Christmas in Boise

Joanie and I had a nice Christmas. We stayed home and had a lazy day. We woke up this morning to more new snow and 12 inches at our local mountain. I hope to go up tomorrow for a few hours.
The sun comes up so late here it was still dark when we opened presents. Here is the tree with all the lights on. I was blown away by the number of presents that were mailed to us. This is a lot of loot for two people. Even baby to be got some presents.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Musto Makes Shoes?

When I lived in Raleigh I worked for a company that had the North American import rights for a UK sailing/performance clothing company called Musto. I've met the founder Keith and his son Nigel multiple times. Yesterday I was poking around the Sierra Trading Post outlet looking for last minute Christmas presents and I came across a pair of Musto shoes.

I have a ton of Musto stuff left over from my years of working with them as do a lot of you. I was going to buy this pair just to have them but they were a little too big and my heel kept lifting up which really annoys me. Maybe they will be available in stores in the future.

Baby Stuff

Christmas is coming early in the form of Baby Stuff. We have gotten some clothes, one of the two car seats, baby monitors, boppy, a Dad diaper bag and a Pack and Play. I couldn't resist putting together the Pack & Play. It was too cute.

Attempting to jump at Brighton

On Monday we snuck one more day in at Brighton. There were several natural jumps on the runs. I wanted to hit them but my brain simply won't let me do it. Here's Philip hitting the big one.

And again here with a grab. In the photos of me trying I don't even get off the ground.

We did go try a slightly smaller jump later on that run. Here I am barely getting any air.
No idea who this is but you can see the difference in how he did it. Sol says I need to take a class at Lake Placid where you jump into the pool to trick the brain into actually jumping.

Thanksgiving in Utah

We came to Salt Lake City for turkey day. We drove down on Thursday and my old roommate Philip flew in from Raleigh to join us. We are staying at the Residence Inn in a 2 room suite. Joanie made an entire Thanksgiving in the apartment sized kitchen, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, fancy green bean casserole, pecan tarts, and I made stove top and homemade cranberry sauce. We should have take pictures but we didn't.

On Friday, Philip and I went to Snowbird while Joanie went to Nordstrom. It was a fair trade. The conditions here are better than we have in Idaho (currently still brown) but not great. There are some rocks and tree tops sticking through. It has been cloudy and windy but we took the tram to the top of Hidden Peak (11,000 ft). It was blustery and cold up there.

We wrapped up the day by going to the Red Iguana for dinner. We had to wait over an hour for a table but it was worth it. They are famous for the Mole dishes. I had mango mole enchiladas with carnitas while Joanie had a combo plate with a sour cream enchilada (cinnamon & chile in the sauce) and a shredded beef taco with a homemade shell. This place is great, it's been featured on Food Network a few times. I recommend going if you are in town.

On Saturday we went to Park City and hit the outlets instead of riding. We cleaned up there and had dinner downtown in the historic district.

On Sunday Philip and I went to Brighton while Joanie hit Nordstrom Rack. We had a good day, they had more snow coverage than the Snowbird though it was cloudy and cold there as well. No good pictures of me though Philip was doing some jumping.

It was a great trip overall, we have one day left since we took Monday off as well.

Sonogram Photos

I think everyone who reads this blog knows that Joanie is pregnant and due in April. If not, I'm sorry we missed telling you. We had our big 22 week sonogram last week. We have chosen not to find out if it is a girl or boy. This makes it more fun and challenging for the people buying presents!

This one was taken on August 5th. Baby doesn't really look real yet.

Here is a shot from August 27th. Baby is a little bigger but no definition yet.
The rest are from our 22 week Sonogram on November 21st. It actually looks like a baby. I'm a little concerned about the size of that nose. She appears to have a Crosby nose.

Here's a side view with a leg. One leg was behind his head and other laying more normal.


Another profile view.

The sonogram was very cool. We got to hear the heartbeat and watch her put her arm above her head (a Josh trait by the way). We'll post more if we have another sonogram. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Huge Squash

It was a quiet weekend in Boise. We went to see an indoor lacrosse game on Friday night. It was an intra-squad scrimmage from a team in Edmonton. Joanie went to a knitting class on Saturday and I played volleyball on Sunday.

