Baby is a .....KIcker!

Randy and i went to have our fifth month ultrasound. Baby is a kicker. Literally, Baby kicked like a donkey my left side. No wonder my hip hurts! Baby tried to get hands in mouth but missed, usually hitting the front of the head. The heart has four fully developed chambers. My favorite feature were the tiny feet which were a task to catch still. Both feet finally were measured and are about one and half inches. So far, these ultrasounds have been a highlight. We could see backbone and vital organs were all healthy. Yeah!

Onward to San Juans

A couple of weeks ago, we had another chance to go up in a plane with Randy's friend from work. Randy flew us to Roche Harbor where we landed and walked around the docks. It was fun to learn about the history of this town where former President Teddy Roosevelt would vacation. Roche Harbor was an old mining town that was turned into a boating town. Now it is a haven for tourists traveling to San Juan Island and boaters. After strolling around with our friend, we flew back to the airport. This time I flew us back to the airport. (Note: we flew in a Moonie that had two sterring wheels, so Greg really was flying but we had the experience.)

Fall pictures

This fall we have been enjoying our maple tree colors. All around Washington, the colors are spectacular!
We were visited by the elusive Piliated Woodpecker. His head was red and his body was about 12 inches long. He had a hard time staying on the feeder.

Virgo Birthdays

Every year we have with Julie's Grandma, we marvel that she has lived another year. Today Grandma celebrates her 99th birthday! Wow! A few weeks ago, most of the family gathered at my mom's house to celebrate Mom's, Aunt Joanne's birthdays and then later travelled to see Grandma and take pictures. Randy and I were unable to attend due to previous engagements, but we did make it down last weekend to celebrate a little later. Grandma was not up for picture taking so we are hoping to photo shop her into the big family photo soon. We did have a picture taken for real with Mom and Dad at their house. To celebrate Mom's birthday, we had a nice dinner at home and played a quiet game of Bridge. It's always fun to go visit family and walk around in a rural setting.

Aloha OSU

As is becoming a tradition in our family, Randy and I made our annual trek to Corvallis to watch a Beaver game live. This year we selected the Beaver-Hawaii game and were happy to see the Beavers win. The quarterback, Lyle Moevao had a great game as did several of the other players... the Rodgers brothers and Sammie Straughter. Randy enjoyed sitting back and watching Mike Riley coach. He really is the mastermind to the offense and lets other coaches handle the defense. The final score was something like 48-7 with the Beavers on top. Another record for the day was the heat. The temperature was in the 90s but in the direct sun in the new section of Reser Stadium it felt like 120 degrees. So all around it was one HOT game!

Hip to Be Square

Over the summer, Randy surprised me with tickets to the Huey Lewis and the News concert at the Tulalip Casino. The late summer weather cooperated with us and we had a beautiful evening outside flashing back to out high school years and the music we loved so much. Huey's voice was outstanding! Both of us have heard musicians who have lost their ability to sing the songs the way they did twenty five years ago. Not so with Huey! To listen to his music, I would not have guessed we were in 2008! What we both loved about the band is the diversity in the brass section. The music is upbeat and fun. What a great concert!

Huey Trivia:
He is the leader of Huey Lewis and the News.

Attended Monte Vista High School in Danville , CA .

Has two children, son Austin (born 1985) and daughter
Kelly (born 1983).

Scored a perfect 800 on his math SATs.

In 1967 he graduated from Lawrenceville Prep at the age
of 16 in Lawrenceville , New Jersey .

His parents divorced when he was 13.

He has a brother named Jeff.

Huey dropped out of Cornell University to spend a year
living in Europe playing the harp.

Attended Cornell University , majoring in engineering,
but dropped out after his junior year, because he was in
a band called Clover and they were preparing for rock
stardom. Clover (minus Huey Lewis) provided the
instrumentals for Elvis Costello's debut album, "My Aim
Is True".

When the Band Clover broke up he formed Huey Lewis & The
News, the so-called 80s Band.

Huey Lewis successfully sued Ray Parker Jr. for
plagiarizing the medley to his song "I Want A New Drug".
They settled out of court and agreed not to talk about
the case in public. In 2001, Lewis talked about the case
in public when he revealed that Parker paid to settle
the suit on an episode of VH1's "Behind the Music"
(1997). Parker then sued Lewis for violating the terms
of their agreement.

