We'll e back soon for the Holiday's for an update!

Tayor's Senior Prom

Senior Mother Tea...

Taylor and Mom pose for a picture at the annual CHS Senior Mother Tea here at school...

Taylor's Columbian Baseball News Article

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/mar/24/winning-is-no-1-priority/

Jessica's 26th Birthday!

On March 6 we celebrated our oldest BDay Jessica... We met for dinner at 23rd & Hoyt Street Brew Pub and had a great time. Pretty cool area, check it out.

Christmas 2009

A typical family Christmas gathering at the Duty's in Maple Valley, and as ALWAYS a special time and nice slow down. No snow, unlike last year which was way beyond the norm... This year we enjoyed a visit at the Gibson's household with the bigger family that we never get to spend enough time with... Love the Holidays and love to all, the Williams.

NW Girls Cruise

In October myself (Lois) and a number of High School friends cruised the northwest coast up into British Columbia and the Vancouver Island waters. We had a great three day weekend visiting and taking in the sites.

More Baseball - 2009 Mariner's Cup

In August Taylor was selected to play on the Northwest Mariners Cup Team. The team consisted of some of the top MLB High School prospect players from the states of Washington and Oregon. There were two tryouts for the team with each one seeing over a hundred players competing for a spot. The team played in a three day tournament against 3 other MLB High School Prospect teams from the Mid-West, and California. The first game was played in Everett, WA where the Mariners Aqua Sox Single A team play. The following two days, games were hosted at Safeco Field in Seattle (Seattle Mariners Stadium)... Taylor started the second game on the mound at Safeco against the SF Giants team and got the win! What a great experience and thrill it was to see him pitching at Safeco Field on the BIG SCREEN. He'd been throwing 91-92 mph but posted a 94 on the scoreboard to turn a few heads :)

Area Code Baseball 2009 - Long Beach, CA

Taylor was one of 30 top players selected from the Northwest as a pitcher to represent the MLB's Washington Nationals prospect team at the Area Code 2009 Tournament in Long Beach, CA. The first day the team played a practice games at USC's stadium. The team played six games over six days and finished with a record of 2 wins, 2 ties, and 1 loss. Major league and college scouts filled the stands throughout the week. Mom & Dad made the trip and a vacation of it as well and couldn't be more proud of his performance which saw him allowing no runs, no walks, couple of K's, and giving up only three hits... against some of the better high school players from around the country. http://www.areacodebaseball.com

WSU Baseball Scholarship

Taylor commits to Washington State University (WSU) on a Division 1 Baseball scholarship... He was also offered a 50% scholarship to Oregon State University (OSU) but felt the Cougars were a better fit along with a 60% scholarship which is really good in the college baseball ranks! He'll graduate in the spring of 2010 from CHS. Go Cougs!
http://wsucougars.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/wast-m-basebl-body.html

New Puppy...

New addition to the family, yet to be named. 7 weeks old female yellow lab from Goldendale, WA
UPDATE... her name is Jeter, and you can only guess after who. Note: "No Yankee lovers here, just Jeter fans" Click here's for a link to her pictures.

Lindsay Graduates... "University of Washington"

Lindsay graduates from the University of Washington on June 13, 2009. We couldn't be prouder of her... she finished in 4 years and double majored in English and Economics! Lindsay was also was a member of the UW Tri-Delta Sorority. Following graduation we met The Johnston's (Harold and Jann), The Duty Family, and Grandma and Grandpa for dinner over looking lake Union. Taylor was home playing in a baseball tournament in Vancouver, which they won. This summer Lindsay has an internship with the Portland Beavers (Triple A Baseball Team) in Portland and will be working in their Marketing Department. GO HUSKIES!

Jessica's Engaged...

Our oldest Jesscia announced her engagement to Jeff Picken with plans to host the big event next summer in the Portland area... Jeff has been a manager for the Golf Galaxy stores in Boise, ID and Renton, WA the past couple of years and recently was asked to return back to Beaverton, OR to take over the management of the store there. Jessica worked for a company called Balihoo in Boise, and is currently working for AT&T that she started with in Renton and continues now with in Beaverton.

Taylor 2009 Prom

Annual Cattle Roundup in the Gorge

We returned recently to help with the annual cattle roundup at Scott and Wendi Hall's on the Columbia River Gorge near Goldendale, WA. Beautiful day with lots of activity... great food, live music, and lots of cows.

Fish On....

First Salmon of the year by way of captin Beda... Columbia River near the Camas Port. Sunny day but colder than heck. Watched Taylor play ball that afernoon in Portland, he hit a 3 run homerun and a two run double for 5 rbi's. He was 4 for 5 on the day. Guess it was a good day for the boy's in the family.

