We had a fun-filled Memorial Weekend. The kids had Thursday and Friday off. I took them to “Over the Hedge” and swimming Friday. The movie was just OK. Friday night we had some friends over to play Scene-It? Music and Scene-It? Movies. Too bad my knowledge of trivia doesn’t extend to more meaningful things… Saturday was the 3rd day I didn’t work in May. We are in a transition mode right now, so all summer long the other pharmacist and I will be alternating weekends on call and the early shift every other week. Its been OK so far. Being done with work at 10:30 in the summer time is pretty cool. Our new pharmacist starts today. He just graduated from Purdue and should be able to work independently by late August.

Saturday I took the boys to the new climbing wall at the gym. I got them some climbing shoes and a harness to share. They both made it to the top and rang the bell a couple times. I had the winning bid on a pair of climbing shoes on e-Bay Saturday, so hopefully I can wear those the next time we go. Saturday night we had dinner group at a new restuarant in town: Brazil Grill. Afterwards we went to see “X-Men III”: X-cellent!

Yesterday (Janene’s Birthday) Shannon ran a 10 mile race in 1’35″ averaging 9.5 minute miles. In the afternoon we all went biking (10 miles) along the downtown riverfront.

I have the first big ride of the summer under my belt. Saturday I rode the 103 mile “Reach the Beach” ride for the American Lung Association. Rain was in the forecast and there were some ominous clouds, so I put fenders on my bike and brought a jacket. It ended up being a gorgeous day. No rain, not much wind, lots of sun. I did it in 5 1/2 hours, averaging almost 19 mph. My speedometer understated my miles by 5%, so when I thought I had 15 miles left there was a sign that said there were only ten miles left. That was a big morale boost. The hardest miles were 40-45, because it was a long, straight stretch and I knew I wasn’t even 1/2 way. The route is beautiful. It starts in Tigard, about 10 miles from our house and heads into the Oregon wine country. It aint Napa Valley, but it is very scenic: rolling hills, vineyards, small towns and farms. It then climbs over the coastal range, 14 mile, winding downhill, then ends at the beach in Pacific city. There were about 1200 riders.

Dylan and Gavin had games that morning, so they met me at the beach afterward. We went swimming at a nice public pool in Lincoln City. They have a 10′ high dive that all three kids went off. Next we went to the beach for a while. On the way home we stopped at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Salem: Los Baez.

Sunday night we had a rare thunderstorm here. After weeks of sunshine it’s supposed to rain most of this week. The plants need it.

Cute Tylar is 4 years old!! He is so darn cute. We love spending time with him. Hope you had a great day. We love you!

Janene Wride Groll May 29, 1972- May 19, 2002
We love and miss you Janene! You are a wonderful example to us all of living a Christ centered life.

We continue to enjoy record breaking warm temperatures here in the NW. School is winding down and we are gearing up for summer. I got a wakeboard tower, for the boat, for my birthday. Last week a couple of college students (who used to be my scouts) helped me put it on. This week I brought the boat in to get de-winterized…it’s ready to go.

Gavin had a birthday party at the athletic club last Friday. There were 12 boys playing basketball, hockey with inflatible “sticks”, dodgeball and scooter relays. A make-up baseball game ended up getting scheduled for the same night, so about half the boys went straight to the game. Gavin had another game on Saturday where he pulled off another 1-man double play: caught line drive, tagged out the runner.

Dylan scored first at his lacrosse game on Saturday. His team beat the team with the best record. I was timekeeper and overheard the other teams coaches getting worked up by Dylan’s antics. He and his friend Matthew do chest bumps when they score. “Did you see that!?! They are already talking smack and doing chest bumps!!” These same coaches were encouraging dirty moves and trick plays. Made victory that much sweeter. Our high school team made the playoffs. Dylan and his friend Matthew play ball boys, standing behind the goal and shagging balls. They got bored, so with their helmets and gloves on they started brawling, wrestling and throwing punches. It looked like a real fight, so the whole student section was cheering them on. They thought that was pretty cool. At an earlier game Dylan scored on the HS goalie after the goalie said he would “hang myself from the goal if one of these little guys scores on me”. Our team lost, but it was just a preliminary tournament seeding game, so they’re not done yet.

