I resolve to go back to the Gorge

When I started this site over 10 years ago there wasn't Facebook, texting, Twitter, and really cheap communications. It wasn't quite as bad as my childhood with long distance fees and postage but there still wasn't a cheap way to keep people informed. 

Since 2012, I’ve gotten behind on galleries and general posting because it is so simple to text friends and family and post to Facebook to communicate more broadly with all your social circles. So the site has evolved for the biggest things. It’s also became an obligation that annoys me at times. Anyone who frequents this site knows we went to 30A for Thanksgiving.  Between myself, Jenna, and Melissa everyone interested has seen the sights and sounds in posts, photos, and videos. So why post here?

As social life evolved so has this site. I have a record of the entire history of my little adventure in one place. A place I control. Text messages have to be purged to make space on your phone. Want to leave Facebook-hope you have a whole day to download important memories. I don’t even acknowledge Twitter anymore for personal use. It has become so vitriol I hate myself for even checking it. 

The Sullivan Adventure has evolved to a place for Jenna and I rather than a place for our family to “catch up.” I used to get in trouble with my the grandparents if they missed a birthday party and I didn’t immediately post it here. Today they’ve Facetimed the kid’s within minutes of the conclusion. Then it was to inform, now it’s to enjoy. Jenna and I sit at the computer sometimes and will just look at the posts from a year and shake our heads how fast our little train is speeding out of the station.

Control has starting to become something more important to me as well. I’ve been happy with the control Squarespace gives me. It costs more than Wordpress or Blogger but I’ve never had a DOS attack or any intrusion at all. I’ve never had a minute of downtime. The pages can load slow if I have too many fancy posts (slideshow galleries particularly kill the speed) on the front page but generally it’s solid. Most importantly they give me tools to export out if I so choose.

So this year’s resolution is to catch up on the galleries and the vacations and the excursions and the birthdays and the everything. I also resolve to post big memories here first and link them to other social sites rather than defaulting to group think. I’m starting with a gallery from September of this year. A small little trip Jenna and I took to the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy.

The kids' first concert

My first concert was the Gap Band with Midnight Star opening for them. I don't remember the year but I've never forgotten the concert. My big sister let me tag along with her and her friends. No one ever forgets their first concert.  Noah and Cam got to go to really cool laid back one. Amos Lee and David Gray had an outside concert that was perfect.  It was all lawn seating. The view was great. The music was perfect. We love Amos Lee.  The kid's have grown up listening to his music and Noah could sing along to about a third of the songs.  David Gray was a mystery to me. I haven't really listened to him since his first album but his show was awesome. He was a great performer.  Hopefully it made an impression with the kids. I'm glad Amanda and Sue got to share it with them.  Come to think of it, I'm glad their parents got to share it with them too.

Uploaded by Chad Sullivan on 2015-08-02.

Uploaded by Chad Sullivan on 2015-08-02.

The Swoosh

Last time we were in Portland, I got a tour of Nike's campus from Amanda. This time the kids were bigger so we all decided to take a peek. Coming from 2 people who work in school districts, it seemed like a foreign country.  We were there during lunch time and the amount of people working out was astonishing. The culture of health was unlike anything we experience. If you workout you get an additional 30 minutes of lunch.  I don't know logistically how every company can emulate that but what a service for your employees. Everything from the tennis courts, to the gyms, to the pool, to the soccer field was being used. Jenna loved seeing the soccer field where one of her Nike Training Club app's trainer's had a bullhorn and was putting about 200 employees through a crazy workout.

The kids enjoyed it in different ways.  Campbell just thought it was a town with cool art. Noah just looked at the banners of all the athletes.  They got to run a lap on the track and see museum worthy things they won't appreciate until they are older. This trip to Portland really opened Noah's eyes to a lot of sports.  Lacrosse seems to be his new "favorite" sport. My personal favorite moment was seeing a group of engineers (or whatever they are) putting a group through workouts as they tested Sparx gear.

Thanks to Sue for taking us there on her day off, even though people kept trying to stop her and engage her in work :)

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Oregon 2015

What an amazing trip. We crammed in as much of the Pacific Northwest as we could but still left feeling like we missed a lot.  I'll document the different adventures we had one by one. The trip started on a high note with Campbell flying for the first time that she can remember. The look on her face as we took off was awesome.  Then we landed at Amanda and Sue's resort.  It needs a name like Shangri La or something.  Then we hit the coast, we hit the woods, we hit Nike, we hit the waterfalls, we went to the kid's first concert, we brewed beer with an airshow flying overhead, and mostly we recharged our batteries.  Our hosts were amazing and for the second time in as many trips, Jenna was checking job openings in case we decided to stay :)  

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