Erik's last day at Fred Meyer's

Had to get a shot of Erik with his Fred Meyer name tag and shirt. He has worked there since last September, almost a year! It was fun going into Freddies and seeing him stocking the aisles. Now we can go to Winco and save some money.

Linda, Eriko and Dawn

We stopped off briefly to see my sister Linda's garage sale. It was busy, but I got the girls to sit quickly for this shot. Later we went to Lancaster Mall and Salem Center, where the girls shopped for gifts and school clothes.

Eriko, our daughter from Japan

Dawn and Eriko pose for the photographer on the deck outside my shop. Eriko is staying with us for about two weeks. We have enjoyed her company and will miss her when she goes home. She and her class mates are visting Salem on a Homestay. Lauren absolutely adores Eriko!

My summertime companion

This little girl, with such great concentration, has managed to go to Daddy's shop a lot this summer. She gets real busy with her drawings and making small books. She is always great company!

Erik's high school graduation

Here is the graduate, a hard working student.



Caps in the air, go Oly's Class of 2006!



Dane Wilson and Erik, two buddies ready for the world.

Lauren's end of school celebration

Katie Nelson, Lauren's kindergarten teacher, and Lauren pose for an end of school picture. Mrs. Nelson is a wonderful teacher who combines her love of music with her school lessons.



Mrs. Nelson and the kids gave a really great performance in which they sang many songs for over a half hour ... that's a lot of singing .... and the kids knew ALL the words!

Spencer's usual computer repose

Here is Spencer's usual comfort zone while surfing (winter or summer).

Erik's asleep at the mouse

This not the first time this has happened, Erik probably had stayed up late the night before, went to Lacrosse practice and came home only to pass out at the computer.

Lauren celebrates her 6th birthday

Chuckie Ceese dropped everything he was doing and rushed over to Lauren to help give her birthday a great send-off. All Lauren's friends showed up to play games, eat pizza and have cake. This kid is soo spoiled!

Spencer's 15th Birthday

Here's Spencer's 15th birthday. I can't believe it. He's got his Pink Floyd t-shirt on and growing by the foot. I think he's taller than me (dad).

Lauren loses her first tooth.

From the kitchen comes a scream of "Mom!!!!", I jump up and nearly run into Lauren as she bursts through the doorway to show us her bottom right front tooth. Well were we all pleased, I mean the tooth didn't know when to fall out. It had been weeks just being loose and more loose and yet more loose... And true to form this morning the Tooth Fairy deposited a hefty sum and took her tooth away!

Kim Huong

Before Erik was born, Dawn and I started eating pho soup at this joint. When we walk in they just ask if we'll be having the "usual". And we do. Their tea is good, and we get salad rolls and spring rolls for appetizers. We get a family style bowl of beef pho and a family style of chicken pho, too. To this we add ... sprouts, jalapeno, fresh basil, plum sauce and ground chili pepper with garlic. There's always more than we can eat and the tabs less than twenty! Rachel Ray, You missed this one!

New Years 2006

A new year tradition for good luck is my Southern Dinner with Hoppin' John. Linda and Robert showed up to help us eat the chicken, hoppin' john (black eyed peas with rice), collards, corn bread, fried green beans, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato pie and black tea. I had an early and hectic day getting this all out. (Dawn made the sweet potato pie) (photo credit to Robert)

Bubbliciously green

This kid's been working on this so hard. She's getting better than us all lately.

Cucumber Eyes

Lauren plays with her food. It's actually helps with wrinkles, though I doubt that's her concern.

Christmas 2005

Oh Christmas tree....



Erik's gonna smell right nice.



Spencer's room sure will glow ... man.



Mom always goes for clothes.



What is it? Lauren comes to the rescue!



Not showing is the couscous and pita bread. The lamb was made with orange chutney and what wasn't used there was added to the couscous. Big Greek salad, too.

Twas the night before Christmas...

Won't Santa be impressed with these fresh made cookies! Lauren prepares her special recipe for Santa. Rudolph wasn't forgotten, he got fresh carrots.

Paris 2005

Thanks to my sister Linda for watching the kids... and my buddy Frank for watching the shop, Dawn and I stole away to Paris for 8 days. I know it would be beautiful in spring or summer, but we enjoyed the attention you get when going off-season. The weather was actually very nice. We rented an apartment about three minutes from Notre Dame in a district called Marais. Any time day or night this place is alive with activity.

Our favorite things were the walks(about five hours a day), the food(didn't have a bad meal the whole time), shopping and an assortment of museums. My sisters went last year at this time and I thought about us taking off then, but it was Anthony Bourdain's show on Paris about two months ago that cinched it for me.

I booked everything and found the apartment on the internet. We would recommend Paris wholeheartedly to any of our family and friends. We simply had a blast!

Click here to see a few pictures of this excursion.
Paris 2005

Thanksgiving 2005

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves. We had a very traditional menu, which was delicious. The only twist was our stuffing muffins. They were great! The boys look as if darted and sedated. Can't get a smile unless I pay them.

Vampiress (Lauren) Prowls Salem Halloween Night

A frightful sight of of a vampire about to collect a sweet bounty or else!



See what denying sweets will cause... Please if you see this vampire give her candy.