Little Blonde Monkeys

Alonzo Stagg Hike 5.0

2011-10-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

I did the 50 mile Alonzo Stagg Hike again... for the 5th time. I don't know too many people crazy enough to try it once, let alone 5 times.

As a recap, the Alonzo Stagg Hike is held every year in October along the C&O Canal. It starts at 9pm Friday night and you hike all through the night into the day Saturday. No breaks, no sleeping, no wimps. You have 18 hours to finish all 50 miles and if you do, you get a small medal and a lot of pain. You also feel a huge sense of accomplishment and earn a lot of respect from those who know. I've seen it provide certain teens with a confidence building ego boost when they most desperately need it at that difficult age. There are checkpoints setup along the hike every 3 or 4 miles (like the picture above) where you top up on fluids and food and where you can drop out if you don't make the full 50.

I hadn't done the hike since 2008. The bad weather forced the hike to be cancelled in 2009, and in 2010 I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon and didn't want to jeopardize that effort. The weather this year was absolutely perfect. The night was cool, the moon almost full, and no rain in sight.

I hiked by myself this year for the first time and listened to my iPod during the whole thing to keep myself somewhat entertained. I also brought a camera for the first time and stopped throughout the night to get some pictures in the dark. Click through the main picture above to see the rest of them. It really is beautiful walking under moon light. Your eyes get so adjusted to the night that I could see the ground light up from the blinking lights on airplane wings flying overhead. The conditions were so perfect this year that I didn't have to use my flashlight once for the entire hike.

There was a field of about 70 hikers at the start and as far as I know only 5 finished. Quite the dropout rate! I was first to finish this year which is kind of cool, but doesn't mean anything other than I got to go home earlier than the rest. I finished it in 15.5 hours which isn't my best time but anytime you finish is good enough (which means I hiked from 9pm Friday till 12:30pm Saturday...yikes.) I was wiped out the rest of the weekend but at this point I know what that feels like and how to deal with it as best as possible. I have to thank Tiffany for 1) letting me go in the first place, and 2) for dealing with me being a cripple for a couple days afterwards. Who knows if I'll do it again, but if you're crazy too, I'm always looking for more suckers to bring along with me next year!

Spontaneous "Lucky" Duet

2011-10-13T18:30:00.000-04:00

We finally bought a new camera and were experimenting with the HD video when I recorded this gem. I never thought any of what I was recording would see the light of day so we were just acting a bit goofy. It's a bit embarrassing, but Tiffany gets such a kick out of watching us sing "our" song that I'm posting it for her. Here's to you babe!

Old Rag Hike

2011-10-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

I went with the boy scouts on a hike up Old Rag Mountain, which I've heard so much about but have never had the chance to hike before. It was both more difficult than I expected and more beautiful than I expected. The views really were incredible at the top and the rock crawl section was quite challenging in a few spots. I can see why it is such a popular hike.

Landon - 12.5 weeks old

2011-10-01T16:25:00.000-04:00

Landon - 11.5 weeks old

2011-09-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

Jason Mraz Concert

2011-09-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

Jason Mraz is one of Tiffany's favorite musicians so I surprised her with a pair of tickets to his concert at Merriweather. Opening up for Jason Mraz was Colbie Caillat and her bubbly songs. Tiffany has deemed the song "Lucky" with both Mraz and Caillat as 'our' song, so how could I not take her? We had a great time out together.

The Twinstar Flies Again

2011-09-24T15:31:00.000-04:00

I have hardly flown my rc airplanes since we moved out of my parents house in April 2007. I haven't flown this particular plane at all since then. We were up at my parents' house this weekend and I decided to get out my gear, charge up the batteries, and go flying again. I hadn't thought about it, but Gavin has never seen me fly my airplanes. When he saw me getting the plane ready he couldn't have been more excited. As the battery was charging, he was sitting in front of the airplane trying his best not to touch it. He was in awe as he watched the plane flying in the air. It was really cool to see his reaction. I'll have to get my planes in the air more often.

Apple Picking

2011-09-17T14:31:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to take the family apple picking for the longest time, but for some reason we never got around to it. It took an invitation from a coworker to get us out in the orchard. We quickly realized that the kids want to pick way more apples than Tiffany and I know what to do with. They filled their bags and then left it up to dad to carry the heavy bags back to the checkout area. With all the apples we made 7 pies and some apple bread. I've been eating apple pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I'm such a pie lover that I'm not sick of it yet.

Landon - 9 Weeks Old

2011-09-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

Charity Hockey Classic Game

2011-09-10T13:56:00.000-04:00

Logan, Samara, and I went to the Charity Hockey Classic between two local teams to help raise money for Inova Blood services. The game was held at the Washington Capitals practice facility and featured two Capitals players as team coaches. Logan and Samara had such a good time. We sat in the front row right next to the ice and they were both so full of excitement they couldn't sit still. They both picked a team to cheer for and actually paid attention to what was going on in the game. Neither of them wanted to go initially, but they were both so glad they did afterwards.

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-06T08:35:00.000-04:00

Our little girl Samara is now a kindergartener and not so little anymore. Both her and Logan have been looking forward to school starting. It's such a relief when your kids love school. Logan has had great teachers so far at this school and we're pretty such this year's teachers will be even better. There is a tradition is Tiffany's family that the kids model their new school clothes each year. Click on the main picture to see more pics of Samara and Logan modeling their clothes.
On a side note, the house is sooo much quieter when the two older kids are in school. Tiffany is loving it!

Baltimore Grand Prix

2011-09-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

Baltimore hosted its first annual Baltimore Grand Prix this year and what a cool place for a race track. Indy cars as well as American Le Mans cars both tore up the streets this weekend. All the boys in the family from grandpa on down to all the grandsons walked many miles around the Inner Harbor watching the cars fly around the bumpy track. Unfortunately, Logan fell sick during the day and his cousin Bradley had to limp around due to a severe poison ivy infection on his leg. I had to take them both home a little early but the overall experience in Baltimore was fantastic. Best of all, the race is coming back next year. You can bet I'll be there again.

Potomac Nationals

2011-08-23T19:56:00.000-04:00

The Potomac Nationals are a class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. We bought cheap tickets on Groupon and went out for our first minor league baseball game and had so much fun! The stadium is small so any seat is right next to the field. It wasn't crowded at all so the kids could run around and not bother anyone. There were lots of families with young kids doing the exact same thing as us. We really had a good time. Logan got a foul ball tossed to him, Samara met the mascot, the sprinklers mysteriously turned on in the middle of the game, need I say more?

The real star of the show ended up being Samara and her dance moves. In between each batter and inning the stadium would pipe music through the speakers and Samara would boogie! She didn't care if everyone in the stands saw her, she let it fly.

O.A.R. Concert

2011-08-13T19:33:00.000-04:00

Tiffany and I had such a good time at the O.A.R. concert last year that we decided to go again this year. This time I lucked out and got floor tickets, which are awesome! I was worried about Tiffany standing the whole time because she just had her C-section 5 weeks ago. She was fine though. Go Tiff!

Mirror Art

2011-07-14T19:12:00.000-04:00

I often use dry erase markers on the bathroom mirror to write little reminders to myself. This is what happens when Samara gets the markers and a little free time. Pretty cute I'd say.

