stopped at our house, walked up to where the five of us were sitting, looked puzzled and asked about the pit. Turns out the law is that you need to have food and a metal grate in order to have an open fire pit. So they made us spray it down. You could see the embarrassment in their eyes, as the smoke rose and the fire was put out. We weren't there to cause trouble, and they were just answering a scared bitch neighbor's call.

Luckily, we had reinforcements. Armed by the Davis's fire pit (with a metal grate) we started a fire anew. John and I cut some more wood. Teri and Katie continued to hand out candy, and our neighbor, Jan the mail carrier, brought a pound of frozen ground beef still in a bag and we continue our evening. More neighbors stopped by, asked about the commotion (then laughed at its ridiculousness), our fire continued, and we had a pleasant evening.

In the great words of Chumbawumba "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You ain't ever gonna keep me down."

Especially on Halloween.

The New Basement

So finally, after a couple years we are putting the finishing touches on our basement. This week the trim work and carpet were finished, a new tv and couch arrived and we finally moved Teri down to her new office. My reward? A month to do the nursery.

But seriosuly, we are really happy with how this turned out. We now have added a den, an office, a large storage hall, and an enormous guestroom that sleeps four to go along with the bathroom and laundry room that were already there.

WE have a few things to do like attach the face plates and hang some curtains, but we have enjoyed some movies on the couch and DirecTV comes tomorrow.

On the right in the house projects part of the this website you can see what the basement started out as. Below is a link showing you what it looks like now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattyoder/NewBasement#

Thanks to the following people who helped me out for beer, pizza, and enjoyment.

Tyler Espinoza, Keith Van Essen, Jake Geiger, John Davis, Tim Ramseyer, Shaun Fullmer, Teri Yoder, and my dad, Jim Yoder.

Now it is up to all of you to come visit. See you soon.

Missouri

I'll try to not let this photo hurt my feelings. Matt and I trekked back to Missouri a few weeks ago for a baby shower that my Mother hosted for us. It was a nice afternoon, and great fun as I got to see my two closest friends from highschool, Erin and Adrienne (Erin is the one who looks like she's going to throw up), and my best friend from college, Rachal. Rachal is spending a few months in Missouri with her family before she heads to Argentina to teach for six months. It was so great to spend time with three of my favorite people. It's so fun to get together with old friends when it feels like no time has passed at all.

The shower itself was a great event, held in my parent's brand new house. They moved in just three days before the shower and somehow managed to pull off a party for 35 people. It was a beautiful day spent with family and lots of old friends, who were all very generous to the unborn Yoder. Lucky kid ...

NEW YORK! (written over two days)

The above is supposed to sound like someone screaming, as in "this is NEW YORK!"

Once again Teri and I are seperated for the week and I am in New York while she is in St Louis. I will be meeting her at the end of the week for our baby shower in Missouri. Before that happens though, I have had a perfect, fall, NYC couple of days.

It has been a great week as I was able to catch up with my old freinds Matt Henning, Kim Sall, and Derek Metz. The weather was crisp, the job easy, and the reuniting comforting. I would like to thank Microsoft for the free ticket.

Matt Dellinger(pictured) is the person I stay with each time I come out here. He is currently writing a book. It's about Highway 69, explained thusly: The transformative power of transportation explored through the lens of one controversial project - the extention of the interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Mexico. Look for him on the Daily Show next spring. When I visit, there is always a new adventure.

Though work pushed me through two 15 hour days, I was able to turn it into a boondoggle to visit these friends. (Dellinger just warned me to be careful not to write this because my company may read it, and I've been drinking. whatever. It's after 5pm. I can do what I want. It is not Russia.)

But honestly, I love visiting this town. I really wanted Teri to come this time, but she could not make it. Pregnancy and all. Soon though, she will be coming back and Dellinger has offered to push the stroller. But back to this trip: He and I saw our friend McGrath (who wrote this: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/23/070423fa_fact_mcgrath) on Saturday night in Red Hook. On Sunday, we ate our way from Brooklyn to The Village and back, stopping for a Katz Rueben, Shwarma, Sushi, and some cheese from Murray's. That night we took the cheese to have dinner with Henning and his partner, Dave.

Anyway, after working for two days this week in Midtown, I am back here in Brooklyn, to hang a shelf. We're turning his room into a literary colliseum (see previous blog post).

Tonight I also saw an old friend Kim and her fiance Derek. I haven't seen these two in years, but they are doing great. This is important because in the last two years Kim has surived some serious health problems. It was a relief to see them happy and healthy. They are doing great and I could not be happier for them.

Next I head to Missouri to see Teri, The Hoerstkamps and their new house, and get to hang with some of Teri;'s old friends. Should be fun and look for another post soon.

(oh yeah, the carpet went into the basement while I was gone. More on that later too)

Major Development

We have decided to build the shelf on the east side of the room instead of the west side of the room in Dellinger's house. It will fit perfectly. You can see here.

27 Weeks

I'm starting my 27th week, which means I am one week away from being in my third trimester. I've heard so many people say that their pregnancy felt so long, as if it would never end. I've had the exact opposite experience. It's like I woke up one day and realized that I was 6 months pregnant. And that was quite a surprise.


