Part 2

Part 2 begins when I left my brothers for the great expanses of Pantego North Carolina. I went out there for my college roommates wedding. I had a total of six roommates and this is number 4 to get married. It is always a good time to get together with the guys and tear it up.

Ike was able to secure the Pantego Goose Club for all of us to stay.
This place was a great house and had plenty of room.

The first nigh I think we may have stayed up to late, but that is what you do when you have not seen each other for a very long time and have a lot to catch up on.

For breakfast Ike and Leah made us a ton of food and with a kitchen that big there was plenty of room for them to work. They really showed us the southern hospitality.

Outside we had a chance to throw a few shoes and since I was just at my brothers and had a chance to play there I am not ashamed to say I think I did pretty well.

Ike also drove us all around and showed us the sights and sounds of NC.

I think Huisken is looking for some beer... where could it be?.

Random picture that really turned out well. You can tell how beautiful it is down there. The weather was awesome, and leaves on the trees already we nice to see.

Here is where the rehearsal took place and the setting was very nice, but mother nature would not cooperate for the next day.

The bride and groom to be. Eric hated the hat, but I loved to take pictures of him in it and give him a hard time.

That night we had the rehearsal dinner and after that we loaded up the truck with beer, guns, and a frog gig. for those of you who do not know frog gigging is when you shine a light in the ditches and when you see a from you then take a 20' pile with four spears on the end to stab the frog. Why would you do this? For the legs of course. The weather was kind of cool for gigging, but we got a couple.

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Greg with the first frog of the night

Here is Phil with his trophy. That is a good sized frog and can be gigged easier than a small one.

I say that bigger is easier because this is mine...the small ones usually go between the times, but I must have had great aim or really lucky. I think it is the latter.

We also saw 7 black bears and I chased one out of the truck and got about 15 feet from it...before I finally thought about what I was doing and stopped. Good times. Eric also got out of tthe truck and kicked a possum that Ike was shinning from the truck. I have not laughed that hard time.

The next day there was a ton of wind the and the outdoor wedding had to be changed to indoor. It actually turned out really well and was cool looking. As a groomsman I did not get any pictures of the ceremony and really only got a few.

Here is the bride and groom.

Here I am with Eric.

Here are the bridesmaids.

The ushers.

And Eric trying to say who is going to wash all the dishes. I know some of you have seen this game at weddings before, and it is a good time.

Then after the reception it was time for the wine down. It was more like a beer down. Everyone retired to the hunting club for a few cold ones and a little conversation. I put a limit of midnight on my time because I had to wake up at 430am and drive Paul and Greg to the airport as well as leave for my cycle trip so I figured that would be a good time to go to bed. Paul and Greg thought that 245am would be a good time.

Yuengling is something we do not have here in Washington so it is always nice to mix it up a bit.

Notice all the birds on the walls. My kind of place and I think I may have to come back hunting sometime.

Here is Eric and Rebecca. He finally found a beer. If I see correctly Eric is double fisting it. Actually he is holding one for Paul...he tried to keep Paul adequately hydrated so he could hit on the bridesmaid...it did not pan out. Paul is his own guy and does not need any help from us.

Frog gigging is a good time and fairly straight forward. Just stab the frog. Here is Greg giving it a try.

Have you ever wondered what happens to frog legs after cutting them off the frog, skinning them, and then putting salt on them...neither had I, but here it is




Well that is about it, and the next installment will be the motorcycle trip back to Washington.

My trip Part 1

Been out of town for the last two weeks and just got back yesterday. I figure it is about time to let you know what I have been up to recently

A few weeks ago I brought home this beauty and am the proud owner of a new to me John Deere mower. This is a much needed "tool" as you can see we have a huge yard to mow. I got it off the truck and mowed the yard in about a hour and a half. The cup holders for a mower are a must have and were used immediately. Cuttin grass and drinkin beer is exactly what I figure home ownership was all about...and I was mostly right.
That weekend Brenda also had a baby shower and both of our parents came out to go to it. I should clarify that the women went and the men hung out at the house. The next day we went to check out the falls at post falls.