Baby Landon

2011-07-08T22:13:00.000-04:00

We welcomed our 4th little blonde monkey to our family a few days ago after nine long months in the womb. He was born at 9:19am July 8th in the Reston Hospital, weighing a healthy 9 lbs 5 oz. and 21.25 inches tall. He has been absolutely peaceful and hardly cries at all. The nurses wanted him to cry more right after the birth to help clear his lungs, but even after they unwrapped him and poked and prodded him he still only cried a little. The doctor even said he didn't cry during his little boy operation which she hadn't ever seen before. So far he only cries when he's hungry and stops as soon as we feed him. Lets hope this lasts!

Tiffany is a pro at this now and the birth went great. Overall our experience at the hospital was good as well. We had one of the smallest rooms, but we were at the end of the hallway with no other occupied rooms nearby. It was nice and quite and Tiffany was able to sleep a lot. My parents took in our kids for several days which was awesome as I could stay at the hospital with Tiffany to keep boredom at bay. Having a laptop, wifi connection, and Netflix was a great way to pass the time together between feedings and naps. Plus the hospital food wasn't all that terrible honestly.

Landon was a good little brother and made sure to bring his 3 older siblings gifts to smooth over his arrival. Logan and Gavin receivedlight sabers and promptly commenced slashing each other and anyone else in sight. Samara received a tea set and a new blankie, after her old blankie lost a battle to a pair of scissors during a serious discipline lesson. As we expected though, Gavin was very reserved and jealous. We captured great video of his reaction to Landon which almost perfectly mirrors videos of Samara being jealous when Gavin was born.

It was a painful nine months for Tiffany. She had intense, long lasting pregnancy sickness as usual and when you add 3 other children at home it made the 9 months seem much, much longer. Despite all that we're super grateful of course for Landon's arrival. We feel so blessed to be able to have such wonderful children.

July 4th 2011

2011-07-04T22:37:00.003-04:00

We celebrated the 4th of July this year at our house with some good friends by grilling, playing outside, and of course lighting fireworks. Good times were had by all... especially pyro Bruce.

Cub Scout Day Camp

2011-07-01T10:57:00.002-04:00

Logan started Cub Scouts this year and went to his first summer day camp. They had a lot of fun doing all sorts of cool things during the week like, shooting bows and arrows, playing human chess, making wooden swords, and watching a full sized trebuchet launch watermelons. The watermelons were launched so high that when they finally hit the ground the essentially vaporized. Logan absolutely loved every minute of it.

Logan's 2nd Grade School Picture

2011-06-21T10:56:00.001-04:00

Cafe Rio

2011-06-13T10:56:00.001-04:00

The best fast food establishment in the world has finally opened up a store on the East coast and it's right in my parents' backyard in Olney, Maryland. Cafe Rio is well known throughout the Utah Valley but they never ventured far from there until now. Tiffany and I made a detour coming back from my parents' house and relished in some good food that we hadn't eaten in four years. Our kids even said it was the best food they've ever eaten!

F1 Grand Prix of Canada

2011-06-12T10:55:00.001-04:00

My father, brothers, and I went on an awesome road trip up to Montreal, Canada to see the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada. I went with my father to one other Formula 1 race in Indianapolis back in 2006 and loved it. My dad got the idea to invite all his boys this time... no women aloud! Our youngest brother, Shawn, even flew out from Utah for the occasion.

We started out by leaving Thursday night and driving 10 hours through the night to get to Montreal by 10am Friday for the first practice session at the racetrack. My driving stint was through Northern New York past Lake Champlain and into Canada. The mountains and lakes of Northern New York were a beautiful surprise to me.

None of us had experience visiting the french parts of Canada so it was really surprising to see just how french everything truly was. I was expecting the public signage to be in both English and French, but that wasn't the case at all. It was ALL French. It both looked and felt like little Europe which was pretty cool. Fortunately, almost all the natives speak English well, so communicating wasn't too difficult.

Having said that, we hardly spent anytime sightseeing. Almost all of our time was spent at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve racetrack. The racetrack is built on a narrow man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River and was built up with the excavated dirt from the underground Montreal subway system.

Friday and Saturday were perfect days with bright sunshine and cool weather. We wandered around the track as much as we could and watched the cars practice and set qualifying laps. Unfortunately, the weather turned during the race and we got rained on for hours on end. The race started eventually and they completed a few dozen laps but the rain started coming down even harder and they had to stop the race to possibly be restarted later. Meanwhile, we were standing in the rain getting drenched and cold. The rain kept coming down for a couple hours and we decided that we'd had enough and left to track to start the drive home. Turns out, not too long after we left the rained cleared and they actually restarted the race. So we got to listen to the conclusion of the race on the ride home and watched it on Tivo later. Unfortunately we missed a fantastic race where Jenson Button went from dead last at one point to taking the lead on the final lap of the race.

Even with the rain ruining our last day, we had a awesome trip. My brothers and dad all love the technical marvel that these race cars are but it was even more fun spending time together again. And no rain can spoil that.

The video clip below is a little bit of what it was like to be race side with these cars zooming by. One of the most amazing and surprising things about these cars is the sound they make. No handheld camera or even TV production camera can capture and convey the body shaking low frequencies and ear shattering high pitch whines these cars put off. As fast as these cars are at accelerating from a dead stop, they are even faster coming to a stop. Watching them go from 180mph down to 30mph in about a second is crazy to watch. If you've read this far you deserve a medal.

Logan Baseball

2011-06-11T10:54:00.002-04:00

Logan opted for baseball this year instead of soccer. I had forgotten how much more of a commitment baseball is. He had two games a week with a practice thrown in as well, and the season seemed to go on forever. Like most boys his age, he had a hard time paying attention while in the field. Several balls rolled by him while he was spinning his arms around like a helicopter. Despite that, he was pretty good at bat. He was the most consistent hitter through the season, getting on base almost every game. His coach even invited him to the league All Star game (which we couldn't make it to unfortunately.) In his league they used a machine to pitch the ball and the players all rotated positions each inning. Early on Logan asked the coach if he could be a catcher which he really enjoyed the first couple of games. He soon became weary of that stressful position but his team needed him so he stuck it out and played catcher for at least one inning each game for the rest of the season.

Samara Soccer

2011-06-11T10:51:00.002-04:00

We've been excited for Samara to finally start playing soccer after seeing her kick the ball around with her older brother. She showed a lot of enthusiasm and athleticism while playing in the backyard, but she got a little shy on the actual soccer field. Nevertheless, she still had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing with all her teammates.

Fishing

2011-06-03T10:50:00.002-04:00

I have been lamenting not going fishing regularly since we moved to Virginia, which was 4 years ago. I decided to get back into it so I bought some new gear and checked out Google Maps to find some local ponds. I found one a half mile from our house, nestled nicely in the middle of a housing development. I've heard that sometimes the little ponds where you'd least expect big fish are exactly where the big fish are. That is certainly true for this pond. Logan and I have both caught some really nice bass there and we've seen some gigantic carp swimming on the surface (I swear I saw one that was 4 foot long.) Logan is itching to catch one of these carps but I don't think my fishing gear can handle such a large fish!