So, right now this kid weighs about 2lbs and is measuring about 141/2 inches with it's legs extended. I went to the doctor last week, and everything still looks really good. On my last visit, my belly was measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule, which was a bit concerning since we learned that this kid is very tall and in the 96% percentile of weight. But, on this last visit, my belly measured right at 26.5 weeks, which was exactly on target. But the heartbeat remains strong, and this kid remains very active. I'm starting to see my stomach move along with the kicks, which is pretty crazy. It's also responding to Matt's voice pretty regularly, which is pretty cool too.


I am having one pretty serious side effect to this pregnancy ... I've been experiencing terrible pregnancy rage. I can't explain and I can't control it. It's mostly directed at people who are clearly disobeying the standard rules of our society. For example: People who ignore proper airplane etiquette, people who cut in front of me in a bathroom line (seriously, I'm pregnant), and everything related in any way to Sarah Palin. What's worse is that Matt knows about my rage, finds it funny, and totally eggs me on. My face gets all red and I cannot hold my tongue. I guess, thinking of all the side effects I could have to this pregnancy, this isn't too bad. I mean, apparently I know understand fully Matt's world.


Matt and I are heading back to Missouri for a baby shower next week, and after that trip, I am officially grounded. I must admit I'm pretty excited to be forced to stay in Seattle for awhile. I'm excited to spend some time in Missouri, not only to see family, but we'll get to see some great friends who recently moved back to the area. Should be a very good time.

Long Overdue ...

It appears that we are at our best, in terms of updating our blog, when we are on vacation. Needless to say, we made it back to Seattle safe and sound, with a brief stop in Boston. We had just one night in Boston, and thanks to the Schomps, we were able to see the whole SK crowd. It was really great to get a chance to not only catch up with this crew, but to also meet Ms. Evelyn Alida Schomp. I won't lie, it was clearly the highlight of the night. Not only is she a joy to be around, she also apparently likes dried fish. Matt brought this Icelandic treat back for Nate, and Evelyn went to town on it. It's a shame, really, since it smells like fish food.

We ended back to the Seattle early the next morning, and since we've been home it's been crazy busy. Since September 7th, Matt's been to LA, San Francisco two times, and is heading to New York this weekend. I've had an easier run, with just one trip to North Carolina. When we have been home, it's been all basement all the time. There's a bit more urgency now that we have a deadline of January 12th.

Matt separated his shoulder a few weeks ago playing flag football, so we've reached out to our contractor to finish up the trim and other detailed woodwork in the basement. But still, bum shoulder and all, Matt spent this past weekend painting the entire basement and finishing up the last bit of electrical work. Carpet is being installed on Thursday, and we'll be sure to post some photos of the basement after that. It's pretty exciting though - we are really close to being finished and it actually does double the size of our house.

Stay tuned for updates on the status of Baby Yoder ...

Iceland - Day 9. Seriosuly, Bjork?!?

Well, today we completed the Ring Road. After just over 2000km in our car, we arrived back in Reykjavik. Over the past week and a half, Teri and I have traveled around a thoroughly beautiful place unlike any other we have been to. You've seen the pictures. The geological diversity is unmatched anywhere for such a small place. We have 8 rolls of film and 300 digital photos. Don't worry though. You won't be asked to look at them unless you want to. We took the one above earlier today at a turnoff just off the Ring Road. It's barely mentioned on the map of the region we were in. But there it was, a 70m waterfall into a stream with rainbows in it.

It's odd that the natural marvels occur in a place with so few citizens. Nature creates the beauty here for itself. And maybe for the sheep and horses. The volcanic activity and glacial movements assure the view is always in flux. And though the towns we have passed through have been populated by 1000 people, or 800 people, or if it is big, 6000 people, I still find it striking that there are only 300,000 Icelanders. That's the size of Toledo, OH. When they told us Iceland's silver medal in handball was the smallest country ever to medal in a team sport, it was weird to think that Iceland had such a small population, and yet we had traveled through almost all of her towns. Yes, 70% of the country is uninhabitable. Yes, the weather is fairly harsh, even in late summer, but after driving through it, Iceland seems like it would be a country of a few million. Back in Reykjavik, it just seems that across the entire land we were playing in, more than Toledo, OH existed.

Here's an example to explain. Teri and I were wandering through the botanical gardens today in Reykjavik. and stepped into a cafe. Sitting at the table with her friends was Bjork. Now she's not that famous, but she's probably the most famous person in Iceland since Leif Ericksson. She's the joke everyone made when they heard we're heading out here. "Say 'hi' to Bjork" was EVERYONE's joke. The ridiculousness of it all compounded when we ran (near literally) into her again, walking into a book store on Reykjavik's busiest shopping street. Is Iceland this small? Do people routinely see Bjork or Magnus Ver Magnusson in cafe's or shopping?

Another example: everyone is listed in the phonebook. Including the Prime Minister. Probably Bjork too. I can call them right now. Then I can walk up to the parliament building and walk in and say hi. The building itself looks like an small educational building at liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere. I'd say DePauw, but my school's buildings were larger than this. Hell, DU was nearly as large as this building. It's just a striking realization to the country's actual size when things like this smack you in the face. And you can tell Icelanders enjoy this aspect immensely.

It is an entire country as a small town. No one locks their doors. Every driveway and farm along the Ring Road has a sign marking what it is. Not an address or street sign, but a sign like you are entering a town; reflective and official. Strollers - with babies - are left outside a cafe while the person pushing it grabs a quick coffee. There is an incredible trust/respect for personal space and belongings that you only find in places where everyone knows each other.

