Astoria Hit Hard With Snow!

We usually get a little snow every year. It usually is about an inch deep and is primarily gone within the first day with help of the usual rain.

This last week has been crazy with snow. In contrast with Kristi's blog, we live on a fairly good size hill. not one side but the city is on both sides of the hill. The school district covers a pretty big area and the people that grew up here don't know how to drive in snow, on the whole. When I am out driving watching other people drive, it makes me nervous. Thankfully, there usually aren't very many people driving, they are usually stuck in the ditch next to the road. Whew.

The kids went to school 1.5 days this week and thus their Christmas break will be almost 3 weeks.

Our neighbors exclaimed to us that they have not seen this much snow here...ever.

Let me give you the skinny on Astoria. We don't get much snow here because it is a coastal city. The sea is much warmer than the air and helps us from getting too snowy. Unfortunately, we are caught in this year's artic winds with moisture from a typhoon from asia, thus, snow. Lots of it.

Because we are on a hill, there are some scary areas that are prone to slides and digging is almost taboo here because of the structural integrety of the city. Due to this, all our power lines are suspended on poles, kind of like "Chrismas Story". The scare is loss of power in the area due to the extra weight with snow and frozen rain. Good times.

It did make me a little home sick to see and play in the snow. Since we live on a pretty cool hill, our street has become an awesome hill for sledding for us and the neighbors. The snow was too dry to make a snowman but the angels came out very nice and the snowballs packed enough to throw and get everywhere upon impact.

It's been fun and I really don't mind a bit.

Doing the "play" thing

Last year, we decided to take part of the annual Christmas festivities and was awarded to participate directly in the play as actors and actress'. Well, the time frame of when the play was going to happen was rudely interrupted by hurricane winds that left us without power for a week.

We were so suprised to get word that we are the family for the same play, just held one year later.

It was a test of all our acting skills for we had to pretend we were a polite, well adjusted family. We got pretty good reviews since I think the audience was happy they weren't on the stage. I am just kidding and everyone involved had a great time doing it.

Post play picture!!

Halloween Spectacular!!!!

Well, R-October came and went with the grand finale of Halloween. One of my personal favorite holidays. It is a time where the kid in me comes out at full strength which bathes everyone in fun. Yes, I am that important. JK.

Two of the kids got new costumes due to their growing bodies and the other two used the rest of the Halloween supplies to make theirs. Sterling didn't know what to be until after we left to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. We took pictures prior to leaving, thus, no picture.

Sterling went as a quad racer with jersey, helmet and goggles. He looked pretty cool. I don't think I saw anyone with a costume like his which is saying much because of where we concentrated on our trick-or-treating.

We ended up at Coast Guard housing which gets hit very hard every year by witches and ghouls. It is a constant stream of kids and adults in many different costumes and many bags of candy per house is handed out. Needless to say, I am so glad we got out of there. It's a lot of work to appease the beasts that go bump in the night.

Here is Sterling being frustrated about not finding a proper costume in time of us leaving. He only had all year to think of one. In the end, he did look pretty good.

Here is a picture of Hunter. He was a partial grim reaper. (a costume I put together several years ago complete with real sickle.) He didn't use the sickle because he needed two hands for his loot.

Here is a picture of Erin. She wanted to be a princess. She made me proud when she added that she wanted to be a zombie princess. No, I did not tell her to do it, thus the pride.

Next is Damian. He decided on the very cool costume of Iron Man. It does look pretty cool and the movie was awesome!

I dressed up this year as well. I didn't do anything scary this year but if you know about my sense of humor, you can tell where I got the costume idea. Renae made the costume and I made the helmet. Can you tell me where this is from?

Renae stretched her kid-like attitude and dressed up as herself with a seasonal t-shirt. Yes, she does have a lot of battitude.

Well, It was fun and the kids brought home a lot of candy. I hope they will remember the good times we have thoughout the years.

Sayanara!!

Building a Tower

I completed a trip to Tatoosh Island. It is a little island off the coast of Washington between Washington and Canada. It started on September 24th by flying via helicopter to the island from Warrenton, Or. It took us about an hour or so to fly there. It was pretty foggy most of the way up but cleared up upon arrival to the island.

We decided that because of the bad weather present to set up camp inside the lighthouse itself. It was pretty cool to spend the week in the lighthouse which was built in the 1800's. There is some interesting craftmanship put into the building like the bird head gargoyle things on the roof. really.

We didn't rough it too bad. Even though we had to bring all the water needed to drink, there was a fridge which we plugged a generator to. We also slept on cots, had a propane heater and a nice barbeque for all the burgers and hotdogs we can eat. Kind of like a camp out.

