No disappointment!

     As we enter the month of July so far there has been no disappointment at all in our summer of fun!!  Even though the weather has caused my work to get busier and busier with more claims coming in daily it seems like, we still have found time to get out and have tons of fun on the weekends! 
     Last weekend we were invited by our friends the Ralstons to spend a night on Hailey's parents boat which was in the Bellingham harbor.  We jumped at the chance since we did this last summer with them on a different boat on Flathead and it was awesome!  Kelli said sleeping on a boat is so much fun because the gentle rocking of the boat form the waves keeps you sleeping like a baby!  We had an absolute blast hanging out with good friends, ate a great meal at Anthony's, and as Kelli would put it slept like babies!

                                             "Yacht Server", our lodging for the night

                                            Captain Mooley and his first mate:)
     I must have slept too good cause I got up on Sunday morning at 4:45 wide awake and ready for the day.  So I snuck out of the boat and took a walk over to a tiny peninsula on the opposite side of the harbor which had a small park with a fisherman's memorial on it.  I was also in search of a cup of coffee:)  The fisherman's memorial was pretty neat, I was shocked to find out that the most recent death on the plaque was from 2009!  I guess the reality shows don't lie, it truly is one of the most dangerous jobs out there!  I spent a good hour sitting on a bench overlooking the ocean thanking God for all that he has given me in my life, I feel more blessed each day and experiences like that morning make me feel like I'm the luckiest man alive.  The only thing that made that morning better was Kelli waking up and joining me out on the point, and I finally found that cup of coffee!:)

                                        A shipping container between me and the San Juan's

     On a morning like this when I am the only one around I can't help but feel like God created this sunrise to only be seen by my eyes!  Almost as soon as I saw another person up moving around the clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared.
     Overall the weekend was a great time, one that we both hope to duplicate again before the summer is out!  Maybe next time Hailey's parents can join us and we can take the boat out to sea! 
     As I'm writing this I'm getting ready to go back down to Hoopfest, the biggest 3 on 3 tournament in the world, to watch my nephew Christian play another game.  Kelli and I spent the whole day down there yesterday watching not only Christian but his dad, my cousin Jamie, and boy did we get a show!  Not only was the basketball exciting so was the weather!  The weather man's predicted forecast of 90 and sun failed as we saw more rain than sunshine throughout the day.  Never the less it was a great time and we had ton's of fun spending the day with Jamie and his kids as well as my Aunt Linda.  Unfortunately Jamie's team lost their first two games but Christian's team went 2-1 on the day, Christian even hit the game winning three late in the evening yesterday!  It looks like the weather man has a better chance at success today so hopefully the boy's teams play well and have their own success!  

Remember, None of us know how long we'll be here so fun isn't an option, it's a requirement! 
 

Summer Fun!

     Well after a couple weeks, here I am getting ready to go board a plane again bound for Klamath Falls, OR for work, and I am finally over the events that caused my last little outburst on this blog about our justice system:)  Now I am on to bigger and far more positive things, like summer fun!
     I figured I'd update this thing with monthly recaps of all the fun things we've been blessed to be able to enjoy so far:)  Through the halfway point June has already been full of good times!  A couple weeks ago Kelli and I got to put the canoe on the water for the first time as we took it to the lake mom and dad live on, Shelley Lake.  Our tour guides, GG and Daisey took us around the entire lake, including pointing us in the direction of the turtles favorite sunning rock.  Unfortunately the turtles were nowhere to be seen, but we had a blast anyhow!

     Just days after our time on the water, we celebrated both Kashi and Duchess's birthday.  Since we don't have any two legged kids yet we get to spoil our dogs a bit on their birthdays, something that I don't think will change even after we have a baby.  Their birthdays are a day apart, just like Jill and I, so we celebrated them together by taking them on about a 5 mile hike which was capped off by a doggy biscotti and a thorough round of fetch in the backyard!  It's hard to believe that these two are 10 and 11 already!  It seems like just yesterday that I brought the curled up tiny ball of black fur home that was Duchess.  I never thought the day would come where either of them slowed down at all, especially Duch, but as they both enter their senior years they seem to spend more and more time curled up sleeping, just as they did as puppies!