Some other quirks:
** Is it racist to say that all Icelandic children look alike, yet none of them look like their parents? Teri has really blonde hair. But hers looks brown compared to these kids' mop tops. Every physical stereotype about Scandanavians presents itself in Icelandic children. White, White, White, hair, and bright, bright, bright, blue eyes. Large physical traits and clearly homemade clothes. (Though by the time they are teenagers, I'd say half have turned goth - probably also fulfilling a stereotype). Here's the thing though. There are shockingly few toe headed adults. The adults still have the Viking traits of high cheek bones, sharp chins, and prominent brows, but everyone has brown hair.

** The above mentioned phonebook lists people by their first names. (Therefore, the J section, for Jon, is very long - but not too long, because the country only has the population of TOLEDO!). This is because the way people are named here is different than most western countries. When two are married, the woman does not take the husband's surname (in fact it used to be against the law). However, when the child is born, they get a unique first name and their last name becomes the first name of the father + son or dottir. Hence, Thor Bjornson is Thor, son of Bjorn. And Anna Sigurdottir is actually Anna, daughter of Sigur. This probably is why genealogists love this place. It becomes very easy to track lineage. And this also means everyone addresses each other by their first name. Even the Prime Minister. There is no Mr. or Mrs.

There are others, but you will have to discover them on your own when you visit. And when you do, find Teri and I to talk about the trip. I think we both came to the conclusion that it would be hard to live here (not that we ever really wanted to), despite all of the convenient perks. The dark winters would be tough to get through. The smallness would probably become pretty apparent. And if you lived outside of Reykjavik, the simplicity of life might not be totally enjoyable. But it is appealing. There is plenty still to discover so we really hope to come back sometime. We didn't even get up on a glacier. I never tried whale or shark or puffin. We never visited any of the islands off the coast. We left the great park Asbyrgi unexplored, and we easily could have spent a few more days hiking in the southern and eastern coasts.

However, we leave tomorrow totally happy with this trip. Breathtaking. Unique. Friendly. Even Little Yoder had a great time. S/he kicked his way all the way around the Ring Road. S/he'll have to join us the next time we come out. We have one last trip to the famous Blue Lagoon and it's hot springs on the way to the airport. tomorrow. An afternoon of warm baths and soothing mud to cake on our skin before getting on a plane for 5 hours at 5pm. All part of the loving good bye Iceland leaves you with. It was a lovely time, but Big Papi probably misses Teri.

Day 8 - Iceland

We rounded the final turn today and are coming down the home stretch. The scene you see above was found at our first stop, Jokulsarlon. It is here that a glacier has retreated about 5km in 70 years. What it has left behind is two things. One is access to the Ring Road. The glacier used to run right up to the black sand beach making it very hard to get to Reykjavik from all points east. Second, a very deep lagoon filled with icebergs has formed. Just another eye popping scene provided by Iceland's Route 1. These icebergs break off the glacier, float around the lagoon for a few years losing mass, then float out to sea and melt away. See, global warming has its good points.

We took a duck boat out into the lagoon and learned all sorts of fun facts about glacial ice. (Its 1500 hundred years old. Its 5x more dense than normal ice - making it perfect for drinks as it takes longer to melt. 90% (!) of each glacier is underwater.) As the boat petered around the lagoon, Teri and I gawked and chatted up the guide. It was quite an experience.

When we got off the boat we wandered down to the beach. The black sand was littered with boulder sized chunks of ice that looked like someone casually dropped billions of dollars worth of diamonds all over. The contrast in color was almost as striking as the fact that Teri and I were standing on a black sand beach in Iceland surrounded by icebergs at the base of a glacier. WTF, mate?

From there we moved on to the gateway to the Skaftafell National Park. We weren't able to venture too far in because our little toy wind up car can't go off-roading. However, the information center offered a great hike up to a glacier, and fantastic video of the massive volcanic eruption in 1996.

See, in September 1996 there was a major earthquake followed by a volcanic eruption underneath the Vatnajokull glacier at Grimvotn. Over the next couple of days there was a 10km high cloud of steam that shot up in the air. Then the glacier began to cave in along the caldera as the lava below melted the ice at a rate of 5000m3/second. This unbelievable amount of water began to collect in a lake under the glacier, pushing it up from the bottom. After nearly six weeks, in early November, this lake burst through the glacier on the southern side of the glacier and rushed toward the sea. Ice chunks the size of three story buildings floated like they were sticks in a river. A 900m bridge was broken and twisted, then disappeared in the sea. Anything in the way of this 20km wide "jokulhlaup" was pushed to sea. When the glacier was sufficiently drained, all that was left below was a few more streams running through the sandur (huge, flat, barren, wasteland of rocks and debris). See if you can find any of the video on you tube. The entire process was filmed by aroused geologists with video footage justifying and proving their lifetime of research.

After learning about the massive river that went running down the glacier, we decided to go check it out. Our short hike ended at the base of one finger of this ice giant. Because of the cloud cover, the ice, water, and sky all blended together as the same dirty white color. Except for the green lichen, the view looked like an Ansel Adams photo. Our pictures however do not.

