Santa Barbara January 21st-24th.

We were fortunate enough to be able to fly to Santa Barbara in order to provide love and support for our family, as they celebrated and mourned the life of Sam Adams "The Rock" (July 22, 1931-January 11, 2010) Although the weekend was difficult at times, the funeral service was beautiful and the attendance of all of the athletes that Sam touched was moving. We were fortunate to know Sam and even more fortunate to know his family. It was a wonderful gift to be with our entire extended family.

My 27th Birthday

New Zealand Nov 20-Dec 7 2009. The Milford Track

The Milford Track is said to be "The finest walk in the world." We agree completely however, "hike" would be a better descriptive word. The hike covers 33.5 miles over four days. The first day we took a bus from Queenstown to Te Anu where we took a ferry boat ride across Lake Te Anu to the head of the trail and had a 2 km hike to the first lodge. The second day was where the hike truly began and we did 10 miles that day. The third day we summited a Mckinnon pass and did a totoal of 5,000 feet elevation and 9 miles. The 4th and final day lead us to the Milford sound and was a 13.5 mile hike. The group we hiked with was incredibly diverse with people from Korea, the UK, Australia and France and age ranges from 15-65. The rivers we hiked a long were incredibly clear and pristine. They also had huge rainbow and brown trout which we attempted to catch (Brian being the only successful one). The water was so clean we could fill up our water bottles without treating the water at any water source along the hike. We highly recommend this adventure to anyone who has a love of the outdoors and natures beauty.

New Zealand November 2009, South Island Pearl Jam Concert

We didn't even realize Pearl Jam was finishing there 2009 world tour in Christchurch, NZ. Once we found out we knew we had to be there. Liam Finn and Ben Harper opened for Pearl Jam at the Rugby colliseum in Christchurch. It was an incredible concert and amazing how music transcends all cultures and countries.

New Zealand November 2009, North Island

New Zealand November 2009, North Island