Studio711.com – Ben Martens

This game goes by many names. Here are all the names I found for it as I looked around:

Norwegian Horseshoes, Laddergolf, Snakes, Hillbilly Golf, Polish Golf, Horseballs, Tower Ball, Bolo Golf, Gladiator, Bola, Snake Toss, BlongoBall, Ladder Toss, Bolo, Rodeo Golf, Dingle Balls, Bolo Polo, Cowboy Golf, Redneck Golf, Pocca Bolo, The Snake Game, Willy Ball, Ladder Ball, Slither, Zing-Ball, Snakes & Ladders, Hillbilly Horseshoes, Flingy Ball, Top Toss, Norwegian Golf, Monkey Bars Golf, Swedish Golf, Polish Horsehoes, Dandy Golf, Montana Golf, Lasso Golf, Australian Horseshoes, Ladder Game, Monkey Balls, Rattlerail Toss, Golfball Horseshoes, Arizona Golf Balls, Spin-It, Ball Dangle, Bolo Ball, Poor Mans Golf, Bolo Toss, and Testicle Toss

Whatever you call it, Tim and I made a couple sets the other weekend. We both love cornhole but it’s pretty big and heavy to carry around. The hope was that this would be easier to haul with us and just as fun.

While Tim worked on the PVC piping, I tried to figure out how to drill holes in golffballs without a drill press. I made one set with 6 Purdue golf balls that I got as a thank you gift from KenC at least 15 years ago if not more. I never used them for real golf because I didn’t want to lose them. They are now the coolest set of bolos ever!

We tried out the game on our camping trip this past weekend. I don’t think I like the game quite as much as cornhole, and it wasn’t as easy to transport as I had hoped, but we still had a lot of fun playing. I envision someday having a barbeque in our backyard with cornhole, ladder golf, and washers games going on. Maybe we need some sort of backyard Olympics event!

If you don’t know that I was in a train crash in 1993, you should get caught up by reading this blog post. If this had happened 10 years later, the internet would be full of stories and photos about the event, but as it is, it’s almost impossible to find anything. Back in college, I wrote to the National Transportation Safety Board and requested a copy of PB93-916304 NTSB/RAR-93/03. It came to me as 25 photocopied pages. The quality isn’t great, but it’s the best I have to work with. I scanned the whole thing in so you can download the PDF and read it for yourself. (UPDATE 2023-07-17: I see the NTSB has posted it on their website now.) I know many of you won’t be interested in this, but I’m posting it mostly so that other people can find a copy of it if they need it.

These two photos from the document are the only ones I have. (Maybe Mom saved some newspapers?) I’m not positive, but I believe the top picture is the first of three cars on our train and the bottom picture is the third of the three cars.

This is an easy one: what’s the biggest news of the year? I’m married! It’s still amazing that somebody as wonderful as Tyla would want to be married to me, but I’m thankful that she does.

At the end of last year, we were smack dab in the middle of planning mode. The first four months of this year continued that trend. I still maintain that the smartest decision we made during the planning phase was hiring Wendi, our wedding planner. I didn’t think there was any way that would fit into our smallish budget, but trust me, the economics work out. We were able to actually enjoy the planning process (not that I’d want to do it again) and remember every minute of April 10. And what a day that was! The days leading up included a nasty mixture of snow, sleet, hail, and rain, yet Saturday and Sunday were two of the nicest days we had all spring! We planned for rain but reaped the benefits of a gorgeous day. Thank you to everyone who made the long trip out here to take part! If you scroll back through my April posts, you’ll see a lot of wedding-related ones.

We took a month to get Tyla moved in and recover from the wedding. Then we headed out on an incredible honeymoon! I count myself lucky to have had a lot of great vacations over the years, but this one tops the list. We both regularly bring up memories from that trip, and I’m quite sure that we’ll end up on another cruise before too long. It was spectacular in so many ways that I didn’t expect, which is probably obvious after seeing my incredibly long cruise journal. The video is probably a lot better way to consume that information, or if you’re going on a cruise, you can read our tips.

I think the biggest adjustment we made after getting married was realizing that we had a lot more free time together. For the last couple years, we had been carefully scheduling our visits and doing a lot of late night drives back to our respective homes. It was so nice to say goodnight and walk down the hallway instead of getting in the car for a 40 minute drive.

