James finally did it, he got married. James and Emilia Goldstein (aka E-dog) tied the knot July 14, 2007. Jennifer, Q-ball and I had to go out and witness the glorious event. We wanted to get in early to see the city and family. I have always liked New York, the hustle and bustle, the sights, and the size of the town. We arrived early Thursday morning, red eye flight, to my awaiting parents. They picked us up and took us back to the Hotel, right downtown. We rested for a couple hours and then we were off. First we stopped by James’ work and checked it out. Pretty impressive I must say. He works under the Queensboro Bridge for a banquet hall. He is the manager of the facility and is the head man in charge. We got to take a look around and then we headed for Bryant Park. We stopped and got some lunch and ended up at the Empire States Building. I had seen it, but never been up it. We took the tour to the top and did the whole tourist thing. That evening we went to a restaurant right down the street from our hotel. James and Quentin had an all out pillow fight to work up an appetite prior to departure to the restaurant. I couldn’t tell who had more fun, James or Q-ball. By this time, Ray and Jennifer had caught up to us and Dell and Jerry (aunt and uncle) were also there. After dinner Ray ordered the largest dessert on the menu for Quentin. He bet him $20 that Quentin couldn’t empty the glass; well in the picture you can see Quentin holding the $20. Friday we woke and took the subway to the Natural History Museum. This is the same place where “night at the museum” was filmed. We spent 4 hours and then headed to Central Park to see the statue of “Balto”. Quentin read the story of Balto, and at the end it talks about the statue in central park. Quentin had always said he had to see it if he was ever in New York. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner with both families and then a walk through Time Square. Saturday we took a trip down to Ground Zero to see the progress on the Freedom Tower. Then it was James and Emilia’s wedding. It was held on James’ place of work and was really nice. The ceremony was perfect and the party that followed was great. Quentin didn’t feel to well so we left early.
The trip was great and we are really happy for James and Emilia, we wish them the best and have fun on the Honeymoon.

We just got back from another camping trip along the Washington Coast. We left on Thursday the 5th of July and got back Sunday, July 8th. It was great fun to get away and Quentin caught his first fish. Check out the trip to the right, Yellow banks. Details of the trip will follow.

CHAMPIONS!!! We won the championship hockey game on Wednesday night. We had played the Avalanche (first place team) twice in the season and didn’t beat them either time. We ended up taking the lead and never gave it up winning 5-3.

It has been awhile since the last update. Since the camping trip, we have been busy getting ready for summer.
Quentin has finished his WASL (State of Washington schools required test the students must pass to make it onto the next grade) and he feels he did very well on it. We will not get the results until the end of the school year. Quentin has finished his spring soccer season and is ready for his next sport for the summer. He has expressed interest in Basketball and Lacrosse.
Jennifer is doing very well. She has been working incredibly long hours at work. She is looking forward to the trip in Africa and when she is not at work, she is training for Kilimanjaro at the gym.
Work for me has been going well. I am going to have my big push this summer and will be done with my portion of this job this fall. Jennifer is hoping Kiewit gets another job in the Northwest so I can get transferred to it. We all have taken a liking to the Northwest, the rain isn’t so bad. Hockey season is coming to a close next weekend, we made the playoffs and are playing next weekend for the championship. I have also been biking a lot lately, both road and mountain. Portland has a lot of incredible trails.
Our next big trip comes over the 4th of July weekend; we are going camping out to the coast again. The following weekend after the camping trip, we are heading to New York for my little brothers wedding.

We have just got back from another trip to the coast. Again, the Pacific Northwest has not disappointed us. Click on the "Hole In The Wall" link to the right to see our latest adventure.

You can see on the map, the box is the area where we went. You enter at Rialto Beach and hike to the North.

