Our Seattle Trip

Kari and I went to Seattle, WA for Jeff & Teresa's wedding. We showed up a few days early, and got to visit Kari's Aunt Diane and Uncle Hal, Kari's cousins Mark and Michele, and Kari's cousins Laurie and Steve. Trevor and Belinda's family was at the wedding, so we got to play with Dillon and Connor, and hold Halle.

We got to see Seattle from the ground, from the top of the Space Needle, and from a ferry boat.

It rained only when it wasn't drizzling, and the fish flew at Pike's Place Market. The most telling T-Shirt we found said, "Seattle Rain Festival, Jan. 1 - Dec. 31".

The happy bride and groom.















Halle turns 1!















Seattle skyline from the Bainbridge ferry.















Steve, Laurie, Diana and Brennan















Kari and Ryan at Snoqualmie Falls (taken from a point somewhere beyond a fence at the end of the trail, where we had to scrape by a sign that said something like, "DANGER! STOP! FLOOD WARNING! HALT! DO NOT CLIMB OVER FENCE TO GET A BETTER PICTURE!" Little did the sign posters realize that our name forms the last four letters of challenge.)

Destination Imagination, plus our first bloom of Spring...

This Saturday, Kari and I appraised at a Destination Imagination (DI) tournament. DI is a cool international program where school-aged kids work as a team for several months, without adult help, with a limited budget ($125-175, depending on the problem), to solve one of five challenges. The challenge all include a theatrical solution presentation, but the challenges vary greatly in terms of how much emphasis is place on technical vs. theatrical content.

You, too, can get one of the cool DI T-Shirts we are wearing by volunteering for your local DI competition.

At the right is our first new bloom of Spring. The new life is inspiring.