Saturday I’m riding a 103 mile century to the coast. It’s called Reach the Beach and is a fund raiser for the American Lung Association. Jan Ullrich won the stage at the Tour of Italy today. Ivan Basso still has the overall lead. Those two are expected to be battling it out at the Tour de France in July.

Gavin (7) pulled off a good heads-up play at baseball last night. He was playing first with a runner on first. The batter hit a line drive to him that he caught. Without hesitation, he backed up and touched the base to tag out the runner who had started for second. Going into the dugout half his team dog-piled on him to celebrate. Wish I had my camera. That play erased the easy pop-up fly and grounders that he missed. He had 3 hits for 5 at bats.

Dylan enjoyed his first lacross game last Saturday. His favorite part was knocking some kid into the mud and stealing the ball from him. He has practices 2 nights a week and games on Saturday.

Dylan and I are going to the Winterhawks (WHL) hockey game tonight. For playing so poorly during the season they have pulled it together for the playoffs. They finished the season 7 th of 8 teams in their division. They snuck past Seattle by beating them in Seattle, in game 7, in OT after being down by 3 and losing 2 key players to injury. Now they are up against the #1 team in the division, the Vancouver Giants in the semifinals. They lost in OT here last night, so they are down 2-1 in the best of 7 series.

Portland has a professional lacross team called the Lumberjax. We are going to their game tomorrow night with Dylan’s team.

[This is a "re-post" since the previous one on 4/13 got gobbled up with GoDaddy's switch from Linux servers to Windows servers (WHY!!!). It still shows up on my Safari browser, but not on Explorer.]

Gavin turns 8 today! You’d be hard-pressed to find a kinder 8 year old anywhere. Gavin has always been a great kid. He taught himself to read, is a skilled piano player, does well in sports and has a great smile. He is the only one in the family with brown eyes, but he has a dimple in his chin like dad and papa. He was excited to go to his first cub scouts meeting this afternoon. He chose Tillamook restaurant for dinner. We love you, Geebers!

Checked out MI-III this weekend. I liked it. but I’ll admit that I liked Tom Cruise better when I knew LESS about his personal life. The movie is intense and fast paced. You don’t have to suspend quite as much disbelief as in MI-2, but the “plot” is still all about explosions and chase scenes. The bridge scene is amazing.

Shannon bought a ballerina birthday party at the school auction last fall. Yesterday was the closest we could get to Gracies birthday. There were 9 girls and they had a great time dancing, playing games, storytime, crafts, etc. It was put on at local ballet studio.

Dylan played goalie at lacrosse yesterday. He was scored on a few times, but had fun. He needs to work on his passing and cradling, but isn’t motivated to spend the time on it.

Gavin had a couple good baseball games this week.

May 2, 2006 -Shannon
Happy Birthday, Papa!

We wish we could have celebrated with you but Europe is a little far to travel! My mom and dad are world travellers and always have a good time together. Dad thanks for all you have done for me over my life time. I have always felt blessed to have you as a father and I know our children are blessed too!

Competition at the Pinewood Derby was much stiffer this year. Gavin turns 8 in a couple weeks, so they let him do the derby this year. We spent about the same amount of time and effort on this year’s cars as last, but this year neither Dylan’s or Gavin’s car won any heats. They came in 2nd a few times and 3rd a couple times. Last year Dylan won a couple heats. He was disappointed, but there is always next year.

The weather has been gorgeous, so we skipped baseball and lacrosse games and headed to the coast. Usually Shannon stays home and enjoys a quiet weekend, but this time she came along. We went to our favorite campground near Newport, OR. It was too late to make reservations, so we took our chances and headed out Friday after work. Traffic wasn’t bad and there were plenty of sites left (we got the last with electric). We got their in time for a campfire, then went to bed. Saturday we played on the beach, hung out around the camp ground then went to Lincoln City. The pool where we wanted to swim was closed for a swim meet, so I went to “RV” with the kids while Shannon went to the outlets. I saw horrible reviews, so my expectations were low. Not as bad as I expected. After that we went to Newport to see the giant octopus at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. It closed right when we got their so we walked around the historic waterfront. Even though Gracie has swimming lesson 3 days a week, she was heartbroken when the pool was closed. We found a pool in Newport that was open, so we went swimming there instead.

Sunday we went to the tidepools at Yaquina Head, had lunch at the Otter Rock Mo’s, made a quick stop at the outlets, then headed home.