Samara's 5th Birthday

2011-04-26T10:49:00.001-04:00

Samara celebrated her birthday with friends by having a Rapunzel and cupcake party. She got a Rapunzel dress and loves it so much she sits in front of a mirror and stares at herself repeating "I'm so pretty". We're in trouble.

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T10:48:00.003-04:00

We combined 3 birthdays (Samara's, Megan's, and Grandpa's) and Easter all in one fun filled weekend at the grandparents' house. We spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful weather playing baseball and of course having a fantastic Easter egg hunt.

Logan's Baptism

2011-01-29T10:46:00.003-05:00

The climax of the birthday weekend was Logan's baptism. All the cousins came up from Richmond and we enjoyed a fantastic celebration together. It is amazing to think our first child is already 8 years old. I got a little misty eyed after the baptism thinking about how happy I was with the choices he has made in life and how quickly he is growing up. I'm super proud of you Logan, you are the best son a father could ever hope for and a great example for your younger siblings.

Logan's 8th Birthday

2011-01-28T10:45:00.002-05:00

Logan celebrated his 8th birthday with an awesome spy birthday party, complete with spy outfits and fake IDs. He chose donuts with licorice "bomb fuses" instead of the usual birthday cake.

Christmas

2010-12-25T00:07:00.002-05:00

We spent 5 wonderful days at my parents house along with my brother Rory and his family and my other brother Mike and his wife Tara. When you stack all the presents for all those people under one tree it can be quite an incredible sight. Our youngest, Gavin, was attached at the hip to Grandpa. In the wee hours of the morning, Tiffany and I would hear Gavin calling out "Gampa" before he even got out of bed. We had some epic battles on Dad's new foosball table, a few of us even managed to steal a game from the old pro. Despite dire weather predictions, we only got a light dusting of snow, not the foot or so they were forecasting. It was a great time to spend with family while being thankfully for our Savior.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T20:16:00.000-05:00

We had quite the fun weekend up in Maryland celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' house. The boys plus Tara all went out and shot guns one day while the women took the kids to a train museum. We played lots of pool and enjoyed the lovely dinner my aunt Annie prepared for us. Tiffany dragged me out for some Black Friday shopping again this year. Fortunately we only visited Toys R Us which brilliantly opened at 10pm. We waiting in line outside the store for an hour but we're in and out of the store in 5 minutes. Overall, it was about as good a Black Friday outing as I could hope for.

Our First Broken Bone

2010-11-16T19:24:00.000-05:00

Our little brute met his match. Gavin can dish out and take a lot of physical abuse but he finally hurt himself when he fell off Samara's bunk bed ladder. It was only a slight fracture and he'll be in the cast for three weeks. In the meantime, his brother and sister have learned not to mess with him. Samara has shed a few tears over a good head bashing thanks to Gavin and his new weaponized arm .

Glasses

2010-11-10T18:54:00.000-05:00

Like father, like mother, like son. It was inevitable, Logan needs glasses. Thankfully, he was super excited to get them. He tried on several types of frames including some cool thick frames that Tiffany really liked, but he insisted on wire frames because "they're like dad's." Bless his heart.

Gavin's 2nd Birthday

2010-11-04T18:37:00.002-04:00

Our little guy is growing up fast. He's a bundle of energy, excitement, and a ton of fun to have around. Thanks to Netflix, he has been watching lots of Care Bear episodes, so we celebrated with Care Bear cupcakes and a Grumpy Bear T-shirt Tiffany made.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T23:10:00.004-04:00

Halloween has been my favorite holiday for several years now but this one was bittersweet for a couple of reasons. First was because my legs had just run 26.2 miles earlier that day and then had to walk around trick or treating. The other was because this would be the last Halloween with our good friends David & Bonnie before they moved to Utah. Their son Michael has been best friends with Samara for several years now and it will be painful to separate. On a positive side this was the first Halloween Gavin really got into and he was super cute wearing his Peter Pan outfit. Plus!!! I just ran a marathon and will eat any and all the candy I want!

Marine Corps Marathon

2010-10-31T18:06:00.004-04:00

I finally did it. I have wanted to run a marathon for the past several years but one thing or another has stopped me from doing it. After discussing it with my father and brother earlier in the year we all decided to register for the race. My father has run several marathons but this was the first time for my brother and me.

My summer didn't go as planned and I wasn't able to train as much as I should have, or at all really. After the crazy work schedule ended I was left with just two months to prepare for the marathon. I started off slow and never took any breaks, but in just 8 weeks I worked up to 22 miles. I wouldn't recommend such a condensed training regimen for anyone.

The marathon itself went really well. Although we all trained separately, the three of us ran 22 miles together. It was a lot of fun having someone to talk to throughout the race. My dad and brother pulled me along for those last few miles before I had to finally drop back after 22. I walked and jogged the last few miles but finally crossed the finish line in 4 hours 23 minutes. A respectable time all things considered. I even went trick-or-treating with the kids that evening!

HFStival

2010-09-18T20:27:00.004-04:00

Taking Tiffany to rock concerts has been more fun that I could imagine. Not only do we have a ton of fun singing and dancing at the concert, she comes home and wants to play the same rock music at home. Talk about a win win.

After a 5 year break, the year the almighty HFStival returned to the DC area. There used to be a legendary rock station, 99.1 WHFS, here that hosted the HFStival annually at the Redskins RFK stadium. Back then this was a colossal two day concert, with two stages that held up to 90,000 concert goers. All along the East Coast it was the rock event to be at. One fateful morning in 2005, HFS flipped to Mexican music without warning . Rock radio in the DMV area (D.C. Maryland Virginia) has never been the same since (DC101 is horrible in comparison). Ask any rock fan native to the DMV area and tears of nostalgia will flow as they tell you how great it was, who their favorite DJ was, and exactly where they were when they discovered it switched to Mexican music. OK, I'll stop fawning over some old radio station, that's not what this blog is about.

This years HFStival was tame in comparison. It was only one day long, from 11am to 11pm, and held in the much smaller but still lovely Merriweather Post Pavillion. My all time favorite band Third Eye Blind was there along with some other great late 90's bands: Fuel, Live, The Presidents of the United States of America, Lit, Marcy Playground, Jimmy's Chicken Shack, and Everclear. Representing the 80's and early 90's were the old rap group Naughty by Nature and the just plain old Billy Idol.

By accident really I happened to purchase tickets for the pit right in front of the stage. Being that close to the musicians was awesome, I got some great pictures and video. No watching the jumbo-tron for us! I even caught a guitar pick thrown by the Fuel lead singer and had my finger tips on two drumsticks thrown into the crowd by Billy Idol and 3EB.

Worthy of report were both Billy Idol, Third Eye Blind, and Naughty by Nature. Forget that Billy Idol is an old man, he can still belt out the hits just as well as back in the day. I wasn't a Billy Idol fan before really, but I certainly am now. He was incredible to watch. Third Eye Blind closed the concert and got everybody up on their feet and rockin. The crowd was singing along nearly as loud as the lead singer. Naughty by Nature was a band I was willing to skip. Tiffany said "No way!". Turns out she and her school friends were quite the NbN fans back in the day. Who would've thought?! She had a lot of fun reminiscing and dancing to their old school rap!

