Van Hoosen News 2005

December 25, 2005
Scott's side of the family came to our house again this year, and it was very special and enjoyable because all the family was there. We played games like Balderdash and ping-pong, did a gift exchange, and caught up about the past year.

December 24, 2005
This year, Becky's side of the family came to our house for Christmas Eve. We had a great time with the family, talking, playing ping-pong, and had a fun gift exchange.

December 15, 2005
Happy Birthday Scott!

Becky and some of the other Vernier gals decorated Scott's office with black streamers and "old age" stuff for his 40th birthday.

(Pictures by David Lim)

November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving! We had a nice Thanksgiving at home. Becky cooked up a great dinner with turkey and ham and all the goodies. After we ate, Blake rode around on his new 5' giraffe unicycle.

October 28, 2005
A group of Vernier employees got together and planted 200 trees by the Max tracks near our work. We were instructed and assisted by the group Friends of Trees in how to do it right, to keep them safe from the weather and the nutria. A big thanks to David and Chris Vernier for sponsoring this event! We're looking forward to see some big, healthy trees growing in a few years.

August 19, 2005
We cooked up yesterday's crawdads in the morning so Jared could have some before they headed home. Around noon, Glenda returned to camp. It was a hot day, so Glenda, Jon, Becky and Scott plopped their chairs in the lake and relaxed as the periodic wake from passing boats splashed up on them. Meanwhile, the rest of the group went on an ice cream mission to the lodge. In the evening, Jim got in a popcorn fight with all the kids. Jim took Jon, Becky and Scott on a late-night boat ride under a big full moon.

August 18, 2005
Jon and Scott went diving and gathered around 25 crawdads, which we dumped into the crawdad trap. Jim and Becky pulled Jonathan, Jared and Kaleb on the Ski Bob behind Jim's Sea Doo. Jon cooked up some pot roast in a large dutch oven, and Scott cooked some lemon bars in a smaller one. Both turned out good. RJ caught a huge salmon, which Jim cleaned and cooked with mayo and pepper. The meat was very pink and very delicious (Scott ate most of it).

August 17, 2005
Jon took out Jonathan and Kaleb on inner tubes. Jim took out Becky and Scott on his boat. Now we want a Sea Doo! :) When the lingering clouds finally burned off, Jon took a bunch of us out on his boat to a shallow area where Scott took several kids diving. First he took Jared, who did very well, as he'd done it a couple of times before. The only catch was the small frog that swam into his wetsuit at the beginning of the dive. :) Next Scott took out Kaleb. He was nervous at first, but after a couple minutes he started having fun. Next he took down Marissa, holding on to her as she breathed off his spare reg. She seemed very comfortable in the water, as Corey dived around them in his gear. After that, Corey and Scott did a short dive together, where they found a towel.

Some of the boys had been hunting birds with BB guns, on the stipulation that they had to eat whatever they killed. Blake downed a bluejay, which Jim cleaned, removing the breast. Blake cooked it over the fire on a marshmallow skewer, and several of us gave it a try (Scott thought it tasted like roast, not chicken). A few minutes later, a deer walked very close to our campsite. Jim took several pictures as he stalked it with his bow-hunting skills.

August 16, 2005
Hiked 8 miles to and from Muskrat Lake, where we found tons of tiny frogs. Jonathan and RJ found a couple of large black leeches and captured them in a bottle. I took Jared, Corey, Blake and Kaleb shooting with my .357 magnum. We brought back a couple of froggies and a leech. Ajax and Comet did very well on this hike, which was much farther than they had ever walked before. We removed their leashes on the way back, and they stayed with us perfectly. After the long hike, we all had ice cream from the resort.

August 15, 2005
Scott took Jim on his first scuba dive in the grassy area off the beach. He really seemed to enjoy it, though he had trouble clearing one of his ears. We rented a Sea Doo jet ski for the day. Jared threw Gary off the back twice, Jonathan and John wiped out once, and Corey and Scott biffed it as well. Jim took Scott out on his Sea Doo boat (WOO HOO!!)

