It's quiet around here....

It is that time again. The time where all the Tokolas pack up and high tail it to the beach. This year Sarah and Max went off leaving me here by my lonesome. Its rough, not being woken up at night. That kind of thing can wear on ya, leaving you rested and energized the following day. Not sure if I can take much more of it. After taking care of a few details here in T-town, I'll make my way down south just for a few days, someone has to keep Uncle John running, H2C is only a week away.

My new toy

For our anniversary, Sarah bought me a ipod nano along with the Nike+ chip and sensor. Its pretty cool, I attach a chip to my shoe laces and a plug goes into the ipod. Then my run info goes to nike's website where you can challenge other folks to run and join teams to compete with one another.

It has the best of both worlds, on one hand you are out running and getting buff. On the other hand you still get the gadgety side and get to fiddle around on the web. A nice combo of jock & geek. Now I just need to get Uncle John to get one, then we could smack talk each other in cyber-space, yippee.

A Calm Returns to Tacoma

Sonja & Jordan's wedding went off nice and smoothly. The days prior to that.... more like a circus. It was nice to get to visit with the whole family again, and be introduced to the new members of the family.

The bachelor party started off the wedding festivities (at least for us guys). It was a nice laid back gathering at Jordan's new house. BBQ and beer keep us going though the evening. Some of the party goers got a little down and dirty. Xander & Quentin were particularly fond of the caves (hedge bushes) in the back yard. Once we had our fill of hot dogs we moved inside to the poker tables. We divided up between two tables. There are some things that are just a given when Tokola's play poker 1. JJ gets loud 2. Geoff ends up with a large pile of chips. Both still held true, though something did happen that as far as I know is a first for the event. I actually came out ahead! I had to take a picture, this is about half way into the night. My only regret is that none of these chips came from Uncle John's wallet. Oh-well there is always the beach.

Max spent the first few days with Grandma and Grandpa and rejoined us the day of the wedding. At first the was content just sitting in dad's lap but once he figured out there was a echo in the chapel he felt compeled to add his own vocals to the special moment. At that point we decided to watch the rest of the wedding from the lobby. We were not alone for long, by the end of the wedding Zoe, Xander and Bianca (Sherri's baby) were all in the lobby with Max.

The reception was at Fircrest Gold club, getting to be a Kanick tradition. We laughed, some cried, good times were had by all. The Tokola's dominated the dance floor, then we sent the lovely couple along there way to honeymoon in Hawaii.

When Sarah and I arrived home late that night we were a little surprised to find the newly weds in our drive way. Something about a slight cheese odor emanating from inside the car.

Max at Costco

Every now and then Max comes and visits me at work. I think he may even be getting to know the place a little bit. He knows when he comes in that I'm somewhere around and starts looking all over the place. He loves my name tag, so we made him one of his own. Max also has a keen interest in my radio and tries to get at it whenever possible.

Max thought he would try his luck on daddy's forklift, though in the end he just wanted to play with my radio some more.

And we're back...

I know what you're saying, " I didn't even know you were gone". Well for the past 4 days Sarah and I were enjoying ourselves down in Disneyland. Just the two of us, it was the longest we have been away from Max. We had a blast, a new ride has just been opened in California Adventure, called Toy Story Mania. Its an interactive blaster ride/game. Loads of fun, that is once you get though the line which at times is over 2hours long. To make the time go a little quicker, Disney added a companion to keep you company. The one and only Mr. Potato Head. He sings, dances and pokes fun and the folks around him. The long lines did have one advantage, while all those folks were waiting there, it shorten the lines on other rides a little.

Disney also updated some of there other faculties. Small world was shut down for a remodel, so we were spared that lovable song that we all know and love.

WARNING!!!! Stacy you may want to skip this part if James or Q-dog are near you. The Star Trader, the store right next to Star tours with all the starwars stuff has added a new feature that had all the little padawans lining up with dads in tow. A make your own light-saber station. You could pick your blade color, handle type(not sure how Q-dog would react to a anakin/obi-won handle hybrid), one sided or two. A dangerous place for any potential Jedi 3years or older.

All in all it was a good trip, and we both escaped with out a sun burn (a improvement upon our last trip down south). Though over the next two weeks we may wish we were back in Disneyland.

Max spend the time with the grandparents. The Kanicks took him to see the Point Defiance Zoo, while the Bridges added some

Max set free

Today Max and company paid another visit to the Mary Bridge Children center. It has already been 4 weeks since he first started sporting the latest fashion in fiberglass. But as is the case with most fashion fads this one has now gone the way powdered wigs and whale bone corsets. Its a simple enough procedure. They have a little power saw that slices the cast right off, and since we live in the 21st century we have the technology that allows us to use power tools even on squirming little babies at no harm to them, woot.


No doctor visit would be complete without Max adding some sort of lung exercise. Though this one was more like the competition that the previous exercises were building up to. Gee golly gosh, that kid got some lungs, it won't be long before Max is whooping up on both Uncle John and me in the Hood to coast.


For the finale to this ordeal was a bath, which Max actually enjoyed. He missed being able to splash around. Kind of hard when all you have are wet sponges for the past few weeks. He is already back to cruising around like the past 4 weeks never happened. Another plus to Max having his cast off is both Sarah and I will no longer have to endure every stranger that passes us by wanting an explanation on why a infant could have such an injury.

Sound to Narrows

This one goes out to Uncle John, got to get my smack talk in as we build up to the beach. Today I ran a 12k in 53:17. Hope you're puting your miles in too, be ashame if you couldn't keep pace with Cole and me at the beach.


I already know what you are going to say, and I say "Bring it on"