OK, I lied. Even though there were 90,000 or so tickets for sale at the old HFStivals, they would still sell out within hours (this is back before internet tickets sales btw.) To secure ourselves a spot in the front of the ticket line in '97, some friends and I reported to a store at 9pm the day before tickets went on sale (the JC Penney at the Columbia Mall in fact.) This got us on a list in the order that they would sell tickets to and we were something like 40th on the list. In order to stay on that list until tickets actually went on sale the next morning, we had to report back every two hours. If we failed to report back they'd scratch our name off the list. They'd also switch the location where we were supposed to report to as well. They'd tell us "meet at the lake front" in two hours , then "meet back at the store" in another two hours. We mostly stayed up all night having a good time, but as morning approached we faded quickly and napped between reporting in. In the end, we got out tickets and felt sorry for the hundreds of other people in line behind us who were unaware of the 'all night line guarantee deal' and who weren't going to get tickets. There's really not a point to this story but to convey that a lot of people went through a lot of effort to secure HFStival tickets. That particular HFStival was the break out year of Third Eye Blind and the first time I saw them in concert. They were brand new then and on the second, lesser stage. A lot has changed since then!

Camping at Burke Lake Part 2

2010-08-28T09:00:00.003-04:00

We liked camping at Burke Lake last month so much that we already went back, but this time we stayed two nights instead of one. Taking down your tent after just one night of camping just doesn't seem right. As if three days in the woods wasn't enough, Logan and Samara say they want to go camping next time for a week!

Each time we go camping we acquire more and more gear. This time the kids all got head lamps to wear in the dark which they absolutely loved. Logan and I did a lot of fishing again and even rented a row boat for several hours as well. We never did catch anything while on the boat but I did catch a nice blue gill while on the shore so at least we didn't get skunked.

Gavin is the perfect camping baby. Both nights he would tell us he wanted to go to sleep by walking over to the tent saying "Night Night". The kid loves to sleep which is more than any parent could ever ask for.

We encountered a few mosquitoes this time and I got bit on the back of the leg by what I think was a spider. I'll spare you the details but it took a week for the bite to heal. As we were taking down our tents I found a legless lizard underneath our friend's tarp. For an animal geek life myself that was pretty cool. We also had a cicada killer hornet buzz our heads one night as we were playing cards. Tiffany and Samara were sitting next to each other and it landed right in Samara's hair. Always the protective mama bear, Tiffany shewed it away right? Hah! She freaked out and pushed Samara away as fast as she could! If you don't know what a cicada killer is, imagine a Godzilla sized yellow jacket on steroids. Google Image search "Cicada Killer" and look at the first two images. They're huge but generally harmless.

The kids haven't yet asked to go camping again. But maybe we'll make it a third time this year before it gets too cold.

Fenwick Island State Park

2010-08-21T00:08:00.003-04:00

Along with planning a family camp out this summer, we were also determined to get to the beach. We headed to Fenwick Island State Park in Delaware for a quick day trip with my parents, my Brother Mike and his wife Tara. Unfortunately the day started off poorly. Tiffany and I had planned on leaving the house at 8am, but that all went awry when we both overslept and Logan came to wake us up saying, "Ummm Dad, it's already 8 o'clock..."

We eventually made it to the park around noon, but discovered that Fenwick Island State Park has a very small parking lot that fills up quickly. We had to wait in line in our car until other cars left and a parking space became available. My parents got there early enough to avoid this debacle, so we unloaded the kids from the van and they and Tiffany walked to the beach to meet my folks while I waited in the van for a parking spot to open up. It took about an hour, but I finally got the car parked and joined them at the beach.

Tiffany and I make a great beach pair. Normal couples might have a hard time deciding who is going to stay on the beach to watch the kids. But Tiffany doesn't like getting in the water, so she is more than willingly to play in the sand with the kids. I'm basically part fish, so I greatly appreciate her watching the kids while I splash around in the ocean.

My brother and I both brought our masks and snorkels to try and scour the ocean floor for shells or wild life. Underwater visibility was only as far as our arms and there wasn't much on the sea floor. I caught one crab and a nice little shell which I stuck in my pocket and brought back to the beach. Back at the beach I handed the shell to Tiffany only to hear her scream a few seconds later. Out from the shell came crawling a little hermit crab. We had a good time checking out the little guy before I put him back in the water.

All of our kids loved getting in the water. Poor little Logan wanted to be in the water all the time, but it kept stealing away the body heat from his small frame. We'd send him back to the beach just so he would stop shivering. Cold or not though, he loved floating around and trying to body surf. Samara and Gavin both came out with me and had a good time until a larger than usual wave would get them completely soaked. They'd spend a while in the sand drying off before being ready to come back in the water.

O.A.R. Concert

2010-08-12T14:49:00.003-04:00

I was never a huge fan of OAR but I had heard they are a great live band and that they were local boys that grew up in Rockville Maryland. So I bought some tickets, convinced Tiffany to come with me, and off we went. They sure lived up to the hype and I can see now why OAR fans are such loyal fans. What is really impressive though is how much they won Tiffany over. She loves whenever I play their music at home now. Tiffany and I had a lot of fun dancing and singing, we'll have to do this again!

(btw- I was singing at the top of my lungs in this video and you can't even begin to hear me. It was a very loud crowd)

Camping at Burke Lake

2010-07-31T22:40:00.003-04:00

For the longest time I have been meaning to take the family camping but I go so often with the boy scouts that I always push it off due to camping fatigue. Tiffany and I finally sat down in front of a calender and picked a weekend to go. We headed out to Burke Lake Park which is a great family oriented getaway in Fairfax county.

We had a good time fishing, watching wild life, cooking on the camp fire, and making s'mores of course. They even have a ride able train, an 18 hole frisbee golf course, carousel, ice cream parlor, and put put golf course. The kids were fantastic. Gavin liked to explore the woods and showed no fear grabbing at a lizard like it was a piece of candy. Logan loved fishing and even though we only caught a bat (watch the video below) he never got discouraged. Samara loved endlessly throwing rocks into the lake and hamming it up for the camera. Our only wish was that we stayed longer. One night just wasn't enough!

Richmond Drive In Movie Theater

2010-07-17T16:54:00.001-04:00

My older brother now owns two old Volkswagens. The awesome "Thing" on the left and the beautiful Karmann Ghia on the right. He made friends with the owner of a NEW drive in movie theater who also happens to have a VW Herbie bug. The owner let my brother and the rest of a local VW club go to a double feature for free Friday night. We just happened to be in town that weekend so we tagged along!

Scout Camp

2010-07-10T15:52:00.003-04:00

A day after returning from Louisiana I left to go to scout camp for a week. This year we went to Goshen scout camp which is the local camp for this region. We attended camp the week of July 4th and while it's not quite the same as being with your family on Independence Day, it was still a lot of fun being with the boys.

Last year we suffered from nonstop rain, this year it was nonstop heat. Overall, this summer has been very hot and this week at camp was one of the worst. At one point we were sitting in an open field in the sweltering heat watching scouts perform a play they created for a merit badge when the scout staff informed us it was 107 degrees. That was just one of several days in 100 plus degree heat. Towards the end of the week we had one spectacular storm roll through camp just as we were retiring for the night. It got so bad that we all headed to the dining hall for a couple of hours just to be safe.