We took some pictures of huge pumpkins and squash at Williamson Orchard.

First Snow in Boise!!

Today is the first snow of the year!!

It's not really sticking but coming down very hard. Hopefully we are in for a good snow year, we need it for the Games and for my snowboarding season.

Peaches & Plums

I know long time no post. It's been a busy summer and as Fall approaches we are enjoying the last of the local fruits & vegetables. We have been going out to Caldwell, ID to a local place called Williamson's Orchard. They have tons of fruit and a good garden selection. Last weekend we bought a box of peaches & plums while we could.
Joanie is going to make plum jam while I am freezing peaches for later. I did make 'Peach Mush' today. It's from an Eating Well Recipe that we like as popsicles, on top of yogurt or vanilla ice cream. While making a double batch I was able to use my lone lemon.

Joanie bought me a Meyer Lemon Tree for our Anniversary in 2007. This is the only lemon it ever produced. We tried putting it in the front yard, the back yard, shady, full sun and it just doesn't want to produce. Oh well we will try again next spring.

Coeur d'Alene

Once again we are bad bloggers. It takes a level of commitment that I am not sure we have to keep this thing up to date.

We went to Coeur d'Alene, ID last weekend. The fastest way to get there is actually fly to Spokane, WA and drive over. Because of it's proximity to WA the whole area is actually on Pacific Time though it is in Idaho (they don't show that on the time zone map).

We had a lovely bike ride on the lake and followed it up with a trip to Northern Idaho fair. Which is where we took the only picture of our trip (from my cellphone no less). This is a Subaru Forester that has been converted to electric. There was a whole pavilion dedicated to eletric/hybrid vehicles at the fair.

The fair was fun though the food was a bit lacking, no fresh roasted corn though they did have elephant ears and lamb wraps from the Spokane Sheep Raisers organization.

On our last day it actually rained so we went to Nordstrom in Spokane instead. We don't have a Nordstrom in Boise so it was a nice but expensive change.

We have tons of photos from our prior adventures to did out and post. I'll try to work through them in the next week or two.

Idaho Rally

My friend Jared and I went to the Idaho Rally on Saturday. The 2nd stage was in Featherville, ID. It was a great reminder that you can get lost in the woods real quick in Idaho.

View Larger Map

This was my first rally and it was pretty cool except for the dust. I can't even begin to describe the amount of dirt these cars spit up as they go by. I took the big camera and shot in 'sports' mode but I had lots of pictures of dust only. Here are some of my better shots.

For the first pass we sat in the specator area where they set-up a chicane so that we could see the cars drift. Most of them were able to almost straight line it through there.
All I got of this one was the rear end but we were really close!

Did you know a 2008 Subaru WRX STI starts at $34,995!!! What happened to affordable performace!

Who needs All Wheel Drive!

Who needs front wheel drive?

For the second pass we moved up the hill over the spectator area and got some totally different shots.


Talking to the racers they said they topped out at 91mph on the straights.

They really changed the look of the 2008 Impreza from the prior years.

Nice drift on this pass.

If you have never been to Rally I suggest going. The cars are fast and fun to watch, all the drivers and crews were great, and it's a great way to be outside.

In-N-Out Burger

For the 4th of July we went to Lake Tahoe for the weekend (more pictures to come later). Flying in and out of Reno, NV our co-workers told us we had to stop at In-N-Out Burger for lunch so we did.



It was pretty good, but at the end of the day just a cheeseburger. If you had one of these in town I don't see why you hit any other fast food place but we didn't think it deserved a pilgrimage. However I can also tell you I have been craving Chick-Fil-A for months and the nearest one is in Ogden, UT. That's only 4 hours and 15 minutes from Boise so maybe we'll go for lunch . . .

Best Places to Live

We are still trying to catch up on all of our photos and adventures but this article came out last week so I thought I would highlight it.

Boise was named the #4 place to live for Work & Play. It's hard to really disagree when you can look out the window and see the mountains and ski slopes and know that there isn't really any traffic on your way home from work.

Houston was ranked #1 and as a co-worker said "I've been to Houston . . ." I've never been on Omaha but I did 42 months in Raleigh and I think Boise has them beat as a community. Have a Happy Monday.

