Video: Christmas Musical

Piano, accordion, guitar, phonograph, pump organ...

Video: Luke's First Christmas

Skiing at Crystal Mountain

Skiing the day after Christmas with Nick, Steph, Caleb, and Jordan was a blast. No lines, deep powder, and beautiful weather. Here's a pic with Mt. Rainier in the background:Nobody on the slopes except this hot snow bunny...
Luke enjoyed his stay at the lodge with Stephen and Lori while his mom and dad were out on the slopes.
We "accidentally" took Natalie up an experts only chairlift to the top peak. The only way down is double black diamonds. After Natalie got over her initial shock at the incline and the deep powder, she made it down without even falling! I'm a proud husband.

Merry Christmas!

Luke's First Airplane Ride

Luke did great! He was awake and playful the first half of the flight, then slept until we were picked up at SEA-TAC.
Natalie and I decided that taking a newborn on a plane for the first time wasn't difficult enough... so we brought along all our ski gear as well. That means two pairs of skiis, boots, and poles along with Luke and all his baby gear (4 checked bags and 8 carry-ons in total).
We arrived at San Jose airport 2 hours early so we wouldn't be rushed (thanks for the ride Grant!) and all went smoothly; we didn't even have to lift a bag. A bag-carrier-guy put all our bags on a cart and took us right up to the first class check-in desk. I guess you get some special treatment when you have a baby in a stroller with a Santa suit on. Then over to security where there was NO LINE! I've never experienced that before. So Natalie and I had a whole hour to relax and drink beer before pre-boarding.

Luke's Tenth Week

Sip and See in Sacramento

Last Sunday I participated in my first "Sip and See," i.e. baby viewing party. It was a great way for a lot of people to come by and meet Luke in a short amount of time. A little over 50 people showed up, and Luke still remembers all their names!
Check out the slideshow Wednesday for pics of everyone holding Luke...

Packing up for Sactown

With the new Homeland Security regulations, Alaska Airlines no longer allows parents to bring kids under the age of 6 months as carry ons into the main cabin-- they must be secured in checked baggage. So, we decided to do a trial run with our drive to Sacramento this weekend.
All went well, so we're prepared for our flight to Seattle next week.

20s Christmas Party

This year's party was a hit and even came complete with photographer...
This is what it looks like when you try to get 3 1-year olds and a baby in a picture together:

Luke's Ninth Week

Cool Hat

Had some friends over for dinner tonight and they brought along an early Christmas gift for Luke, this cool hat:

Reliant Christmas Party

This year's Christmas party was at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose. We won a free night's stay so it was our first full night out since Luke came along (thanks to Natalie's mom for babysitting!). Here's the picture they took of us as we walked in -- we're not washed out, we're actually that pale now because we spend all our days inside taking care of Luke.

The food and drinks were great, the dancing was fun, and Natalie raked it in at the Casino. She turned our fake $1,000 into a fake $60,000 on the craps table -- hopefully she'll be able to do that in real life next time we're in Vegas! It was good to meet all my co-workers spouses; this is my boss and his wife:

Luke's Eighth Week

Lori, Ed, Carly, and Edy visited this week.

Luke's Seventh Week

Thanksgiving at the Bradley Lodge

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving at the Bradley Lodge this year.We played some rousing games of Hillbilly Horseshoes,
and looked up,at some very big trees.
Luke is getting hugemongous!HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
The whole family...And we finished with some wine tasting at the Twisted Oak winery. Do you recognize the lamp from "A Christmas Story"?

Luke's Sixth Week

A Day in Milwaulkee

My boss and I had to make a quick trip to Wisconsin this week to visit one of our suppliers. We flew in to Chicago and drove the hour and a half north to Milwaukee. My 10th time in Chicago -- and 1st time leaving the airport.

First stop, of course... the Miller Brewery Tour.They make a lot of beer here. Half gets sold in Chicago, the rest goes to 9 other states. Brew kettles...
Cases ready for shipment.We also toured the historic caves before the most important part, free beer for taste testing.

Luke's Fifth Week

Video: 1 Month Old

Here's 5 minutes of Luke doing nothing in particular... he squirms, cries, dances, and hiccups.



Happy one month Luke! We love you!

Not just you anymore

"Move over kitty, this is my couch now!"
Heading out on the town...

A Day in Vegas

I went to Vegas to visit Rotonics Manufacturing Inc. where I'm having a rotomolded drip tray made for a work project.
Flying into Vegas you can see evidence of the housing crunch. Streets are built ready for houses, but now is not the time to build more houses.
I was upgraded to a suite in New York New York because they ran out of regular rooms. I wish they would do that sometime when I can enjoy it and not on a quick business trip. The window looked right out to MGM and the roller coaster down below.RMI was an interesting company to tour, they make many different products for the casinos; including laundry bins for Harrah's...Large planters for the big casino plants...industrial salad spinners...and more, but that's enough pictures for one post. Have you ever seen so many salad spinners in one place?

I like this picture I took flying into SFO over the bay. The sun was in just the right position to show how close you come to the water before getting to the runway.

Luke's Fourth Week

Luke's First Life Lesson

Lesson #1: Ohm's Law, and why we don't play on utility poles.

Voltage = Current * Resistance
Current needed to hurt someone really bad = 0.1 Amps
High side of human resistance = 10,000 Ohms

Below is a picture of a utility pole in our backyard, with a 12kV line at the top. Look closely.
Here's the same picture zoomed in a little. This picture was the first test of our new Nikon 55-200mm zoom lens with vibration reduction. Unfortunately, this squirrel has a resistance of less than 1,000 Ohms... he used to be more of a light brown.
Current = (12kV)/(1,000 Ohms) = 12 Amps of current through the squirrel, over 100 times more current than it could survive. Sometimes it takes sad events like dead squirrels hanging from electrical lines to teach kids important life lessons.

Natalie's mom visiting for the weekend

This is what Natalie looks like while she's carrying Luke and talking to her cousin on the phone about her recent trip to Italy while walking through the park to the store with her mom and me.
One of Luke's first smiles...

Reliant Investor Roadshow Presentation

If you're into watching investor roadshow presentations, follow this link to see the CEO of my company give a great 25 minute presentation detailing our business plan and explaining our Fraxel skin resurfacing technology.

Luke's First Soccer Game

Today Luke got to watch our friend Jessica Heeb and her De Anza College soccer team woop up on Cabrillo. He cheered them on well and picked up on a few moves.

Rent the Bradley Lodge

Looking for a beautiful mountain getaway with all the comforts of home? We've really enjoyed staying at my parent's cabin in Big Trees and now it's available for vacation rental so you can enjoy it as well! Look at this kitchen, wow!...


Click here to check out more pictures and book online.

There are many more pictures and a more detailed list of amenities online if you're interested.
Its 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths can fit anywhere from 2-12 people (a couple families) comfortably. Near Big Trees State Park, hiking, kayaking, fishing, snowshoeing, winetasting, great launching point for a ski weekend at Bear Valley, flat screen TV, new appliances and furniture, ping-pong table, yada yada...

Happy Halloween!

No babies were harmed in the taking of this picture.

Luke's Third Week

Gram and Great-Gram in Town

Thanks mom and gram for coming over and helping us out for a few days! Here's Luke gazing into his grandmother's eyes...


Luke with Great-Grandma.


Lynn stopped by to hold Luke and drop off some yummy food (Thanks!).


We were also glad to be able to see Emily before she heads off to Nairobi.

Emily was even able to convince me to play soccer with her tonight. It was great to put the cleats on again after a long hiatus -- and we won the game! I'll be sore for the next few days.