As challenging as it is, I very much enjoy scout camp and being away with all the scouts. Maybe I'm making up for never doing it when I was a youth. ;-)

Louisiana

2010-07-02T15:53:00.001-04:00

Tiffany and I were itching to get back down to Louisiana again after visiting her grandmother there in 2004. I absolutely love the southern food, New Orleans, the swamps, and of course visiting her family. Visiting New Orleans a year before Hurricane Katrina really gave us some context to all the horrible pictures we saw on the TV during the storm. We were curious to see how much had changed in those 5 years since.

Once again we drove instead of flying. This time we had three kids instead of one, which greatly increased the potential for a disastrous 18 hour drive. We left prepared though. We departed Virginia in the evening on a Friday so that the kids would sleep most of the trip. During their waking hours the DVD player and Nintendo DS saved the day. I fueled up on gas and 5 Hour Energy drinks along the way and ended up driving the first 16 hours myself. Tiffany took over for the last two so that I could finally catch some sleep.

Making the trip as well was Tiffany's mom and sister Melissa with her two kids. Which made for a very full house and some volatile card games (sisters can be so petty).

I'm normally a tightwad and conscientious eater, but this is one of those trips where I completely let go of both. See two yummy dishes at a restaurant? Order both, try everything! The most unusual thing we ate was fried alligator, it did NOT taste like chicken. Most everything was fried which isn't my preference, but that's how they do it. We ate shrimp po' boys, soft shell crab po' boys, shrimp gumbo, crab claws, fried oysters, stuffed shrimp, boiled crawfish, fried eggplant, fried catfish, hush puppies, and of course fried chicken from Popeyes. Can you say YUM!? My favorite was still the boiled crawfish.

We spent a couple of days in New Orleans, specifically the French Quarter. Just like our last trip there, it absolutely poured on us both days. We had to hang out under some shelter while the storms past. But it made for a memorable experience. Hanging out in the French Quarter one day was singer songwriter/Tiffany's crush - Jason Mraz. We didn't know it but he was in the middle of a large crowd that had gathered to protest the BP oil spill. It was only after we returned back home and I was checking out the news did I see a picture of him there. I went back through the pictures I took of the crowd and you can certainly see a glimpse of him in my photos. Had Tiffany known he was there while we were she probably would've embarrassed herself, so maybe it was for the better. ;-)

Samara had been watching the Disney movie The Princess and the Frog a lot before we visited Louisiana. The movie is set in New Orleans and the main character works in a beignet shop and dreams of opening her own restaurant. Beignets are french donuts which are basically fried dough with LOTS of powdered sugar on them. For weeks leading up to our visit, we told Samara we were going to visit the famous beignet shop Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter. She was so excited when we finally sat down in the very crowded outdoor cafe and ordered our beignets. She savored every last bite and every last lick of powdered sugar. We've asked her several times what her favorite part of our vacation was and she always says the beignets. We brought some beignet mix home with us and made some of our own as well.

Logan's favorite part of our trip was by far the alligator ranch we visited. This place was pretty cool (and expensive, but totally worth it.) They were taught a lot of facts about alligators, why they're important, how the eggs are harvested, how they're raised, and what the ranch does with them. We learned that the most popular alligator skinned item is the wrist watch band and that Louisiana has more alligators in the wild than all other states combined. After the classroom portion of the tour we were taken into the alligator barns where we fed them marshmallows and a live mouse. The guide took one out, taped the mouth shut and let the kids touch it. We took a group photo with the alligator across our laps. The most exciting part about the ranch though was the alligator petting pool where they got to pick up baby alligators. Logan and his cousin Payton were skittish at first of course, but once they realized the alligators were harmless (they're mouths were closed shut of course) they became pro alligator wranglers! Logan still says this was his favorite thing he did all summer.

Some other random memories were of the kids so desperately wanting to play with Tiffany's grandmother's cat. The poor cat was freaked out by all the kids and stayed hidden in the master bedroom all week. In the woods behind Tiffany's grandmother's house people have heard the screams of panthers. That thought spooked us whenever we had to go out to our cars at night. Can you imagine hearing a woman like scream coming from the forest? Scary! I went for a short run one morning and nearly died of a heat stroke. The humidity was unbearable. I sweated so much that I shorted out my iPod after only a mile and a half. And of course there's that crazy game of Uno that sent Tiffany and her sister to bed angry at each other on our very last night together.

The drive back up to Virginia was so much more difficult than the drive to Louisiana. The week long trip had worn us out and it showed on the drive back. We still left at night (after seeing The Last Airbender movie) but at some points Tiffany and I were swapping in and out of the driver's seat every two hours. Sleep was fleeting as the kids were having a rough time as well, especially little Gavin. We eventually made it home of course and with no speeding tickets thankfully. It'll be a while before we take another road trip that long!

Be sure to click on the title picture to see the rest of the photos

Samara's 4th Birthday

2010-04-26T20:16:00.003-04:00

Our "little" girl has just turned four. The theme this year? Monkeys!

Hockey

2010-04-24T20:11:00.001-04:00

I took the family minus Gavin to a coworker's hockey game this weekend. The game started at 9:20pm and Samara was understandably falling asleep on the car ride over. As soon as we entered the building and saw the skaters she went crazy hyper on us. Even though it was cold and late, we had a lot of fun hanging out and watching the game. In the last seconds of game a hockey puck flew through the 2 inch gap between the glass and the netting right in front of us. Logan got to pick it up and help put it back on the ice, which he was super excited about.

Easter

2010-04-04T21:54:00.003-04:00

As usual, click for more pictures.

Boy Scout Camp Out at the Larson Cabin

2010-04-02T21:20:00.007-04:00

I took Logan with me on another boyscout camp out. This time we went to our ward friends' cabin near Woodstock, Virginia. We enjoyed some warm weather, beautiful scenery, and a magnificent night sky. I took the scouts on a 6 mile hike up and down the mountain that, partly due to the heat in the 90s, was more of a challenge than I anticipated. We also found another "spinning vortex of doom" log, which is a hollowed out log put over the camp fire. It quite spectacularly spews fire out of the top of the log for quite some time.

At night I experimented with my camera by leaving the shutter open for long periods of time to gather light. I pointed it to the stars and in one particular picture, tracked a blinking light from an airplane. As I was watching this particular airplane fly over head I also noticed a much dimmer, smaller, but faster object streak across the sky. I'm fairly certain it was a satellite and I happened to capture it in the photo as well.

Stepping Down

2010-03-15T21:09:00.001-04:00

Stepping down off of elevated surfaces is always a tricky thing for young walkers. Gavin decided to first give it a shot by stepping off of a scripture case, all of about 2 inches high. Even though it wasn't very tall he still struggled with it, much to our amusement.

Sleeping in the Igloo

2010-02-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

If I ever wanted to write a bucket list, making an igloo and sleeping in it would have been on it. The idea of making shelter in the wild and using it to protect yourself from harsh environments has fascinated me since I was a little kid. I asked Logan if he'd like to sleep in the igloo and he jumped at the idea. So with lots of padding and material to keep us insulted from the cold, we piled into the igloo.

