Oh Christmas Tree

In keeping with tradition, (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) we had a beautiful clear day a couple weeks ago to go up with The Tenbusch's for the second year in a row to cut down our Christmas Tree. My camera battery died, so Libby took more pictures as you'll see on her blog.
Permits this year were $5 through the forest service (Thanks Brian for snagging) and we went up in the mountains just south of Mt. St. Helens. I can honestly say it wasn't the best Christmas Tree I have cut down, but as they say it always looks different in the forest.
Ava sure had a fun time playing in the snow and decorating our tree. She was really worried we were going to leave the tree in the woods.

Here are some pics from the days adventure:






















Thanks again for Brian, Libby and Evie for going and making it a blast!

The Coast

Lighthouse, originally uploaded by Keltose.

This post is a little late, but I had to get it up before it gets too late. Dad, Robyn and Hayden came up for a week and Hayden for weekend. It was a fun time of fishing, chilling and the beach. The pictures say all the other thousands of words so check it out. here.

My Day

Remember when I dazzled you all with my "Bike Ride Home" video last year? Well, I have done it again, with an 18 hour day highlighted in 3 minutes. I know this sounds nerdy, but to my defense, I definitely did not come with it as noted here.

Anyways, it was kinda cool to watch it back and realize that my average day is just that--average. But I am okay with that. It was fun to watch the family's reaction when I get home from work. That's always a good part of the day! Enjoy the clip. If anyone else has done this or does do it, please share.

Something you don't see everyday

Rainbow, originally uploaded by Keltose.

On my bike ride home the other day, I had to stop and pull the camera out for the shot of the full rainbow. It had been raining for a long time, and when the sun finally broke through, this is what happened. The rainbow was so big, I had to take three pictures and stitch them together.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Ava's Christmas, originally uploaded by Keltose.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas vacation! Ours was filled with snow and some good times with friends. We finally made it back to Utah today, after the weather took its toll on the Northwest last week. Our real vacation starts Wednesday! Jenn, Ava (at least we think she is) and I are really stoked for it. I'll post more details later when we get there!

I still can't believe this year is gone.
Here are some highlights of 2008 in chronological order:

1. New Job

2. CES '08

3. Olivia Bae Gardner

4. Flip This House

5. Lake Powell

6. Ava's First Steps

7. St. George Marathon

8. Ava turns 1

9. Keepin tradtion

Keepin Tradition

Well as in years past in Utah we really enjoyed getting our own Christmas tree luckily this year being in tree country we had the chance (thanks to our friends/neighbors) to get one of our own! I know this post is a few weeks late, but oh well. Judging from years past, this year's tree is definitely our best. The trip of getting it was a lot of fun and some great weather (almost too good). Check out the storyboard below.

17.5 minutes of my day in a 1 minute clip

So, I have been playing around with my camera and trying to use some of the not so often used features. One of these features is filming at a fast-frame rate. This technique is usually shown on those house remodel shows where they paint an entire room in like 5 seconds. Well, this video clip was my ride home from work yesterday sped up to a minute long clip. I literally filmed from the door of the office to the door of the house. I really enjoy the ride to and from work whether its good weather or not, I find it to be a great stress reliever. Also, in case you are wondering, I mounted the camera on my handle bars using this little trick found here. Enjoy.

FAIL

Mt. St. Helens 7200 Feet
Originally uploaded by Keltose

This video basically explains my failed attempt to make it to the top of Mt. St. Helens. For anyone that hasn't done this, it isn't a real technical hike. However, being prepared for colder weather and not rainy/windy weather I just wasn't able to get pass the wind, freezing rain and blowing sand. On a thermometer where a few of us turned back the temperature was 35 degrees, with the wind and rain it made for a chilly hike back down. In our group of 10 only 2 made it to the top. And from who we talked to and saw, only a handful of other climbers made it out of the 300 or so climbers that day. Normally, the forest service only issues 100 permits a day, but the computer glitched and issued 400.

All things considered it was a great hike with beautiful scenery, I am sure on a clear day it would have been gorgeous, but the diverse landscape along the hike was really pretty. I am definitely going to do it again, but with some better outer wear in case of bad weather.

Here are some more pics of the hike and camp out the night before. The Flickr set.

Longview Trip

Here we are in Astoria. Thanks Dad for the pic.