                                                             Kashi-10    Duchess-11

                                                        Duchess-2 months old
     Last weekend was the latest installment of fun as Kelli's parents came over to spend Fathers day weekend with us.  We had a great time hanging out and showing them all that we've done to the hose since the last time they saw it we were moving in.  Then on Sunday the girls shopped until they dropped and Dan and I took to the north fork of the Coeur D Alene river in search of some cutthroat trout!  Even though it was more of an exploratory trip, since neither of us had fished it before, we had a blast and even had a couple chances at fish!  This time around though the cutties were smarter than we were and we didn't land any thing.  It's a beautiful little river though and I know we'll be back again with better results:)

                                                               Dan working a seam     So with this month only half over I eagerly look forward to even more fun to be had!  I simply can't wait for some of the stuff we have planned, and summer doesn't even officially start for 2 more days!!  I hope you all are getting out and having just as much fun during your summer as we are!

Remember, he who rises first does not always catch the most fish, but he most likely will have the best chance to:)

Justice?

     If you've talked to my sister Jill anytime in the past 2-3 months, chances are you have heard her mention how hard she's been working lately.  This is because she has devoted the majority of her time picking through the details of one of the highest profile murder cases Spokane County has seen in a long time.  For those who don't already know she is a public defender, now I know when you hear that you either think one of two things about her.  Either you can't believe she helps the scum of the earth, or you admire the fact that she is willing to take on the cases no one else wants for half the pay of a private attorney.  I fall into the second category and have been more impressed every year with the level of BS she has to deal with on a daily basis, all while honestly loving her job!  I know this sounds cliche, but if you give yourself 10 minutes with her on the subject you will realize she truly DOES love we job!

     Most of her time is spent in a futile effort to prevent the guy who just received DUI number 7 from spending years behind bars, not exactly a glamorous job, but every now and then she gets a case that grabs everyone's attention.  This murder case was one of those.  

     I'm not going to go into details for many obvious reasons, Im simply going to say that the jury came back with a verdict today of guilty.  This came as an absolute shock to me!  I know I wasn't in the court room for all of the trial, I was only there for half of a day, but being as my little sister is one of the defenders on the case I can say I've followed this case enough to know that the evidence simply was not there to support a guilty verdict!  I have been trying to figure out how they came up with this, even mentally going through various hypotheticals that could lead to a guilty verdict and I simply cannot.  In my tiny little pea brain this can only mean that the jury must have just pegged him as a guilty man from day one and nothing  was going to change their mind.  In the defense of the jury however the judge would not allow a boat load of evidence and testimony that I believe was crucial for the defendant, leaving them with only half of the story.  

     So I wonder this as I sit here waiting for a flight, all good thoughts seem to happen while waiting for a plane:), how can we deem our judicial system fair?  I understand that we sit in front of a jury of our peers when in trial, but if that jury is being dictated on what they get to see and hear aren't we really sitting in front of one of our peers?!  And since every one of us humans has a different opinion on nearly everything how can one single person, who's not going to have a room full of fellow judges to discuss his opinion, have so much say in a persons life?  I know he has to mediate the trial as best as he can, knowing what some of the stuff he deemed in admissible is though, I just don't see how that is always fair!  

     But, it is what it is and no matter how much I gripe about it or try to understand it, at the end of the day I have to move on and hope that I never have to watch someone I love put their life in the hands of our system!  I admire my sister for what she does on a daily basis, it cannot be easy to take blow after blow like this and just keep getting back in the ring with just as much determination for the next client as she has for this one!  

Remember, some days it's harder than others, but we simply have to cinch up our boot straps and put on a smile tomorrow morning!:)

Relaxation

     This past weekend Kelli and I had the privilege of being invited up to West Glacier for the wedding of a family friend of Kelli's.  We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend our Memorial Day weekend!  Kelli's dad Dan had booked one of the cabins where the rest of the wedding party was staying and when we arrived on Saturday afternoon it felt like one big family reunion.  There were 5 total cabins at the lodge and we had them all to ourselves!  Over the years I have become close with all of these friends of the Dobson's as well and many of them we haven't seen in a very long time, like since our own wedding!
     Saturday evening we went back into Kalispell and enjoyed dinner followed by church with some good friends of ours from our time in the Flathead, the Vullertson's.  We quickly realized their two kids are no different than any others we know and they are growing like weeds!  Our time with them was fantastic as it always is and we capped it off by stopping for ice cream on our way out of town!
     The wedding was Sunday afternoon and since we had a little time to kill in the morning and we were so close I told Kelli I wanted to drive up to Hungry Horse dam.  I'd never been there in all the time I've spent in the area and since it is one of this countries engineering marvels I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check it out.  Within a matter of minutes word spread through our camp that we were going up and seven of us decided to go.  I could go on for hours about the magnitude of the dam and the fascinating process that it took to construct it, but I'll spare you the details and just tell you if you haven't been there and are in the area you must check it out for yourself!

