Category: Riley

Riley and I were homeless for a while, when he was just a little guy. We lived in a cardboard box, on a friends back porch, in Kent, WA.

Life was hard but we were pretty happy, we had each other. That bond carries on today…

My son Riley had a very influential teacher in elementary school (sadly I can’t remember his name). Riley dropped by and visited him one day, while in high school. The teacher recognized his love of cars, and recommended Wyotech as a career option.

Wyotech is the premiere trade school in the United States, which teaches people how to rebuild automobiles that have been damaged in accidents, back to original condition.

Riley chose this option and made an amazing journey down to Laramie, Wyoming after high school, mastered the Wyotech courses, and returned home to Kent, Washington. Considering how many college grads are unemployed, it was a great decision.

He has evolved into a skilled craftsman and is now working for one of the best autobody shops in Washington. Here is Riley’s latest project, a mangled Jeep, restored to new.

This career choice also allowed him to achieve his dream of buying a great house with a nice big shop, to work on his vehicles. Not bad for a 24 year old! I’m a proud dad…

My son Riley, and his new wife Jessica, are on a honeymoon cruise up in Alaska. Just grabbed a couple of their Facebook uploads, and I’m posting them here:

Here’s a view of the cruise ship, while doing their Tram adventure. Pretty cool…

Prior to the wedding, everyone wondering where the men were, the six flasks I found on the hill, filled with Jack, a toast to the bride & groom…

I’ll tell ya, the kids have no privacy whatsoever. I’m right there with camera as they open their wedding presents, the morning after. Early on, Jess’s dad Ray arrives…

Here are the photo’s from Riley and Jessica’s wedding. I took a lot of shots and pared them down to these, back in Seattle. When I wasn’t shooting photo’s I was shooting video, but I couldn’t do both.

So if there are scenes missing (like The Wedding Vows :-), they are on video.

It was a beautiful day on the Kirkland waterfront, with a lot of people there. As the evening progressed, crowds were gathering around the reception, enjoying the music.

And the “glitch” (every wedding has to have one, right?) was when the speedboat came up to the dock behind the ceremony, very loudly, right in the middle of the vows. Actually, pretty funny :-)

So here they are. I suggest the SlideShow.

Videos:

It started last night. I asked Riley what I could do to help out with the wedding. He said “I need six flasks, one for each bridegroom”. He wanted to put Jack Daniels in them.

So, I started out this morning in Riley’s other jeep, to see some old haunts, take some pictures and get up into Seattle to find some flasks.

I grabbed some 7-11 coffee and hit the Green River. An old favorite, still great.

Then I headed to the Des Moines pier. I needed to see and smell the ocean. Ahhh…

As I was heading to the mall to catch a 150 bus to Seattle, smoke started coming out of the Jeeps engine compartment. I checked it out, found nothing, but decided to take the vehicle home. Plans had changed…

After parking the jeep I hoofed it a mile to the nearest bus stop and started a weird bus trip that ended up at the Westfield Mall at 2pm. Too late for Seattle, especially on a Friday, so I hung at the mall.

Visited BusDriver Jim’s for a while :-)

Finally headed back to Kent to see my old friends at the Chinese restaurant. Ooops…

But I scored the flasks at the last minute in a smoke shop on the hill. The guy offered me six bucks a piece for six nine dollar flasks. Sweet!

I thought I’d taught this boy better. It’s the grass that needs mowed, not the dirt!

Riley spent this last weekend off-roading up in the steep Washington mountains, with friends. This is his new lifted jeep. Very nice! He sent me these photos…

I sure am proud of this young man. At the age of 24 he’s put together quite a nice life. During a time when the economy is teetering, jobs and money are scarce, and politics in this country are stupid, my son decides to buy a house and get married.

The house is great, I’ve been there. He’s an auto body tech and the shop on his property is so big it swallows the vintage Corvette sitting in the corner.

Today he’s having family, friends and co-workers over for his first 4th of July bash, and he sent me some quick pictures. Might as well share them:

SlideShow (Riley’s First Fourth)

Got a very thoughtful Father’s Day card from my boy today, so I did what every good tech dad does and chopped it up into three pieces, scanned it, and shared it.