Oh, and we went rafting on the White Salmon last weekend. We didn't flip and swim at the last waterfall, but this group did:

After missing a trip to lake in 2009, we returned for a full week in early August. I posted a full set of photos on Flickr - still to come are some portraits I did of the boys. Activities enjoyed this year included:

Fearless Wake-boarding

Aggressive Water-skiing

Sailing the Flying Dutchman

Battle Tubing

Hanging out with Little Kids

Gully Hiking

Casual Portraiture

Wacky High Dynamic Range Photography

Dragging Behind a Boat Standing on a Chair Placed on a Wooden Disk

(who doesn't do this, right?)

Jacob opted out of baseball this spring, which makes me a bit sad but also a bit proud - he's recognizing the value of (relative) downtime and grew weary of the high level of pressure associated with baseball. He also finds it a bit boring. His technology teacher at high school, whom he's been working with for 3 years and is close friend, chatted up track and field as a lower key option for him and a way to stay in shape as he enters summer football season.

He had so much fun this season exploring different events and learning where his strengths were. He ran the individual 100m, 4x100m relay, and 400m as well as participating in high jump and javelin. Javelin appears to be his thing, and he even qualified to participate at the varsity level for a few meets which is a great accomplishment for a freshman.

A week ago the Northwest Oregon Conference held their novice / JV meet where Jacob competed in the 4x100, high jump, and javelin. Jacob's relay team took third overall, he finished 4th in javelin (though felt that he should have won had he come even close to his PR), and 2nd overall in high jump setting a PR of 5'3".

Next up for him is summer basketball and summer football (camps and training).

We are nearing the end of basketball season for both boys (young men?). They've both progressed very well this year, and I've been able to spend a lot of time shooting games with various lenses (thanks to Pro Photo Supply rentals).

Matthew is playing on the Sherwood 7th grade classic A team in the most-competitive Three Rivers 3A division. They are seeing some very tough competition this year, and Matthew at 6' tall is finding himself looking up to other players in about half of their games. His team has several tall post players which has allowed him to play at least three different positions fairly regularly and helped further his development. The team isn't having quite the success they had last year, though they have won two tournaments and finished as runners-up in two others.

Jacob is enjoying his first year of high school (freshman) basketball and has truly surprised us with his development. He is regularly scoring in double digits and garnering similar numbers of rebounds. I think I've seen him take one shot outside of 8 feet all season, so everything is coming inside the paint and much of it through hard work on the offensive boards. He's developed a soft touch with a jump hook as well.

Unfortunately Jacob suffered a mild concussion after taking an elbow to the jaw last Friday night so he'll be out for this week at a minimum, and he may miss the rest of the season. This doesn't diminish the great progress he's made this year and I know he'll be back to play again next year.

My niece Meaghan and her husband Nick are in town for the weekend, up from Monterey CA where they are both attending the Defense Language Institute for a series of intense Russian language courses. We had intended to spend a few days out at the coast but decided instead to hang around Portland and explore the city with them. We were at a bit of a loss as to what to do on Friday (anything but shopping, right?) when Julie saw a timely Oregonian article on pub crawling in Portland with nod to bar games that even Jacob and Matthew might be able to play. What better way to give some guests a feel for Portland?

We started a Blitz Ladd in SE, a great sports bar that made me wish we had something similar out in the burbs in Sherwood. Unfortunately the shuffleboard is off-limits to minors but that didn't stop the adults from playing while Jacob and Matthew looked on. Make sure you order the tatchos (tater tot nachos) if you go there. The scottish ale was nice too.

Next up was the Green Dragon, a bar I'd heard about many times and was happy to finally visit. The shuffleboard table is in the main area so playable by the kids, but unfortunately it was in use the whole time. Fortunately there were three pinball machines and a copy of Apples to Apples to rescue us. The Abbot Ale on nitro tap was superb, and Meaghan's hefe was quite tasty as well.

We had the East Burn tap room on the itinerary next, but unfortunately only the restaurant portion was open with very little excitement at hand. Matthew did wish we could spend some time sitting in the hanging wicker chairs. Maybe a future trip is in store.

It was time to cater to the kids (young and old) and stay away from the beer for a bit, so we wandered over to Ground Kontrol across the river. This is a classic game arcade where you can actually play games with a single quarter and relive teen years spent playing Tron, Galaga, and Ms. Pac Man.

We had a blast there and burned through many quarters. I can only imagine what it is like there after 5pm when they start serving alcohol.

Our final stop of the day was at the Lucky Labrador Beer Hall in NW. Here we had some breadsticks and pizza, enjoyed some fine brews, and played a tense 3-on-3 game of cricket. The bar was surprisingly quiet for a Friday evening, I suspect because folks were out shopping or recovering from shopping. This made it even easier and more enjoyable for a family of six to camp out and play.

I've been busy lately.

About one month ago I joined WebMD Health Services as their new VP of Technology. I'm responsible for product development, customer integration, and hosting operations for the private portal business for employers, health plans, and providers. I have an amazing team to work with and great support from the executive management team. We are running fast with no signs of slowing down soon, so there may be limited posting here for a while. Football season is wrapping up today (check out my latest post over on A Football Coach in Sherwood) so hopefully some evenings and weekends will start opening up again for periodic gaming.