The Extended Family

More coverage of my sister-in-law's younger brothers.

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Hiking the Timberline Trail

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I don't think I've been on a true backpacking trip before. Back in high school, my friend Bart and I planned a multi-day trip to Carl Lake, but we ended up turning around after one night of camping at Cabot Lake because it was raining so much and we'd rather stay at his family's cabin instead. I also hiked up to Moraine Lake as a scout leader, on the way to South Sister, where we camped in preparation to summit Oregon's third tallest peak, but we left all of our gear at the lake on the second leg of our climb. That was back in 2001. I first learned of the Timberline Trail by reading a brief summary of it in, of all places, Portland Monthly. Sure, it was 35 miles farther than I had ever backpacked before, and it involved two more days and nights, and I would be going solo. But the summer of 2016 is all about change and new beginnings for me. Day 1: Timberline Lodge to Ramona Falls I slept in Tuesday morning, as I was up late Monday night making my final preparat...
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10 for Ed

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The free-spirited, high-flying Edward has reached the golden age of 10. His teasingly-fun birth prompted me to begin this blog , so kudos to him for that. I was happy to spend the evening of his birthday dining on fried fish and mixed fruit at Red Robin and watching the Trail Blazers (his favorite player, Robin Lopez, also shares the same birthday) lose a frustrating game to the Clippers, a team who I hope ends up meeting the Blazers in the playoffs. I marvel at the potential I see in Edward and think he can impact the world in a big, positive way. He remains highly-sensitive to the needs of those around him, and is always free with time and money and sharing his things with others. He started playing the drums in the after-school band, and he continues to be a master video game player. He hopes to translate those skills to designing games some day, and whenever we have moments to walk together he shares all of his ideas for his first game (The Lost Hero), which are not few in numbe...
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Camping and Hiking at Mt. St. Helens

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Mt. St. Helens was beckoning us the whole trip I had planned on taking a vacation day the day before Meg and I were to begin our celebration of 15 years married to each other, but Meg suggested just working through the day as she had class all morning and her job to attend to in the afternoon, and then taking the next Friday off and take the kids to the pool or something. The pool? Nah, I wanted to do something memorable, something they would remember for years to come. While that may seem like a tall order for my boring-routine lifestyle, I think I may have actually pulled it off. Back to that conversation with Meg about going to the pool, I voiced my interest to go to Mt. St. Helens and camp and go on all-day hikes. Wow, that actually sounds really good; I better figure out how to make it happen. I searched semi-casually for a camping spot to reserve, but there was nothing, which wasn't surprising given the nature of the request. There were walk-in spots available, but ther...
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