Enjoys playing golf.

On the song "Hip to be Square", from the album "Fore!",
the backup singers at the end of the song include San
Francisco 49er stars Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and Joe
Montana .

The original name of his band was "Huey Lewis and the
American Express". It was later changed to "Huey Lewis
and the News" due to legal reasons.

Huey Lewis & The News won the British Phonographic
Industry Award for International Group in 1986.

Although Lewis licensed "Hip to Be Square" for use in
the movie American Psycho for a 6 figure sum, he forbade
the song to be included on the CD soundtrack release (a
few early pressings of the CD included the song).

During an interview, he said that he learned how to play
the harmonica while hitchhiking across Europe .

Broken Top and Three Sisters Wilderness

After climbing down the mountain between electrical storms, we were famished and decided to use the cook stove to cook up some oatmeal from the back of the truck. While eating our breakfast, we had a conversation with a forest service ranger about camping opportunities and hiking trails in the area. He told us to follow the road on the other side of the Todd Lake parking lot and work our way back to the Broken Top trail head. This proved to be wonderful advice as we discovered the grassy, rolling hills I was picturing the day before. Throughout these grassy areas were snow run off streams which provided much music to our ears.
We were able to park our truck after 4-wheeling down the road to the trail head. (note: I don't think I would try this route in a vehicle without 4-wheel drive due to the deep ruts occaisionally in the mud road.) From there we hiked 1-2 miles to the base of Broken Top. This we decided was an area worth returning to on future trips! The wild flowers and streams provided much enjoyment and restored nerves after the electrical storm earlier in the morning.

Waiting for Lightning

One of my favorite musicians, Stephen Curtis Chapman, has a song called "Waiting for Lightning" which played in my head several times as we camped at Todd Lake. This camping experience was very enlightning to me. Randy and I use different words to communicate camping and hiking expectations. Randy wanted to go up a "hill" to camp above Todd Lake. I thought "hill" meant a grassy rolling field slightly higher than the lake. When in reality, Randy meant "miny mountain" which is most successfully climbed by mountain goats! So, we packed the tent, sleeping bags, tarp and food up the steep "hill" and found a nice flat spot to pitch our tent. After being bit by the dracula mosquitos on our trek up the hill, we applied OFF. Anywhere we missed in the application became a target for these ruthless little bugs.
After pitching our tent, we decided to go for a little hike around the top of the hill. When we left it was clear blue skies and in the 90s. Water seemed so far away! On our hike, we hurdled down trees and branches as we worked our way though the forest. After a bit of this, we decided to turn around and go back to the tent. Good thing we did. Thunder and lightning were moving in over Mt. Bachelor and it was evident we were in for a storm. Randy immediately took charge and applied survival knowlege to rig up a tarp over a rock so we could cook over a small fire. We ended up only receiving a few sprinkles Wednesday, but Thursday morning was a different story. Thursday morning there was sheet lightning and thunder on two sides of our camp. One crack was a flash and boom almost simultaneously. Needless to say, after the hail hit our tent and tarp, we were ready to go down the hill back to the truck in the parking lot. I don't think I have ever been so eager to get to flat land in my life!

Roseburg and the North Umpqua

For our second anniversary we decided to drive down to Southern Oregon and visit friends we hadn't seen, go to church and then go camping up the North Umpqua River. Our stay in Roseburg was about 36 hours. In that short time, we managed to at least say "Hello" to about twenty of my friends whom we hadn't seen in about two years. Most of these friends were at church and it felt a little frantic trying to catch up with everyone. I wanted to genuinely hear all about their lives and families, but it so hard to catch up in an hour after a service. Randy and I were able to see the old house where I used to live and spend a little time with the Schumakers. It felt like going home, except my old home has been remodeled and hardly looks like the place I lived for seven years with my dog and cat.
Monday, after a lovely time with Pastor Steve at a coffee shop and one last visit with Laura and family, we journeyed up the North Umpqua River to the Horseshoe Bend camp ground. My favorite spot on the river was available so we pitched our tent. With the weather in the 90s, it was nice to have the river nearby to dip in to cool off. Believe me, it was cold snow run off and didn't take long to bring down body temperatures.
On our actual anniversary, we hiked up to Watson Falls! This is the second highest water fall in Oregon. We spent a long time sitting on a rock taking in the mist of the falls as it crashed down on the rocks. A perfect day!