Weather.com recorded the temperature in our zip code at 14 degrees that night. I installed a thermometer in the igloo and it stayed right around 31 degrees all night. Quite balmy compared to outside the igloo!

Snow Drive

2010-02-08T17:21:00.002-05:00

For the first time in three days, I ventured out onto the streets to check road conditions. I drove past Logan's school and our two old neighborhoods. Still a lot of messy streets!

SNOWPOCALYPSE!

2010-02-08T17:10:00.004-05:00

Snow! Again!! Thirty Two Inches!!!

My igloo from that last big storm was quite a disappointment. I fixed that this time. Reallllly fixed it this time.

Schools are closed, work is closed, and they're forecasting another 10 - 20 inches tomorrow evening. Wow.

The kids love it and aside from shoveling, I'm loving it too!

My Favorite Childhood Toy

2010-02-02T16:42:00.002-05:00

This little cash register was my favorite childhood toy (that I can remember.) When I saw one in the store a while ago I had to get it, probably more for me than for the kids. It's been around the house for a while, but today Gavin played with it for the first time. He caught on quickly! He can get make 'change' but not a 'sale' yet. That involves the much more difficult task of turning the crank! Maybe we'll work on that tomorrow.

Logan's Superhero Birthday

2010-01-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

Logan had a superhero birthday party this year for his 7th birthday. Tiffany made special superman style capes and shirts for each of our kids. A lot of the other kids wore various super hero (or villain) outfits as well. Logan got everything he wanted including the New Super Mario Bros Wii game, dining at his favorite restaurant Red Robin, and a variety of other toys. Plus he got an awesome sleeping bag and sleeping pad combo from my parents so he can stay comfortable when I take him on boy scout camp outs with me. I'm jealous because its better than my own camping gear. Now we have more excuses to go camping!

Christmas

2009-12-25T19:14:00.001-05:00

It was another wonderful Christmas spent with family. The kids got lots of stuff and Tiffany and I finally bought our first set of nice furniture. We had a great time at my parent's house cooking, lounging around, hunting for tadpoles, and roaming the woods around their house. My wonderful Grandmother came out to the east coast this year so we had the chance to spend precious time with her.

Snoogy the Christmas Elf

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

Meet Snoogy. He is an elf from the North Pole. Santa sent him to our house a couple of weeks before Christmas to see if we were naughty or nice. After staying with us he reported back to Santa on Christmas Eve with his findings. We made sure we were all on our best behavior!

There were a few rules Santa told us about Snoogy. Most importantly, no one was allowed to touch him! If we did, he would go back to the North Pole that very night.

We could ask Snoogy questions by writing down the question and leaving it out for him at night. In the morning we'd find Snoogy's reply taped up to the wall. Snoogy would stay still during the day, but at night he would get up, write us letters, and move to a different location in the house. Every morning we would wake up and come downstairs to try and find Snoogy. Here are all the pictures of his hiding places.

December Snow Storm

2009-12-19T21:21:00.004-05:00

We got walloped with the most December snowfall in the Washington DC area history on December 19th. It was 19 inches at our house and even though it fell late on a Friday night into Saturday morning, Logan's school was canceled Monday through Wednesday of the next week (and maybe more but they already had off starting Thursday for Christmas vacation.) I spend many many hours shoveling that weekend. Since there are no decent hills around us, I piled most of the snow onto a big pile for the kids to sled down. With another pile Logan and I dug out a small igloo. It was a lot of snow. If it's going to snow, I'd rather it snow like this!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T17:42:00.002-05:00

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving up at my parent's house this year. We celebrated it with my Aunt and Uncle and their family as well. Thankfully, Uncle Steve is a fried turkey guy and he brought all the equipment over to fry us up a couple of turkeys! It was delicious!

Gavin Learning to Walk

2009-11-14T19:21:00.001-05:00

Right on cue after his first birthday Gavin started pushing around the kid size Ikea stools in the kitchen. We grabbed the walker that helped Samara learn to walk and he took to it right away. He has made more progress every single day, slowly letting go of things he would normally hold on to. Pretty soon our little guy will be walking! Yikes!!

Gavin's First Birthday

2009-11-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

Our little Gavin celebrated his first birthday. We kept it low profile with just my parents here to celebrate. Tiffany's mom bought him a Teddy Ruxpin bear and all of the kids absolutely love it. It's fun to see our kids play with the same toys we did when we were that age.

Halloween

2009-10-31T20:52:00.004-04:00

We had a very fun and very tiring Halloween this year. We went crazy on Logan's costume, Samara couldn't make up her mind between being a horse or a cat so she was both, sweet little Gavin was his usual sweet little self in Logan's old frog outfit, and we had Samara's friend Michael with us again this year.

We ended up with insane amounts of candy which I will most likely have to unload on my coworkers to avoid starting the pound packing holiday season too early this year. You know its bad when we have a pizza dinner and I think to myself "Finally, some real food!"

The video below is about Logan's Halloween. He and I both discovered a wonderful cartoon this year called "Avatar the Last Airbender." The show no longer airs so we're late to the party, but it was still fun dressing up none the less. We might be crazy for doing what we did, but I've never seen Logan more excited. It was a Halloween to remember.

The overly dramatic music is from the cartoon soundtrack. ;)

We Moved!

2009-10-10T13:08:00.001-04:00

After a year of staying in our friend's lovely townhouse, it was time to move out (they moved to NYC for a year, so we rented their place while they were gone.)

Living in a townhouse compared to an apartment was such a good quality of life boost, we knew we couldn't move back into another apartment this time around. We stressed out about not finding a place, lost out on a couple of townhouses that we kind of liked, then finally found the perfect one for us.

What makes it perfect is the nice quite neighborhood, the public swing set right outside, the cul-de-sac, the fenced in backyard, the shed out back, and the GARAGE (that's a big one for me.)

It's only about a mile and a half down the road from our friend's house and across the street from the apartment we lived in when we first moved to Virginia. Logan is back at the same school and bus stop as he was for kindergarten.

Lets hope we're not moving out in another year!

Happy Gavin

2009-10-05T19:40:00.003-04:00

Gavin has been doing this cute little giggle for a long time but I only now got it on tape. And I learned today that he knows how to clap. Surprise!

Guitar

2009-10-04T16:48:00.002-04:00

I've recently started playing the guitar a little bit again because Gavin absolutely lights up when I start playing. As soon as I start he beams a bright smile and crawls over to start swatting at the strings himself. He'll crawl over to my acoustic guitar in the corner of the room and gently pat the wood body or pluck the stings and giggle all the meanwhile. It has gotten the other kids interested as well and they pretend to play whenever they get the chance.

Dash for Dad 10k Race

2009-09-27T16:26:00.000-04:00

I ran the Dash for Dad 10k race this weekend. It's a race to raise money for prostate cancer research that I heard about a couple of weeks ago and decided to run. I started out too fast and sort of petered out at the end, but I finished in 48:43 which isn't half bad. It was the first real race I've ran since high school. I think I want to do more!

