We've moved!

In an effort to reduce our commute into work, and to allow us to be closer to home with a growing family, we've moved our office to North Bend, Washington. North Bend is a picturesque town located 30 minutes East of Seattle, nestled at the foothills of the Cascade mountain range.

Here's the City's website with some links and great photos:
http://ci.north-bend.wa.us/

Here's a link to a Flickr photoset of my photos taken around the area:
Photos Around North Bend

Our new address is:

PO Box 790
North Bend, Wa. 98045

Happy Earth Day

My youngest daughter woke up with a smile on her face and said "Happy Earth Day Daddy!" That's a good way to start my day. On the way to school we talked about taking steps to reduce our waste and ways to restore our environment. As I dropped the kids off, they said they were going to pick up trash at a local park as part of Earth Day.

I'm feeling hopeful this morning when my seven year old daughter and ten year old son are concerned and aware of the importance of our natural environment.

As a bonus, we even saw the herd of elk grazing in the field on the way to school.

It was a good morning. Happy Earth Day!

North Bend and Snoqualmie Flooding

You may have heard about the torrential rains and snow melt that we had in my neck of the woods last week. The Snoqualmie Valley was hit hard.

I spent a couple of hours volunteering at my kids' school to help with clean-up. Talk about GROSS stuff! It was all mud, slime, and garbage piled up along the fence lines of the playground and surrounding school areas. The district had about 100 volunteers last Friday and another 60 or so yesterday helping to clean and get the schools ready for today. And YES, the schools opened today! I'm so happy that the kids get to go back after having many extra days off due to snow and flooding over the last few weeks.

More importantly though, there are many families with homes and businesses in the area that are impacted by the flooding. Being out in the muck yesterday really brought that home to me. I hope they are all safe and warm with a place to be until they can return home.

Photos
http://www.svsd410.org/districtinfo/newspubs/Flood%202009.asp
http://www.svsd410.org/districtinfo/newspubs/MoreFlood%202009_1.asp
http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=1&w=all&q=north+bend+flood+2009&m=text

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvrnA3BGHVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqTnTWEqYS4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6WqTFlokkk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFpZRIsw2ss