Guest Post - Liam reports from Tennessee

Liam is currently 11 years old. This next post is copied from Liam’s journal with his permission:

I had gone to Tennessee last summer and on that trip I got my first gun. It is a single shot, bolt action 22 rifle. Another whole year passed and it is almost summer 2011 again already. Dad and I went on another trip to Tennessee where I stayed at my grandparent’s cabin.

After a 5 hour flight, we rented a car and drove another 5 hours. That trip really made me think about wilderness. Here I swim and hunt and shoot. The ground is very rocky and dry. When you walk on it, it doesn’t move the slightest bit. The cabin is surrounded by mountains and hills. The river next to the field is running fast this time of year and it floods sometimes after a long rain.

Grandma cooks amazing food. She makes huge meals and they are amazing. Grandpa taught me to shoot last year when I was 10 years old. Me and grandma walk down to the river. The hill that the house is on has a garden where grandma plants different plants and eats some of them.

One of my favorite things is Betty. She is my grandma and grandpa’s dog. She is black and white and she loves it out here. She hunts, runs and plays around in the hills. In the woods, Me and Dad and Grandpa go hunting. The way I see it is that Tennessee is the most beautiful wilderness ever. The rivers, lakes and trees are the most amazing sites here.

On the 4th day me and dad, Daniel, were in a shooting contest. We needed some bug spray so we drove to a gas station we thought was open and yanked on the door. Ring, ring, ring the store alarm sounded. So we left and headed to the family dollar. After we came back grandma showed me a baby bird that had finally gotten out of its nest. I picked it up and placed it back into the nest. Before I finished lice had gotten all over my hands from the bird.

Grandpa also taught me to weld, drive his truck and more about my family history. Today we went to dinner and then to Walmart for more ammo. When we came back I began to play war with an airsoft gun until I saw a large, black snake which I tried, and succeeded, to catch. In return the snake bit me and grandma dabbed alcohol and soap on the bite. Afterwards I went back out to see old snake and it left up a hill, and now I am back inside.

I learned to play a new card game called spades and joined my grandma’s team last night. I was lucky. Hopefully I’m as lucky on grandpa’s team.

End of Liam's Journal Entry

Photos from the trip are here

Best Photos of 2010

Hi all, each year I participate in a photo competition to be published in the Microsoft Photographers annual photo book. Proceeds from the sales of the book go to charity. I end up going through a couple of week process to sort, pick and edit my submissions. This year's process ended with five photos selected. I have included a link to the finalists below.

You can view the rest of this year's submissions here

I hope you enjoy them.

Daniel

The Sibling House Annual Auction

Marlaina and I have been supporting a local non-profit for a number of years. We are inspired by the work they do and have chosen them as one of the charities we contribute to.

Mike and Lynne Gaskill are the founders of Sibling House. They live in our neighborhood in Kirkland. In addition to the incredible work they do for Sibling House, they remain active foster care providers and adoptive parents. Many mornings on my way out of the neighborhood, heading to work, I see them out for a morning walk pushing a stroller or double stroller. .

Sibling House has many amazing programs that support families in the foster care system, but the one they were founded on is “keep siblings in foster care together”. We live incredibly blessed lives. It’s hard to even visualize the sort of hardship and trauma that foster kids have to live through.

Something I do each year is sponsor a Microsoft table for the Sibling House annual fund raising auction. Basically that means round up other couples to join us for the evening. This year we filled two tables. It really is a super evening out. We don’t get that many date nights and we always appreciate this one. One fun thing they do each year is have a dessert auction. Each table bids on one of the amazing desserts that are donated by area bakers (a lot of fancy cakes). This year the five couples at one of our tables put in $200 each, which resulted in $1000 contribution to Sibling House ($2000 with Microsoft matching) and a great cake!

Here are some photos from our date night this last Saturday night

Until next time...

Back from Arizona

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks! I had a week of work in Las Vegas. I stopped and spent a couple of days with Glen and Diane on the way down. At the end of the week Marlaina and Liam flew in. The next day we were on the road to the Moore family reunion in Amado (Grandpa's 95th Birthday). It was very well attended. I guess about 50 of us showed up. I'll have lots more on that as I get through the pictures and start posting them.

After the reunion we spent a night with Lyle and Kathy Bitker (along with Dad, Joan and Angela) and then started heading home via all of the national parks we thought we could squeeze in. We saw some great sites. I have posted a sampling of the photos here:

Daniel Moore Photo - Southwest Romp

Hope you enjoy the pics. More on the reunion soon.

Daniel

Road Trip!

