Easter 2013

It was a fantastic day. I’ll let the pics speak for themselves:

We woke up on Easter morning — and another Christmas broke out.

She may have had something to do with it.

I certainly didn’t.

Later that morning we headed to the Johnstons for an Easter egg hunt, the second of our third hunt that weekend.

My little egg hunters.

Lots of eggs — and candy — in them there baskets.

Someone left a FREE sign on a little girl’s bike. I rode away with it.

After brunch at SPCC.

The SPCC Easter bunny.

The Johnstons and Cheuks.

At the post-brunch photo shoot.

My and Reese’s bow ties custom-made courtesy of TheCordialChurchman.com.

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St. Patrick’s Day 2013

The vast majority of this blog is dedicated to memorializing highlights in the family Jenkins — and specifically Father Jenkins (aka me). This St. Patrick’s Day, however, started as a bit of a low light. The family was all signed up to do the annual St. Patrick’s Day Dash — me in the real race, Reese and Finn in the Leprechaun Run. Unfortunately Finn had a rough evening before, which meant Rhonda had to stay home. No Rhonda meant no Reese because there would be no one to watch her while I ran.

Tom, Tamir and me before the start of the Dash.

So I still did the St. Patrick’s Day Dash.

By myself.

The Seattle St. Patrick’s Day Dash is not an event one should do by ones self. I met up with Tom and Carrie at the Met Market to keep from being the race’s biggest loser, but they were small consolation to missing Reese and Finn.

Reese and I did a private Leprechaun Dash at Laurelhurst Park.

Fortunately the day got better thereafter.

My bow tie and green pants made their season’s debut at the SPCC brunch.

After I got home Reese and I ran a lap around Laurelhurst Park, a .44-mile track that served as her personal Lephrechaun Run. Then the family had brunch with Tom, Carrie, Tamir and Mo at Sand Point Country Club.

All and all not a bad day considering the start.

Family brunch.

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A Weekend with the Spratleys

On Saturday the Jenkins fam ventured east to Easton and the sprawling Spratley estate for a weekend of tubing and family fun. Great fun. A few pics:

Simon, Paige and me posing for a pic.

A view from the Spratley cabin. A River Runs Through It (well not literally, but close).

A self portrait.

Gettin’ ready to go for a ride.

Kiddos.

Reese and Paige on the swings.

Finn wasn’t in his best mood — but lately, what’s new . . .

The fam.

An open gate to the local salmon hatchery made for a welcome diversion.

Finn — exhausted after watching Mom and Dad beat the Spratleys at Scrabble.

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Manilow!

Last night Ronnie and I ventured out to the Showare Center in Kent to see the Pandora Love on Ice ice skating exhibition. Music performed by — yup — Barry Manilow.

Manilow impressed, big time. The 69-year old belted out iconic hit after iconic hit. I know it’s not cool for forty-three year old guys to like the dandy dude, but his body of work is impressive, and to be belting them out a year short of seventy — well, amazing.

On a date.

The evening was marred, however, by the ice skating. Actually the ice skating by Nancy Kerrigan, one of the eight skaters in the Pandora show. Tonya Harding’s former nemesis fell twice during her only stint in the program, the only skater to bite the white. But then it got worse. The show was made for television, and as it turned out the show producers needed to get shots of Kerrigan nailing the jumps she missed. Easier said than done. Kerrigan came out after the show was officially over to nail the jumps for the TV production. But fell again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. In total I believe she fell five times (in addition to the earlier two) before she finally hit one.

Unfortunately the iPhone pic wasn’t as good as Manilow’s performance ….

It was, as you might imagine, tough to watch.

All in all, however, it was a fun evening out. Looking forward to the next one. Something tells me Nancy Kerrigan will retire before then.

but it was better than Nancy Kerrigan, who fell no fewer than seven times in a painful-to-watch performance.

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Polar Bear Plunge 2013

This morning the family and I ventured over to Alki for my third straight (2011I2012) Polar Bear Plunge.

This is an event on the rise.

In 2011 roughly fifty people took the plunge. In 2012 it was closer to 300. This year they were shooting for 1,000. Not sure if they got there but it was still a bundle of fun.

A few pics:

Me and Reese in the pre-plunge photo shoot.

The air temperature was about 38 — mighty chilly.

Very, VERY cold, but once again I went under.

I did it!!

Finn and Rhonda sat this one out.

Rhonda and the kids fighting the sun.

We went to a Polar Bear Plunge and another photo shoot broke out.

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Green Lake Gobble Run 2012

This morning the family Jenkins got an early Sunday morning start. Our destination was Green Lake and the occasion was the 2012 Green Lake Gobble Run — specifically, the 1/4 mile kiddie run. That’s right: the kids ran a race, I didn’t. I just decided I didn’t want to run this particular 5k.

Since we were forty minutes early we had plenty of time for pics.

I chose well.

It ended up pouring rain the entire time. To make matters worse we arrived like forty minutes early in anticipation of the crowds, which weren’t there.

Some pre-race stretching.

Race time.

The kids eventually ran their race and did spectacularly well. For Reese it was particularly special: a year ago she was all but too afraid to run the race.

What a difference a year makes.

Post-race breakfast at iHop.

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Pumpkin Patch 2012

Today the Jenkins fam ventured north to the Snohomish pumpkin patch. It was at least our third annual trip there although, remarkably and curiously, none of them made this space.

The most noteworthy part of this year’s edition were the crowds. They were considerable — very considerable as compared to past years. In fact, I’d say 2-3 times larger than in years past.

A few pics:

Gettin’ the pics started in the pumpkin patch.

On the way out to the corn maze.

Lost in the maze, we took time for some pics.

No good FULL family photos, but this is a good mom-with-the-cubs version.

The kids had a lot of fun jumping off hay bales …

I had a lot of fun hopping hay roles.

Taking a rest between hay runs.

After snapping about fifty pics of the kids jumping into hay, I got in a couple.

Finn got a big thrill feeding the ducks.

One final pose before the ride home.

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Seahawks 24, Patriots 23

A view from our seats at game’s end.

It wasn’t pretty, and we were down 13 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Seahawks beat Tom Brady and the Patriots 24-23 yesterday (box score) at Century Link Field — with Joel and I in attendance.

We’re 4-2 now. The playoffs look increasingly likely and my 11-5 prediction — very possible.

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The Wallingford Wurst Festival

Last night the kids and I joined Todd, Olivia and Emma Johnston for a night out at the Wallingford Wurst Festival. It was at least my third trip to said Festival, although apparently I haven’t blogged about it since ’08.

Anyway, good times were had by all.

A few pics:

The kids spent more than a few tickets on the slide.

Good fun.

‘Let’s go again …’

The Jenkins clan.

Emma, Todd and Olivia.

Reese and Olivia.

Wurst Festival history.

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Reese’s First Professional Soccer Game (Or, MY First Professional Soccer Game)

This afternoon Reese and I joined the Belle family and several of their closest friends for an afternoon out at the Sounders game. The occasion was Tommy Belle’s fifth birthday and the location was Suite 17 at Century Link Field — a pretty nice place to take in a game. It was both my and Reese’s first-ever professional soccer game — and it was a heck of a lot of fun.

A few pics:

First ones there.

Pre game.

Gettin’ ready for the game.

Olivia and Reese.

Some of their fellow partygoers.

Tommy digging into a considerable stack of presents.

Cake time!

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