Tyla’s birthday was quite an adventure. We stayed the night at the fancy Heathman hotel and had dinner at Jalisco’s where we had our first date. The next day, we drove to Crystal and went on an incredible horseback ride. It was just the two of us and a guide riding through incredible mountain terrain and even along the Pacific Crest Trail for a while. As far as trail rides go, that was the best one I’ve ever been on. Tyla followed up that birthday adventure with one for me. She rented a condo in Ocean Shores, invited a great group of friends down and we partied the weekend away as I turned 30.

Thirty is officially an adult. Actually, I think I felt that way when I had a mortgage, but now there’s no fooling myself. I never could have predicted what life would be like at 30, but as I look at how it turned out, I wouldn’t change a thing! I’m married, have a great job, and I’m living in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Before I crossed the line into my thirties, I completed a hike that I’ve put off for four years: Camp Muir. I haven’t consciously put it off, but every year, the time slipped away without me completing it. At 10,000 feet high, with the last 2000 feet on a snowfield, it’s one of the most strenuous non-technical (no ropes, etc) day hikes in the area. AndyD, AndyM and I completed that hike on a remarkably clear day. It was such a rush to tackle that big unknown and succeed! It’s hard to describe the feeling, but I hope to return again soon. The whole effort drove home the point that if you really want to do something, get a group of people and put it on the calendar. Otherwise it’s probably not going to happen.

We had quite a few camping trips during the summer but the two biggest were Birch Bay State Park and Potholes. The former was fun because of the usual summer camping crew, and the latter was an adventure in a bit more rustic camping in an area that feels like it’s a world away from the cool and wet Seattle area.

I ripped through a good series of hikes in 2010. In previous years, I’ve spent time exploring the various mountain areas, but this year I really focused on the destination of the hikes. I ended up at Annette Lake, Thunder Knob, Snoqualmie Lake, Crystal Lakes, and Talapus and Olallie Lakes along with a couple hikes up the Cable Line Trail to prepare for Muir. Snoqualmie Lake was the biggest surprise for me in the bunch. The lake was beautiful, but Tim and I bit off more than we could chew when we tried to do that in a single day. I ran out of water with about three miles to go and that last bit was miserable. I’m not sure if I’ll continue the lake exploration next year or maybe switch to something like old fire towers.

Other highlights of the year included whitewater rafting, a bunch of dirt road explorations, Lady Antebellum, Jim Gaffigan, a trip to the Olympics, and a lot of other stuff I’m probably forgetting to mention.

Skiing took a major hit as I only got out a couple times in 2010 and there were no big ski trips, but I obviously had more important things on my plate so that’s not a huge disappointment. And I had been hitting it pretty hard in the previous years so a break has been good to refresh the batteries. I’m hoping that this new ski season will give me a lot more opportunities.

There’s no doubt that 2010 will be remembered for the wedding and the honeymoon, but even ignoring those two events, it was still a remarkable year. I saw loads of new sights, crossed a bunch of items off my bucket list, and best of all, my wife was beside me for a lot of the adventures!

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Our house now looks like Christmas is approaching. Tyla was able to really do a nice job with a bunch of the decorations that she had. A tree with some ornaments was as far as I ever got on my own, so it’s nice to have her added touch.

As we were joining our ornament piles for the first time, we realized that we already have a nice little collection of ornaments that we’ve bought together. I thought it would make for a good post (and a good reminder for when we’ve forgotten the stories down the road.)

	The first fall/winter that we were dating we went ice skating in Bellevue. Later that Christmas season, we were in Leavenworth and picked up this ornament in one of the shops. Even ~5 months into the relationship, I guess we knew it was going somewhere.
	We picked up this sled that says “Whistler, Canada” up in Whistler after we got engaged.
	A little version of our cruise ship hangs from the tree to remind us of our honeymoon. My only complaint is that they placed the string in the wrong spot so it looks like the ship is trying to take off.
	The most recent addition to our collection is a Hallmark keepsake ornament that says “Our first Christmas together” and has a 2010 tag on it.

An ornament can bring back a lot of memories and these four bring back a flood of them for me!

Before this weekend, I had never been to the ER as a patient. (Don’t worry, this has a fairly happy ending.) It all started at a party at Tim and Chelsea’s house. I took a backwards/sideways step off the deck while I was talking to someone and my right foot went directly into one of the holes that their dog digs. I heard a pop as my ankle rolled.