We finished our day with a trek across another sandur, then behind some large green plateaus and ended at the beach side town of Vik. Cliffs are rising above the town on all sides and there is a rock formation out in the water that looks like a church organ. There are only 290 people that live here and the town church sits above, looking over them. This is also the safest place to run to in case the volcano on the glacier above the town erupts again. If it happens tonight, we'll only have 25 minutes to get to the high ground. Hope to talk to you all tomorrow.

Day 7 - Iceland. Teri's take: "Redonkulous"

I know, I know … every night we write our post and talk about the intense beauty of Iceland. We talk about its vastness, its uniqueness, the expected unbelievable surprise that’s certain to lie around the next bend. Every day we seem to be floored by the beauty – and today would prove to be no different. Today we basically drove through the set for “Return of the King”.

We started off the day leaving our room in Lake Myvatn (which overlooked the Lake and came with our own herd of Icelandic horses) early in the morning, as we had a long day’s trip ahead of us getting to Hofn, a small fishing village in the southeast corner of Iceland. Our first stop, however, was just 5km out of Lake Myvatn at Hevrir, a geothermal field of boiling mud pits, steam vents, sulfur deposits and fumaroles. The liquid exceeds 200 degrees, and is not only rank with the smell of sulfur but actually has sulfuric acid in contents. We were told the best time to visit Hevrir was the morning – and I think that’s because the wind is usually blowing north, which means the smell drifting away from you. Much appreciated at 8:30am.

We continued driving for the next 200km through an empty lunar landscape. Seriously, envision the moon, and that’s what we were driving through – black, basalt, barren land. After a few hours, we moved from the moon to a lush mountain valley; from a lush mountain valley to the rugged, untamed beach; and finally to end at the Vatnajkull glacier. It was a great scenic tour, and it made me very glad that we decided to drive the Ring Road from north to south. I feel like these last few stops are the perfect end to our road trip.

Tomorrow we’ll leave Hofn and it’ll be all glaciers all day. We’re hitting up the Stafakell National Park, the largest national park in Europe, visiting Jokulsarlon along the way (a bay full of icebergs), as we move ahead to another small village, Vik. Vik will be our last stop on this wonderful road trip, as we’ll head home to Reykjavik the following day.
Until then …

Iceland - Day 6. Settle down, Iceland.

Well, Iceland showed us some incredible stuff today. It was almost like she was bragging. "Hey look, I have waterfalls. Hey look, I have volcanoes. Hey look I have pseudocraters in the middle of a lake. Hey look, my beaches are all black sand. Hey look. my arches national park was made from lava. Oh and did I mention you can see this all within 20km of one spot?"

Settle down, Iceland. We get it. You're awesome.

So we left the farm this morning bright and early to hit the road. Like we said, we had a lot to get accomplished today, but we didn't expect the stunning uniqueness of what was ahead. We hit seven major sites today. Six of which we found around the incredible Lake Myvatn. We'll get to that in a bit, and will probably dwell on it for a while too.

However, our drive was short to the first spot. Above is a picture of Godafoss. This is a simple and beautiful waterfall just off the Ring Road. But it is not all good looks. This waterfall also holds special importance to Icelandic lore. In 1000 AD, Iceland converted from paganism to Christianity as the national religion. The country's bishop meditated at the Pingvellir (see day 2) for 24 hours and decided that Iceland would become a Christian nation. On his long walk home, he sadly threw all his pagan idols into the waterfall you see above, as a sign of closure. Hence, the name Godafoss, or waterfall of the gods.

The bulk of our day was spent at Lake Myvatn though. And Myvatn spends it's life on top of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. This explains a lot of what we saw. Our first stop was a brisk but scenic climb up Vindbelgjarfjall. Try saying that three times fast. Actually, try saying it once. This was a steep climb up loose basalt. There was a small path, but the view at the top was to show the entire lake and all the places we were to be heading during the day. Teri bravely made it half way up before the baby demanded her to stop. Wisely, she listened, and forced me to finish so I could show her the photographs. It was hard to take pictures today at Lake Myvatn. The range of beauty really stretches from horizon to horizon and you can't decide what needs to be in the picture. We kind of decided not to do long trains of photos of horizons for this trip as it is wasteful and hard to look at. So our pictures really only show portions of views.

The middle of our day was spent around the southern part of the lake at Skutustadagigar and Hofoi. The first is a collection of psuedocraters you can hike around. A psuedocrater is a crater about 100m across and formed when lava hardens over water. The water then heats up and violently explodes with boiling steam and flying lava rocks. The landscape sort of looks like a British Open golf hole, only if it was played by giants. After a quick lunch of chips, cottage cheese, and half a roast beef sandwich we headed to Hofoi. This had to be fake. Somehow, a small forest of evergreens grew naturally on a peninsula between all these rock formations and otherwise barren landscapes. There was a small meadow, berry bushes, and lots of different birds.

As we got to the east side, the volcanic activity became even more apparent. This side of the lake houses Dimmuborgir and Hverfell. I'll let Lonely Planet explain Hverfell:
"a classic tephra ring. This near symmetrical crater appeared 2500 years ago in a cataclysmic eruption of the existing ludentarhio complex. Rising 463 meters from the ground and stretching 1040m across it is a massive and awe inspiring landmark in Myvatn."
Basically, it is an enormous crater made of loose gravel. Unfortunately there was no lava inside. Teri and the kid made it up this hike, as it was a tad easier. It was good because the views from atop the crater were the best of the day.