Nationals Game

2009-09-25T15:40:00.002-04:00

Our friend Bruce invited Logan and me to go to a Nationals game with him and his son. We had spectacular seats in the second section behind home plate. The tickets came with $35 spending money built into them, so I let Logan loose and he got pretty much whatever he wanted. It was funny watching him try to carry both his giant popcorn and cotton candy while shoving the popcorn in his mouth. After the game they had a fireworks show set to Michael Jackson music which the kids loved. As expected the Nationals lost the game but it was the best baseball experience I've ever had.

Jason's Baptism

2009-09-19T15:23:00.005-04:00

We went down to Richmond this weekend to see Jason's Baptism. Establishing a new tradition, Rory cooked some more delicious BBQ in the smoker; this time pork shoulder slow cooked for about 12 hours. The baptism was awesome and the kids had a great time playing together again. I wanted to go running with Rory while I was down there, but little did I know he was following a training regement and was supposed to run 10 miles that day. My longest run was 8 miles the week prior, so I bucked up and along with our father we all ran 10 miles.

All the kids love bouncing on the trampoline, but Samara thought she was the queen of the trampoline. Any time she fell down (which was quite often) she expected everyone else to stop bouncing so she could get up. When they wouldn't she'd have one of her mini nuclear meltdowns. She wore the other kids' patience very thin.

Renaissance Festival

2009-08-29T13:41:00.004-04:00

We went to the opening weekend of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, or as I like to call it - the Cleavage Festival. Many-a-women leave their inhibitions at home and feel the need to wear lung popping, cleavage boosting corsets when they should'nt even dream of it. The odd balls seemed thicker this year, but thats our fault for going on opening weekend I guess.

Anyways, Tiffany couldn't be there as she was in New York City with my mother and relatives. I only braved the sweltering heat with three kids because my father came as backup, both physical and mental. We chose to go that day because it was "Pirates and Princesses Day" - where kids get in for free and are encouraged to dress up. It was mostly fun aside from one typical Samara melt down over the wrong ice cream flavor.

Tiffany's Trip to KA & MO

2009-08-17T13:00:00.002-04:00

Tiffany's mother flew in to DC the same day we return from the beach and then they left two days later to drive to St. Louis and Kansas City to visit her brother and sister. She had a great time seeing her family again and her younger sister's new home (it only hurts a little). There are plenty of cousins the same age to keep all the kids happily playing together. Aside from the nightmarish trip through West Virginia our GPS told Tiffany to take on the ride home, they had a great trip.

The Outer Banks 2009

2009-08-15T22:01:00.002-04:00

Ahhhhh, our favorite vacation destination. This time around we were able to get all of my brothers and their wives to come. Incredibly, almost all of us are now scuba certified (only 3 of the 5 women aren't) so we had a group of 7 go on our scuba trip. This year we dove to the first German U-boat that was sunk off the east coast during WWII, the U-85. It was in 95 feet of frigid water, but what a site it was. Unfortunately, Rory and I got sea sick yet again and had to sit out the second dive (I didn't want to throw up underwater anymore!)

There was some rain this year as well that put a halt to some of our plans and the mosquitoes flew around in attack squadrons, but everything else was fantastic.

The kids had a great time playing together as usual. As they get older they get along better and find fun ways to entertain themselves. We did a fun treasure hunt again this year. Tiffany and Sonya made some awesome tie dye shirts for the kids with Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. After much debate, I brought my XBox 360 and Shawn brought his guitar hero game. It was fun seeing Dad and the little kids rock out on the guitars.

We all had a good time playing around in the ocean of course. The first day out, Dad, Rory, and I went for a cliche beach run. We ran about 4 miles and all I got for it was two nice blisters on each big toe - scratch that idea off the list next time.

For some reason this year we were always stepping on fish under our feet, so I decided to grab some snorkel gear and investigate. Turns out they weren't fish, they were stingrays! Everywhere!! (I know, I know... stingrays are fish, but you get the point.) I caught about a dozen blue crabs as well while snorkeling. At night time the fiddler crabs come out on the beach by the hundreds and we had fun grabbing some of them as well. Skates were swimming up and down the beach and Rory managed to net one with a big fishing net. Dad hooked a skate while shore fishing and after trying to fight it for over an hour we pulled so hard the knot on the hook came undone (trust me, as hard as we tried we weren't giving it much of a fight). While we were snorkeling we could hear the dolphins clicking off in the distance. Pretty cool!

Hopefully we'll be back there in 2011 (if not sooner!)

Here are some videos (btw, Gavin is crawling like a champ now)

Gavin (Army) Crawling!

2009-07-30T19:40:00.002-04:00

As we were recording the dance video below, we noticed Gavin finally scooting forward instead of backwards. He's mobile!! I'll bet by tomorrow he'll be full on crawling.

New Dance Video

2009-07-30T19:36:00.002-04:00

Here they go again, doing what they do best.

Love Song For No One

2009-07-21T22:52:00.002-04:00

Ok. So this is a bit of a rarity for me. I hate singing in front of people, add in trying to play guitar at the same time and the already mediocre singing becomes downright screetchy. But the kids were cute, so we grabbed the camera and I am now closing my eyes as I hit the submit button.

Model Rockets

2009-07-11T22:34:00.004-04:00

I had few model rocket kits left over from scout camp, so when Logan's cousin was here for a week we each built one, painted it, and launched it. I still get just as much of a kick watching these rockets fly into the sky as the little guys do.

Da Da

2009-07-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

Here we're playing outside the house, riding scooters, drawing chalk on the sidewalk, and painting the model rockets I helped Logan and Jason build (Logan's cousin).

Almost Crawling

2009-07-05T09:14:00.001-04:00

He can do push ups and downward facing dogs but no crawling yet. He's so close!

Camp Keowa - Scout Camp

2009-07-04T18:16:00.001-04:00

Here are a bunch of pictures I took at scout camp this year. It would take too much space to provide a detailed account of everything we did there. A short synopsis would include: long drive there, wait in line, rain, church, rain, classes, rain, launch model rockets, rain, rain, fish, rain, long drive back, sleep. That pretty much sums it up. I had a great time.

Camping at Blue Ridge

2009-05-08T19:26:00.002-04:00

We took the boy scouts camping on the top of one of the blue ridge "mountains". Although not a true mountain by Western US standards, it still provided an exciting view and excellent scenery.

Samara's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-04-24T20:07:00.002-04:00

Samara celebrated her 3rd birthday today with a Tinker Bell themed party. All of her friends came over, dressed up as fairies, had their nails painted, made necklaces, played freeze dance, and colored both on paper and the sidewalk. It was a perfect day for our not so little girl.

Camping at Burke Lake

2009-04-17T19:07:00.003-04:00

The boy scouts and I went camping to Burke Lake this weekend. Logan loves camping and has been begging to go, but until recently it has been too cold for me to bring him (I have enough to worry about keeping myself warm in sub zero temps). This turned out to be the perfect weekend! He had a great time, especially since Logan had a friend to play with.

This will be a camp out the scouts will remember for years. As they were playing at the waters edge, one scout ventured out to far and took the plunge. Seeing that it would happen, I grabbed the camera and got it all on tape!

Easter

2009-04-12T18:40:00.001-04:00

We celebrated a slew of April birthdays and Easter during the same wondeful weekend at mom and dads. It's always fun heading up there especially when we can visit our old friends at church. Samara took a little while to get into the easter egg hunting frame of mind, but by the end of it she and Megan came out with the most eggs! And by popular demand, here's the video of Jason getting his face pushed into the leftover birthday cake. It was all fun and games until someone got frosting in his eyes!