It wasn't all fun though. there was that tower that needed to be erected and the weather wasn't all that good.

We started the first day there. We didn't get far but it was a long day anyways.

As the days progressed, the tower made shape and it turned out excellent. I got to try out some new gear to hang on the tower and enjoyed the work being done. We had a great crew that worked well with each other and it was done safely. Here are some pictures that show the progression of our work.

This is me and my friend Omar pulling up a 15 foot section. Pretty heavy.

20 feet up connecting sections together.

That's me hanging around.

The completed tower. It replaces the light in the light house.

On Sunday, we had a little time to explore. I did pay attention to the tides and took a walk at low tide.

Another entertaining picture at low tide.

For some reason, this picture reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark when they were digging for the Ark.

These pictures of the lighthouse with the light working is the last pictures of the light in the lighthouse. I took them at about 2 a.m.
Lighthouse in the distance.

Panaramic view of the area. I used a program called photo-stitch I got from Canon.

Well, the trip ended on Monday when I flew off to a nearby Coast Guard station and drove pretty much all day to get home. It was a good trip and we were very satisfied with the end result.

Mike

My Motorcycle Ride

Well, I went on that motorcycle ride. It started on a cool, foggy morning. By the time it started, the fog had lifted which revealed a lovely, nearly cloudless day. It started at 10:00am and was advertised with a 100 mile ride. Well, it was actually about 60 miles but was fun anyways.
It is called a poker run and it was to raise money for scholorships for the local schools by the local rotary club.
There are 5 different stops in which you draw a card from a deck. You try to get a good hand which is hard because it is 5 full decks. I ended up with a pair of aces in which I thought I may have a chance to win. I didn't of course. I was bested by a three of a kind. Talk about luck.
Well, my luck was about to change. Upon registering, we were given a ticket for a drawing at the end of the ride. I won a prize of some body lotion. I thought it was a funny present due to the demographic of the crowd. Anyways, I got a good laugh of the gift. The people in charge held up a bowl and inquired if anyone wants to puchase different tickets for a seperate raffle. I decided to buy 10.00 dolars worth. I won three different items which the other motorcycle riders were not too happy about. I heard things like.."Him again?" and the like. I won some good stuff so I didn't mind.
All in all, I had a great time and I would do it again next year if I am in the area.
Mike

Summer's End

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to start this blog to get Kristi off my back. JK.

Since we are so far away and we never see each other, I thought it would be nice to at least let everyone else know what is happening in our world.

The kids are now back to school. I have mixed feelings about this. I like that they are learning and staying busy but that means we are more busy but learning as well.

Sterling is loving High School, especially since there are a lot of "hot girls". (his words)

Hunter rides his bike to the Middle School and is learning to cook stuff.

Erin is still the little reader. She loves to learn.

Damian is loving Kindergarten. He is already driving his teacher crazy.

Renae is working hard and loving it. Really.

I am working hard as well. My normal day consists of working for only 9 hours a day for the Coast Guard before coming home and working on the house. I am sure all of you home-owners know what I mean. Probably my least favorite job yet has to be painting the exterior of the house. I wanted to paint flames by all the windows but Renae didn't think it would be funny or good for the resale value. At least it would have been fun. Until the fire department comes, anyways.

Here is the rundown on what is happening this month. Photos will be posted on case by case basis.

13Sep08 Mike is going on a 100 mile motorcycle ride with mostly complete strangers in a fund raising event for scholorships in the area. He (I) am totally stoked to get out and ride purely for fun!

22-26Sep08 Mike is going to a small island off the coast of Washington between the U.S. and Canada to build a tower with 6 other fellow Coast Guardsmen. There is no phones, no lights, no motor cars. Not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primative as can be. So, in short, we pack everything including ourselves via helicopter. This should be fun as well. Unfortunately it happens during the week of Hunter's birthday. He is dead set on thinking I miss his birthdays on purpose.

23Sep08 Hunter's Birthday.

26-28Sep08 Part of the Burgess are going "camping" in a cabin at the local KOA. Renae works there and got it for free. *Sterling and Hunter are missing the first night because they are going camping at Cape Disappointment with the scouts. The whole family will be there the next night.

*26-27Sep08 Hunter and Sterling camps at Cape Disappointment. They will be staying in cement bunkers that was used during WWII. I went once two years ago and had a good time. You have to just look out for the two cougars in the area. SCARY!!

27Sep08 Renae's Birthday

Well, that is the rest of the month. Have a safe day and remember...sanity is in the mind of the beholder.