August 14, 2005
When it got hot out, we had a friendly waterfight, floated on water toys, and conducted experiment to see how many people Plan B would carry. We got 10 people in it before it finally sunk. RJ caught a couple of trout off the dock, which were cooked up for a nice little snack. Corey and I did some scuba diving in the area in front of the campsite.

August 13, 2005
Camping at Cultus Lake! We arrived at Cultus Lake in a caravan with Gary, Jared, Jim, RJ and Marissa. We set up camp. Gary wanted to buy a new Sea Doo, but had to settle for a small dinghy he aptly named Plan B.

August 8, 2005
Corey made some really cool new buttons for the website (the ones at the top and bottom of all these pages). His look ten times better than the ugly ones I made before. Great work Corey!

June 25, 2005
We bought a new car, a red 2005 Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 with all the options. It's the first sporty car we've owned, and hopefully will make our drives to work and back more fun.

June 16, 2005
Two new additions to our family! We went to look at one puppy, and brought home two! Take a look at how cute they are, and you'll understand why. :) The brothers are American Eskimo puppies, though we haven't chosen names yet.

May 26 - May 30, 2005
Our family took a trip to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. The weather was perfect, around 70 to 80 most of the time. We arrived Thursday afternoon, and settled into our hotel.

Friday morning, we headed to Disneyland to start things off with Indiana Jones and couple other rides, then headed over to California Adventure for the rest of the day. We had fun on the California Screamin' roller coaster, then went Soarin' over California. It warmed up a bit, so we did the Grizzly River Run water ride to cool down. We headed over to the Tower of Terror, the newest attraction at Cal. Adventure. Corey didn't want to go on it, but the rest of us went on it. It was pretty exciting, and not really as scary as we expected. Corey joined us later when we all went on it again. Some how Blake managed to talk me into going on the Maliboomer, which shoots you straight up, then drops you back down very quickly. We both liked it quite a bit.

Saturday, we used our early pass to Disneyland. In the first hour, we did Star Tours, rode the Matterhorn three times, then did the cars at Autopia. We hung around for a while, then Corey and I wanted to go back to the hotel to swim/hot tub while Becky and Blake did a couple more rides. On the way back, a family gave Corey and I a Fast-Pass for Indiana Jones, so we were able to do a quick ride, bypassing the 95 minute wait. Saturday evening we had dinner at Medieval Times, which was a lot of fun and good food.

Sunday morning, we did a few rides at California Adventure, then took an afternoon break in the pool. We headed back to Disneyland, with the hopes of watching the fireworks, but the crowds were really horrible. There were way too many people here due to the fact that this was Memorial Day weekend, plus the kick-off to Disneyland's 50th Anniversary celebration. We shouldered our way part-way in, gave up, and shouldered our way back out of the area, and eventually rode the train around until fireworks started, then watched them from mainstreet.

Monday morning, we walked through the shops at Downtown Disney, and the boys played some games at the ESPN Zone. I didn't feel well this day, I think I had a mild fever, so I napped at a table while they played. Afterward we did a couple rides at California Adventure, before heading to the airport to fly home.

March 19 - March 20, 2005
We headed up to Sunriver to stay in the Vernier's cabin, which they graciously let employees stay at periodically. The weather was cold, and it snowed Saturday morning, big flake, but didn't stick. It stayed cold, but cleared up the rest of the day. We went for a bike ride, barbequed some hot dogs, watched a few Kung Fu episodes which Becky bought for me on DVD, and relaxed as much as possible. The area is very beautiful along the river, and very peaceful.

March 18, 2005
Happy 16th Wedding Anniversary Scott and Becky!

February 26 - February 27, 2005
Gary invited us to spend the weekend at Fort Stevens in a YURT. We did some bike riding and a geocache, then in the evening some raccoons showed up at the door. We offered them some crackers, which they took from our hands. The next morning we rode our bikes to the beach and checked out the wreck of the Peter Iredale.

January 22 - January 23, 2005
Vernier's holiday party was at the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort this year. We enjoyed the nice big pool and hot tubs Saturday afternoon, then the Vernier party started that evening. After a nice dinner, several people displayed their performance talents. We had an accordian player, ballroom dancers, musicians, and Becky did some belly dancing. This was her first solo performance.

January 1, 2005
Happy New Year!