Photo Overload

I finally downloaded the photos from our trip to Puerto Vallarta, so sit back and pretend you're watching a slide show...



First, downtown PVR, as seen from the private beach club at our resort. Then, our view from the beach club. Much better.



Of course, the beach club itself was pretty fantastic... it had an infinity pool and cabanas both by the pool and on the beach.

Our hotel suite with it's private plunge pool was fantastic...but sadly, our little Vaio laptop died after we returned and those photos were lost with the hard drive.

What I can show you is the fabulous pool, which was blissfully empty of people and yet still had a fully staffed pool bar with cabana waitstaff! Yahoo!



Needless to say, we enjoyed our fair share of the all-inclusive amenities.

Wildlife on Vancouver Island

We have seen lots of cool wildlife up here. On Friday we went out on the Seaking whale watching. The area has three pods of Orcas that live in the waters. Unfortunatley the Orcas were closer to Vancouver on this day so we had to go over there. Captain Ron makes his living by getting people to the whales. Of all the boats that went out Friday morning only two of us saw whales. The Seaking is the only way to go.

On the trip over we saw a bald eagle and lots of seals, we also saw several purpoises. Because the water is so cold here (50-53 degrees) year round they make you wear these really sexy outfits that are both flotation and exposure suits.


Once out there we saw the J-Pod. The whales are tracked and studied by The Center for Whale Research. There are extenisve histories on all of them. I don't remember the numbers or names of these guys but they are big. Up to 26 feet and 10000 pounds.
The whales were very cool.

The wharf where we got on the boat has a seal who was playing in the water.

We also saw an otter playing in the Inner Harbor.


Today we are heading north out of the city to see what else there is to see.

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

It's been a long time since we blogged again. Sorry about that, I don't know where the time goes.

Joanie and I are currently in Victoria. I came up earlier this week for work. We have hired a vendor that is currently working at the North American Indigenous Games
in Cowichan August 3-10. We had really good meetings, and learned a lot of about how to incorporate our processes into their software. Joanie came up for the weekend.

Besides the island is beautiful, lush large green trees (not burnt green trees like Boise) and amazing views when the sun comes out. June is still a wet, cloudy month here.

Those are the Olympic Mountains in the background over on the mainland, 37 miles away.

Victoria is a town with two histories, one native and one British. The next two are perfect examples and are both downtown within 1/2 mile of each other.



We are having a good time and have more pictures to post.

A complete 180

As some of you know, Josh planned a surprise vacation for us recently and it's been a complete change of pace. He wanted it to be such a surprise that he barely told me the dates we were leaving and then would only tell me to bring clothes for warm weather.

In the end, we boarded a plane southbound the day after it snowed in Boise and stepped off the plane into a wall of heat and humidity in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. It feels very strange compared to the complete lack of moisture in Boise (even the snow is dry) but my skin is soaking in every drop.

We're staying in an all inclusive resort and doing very little more than relaxing and reading books in a cabana by the pool or on the beach. It's fantastic.

This is a complete departure from the standard "Josh vacation" but so far, he's managing to sleep in and hasn't been bouncing off the walls too much.

I've got pictures of the hotel, our suite with it's private plunge pool and more to post soon...

For now, it's back to the margaritas!

April 9, 2008. It's snowing!

I don't have a picture for proof, but it snowed about an inch last night and the mountains are covered in snow clouds today. It didn't stick on the concrete because it's been too warm lately, but it snowed none the less. All of the trees and grass are covered. How strange is that? It's April!

HOD Conference

It's been a while since I posted anything. We had a meeting last weekend where the Heads of Delegations from some of the countries attending the world games came to Idaho for tours. It was a good meeting, I had to present at a podium (one of my least favorite things)the translator kept yelling at me for talking too fast.

My friend Charles from Namibia came to the conference as well. On Saturday night we took the delegates to an Idaho Stampede game. The Stampede is an NBA-D League team. The games are usually pretty good and this one was great. Kevin Krueger had 43 points including the game winning 3. Here is Joanie, Mike Goodacre from New Zealand and Charles in the VIP seats.


Before the game, Charles and I helped Joanie hang some signs and then got to shoot around on the court afterward.
We missed a lot of shots in the beginning. It must be the pressure from the size of the arena.