We have been out in Portland for over a year now. The reason we got relocated to Portland was for the "Big Pipe" project. It isn't really a pipe, but a tunnel. In order to build the tunnel a crucial piece of equipment is necessary, the tunnel boring machine (TBM). Ours was built in Germany at the Herrenknecht plant. It was shipped in February and has been slowly arriving to the site. We put it in the shaft in the end of February and have slowly been building it. It costs around 12 million dollars and all said and done will be 280 feet long. It will cut a 24' diameter tunnel ranging from 90' to 150' under ground. As it goes through the ground it sets precast segments which is the liner of the tunnel. To see more how this works, click on "The Job" link to the right. Here are some pictures of the machine that were taken yesterday. We always take a picture with someone in them for size reference.

Pictures top to Bottom:

Kyle (My engineer) standing on the TBM during construction

Me standing next to the TBM in the hole. Pretty big piece of machinery.

Me standing next to the cutter head. This is the piece that will cut through the earth creating the hole for the tunnel.

Looking down the 125' shaft at "Rosie", the TBM. This is the front can which will have the cutter head attached to the front. It is called "Rosie" for the City of Roses.

Kyle standing at the tail end of the TBM.

This past weekend we got to try something new. Jennifer has some friends who work for the BNSF Railroad here in Vancouver. He had invited a bunch of the kids along for a train ride. We had no idea what to expect. When we got there he crowed all of us onto two engines and took us for a spin. It was actually really cool. I have been on trains before, but not like this. Quentin had a ball and went twice. He got to sound the horn at crossings and everything. It was quite the experience.

It is official, we are heading to East Africa, Tanzania to be exact. The tickets were purchased Wednesday and we receive them Friday. We have the entire trip set up and the tour company in Tanzania is getting the final details set. Jennifer and I will start the fun part next month. We have a series of shots to get for Hepatitis A/B, Yellow Fever, Malaria, Meningittis, Typhoid, Rabies, Tentanus, and Measles. They say it is about a 6 month ordeal for shots and visas.

We leave December 14th and fly to New York. From there we go to Amsterdam, have a 10 hour lay over where we will take a quick tour of the town. We then leave for Kilimanjaro International Airport located in the town of Arusha. We arrive Monday, December 17th at 9am. We will then start our 9 day trip to the top of Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft).The photo below shows the route we will be taking up the mountain.

We then come down and take a 5 day Safari through the Serengeti. We will be back home on January 2, 2008.

We have been looking forward to this trip for 2 years, and finally, we are moving forward with the plans.

Besides this exciting news, not much has been happening. We have all been busy with work. Quentin starts soccer Saturday with his first game. We will post pictures as we get them.

We hope to hear from everyone soon. Have a good month.

After the snow storm, we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun. Jennifer suggested the Portland Zoo, somewhere we had yet to explore. It was a

little on the chilly side, but nice, because there weren’t many people there. We began exploring and were very impressed by the zoo. Quentin had a great time to. The animals there are amazing. There are several animals at this zoo that we hadn’t had

the chance to get so close to any where else. After the zoo, we headed over to the Rose Garden to watch the Portland Lumberjax, the cities professional Lacrosse team.

We got some great club level seats from a local supplier to Kiewit. I was actually impressed by the game. Never watching the game before, I was surprised by all of the

similarities to hockey. The entire family had a great time, and Quentin got a ball from one of the ball boys. He was super excited and can’t wait for the next game so he can have it autographed by the team.
We finished the weekend by watching the Bears spank the Saints. GO BEARS. My team finally heads to the superbowl!!!!

It has been a couple months since the last update. Not much has happened. The holidays were fine and nice to have two long weekends in a row off. We didn’t do much, just relaxed and watched the Bears play some football. Quentin is doing fine,

he enjoyed his vacation time off and most recently, playing in the snow. Jennifer and I had to work the entire time, so not much to report there.
The most exciting thing that has been going on is the weather. It first started with

incredible windstorms throughout the Northwest. Most recently it has been the snow. Yes, snow. At elevation 50 you would think that snow wouldn’t come that often. We have had back to back snow storms that have completely messed up Portland. When it snows in the Northwest it also brings ice and freezing rain. The combination makes

for interesting driving conditions. Yesterday we got 4 inches of snow. It doesn’t sound like much, in fact, in Denver we would consider that a dusting. The difference is the ice that comes with it. Yesterday the freeway systems shut down, city busses were caught off guard and stuck everywhere, schools were cancelled, and Portland had a mandatory chain law all around town. I know, it was only 4 inches. I am slowly getting adjusted to the Northwest storm mentality, rain good, snow bad.

