Happy fourth birthday Amelia! We celebrated her big day under the warm sun at Golden Gardens beach with a few of her friends. The best present: her cardiologist gave her an annual echocardiogram this week and said her heart is totally stable.

As I sat on the beach looking at the Olympic mountains, blinking through the glint off Puget Sound, I realized that I used to mark my life through big, memorable, epic experiences, like racing across the Pacific or catching a 10 foot Hawaiian wave. Now, my life is marked by taking the wife and kids to the beach and watching my daughter blow out a candle on her birthday cupcake. And the funny thing is, I never would have guessed that something so simple could be so moving.

PS - After I lit the candle I put the match down on a polypro blanket and it burned a hole, which Zack (5) was trying to point out to me while shooting the vid.

PPS - Love my new iPhone 3G S, makes it so easy to shoot vids and upload to YouTube. I was always the worst at getting out the camera. Now I may actually record and share some of this stuff.