Before this, we were at Dimmuborgir. This is very similar to Arches National Park or The Canyonlands in Utah, except these were smaller and made of lava rocks from steam vents 2000 years ago. Little shrubs and lichen grow on the sides and you are walking below them like you were in an Indian Jones Movie. There are steep crevasses throughout so it is advised not to wander off the trail.

We were drop jawed see these sites one right after another. Each being only about 5 miles from the previous, yet they were so different.

We ended the day at the Myvatn Nature Baths, one of the famous hot springs in the country. Here the water was between 90 and 100, and was a perfect way to end the long tiring day of exploring. Don't worry Grandmothers to be and worrywarts. Teri was very careful. She was only in the 102 degree water for 30 minutes. Kidding. She was never in anything warmer than a soothing bath, and left after only about 10 minutes. She was drunk though.

Kidding again. Calm down. That should be it for today. we have a long drive tomorrow morning before we get to Hofn on the southeastern coast - from volcanoes to Glaciers and beaches in about four hours.

Check for pictures tomorrow. Holy crap, was today spectacular.

Iceland - Day 5. A Break

Well, we reached the midway point of our travels today. It's too bad. We've loved the trip so much, and have really enjoyed touring around the country. Today we awoke to this scene outside our little cabin window. You are looking at Eyjafjordur, which is the name of the body of water, not the horse. It was a slow day today. We took some time and slept in, shopped around for souvenirs, and did very little. Much to Teri's delight we even worked in a nap. We haven't moved from yesterday and are still at the farmhouse. However, tomorrow we head out toward Lake Myvatn on what promises to be a jam packed last half of the trip. So today's respite was probably a good call.

While wandering around Akureyri and its surrounding towns, we stumbled into an Icelandic Christmas store. We are unsure of the exact details but Christmas here involves a very large ugly woman who lives in a mountain cave. She has a dopey husband, 13 "yule lads" which seem to be like the hidden people, as well as a black cat. The story used to be that this big, nasty woman would collect the bad children of the towns and taken them back to her cave and bake them. However, this tale became too scary for Icelandic kids and as a country, Iceland changed the story. Now, for the 13 nights before Christmas children set out their best shoe in the window sill and each night a different lad comes down from the mountains and leaves a present. Also, a pig is involved somewhere. We're not sure where, but there were a lot of pigs, including one pulling a sleigh. So maybe it is like Rudolph.

One thing we haven't touched on is the food here. I have yet to find puffin (which may be out of season) or fermented shark. There has been plenty of (passed on) opportunities to buy what seems to be fish jerky. I WILL try the shark before I leave, and am constantly looking for puffin and reindeer. Teri and I have been getting by on street food and stuff we make in the kitchens at the places we stay. It isn't glamorous, but it has been fairly good. Also, it's not like if you spend more you get really good food. There isn't really a true Iceland dish, though skyr, an Icelandic yogurt with a thicker consistency and slightly more bitter taste, is about as close as you get that isn't something you'd see Andrew Zimmern eat on the Travel Channel. I enjoy skyr and have been eating it every breakfast. Teri loves the pastries.

What I am getting at is that you save a lot of money by eating the lamb hot dogs, or donner kababs people sell in little markets or street kiosks. You also don't miss out on what true Icelanders eat by doing this because they are mostly eating here as well. At an average restaurant, meals will be between $20 and $40/person and usually not great. Whereas at my favorite sandwhich shop, Batur Hlloli, I got a footlong "boat" (sub) and a soda for about $11. Expensive, but not bad. And Teri got a soda and pizza for just about 6 bucks from a bakery.

A final note on the food. There have been no sightings of Starbucks, McDonald's or Burger Kings, but the country seems to love Subway and Quiznos. We've also seen a Pizza Hut and KFC, and if you want to shell out $22, you can get a medium one topping Domino's Pizza. We passed.

Tomorrow we're up early to see more volcanic hot spots!

Iceland - Day 4

Hello Again,

A word about Icelandic sheep. I am not sure if it is because we have been away for 5 days, but Teri sees Big Papi in every one of them. Granted, they are very furry (Does wool count as fur?), about his size, fairly skittish, and some even have black fur. But it is more likely she has a bit of a problem. This would also explain the song she just made up, sung by Big Papi in first person, about how Big P will be joining us on vacation next summer.

Anyway, today we are in Akureyri. It was a bit of a drive from Stykkisholmur. And it was spectacular. More mountains, more fjords. We saw our first real rivers and salmon fishermen, as well as countless of the aforementioned sheep. As pure and original as the Icelandic horses, the sheep have really dense wool that puffs out. It doesn't so much curl like the sheep we're used to seeing, but sticks out like Side Show Bob's hair.

We had beautiful weather all day to drive through and arrived in Akureyri just around lunch. As Teri mentioned we are staying on a farm, in our own cabin, 100yds from the water Akureyri rests on. The city is in the crotch of a huge fjord that opens to the ocean due north. I don't think either of us will be this far north again. A ferry's ride away is the arctic circle. Mountains are on all sides and some are covered by glaciers. One of the city's claim to fame is that it boasts the world's northern most golf course. Had we arrived 6 weeks ago, we could be playing with a tee time of 12am. It's an artistic city with a really nice church (seems to be common in Iceland) and botanical garden.

