SUSHI - Its whats for dinner
Dan Adams, my illustrious brother, is a man of many talents. One of his finest talents is a penchant for making absolutely, top shelf sushi. At the big Adams family hootenany in Colorado he broke out the bamboo rollers and we made a spread of sushi that could be seen from space. I don't have the skills of Dan, but love to make sushi too, so he let me "roll" with him. We spent about 2 hours making sushi rolls of all shapes sizes, tastes and zestiness. We had tuna, fresh crab, salmon, eel, shrimp and that was just the tip of the sushi berg. By my rough guess we hand made about 35-40 rolls. And no two were the same. We then sat down with my parents, my sister and her hubby and our spouses, cracked open a few bottles of the best Martinellis Cider and sent that sushi to a better place, roll by sweet, lovely roll. It was one of the best meals I have feasted upon in years and everyone had a fantastic time.

Being a Principal is cool!

There are pros and cons to working as a school principal. The cons will be there no matter what and there are as many pros as you want to make for yourself. The best part of the job and biggest pro, by far, is working and playing with the the kids. And when I say playing I really mean playing. These pics are of our annual field day at Metolius Elementary. It is basically one big chance to get everyone wet on the last day of school.

The slip and slide we set up really is 'industrial strength.' It is a 60 foot strip of patented roofing material that my brother-in-law snagged from his work in Eugene. It is super slick and makes great a slip and slide. The nice ladies at Metolius Elementary still don't think it is fast enough so they put soap all over it and that makes it super slippery. The kids were having so much fun I had to give it a try!

I like to jump into the tug of war when I see a team going down and as much as I would like to report that I "save the day" that is usually not the case. 25 third graders can pull a lot harder than you might think? I am getting soft...

The REAL Adams Family

Sorry, no 'Cousin It' in this picture. You are looking at the first full reunion of the Adams family in many years. The occasion was Holly's (my sister) wedding in Meeker, Colorado on June 30th. We had a great time and, most importantly, the cake and catered BBQ were outstanding. Pictured in the photo are (starting in the back row left to right) my brother dan, my father Glenn, my new brother-in-law Sid, yours truly, my daughter Allison, Dan's wife Wanda, my mother Sandy, my sister Holly, my grandmother Barbara, hot babe Shirlene and Katie in her lap, My niece Lauryn, my son Harrison, my niece Molly, my son Jacob, my daughter Camille, my niece Chloe, my niece Kayla, and last but certainly not least my nephew Sam.

Adding to the magnitude of the reunion, Kayla, Lauryn and Chloe were all baptized while we were together as a family.

True talent discovered

I always knew I had talent, but to my chagrin, after 36 years that talent had not surfaced. That was until the 4th of July Watermelon Eating Contest in Meeker Colorado. I entered the competition with my father (seated immediately to my right) and my brother (next to my father with the hat turned backwards) and about 30 other melon eaters. My kids and wife can tell you that I have a watermelon addiction of sorts and actually ate a 35 melon in one day (which led to a long night). The challenge was to see who could eat the most melon quarters in two minutes. I am proud to report that I won the competition with 6 quarters. I out ate second place by two quarters. My Dad and Brother hung it up after a quarter and resorted to what family members do best...laughing at each other. The funny thing was that after sacrificing my stomach, shirt and self respect for the title I was informed that the event organizers had accidentely given the winners t-shirt and dinner for two to the kid who won the 13 and under competition.

As a very important side note - don't mess with Josh and Shirlene when it comes to melon. You may have heard on the radio interview she did (really!) that Shirlene was our County Fair watermelon seed spitting champion. That puts two watermelon champs under one roof! There must be some redneck joke hiding in all this...