Turkey Pen

Brent and I went up into Turkey Pen today for a great hike. Here a few pics to commemorate the experience!

 

 

 

Cute Conversation

Today Clark and I were playing on my bed pretending to take naps. So we looked at his favorite book that is just pictures of all sorts of cars, trucks, planes, etc. He loves the garbage truck (the uh-oh) more than anything else in the world. And today he told me that on Tuesday (garbage day - oh, yeah, he knows this!) he would take me in the garbage truck and we would go out for juice boxes! How precious!

A great family day!

We spent Monday as a family since Nolan took a day off from work. We went to Grand dad's Apple Orchard and let Clark pick some apples. He has been studying apples and pumpkins this month in school, so I wanted him to see how apples grow on trees (not in the fruit drawer of the fridge!). He picked 6 apples for the week, and then we went to look at pumpkins. By the pumpkins were some silly cutouts that Clark and Nolan played in. Then we pretended to feed Will to a triceratops (I have no idea why there were fake dinosaurs there). Then a llama got too curious about Will for my liking. Then Clark picked out the best pumpkins in the whole patch. When it was time to pay Clark started crying because he thought we were giving them back. The lady felt sorry for him, so she gave him a tiny half rotten pumpkin that had been int he triceratop's mouth. This instantly became his favorite, and he could not care less about the pumpkins that we bought. But I guess that is how it goes.

Enjoying roasted pumpkin seeds

Will in the sling with Daddy

Both of them so serious with their pumpkins

Clark and Daddy (not the llama and dino in the background)

Our little apple picker

Will or Clark

Clark or Will

 

Clark or Will

Will or Clark?

 

A few pics

A few recent pics of the boys!

 

 

 

Look what Daddy did!!!!

He installed a second bar in Clark and Will's closet! This has been our plan since we moved in, and Nolan built it for me yesterday on his day off. Now Clark can reach his clothes, and I am hoping he will enjoy picking out what shirt to wear. I have to buy another pack of hangers, and I a going to add some more of Will's clothes as well. I am so happy with how it turned out. You cannot see it in the picture, but Nolan even routered the edges of the wood plates he attached to wall for the dowel rod to sit in. The boys are going to love their new closet! Thanks, Nolan!

Mt Baker Self Arresting

Aaron on Green's Lick

Good Day. Aaron and I rode up Ingles Field to Green's Lick and did a few other fun trails on the way back.

Big Day

Clark had hi first day of preschool today. I cannot believe it! He had a great time! I was so worried he would have an accident in his pants, but he used the potty at school. Yay Clark!

Later today we were in the driveway, and Clark realized that his truck would roll down the driveway into the garage. I had the best time just getting to watch him explore how to make it go faster, what it got stuck on, and then to see him learn that trucks do not roll up a hill. I just felt so blessed to be there to see it myself.

Brent and Jess are married!!!

Our great friends, Brent Kaneft and Jess Jones, got married on July 30th! Nolan was in the wedding party, and Will and I came to the reception on Saturday night. We are so happy that they moved into their house in Asheville on Monday.

Catch Up!

Uncle Josh came to meet Will

An attempt to take a 1 month photo of Will

Clark loves swimming with Uncle Josh

Clark is so fast on his bike

Baptism - just kidding, but Clark does always call the picture of John the Baptist Daddy

Mt Bachelor

So I just got back from an amazing trip out to WA to visit family and do some climbing up in the North Cascades National Park. The trip started on Tuesday with a long flight to Seattle and an even longer drive into Longview. My dad, niece and I got up early and headed to Pasco to visit my grandparents. It was really nice to get to enjoy 85 degrees with no humidity! My grandma and I took my niece to Ice Harbor Dam to watch the fish and view a video on Lewis and Clark (my niece even drew the William Clark connection!) Once done we headed to the river for some swimming and general relaxing on the Snake. That night was a ridiculous feast of Walleye, Clams and Mojitos cooked by my Uncle. Once back to Longview we did some general family stuff and cashed out. I got up early and headed to Tacoma for a ride with my Uncle Mark. We cruised the I205 bridge went down the water front and back on I5. I tell you Portland has its bike stuff figured out! After a lot more stuff I finally met my crew in Bellingham WA. Up early on Sunday we started our course. Once to the trailhead we hiked about 6 miles straight up to camp and started glacier school. Exhausted we all hit the sack early and did more glacier school Monday and Tueday. Then came summit day... We got up at 2am and left camp at 3am after a lot of hard work we summited Mt Baker at 9am. We soon started out descent back to the car. I think 9 miles with 7K drop. We finally hit the car at 5pm. Long day. Below are some of the pics of the trip. (just click the pic and it will take you to a web album).