 

     After viewing the dam we came back to the cabins and simply relaxed!  I feel like I give myself a fair amount of relaxation time while at home but I can tell you when your on vacation like this and take some time to simply enjoy a cup of coffee on the front porch while looking at the mountains with absolutely no agenda, you realize what true relaxation is.  People often say that relaxing is good for the soul, I don't see how anyone could ever argue this as after simply siting on the porch for a coupe hours I felt completely rejuvenated!
     The wedding ceremony was beautiful!  It was held at the Lake McDonald Lodge just inside Glacier National Parks West entrance.  The ceremony was right at the waters edge next to where a creek, bursting at it's seams with spring run off, poured into the glass like surface of the lake.  The groom and his family are native American so they closed the ceremony with their tribes dove song which was amazing! 

     After the reception, and way too much sugar for this guy, we headed back to the cabins for more relaxing:)  Dan and Donna rested in the cabin while Kelli and I decided to go for a hike before the sun went down.  All of the really good trails were too far away to make it before dark so we ended up just going for a walk through the town of West Glacier.  Our journey came to an end when our asphalt stopped at a bridge over the Flathead river.  We walked over to the sign on the other side of the bridge and read that it was the Belton bridge.  This bridge was the only way into this end of the park for many years.  During the flood of 1964 the bridge was completely submerged in water leaving those who lived on the North side of the river detached from needed supplies.  Somehow when the water receded the concrete arch of the bridge remained intact!  Locals quickly rebuilt the bridge on top of the old concrete base and it's still there, serving as a constant reminder of just how well things were built in the good old days! 

     We snapped a few photos of the bridge then headed back to join the rest of the crew for dinner and some socializing on our last night together.  Of course like most family reunions we had our share of excitement, one of the brides cousins and I went to light up some sparklers late in the night and somehow his flared up in his hand, burning three of his fingers pretty badly!  We had a few nurses at the cabins so they assessed the situation and quickly realized he needed medical attention.  The closest hospital was in Kalispell, 30 miles away, and the only people who knew how to get there were Kelli and I and the bride and groom.  I didn't feel like taking your cousin to the ER on your wedding night sounded like very much fun so I volunteered to ride along with the cousin and his dad for directions.  Everything went good at the hospital, they put on some burn cream and bandaged him all up, then on the way back to the cabins we got a speeding ticket going through Columbia Falls!  The local cop took it easy on our driver, only giving him a $20 ticket for going almost 20 over the limit, and we finally got back to the cabin around 2am! 
     Everyone got up at their own pace the following morning and we all headed our separate ways.  Even with the ER scare on Sunday night, we had an amazing time and arrived home thoroughly refreshed and relaxed, just in time to make it over to my parents for a Memorial Day BBQ!   As we settled into our own bed that night I couldn't help but thank God for what I consider to be a perfect weekend!

Remember, there's no such thing as too much relaxation!

Community

     With each day that passes in our new house we become more and more fond of our neighborhood as well as the people who live in it.  We often find ourselves telling each other, usually after a walk, how we can't get over how special it is.  I think in just over a month we've already taken the dogs for a walk more than we have in any other neighborhood we've been in!  With all the positives of our neighborhood though there still were some questions we had about some of the neighbors, mostly our next door neighbor who we haven't seen leave the house. 
     All of our questions were answered yesterday as while returning from a walk with the dogs we got to meet the most important lady in the neighborhood, Irene.  She lives across the street and a few houses down and she is just the person we needed to meet to find out anything we needed to know, whether it was about neighbors, pets, or kids, Irene had the answer!  Every neighborhood has that little old lady who seems to know every ones dirty little secrets and we just met ours. 
     I always get a kick out of neighbors like her because they have a very good way of reminding us just how small this world is we live in!  When Kelli and I moved over here we came from a town we considered a city with 45,000 people, to a real city with a lot more! People like Irene always remind us that no matter how big this town is it's still a small world, and many of our communities are still very tightly knit.
     This has been proven in a very tragic way this week in the town of Moore, Oklahoma.  A devastating tornado swept through there on Monday afternoon taking many lives with it and leaving a massive path of destruction!  All of the news there is coverage of catastrophe and among all of the stories of tragedy there is one common positive theme, good ol fashioned neighborly support!  I know at times it seems as though this is a lost art, but if you've watched the news at all you've seen one of the best examples of it you ever will!  Our thoughts and prayers have been with those affected by the disaster in OK and we know that through neighborly support and determination they will rebuild and recover from the events that have brought their town to it's knees temporarily.