Well another long weekend has passed. Jennifer’s parents decided to visit from Costa Rica for the extended weekend. We started the weekend off on Wednesday by seeing Happy Feet at the OMNIMAX at the OMSI in Portland. It was cool to see it on the dome screen. We took Thursday off and enjoyed some turkey and good home cooked meal.

Friday we headed up to Hoodsport to show the in-laws the property we bought. We were surprised to see snow so soon at the property, made the drive fun to say the least. We headed back down to Vancouver Friday night and planned for Saturday. We woke Saturday and headed to Tillamook with intensions of going to the cheese factory. We

arrived and found that they had the weekend off, so Claudia didn’t get to see the cheese being made. The good news was the ice cream counter was open. We watched a short video on the tour of the factory and learned the coast had a lot to offer. We found that there was a lighthouse and a couple small towns just West of Tillamook

and that is where we headed. We first set off to see the lighthouse and an attraction called the Octopus Tree. After our short visit at these sites, we drove the coast and ended up in Oceanside. I went to the beach as everyone was getting

coffee and trying to stay warm. I looked South down the beach and saw what I thought was a bunker. I asked a local and they explained that it was a tunnel to another beach and could only be passed through at low tide. This sparked my interest and I

have to check it out. I waited for everyone and then headed out. Sure enough, the tunnel took you to another small beach which had picturesque scenery. We stayed in Oceanside for an hour or so and decided it is a perfect place to come back during the warm summer months.

Sunday we decided to go back to the OMSI where they have a special exhibit, Star Wars. I had no idea what to expect or what it had to offer. It was actually quite
interesting; it consisted of the models and costumes used in the movies. Quentin thought it was amazing and had a great time.

Some guys from work and I have been planning a trip to Mt. Hood in Oregon for the last 2 months or so. Mt Hood is 11,000 feet high and has year round snow/glaciers which means full gear (crampons, ice axe, harness, rope, etc). We chose November 18th because of the possible snow that should have fallen on the mountain, the more

snow the easier to summit. A week ago it got its first snowfall, 36 inches. Good for Timberline Ski area which sits right at the base of the mountain. Kristian (a fellow co-worker) and I left Friday night from work. We drove to Timberline parking lot and threw up our tents on a snow bank. We woke around 2:30 am to get ready for the

climb. About 2:45 am the rest of our climbing party arrived. Cory (co-worker) and Jim (his friend from Kansas City that flew in at 10:30 Fri night) drove up to meet us for the 3am departure. We signed in at the lodge and that is when the excitement started. While we were filling out the permit, the paramedics and sheriff were there talking to a guy. What we got from the story was a 17 year old was staying up at the lodge with his dad and they were going to try a summit attempt. His 17 year old son instead woke up at midnight, grabbed all his dad’s gear and started up by himself.

After getting the story we started to head up the hill. The hike was LONG and steep in parts. About an hour into the hike the Mountain Rescue Team passed via snow cat. There was a snow cat trail that takes you about half way up the mountain. We watched the rescue team unload and there headlamps disappear up the hill. We kept trudging up the hill, step after step. The sunrise was amazing and marked the halfway point

for us. When we reached 9500 ft elevation the sun was out and beating down on us. Right about then we saw the rescue team heading down and they had the 17 year old, safe thankfully. It was another 30 minutes of climbing when we ran into another set of climbers heading down who broke the bad news to us. Near 10,500 ft on the

mountain there are two different routes to the summit, through the pearly gates or the old climbers route. As we found out through other climbers is that both routes were vertical 45 foot ice walls and would require technical ice climbing gear,

something we did not have with us. These ice walls will eventually be buried after future snowfalls. Jim and Cory turned around, but Kristian and I kept going for about a half hour before deciding to head down. We made it back to the car by 1pm and are already planning a return.