Family man. How do I do it?
Me as a
husband
Like myself, my wife Nicole is a whitewater raft
guide. That was pretty much a requirement, since I'd never
see her otherwise. Sometimes things get a little tough,
especially when trying to balance this with other stuff.
She places a little too much emphasis on the "mommy" job,
but that's just the way it is.
On the weekend of Aug 22/23 1998, we ran the Middle Fork of
the American. During a side hike up Canyon Creek, we jumped
off from a ledge into one of the many pools on the creek,
and I asked her to marry me while we were falling. She said
"Yes" before we hit the water. It was very cool. Talk about
taking the plunge! I didn't have a ring at the time, so she wanted
me to give her the ring in another romantic setting. During
the week of Sep 13-18 we were on vacation in Belize. Most
of the time we were scuba diving, but on one day we went to
see some Mayan ruins. While standing on top of the largest
of the Xunantunich pyramid ruins, I gave her the ring. The
view was spectacular!
We got hitched on April 24th, 1999. It was a beautiful day
and so many of our friends were there. We went to St. Lucia
for our honeymoon.
Me as a
father
Nikos was born late summer in 2000. He's a great
kid. A tad headstrong, but what 4 year old isn't. But
enough about him. What does that mean to me? I usually have
a pretty good time as a father. I think I'm doing a pretty
decent job, but sometimes I think I might be a little more
stubborn than he is. In any case, I'm just rolling along
doing the best I can without losing myself in that job.
Nicole and I will occasionally go to a parents meeting at
his school. I think the biggest benefit is learning that a
lot of other kids are behaving the same as Nikos.
One of the more fun things about Nikos is how much fun he
has doing some of the same things that we do. He loves to
go camping. He'll wander around the camp looking for
interesting things. I like to just walk around behind him
to see what types of things he'll see. He likes to raft and
has been on several overnight trips. I have an interesting
time trying to convice him to grow up, as he is so
concerned about losing the ability to be the little kid.