Here is Brenda and her parents are readings one of the informational signs.

Here is the falls and wow they are really big.

Brenda and her mother posing for a picture.

I then left on Sunday (two weeks ago) for a trip to North Carolina for a wedding. I went out there early and hung out with my brother and his family in South Carolina for a few days before the wedding. The day after I got there we went golfing with one of his friends. I have not golfed for about three years, but did get par on a par 4. We only played 9 holes, but had a great time.

Here is Joel hacking at the grass....I think he hit the ball, but one can never be sure.

Here is my nephew Joey. He is such a sweet kid. I stayed at my parents house just down the road and grabbed one of my dads shirts to go golfing in. I only brought Tshirts on this trip for some reason.

I thought this was a good picture of Joel hitting from an area where the sign at the bottom of the tree says please stay off the grass or something like that.

He shot a 53 and well, I got a 70 or so. My scores were really estimates except the par which was legit.

I also got to take the kids for a walk. They were able to give me the walking safety rules and I actually followed them.

After golfing and the walk we took the kids to the put put golf place. Delaney thought that Dad and John were very lucky because they got to golf twice in the same day. We were very lucky.

Joey teeing off.

Here is Delaney. She actually got a 3 on one of the holes without any help. I think her mom got a 7 on the same hole. I wont tell you what I got.

Here is Joey holding up the scorecard after the round when we went to Johnny Rockets for some much needed food.

The next day Joel and I went fishing. If you have ever seen his blog which is a link on the right side of my blog, you know that he loves fishing and goes quite often.

By the time Joel got rigged up and to the river I had about 7 rainbows already. The fishing was great and the weather was perfect. Days do not get much better than that.

Since Joel's camera card ran out of space I became the official photographer for the expedition.

The last cast of the day Joel caught this guy. Throughout the day we caught the hat trick of trout rainbows, browns, and brookies.

Here is my brother. He was really pumped about the fish and that day in general.

Apparently a little to pumped. 62 in a 45, but the cop cut him a break and only gave him a negligent driving violation which will not show up on his record and it was only 85bucks. I thought that was a great deal.

After we got to the house we had a chance to hang out with the kiddos in the back yard. They love the water and wrestling. I had a great time there and those kids were so funny. I cant wait until they come out to Spokane this summer.

Part 2 and part 3 of the past two weeks will be the time in North Carolina for Hookers weddings, and the Motorcycle trip from Virginia to Washington I took last week to get home. I will post those sometime this week, but with so much in the last two weeks I thought I would break it up a bit.

Getting pulled over

Delaney telling her dad to act civilized.

Sold

I only got four pictures and a quick update. No much going on here. Two weeks ago we went to the school auction for a time of good food and of course lots of bidding. I did bit only on one thing, but my wife on the other hand....she really got into it. I walked away from the table for about 5 minutes and when I got back the auctioneer was pointing at her and saying sold while she was grinning and giggling. It looks like this summer we are going to be going wakeboarding and wake surfing on a lake around here with one of the families from school. Brenda has been bugging me for some time now to bring her out to a lake and she finally is going to get her way. Here is the view from our table

And the view from above....when Brenda was bidding.

With everyone wanting to see pictures of Brenda I can sort of see that this blog may be transforming into one of those kid centric blogs. Let me get it straight that I don't have anything against it or anything, but I think it is interesting.

Here is Brenda. She is getting bigger, but I have given up on trying to cut weight. I was hoping to have a chance to weigh less than her at some point in this pregnancy, but I don't think that is going to happen.

Here she is by the prospective garden. We have not planted anything here yet, but got plenty of seeds and time.

This week we are going to go to a funeral for Brenda's grandmother. She passed away last week and at the age of 93 lived a great life where she made a huge impact on Brenda and her sisters. It will be very sad to say goodbye, but her impact on Brenda and her sisters will continue to the next generation and even further.

You may also want to stay tuned for some updates of a short ride I am going to take soon. I probably will not update it real time, but if there is a drought in the blog updates be patient....I promise it will be worth it.