July Trip to Ohio

In July we packed the whole family into the minivan and headed west for Ohio. We decided this year to drive instead of fly. Personally I prefer to drive as I hate flying. We had planned to leave in the afternoon on July 3rd and arrive in the early morning (it's about a 10 hour drive) on July 4th. The boys were all going to go to a Cincinnati Reds game with their cousins on the 4th and the bus that would take them there was leaving at 10am. At the last minute Cory had a little league game rescheduled for the evening on July 3rd. Cory was already going to miss 6 games while we were away so we felt compelled to not miss any more.

So we went to Cory's game in Warren and after the game (we lost) at about 8pm we all loaded into the car and started our trek. Julie took her turn driving first since: 1) I can stay awake later than she can, 2) she hates to drive at night and 3) I hate it when she drives at night. A few hours in I took over and drove through till about 5am. At that point no amount of coffee or Red Bull was keeping me alert enough so Julie took over for the last hour.

Once we arrived, Julie and I immediately headed for some quality shut eye. It took a while for the caffeine to burn its way out of my system, but by mid afternoon I was good to go. In all, we spent 5 days with Julie's family and we had a great time. We hit all the regular activities – fishing, miniature golf, play at the park, swim at the town pool, bbq's, wiffle ball games and campfires.

Julie and I also took had our 2nd annual "Shoot 'em up" with Julie's uncle Jim. Last year during our visit Jim took us to his favorite gun shop / shooting range where for the first time ever Julie and I fired live rounds from hand guns, along with Jacqui and Lindsay. Which was cool. This year, the ante was upped a bit as Jim brought out his Mac 10 submachine gun and his Mauser 98 rifle. No range this time, we headed to Don and Jan's backyard and fired them there. Firing the submachine gun was really cool and the Mauser was lots of fun too. After we kids had our fun Julie's mom, dad and brother Doug took a turn. If anyone wants to see what Grandma looks like pumping 20 rounds per second from a Mac 10 into a gravel pile, I have photo evidence! Next year Jim is going to have to reach deep into his bag of tricks to keep us entertained. I'm thinking perhaps a flamethrower or a howitzer…hmmmm…which to choose?

Another first for us – we all got our turn taking a Combine ride with Don while he harvested his wheat fields. With a 20 foot wide cutting head on it, that Combine is an impressive machine. Cory, Ryan and Jason each had their turn taking a ride with Don, as did Julie and I. The boys will all have something fun and unique to write about in our "what I did this summer" assignments in school.

Pictures from our trip can be found here:

July 2008 Trip to Ohio

Cavern Diving, Easter Eggs, Little League Parade, Cory's first Communion and Travel Baseball

Ok, I know, it's been a long time since I updated this blog. I have no excuse other than to say that I keep thinking that eventually I'll get around to it. So here it is...

March started off with me heading down to High Springs, Florida for a little Cavern diving. Things started off pretty poorly on this trip as I came down with a stomach virus pretty much as soon as I got there. I didn't finish the cavern course, but I did get to explore the Ball Room cave in Ginnie Springs. That is some amazingly clear water. And it's incredibly dark in the back of the cave with no lights on. Like really dark. Someday it would be nice to go back and finish the course.

While I was down there we had some seriously bad weather too, let's just say that I survived my first tornado warning intact.

Also in March, the boys had a blast coloring and decorating their Easter eggs. The creativity and talent level has definitely been stepped up a notch. Mom and Dad joined in the fun and we all had a great time decorating our eggs. Of course, the really fun part is pouring all the colored water down the drain. Some things never change.



In April we had Julie's birthday...Happy Birthday Julie! Of course, we have no pictures from that day. Hmmm...not sure how that happened. We all went to Fujiama Mama for some hibachi Japanese food. You'll just have to imagine it.

Also in April we had the kick off parade to the spring in-town little league baseball season. Ryan's is the Lugnuts and Cory is on the Lookouts.




In May Cory had his First Communion. We surprised Cory by having his cousin Sam come to visit and spend the weekend with us. Cory and Sam quickly made up for lost time.



Cory tried out for and made the 2nd grade travel baseball team. In June, Cory started playing with his new team - the Westfield Blue 2nd Grade Team. Here's a shot of Cory in his first game of the season about to slide into second on a stolen base attempt. He was safe, and later came around to score. Unfortunately, Cory's team lost their first game 8-9. We'll get 'em next time.

The Giants win the Superbowl(!?), Cory turns 8, a lunar eclipse and a snow day

Wow, February was busy.

Who predicted that the Giants would make the post season, let alone win the whole shebang? A bunch of us gathered around on Superbowl Sunday to watch Eli and a bunch of no names take on the mighty NE Patriots. What a game. Even if you weren't a Giants fan it was a great game. And it had one of the defining moments in sports history - "The Play" - Eli breaking free from what looked like a sure sack and then hitting David Tyree(!?) downfield where Tyree catches the ball with his helmet! Incredible. Made even better by NY beating the hated NE Patriots!

GO BIG BLUE!

The kids put on a special own Half Time show.

February 16th Cory turned 8! To me he is still my baby, I can't believe he is 8 already. We threw him a small party. The kids had cake, the grownups had beer, and everyone was happy. Ok, the grownups had beer AND cake. There, I said it.

Happy 8th Birthday Cory!!!

February 20th was the lunar eclipse and I quickly snuck outside and tried to snap a few pictures of the event. This is the only picture I took that came out remotely Ok. For this shot, I mounted the camera on a tripod and set the shutter speed to 3 seconds.



Friday February 22nd we had a nice late February snow day. We probably had about 6+ inches of snow total. The kids had a snow day from school - boy were they psyched! What's better then a snow day if you're a kid?

