Brett and Debbie

Halloween costumes 2009

We were relatively quiet for Halloween this year, but went to a nice party and put together some fun costumes! We didn't carve pumpkins for the first time ever, but we still had a good number or trick-or-treaters with cute costumes including hermione, lots of skeletons, army girl, princesses, werewolf, devil lady, panda bear, luke skywalker, power ranger, and dorothy from the wizard of oz

Brett went as a marionette, and Debbie as a stingray this year:

Here's Debbie's costume in motion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eBRa6WumVY

Also, you can look at some pictures of nearby decorated houses although I haven't gotten a picture of our house decorated yet.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bretthall/PortlandHalloweenDecorations2009#

Happy Halloween everyone!

Photos from our visit to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks

We had a great time in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It took awhile to narrow our 1200 photos down to a more reasonable number of bests, but we've finally done it and have posted them on Picasaweb.

We hiked an average of 8 miles a day (Debbie was trying to kill me), and did our fair share of camping and backpacking in between stays in nice cabins or fancy hotels. We had great weather even though late September has a possibility of serious weather in the area - we only had chilly evenings and no snow.

We saw all kinds of animal life up close, including moose (closer than Debbie bargained for), elk, bison, and even a rare type of woodpecker. We weren't entirely disappointed that we didn't see a bear given how much camping and wilderness hiking we did.

The thermal features at Yellowstone are truly surreal - bubbling hot springs, giant geysers and roiling fumeroles.

Even after Labor Day there were plenty of people around all the easily accessible wonders and viewpoints. But as soon as we stepped just a few feet onto a trails we found ourselves surrounded by scenery and very few people.

Here's a couple photos that we hope you enjoy, but visit picasa for the rest:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bretthall/BestOfGrandTetonAndYellowstoneNationalParks

Picking grapes 2009

We had a great time this past weekend picking some grapes that Greg & Jill grew in their vineyard and pressing them. We started early on a cool but beautiful morning. The coffee helped keep us warm while the grapes stayed cool for processing. All hands were helping pick grapes, filling buckets while we emptied them in Greg's new Italian crusher. Next we labored on Matias and Brett's old-style ratchet press squeezing all the juice from the grapes. Maybe stomping would be easier next year?

Everyone pitched in, had a great time, and we ended up with 15 gallons of juice that is fermenting away right now to hopefully become a drinkable white wine in a couple months. Maybe it will even be good!

Now if we could only figure out what kind of grapes those are.

Enjoy all the photos here, these below are just a teaser!

Back from Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons National Park

We're back from our great road trip adventure in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks! We saw and experienced some great sights, mountains, geysers, hot springs, wild animals, and hiked roughly 7 miles a day. We oscillated between nice lodges and camping, and had great weather the entire trip except it did get down to 30 degrees at night.

We had a great trip, but are still getting together the pictures so we don't have any to post yet. Stay tuned!