Happy 4th

Bec and I loaded up the boys for a fourth of July trip to Grandma's house in TN. Things started off a bit slow with the 2.5 hour drive taking us over five hours. We did, however, finally arrive and were able to get some much needed rest. Saturday was nice we got to relax and play in the back yard and I even got to go out for a 1.5 hour ride at IC King park. Also, on a high note the tour started yesterday. Bec and I watched the pro-logue which did not disappoint! Today I got up early to take Josh and Mandy to the airport for their trip to WA/BC and then headed over to Haw Creek for another 1.5 hour ride. It was nice to get out and I even say 2 deer, a huge owl, a skunk and a rabbit.

Have a great 4th of July!

Reading Books!

 

Will Slide Show

Baby Will Close Up

A close up the little Fella.

Living the Dream

Clark just chillaxin in the summer heat!

Will Dennis LaVoie

So he is here. After much anticipation and worry the little man has made it to the world. Mom and baby are doing great and recovering nicely. Bec started to have contraction last night around 6:15 and delivered at 8:53pm. Will is 9lbs 3oz of twisted baby steel. Baby steel by the way of wrapped in marshmellow. Just an FYI. Clark and Grandma got to meet the little man a few hours ago and after some gummyworm persuasion Clark thought pretty highly of ol' Will. Looks like we will be breaking out of the hospital tomorrow morning sometime. You never can tell. Until then we will rest, eat and repeat!!! Hopefully we can get some higher res photo's posted tomorrow.

Clark meet Will. Will meet Clark

Question

Your wife is literally less then three full days away from bearing your second child. You've spent most of the day installing a new vanity and bathroom sink, tarring your roof where it meets the chimney and mowing the lawn. After all of that tom foolery you get a craving for salsa. You should:

a) go the grocery store and buy a jar

b) go to the local tex-mex restaurant across the street where they literally give it away for free

c) go to the farmer's market and buy enough raw goods to make literally 12 pint sized jars and one gallon sized zip lock bag full of salsa.

Answer is...... C ........

the raw goods.

the salsa

the wife

the crazy man (driven only by his desire for delicious salsa)

Ride

Went out for a ride last night with Stephen Janes. It was supposed to be a fun/recreational ride. That was until we knocked out 11 miles of grueling climbing and wicked descent in under an hour. Great ride and inbetween gasp's some great conversation!

Clark's thoughts on it all...

The Lunch Ride

I don't think that there is anything better than the lunch ride. Getting to hit an hour of singletrack during the workday.... perfect. Makes the morning go by quicker and the afternoon way more productive. I got to hit the Richmond Hill Trails for a few quick laps of the race course today during lunch and it was awesome. It is so nice to have that so close to work!

Unofficial Man's Weekend

So Bec has been a trooper over the last month of crazinesss at work keeping Clark more than her fairshare and holding down the fort. Well this weekend Clark and I decided should be man weekend and Bec could sort of do her thing. So while she did her thing Clark and hit the town. First to Biltmore Park to watch Girl's on the Run then to REI to some window shopping. We then hooked up with a friend from work at got Pizza Brixx. At this point Clark was starting to get tired so we headed back to the house for a nap. While the little guy was napping I got the camping great packed into the truck. Once up Clark and I said our good bye's and headed up to Mill's River for a camping extravaganza which Clark loved. I mean loved. He went bonkers running around camp collecting firewood, throwing rocks and eating trail mix. He loved it. So much so that he didnt really want to go to bed which proved problematic at 8:30 when he was still bouncing off the tent walls. Finally around 9ish he decided it was time to sleep and promptly slept the whole night through. Probably the best part about the whole trip was when he woke up in the AM and realized that the outdoors was right outside the tent. It blew his mind that the only thing that seperated him from throwing rocks and collecting firewood was a thin layer of fabric. Once I got his shoes on he was once again outside and going full throttle!

