High Fives with Chris Ballew

I got a vid of the boys high fiving Chris Ballew of the Presidents. They were pretty excited.

Presidents of the United States of America

The whole family went to the presidents show last night at the Showbox. It was a packed house and they played most of our favorite songs. We got there early enough for the boys to be on the rail in front the whole time. Everyone had fun and we will remember this concert for a long time.

catch up on this blog stuff

We have been busy but I haven't been good about putting stuff up here. Last weekend we had dinner with the DesJardien family on Saturday and got to see Matt and Abby's new baby twins. We like hanging out with all those guys and we need to find ways to see more of them. Last Sunday, Jess and I went snowshoeing with the Venture crew. It was a practice for this weekends boy scout snow camping outing. Joe and I have both bought golf clubs and we have been at the par 3 course and the driving range a lot the past couple of weeks. Joe loves golfing...I am not so sure....

Thursday, Max and I went to the Harlem Globetrotters game in Kent. Lotsa fun but we were sitting in the front row behind the basket and it was hard to see sometimes.

This weekend was the snow camping at Mt. Rainier with the scouts. We built a snow cave large enough to fit 4 kids and their packs. Jess stayed the night but I went home with Joe right before it got dark. It was really cold but everyone survived the ordeal.
While Jess was still at Mr. Rainier, Meg, Joe and I drove around the Olympia area looking for a piece for land to build our dream retirement home/ winery. Still just in the early looking phase.

Tonight the whole family is going to the Showbox to the Presidents of the United States of America (the band, not Obama). I don't know how I am going to get to work at 6 tomorrow morning. The boys don't have school Monday or Tuesday

Wine is bottled

We bottled most of our 2009 wine on Sunday after we finally decided our winery name and got the wine labels printed. We decided on Des Jardin which is of the garden and is also Meg's maiden name. Meg painted the dogwood branch and they came out looking really professional.
We ended up with about 200 bottles and we kept 8 gallons of Cab to blend with our 2010 Cab next year. We have Zinfindel, Syrah, Cab Sauv., Merlot and a Zinfindel Rose. Most of them we kept solo but we did blend some Zin and Merlot (named Nepenthe) and made a Meritage with Cab, Merlot and Zin and also a few bottles of Cab Merlot.
I obtained some huge bottles last summer and we filled up 4 of them. They each hold about 4 regular bottles. Lots of fun for parties.
So, the wine is still a little young but we are anxious to share it. We need to have people over soon.

Disneyworld Pics

I took about 500 pics at Disneyworld and uploaded 100 of them to Flickr. I know that is a lot but there were a lot of good ones. Here they are. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nylands4/sets/72157625771887944/

Last night in the Magic Kingdom

Our last full day- spent in the magic kingdom. Just enjoyed the Electric Light parade and then fireworks over the castle. My theory that the park would be less crowded this afternoon/ evening because people would be heading home was wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Who are all these people, and don't they have to go to school and work tomorrow??!?!

Cocoa beach

We are sick of disney so we rented a car and got away for a day. Ended up at cocoa beach and had a great day on the beach. The boys dug in the sand and then we had a good lunch on the cocoa beach pier.