Jason, enjoying his snow day.

42: The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

As I was lamenting turning 42 my friend Stephan reminded me that 42 is the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. For those that have no idea what he was referring too - in Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" novels - a computer named Deep Thought is built to answer the Ultimate Question (what is the answer to life, the universe and everything?). The computer chugs along for 7½ million years and finally comes up with: 42.

Of course, just about everyone is disappointed with the answer - one individual demands of the computer: "Forty two?! Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"

The computer replies: "I checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

Ain't that the truth.


Yesterday marked my 42nd birthday and I celebrated with a tri-fecta. Some quality time with Julie in the morning, then off to meet up with some of my diving buds for a little winter diving. We went up to Dutch Springs in PA and dove in a retired limestone quarry - which is now a now a freshwater lake. It was cold out, the air temp was about 36F. The water temp was 41F. When I dropped under the surface and was completely submerged in 41F water I was completely aware of how alive I was - I was also completely aware of brain freeze. The great thing about the lake in the winter is that the underwater visibility is outstanding and yesterday didn't disappoint - we had easily 70 feet of vis - or more.

My buddy Stephan and I did two dives, total combined runtime of 1 hour and 9 minutes. It was a great way to spend a chilly afternoon. When I got home - we headed over to our friends Joe and Christine's house for some dinner and drinks (more drinks than dinner actually) while the kids ran around and generally caused a ruckus.

All in all, a great day.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!!!

So - it's been a few weeks since my last update. Christmas came and went, as did New Years and Ryan's sixth birthday! Wow, that went fast. On deck is my birthday - followed by Cory's birthday in mid February. Then a little break until Julie's birthday in April. Who's idea was it to have all these birthdays so close together? Oy, with all the cake.

For Christmas we stayed home - in our newly re-done home - which I LOVED. Nothing better than waking up in my own bed on Christmas morning - basking in the glow of not having to travel during a holiday. The boys had a great time opening up all of their gifts - especially Cory as we got him a Wii. I think his exact words were "My life is saved! I got a Wii!!!!". The Wii IS pretty cool, although after a full day of playing "Wii tennis" I started to develop "Wii shoulder". I had to learn how to swing the Wii "racket" - and not try to swing like a real tennis racket.

Here are the little rascal's on Christmas morning.

As you can plainly see, we went to great lengths to make sure they were dressed nicely.

For New Years Eve we were invited over to Rob and Barb's house - there new house which I had never seen before. I liked it - great job Rob and Barb and good luck in your new home. The kids stayed up until midnight and we watched the ball drop on Barb's 13" tv - yes 13" that wasn't a typo. Personally, I can't believe that Dick Clark is still bringing it at 78 years old. Where would we be without Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year? Julie went around and collected everyone's new years resolutions. I've decided to opt out, as I don't see the point in making promises that I know I won't keep! I gave myself a low hanging goal of trying to get in 30 dives in 2008 - I should be able to hit that one.

Cory and I on New Year's Eve.

No sooner was New Year's over, and the Christmas decorations packed away, and here come's Ryan's birthday. We had a small group of Ryan's friends from his class over and threw him a party at our house.

Here's the big boy about to blow out his 6 candles.

That's all for now, I promise not to take so long to make my next post.

House Project update...We're done! (Well, almost)

Ok, I know, I'm really behind on the whole blogging thing. Lame, lame, lame.

So - on Friday, November 16th we moved back into our home - yeah! It's official - we are done with the house project. Well, that is if you alter your definition of "done". We are "mostly done", which is better than being "almost done" and not quite as good as being "all done". We have a punchlist of items that still need to be completed, and they'll probably be finished in no time. Or by mid summer. Either way.

Done!

The move back in went without any major complications. However, there were several issues that we've already had to deal with in the new house - like - the brand new ovens didn't work quite right and we needed them serviced (already). I think they basically needed a "re-boot". We also discovered a leak in the boy's bathroom shower - which damaged the kitchen ceiling slightly. Our phone mysteriously died for two days. And one of our garage doors seems to open every time my neighbor changes channels on his TV. The list goes on. Our contractor is making good on all these little gotchas. I'm sure that fact that we still owe him $20,000 probably helps expedite things. That's one of the reasons I insisted on back-loading the milestone payments in the contract. That $20k will be a great motivator.



We love the way the kitchen came out - and the boys love having an island with stools to sit on when they eat. One of Julie's dreams has been fulfilled. Check. Now I just need to find a baby grand piano for the living room and I'll have made significant progress on Julie's wish list. Or I'll just be broke.

New kitchen, new island, bar stools - check, check, check. Now, if we could only get the kids to sit down and eat.

On moving day we had help from Ria and Veronica. Ria was our previous nanny - Veronica is our current nanny. They were a huge help and without them I think we'd still be putting things away. The boys loved seeing Ria again.

Ria and Veronica were a huge help on moving day.

The happy family on move day. The kids all had some Coke, and getting them to sit still for this picture was like herding cats.

We've already done a fair amount of entertaining - Don and Jan came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Don't worry Jan, I promised I wouldn't say anything about you setting the fire alarms off when you were cooking. So I won't.

Kelly and Amy also came to visit us - along with some of their friends. And our friends Rob and Barb and their kids came to visit too. We're finding that the kitchen is the gathering place, that's where everyone wants to hang out. That's also where the booze is, but I'm not drawing any conclusions here.


We still have many boxes to unpack - I'm going with the 6 month rule. If we haven't unpacked it in 6 months then we clearly don't need it and it gets tossed. I've discovered that I love to un-clutter and get rid of stuff I don't use or need anymore. It's a little endorphin rush.

Brothers!