New Year

And Then-

More Cameras. Ben's gaining momentum.


Jax/Ben and I had sushi before the evening kicked off.........


New Year. Heidi and Justine working the floor


Kenny Ezzel


Happy New Year- Hood River is simply one of the best places left. Great town, great family, great friends. Everything I wish for.............

Big Surf

During the week between Christmas and New Years, we can't seem to get any work done, so this year we gave up and went to the coast to hang with some family. My Sister Malia, the eldest of the seven of us, Passed away a few years back from cancer. Her Husband, Bill,


and his family still come out to the Oregon Coast, their favorite place to visit while she was still alive.





This is the beach of the Great White Shark Attack the made the national news. We've surfed here for years. We walked out to the point to watch the few surfers (!) out there. There was a very large, Dead Seal on the beach, chased out of the water by the Shark, I'm sure. (It was missing a pretty big piece) Nathaniel got cold.



The Surf was biiiiiig.




Niiiiiiccccceeee

Portland Christmas Trip!
What a great end to the year. Lots of snow, a great mix of busy and quiet. I've been settling into the Copper West operations. (Brokering Real Estate, my REAL Job) which has been nice.
In early December, we went to Portland to stay at the Mallory Hotel and do some Christmas Shopping. What a great experience. Like going on a Huge vacation. We walked around, looked at all the great sights in town, and didn't buy a thing. (Ok, one small Pirate Hat for Nathaniel, but that hardly counts.......) Then we came back, compiled videos into DVD's for the family, and chose to make donations in local groups on behalf of our Families. I must say, Portland is a Beautiful City, especially in the Winter Time..........

New Car!

I'm working on getting down to one car these days. We are selling our Trusty Volkswagen Van, and our Subaru, and buying a used 2003 eurovan. I bought it from the East coast, and it was delivered, in an icestorm! The Local Interstate without any cars on it is a interesting thing:


So anyway, I'm selling the Subaru to CopperWest, the Real Estate Comany, then we'll convert that over to a Biodiesel Mercedes sometime next year. Since the restaurants put put about 30 gallons of fry oil a week, I'll have plenty of B-100 to use to drive clients around.








Now if only I could find a Diesel Eurovan..........

















Oh, and here's all our UPS drivers doing the daily "package exchange" down at the port. Kind of a funny regular occurence this time of year.................

TV Crew!

Celilo got some good press a couple weeks back.......................

http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6855&SOURCE=RSS

And that prompted Japan TV to come and shoot our customers having Dinner..........

Let's see..........

In No particular order.........

Jay Kepoikai Meyer (Nathaniel Kepoikai's namesake)
Being all Metro during a visit.......


Nathaniel, on a trip to the Coast. Lazy Susan Breakfast


Our Most beloved, Eric Sanford, being his usual, Dorky self.........


Nathaniel's Train from some boxes and the mixer bowl..............


Kepoikai, on our inaugural flight. Bought the plane, Demoed it in about a half hour.....


Uncle Jeff (Jay's Brother) Getting out the Hoses during Nathaniel's fire station visit....................







Interiors of Celilo just after the timbers got placed................


Detail of the Tenon construction. Kenny Ezzell was pretty amazing on this job.




The Yasui building, still fully scaffolded.


During the Fall, a trip to the Hood River Fly in. Nathaniel, Sean Arpag and Niko Swihart, next to the West Side Pumper Truck.................


Here's a couple of Photos from Nathaniel's Birthday Party. Lots of guests, A great cake (again) and sushi, Treasure Hunts and the like........





Here's me later that same day, cleaning out the guest bath cupboard and seeing if I can check my Blood Pressure.........


The Mayor of Hood River, Getting a ticket

Catching up!

Well, well, Looks Like I've fallen and can't get up. (Or caught up, anyway.)

Let's see. I'm blogging quickly back to march, and through the Summer....Yikes-


Basically, Mayhem. From Start to Finish. The Two major events of this year are.

1. Julia!
Isn't she a looker! Our little girl has been nothing but a trooper and Mom should be cannonized. Julia has been a treat fromt he word go.

2. The New Yasui and Celilo










We got the Restaurant open after a bunch of challenges (No Power, Feuds with the City, Blah Blah blah......) And have been going gangbusters ever since. Here's some photos of the Restaurant Celilo.



And some more of my Copper West Brokerage office..........





And now, it's winter, and we are tucked away in our new building, broke (seriously) but stabilized. All in all, a very rewarding year. Nathaniel continues to grow up and Julia figured out how to talk last night.......and so she did!