My Family 2011

Some of the amazing, wonderful memories made this family vacation.

My parents, brother Greg, brother Garey and his family, and us.
We haven't all been together since 2005.
Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before we are all together again.

It's been a long road since January, but you've made your dream become a reality,
and I'm so very proud of you!

Is that Cole?

Before...




During...


After...

Noah got home from school and said, "Is that Cole?!?!"


And...Mark trying out Cole's hair as his new toupee!!

Tacoma Rainers

Cole is so loving baseball this season. And, it's actually been really fun for all of us to enjoy something other than football for a bit :-)

Thanks to Cole's good buddy Caleb's family, he and Mark were able to enjoy a Tacoma Rainiers game with them on Saturday evening. It was a gorgeous evening and the guys all had a blast!

Anderson Island

Christmas 2009

my vacation is over...

i was blessed to have the last twelve days off of work and as i looked over pictures of the time(and all december) i realize that the last month has been incredible...

the time off with my family at the end of the month sure topped it off perfectly...

i hope all your holidays and your new years were special and that this new year brings you all kinds of goodness and love...

hi ho... hi ho...

back to work i go...

i think we are hooked...

ok... that was a blast... razor clamming at the coast on a beautiful sunny day... dec.11... it was awesome... we filled our permits quickly and had a blast doing it... me, noah, ethan and my friends miles, mike and chris headed for the coast at about noon... only stopping in aberdeen for "good times" at starbucks...

noah, ethan and me posing by the ocean...

noah and ethan having fun...

noah and ethan watch as miles digs deep so that the clam would not get away... slippery little guys...

ethans first clam...

noahs first clam...

ethan and noah walk towards the van after the dig was completed... the goods in hand...

the weather was perfect... 49 and sunny... we had such a great time and we hope we are invited back soon...

makin' the most of my mixer...

my new birthday/Christmas gift sat on the counter for over a week before gwen made some snicker doodle cookies this last saturday... i was jealous of her time spent with my machine so today i made up for it in a big way... but like any new relationship we had some bumps in the road...

the first thing i did was whip up some sugar cookie dough... got it wrapped and put into the fridge...

next i whipped up some generic dough to try and do a drop cookie (ones with reeses peanut butter cups and some with hersheys peppermint twist drops)...


as the first batch was in the oven i unwrapped the kisses and cups...

then as soon as they came out... i put the candy on... but...failure was lurking in the wings... both the kisses and the cups melted... in a big way... these cookies a failure only to be eaten by family...




the next batch i put in mini-muffin pans like my big sis holly told me to... and that worked alot better...

and lastly... abby and i worked the sugar cookie dough into some delicious to be frosted later cookies... stockings, bells, stars, mickey mouse, trees, reindeer, etc...

overall a big success... i look forward to many more opportunities to spend time with my new mixer...

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the best husband and daddy ever!
Thank you for all you do for us.
We love you!

sad day at the miller house...

it happened... the pumpkin molded out... totally disgusting... it was a big mess... so now... its gone...

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im sure going to miss it...

i think it will work...

as gwen and i continue to try to find ways to conserve not only gas but also minimize and save on our monthly expenses... this was a must...


youre looking at my new mode of transportation to and from costco... its about an 18 mile commute and if i leave at 2:15 a.m. i should be able to be there by 3:45 a.m. when i need to be there to start my shift...

so not only will we cut down our gas bill significantly but also those pesky green house gasses...

go green...

i love my wife...

my lovely, loving wife made me this pie...

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i wish you all were here to taste this beauty...

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actually... im glad youre not... then i dont have to share...

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but, if you were here, i would share...

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maybe....

we laughed...

on saturday morning we had breakfast with our friends ron and cyndi... it had been a while since we had seen them so it was great to reconnect... and breakfast was good also...


i love that laughing picture of gwen... totally random... so funny...

the rest of the pictures of are ones i tried to take... at arms length since it was just the two of us... by the end of the trip... i was getting pretty good... these are the worst of them... half faces... one of us not being ready etc...




gwen loves the ones that look like im not ready and yet im taking the picture... what can i say...? she says that takes real talent...

music builds tour... san diego california...

the main reason we went down to california, believe it or not, was a concert in irvine... the music build tour... consisting of jars of clay, robert randolf and the family band, switchfoot and third day...

gwen heard this advertised on our local radio station and wanted to go... when we checked into the tour and cities they were going to be in, we found that they were not coming to the northwest at all... so we started looking for other destination cities... we considered chicago, phoenix, minneapolis, and decided on irvine....

we knew at that point we could go to disneyland, head to san diego, and see the show...

jars of clay opened and did awesome... i remember seeing them many times over the years and it was cool seeing them again... gwen and i matched in our white hoodies...

we also saw one of my all time favorite bands... switchfoot... local boys from san diego... they were as good as always... we have seen them quite a few times and they just keep getting better... i think they were the best show of the night...

and to close the night out was third day... gwen and i have seen them before and they again were solid... they sounded great and played alot from a new album... very cool...

the show was long and worth the trip alone...

we did also have a great time in san diego and disneyland though...

15 years for gwen and i... we started planning our 20 year anniversary trip already...