Meet Oscar

This little guy was my Mother's Day gift from Collin and Sydney. He was the tiniest little angelfish just 2 1/2 months ago and has more than doubled in size. The kids loved his coloring and thought he would be a nice addition to my aquarium. I love him because he IS the cutest little guy but especially because he has such personality. (Who new fish could have personality?) This little guy will position himself in the tank so that he can watch everything I am doing in living room. He eats out of my hands and will even let me pet him now. We named him Oscar because the named seemed to fit him. He is so cool! (Pic's just don't do him justice.)

Collin earned his yellow belt!!!!

Last Friday, Collin passed his test to move up a belt in Tae Kwon Do (or however you spell it. I normally spell it KARATE). Collin also got to show of his new found inner force of breaking a board with nothing but his first. Master Kim (Obi-Wan) has shown Collin the ways of the FORCE! He has really improved and is looking forward to his next goal of being a Purple Belt. It was awesome to have Nana, Dresden, Logan and Aunt Shannon there to support him. He really appreciated it! We are very proud of his efforts.

This is Collin kicking some kid's butt!!!



Master Kim (Obi-Wan) is showing him what he needs to do to break the board.

Master Kim (Obi-Wan) explaining to dad how to hold the board so the young apprentice can break the board.

This was much harder for me than you might think because I cannot understand a word that Master Kim (Obi-Wan) says. I just nod my head, bow and try to figure out what in the world he is trying to tell me. It is funny, all of the kids understand Master Kim. However, none of the parents have a clue what he is telling them.

Collin is channeling all of his energy and his focus to break the board. May the Force be with Collin!

Yiiiieeehhhaaaahhh. For those of you not familiar with Tae Kwon Do, Karate or Kung Fu this is the scream when you hit something. I'm really not sure how to spell Yiiiieehhhaaaahhh. But I am sure it's close enough for all of you martial arts novices. OBTW, Collin snapped that board like Luke cutting down a storm trooper with his light-saber.

Until next the next blog, May the FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Tooth Fairy To Make First Visit To Sydney

Tonight, shortly after our return from camping, Sydney asked me for help with her loose tooth. Her new adult tooth has nearly grown in behind her baby tooth but she has been too scared to wiggle it enough to make it come out. She finally decided tonight that it was time for it to come out.

I took a paper towel, put it over her tooth, gave it a little tweak and out it came. It wasn't without a lot of blood, however, and she nearly made her dad sick when she ran outside to show him the new hole in her mouth. Jay took one look at the bloody paper towel hanging out of her mouth and almost lost it. He had a really tough time trying to give her an enthusiastic smile back but she didn't notice!!!

Collin is sleeping on the floor in Sydney's room tonight. He wants to make sure the Tooth Fairy gives Sydney exactly what he got (and not a penny more)!

Bear Lake '09

Bear Lake with the family: We stayed a couple of nights at a local campground and spent a day at the lake relaxing, reading, playing, digging in the sand. Unfortunately Larry and Carlee couldn't be with us this year. (Hopefully Mike, Nicole and family might even be able to join us next year, too.)

Collin says: We all had a great time!!! (He is getting to be good at typing, too.)

His favorite part of the trip was riding the wave runner with Brandt - you can tell by the big smile on his face here.

We decided to buy what appeared to be a "heck of a deal", a 1990 personal watercraft as they're called for a mere $600. We thought we'd take it with us on our trip to Bear Lake hoping that the nearly 20 year old machine was more than just a pile of junk. In any case, the trailer it came with would be worth at least half of the price we paid so we felt it was worth the gamble. We new it wouldn't be the quickest or coolest-looking machine in the water but wanted to see if owning a wave runner would be something we would enjoy with the possiblity of trading it in for something better at a later time.

It worked great and we spent the whole day taking turns on it. Maybe we'll keep it?

The cutest baby in the water:

Even Nana took the machine for a spin.

Sydney usually collects lots and lots of sea shells. This year, she also found a pet that she kept with her nearly the whole day: a little ladybug. We just had to take a picture of her with it.

New tradition (year 2): Last year, Nana and Papa brought paint for the kids to put handprints on their tent to remember the trip. The kids all choose a different color and signed their names to their handprints.

And the jumping pillow, of course, was another favorite part of the trip for the kids.

Independence Day Celebration @ Thanksgiving Point

Our Fourth of July this year was somewhat uneventful. Since fireworks aren't allowed anywhere near where we live we decided to try something new this year and go see the firework display at Thanksgiving Point. We went with Donna and John and enjoyed a nice dinner in the park and the fireworks too - everything until it came time to leave. It took us forty minutes just to get out of the parking lot! We still had a great time.

Sydney and Collin dueling with their sparklers! Accio! In the words of Harry Potter.

Falling fireworks and the full moon.

Hey Collin! How about those great fireworks in the sky? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Collin and Papa arguing about the causes of the American Revolution. Okay, not really, Papa was just torturing a 45 lbs. 8 year old.

Sydney enjoying the finger-licking-good chicken!

1,000 Baskets for Collin, 400 Baskets for Sydney

On Monday Collin made his 1,000th basket this summer. And dad is creating his 1st blog. I think that it has taken Dad longer to create his first blog than for Collin to make 1,000 baskets. Not to leave Sydney out of the glory of these ground breaking achievements, she has made 411 baskets. Both their diligence and determination have been enjoyable to watch. Many morning they want to wake up earlier than the other so they can make more baskets. Collin has made 16 in a row and Sydney has made 10 in a row. Collin has made 271 in one day and Sydney has made 125 in a day.