Last week we had the pleasure of my Dad, Robyn, Grandpa Kelly and Annie come up for a visit. It was a ton of fun. I am glad that Annie was able to bring Grandpa up for a short visit. It was definitely worth it. During their stay we went to the Lava tubes, Cannon Beach, Tillamook, and jsut hing out here in Longview. Good times. My Dad being the photog he is took most the pics, so head over to his Flickr for the run down.

Hippies, Sights, Food--All in Seattle

Well I didn't take any pictures of hippies, but I did take some of the sights and food. We have been really lucky this month with a lot family being able to come up. Last week we had my Mom and we went to Seattle for a day and hung out around Longview for the 4th. Here are a few pictures, but go here for the entire storyboard.

The Daily Commute

Why drive a car 3 miles only to have it sit for 8 hours, then drive 3 more miles and have it sit another 16? That question was answered by my awesome bicycle. I have been riding to work now for a little over a month and am loving it, since I just drive across town there are a lot of stop lights and the bike ride is only a little longer than actually driving. Not to mention it is good for me. So I bet you are wondering now..."well what about your clothes? and you live in the northwest with 80% humidity, doesn't that wrinkle your shirt?" The short answer to that is, yes bad.

That is why I developed, "The Closet....wait for it....For The Office", as pictured below:
This invention is really quite simple. I just got handy with my closet here and arranged for my shirts and pants to hang right next to the server. About once a week Jenn will bring my clothes so I can swap out the dirty ones with the pressed ones and then I ride home in my biking clothes. Which usually involves a couple layers cause it hasn't been the best weather. Anyways, that is all for now. I really enjoy it and I especially enjoy not paying car insurance, and gas bills. (see other pic)

Finally the house project winds down

Over the past three months, I have been diligently working on our house with JR while Jenn takes care of Ava. At many times, I wondered what if was in over my head and many times found myself uttering the infamouse words,"I've made a huge mistake".

Finally this weekend, we had our open house and invited neighbors and friends, and even held our inaugural movie night with a nice viewing of Transformers, (more than meets the eye). It was awesome. I really can't believe what it has turned into. We are really happy with it. Check out the photos below, but jump on over to my Flickr-Flip This House collection for the whole storyboard.


The concept:
A. B.









The end result:
a. b.

This Old House

Like I said in my last post, I haven't been able to post much because my computers aren't set up and my downstairs is a dust bowl. But, I can proudly announce that the upstairs is 95% complete! The remaining 5% is new door knobs, trim pieces and blind adjustments which basically will never come to an end. As far as my original schedule is concerned, I am running over by a couple weeks, but that comes with the project. All in all I am very pleased with how the upstairs looks, and pleased that we got about 80% (I am all about percentages in this post) of the basement drywalled over the weekend! There is light at the end very soon here. Of course, mudding and trim work can be very time consuming.

Here are the pics of the final kitchen and bath projects. If you forgot what the "before" looked like, then refer back to my other post. Also, I will be having all the before and after up over at my flickr for a more detailed photo viewing experience.




















Check back for the final pics! Hopefully we'll be having movie night at the Gardner's soon.

FLIP THIS HOUSE

Many of you have been on my case for not keeping the blog up lately. And my excuse for that is, I am in the middle of a pretty good size remodel project on our house we just bought here in Washington. When we were looking for houses we knew exactly what we wanted, we just couldn't find the right one. So Jenn and I decided to find a house in the area we wanted and then make the improvements and updates now, so we can enjoy them while we are living in it.
Here is a little bit about the house:
Built in 1950
2400 SF
3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Unfinished Basement

Our remodel scope:
Refinish hardwood floors
knock out wall between kitchen and front room
gut the bathrooms and re-finish
gut the kitchen and re-finish
Paint
Add a bedroom downstairs
add more electrical
add a family room
add a theater room

The goal for all of this to be completed: 10 weeks!

I know what you are thinking...How am I going to pull this off with my little knowledge of construction? Well, I have a great Father-in-law who has been here for a month helping me. I also had the help of my Dad who gave a long week and longer days to get this project started.

Now, after 4 weeks, the upstairs is coming along really well and is about 90% completed. I haven't had the time to post much on the blog, but I have been posting periodic twitter updates in case some of you haven't noticed. For now, here are some "before" pics as well as some of our progress. Check back for more as we near completion upstairs and start the downstairs.

BEFORE:

MID-PROJECT:

The kitchen completely gutted.










Movers arrived!










The cabinets hung, and appliances in (except the dishwasher)



I will post all the pics on my Flickr eventually, but check back for more updates either on the blog or my twitter.