"it's a great day to be alive"

everyone who lives in seattle sooner or later becomes very used to the yearly rotation of weather, or lack there of.  i know weather is often a topic of small talk, but here, as it is always changing (even by the minute sometimes) it's actually kind of exciting for me.  yes, sometimes i do eat my words having just said that.  but, today is one of those days i'm outside riding my bike and i can't help but just look around at the incredible beauty that literally surrounds this city.  most of the time it really only feels like winter in the city when it's clear and cold.....and beautiful.  today didn't disappoint.  it's a day which reminds me of something my childhood scottish soccer coach would jovially say (see title with scottish accent).

both lyn and i have lived here pretty much since we can't remember, but to be honest, i never get tired of it.  it, being the city and the weather, etc...  having found this new passion for cycling gives me ample time to breath hard and take it all in.  usually i really don't like stopping,  but, today i did.  i rode the mercer loop with chism hill and i went by bill's house (bill gates that is).  there's a park just prior to passing bill's which you can see gives a great view to the west.  on nights like tonight, it's easy to take in the last sun beams and enjoy the beginning of dusk as the sun points up at the atmosphere and lights it up as night approaches.

party at paul and steph's

this sunday afternoon we headed on up to the hoover's abode.  ok, well i guess we need to be more specific than that since we are here in seattle.  we made the trip to millcreek to hang with paul and steph, taylor, paige, and the bode man.  paige is now 4 !!!! which means there's some celebrating to do!  along with the cake eating, we got to play the paul hoover diy version of minute to win it and watch the kids do the same.  the paul and steph hoover grandparents as well as maggie and the greenway kids were on hand to witness the unceasing competitive nature that is the hoover way.  and yes there were some tears shed naturally as there were 4 kids competing for the 1 winning team.   i must say maggie (my cousin) and i beat the pants off my wife and crystal (steph's friend) her team mate.  but, lyn came back later in the egg on a spoon in your mouth race.  we had a great time and we look forward to more of these birthday celebrations in the year to come.  so thankful to have family close : )

a great end to the day

my gorgeous wife !!! 

we took the chupper (that's Elsie) to the park on Saturday afternoon.  luckily...luckily found the one sort of dry spot so the squirt (also Elsie) could run around for a while.  once she couldn't breath anymore, we headed back to the house, but not before picking up Despicable Me from redbox.  if anybody hasn't seen this movie, the little girl who is obsessed with stuffed unicorns is worth seeing it alone : )

please...please...please through the ball...please!

for those of you who haven't met Elsie before - Elsie Hoover is a 2+ year old mini australian shepherd.  she loves to cuddle, lick faces, wag here whole butt (lacks a tail to wag) and will do absolutely anything for her red squeaky ball.  oh and she can jump like crazy.  i'll be sure to show her athletic skills off some other time!  she's almost learned how to do back flips over this squeaky red ball she loves : )

beautiful side road down out of maple valley

Lyn worked in the morning (rocked her clients like always) and i got to geek out on my first team ride with all our new kits.  Mike Hone (team pres.) did an amazing job designing the kits this year (my first year).  we headed down south paralleling an almost flooding cedar river.  then is was up and over tiger mountain to issaquah and back towards bellevue.

some of the team at Barrier Audi

at the end of our ride we stopped by barrier Audi in bellevue (our title sponsor) to show the kits off and to give a hello to the people Mike's  been working with to get us outfitted (legally) in the quattro rings!  we cannot wait to get up and going with the new racing season.

seattle snow ! ! !

lyn and me in the snow !

the new year is here! and unlike most years, it has actually shown signs of winter.  what i mean by that is it snowed last night.  we went out for a 10pm stroll with elsie (our dog).  it's a blast to watch the pure joy she exudes as she romps around diving into the snow.  the only time she is still is for the brief moment she looks up to make sure she's not lost.  she stops, stares at us and then bolts off as if we've done something to further encourage her shenanigans.  dogs are awesome!

seattle is well known as the emerald city and it kept true to its name.  the white stuff (5 inches of it) stuck around for oh...about 12 hours or so.  so disappointing to those of us who love when it comes and always are sad to see it leave.  oh well...

so this is the first post of the our new blog.  i / maybe we / and even more of a maybe...lyn will be keeping up the events of our year.  i realize many times blogs end up being mostly for the writers, there are a few billion of these pages i imagine, but if you lucky few family, friends, and whomever happen to find our blog, we hope you enjoy having a peek into our lives.