I’ve had lots of sprained ankles and wrists in the past, and for a while it didn’t seem much different. I even played a couple more games of cornhole. After a while, I asked Tyla if we could leave the party a little early because it was starting to get sore. By the time I got back to her apartment to drop her off, it was hurting pretty bad so I decided to ice it there before driving home. Eventually it became clear that it wasn’t getting better and I couldn’t put any weight on it. With the impending wedding, I didn’t want to mess with a potential break so Tyla drove me to the ER.

I was extremely impressed with Evergreen Hospital. Upon entering the ER, we were immediately met by security who directed us where to go. We had a private triage room, friendly nurses, and the whole process felt quick. They wheeled me in for xrays but the results thankfully didn’t show anything broken. The doctor wrote me a prescription for vicodin (which I haven’t filled) and crutches. He said that in 5-7 days I should be feeling much better and that this was just a really bad sprain.

So I owe Tyla a HUGE thanks for driving me around late at night both to the ER and then to try and find a drug store that was open and sold crutches. I realized that I’m much better at giving help like this than receiving it. I love you!

The good news is that it’s already feeling quite a bit better. I spent much of Sunday with it elevated. While this sprain did feel a lot worse than ones I’ve had before, I probably would have just hobbled on it for a while instead of using the crutches. But Tyla is moving her stuff to the condo this weekend (she’ll live at her parents for the two weeks before the wedding) and I want to be healthy to help. And then there is the wedding in less than three weeks. So I’m glad we got the peace of mind that came with the xrays and I’ll take every precaution I can to help this heal as quickly as possible.

I prepared to write this post by looking back through the photos I’ve taken and reading last year’s Year in Review post. The mere fact that Tyla appears prominently in it should have been a big clue to anyone who has followed my blog that this was something pretty serious. I finished with “What lies ahead? I’ve never been more excited to find out!” Now I know the answer to that, so let’s start from the beginning.

The year started off with a bang as we celebrated the marriage of Tim and Chelsea. The wedding was a blast and the happy couple has just moved into their first house! That wasn’t our only wedding of the year though. In March, Tyla and I took our first big trip together out to beautiful Syracuse, NY for Andy and Lauren’s wedding where I participated in, and won, my first dance off.

Andy, Jay, Mike and I had planned a big ski trip to Big Sky, MT, but that took a very sad turn. I woke up in Spokane on the morning I was supposed to pick everyone up at the airport in Missoula to find out that Mr. A had passed away. It hit everyone hard. Andy and Jay cancelled their plans, but Mike and I went on with the trip. While the trip did not turn out exactly as we hoped Mike and I made the best of it and saw some amazing sights. I hope that the four of us can meet up again soon for another trip.

While I was in Big Sky, I got a tearful call from Tyla letting me know that she had been laid off from her job as a gymnastics teacher. It was a complete shock to her, and given the job market at the time, the future looked rough. It took over a month of hard work and countless emails, phone calls, and interviews to break through the mass of applicants and land a new job. I told her that when it was all done, I knew I would be impressed with the way she handled the situation, and that came true. When unemployment doesn’t even cover your rent, it’s more than a little scary but she showed a ton of determination and got through it.

Early in the year, I bought a new vehicle: a 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS. After four years of riding, it was time to upgrade to a bigger bike, and what an upgrade this one is! In a normal year, I average 2000 miles of riding. I already have over 5000 miles on this new bike from trips to Bremerton, the Tulip Festival, the Cascade Loop, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, and many others. Tyla was sitting right behind me for many of those miles and it’s a blast being able to share one of my hobbies with her!

Speaking of sharing hobbies, Tyla and I went skiing twice together. She had skied a few times before in Minnesota but still labeled herself as a beginner. I was impressed with her first day on the slopes at Snoqualmie and even more so when we headed up to Crystal. I hope that once we get married we can get her a full set of gear and go even more often.

This was also the year of concerts. We saw the Lion King, Wicked, Little Big Town, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, and Sugarland. I think the Lion King was my favorite of that whole list. If you get a chance to see it, don’t pass it up!

In June, Tyla and I flew back to Indiana for a quick three day weekend. In addition to giving her more time to talk to my family, it was great to show her where I grew up. Tyla and David became best friends, Tyla got to play with frogs, we swam in the pool, and we even got out in the canoe on the lake for a while.

