Kate had just turned a year old and it was my first time seeing this mini-Becker.  She’s as cute as the pictures reveal and she definitely has that Becker smirk.  Joining Kate were Becker’s (when I say Becker, I mean Brian since everyone calls him by his last name, it’s just the way it’s always been, kinda like any brand of tissue paper is kleenex whether Kleenex makes it or not) siblings and their kids.  We decided it was as good a time as any to grab some photos of these kids so we went into the backyard to get some shots.  One of the last times I think I was in that yard, I was limping around with a bloodstain made out of ketchup on my derriere while filming our version of Forrest Gump for a high school physics class.

Thankfully, we were able to beat the rain that weekend and make a few fun photos.  Check ‘em out below!

The idea came to me on a cool Duluth day after I had finished a run.  I was uploading the GPS information from my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch to the Garmin Connect website.  The watch tracks your route, pace and how far you have run.  When uploaded, the path is overlaid on Google Maps.  That day I ran a route that was a little haphazard and I saw what looked like a letter and then hit me!  I could run in the shapes of all kinds of things and it would appear on Google Maps.  Animals, shapes, smiley faces, words, you name it.  I decided I would run out the words M-A-R-R-Y-M-E-? and have the route uploaded to Garmin’s website and then from there I could fashion a way to propose to Kristin.

The first couple of times were a complete disaster.  Think of a five year-old writing with his left hand.  Heck, I’m 28 and can barely write legibly with my left hand.  It did not look good.  So I wrote out a guide on a piece of a paper with specific paths, which would help me create readable letters on the map.  I also needed props at various points where pieces of each letter intersected so I know where I needed to run to and from.  For example, the letter R has a point where a bunch of lines intersect.  The letter Y has a part where the two lines diverge from the center.  You know what I mean.

So with my guide, an orange hunting cap and four towels, I set out to find a large open field.  This wasn’t easy.  The first few places I looked at were private land.  The second spot was a swath of forest that was clear cut to make way for giant transmission lines.  Not wide enough.  I turned to Google Maps and searched the area around where I live until I found the Lake Park soccer fields in Lakewood Township.  I was still unconvinced.  I wasn’t sure if something as wide as two soccer fields would even show up when I start turning and running back and forth and all over the place to form the letters.  I decided to give it a shot and it worked, but I needed to do it a few more times and get it perfect.

Just before noon today, I set out with plenty of props to mark my path.  It went a lot smoother than the first few times and this time was readable.  There was a maintenance man at the soccer field giving me weird looks as I ran in circles and triangles and all kinds of weird paths all the while looking at the paper guide in my hands.  I was pretty happy with the result and wasted no time in asking Kristin to marry me as soon as we were back home for the night. I said something to the effect that she should check out the path I ran tonight because something crazy appeared on the GPS after I uploaded the data.

She said yes, it was awesome and I couldn’t be happier!  For those of you wondering about how far I ran to spell out the words, it was 1.06 miles.  All together, I ran about 15 miles in various test runs to get this to work.  I also burned approximately 1,250 calories in the process.  In the end, I chose the soccer fields because it was a wide open publicly accessible place and it didn’t hurt that my girlfriend is a soccer coach.

Below is the route and the words as they appeared when the GPS information was uploaded to Google and below the map was the guide I used to make the magic happen. For those of you who don’t have the Google Earth plugin, a screenshot is below, but if you do have the plugin, you can see it in the Google Earth version below the picture of the guide!

Did I mention she said yes?

The Guide

Above, Google Earth. View GPS: Grand Proposal System in a larger map

This will be the photo you are looking for in the "Sweet Cheeks Photo Contest 2010" gallery.

You might remember a post I did almost a year ago about a guy named Evan who was just recovering from heart surgery.  Well, Evan is back in the DRock blogosphere and he needs your help.  My girlfriend Kristin entered him in a photo contest on Facebook a week ago.  He has been doing great, but over the last two days has been battling neck-and-neck with one other kid.  As of this very moment, he is up 303-300.  So I’m coming on here to ask you guys to put in a vote for Evan if you haven’t already.  All you need is a Facebook account and you’re ready to go.  Below are instructions on how to vote for Evan…

1.  Login to Facebook.

2.  Become a fan of the “Momsense at Miller Hill Mall – Duluth MN” page.  Here is a link to the page…  http://bit.ly/afoOxp

3.  Find the “Sweet Cheeks Photo Contest 2010″ photo gallery on the Momsense page.  There are two ways to reach this page.  You can either click the thumbnail along the left column of the page or go to the “Photos” section of the page.  Both methods are illustrated below..

You can reach the "Sweet Cheeks Photo Contest 2010" photo gallery either by clicking the gallery thumbnail in the left column halfway down the page or by going to the "Photos" tab at the top of the page.

4.  Navigate to the 4th page of the gallery (pictured below).  Click on Evan’s thumbnail…

The circled photo above is the one of Evan. Bottom row, middle photo, the guy with the stuffed animals...

4.  In order to vote, you have to LIKE the picture.  A like = a vote.  Some people simply comment on the photo or like the album.  That won’t help.  We need you to LIKE the photo, which means clicking on the “LIKE” link as pointed out in the photo below.  Most likes wins.  This isn’t the electoral college.  It’s a popular vote and the deadline is Noon Friday.

Click "Like" where you see it in the photo above and you will have cast your vote!!

5.  That’s it!  If you did vote, thank you very much, we really appreciate it.  If Evan comes out on top, he could win a night’s stay at the Edgewater here in Duluth and let me tell you, that is one of his favorite places on the planet.  Between the water slides and the pizza, it’s a load of fun.  Thanks again!

It’s pretty amazing to think that technology and healthcare have advanced to the point where a small child can go in for heart surgery Friday morning and leave the hospital four days later.  He’s expected to get discharged Tuesday morning.  Kristin’s class for her Series 7 exam lasted longer than Evan’s stay in the hospital.  An average work week lasts longer than his stay.  I’ve abstained from yogurt, pizza and jello for longer periods, which if you know me is no small task.

I decided to grab some quick snapshots because I’m sure he will want to know what he looked like after the surgery years later.  I was pretty nervous Thursday afternoon when Kristin left for Minneapolis because I could tell how distraught she was, but couldn’t he happier now that everything turned out so well and that he is coming home a lot sooner than anyone thought.

And now for the pictures…