All in all great exerience. Cant wait until we can go again.

Strive Not to Drive

So I hit rode today. Took the long route so as to hit all of the Strive Not to Drive stations. People were friendly and helpful despite the rain. Unfortunately, the station on Merrimon shut down early so didn't get to hit that one. So far 55 miles of commuting since the move to the new house. 66 bike the end of the day!

Heartbreaker

Rode Heartbreak about 2 weeks ago. Epic ride. Climb about 16 miles out of the Curtis Creek Campground and then get around 16 miles of super fun and fast single and double track. We embarked on this epic around 3pm and after a couple of mishaps and adventure rolled back to the truck just after dark. Great Adventure!

Life vest

If you remember back in November, Clark and Daddy washed up the canoe Daddy's friend gave them.

Then in March, Nolan finished fixing it up, and took it on a training trip with his staff.

And now finally, for his birthday present, Clark got a life vest, so he and Daddy can go paddling together!

The Birthday Boy is 2!!!

Well, Clark is officially two years old! He has had two celebrations and lots of fun. On his birthday, May 7th, he got up and had birthday eggs with Daddy. Then he and Mommy drove to Tennessee to see Nana. That night Uncle Josh came over to make Clark a birthday dinner. We had Salmon, broccoli, and wild rice. Dee and Frank had dinner with us, and Frank gave Clark some really fun truck squirt toys! So Clark was drenched when it was time for cake. Speaking of cake, this is Clark's new favorite word. Anytime he hears birthday, he says, "cake! cake!" So Clark blew out his tow candles for the first time, and he just beamed with pride over his birthday cake. He mostly ate frosting, which was not the smartest thing to give him at 7:30 pm. Then yesterday on the 15th, we had a birthday party in Asheville at our new house. Nana, Uncle Josh, and Aunt Mandy all came up from Maryville. The Janes and the Strouts came over to celebrate with us too. Clark, Juble, and Kate had lots of fun. Nolan grilled chicken for everybody, and we had salad, apples, chips, and of course, cake! It was lots of fun, and I am sure it will be no time before we are talking about birthday number three!

Happy Birthday Clark!

Fun with his new truck!

Clark with his best buddy!

Birthday dinner in Tennessee

20 by car 40 by bike

Happy cinco de mayo!!! So ever since we put a offer in on our new house I have been playing around with the idea of bike commuting to work. I don't know why, however, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. Maybe because in the last 6 years I haven't lived farther than a mile from my place of employment. After talking to a bunch of friends (thanks Chris and Stephen) I was still a bit hesitant. Should I use a messenger bag or backpack, bring or buy lunch, stash or carry clothes, mtn bike of mtn bike. As with most things in life I hadn't planned on riding to work today. I just got up looked outside and said I should ride my bike to work. So I did. And it was awesome. Took my 40 minutes to ride Brevard Rd>Fairfax>Haywood>Riverfront>Broadway>UNCA. My legs felt a bit gamey from paddling the Tuck yesterday, which was awesome and a story for another post, however, I did fine. I'm really looking forward to the ride home. Ill let you know how it goes!

Festival of Flowers at Biltmore

I took Clark last Friday to the Biltmore House gardens to see the tulips. He had a blast as always. He loves to ride the bus from the parking lot to the house. We walked all over the gardens. Clark did not want his picture taken very much, but I kept trying. A very nice woman took a few pictures of us because she said we were just too cute walking down the stairs together. I think Clark looked adorable this day as well. We bought this outfit a month ago, and I had been hoping to get a few pictures of him in it before he outgrows it.

Always Clark's favorite - the grates and water hoses

Walking into the garden - look at that belly growing!

Pleeeeeease no pictures!

Found a fountain with water he could touch

Beautiful tulips