Lacrosse

2009-04-05T00:02:00.001-04:00

My Aunt and Uncle Crandall and two of their sons flew from Idaho to visit the east coast. While they were here their two boys, Cameron and Adam, were playing lacrosse in the backyard and Samara and Logan both fell in love with it. Although I can't understand why, it only involves swinging sticks and throwing balls around...

Logan's New Teeth!

2009-04-04T15:04:00.001-04:00

While helping Logan brush his teeth a couple of days ago, I noticed two new teeth coming in behind his front bottom teeth. I literally couldn't believe what I saw. I don't think we mentally prepared ourselves for him loosing his baby teeth already. We asked him if his teeth hurt or were loose and he nodded casually as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. He shouted for joy after after learning his teeth were falling out and that Tooth Fairy would stop by for a visit. The funny toothless phase of children photos is about to begin.

Our Precious Samara

2009-04-04T11:24:00.003-04:00

I went on my first business trip this week and being a new iPod owner I was excited to finally have some music to listen to on the plane. Sunday evening I began packing my suitcase to stay the night at a friend's house closer to the airport. Just as we were about to leave I went to grab my iPod and headphones which are always on my computer desk, only this time the headphones were no where to be found. To make a long story short, I searched for about an hour to no avail. Have you ever been so frustrated at losing something you knew exactly where it was? I had just seen them on the desk a couple of hours previously so I went crazy beyond belief at their disappearance. I took the trip without them figuring that Tiffany would discover them at home while I was gone, but to my surprise she didn't.

It's now Saturday morning and 6 days have passed since they strangely disappeared. Samara was just sitting on my lap looking at the pictures I took of our trip to Richmond. I leaned back in my chair and looked around my desk and it hit me. It was one of those instant revelations where in the blink of an eye some mysterious event of the past unfolds itself to you and suddenly makes complete sense.

I stared at the large hole in my computer's sub woofer and just knew that the headphones were inside. I picked up the large box and sure enough something rattled around.

I guess I'm most amused at the timing of it all. Only one other time in her almost three year life has she hid something inside the sub woofer, and that was over a year ago. I hardly ever use those headphones and she just had to hide them an hour before I desperately needed them. I can't help but laugh.

St. Louis

2009-03-30T14:28:00.004-04:00

I took a trip out to St. Louis for a short business trip and then stayed an extra day at Trevor and Maria's place. St. Louis is a surprisingly wonderful city with a lot to do and see. Most of all I enjoyed eating some good BBQ and going to the top of the arch! I took a stuffed monkey from home and brought him out for some cliche but cute photos.

Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k

2009-03-28T13:24:00.005-04:00

We went down to Richmond for the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k run. I was registered to run but gave up my spot to Sonya since I hadn't trained at all! Dad, Rory, and Sonya all ran and finished the race. There were some great costumes - my favorites were Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love video.

The End of an Era

2009-03-22T18:28:00.003-04:00

We finally sold the old 1991 Honda Civic. It was a great commuter car but not so great for a growing family. I had always planned on keeping it until it died but it just wouln't die (how I didn't manage to total the thing in my less than cautious driving years is beyond me.) After 18 years, 238,150 miles, and a hand-me-down car from my parents (thanks mom and dad!) it was time to let it go.

Sleepy Gavin, Chatty Samara

2009-03-16T21:32:00.001-04:00

This is the sequel to the previous video.

A Minute in the Life of Gavin

2009-03-16T20:54:00.001-04:00

It's not uncommon for Gavin to sit and bounce like this for an hour.

Sledding Samara

2009-03-03T18:30:00.005-05:00

We've had hardly any snow for the past two years so the freak snow storm that came through today (March 3rd!!) was Samara's first chance to go sledding. We only have a little dinky hill behind our house but it was good enough for her. She couldn't stop doing this giddy little laugh the whole time we were out there (it kind of sounds like Beavis and Butt-head). Even though their little toesies were freezing they would've stayed out there all night.

"I TWO OLD!"

2009-03-02T18:01:00.000-05:00

I love Samara's senseless two year old jabber. Tiffany was trying to help Logan by reading some text on a video game and Samara had to interject herself by talking over Tiffany. We've been having difficulty with Samara thinking she is old enough and mature enough to take various matters into her own hands, so I took this opportunity to rib her about still being a little girl.

Logan's 6th Birthday

2009-01-27T20:35:00.002-05:00

With the recent arrival of the Nintendo DS there has been a Mario revival in our house. And even though Logan had a Mario themed birthday party last year, he wanted another one this year. Since that meant we could reuse some props from last year I was more than happy to oblige.

Another Hidden Gem

2009-01-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

I caught Samara playing with our camera a week ago but never thought to check through the pictures to see if she had taken any. Today I finally pulled all the pictures off the camera and noticed she had taken about 15 pictures of nothing but the couch, the floor, a stuffed animal... and then these two pictures. Logan and Samara have an interesting dynamic. They can be the best of friends one second and the worst of friends the next. This was one of the many moments when Samara was annoying Logan. I love how unfiltered Logan's emotions are in these photos. If we were around, Logan would've played down his anger or at least tried to hide if from us. But through Samara's disobedience with the camera we were offered a glimpse into the world usually reserved for siblings.

Smiley Gavin

2009-01-25T23:15:00.001-05:00

Sunday Lunch

2009-01-25T12:01:00.002-05:00

The kids were being particularly cute for some reason while we sat down to lunch after church today. So we whipped out the camera!

Vanessa's Pics

2009-01-02T22:17:00.003-05:00

Our good friend Vanessa made a surprise visit from Vermont this weekend (and by surprise I mean Tiffany opened up the front door and was surprised - although I knew beforehand.) She is an aspiring photographer and volunteered to take some family pictures for us. They turned out great! Here are a few of them. Thanks Vanessa!

Chuck E Cheese

2008-12-29T23:23:00.002-05:00

With all the kids in the house, how could we resist not heading over to Chuck E Cheese? We always get the best pictures of the kids there. Wonder why that is?

Gavin's Blessing

2008-12-28T23:10:00.003-05:00

We added 7 more people (25 total) to the house this Sunday when we took Gavin to church for his blessing. Our little fella is such a wonderful addition to our family. He has started to show his beaming smile whenever we play with him. It's too cute!

Washington, DC

2008-12-27T22:20:00.002-05:00

We braved the crowds and went to DC the Saturday after Christmas. We ended up parking by the Jefferson Memorial and hiking the long trek to the museums but at least the weather was absolutely beautiful. Our three car caravan got split up and lost in DC on the way back home. The whole day was quite an adventure.

Samara the Rockstar

2008-12-25T18:36:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick video of Samara's favorite Christmas present. You can tell she watches "rock and roll" with her dad. She has been walking around, jamming away all afternoon.

Christmas

2008-12-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Tiffany got a new dinner set, Samara got an electric guitar, Logan got a Nintendo DS, and I got a shotgun (you should see the smile on my face.) But most of all we enjoyed being with family. Lets hope it isn't too long before we see everybody together again.