My exploration of Washington continued with camping trips to Lake Easton State Park and Moran State Park. I think it will be the last time I visit Lake Easton. While it’s a nice mountain park close to home, it’s also VERY close to the interstate which ruins the feel of camping. But those aren’t the only local trips I took. When Mom and Dad came to visit over Labor Day, Tyla and I took them on a tour of the Olympic Peninsula. We visited Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh Rainforest, and Ocean Shores.

Tyla and I had agreed early on that we wouldn’t even talk about the possibility of marriage until after we had been dating for a year. After that milestone was passed in late July and after I had chatted with both of our parents, I didn’t waste much time getting her into jewelry stores to figure out what she liked. And though she didn’t know it at the time, I kicked off my birthday weekend by purchasing the perfect ring for her. I ended up waiting almost a full month to give it to her. Finally it was time to pop the question, so Tim, Chelsea, Tyla and I headed up to Whistler for a weekend in October. You can reread the proposal story if you want, but the short version is that she made my lifelong dreams come true by saying yes. We quickly switched gears into wedding planning mode. That’s still in progress, but it’s coming along nicely.

If I thought waiting for a month to give her the ring was hard, waiting another 6 months to actually marry her is even harder! I can’t wait to start the rest of my life with her. There is no doubt that God meant for the two of us to be together for the rest of our lives. I’m proud to call her my fiancée, and I know she’ll make a fantastic wife and (God-willing) mother.

As we entered December, cancer’s lightning blow struck closer to me than ever before as Mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer. While the surgery changed our Christmases a bit, so far it appears to have done the trick. She’s on the road to recovery and we’ll find out how successful the surgery was in a few months when they run more tests.

So while there were some bumps along the road, as I look back on the year, I see a long list of memories with Tyla. Last year I finished with “What lies ahead?” When I wrote that, I knew what I hoped would happen and my silent wishes did come true. In just a few more months, there will be another Mrs. Martens in this world.

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Have you ever been in a big new group where everyone has to go around and tell something interesting about themselves? For a while, my go-to-story was that I was in a train crash. That actually didn’t work very well. It was too serious and usually brought down the fun mood. But it’s a true story, and here’s how I remember it…

On January 18, 1993, our family decided to head to Chicago for the day to see the Shedd Aquarium. I had never been there before (and still haven’t.) There’s a little commuter train that runs back and forth from Chicago to South Bend and this was going to be the first time that I had been on the train. At 13 years old, I was pretty excited about the whole day.

When we got to the train station, I immediately headed to the front of the train. I had heard Dad tell stories about how the conductor would sometimes let you come up and see the controls and that seemed like prime seating to me. I wasn’t too happy when Dad insisted that we sit in the second of the three cars. For years I never knew why he did that, but I recently found out it’s because the front train sometimes gets unhooked part way along the journey and you have to move.

The train finally left the station and we were zooming off across the northern Indiana countryside. All of a sudden, I remember our train hitting the brakes extremely hard. We all slid forward, felt a rumble, and saw a big black mass fly past the windows. Whispers of “Did we just crash?” filled the cabin. Pretty soon a hysterical conductor came running back through the cabin in a panic shouting, “Is everyone ok!?” There were no injuries in our car so he continued back to the third car. We still didn’t know what had happened though so nobody was too concerned. One of the adults walked forward to the front car and came back with a white face, “No one goes in the front car. No one.” That was my first clue that this was more than a quick stop.

We sat on the train for over an hour (maybe two?) only knowing that we had crashed. For the first time in my life, I saw body bags in person. They contained bodies and were zipped up. Apparently the time spent waiting on the train was so that they could clean up the mess before we got off the train.

Only when they finally let us off did we see the extent of the damage. We had hit another train almost head on. It split our front car down the middle, bounced off the tracks around the middle car and bumped into the rear car on our train. The front car was quite bloody despite there efforts to clean. We later found out that seven people in that car had died and most of them were by decapitation.

They led us down a snowy slope to waiting buses and shipped us back to the train station we departed from. News crews were just showing up as we got there. Since we were the first ones off the bus, I was excited to be interviewed and get on TV. “We’re going home” was all my parents said to the reporters as we walked by.