Ride Around Mount Raineer in One Day (RAMROD)-July 31 2008

The ride of the season, RAMROD, came the last day in July. To get into this ride, riders are chosen by a lottery system in order to limit the ride to 800 people. Needless to say, Randy was selected and then dove into training. His day of cycling started at 3:30 A.M. (yes, A.M.!) when the alarm went off. He worked his way to the Enumclaw High School for a waffle (legos) breakfast and some coffee! By 5:15, with the dawn light, Randy started peddling the sixty miles to Mount Raineer. The path would take the cyclist through small towns and highways to the south entrance of the Mt. Raineer National Park. Once in the park, the cyclists had a gradual climb. From what Randy has said, this climb was not super steep but it was long which made him slow down at the end of it. The cyclists bypassed Paradise Lodge and went to the rest stop to summons up energy for the remaining ups and downs of Raineer and Cayuse Pass. Cayuse pass was not only steep, but there was road construction before it. Cyclists consistently reported that this was the toughest stretch of RAMROD! It was ten miles in the extreme heat and more than half way through the 154 mile course. Once Randy reached the top of Cayuse pass, it was downhill and some flats all the way back Enumclaw High School.

Statistics from the ride: Randy finished cycling around 7:00pm. His actual peddling time was about eleven hours.

Seattle to Portland (STP)

As a training ride for RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Raineer in One Day), Randy chose to cycle in the STP ride in one day. Overall, the ride was 202 miles and had some big hills. The route took the cyclists through the backroads and some not so backroads of Washington. One town near Chehalis had the Egg Festival. Randy cycled on the Longview Bridge over the Columbia River into Oregon.
Timewise, Randy started from University of Washington at 5:00am and finished at the Lloyd Center at 9:35pm. His total cycling time was about 11 hours.
Randy never saw his friend, Earl, until the finish line in Portland but probably cycled within a couple of miles of eachother for most of the second half of the ride. They even traded places who was in front and still did not see eachother.
Towards the end of the ride, Randy was getting super hot as the temperature in Oregon was in the high 90s. One bank sign showed 97 degrees. To cool off the cooler became a dunking tank for hot feet.

Tour de Blast or Pain knows no beauty!

Team Carver once again found itself peddling into beautiful country to meet a goal of reaching the viewpoint of Mt. St. Helens. The scenery was spectacular and the weather was perfect! We started our morning ride at Toutle High School and rode 40 miles (according to our odometer but 41 according to the maps and signs). Right from the start, the grade was uphill although it was slight the first ten miles. The second stretch after the water stop was in no uncertain terms "brutal". Fifteen straight miles of grueling climbing to the second rest stop. Many stretching breaks were taken to meet our destination. After refueling there was a little bit of a decent before climbing the last consecutive mile climb to the top.

We were one of five tandem teams to ride this tour. More than a handful of single riders commented on how it must be hard to peddle a tandem to the top. We would have to agree that this was a tough ride. It felt more difficult than the day rides of Cycle Oregon. In retrospect, that might not be a fair comparison as this ride was earlier in the cycling season and we have not had as much opportunity to train for it as we did Cycle Oregon. However, with Randy cycling in RAMROD (Ride Around Mt. Raineer in One Day) we are hoping this ride better prepares him for that event. Several of the riders from Tour de Blast indicated they were using the ride as a training opportunity for RAMROD.

All I know is that we reached about 4000 feet in elevation and spectacular rugged mountain scenery which made the pain in the saddle endurable. Randy and I were amongst the last 30 riders to reach camp which was great as it gave us quiet times on the path and time to talk as we rode.

The return back to the high school parking lot was a blast as it was the reverse...all those miles flying down the mountains!

Joke for the day: Back at the high school Randy stated he need to stretch... I declared I needed a stretcher! :-)