Camas beats 4A Heritage 3 - 1

Camas beats 4A Heritage 3 - 1 in first game of the school season... Taylor pitches 5 1/3 innings with 9 strikeouts, 4 hits, and gave up no runs for the win!

Jessica's Birthday (25)

Big 25... Jessica and Jeff ventured to Camas for a big dinner in Portland Friday night with friends to celebrate the 25 BDay. On Saturday the girls went shopping and the guys went fishing, no fish to report but lots of purchases from the shopping end of things :)

OSU Baseball Recruiting Visit

On Friday February 13, we ventured down to Corvallis, OR for a baseball recruiting visitation to Oregon State University (OSU). They have a high interest in Taylor for position play and are looking forward to watching him play this year and next. Pretty exciting when you consider they were back to back National Champions only two years ago. We spent a few hours with the coaches and seeing the facilities. Also got to watch the team scrimmage that afternoon.

Christmas 2008

Our Christmas Holiday this year was once again one to remember... lots of snow and a great time spent with family as the pictures will show. We started off the holiday season with a gathering of the Johnston's, Gibson's, and Williams families that was hosted by Jessica and Jeff at their new apartment complex in Renton. As you can see by the pictures we had a terrible time. Hi-lights were the great food and the first annual white elephant gift exchange, lot's of fun... The Duty's hosted the family Christmas eve and day gathering again and the snow was a welcome addition. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years holiday season as well! Here's a link to all our event pictures...
http://picasaweb.google.com/the.williams2/Christmas2008?authkey=GDEcPVVdv8I&feat=directlink

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great day visiting with Lois's brother Mark and nephew Chris... Mark and Chris took some time off from their elk hunting in the Mt. St. Helen's area to drive down and spend the day... Lois cooked a monster feast with a little help from the guy's and Lindsay

Deer Hunting 2008

The big 4 pt. buck north of Goldendale, WA on good friends Scott and Wendi Hall's property... Brad, the ole hunting buddy got his 5 pt. two days later above their ranch over looking the Columbia River and the Deschutes River in the background... a perfect day! You can see more hunting and fishing pictures by clicking here...

Lindsay 22nd Birthday!

The middle child, she's such a pain... home for the weekend from the UW and celebrating the big 22nd birthday. Double majoring in Economics and Journalism, she'll be a senior this year with a GPA of 3.4. Not quite as good as dad's but kinda close, hahah... Happy Birthday Lindsay!

UofO Baseball Recruiting Visit

Taylor graduates from HS in 2010 and had his first Division I baseball recruiting college visit this past weekend. The coaches were great and spent a number of hours with us, as well as showing a lot of interest in Taylor. We had the opportunity to see one of the top training facilities in the nation. Nike is a large sponsor for the college which supports some of the latest technology that sports training has to offer. The University will be re-starting their baseball program this spring after many of years of not having one. The program is building a new baseball stadium and facility that will be ready to play on this spring. We received tickets to attend the Saturday night football game vs. UW. Poor Lindsay... UW was blown out 44-10... Great weekend!

27th Wedding Anniversary

On August 22, we celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary by golfing with Taylor at Beacon Rock Golf Course. Following a perfect afternoon in the sun we enjoyed a great view and dinner on the deck at the Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge..

Baseball Northwest

The past two years Taylor has tried out for and been selected to play in the Baseball Northwest Championship Tournament hosted in the Portland area for class of 2010. Regional Teams include Seattle Metro, WA Northwest, WA Southwest, WA East, Oregon Metro, Oregon State, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and British Columbia. The tournament is attended by many college and pro scouts. Taylor was contacted via this tournament by University of Oregon for a college recruiting visit and tickets for us to attend the UofO and UW football game Labor Day weekend... This past year Taylor was ranked by Baseball Northwest at No.4 on their top 100 players for the class of 2010 in the state of Washington.

Maryhill Camping & Cattle Roundup... yeeeha

Following our trip back from Boise we settled in at one our favorite places to camp, Maryhill State Park in the Columbia Gorge. Along with hanging out at the beach we caught up with friends Scott and Wendi Hall who have a cattle ranch within miles of the campground. On Saturday they hosted a roundup of close to three hundred cattle. Lois rode one of Wendi's horses in the drive from the top down to the ranch, while Scott and I transported vehicles back to the ranch, along with some cooking and beverage duties.

Boise, ID

In early August we traveled to Boise, ID to visit Jessica and Jeff and had a great time golfing, shopping, eating out, and just hanging out. The two will soon be moving to Renton, WA and we'll really miss visiting Boise, it's cool area and the city is A+. Jeff is going to be opening and managing new Golf Galaxy Store. Jessica will continue work with her company she really enjoys working for Balihoo.