Also, Teri loved that all of the stop lights were hearts. The picture above is tough to tell, but trust us, every red light in this town is a heart. It's a good vibe. We are going to hang here for another night. This will allow us to sleep in and since tomorrow's agenda is up in the air, casually figure out what we're going to do. There are some pretty cool things to explore in the area, but we wanted to come back to the farm for another night. Until then...

Iceland - Day 3. Brought to you by Glaciers

This morning we left Reykajvik, and our comfy Guest House, to pack up our tiny car and explore the country of Iceland. We started off heading north to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula – a quick 2 hour drive had us completely out of the urban scene, as we were surrounded by lambs, waterfalls, moss covered mountains, ocean, and Icelandic horses.

We made our way to Stykkisholmur (our home for the night) got everything set in with our hostel, and set out to explore the rest of the Peninsula. It was unbelievable – everything from lava fields to lush green hills of horses, to glaciers and massive rainbows , to a shark farm for Iceland's famous snack of ferminted shark meat, to what seemed like thousands of waterwalls were discovered today. We had fun playing on a black sand beach – shockingly enough Matt got some of himself into the North Atlantic (his fingertip), though the water did chance him up on a rock a few times.

We drove over 400km in our trusty little tin can today, which lead to the only bad part of the trip thus far - $8 a gallon for gas. Turns out cars don’t run on hydrothermal energy. What gives? We ended the day back home in Stykkisholmur, just as the sun was setting. It turned into a beautiful evening and we were able to take some time to sit on this lovely hill just above the dock in our tiny fishing village. The photo above was taken from our hill at sunset.

Tomorrow we head to Akureyri, the send largest city in Iceland with 16k, were we are staying at a Guest House on a farm for two nights. This town sits on the edge of a fjord and I’m looking forward to a little bit time to relax.

(Note: Matt wants me to write “looking fjord-ward” but I just can’t do it.)
Gooa nott…

Day 2 - continued

Did I mention it was windy today?

A quick story, while we're here. Yesterday we were walking around Reykjavik and went into a very small church across the street from the current parliment. It was quaint and nice. Teri walks in and gasps. She loves it. So much so she says "You know, if we had gotten married in a church, I'd have wanted it to be like this."

Many of you were at our wedding. Do you remember that stone building with the dark wood interior. Do you remember the stained glass rose window? How about the pews? That was a church, correct? I mean just because Rhode Island was the first with religious freedom, doesn't mean its houses of worship are not churches, right?

Iceland - Day 2

Yep. That's right. Just some horses grazing by the road in the shadow of a glacier, not 200 yds from the most powerful waterfall in Europe, Gullfoss.Just your typical Icelandic prairie scene.

Today we were up early and on the road on a tour of the Golden Circle. It was an overcast and windy day that started at the Hydro Thermal Electric Plant. Do you want to know what would make me hate my job? If I worked in a place where it smelled like people were routinely making hard boiled eggs and letting them rot under my desk. On the bright side, I could fart all day long and no one would be the wiser. The sulfur smell is the price they pay for having so much hydro thermal energy. Cities run on it, farms run on it. They've got so much that many people lay water pipes in their yard and under their driveways so when it snows they just turn on the water and melt the snow from underneath. Not bad. Iceland is extremely green and to prove it, we also saw the first hydrogen gas station in world.

But in a day packed with highlights, this was minor. Our first real stop was at Pingvillir. Besides being able to actually see the Mid Atlantic ridge splitting here, this is also the site of the world's oldest continuous Parliament. Icelanders have been coming here since the 950s to make laws and behead criminals. The splits in the earth are quite dynamic. Large cliffs of rocks jut up out of the earth in long lines that go for miles. Today we literally drove from Europe to North America, then back to Europe. Pretty cool.

Next was Gullfoss; a powerful waterfall in the middle of a moss covered moon scape. Literally no trees from horizon to horizon. What seemed like rain was actually the mist coming from the waterfall and blowing all over the place, because it was, as I mentioned already, very windy (ok plus a little rainy). The waterfall itself cascades down two large steps that split the earth like it was part of the ridge, but it isn't. Above the waterfall the picture above was taken. We were lucky to see a corralling of about 30 horses coming in from a day out grazing. These four were ahead of the rest. In the background you can see some mountains and what looks like clouds except it was actually a glacier. The Icelandic cowboys brought a bunch of horses over from the fields in the background, and made Teri's day. These horses are quite beautiful with very furry manes and tails. They are a bit squatty, but they are as pure as the glacier melt streams. No other horses have infected their gene pool since they were brought over here by the vikings over 1000 years ago. Kind of like the Amish.

Our final stop was Geysir, site of two large geysirs, boiling hot pots, and mud pits. These litter the mountain sides, but this site actually sits atop the ridge line and therefore is extremely active. Once erupts every 5 or 6 minutes. Scalding water spews to the sky and retard tourists downwind from the explosion scurry to avoid certain catastrophe. I've never been to Yellowstone, so these were my first geysirs.

We made it back to Reykjavik late in the afternoon. On the way home we learned about the "hidden people". The people live unnoticed in the mountains and do not like to be bothered. If you leave them alone and don't tread where you shouldn't, they will protect you. If you happen to scorn them by trouncing one of their homes, they will see to it bad things happen. Like rocks falling down the mountain sides and crushing your house. Also, these guys are elves. And invisible. Yet 80% of the country believe in them. So much so that there have been highways diverted around large rocks as to not to disturb these hobbits. Weird.

