The Guddat Gang

This might be the ninth time in the last 10 years we've gone out into the forest and hunted down our tree. It's cheap, it's fun and every year it's a memorable time. This year was no different. I'd say this is probably just the third time we've headed out into the hills without much snow affecting our search. Mostly just a thick dusting where we were at about 2100 feet of elevation. It's been plenty chilly this November and December, just not much snow. My little loggers at the beginning of the day. All three were bundled up pretty good. It was about 20 degrees at this point, warmed up to probably 25 at the most. Last year it was negative 6 when we went out...which ended up being just me while the girls cranked up the heated seats in the car. Delaney has what I like to call a "slight effort issue" when the going gets tough. Apparently the going got tough 10 minutes into things and she found what she described as this year's tree...all 20 fe...

It was last week, but Happy Thanksgiving y'all. We headed over to "The Park" as my parents' house is affectionately called. Three of the five brothers and family were in attendance, so 8 of the 11 cousins got to hang out and play with each other, grandparents and great grandparents, which was great to see. The kids on the bridge with Grandma Sharon. Me with my lady friend. Playing games. I think this one is called headbands. Jerrod rocked it. JJ and Megan really rocked it. The four horsemen watching a bit of football. JD is apparently a Mr. Spock fan? Family photo of the great grandkids with Harold an Ardy. Very fun moment.

You live in the Kittitas Valley, you must travel up Manastash. I took the two girls up a little bit ago when it was still somewhat warm versus this week when we were coming out of single digit temps and a couple of inches of snow. We went up again last weekend as an entire family. At the trailhead, we found three coyotes in an open field. They were just sunning themselves, although one of them looked like he was tracking something (maybe mice or some other critter). If you can't tell, the girls were thrilled to see three coyotes. Our district mascot is the Kittitas Coyotes, so we're all pretty much the same. J&B Me and the young ones... Dee and Adds... Family photo halfway up the trail. We decided to turn around here, which was fine, as long as we're enjoying the outdoors... I got up early and went up today. It had dusted snow on Thursday and snowed off and on during Friday, so I wanted to see what it looked like on the trail. It was chilly and very cl...

This is Jon. We went to rodeo's Columbia River Circuit Finals in Yakima a couple of weeks ago. Professional rodeo is divided up into 12 circuits around the nation and Washington, Oregon and Northern Idaho is dubbed the Columbia River Circuit, with a year-end championship in November. The last decade and a half has always been in Redmond, Oregon (which is a great drive) but it's certainly easier driving to Yakima. Delaney and I went both days, with Brittany and Adelyn joining us on the final day. Delaney is my stats girl. She enjoys tracking all the scores and times. This is her watching the bareback event very closely. This picture proves I'm a writer and not a photographer. This is Ellensburg's Orlun McGuffin in bareback. Speaking of bareback, this is four-time world champion Bobby Mote. I've always been a big fan of Bobby. He doesn't remember it, but I do when years ago as a very green rodeo reporter I got up enough nerve to ask him a bunch of stupid q...

This just in: The Washington State Cougar football team isn't very good. But that didn't stop us from road tripping to Pullman to watch the Cougars take on the USC Trojans. For the last couple of years, Adelyn has been enamoured with Wazzu and we as a family have started cheering them on with her. It was low 40s, minus a few degrees from the wind, which pushed the fog and horizontal rain right into our faces: Perfect football weather...for me anyway. Go Cougars barn, middle of nowhere southeastern Washington. The girls with Butch the Cougar right outside the stadium. My girls at kickoff, before we started getting soaked. Our view from the "cheap" seats. There's really no such thing as cheap in Division I college football, but we found relatively cheap tickets. Halftime inside. The girls got a bit dry by going back to the inside tailgate party. The stadium holds 36,000 people, my guess is 25,000 showed up and by the third quarter, probably 12,000 remai...

Happy Halloween everyone. We did the usual here. Carve pumpkins, eat pizza and get way too much candy while looking really cute in our costumes. Adelyn, very excited for the carving to commence... ...as is Delaney. In typical Adelyn form, she had to get on the kitchen counter for better leverage in getting the guts out of her pumpkin. All three of my girls tracing outlines onto their pumpkins so I could spend about an hour to carve them all. Quite tedious, but I think the pumpkins looked pretty good. My 70's disco dancer and my Monster High character.

Well, the soccer season has come to a close for the U7 Co-Ed Glow Worms. Here's a few pictures of the season finale, a dominant 9-3 win. We ended our season with 7 wins, 1 loss and 2 ties. Not bad. Record-wise, my best year in my three-year soccer coaching career...because that's what it's all about, my record. First things first, a quick photo of Delaney with her final birthday gift from Blue Grandma. As you can see, this 10-year old is proudly displaying pierced ears. A picture of Delaney's hands with a newt or salamander she found in the wet grass before Adelyn's soccer game. Delaney is infatuated with animals. She loves snakes and slimy things. She says she wants to be a teacher, but maybe something more specific like a biology teacher or something in animal science. Adelyn and her friend Lauren early in the game. Adelyn - Always smiling during the game, even on throw-in attempts. Adelyn, AGAIN SMILING! She's a cutie. She loves to be out there ru...