Vacation at Woodloch

My whole family converged for almost a week in a large house up in the Poconos at a resort called Woodloch. Not only did we survive together, we had a fabulous time.

Back From Vacation

A great time had by all. Tired tonite, so I'm posting just one picture; the beautiful lake.

Getting Prepared For Soccer

Between the Olympics and knowing they are signed up for soccer this fall (practices start next week) Reuben and Faith were excited to practice in the yard this morning. Reuben has picked up a bunch of the rules to from watching the Olympics.

Tooth Fairy Visits

The tooth fairy visited Jacob last night. He put a picture of a tooth under his pillow since they never found the real tooth that fell out. 'Lo and behold the tooth fairy delivered! A bright and shiny dollar coin. All three kids were trying to explain to each other how the tooth fairy may have done it without anyone seeing. Quite funny.

A big first today

Jacob lost his first tooth. He knocked it out of his mouth on the playground when he went flying off a spinny toy. We took him to the dentist to be sure there wasn't any problems and had lots of surprises on the xray. Apparently this tooth was ready to come out and 3 others are as well. The other bottom center tooth and the top 2 center teeth. The dentist certainly was surprised because he is only a little over 5. So more tooth fairy visits in the near future. He went right to bed tonight. - Karen

Visiting Miss Stacy

Karen and kids went up to Maryland to visit with the beloved Miss Stacy, Karen's Mother's helper from last summer. Boy were the kids happy to spend time with Stacy!

Pool Party

This afternoon we had got together with several friends at the host's pool club. Lots of kids, water, and treats - fun time had by all.





I also finally got rid of something on my to-do list for the last year; patching the cement on our front porch, right in front of the door. Its a small crack but I wanted to prevent it from breaking up more over winter. I was planning on using some vinyl cement patch paste, but couldn't find the stuff I bought a year ago when it went up on the to-do list. I did find my bucket of quickcrete so I used that. We'll see how it takes.

More Bike Practice - The Movie

A higher quality version can be seen directly from youTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbAqB7OCaqY Click the "watch in high quality" below the movie

The kids are getting the hang of it and close to being able to start up by themselves without my holding them. Its also got Faith out at least onto the tricycle. She even got daring once and did a Jacob racing down the driveway. Unfortunately Karen didn't put it in big wheel mode (flipping the seat around to lower the center of gravity) and Faith flipped it. She was fine but wasn't going to repeat that move!

Later in the day we made our way over to the pool for an hour. There was actually some swimming going on. For some reason Jacob likes going in the 4.5 foot area where he dunks himself up and down until he's ready to drown before he swims back to the side. Reuben likes to jump off the side and swim as far as he can which is about 20 feet. Faith meanwhile does a mean kickboard now and even dunks her head under water. Lots of progress all around today.

Sleepless In Seattle

Last night after a long week of tedious meetings, over beers Scott and I were invited out on our project's chief engineer's sail boat. After warning him that the only class I failed at MIT was sailing, we still got the invite. The weather was just perfect, Lake Union was picturesque, and I even learned a thing or two about sailing!

After we finally got back and a quick dinner, I got hooked on watching the olympics even though I had to be up at 4am for our morning flight. So now after that and two weeks of this east coast/west coast split, my body clock is now officially FUBAR!!

Tukwila, WA - Marriot Courtyard Review

Back in Seattle. Our normal Holiday Inn was booked so we wound up instead at the Courtyard in a bit better part of town. Turns out it is much nicer, but also a little pricier. On to the review...

Bed: B
Comfortable king size mattress; no pillowtop. Very nice bedding and nice fluffy pillows.

Cleanliness: B
Room was clean. Still don't trust the in room coffee maker or non-wrapped glasses.

Media: C
Average size TV (25"). Basic cable channels with HBO. Wired internet in the room, but not wireless. They expect me to leave the comfy king sized mattress to do email; go figure!

Breakfast: A-
Free full buffet breakfast with a Marriot rewards number. Eggs and omelets made to order and the normal continental basics like fresh fruit, breads, and yogurt. Oatmeal was a bit runny. Breakfast held in a separate restaurant area versus off-lobby location.

Towels: B-
Average towels. Expected plusher towels from a Courtyard. But no stains.

Intangibles: Nice lobby. Free happy hour with beer and wine. They had a beer I've never seen before in a cool (really cheap) looking bottle.

Kind of reminded of a bottle Schlitz should have been served in. But, its right across from railroad tracks and a loud train came through at 4:00am (lucky I was already up since I can't adjust to the timezone). Also there was no heavy breathing bull dog named Porky, like at the Holiday Inn.

Overall rating: B+

Training Wheels Banished

We took another practice run at bike riding without training wheels. Overall pretty good results, but still at about a 10 second ride max before stopping. This time Reuben too got into the action.





Later in the day the kids played 3 holes of Wii golf. Reuben loves it, but all their games still have much to be desired. After 3 holes they finished +11, +14, and +17 (Reuben, Jacob, Faith). They need a lot of work on their short game!

At The Zoo

Yesterday I got home from a long business trip to Seattle. With my body clock a bit off I was not so excited about heading to the zoo this morning for a tour Karen arrange for 9:45. After everyone quickly got ready we made out just after nine and had to run up the big hill at the zoo to make our tour. The weather could not be better. At 10:00 it was probably 75 and not a cloud in the sky. The animals were pretty happy too...

Pool Day

We went to the pool today with James, Ginger, and family, but the only pictures that came out were of our kids.

New Patio Furniture

With Jacob at the doctor this morning (some weird rash that the doctor wound up saying was part of a non-contagious virus), I put together our new patio furniture. Reuben in the meantime was helping move the big dirt pile built up from where I laid down the stone walkway. Faith was pretty much just dancing around ;-)