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Kim and I went climbing with Brian and Jay at exit 32, AKA Little Si, on Saturday. We spent all our time at Blackstone wall. I felt surprisingly good about my climbing considering I haven’t done much recently. My main complaint is that I have no forearm stamina. I did quite a few sport leads with Kim, while Brian worked harder routes and trained Jay for some trad climbing.

This was the first multi-family and friends party we’ve ever hosted and it turned out to be a blast. I could even see Kim and myself hosting family gatherings like this in the near future. Gwenda, Grandma Beverly and Sierra spent the night before the party. Kim’s parents, my parents and Bridgid showed up in the morning and everyone helped cook and clean. And boy did they cook. There was sushi, fruit medleys, enchiladas, salad, tacos, and much, much more. Fortunately, people loved the food and ate almost all of it. Kim’s friends from school Angela and Juanita showed up with her husband Brian, my coworker Dennis was there with two of his kids, my parents, Kim’s parents, Gabe, Danny, Betsy, Tai and Thao, Jesse and Deborah, Matt O’Connor, Jessie, Brian and Bridgid were all there at one point or another. We ate, we did acrobatics, we opened presents (and I thank everyone for the generous donations to our volunteer abroad fund), we talked, we played frisbee and after most people had left we played Settlers of Catan with the family despite being exhausted. It was great to get so many people together from different parts of our lives and let them meet each other. I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family and have them all get along so well. I can’t wait for the wedding!

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Saturday Kim and I took Kim’s parents, met up with Jesse and Deborah, and did some rafting on the Wenatchee River near Leavenworth. We went with Osprey Rafting. Our guide’s name was Billy, a semi-crazy sounding, 22 year old. He had some cool tatoos and mentioned he had already had 2 brain surgeries, I think he said he had also had cancer, and he seemed to like extreme sports. We went over the basics since it was everyone’s first time rafting except for Jesse and me, then we went through our first rapid and dumped a lady who was in our raft.

We stopped right after that for lunch, ported the rafts around a dam, and got back to it. Jesse and I paddled in front, and Kim and Deborah took turns riding in the front of the raft as our figureheads. All the rapids except the first were after lunch. There were some fun class III’s, but even Kim said she didn’t think it was as scary as she thought it was going to be. Probably good I didn’t freak her out too much on her first trip so that I can get her to go on bigger rapids with me later. Of course, we’re a little late in the season for big rapids, but I think it was a good level for Kim’s parents who had a good time but were pretty exhausted by the end. I was too, but had enough left in me to do the three hour drive home after we had some Italian food in Leavenworth.

After the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced on a flight, Kim and I arrived exhausted Friday morning in Connecticut. We spent the day with Kim’s aunt and grandma. We played Skip-bo, looked at pictures, and took naps.

Effie picked us up that night and we hung out at her place. I hadn’t met their dog Winston or seen their house they bought before. Winston is a Basset hound and very cool. He’s fun because he’ll play like a puppy, but he’ll go to chill mode instantaneously.

Saturday we just hung out waiting for Kim’s surprise to be setup. Kim was very pleasantly surprised by her bridal shower. Her mom had flown in unknown to me even, and a ton of her friends and family were there. I escaped quickly with Jack and Mike to watch the U.S. world cup game and get away from all girls. We came back and had to sit outside while the girls continued their party. It finally wound down and we were allowed back in the house. We hung out for a while drinking and singing karaoke.

Sunday morning Effie, Kim and I took off for Vermont to start the wedding errands. We got to the Inn at Baldwin Creek to do our food testing. It looks like Kim picked a good spot and some good food. I’m looking forward to having a big party there in the fall.

We camped with a tent Effie got from her boss. The thing was huge! It must have measured 7 feet tall when we finally got it setup with the help of some of our camp neighbors. You could easily fit more than 10 people in this tent.

Monday we found rehearsal dinner locations and scoped out a park for a little picnic the day after the wedding. Those were all the major things that we needed to do, so I feel very good about how the planning is going. We headed back to Connecticut through a thunderstorm to relax a bit.

Tuesday was very chill for Kim and I since Effie and Jack both had to go to work and we had no transportation. We took Winston for a walk before Effie came home to take us to the airport. Our flight was a pain in the ass again. The worst for me was there was a problem with our plane, so they had us change gates during our layover and we got an old one. It was soooo uncomfortable. Of course, my seat didn’t recline, but the person’s in front of me did. Okay enough complaining, but Northwest/Delta are lame. At least they got me where I wanted to go.

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Kim and I went home to my parents this weekend to visit them and Kim’s old college roommate, Lauren, who had just gotten married to a guy named Kevin from Newman Lake near Spokane. We got in late Friday night and chatted with my parents well past their bed time. My Dad was up late studying for his college class. The next day I helped my dad a bit with moving some stuff out of Nathan’s room. We burned an old, nasty, green sofa that we’ve had for more than 20 years. Then we played euchre out on the deck in the nice weather.

Since Lauran and Kevin had gotten married in Connecticut where Lauren is from, they had another reception in Newman Lake for Kevin’s family who couldn’t make it to the wedding. They had a huge tent and Longhorn Barbeque catered. Kim and Lauren were very happy to see each other after more than 4 years and had plenty to talk about. It turned out that I had connections to a few of the people at the party through Newport families and the Nsidsen church camp. Lauren and Kevin were flying back east the next day, all the way to Germany since Kevin has a few more years in the military, so Kim and I left around 10pm.

Sunday we went to Grandma’s and we looked at some of the old pictures that I’ve been scanning from my parents’ film. Afterwards we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. Kim and I drove back from there and ran into Danny’s mom and his girlfriend Kari at a gas station in Ellensburg. Small world.

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I’d finally had it with my long hair so I decided to cut it off. But before that… I figure I’d have a little fun with it. I’d always wanted to do a mohawk, so I did. I did a different hairdo practically everyday, including spikes and cornrows, so see all the pictures on Flickr. I haven’t posted any of my pictures of when I spiked yet, but check back later and they’ll be there. My favorite do was the really tall mohawk. It was so big that I had trouble getting into my car to get to work. People at work loved it. I was worried some people might be bothered by it, but I didn’t hear of anyone, and most people I think it made their day to see what crazy hair style I’d come in with next. I was featured in the company newsletter and some people said they’d nominate me for employee of the month. I let the mohawk be floppy for one day of climbing and I really didn’t like it, but Kim did. Keeping it spiked is too much work though, so I finally did cut it all short. It feels sooooo nice though, especially now that it’s warming up.

Saturday night Kim and I went to Kim’s classmate Juanita’s 30th birthday party. It was a lot of fun because there were a lot of really cool people there. It seemed like everyone there had lived in Italy for a bit of time, and a lot of them worked for Microsoft or other tech companies so I had plenty in common to talk to people about. Juanita and her husband actually sound to me a lot like I imagine Kim and I might be at 30: well traveled, Kim cooking, me working for a tech company, owning some real estate as an investment, and planning to someday open a bed and breakfast.

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