So that was our day. Tomorrow we head out to a different town. One on the Sneafsellnes Peninsula. It's going to be fishing villages, mountain hikes, puffins and seals all day tomorrow. For now, we are going to eat dinner and crash. 7am came early this morning. Until tomorrow.

Iceland - Day 1

Gott Kvold from Reykjavik. We arrived late last night to our Guesthouse keeper sleeping on the couch with the door unlocked so when we came in, he would wake up and show us to our room. Though we didn't get to sleep until about 3, Teri proclaimed it the best sleep she's had since she's been pregnant. Did I mention we're in two twin beds at opposite ends of the room?



Today we trekked all over old town Reykjavik. What you see in the picture above is the sculpture curiously named Sun Craft. Though there was no sun today, we saw plenty of rainbows out over this body of water which happens to be the North Atlantic Ocean. We missed the 40.000 person celebration of the lone medal for Iceland in the Olympics by one day. Apparently yesterday, everyone gathered in front of the Hallgrimskirkja to boast about a silver medal in handball. It was as large as their Independence Day celebrations are we were told.

We also went to the Saga Museum, ate skyrr, saw parliment (shockingly small and unassuming), walked down the oldest street in Iceland, and ate hot dogs just like Bill Clinton. Reykjavik is really a neat place. It seems all buildings are painted in primary colors which adds to the view when you look down on the town from atop the Saga Museum. Not bad for a days work considering we slept until 11.

Tomorrow we head out to Pingvellir - a park and site of the first Parliment in the world; Geysir - pretty self explanitory; and a huge waterfall and park called Gullfoss. The route is called the Golden Circle and should provide for some great pictures. Check in tomorrow for a taste.

For now we are off to see what the Reykjavik nightlife people keep mentioning is all about. Then we'll return home to catch Obama on the internet.

I love technology; always and forever.

Today's the day!

Tonight we head out to Iceland and we are beyond excited. Here's one last stock photo before we post our own shots.

In baby news, I went to the doctor this morning; our ultrasound results have been read and everyone looks healthy. One concern - this kid has long legs, long arms and apparently is in the 96% percentile for weight. So, we're having a giant. I'm still just 5 mths along, so they are pretty confident that it will all even out and the baby will be a perfectly normal size. Here's hoping ...

We'll be reporting again soon from the land of fairies and elves!

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations! Your marriage has now lasted longer than the life of Jesus Christ himself.

Countdown to Iceland, the Itenerary

Hello all. On Tuesday night, Teri and I take off for Iceland. This weekend we spent some time shoring up our route, making sure we hit all the places we have read about.

It turns out that Iceland has a convenient highway called the Ring Road that circumnavigates the island. Only two lane, and at times just gravel, it does hit the big spots. The center of the island is uninhabitable, full of glaciers, volcanoes, and elves (80% of the population believe in their existence).

Our trip will being in Reykjavik, which on this map is about at 7pm (near the flag). We will spend 3 nights here, walking around town, heading around the Golden Circle to see geysirs and waterfalls, try Black Death, maybe some fermented shark, and skyr. From Reykjavik we continue clockwise around the island to the Snaefellsness Peninsula for a night. We'll head to about 12pm on the island clock to a town called Akureyri. We are spending 2 nights at a farmhouse bed and breakfast. Up north, the weather is dryer, though it is colder. There are gorgeous fjords, a National Park, and a volcanic lake named Lake Myvatn. We are also spending a night here. We head down the east end of the island stopping for a night in both Seydisfjordur and Vik, before ending the trip back in Reykjavik and the Blue Lagoon.

We will be giving updates through out the trip, and will have plenty of pictures upon returning. In the meantime, enjoy the conventions and the beginning of both football seasons.

Yes!

I said this would not be a blog where we will opine on politics.

But let us just say that the Yodkamp household is extremely pleased today. We were for Biden had Obama not run. And have loved what he stands for. To us, this is a perfect match.

It will be truly fun to watch whomever McCain picks get bludgened in the VP Debate.

Countdown to Iceland - 5 days!

Icelandic wild horses ...

Countdown to Iceland

6 Days

(Akureyri - Iceland's second largest city. Pop. 16k)

Countdown to Iceland

7 Days.

(Church in Vik)

The New Family Member

On the left is the yet to be named member of our family at 14.5 weeks old. Later on this morning, Teri and I will be geting an update to this picture. Today is our 20 week ultrasound.

In the first, our child was confindently taunting Big Papi declaring his (Teri thinks) or her (Matt thinks) dominance within our family. We'll see about that.

What we learned was that its heart was beating, and brain was huge! It will probably break Michael Phelp's record with 9 Golds at the 2028 Olympics. Sorry, we don't have any tickets for you.

The Doctor did say that the child was doing very well then. Since, Teri has felt it moving (gas?) and it is noted to be the size of a heirloom tomato. All growing baby comparisons are to vegetables. Her belly is growing, her sickness is over, and she looks great. Big Papi seems to be excited as well, but that may be because Teri always feeds him cheese.

We hope to get more good news today. There will be more photos, and hopefully a confirmation that January 12 is the likely due date. To be continued...

Meet a Friend... Number 1

Tyler Espinoza, 30. Portland, OR (for now)

Tyler, our sometimes roomate and longtime friend, celebrated his 30th brithday last month. We meant to post about it, but we were too busy enjoying an afternoon floating down the Clack and gorging at the backyard BBQ he invited us to.