One of the many misses that have occured.


The 1,000 Basket

Well, the kids and I have learned valuable lessons through shooting baskets and blogging. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, and try again. I certainly don't want to over shadow the kids accomplishments, but I am pretty darn proud of myself creating this short blog entry. Especially, since my usually helpful wife did not help at all. I realize that this is nothing compared to "Posts from the Shower" authored by my famous brother-in-law, Larry, but it is a genesis. I think I will call my blog "Sitting on the Porch of Indecision Somewhere Southeast of Disorder." Until next blog, Have a beachy day!

Basketball

When Collin was 2 and 3 years old, he spent hours (literally) in his room shooting baskets with his Little Tikes Basketball Hoop. He was pretty good at it, too. It made us proud that he seemed to have the same interest in, and talent for, the sport his dad has spent so many years coaching. Then...

Something happened when we moved four years ago or maybe Collin just grew up a little. Now he likes playing Rock Band and his DS and riding bikes and hanging with his friends. Jay and I thought we'd try an experiment. We thought that maybe if we bought a hoop the four of us could play as a family and the kids would be interested in basketball. Guess what?????

Collin seems to love shooting baskets as much as ever. And...

Sydney does too.

She loves a challenge and wouldn't give up tonight. She had to keep on going until she made "just ten more". She made 100 baskets tonight (ten in a row), her hair and the back of her shirt were drenched with sweat, but she was pretty happy and proud of herself.

Sydney's friend Savannah joined in the fun.






Cute daddy and coach. (Bays is our team mascot.)

MEXICO

*Please excuse the excess of pictures in the following post. My intention is to use this blog as my scrapbook for this year. Take a look, however. Since many of the pictures were taken by Larry (thanks, Larry) they are more interesting than mine usually are.

Nana and Papa with the grandkids.

Ensenada...

For our first get-a-way this summer we headed south to Mexico. The little town we stayed in was called Punta Banda and was south of Ensenada and near the famous "Bufadora" or blow hole. The house we rented was on a small peninsula and in a "gated" community, virtually isolated and far away from traffic, crowds, tourists, and yes, the swine flu.

(The funny thing was, after everyone warned us about going to Mexico due to the outbreak of the flu, we came home to find there were supposedly several cases which developed in our neighborhood while we were gone!)

Pictures of the beach. There were some awesome sunsets!

This is just one of the four dolphins that regularly visited us in the mornings and played in the waves nearby while the kids surfed.

Our house (seen in the middle).

View of the beach from inside the family room.

From the patio on the roof, you could look to the front of the house and see the bay or estuary where we took the kids on a nature hike. The city of Ensenada was in the distance. You can even see the huge Mexican flag in the distance.

Sydney has become our little surfer girl. She and Logan wanted to be the first in the water every morning and the last to get out.

The kids loved learning to ride the waves (on their body board). They thought they were pretty cool.

Little sea treasures...

The kids loved catching the crabs, and looking at (an yes, even playing with) the squids and rays that washed ashore. They collected hundreds of seashells and dozens of sand dollars.

Papa and little Creed who was such an easy going little guy the whole trip. He's awesome!

Attack on Papa.

Travelling Troubadors: Sydney and Collin really wanted a guitar to take home as a souvenir. For the last two days they carried the guitars around and played them, especially Sydney. We probably should have explained to them better that the guitars were more for looks and not for playing since the strings didn't hold up well to all the "music" they were playing.

More of the toy souvenirs:

From La Bufadora again...

Catching waves...

Coley Woley...

This is exactly how I remember Mike when he was a kid. Happy to be playing in the mud or sand and always with a big smile on that chubby-cheeked face. What a cutie!

He really takes his fun seriously.

More cousin pics...

Beautiful Savannah is a girl after my own heart. She loved collecting all the little critters she could find on the beach. She made piles and piles of crabs and always noticed if even one was missing. Later, at her house in California, she showed me all the snails and slugs she collected in her backyard.

After a long morning in the ocean with Sydney...

Best buds Collin and Dresden played for hours in the sand hills near the house. They dug and dug and dug in the sand and would literally have sand in the ears, nostrils, everwhere, even after a good long shower. It didn't help that they were slathered in sunblock, either. It made them look like they were rolled in sugar.

Cole and I check out an exceptionally large crab. He mean, too. He kept trying to pinch us.

Jay and I really tried to relax, after all, this is vacation. We spent time in the afternoons reading.

LAS CANADAS

Further south of town there was a camping park called Las Canadas. It was a beautiful canyon area that had a canopy tour, ecological preservation hiking areas and an awesome water park aside from the beautiful and clean camping sites. After seeing it, we were wishing we had more time to stay, camp and explore. Shannon and Larry took the canopy zip-lines and bridges tour and had a great time, too (Unfortunately, no pics of them).

We were only able to get pictures of Logan and Sydney because Dresden and Collin were too cold to get back in the pool.

La Bufadora...

This was probably one of the highlights of the trip for the kids. For some reason, there is nothing more exciting for them than standing on the ledge and wait for the water to rain down on them.

Check out this sequence...

(Thanks again, Larry.)

Completely soaked but happy!

Fun Times!!!