ITS BIRTHDAY MANIA!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Emily! She is the only one of my kiddo's who was NOT born at St. Lukes Hospital in Boise, Idaho! You'll find her picture in a hallway somewhere at Walla Walla General Hospital in Walla Walla, Washington. For her birthday dinner, she got her requested favorite dish... the famous ham & egg souffle'! Mmmm... She's closing in on the teenage years and I can't believe it. Two more birthday's to go for THAT party!

Emily, I love you sweetie! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Here's Emily the PIRATE!

Here's Emily the movie star

Here's Emily when she didn't clean her room!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

I can still remember the day that Mom told me I was going to have another brother or sister. I was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I thought that was so funny, I walked down the hall to the family room telling Mom how funny she was. I mean really... Mom was DONE having kids, right? C'mon, I was 14! Then I walked back to the kitchen... "Are you really serious?" I asked. Yup, she was. That was 26 years and about 9 months ago. What seemed crazy 26 years ago is nothing but a gigantic blessing today... my sister Elizabeth. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to have a baby sister in my teen years, a little sister to babysit my own daughter later in life, and today - a friend to laugh with and enjoy spending time with. She's an incredible lady... to learn more about her, click the link "My Sis Liz" on the left for her blog.

Happy birthday, Sis! You're one in a million!

Love ya!

Okay, I deseved this look below... I had the camera in her face ALL DAY!

Has he REALLY left the building???

I would argue... no. He's still IN the building!

I remember as a kid asking my parents, "Who INVENTED Rock & Roll?" Their answer, "Well I guess that would have had to be Elvis."

Saturday night I had the pleasure of going to RCA's Studio B. Elvis Presley Recorded MANY of his songs here during his time with RCA Records including "Its Now Or Never", "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and others. It was a pretty awesome feeling as I stood in the exact place in the studio where "The King" stood to record his music. He is still such an icon, still selling records, merchandise and more. It was a pretty cool thing imagining him walking through halls and standing in front of that mic!

This is the part of the studio where Elvis would stand while being able to see into the master control room to the right of the photo

An orginal piece of music left over from when he recorded "Are You Lonesome Tonight" COOL!

The master control room. The board was orginally set up in front of the window to the left that looked out into the studio where the singer and instruments would all be set up

Okay, so Elvis wasn't the ONLY one to record there... Dolly Parton recorded "I Will Always Love You" here... Charlie Pride recorded "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" here... The Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Charlie Pride and many more all recorded music here. Over 1,000 songs that were recorded here made it to the TOP 10 on the music charts. This place certainly has some magic.

It opened in November of 1957 and ceased to be an active recording studio in 1977. Now it's a place to tour and where students go to learn as they pursue a career in music recording.

Tonight... I caught a glimpse of ELVIS! :-)

Cool people I got to hang out with tonight...

Seven Glory

These guys are awesome. www.sevenglory.com

Aaron Shust www.aaronshust.com

My pal from south Florida, formerly from Nashville, formerly of Boise, formerly of Scappoose...

JAYAR!

Hangin' In Nashville...

After a long day today of meetings and a fun dinner party, I had to go take a walk and take in the sights and sounds of Broadway in Nashville. Every honky tonk has music blasting out the front door, and the people you encounter on the sidewalk are certainly "interesting".

Here's some of what I took in tonight...

Megan's Party...

Megan's birthday party finally happened a week after her birthday. And here I am finally posting pics from it almost a week after THAT! The girls took control of our coffee house and had a blast playing all the standard birthday party games. The highlight was listening to them sing long to their favorite High School Musical songs. That was the theme. After the party I found myself singing or at least humming the songs. Pretty catchy little tunes.

Megan was thrilled to increase her "Webkins" population from opening her gifts. I think she got 3 of them, and no duplicates! She was thrilled.

Thanks to all her friends who made the party so much fun!

Leaving, on a jet plane...

So I leave at 6:20am tomorrow morning for a long weekend, and many corporate meetings... I'll be walking these sidewalks tomorrow afternoon.

Where will I be?

HAPPY TAX BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to Janice! She has been a dear friend of Shauna's for something like 15 years now. I normally don't make a habit of remembering my wife's friend's birthdays, but Janice, you're the only one who has it fall on SUCH a memorable day! So have a fantastic day and have as much fun as you can have without getting arrested! You're a great friend!

By the way... Janice is the one falling over in the center of this shot. Posing with Lisa (left) and Shauna (right).

Oh, and don't forget... taxes are due today. You better get started.

GONE MISSING

Last seen in Oregon... Over two years ago

Last known whereabouts... In some silly small little dinky town in Texas

If found... Send them directly back to Oregon

Time to come HOME, guys!

*NEW* Caption Contest...

Okay, so I put a silly picture of Shauna up recently and asked for your captions. Fair is fair... so here's one of me with my dad.

Have at me... I'll post 'em all. As long as you keep it family fare.

It's OK to play with your food!

Leave it to Krista to find a way to making eating more fun! All you need is some bananas, grapes, blueberries, and a little imagination!

Note... we're still hoping to find a way to making vegetables more fun to eat.

Too Much of The Final Four!

Jason! It's OVER! Kansas wins in over-time... You can go to bed now. Carefully place the TV remote on the coffee table, fold up your blanky, take your empty chip bowl and pop cans to the kitchen and go to bed.

Good night my friend.

Happy Birthday Megan!!!

This little girl is a ray of sunshine... Yesterday she turned 8 years old. We celebrated by going out to eat, and then off to the Shrine Circus. Her BIG party will be next weekend... stay tuned for more highlights!

Megan, Happy Birthday sweetheart! We love you!

Indoor Rain?

Okay, so it really WAS raining... but I had to crack up when I looked over at Shauna holding the umbrella over her head... WHILE STILL INSIDE THE PARKING GARAGE! LOL

I Love Spring... really I do.

This really... truly... absolutely is my FAVORITE time of the year. But that first mowing is something I really DON'T look forward to. Living in Oregon for the past 8 years has been an education on yard maintainence. I'm a man who LOVES a nice thick, weed free, and green lawn. But here, we get so much rain we regularly find standing water in our yard. So the first mowing is like mud bogging. Oh, and you also have to find a weekend with a big enough window to mow in between the rain showers. Today, the lawn got mowed. It was sunny at the beginning, rained part way through, and then the sun came out again. Typical Oregon. Lawn mowing accomplished... and Shauna rejoices.

Time Stands Still

When I was much younger I was interested in photography (just in case the radio thing didn't work out) so I love my new camera that I bought last year. I hardly grab my old Pentax K1000 anymore... my trusty tried and true 100% manual 35mm workhorse I've had since my sophomore year at Meridian High School. There's something awesome about being able to instantly see if you've shot a decent picture with the new digital format. If its bad, no biggie... just delete it and try again till you get the shot you want.

Last Summer we vacationed in Boise. We usually make a trip there every year. While we were there, I took my new digital camera out for a spin. Here's some shots I took of the Augustana Chapel in Boise. This is where Immanuel Lutheran Church met before they built the newer, larger building they're in now next door. I used to love to just stand inside this building and imagine what it was like in the early 1900's when the building was new and Boise was much smaller. Construction was started in May of 1908 and was finally completed and dedicated in September of 1915. I used to go knock on the cornerstone and imagine what important stuff they may have put in there.

If you ever find yourself in Boise, head to the corner of 7th and Fort Streets and see it for yourself. It hasn't changed much over the nearly 100 years its been standing.