Movies From Another Cold Spring day

Little League game was cancelled today due to a wet field. Maybe for the best since Jacob has a fever and will be in again tomorrow. So what is there today...
DANCE!!


Later faith and Reuben went outside to play all bundled up. Faith is really becoming a good bike rider. A new bike is in her future as a 7 year old.

Afterwards, Faith and I ride our bikes to and from the park.

The Value Of Money... and more vacation

Reuben is starting to understand money and what it means to earn money. Today on his own he cleaned up the shed and then asked if I would give him money for it. He did a great a job and I gave him a dollar!


Now on to more vacation pictures. Here are some pictures from our first day in Orlando hanging out at the hotel. I wasn't around and these pictures are from Karen. I arrived in Orlando sick as a dog and was sleeping it off. I felt much better the next day at Sea World.

Plans. Who Needs Plans

We had big plans for today. Our Google Calendar printed out the following agenda: Karen's Sisterhood Meeting 9:30-10:30 Faith Swimming 11:00-11:30 Reuben and Jacob Swimming 11:30-12:00 Reuben and Jacob Birthday Party – #1 12:30-1:30 Reuben and Jacob Birthday Party – #2 2:00- 3:00 Faith and Karen – Cinderella Ballet at NVCC 2:00-?? T-Ball Practice – R&J 4:00 – 5:00 We had it scheduled to the minute, sandwiches made for lunch in the car, car seats and booster seats distributed in perfect synchronization, etc.... That was until Sunday actually came. Reuben puked at 7:00am! Then the minivan car battery was dead. Of course Karen's cell phone battery was drained. And of course we couldn't find the car keys. In the end I think its working out. Karen went to her Sisterhood meeting, while I called AAA. I must say AAA has gotten amazing. They at the car in less than 20 minutes and jumped the car. Didn't see any lights left on so its a still a bit of mystery as to why the battery died. Stay tuned, I'm sure that story isn't over. When Reuben puked again at 10:00, all hope for him going out was gone. Karen got home at 10:30 took Faith and Jacob to swimming. At 12:10, Karen calls to say she's coming home; Jacob had no underwear. Of course Jacob thought that was the coolest. Quick change and onto bday party #1. Meanwhile I put Reuben down for a nap. Faith and Karen will then depart for Cinderella. A friend is going to get Jacob from party #1 to #2, still up in the air for how he gets home. It's not too far, maybe he'll walk ;-) Thankfully its raining and T-ball is canceled.
Today was going to be the big picture day, but instead I'll post some from yesterday. It was surprising nice, considering the forecast called for a wash-out. Our tulips really peaked yesterday!
I also started working on my slate walkway.Hopefully it winds up looking a little better than this. We'll then put a little table and chair on the small patio area I'll make.
Last week Jacob filled his smiley face chart and really had a great week at school. So his prize was to pick a restaurant and of course he picked Chuck Cheese, which his probably where Reuben got sick.

Peace And Serenity

Between yesterday and today Karen, Reuben, Jacob, and Faith have all had fevers over 100. Of course while the plague (likely the flu) has hit our house, I'm in Seattle for the week. Hopefully recover is near for the crew.

Before I left for Seattle I took Jacob, the only healthy one at the time, to swim class. He had a great class swimming on his on for at least 10 feet, maybe 15. I have some video that shows it better, but for now here are some pictures.

Sickness spreads...

Jacob was sick Thursday and Friday with a stomach bug and now Reuben's got it. I leave for Seattle tomorrow so hopefully the malaise I've had the past few days is it for me. Before Reuben got sick last night we built a lego firetruck. There are 2 more assemblies to go, a hook and ladder that latches onto the back of the truck and then a towed trailer that carries a life raft and other medical supplies. Hopefully he's feeling better tomorrow and we can finish it off. He helped a lot building it and really showed good spacial reasoning abilities. The directions were not that clear, but he could follow most of them once I helped find the pieces.

This morning I played more with my camera using my favorite subject.

The optical image stabilization is really nice allowing sharp pictures without a flash. The one above is 1/13s, f3.2, ISO 250.