Currently, you can find Tyler figuring out his next adventure in SE. Hopefully, he comes up again soon.

Jeez. OK. Sorry.

So, as many of you have pointed out, we've been absent for a while. Sorry. We knew coming into late July that the travel would be crazy. Turns out, we were right.

Work took us seperately to San Bernardino, San Diego, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC. over the past 5 weeks. It wasn't all bad. I ended up AAdvantage Gold member.

More importantly, this allowed us to see many of our closest friends and family. I saw Sally and Tim and Craig and Wendi in San Diego. Both Teri and I were able to seperately visit the Yoders on Cape Cod.

I finally met Unborn Yoder's soon to be friend Evie Schomp. It had been over a year since I saw Nate and Margo, but they are each doing great. Their daughter Evie and I bonded over an afternoon of work, while Margo gave me helpful hints on what to expect next winter and spring. In addition, I was able to see Keith and Dulari as well as Manne. Keith and Dulari are nearly new home owners and looking for a place in Providence. Dulari's new job as Development Director of Summerbridge should sustain Keith's academic pursuits and Harvard bills for the next few years. Meanwhile, Manne continues to live the good life across the street from Fenway, playing volleyball and dominating fantasy sports.

Teri spent three weeks living pregnant on a bus. Event 360's yearly tour of Breast Cancer 3Days started up in July and Teri was there to make sure her programs got off the ground. The Tour, as you all know, is where Teri and I met and still houses many of our closest friends. Even though the hours are long and unforgiving (especially when you are pregnant), getting paid to hang with 30 friends you only see a couple weeks a year is well worth it. The bonus for this tour was that it enabled Teri to also visit the Yoders on Cape Cod. And by chance, Teri's traveling path and mine crossed for an afternoon in Chicago.

We are finally back to our construction site house for another 7 days. That's right! In one week we'll be living the good life with elves and tall beautiful people, in Iceland.

Hvenaer fer flugvelin kemur?

10pm on 8/26

(Editor's Note: Dulari is the Big Cheese Executive Director. Not a measly Development Director.)

15 Weeks

I'm deep into my 15th week (nearly 4 mths) and am on the road to a "quick" recovery. I had a very rough first few months, feeling so sick all day every day. I realize that I am a fairly happy person, and it really hard for me to be unhappy and sick for so long. Seriously, 12 weeks is a very long to time feel awful! But, enough whining ... I'm starting to feel better and it couldn't happen at a better time. It's full on summer in Seattle and we plan on taking full advantage of it! (And by "we" I mean myself, Matt and Big Papi, of course.)

So, what's with the apple? Turns out at this stage Little Yoder is the size of an apple. I first I thought nothing of that. But then I ate an apple and realized that an apple is a pretty decent size! I haven't officially "popped" yet, though those who see me often either think I've been eating a lot of burritos, or that I'm pregnant. Most people go the pregnancy route, which makes me feel better. Once I pop, and I have a full on pregnant belly, I'll be sure to post some photos.

The next few weeks should be pretty exciting - Matt's been making progress on the basement, and soon we'll be able to move our guest bedroom funiture out of the soon-to-be nursey. My great friend Vanya offered to help decorate, and I am gladly taking her up on that offer!

We'll be sure to share more photos and baby/home updates in the upcoming weeks!

Dan and Beth visit Seattle - Crab legs eaten, stuff blown up

Dan and Beth came to Seattle for a great 4th of July week. The picture at left is us at the Mariners game with Steve (honoring Pip by taking photos) and Carol. We saw the worst team in the majors come from behind and defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the bottom of the 9th. It was a great way to kick off the week.

Beth turned 29 while visiting and we celebrated Deadliest Catch style - Crab legs and Halibut washed down with aquavit and skull splitters. Her friend Dave and Dan's friend Richie all came out with us to a neighborhood bar and made sure Beth had a great time.

Matt, Dan, Beth, and Teri went to the pyromaniacs Disney World, Boom City, where everything seemed to be legal. $1200 of rockets? Legal (but not bought.) Poolball of gun powder? Not legal (bought!) Of course it is 45 miles outside of the city, behind an Indian Casino, and you can test all fireworks on the grounds! (Editors note: Dan returned home to Chicago with all extremeties. Matt is typing this with 10 fingers.)

For the Fourth our neighbors John, Katie, and Ava took our group out on Lake Union for the afternoon. We made it home in time to watch the fireworks at our secret spot on Queen Anne. Despite the great show, Dan's highlight for the day was buzzing the Northwestern and Wizard.

By Saturday, everyone was so dead we spent our last day together trying to eat burritos the size of babies and watching 5 hours of the Real World. It was really great to see them, and we wish them best of luck over the next few months.

Welcome to the Internets

Teri and I would like to welcome the entire internet to our lives. After years of searching and playing on it, we have decided to start adding to the ever increasing online world. Don't expect crazy rants or indepth analysis of anything. Most likely we will use this site to keep everyone updated with our lives. We will update with pictures, stories, and news about what is going on or where we are. For family, this will be a great spot to keep updated on our newest addition. We are weeks away from the first picture.

Feel free to check in everyonce in a while. Hopefully the pictures and stories will keep our world a bit closer to yours.