I have back to back weeks out of town. First I will be at Microsoft Conference in Las Vegas for a week, then Marlaina and Liam fly to Vegas to meet me and we drive down to Amado for Grandpa's 95th birthday.

Then we spend a week getting home, driving through scenic stuff and taking pictures. Montezuma's Castle, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, etc. We are really looking forward to it!

Of course one thing we have been looking at is just the cost of gas. 3600 miles round trip will register on the gas card. Then yesterday I got this picture in email. It was just too good to not build a blog entry around.

We'll be seeing a bunch of you in just a couple of weeks in Amado!

Greetings from La Push!

Liam gets three days off for Mid-Winter break and President's day. Add the weekend to that and we have a five day mini-vacation. This year we headed to one of our favorite campgrounds on the Washington coast. The town is La Push in the middle of the Quileute Reservation which is fully surrounded by the Olympic National Park. One of the things we love about this spot is that Summer, our three year old shepard/lab/husky/who-knows rescue dog can run off the leash. She loves to play in the ocean and there are no rules here about that.

This started as a very questionable trip. I had a horrible cold. On the drive in we drove through a fierce snow storm. The forecast was rain and overcast everyday. I pretty much anticipated sitting around the fire and watching the storms blow in. We arrive, 24 hours later my cold is gone, the sun is shining and the beach is fantastic. It turns into a fantastic trip. Liam has a friend from school with him, Tom, and they just have a blast together.

Our campground in La Push

As always, I wander around with the camera taking pictures. Above you see our 5th wheel travel trailer and behind it you can see the truck we pull it with. Everything here is so scenic. I took a lot of pictures of the beach and the kids. For some reason the driftwood especially grabbed my attention on this trip. If you want to look at the photos from the trip, they are here: La Push, February 2011

Folsom Prison Blues

To this day I recall the albums we owned when I was a kid growing up in Tucson. We had Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Porter Waggoner and an album of Polkas. I still remember every word to "Too Fat Polka". I grew up listening to, and loving, country music. It wasn't until I was an adult that I really even had listened to any rock music. Today I would say that what I love is classic country, classic rock and some of the newer country as well.

About ten years ago I started hosting the Wednesday Night Music Club. Some fellow musicians and I get together every Wednesday night to play music for a couple of hours. We even get out and gig from time to time.

Some videos from shows we have done

Pictures from the jam over the years

As you might expect a bunch of us are Microsoft geeks and this past Wednesday night our keyboard player is recording video on his new Windows Phone. I didn't even know he was recording. The room is very dark and a phone is not really what you think of as a video camera. The next day he has published a clip from the jam. The clip starts about half way through the song but as you can see we are usually having a good time...

Daniel - Folsom Prison Blues

I guess the apple never really falls far from the tree....

Liam's first swim meet

Liam has been swimming and taking lessons since he was five years old. He is a nut for the water. This last year he joined swim team. Some practices he swims a mile! That is 52 laps (104 lengths) of the pool. I never have been a strong swimmer and truly am both impressed and proud of his ability.

This morning he participated in his first ever invitational meet. Marlaina and I both went to watch and cheer. Wow, what a zoo! There were probably a hundred kids there. Liam competed in three events. The 400 yard team medley (backstroke), the 50 yard freestyle and the 50 yard backstroke. He didn't win, but he did get his feet wet (haha). He knows a bit more about what it feels like to compete. Super job!

I took some pictures. They aren't great but they do capture the spirit of the event.

Liam diving from the starting board

Liam in the 50 yard backstroke

More pics of Liam swimming

Heading to Amado for Grandpa's Birthday

Hi everyone, it looks like we're all going to be in Amado for Grandpa Moore's 95th birthday celebration. Wow, that is certainly a lot of living. I must say that I rather enjoy the prospect of a long life courtesy of the Moore genes.

There is a lot of email flying around on this. If you want info and don't have it, please drop me a line. Send email to Daniel

Miriam is looking into the availability of the Cow Palace. They are closed right now but are expecting to be back open in March.

Velma is looking into the availability of the Longhorn Grill. I have put pictures of both below just because they are cool to look at and represent years of history for the family. Grandpa's 90th was at the Cow Palace also.

Right now the plan is Dinner in Amado at 4PM on Sunday afternoon, March 27th. Which establishment is still not certain, but you should be able to park once and go to either one!

Cow Palace

Longhorn Bar and Grill

If you need to feed your GPS, this will get you there:

Longhorn Bar & Grill

28851 S Nogales Hwy, Amado, AZ 85645

(520) 398-3955

Hope to see you all in Amado at the end of March!