Thanksgiving 2005

Athena is scoping the bird (it's hard to tell which to feel worse for, her or it)! :)

My Mom came to visit for Thanksgiving, to help out, and hopefully time it to get to see Aviendha.

Wife and Mom, cooking the Thanksgiving meal for us. I did the bird with my secret recipe.

It was a fun day. Great food, company, and a Denver Bronco victory!

Matrim is spooning up some milk while waiting for all the food that's been talked about for days. : )

Grubbing down!

Matrim and Grandma after the first round of food is done.

Halloween in Humboldt

Matrim and the pumpkin he helped us pick out. He loves Halloween!

Athena, showing Mat the pumpkin guts!

Mat and Athena dug the pumpkin out. We saved the seeds and roasted them up with a secret blend of herbs (no not herb).

Matrim, holding a handful of pumpkin guts!

Matrim is getting Athena with the guts. : )

I did the knife work but we let Mat pick the shapes for me to cut out.

Matrim and Athena are standing out front before we go trick or treating. We made the Jak o Lantern on the right and the one on the left we got from Athena's work (the Natural History Museum).

It was a great day for Halloween. We took Mat trick or treating on the plaza in the mid-afternoon.

Matrim in full-costume, minus 1 glove.

Athena and Matrim at one of the stores.

A shot of the plaza at one point. I wore a toy, Arcata police badge and my DEA (drug endorsement agency) shirt around to scare people and be funny both and it worked pretty well. I had to point out to one hippie (who tried to turn himself in to me for the acid he possessed) that it was endorsement, not enforcement. ; )

This was around our neighborhood. It went really well. The weather stayed nice late into the night. There were several houses that were decorated well. Only 1 scared Matrim (and he almost never gets scared...even when I jump out from behind stuff and startle the hell out of him, he only laughs and laughs after one instant of startled). When we started to go up to a darkened, web-coated front porch Matrim started to get scared and turned up to me and said, "No, lets go back, ok?". Once we assured him it would be ok he braved it for the candy!

Matrim is home with half of his loot.

Matrim is doing a "skeleton hard-core"! ; ) It was a great Halloween!

Wedding Camping

Jory, Craig, and I hanging out in the parking lot at the camp. The campground is up about a 100 foot cliff from the ocean. There's a trail that follows the edge of the cliff and around and through the camp. Some great views and easy hiking to be had here. Also there is a stairway built into the cliff to get down to Agate Beach. Along this strip of beach you can collect agates that get washed up on the sand. We can't wait to do some more camping next year (after rainy season here) now that we've cut our teeth on our first camping trip here in Humboldt.

Jenny, Athena W., Nick, Brian, and keg #1. ; ) This is the eating area in our group campsite.

Matrim on the loose!

Nick, Athena W., and I were the last 3 up this night (those 2 stayed up and hiked after I went to bed).

The coles are low,

the fire is dead,

I am drunk,

and ready for bed! :)

A couple of my very best friends! Jory, Tom, and I are getting ready for another days mayhem. (As a hopefully hidden enough side note: tom did try a cup of the keg beer!!!)

Almost the whole group of partiers around the fire: Rod, Jenny, Athena, Nick, Steve, Craig, Tom, Athena W., and Brian. Shane and Jessie had to hit the road (unfortunately as I wished they could have camped!) to get 3 states back home. Jory and Joey have crashed (we'll have to get a rain check on the go-juice, party night!!). And Debbie is sleeping in Matilda.

Tom, Jenny, Nick, Athena W., Brian, Rod, and I are getting ready to go for the day. Rod is the first to begin stocking up on keg beer for the days adventures! ; ) Many of us were filling whatever jugs we could find (and hopefully keep cool) of keg beer before leaving the campground.

Wedding Reception

Athena (the stunning bride!), Craig, Debbie, Jory, Joey, my dad, and Nick at the Seascape Restaurant. We ate our reception dinner overlooking the ocean in Trinidad, CA. They messed up and thought we had only reserved a table for 8, so they had to clear out most of a room for us when we arrived. Other than that, the service was ok and the food was great.

Shane, Jessie, Justin, Alisha, and Gage.

Rod, Steve, Brian, and Tom. In the background are the few people that got stuck sitting with our group.

The bridesmaids, Jenny and Athena W.

Matrim and Grandma.

Luke, my dad, and Matrim.

The pier and the ocean outside the Seascape. It was a beautiful, but brisk, evening.

Athena and I are opening our wedding present from Luke. It's a nice, framed copy of our wedding announcement to put on our mantel.