Remember, be kind and courteous to your neighbors as you just never know when you may need their support!

The joy of homeownership!

     We have lived in our new house up here on the south hill for just over a month now and the lacking of updated posts to this blog are a pretty good indicator of what we've been up to in that time!  We didn't get much time to put off projects after moving in as our insurance company required us to install handrails around the stairs in the front and back of the house.  After researching wrought iron and a few other options we decided to think outside the box a bit and fabricate them out of black iron piping.  Thanks to running miles of this material in my former career, this project went really well!  We were so excited about the results of it that we immediately jumped right into more!

     The next challenge we tackled was the dilapidated tile in front of our fireplace.  This project could have easily been put off until this fall but we came across a screaming deal on the tile we wanted to use at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore.  Since neither one of us had tiled anything before we were slightly apprehensive to get started but much like any project we start on our house, once you get started your committed!  Although the tile took much more effort to remove than we expected, the rest of the project went pretty well and turned out good.

     So feeling pretty good about the first two, we upped our game and tackled a ground level deck in the corner of our back yard.  I figured with the early success form the first two projects combined with me having built a couple decks before, this one would go just as good.  I was wrong!  The framing portion of the project went pretty well but when I went to start putting decking boards down I quickly found out that I punched some numbers majorly wrong on my materials estimate as we only had enough decking boards to cover about a third of the space!  So I called around and found a discount lumber yard who had decking boards for about $3 less a board than Home Depot or Lowes.  We refigured the numbers and picked up the rest of our material and quickly finished putting it all together.  Now the hard part!  We had decided earlier to use a deck covering called Restore which is supposed to be basically like rhino lining for a deck.  It seemed like the perfect solution for minimal maintenance but we soon found out that we didn't have enough to finish covering!  So the next day I made another trip to Home Depot and picked up another box of Restore only to have the guy working the paint counter to tell me that Behr makes a product that works much better cause it covers more area!  I gave the guy my best "would have been nice to know yesterday" look and came home and finished the deck.  All totaled the deck took 7 days and went $250 over our estimated budget!  Needless to say our big projects have come to a screeching halt for a little while:)

     It hasn't been all work and no play however since moving in as I've been helping with Tatums t-ball team every week.  As you can imagine it's been quite entertaining each week getting to know her teammates and watching them have fun!  I am always fascinated by how quickly their attention can be diverted, from things as interesting as a kite being flown in the park next to the game, to as simple as the dirt underneath their little feet, there always seems to be something to distract them.  It has been a blast so far and were only half way through the season!  I only wonder how many of the kids will be just as excited about t-ball in four weeks as they are now:)

Remember, the house projects will come and go, the time spent with those that you love is what will be with you always!

 

Great weekend!

     This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Iron Sharpens Iron conference with Dad and Ryan.  Dad offered to take us and we gladly accepted.  ISI is a mens christian conference that is an all day event involving two keynote speakers mixed with two seperate break out workshops.  The entire day was filled with inspirational speeches and I think I can honestly say all of us left there in a much better place than we arrived!  Each speaker had great stories and lessons to share but my favorite hands down was the morning workshop that I attended.  It was by Matt Potratz, a proffesional snowmobiler who triggered a huge avalanche that nearly took his life.  He survived the avalanche but has been left with many extremely dabilitating injuries to cope with.  His message of how he has drawn on his faith to remain posotive and live each day as a blessing hit home with me.  Not all of us may be able to relate to his story but every one of us could take soemthing from his message and put it to use in our own lives!
     Sunday we took our refreshed spirits and joined the rest of our families at the Susan G Komen race for the cure in downtown Spokane.  We ran this event last year for the first time as after what mother went through it means so much more to us.  It was great to see how many people showed up in support of a loved one or a friend!  Each survivor is given a pink baloon to release just before the start of the race and as Mother released hers it gave me great joy to see the hundreds of other baloons sailing away!  After we finished the race Action treated us all to a great breakfast and we all went our seperate ways to relax a little before our weekend was over. 
     All in all it was truly a great weekend filled with tons of fun!  With the temperatures supposed to be in the low 70's this coming weekend I can already see similar results in the future:)

Remember, time spent with your family is never time wasted!!:)