I’m pretty sure it made the national news for a bit, but the local news covered it for quite a while. About six years later in college, I ordered the NTSB’s final report on the incident which is available through the Freedom of Information Act. The wreck occurred just as our westbound train was exiting a bridge. The parallel tracks converged for the length of that bridge. I’m oversimplifying, but basically the two conductors were playing chicken and they both lost. Our conductor thought he could make it in time but was clearly wrong. Both conductors were fired.

It’s difficult to find news articles about this online since it was pre-Internet boom, but here’s one blurb I found:

In the first passenger fatal accident since 1909, Train 7 from Chicago runs a red signal on the western approach to the Gauntlet Bridge, goes into emergency stop, and pauses for 5 to 30 seconds before being hit by Train 12 from South Bend. The lead cars, Car 27 Eastbound and Car 36 Westbound, slice into each other killing 7 passengers in Car 36, including a 10 year old boy. Most of the victims were decapitated. There were initial reports of 70 or 65 injured. (A 1998 TV report claimed 150 injured in a story about a lawsuit, as well as reporting an eighth passenger death from injuries sustained in the crash, but this report is not supported by other media.) A signal prior to the signal run had been reported defective in prior weeks, however the Gauntlet signals were working properly. A second bridge has now been added at the site and the Gauntlet is no longer in operation. The engineer of Train 7 was the dispatcher in the 1985 accident. NO CRIMINAL CHARGES WERE FILED, but both engineers were fired. (Car 36 apparently has been replaced by another car, or repaired, as it has been seen in operation. Based on video of the accident it would seem that Car 36 received the largest amount of damage.) [source]

UPDATE: You can download the NTSB report here.

I start off every Year in Review post by reading what I wrote last year. My first thought was, "Wow, I was busy!" For 2008, I requested more of what 2007 had brought. It turns out, something better was in store, but more on that later.

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed already, and the rate at which time seems to pass has been occupying a lot of my thoughts. At some point, I need to accept that when "time flies" that’s just normal. I don’t suspect it will ever slow down so I might as well get used to it. Besides, who’s to say it’s a bad thing?

I only stepped on a plane four times this year which must be a new record for me. The first flight sent me out to Vermont for a weekend of skiing with Andy, Lauren, Jay and Mike. It was my first extended trip to Vermont and the whole area really impressed me. I had considered moving there when I was looking to get out of Jersey, and I could easily see myself living there some day. That weekend will long be remembered for skiing off a roof.

The second trip was a surprise visit home for Mom’s birthday. Thanks to the rest of the family for helping me to pull it off. It turned out even better than I had hoped. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she pulled that door open!

Trip #3 was a weekend trip to Syracuse for no particular reason other than to catch up with the Abendroths. I met Trevor and Connor, grew an ugly mustache for the mustache party and had a great weekend.

The last trip was Thanksgiving in Indiana. It’s the first time I’ve been home for Thanksgiving in a while. We decided that I would fly home for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas since the family is flying out here soon after Christmas for Tim and Chelsea’s wedding. That spreads out the visits a little nicer. While I ended up missing my 10 year high school reunion, it was great to see David again. It’s kind of sad that I only get to see him a couple of times a year.

Notably absent from the trip list is a visit to Maine. I broke my streak of 5 consecutive years up there. I suppose it makes sense that trips are harder to come by with my new location, but I don’t think I’ve had my last drink in Robinston.

While it felt like I kept the flights to a minimum, that didn’t keep me from taking a number of fun trips locally. I missed out on the Tulip Ride last year, but I didn’t miss it this year. It really was interesting to see, but I think I enjoyed riding the huge pack of motorcycles more than the fields of tulips. Our pack of bikes stretched out for about a mile and created quite a stir as we rolled through the small towns.

The first half of the year saw me out on a lot of hiking trails. There were even weekends when I’d do a hike both Saturday and Sunday. By mid-summer, I was in pretty good shape and was clicking off very long hikes at a strong pace. It was invigorating and the hikes rarely disappointed. There are so many amazing views in this area if you’re just willing to go find them. For every hike I crossed off the list, I added two more. It would take a lifetime to explore all these mountains. Good thing I’m only 28.

We broke out the tent for trips to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, Fort Flagler State Park, and The Gorge. We’re finally getting the hang of easy camping. There are very few dishes to wash, lots of cornhole to play, and all the camping gear is all stored in one place in preparation for a quick trip.