Weekend Ups and Downs

Weekend started off cold but nice, but we knew a storm was coming... So we made sure to get the kids out of the house Saturday morning. They had a good time playing in the backyard.




That evening they were calling for a wintry mix which didn't mode well for traveling to my company's holiday party. Turned out to be just a cold rain so party ON!!! It was really nice party with a good turnout and stiff drinks ;-) I am also now on my 16th year of Terry Collins led company holiday parties without winning a door prize. I was telling a coworker this at the party while at the urinal and as a good engineer immediately realized that I was a statistical anomaly. Who should walk during the statistical anomaly, but Dr. Collins. As another good engineer, he certainly was not one to pass that comment by, so after explaining the story, he deadpanned "try for 17." :-)

We had such a good time, that it couldn't go unpunished. We noticed this afternoon that Jacob and Reuben have Hand Foot Mouth Disease. So this should be a nice week or so until that runs its course :-(

Man Down

Happy Halloween
We were a man down tonight. Jacob is sick with a fever and vomiting. Reuben and Faith were good volunteer and collect candy for him. Faith took it as her responsibility to collect for him. It got pretty confusing. Faith would knock at a door and as soon is it opened she would say “Jacob is sick”. Not trick or treat, or boo, or hello, but “Jacob is sick.” For the houses we went to that didn't know us too well, it was pretty much complete confusion. I could just laugh. On her own Faith realized this tactic wasn't working and she dropped it buy the 4th or 5th house.

The Sting

Jacob got stung by a bee today. He took it like a man and was very brave. They were at a park near Wegman's. When he got stung, they immediately went to the store to get some ice and some benedryl; not too long afterwards he was feeling better. He told me all about it when I got home from work. Jacob did get to enjoy his freshly painted room. Did I mention that it's green ;-) And since Jacob got to sleep in the tent last night, tonight it was Reuben's turn. Though after about a half hour with him fidgeting a bunch in the tent, Karen asked him if he'd rather sleep in his room. He jumped at that opportunity and quickly fell asleep in his own bed.

Tonsillectomy Success

Busy morning today. Jacob had summer school with the bus picking him up at 7:25. Reuben had camp at 9:00. And Faith had her surgery scheduled for 8:40 with a check in at 7:10. Fortunately, my parents came down to help us out while Faith recovers from her tonsillectomy.

All went extremely well with the surgery and she's been really handling it great. In part it may be the Tylenol with Codeine, but also she has such a strong happy streak.

Anyway here are some random pics from today.

Jacob had a chance to play in the sprinkler this afternoon. One of his favorite pastimes.


Tipper was playing in our butterfly bushes chasing the bees and butterflies. Luckily she didn't get stung.


This is a zinnia that Karen and the kids planted from seeds this Spring. We are now starting to get lots of blooms.

These pictures came from Karen's new/former camera. It was a Casio EX-Z600, pretty small and relatively inexpensive. Took very nice pictures, but it had a hard time focusing while taking movies. Karen is big movie taker, so the camera is going back.

DC Tourist Season - Second Stop, National Zoo

Today's tourist attraction was the National Zoo. The kids have been dying to go to the zoo ever since we tried going and couldn't get a parking spot. Having had the parking problem before, we wanted to get there early. We tried to hurry through breakfast, but Faith wasn't eating using the “my tummy hurts” excuse (note subtle foreshadowing). We hurried her along and she finally ate some of her cereal. Then trying to get out the door Faith said that she didn't want to go but instead wanted to go to bed (note less subtle foreshadowing). Well, we would have none of that and plopped in her car seat. We got the zoo parking lots before 10am and lots A and B were already full, but we easily parked in lot C. When we got into the zoo, all were excited!!
All were excited that is until we went into Amazonia. Faith cried upon going in that it smelled. It did smell a little, but this is a ZOO. Anyway after we got in, I picked Faith up and then realized she wasn't looking too good. Two seconds later she puked all over my shirt. I ran her out of Amazonia just in time as her second puke missed a crowd of people by about 5 seconds. Things settled down after that. We cleaned Faith up and I was left roaming the zoo shirtless until we could get to the zoo store; a long walk away. I wound up with a nice wild cat t-shirt. The boys then had a quick lunch and we were homeward bound.