Thirty Years of John

John had actually had two birthday cakes when he turned two

His first birthday

Born July 24th, 1979

As John turns 30, here are some of my favorite pictures of him as a child. From the stories I have heard about John growing up, he was quit the inquisitive child who was in to everything and not scared of anything.

John's 30th Birthday!

On Sunday night, we went out to Space Needle for dinner with John's family to celebrate his 30th birthday. Mary reminisced about how they had come there for dinner to celebrate John's grandparents wedding anniversary, when John was a child, and how excited he was to be there and he had ordered the special Space Needle dessert that has been on the menu since it opened and has smoke, from the dry ice, coming out from it. John decided to pass on ordering that dessert again and went with creme brulee.

Dog Days of Summer

Mocha and his ball

Pepper watching TV

As I have been home this summer, I've noticed that Pepper and Mocha spend all day sleeping and don't actually get up to do anything until about 4:00 - which is the time that I usually get home when teaching. Here are a few pictures of them doing their favorite things. Mocha spends most of the day either sleeping with his ball or begging for us to play ball with him. Pepper spends most of his also sleeping and watching TV. He will literally lay day in front of the TV and watch it - Mocha has no interest in the TV at all. Pepper likes to bark at all of the animals on the TV. It doesn't matter if it is a dog, cat, horse, cow, giraffe - he knows it isn't human and barks at it as soon as he sees it. We are trying to get him to stop doing this, so when we say no bark, he just paces back and forth in front of the TV.

Discovery Bay

Me and John
Pat and Mary

John, Pat, Mary, and Chris

Chris, Andrea, Pat, Me, and John

Chris, Andrea, Mary, Me, and John

Mary and her Birthday Cake

(John insisted on putting 62 candles on it)

John cooking dinner

We went to Discovery Bay this last weekend to celebrate Mary's (John's mom) Birthday. Pat had rented a house for the weekend right on the water and we came up on Saturday along with Chris and Andrea. John made a great dinner for everyone that night, which included fresh oysters and crab from the bay. The next day we headed into Sequim for the Lavender Festival and spent some time there before we went home.

Mariners Game

John and me after the game

John, Colby, and Me

Jim, Peyton, Megan, Brody, Riley, Tessa, and Emery

The Madsen Family

Griffey up to bat

Mom and Dad

Emery, Diane, and Brooklyn

Cameron, Liz, and Bret

Taylor, Dylan, and Kim

Last night, the whole Madsen family went to the Mariners game. It was half off ticket night so tickets were only $10. All 28 of us were in attendance. It was a great game with the Mariners winning 5-0, with Washbrun pitching a one hitter game.

Nicole and Patrick's Wedding

This last weekend I headed down to San Diego with my good friends Jennifer and Jamie to attend our friend Nicole's wedding. We had a great time hanging out with her and her San Diego friends. The ceremony was beautiful along with the weather. I wish we could of stayed longer.

San Francisco

John had surprised Mary and me with a trip to San Francisco a couple of weekends ago and this was the weekend we got to go. We flew down Saturday morning, checked into our hotel, and then spent the day sightseeing. We took a cruise around the bay and then got tickets on one of the double decker tour bus and spent the day cruising around the city. We rode the trolleys, went to Chinatown, visited Fisherman's Wharf, and Union Square before flying back on Sunday night. We had a great weekend and I can't wait to go back and visit again with John sometime.