The end of camping at the Gorge was the start of my first overnight motorcycle trip. I still think back to that trip quite often and I hope we can do another one next year! It was very liberating to be on the bike and know that my night’s destination was not my morning’s origin.

The other local trip that springs to mind was Whistler over Labor Day with my parents. It was my first time at Whistler in the summer. While it was odd being there with no snow, we still had a great time and even got snowed on a bit. We hiked around Whistler Peak, ziplined across Fitzsimmons Creek, and enjoyed the nightlife in the village. I’m happy that I got to give my parents a little glimpse of what Whistler is all about. Hopefully they’ll see some sights that they recognize while watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

I already mentioned the ski trip to Vermont, but those were just a few of the 29 days I spent on skis. That’s more than double what I’ve done in any previous year. The craziest ski adventure was backcountry skiing on Rainier with MikeD in a blizzard in June. If I hadn’t missed out on March, I would have skied at least one day for 8 consecutive months!

Jay and Andy flew out in February to see what Seattle skiing is all about. The first day at Crystal was one of the best days we’ve ever had on the snow, and it was made even better by the presence of a photographer. Bernard made us look much better than we were and it was an absolute blast. The second time we headed back to Crystal produced much worse conditions, but we made the best of it. It took us over half an hour to make it down Exterminator while we played a game to see who could make the most consecutive turns without falling. Six was the high water mark for a long time until somebody strung eight turns together. Considering the unpredictable Seattle winter weather, I’m extremely thankful that it all came together so nicely for this trip.

I also joined a ski racing team from work. It’s a fairly low key league, but it was an absolute blast to cut loose and ski as fast as I could without fear of ski patrol hunting me down. I improved dramatically over the year and made a solid contribution to the team. It will be interesting to see what I can do next season now that I have some experience to build on.

Hope on the Slopes is an event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I missed it the previous year due to surgery. I racked up over 60,000 feet in a single day and more importantly, raised a lot of money for the American Cancer Society. Thanks for your support! It was much more of a mental struggle than I thought it would be. I’d like to say that I’ll definitely do it again next year, but I’ll have to see if I can work myself up to it.

I came close to joining the ski patrol at Summit Central. I spent a couple days tagging along with them and learning what it was all about. While I’d love to get all that medical training and be able to help people out on the slopes, I couldn’t stomach the time commitment at this point in my life. Tim and I decided to take an outdoor first aid class instead and that somewhat satisfied my desire for a little medical training. I still hope to be a ski patroller at some point in my life, but it’s not a good fit for me right now.

I made a concerted effort to attend more concerts this year. Pun intended. The ticket stubs sitting on my dresser make for an impressive list: Matt Costa, Ben Folds, The Senate, American Chopper, Jack Johnson, Matt Nathanson, Jason Mraz, and Phantom of the Opera. They are all memorable for different reasons, but I would jump at the chance to go to another Ben Folds concert.

Tim moved out a couple months ago. He was a great roommate, but sorry buddy, I’ve been enjoying having the house to myself again. I’m very happy to be part of the wedding in January and wish you two nothing but the best!

I was very goal oriented when I wrote the last year in review. I set tangible goals like climbing Mt. Si, getting up to Camp Muir, tailgating, and riding along the Washington coast. While I accomplished many of my goals for the year, the ones I just mentioned haven’t happened yet. Goals like that are easy to plan for, but the thing I really wanted, I couldn’t plan for. Thankfully, around the middle of the year, I met Tyla, and the rest of my oh so important goals happily took a bit of a back seat. A few hours before she met me, she got a fortune cookie that said, "Your love life will change for the better." That cookie got half the story right, but it failed to mention how mine would improve too!

Over the last half year, we’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time together, gone on countless adventures, and she still hasn’t run away screaming. We enjoy a lot of the same activities and had some great adventures including kayaking in the San Juan’s, a couple camping trips and concerts, lots of motorcycle rides, various Christmas oriented activities and too many fun random weekends to count. You know I’ve been hesitant to blog too much about personal relationships, but I’m losing that inhibition. Tyla might have ended up at the end of this post, but she is by far the best thing that happened to me this year.

And so 2008 is in the book and 2009 is beginning. What lies ahead? I’ve never been more excited to find out! May God bless your coming year!

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007