The Adventure Begins...

just like Remo Williams!

Well we're on our way! After four days of packing, we headed out of Portland early on Wednesday morning. We shot this short video to mark the occasion...

We're spending the week in Fremont seeing friends and family and will fly out of San Francisco next Wednesday, November 5. Yes, the day after election day, giving us one more piece of rationale to spend a few months abroad.

For those of you who are short on memory, check out: Remo Williams on IMBD.

Thank You

Just wanted to say thanks to all our friends and colleagues at both Centerstance and Micropump/IDEX for having a drink (in some cases a couple drinks) with us last week to send us off on our big NZ adventure.

We are really fortunate to work with great people and have lots of amazing friends. Without you all, it would be hard to call Portland home (yes....sorry a little sap, but it's true).

Click here to see some pictures from Bridgeport Brewery.

Key West Snapshots - October 9-14

I wanted to get a few snapshots posted of our recent cross-country jaunt in support of Dustin & Stacie's wedding:

This is our plane we flew from Fort Myers to Key West. That's 8 seats including the pilot! Yes, that nose cone is painted like a shark and the door opens in front of Ernest Hemingway's floating head.

No kidding, this was the view from Corey's seat as we came into Key West. Our "carry on" luggage was securely stored in the wings for this flight.


The Cemetery was very interesting, due to lack of space they've come to resemble the crypts and catacombs in New Orleans. This is a memorial set up to the veterans of the 1868 Cuban revolution. (Key West is closer to Havana than it is to Miami.)

A good, healthy breakfast at the Southernmost Bar before the beach wedding ceremony. (From L) Corey, Ryan, Kenny, and groom Dustin.

While we were tooling around the island on a borrowed moped on Monday night (after we missed our return flight [that's another story!]) Janwyn and I found this Conch Shell outside of the Key West High School. And yes, it's listed as the World's Largest: http://www.wlra.us/. Another one to cross off my list!

Congratulations Dustin and Stacie

Married in Key West on October 11, 2008.

Friends of Friends (of Friends) Camping Trip

Hey again everyone, I just wanted to share some candid pictures from our last weekend, our second annual "Friends of Friends" camping trip at Milo McIver state park. In total, we had 11 adults, 4 dogs (Pinot, Loki, Sadie & Bo) and of course Chae and Collin for the picnic on Saturday. 8 of us went so far as to brave the near-freezing nights to camp.













Of those, who camped, we were lucky enough to hear 4 1/2 year-old Chae's passionate speech on our activities the next day ... (We're going to build a robot, and it's going to be hard work, but if we work as a team, we can do it!)













I hope everyone had as good a time as Janwyn and I did. Next year we'll have to try and get a group campsite.



















And for those of you who are confused by the poles in the first three pics, I can only assume you've never been camping with Janwyn before. Those are doughie sticks. I'd explain further, but I dont' have enough space on this blog!

Baby Youngs

Baby Youngs is on her way...we celebrated her anticipated arrival and pampered her and her mommy, Megan (Corey's sister, my sister-in-law), with a fabulous Baby Shower thrown by aunts Sue and Connie.

We wish Megan, Jon, and little Jon all the best as they prepare for the new addition to their family.....Samantha Jean.

Corey and I will make our way back to Minnesota once we're back from New Zealand to fulfill our duties as godparents. We look forward to playing an active role as Samantha grows, achieves milestones, and develops her faith.

To see pictures of the shower: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1CZt3LVwyYvjA

Good friends are hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget.

During our trip back to Minnesota this fall we made our way down to Mankato to visit many friends, of which included the members of the BMFC. The BMFC (Barry Manilow Fan Club) started back when Corey and I lived in Mankato, MN. Really, the name of the group has nothing to do with what we do as a group at all. It just so happens that on our first outing (planned by Leo) we had a strange conversation about the nose of one such Barry Manilow...and when we decided to continue getting together one of the members jokingly came up with the acronym and it stuck. Thus the BMFC started as a group of a friends gathering once a month on outings planned secretively by one member of the club. The outing usually included an event for the day and a meal. We've had some good times at dinners in the Twin Cities, a baseball game, ice skating, and just hanging out wherever.

Over the years we have had many exciting life changes....new jobs, moving to a new city, new houses, kids, adventures, but during this time we have remained good friends. It was great to see everyone! Miss you guys.

Here's a link to some of the pictures I took:


share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1CZt3LVwyYvYg