Our latest trebuchet adventure...

The Van Gorkoms have been working on the trebuchet since last December, and our latest launch was a success...

New Picture Spot

Our pictures have a new address! We've kept our pictures online for a while on our old website, which was great technology in 2004, but is now kinda clunky and prone to lots of spam. So, we're trying something new...I use Shutterfly to make end of the year "yearbook" type books for our family, so I have to get all our pictures up there anyway. Now they have an option to make a share site, so that just makes it easier for me to get all of our pictures where I need to. Here's the address for our pictures:

http://thevangorkoms.shutterfly.com/

I'm still working out some of the kinks - like how to get the pictures in the right order. The most, most recent ones (just added tonight) are there, but the ones I added last week are at the end. Hang in there, I'll figure it out. Eventually.

And here is one of our most recent pictures of our Van Gorkom family vacation at Great Wolf Lodge...

Enjoy!

F/V Northwestern, Part 2

We went back to see the Northwestern again today. It was a nice day, nicer than last Saturday, and Mike's parents were up to visit and wanted to see it. So we happily packed up the kids and grandparents and headed over to Ballard. Northwestern is still in its same place.There were some people walking around on the boat...who could it be? Edgar? Another crew member? Nah, probably just some shipyard workers. Why would the Northwestern crew be on the boat right now? So we started walking to go take a look at the Wizard. We walked past an alley way and saw some guys hanging out in there. Ok, wait...that is Captain Sig. Wow!! Hmm...what is our best chance with him? Right...cute 3-year old. So, Mike and Ashlyn walked down, and unprompted, Ashlyn looked at him and said, "the Northwestern is my favorite boat." (which is true...she talks about it a LOT.) He was nice enough (although not super excited to have people interrupting his cigarette smoking) to say hi to Ashlyn and let us take a picture with him.You can tell how excited she is! I think she was genuinely starstruck. He looks like he may have had a rough night. :)

So then we finally walked down to see the Wizard. It was a bit like the US Weekly issue "stars without makeup" feature...it REALLY doesn't look nearly as good in person as on TV. In fact, we all agreed that we wouldn't be getting on that boat. But is big...definitely bigger than the Northwestern.

And just for good measure, here's a view of the Northwestern from the dock by the Wizard:

Good times...if you are a Deadiest Catch fan in the Seattle-area, you should definitely head out to see the boats!

A post not about the chickens

We used to go to Seattle all the time. Mike and I were going to school there when we met, Mike lived over there, we went to church there... Then we moved to Redmond but still went to church over there, and then Mike worked over there. Now Mike's work is in Bellevue and our church opened up a campus in Bellevue, and we rarely go to Seattle. All of a sudden, someplace so familiar seems like the big city WAAAAAY over there. Kinda sad.

Anyway, so today we went to Seattle to go to the zoo for Kent's birthday. One of the kid's friends? No....our friend who is turning 27 and wanted all his friends with him at the zoo for his birthday. Of course most of us have kids too, so it was one fun party! Ashlyn liked the bronze statues of animals more than the actual animals, I suppose because she got to hug them.

We left the zoo and decided to go and check out a rumor we'd heard that the Northwestern and Wizard (of Deadliest Catch fame) were in dry dock in Ballard. We found the Northwestern immediately, and it wasn't so much in dry dock as sitting in the water in a good place to take a picture.

Ashlyn was really excited because she loves "the fishing boat show" and is saving her money in her piggy bank to buy a fishing boat...not a small one, but a full-sized one. And speaking of small, the Northwestern is much smaller than I imagined it. It looks pretty tough on TV fighting through huge storms, but man, it is small. I wonder where everyone sleeps? I just can't get over how much smaller it looked in person.

The Wizard is down a few rows and not easily accessible, but we are going back next weekend with Nema & Papa John to check out the boats for longer.

In all the boat excitement, we didn't realize that we were getting hungry...we decided to look around Ballard for someplace yummy (and kid-friendly) to eat, and ended up at Red Mill Burgers on Phinney Ridge, which seriously had the best cheeseburger I'd ever had. And I'm not just saying that because I was so hungry...it was super good!

Then back across the water to our little eastside world. We had such a good time in Seattle with the kids - it is great to have a day to just spend together as a family...no chores, yard work, or other non-fun things. We sometimes get so busy that we forget to take time to have fun with our kids, and we definitely had a super fun day today. We are truly blessed!

New Home for the Chickens

Thanks to some hard work by Mike and my Dad, our chickens now have a sweet new home!! Mike did lots of research and drew up the basic plans, and my Dad built the frame last week while we were in Phoenix. Then I painted the coop red (and still need to do some finishing touches, as you can see!). Mike did some additional modifications, and then we moved our chickens in!

Here are some of the highlights of their new pad:
- 3 mesh windows with removable plexiglass (can put the plexiglass in if it gets cold - pull it out when it gets too stinky)
- Side window at kid-level so the kids can check out the chickens and the chickens can check out the kids
- Adjustable vent (see above about the stink)
- Feeding tray in front door (to minimize the amount of contact I have to have with the chickens...they are mean!)
- Side nesting box (which you can see in the picture) with door on the outside for grabbing eggs (with minimal chicken contact)
- Ladder to ground level, which will be fully encased in strong wire to keep the racoons out. We're finishing this part up this week)

Here is the view of the chickens through the side kid window. I think they like their new home! Thanks a ton to Mike and my Dad for working so hard on this for some pretty ungrateful chickens.

After we finish the wire enclosure on the ground, we will move the chickens outside to their permanent home. Its hard to believe that they are only about 2.5 weeks old at this point! They really change everyday. They are supposed to start laying eggs at about 4-6 months old. Until then, we are enjoying watching the kids enjoy watching the chickens!

New additions

This past weekend we picked up some new additions to our family...3 baby chickens! We got them specifically for eggs, so I'm trying not to get too attached to them...because you know, when their egg production slows down, they become chicken picatta (or nuggets, or parmesean...). We are hoping that all 3 stay healthy and make it to the egg laying stage.

The kids are really enjoying seeing the chickens, and Ashlyn especially enjoys feeding them. We are working on plans for a chicken coop in our backyard, but for right now, they are staying cozy under a heat lamp in the garage.

Yikes!

Yes, it has been over six months since our last post. Besides the usual busyness, we've had computer issues and I've just plain gotten out of the habit of blogging. I won't promise that I'll post every day or every week, but I am really going to try to get better. That said, let's go with some new posts!

PS - For those who look at our pictures on our website, we are working on a different way to post them that won't include spam in the comments. Coming soon!!