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September 3, 2007 - Website updates

Keeping the family website updated and current is hard work. It takes more time than you might think. But, as I always tell the kids "anything worth doing is worth doing your best."

I have added 7 new photo albums to the Recent Shots section and updated the Lemonade Stand album. For now I will just keep all the old ones listed below the newer ones. At some point I will probably have to create an archive albums page.

I have added some blog entries below related to various photo albums that were added.

I have removed some of the balloon speech links on the left - mainly Arrica's and mine. The kids can keep theirs and I will even try to find some time to update them. Our pages were just too much work to get going and keep going.

I have updated the Links section as some of the programs we were affiliated with are no longer active. Please continue to do your Wal-Mart and Amazon shopping by using these links. We get a small amount back for that and it is just enough to offset the cost of the website.

Summer 2007 - Beach Trip

Arrica's really does not like going to the beach; however, she relented and off we went. You can tell by all the pictures that the kids had a great time (and so did dad.) The water was still very cold so the kids would go waist high then come running back up shivering. Ally has never liked the ocean as it is very big to her and makes a lot of noise. She was ok as long as she stayed a safe 20 feet from the waters edge and played in the sand. I was able to get her to go down and touch the water with her toes at one point but this took a tremendous amount of coaxing and she gripped me tightly the whole time. You can see her nervous laugh in the photos as we returned to her safe distance. The highlight was probably collecting various exotic shells which made it into somewhat of an adventure. There is a photo album in recent shots for this.

June 2007 - Circus Came to Town

We have wanted to take the kids to the big circus for many years but because of their age or becaus eof our finances it never worked out. This year, however, was the year that everything lined up and we were able to go. We even took Grandma and PopPop with us. I have to say that all-in-all it was a great event for our family. The biggest highlight was the preshow where the kids got to go down onto the floor and interact with all of the circus stars. They played with clowns, tried on silly clothes, and stood feet away from acrobatic performers that wowed them. This definitely made the trip well worth the money. The rest of the show was really good also. You can see the pictures in the Circus album inside Recent Shots.

Here are a couple side observations from dad. First, I have to say that the Circus is not as big as I remember when I was a kid. The acts seemed less dangerous, the clowns were not that funny and the tigers even seemed tame. I will just chalk that up to perspective of a little kid versus a grown man. Second, I was appalled at the purchasing gauntlet the parents are forced to run. The funnel you through areas where there are tons of gimmicky toys that are super overpriced and then the same is with the food. My wife and I had the forethought to feed the kids well prior to the show and coach them on the fact that we were not buying anything. That still didn't stop them from asking a few times but a brief reminder and they willingly conceded.

May 2007 - Family Camping

Yes, it was another economic family vacation. The good news is that we invested in a new tent. Everyone is much more comfortable in the larger tent. We used to a single room tent that supposedly slept 8 but we now have a 12 person tent that is broken into 3 rooms. It takes a little longer to set up but the space and privacy it gives us is well worth the investment. Plenty of pictures are here under Camping 2007.

This spring trip was especially fun as we had excellent weather and there were not many others at the campground. Ana & Johnny went down to the lake several times by themselves to fish. The only thing they caught was a 3 foot turtle. :-) The rest of the family fished also and faired a little better.

One of the highlights was the cast iron dutch oven that we always cook with in the campfire. This time we tried our hand at apple dumplings. Oh man! were those good. I am getting hungry just writing about it. We also did the standard fare of campfire foods and s'mores.

February 2007 - Cub Scout Luau

This year Arrica was in charge of the annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet. The theme was a Luau. She truly rose to the occassion and put on a fantastic occassion. Click here to see some pictures in Recent Shots in the Cub Scout Luau album.

Fall 2006 - Winter 2007 - Family News Catch Up

I have to admit that we are one of the ketchup families . . . you know . . . the kind that puts ketchup on just about anything from typical french fries to our scrambled eggs. Well this is one of those catch up posts where I'll cover almost anything.

The biggest news over the winter is that we have added some new pets to the family. Johnny picked up a guinea pig and named her Princess. Braeden got a hamster and named him Pancho. Click here to see some pictures of the new pets. Brett was given the two hermit crabs from Ana. So each of the boys minus Bryce now have some responsibility to care for a pet. Ana still has all the fish in her room in the 40 gallon aquarium. Bryce would like a lizard but we are holding off on anymore pets for now.

I will add some more minor events later but I want to get this post up tonight so this is it for now.

August 2006 - Trip to Maine

I am posting this a little late but I thought it was better late than never. At the end of last summer we made a trip over to Maine to visit some friends of the family. This was a fantastic trip that everyone enjoyed thoroughly. We went to the beach every day and enjoyed the cold water and beautiful coastline. Maine is truly a treasure to our nation.

We made one trip to Red's Eat in Wiscasset to get a lobster roll. Now I need to preface the this short story with the fact that I had anticipated eating a Red's lobster roll for years. Ever since I saw a sandwich show on PBS a couple years ago, I wanted to go to Red's to get a lobster roll. This visit to Maine afforded me the perfect apportunity to check this off of my lifetime list of places to eat at. They advertise that they open at 11AM but that is not true. We showed up a little before 11AM to get into the line to wait for the opening but a half hour later someone said that they would be opening up after 12. I am not one to like to wait plus the kids were anxious and not in the mood to stand around. We ended eating at a little place across the street and closer to the river. It was located right on a dock and was priced the same. I believe the place was called Sprague's(?). My friend from Maine swore that he had eaten at both places and the lobster roll was basically the same. The actual lobster roll was quite a shock. I had built up such anticipation that I was extremely let down. All the lobster roll was was some cold lobster meat on a grilled hot dog bun for $15. No other comment is necessary.

We also visited the L.L. Bean mecca in Freeport, Maine. This place was a city unto itself and worth a visit. It would be the equivalent to a nature museum for the kids with all the animals on display along with live fish. Parking was a real nightmare and it was a little overwhelming but still worth the visit.

Another mentionable stop during the visit was the Maine MaritimeMuseum in Bath. This was an excellent place to take the kids. The museum had a lot of art and real artifacts along with some hands on displays for kids. There were several buildings to go into that represented the different aspects of ship building. Each building made the art of ship building more interesting. There was also a real fishing ship that slept 12+ people that was on the water. They were able to fully explore the ship from the kitchen to the engine room.

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