The Guddat Gang

This is Jon. Today was the arrival of the Patriot Guard Riders who drove by Kittitas while escorting a flatbed 18 wheeler carrying support beams from the Twin Towers. I'm not sure how long this cross country travel has been going on, but I knew the escort would be driving by Kittitas and stopping in Ellensburg for food and gas at around 11:15 this morning. I got to the Kittitas overpass at around 11 and was greeted by police, fire and rescue, a bunch of bikers and plenty of onlookers who lined the overpass. It was pretty powerful. I'm not sure how well people know I-90 near Kittitas, but when you're looking east you can see travelers coming off the Vantage hill and winding around to the straightaway. After a few minutes of waiting, we could see the motorcyle escorts coming our way. I would guess around 300 bikers, three semi trucks (including the one carrying the beams) and another round of vehicle escorts driving past, honking horns, waving and saluting the flag one of the...

This is Jon. I figured I'd bore you with some more garden updates. This is a look at our corn in action. The wind has returned after a great July and hot August and as you can see is being bent by the elements. Our corn ranges from 3 to 6+ feet in height and some have some mature ears, but won't be ready until Labor Day at the earliest I predict.  Here's our topsy turvy tomato plant. We've picked about three or four, and will probably pick those two red ones within the next day or two. The trio of tomatoes directly above the two red ones are the biggest and we might pick those to speed up the ripening. Some of our bounty: beans, bell pepper and tomato. Some good color there. We've got plenty of carrots as well and we've only picked a quarter of what's out there. All veggies are from our back 40. This has nothing to do with the garden, but this is a picture of Adelyn sleeping, which is nothing out of the ordinary for this girl since this was around midni...

This is May 2007. Zach had just won the Columbia Basin League's 3200-meter championship in 9:59 (his PR is 9:57). I had absolutely no space on our old camera, but was able to get most of the awards ceremony. Really proud of that guy. Addy Bear in the bathtub at around 9 months old or so. Both girls in the bathtub the same night. So cute. Adelyn's first birthday party, Aug. 2008, complete with balloons that she loves. The girls still love their balloons. Adelyn Blair just being cute with her sister Delaney. Just cute lil' sisters! Fall 2008.

This is Jon. Dad, Jerrod and I have always enjoyed a good hike or climb together. It's just something we've done since way back in the day. This year, we decided to climb Mt. St. Helens again. Dad and I climbed it in 1995, Jerrod made it a trio in 1996. So, it's been 14 years since we've seen Helens this up close and personal. We thought we had a good memory of 14 years ago. We knew the mountain isn't something that's conquered, but it lets us climb it. But we forgot how strenuous the ascent really was. Due to schedule conflicts and such, we couldn't camp out at the base of Mt. St. Helens. So instead, we had to leave at 3:00 AM. Dad and Jerrod look unusually chipper at this point of the day. At the base: Me taking a photo of Jerrod...who is taking a photo of Dad. The first mile is relatively nice. Easy, well groomed trail through the trees. Dad leading the hike. Me and Jerrod, bringing up the rear. This is pretty much where it gets tough. Dad, Jerrod an...

This is Jon. Adelyn was able to celebrate her birthday on three different days thanks to a spread out family doing their best in showering Adelyn with gifts, praise, attention and love. I can't believe Addy Bear is three, it was just yesterday it seems that all 8 pounds, 8.2 ounces of her were entering this world. Blowing out her candles on Grandma Debbie's birthday cupcakes. One rare moment where she's actually paying attention to the camera when Blue Grandma and Grandpa visited with Uncle Logan and Aunt Lyndsay. Checking out her loot: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD. She wasn't quite sure why Grandma got her this, but these are her new helmet, pads and gloves for something that would come the next morning. She did use the padding for protection while she and Delaney put the hurt on Uncle Logan. Singing Happy Birthday to our princess. Big smile from the birthday girl........ Throwin' dolla bills, y'all. Giggly excited for her new scooter! Ohhhhh, ...

Much of the entire family got together on Saturday to celebrate William and Melissa's wedding shower. It's basically a month away in September so we needed to get together for food, drink, laughs and plenty of gifts. Tried to get as many people as I could in this picture. William and Missy opening gifts with Maid of Honor Stephanie keeping close tabs on the action. William is a firefighter and the plaque states, "A firefighter lives here with the flame of his life", I thought it was perfect. So, Uncle Hags was working hard on Saturday...not really, but he made the cousins think he was. So they acted like his servants and fanned him to keep him calm and cool. One of the handful of games we played during the day. Teams of three women dressed up four relatively coerced men into modeling wedding dresses made of toilet paper. I'm happy to report my off the shoulder, sweatheart ensemble won best dressed. So, cousin Jason couldn't be there during the celebratio...

All families have them: little traditions that keep strong throughout the years. My three girls love camping and we've gone to Ocean Shores the last two years for the Sand and Sawdust Festival in late June. We're no strangers to Ocean Shores, I've been there multiple times a year throughout my 33 years and I'm thrilled to see my girls get the same excitement from the coast. True story! We couldn't get the girls out of the water if we wanted to. Friday was a bit windy on the beach and Saturday started out pretty gray, but wasn't too bad. By noon on Saturday it was hot with very little breeze. Probably the nicest weather I've seen at Ocean Shores in years. The photos above and below don't do justice to the unbelievable sand sculptures. I can't even draw a house let alone build something like this. Scooby Doo wood carving. Camping by the fire...........