Boys and Balloons

Today I am thankful for whoever invented balloons. The boys played with them like this for 45 minutes straight! They never seemed to get bored and it did a great job of tiring them out for naps.

Dancing in the Moonlight

There are lots of things that our family likes to do together. We play games, we wrestle, we play disk golf...ok, Brandon plays and I walk, I throw like a girl. Above all else though, we love to dance. Not because we're good either...trust me, we're not. There's no dance floor material here. (Unless we're talking about the three Honza brothers at a wild wedding, then we might have something to talk about) But seriously, we are strictly closed curtains, don't answer the door type people when it comes to our dance skills. Tonight however, I thought this was worth sharing. Brandon decided tonight was the night to pass down the knowledge of valuable dance moves to his ready to learn daughter. Dance she did, and it's the cutest. Go Breanne!

Great Wolf Lodge Weekend

We decided to take a weekend trip with the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg.  They have a huge indoor water park and lots of activities for the kids to do.  The nice thing is, a two night stay gets you into their water park for 3 days starting on the day you check in at 1, and lasting until the park closes on the day you check out.  We did have a slight scare when we arrived as they did not have a reservation for Honza.  After a tense 5 minutes they discovered they had us under Honva.  Our room wasn't suppose to be ready until 4 on check-in day but was ready at 1, so we were able to get settled in before heading to the water park. 

The water park had a fort of sorts with a bucket that held thousands of gallons of water.  Every 5 minutes the bucket overflows and dumps it's contents on anyone below.  This area also had some smaller water slides.  Check this out:

There was a nice little toddler/baby area too with even smaller slides and water that got no deeper than a foot.  Breanne and David both enjoyed this area as well.  David is not afraid of water at all and did several face plants into the water without any hesitation.  Good thing Lauren and I were right by his side at all times.

Breanne's favorite areas were probably the wave pool, the lazy river (which Breanne actually runs through), and the outdoor pool.  She did go on the big slides she was allowed to go on, but she really preferred just jumping around in the water.  I kept telling her, "We don't have water slides back home, but we have pools".  This didn't seem to matter though, and all that really matters is that she had a good time.  I personally loved going down the two big slides on the double tube with Breanne.  She couldn't sit in the middle (she would just fall through), but if I put my feet up next to her, she would hold on to them.  She did an amazing job though as those slides got moving pretty fast.

Another nice feature at the Great Wolf Lodge, was a fantasy role playing game called MagiQuest.  We purchased a wand and a game book and were given 9 quests and 3 tasks.  Your wand is battery powered and shoots a ray of some sort into a special place on interactive pieces located throughout the hotel.  It was pretty neat to see Breanne point her wand at a treasure chest and watch it open.

You have found 100 gold coins!

Each quest gives you a rune you can use on your 3 tasks.  To get a rune, you must collect certain objects and give them to certain people.  While the first quest took Breanne and I close to one and half hours, we eventually got each quest down to about 20 to 25 minutes.  By the end of our second day, we were down to one more quest and hopefully on to the dragon!  This is no small feat, as some quests are time sensitive (try running to the other side of the hotel in 30 seconds or you fail with a 4 year old).  However, once we (I mean she) attained the title of "Master Magi" we took a look at the dragon and Breanne was no longer interested.  Well, I showed that dragon who was boss.  No, just kidding.  It was a ton of fun to do with Breanne and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Maybe next time, we'll slay the dragon.

Monday morning we got to the water park at about 10:00.  By 10:30, our son who constantly fought us on being stopped, helped, or blocked all weekend, was asking to be held.  He actually rode on top of Lauren and I on the lazy river for 20-30 minutes on two separate occasions.  At about 11:45, I looked at Breanne and noticed she just didn't look peppy anymore.  When I asked her if she was ready to go home, she quickly said yes.  Our kids were pooped.  We saddled up and headed on home.  This picture was taken on the way down, but it mirrors the one on the way home.

Also worth noting is that David is a ladies man.  Hanging at the outside pool, a little girl kept watch on him for awhile.  Eventually, she walked up.  After some chatter this was the result.

We had a great weekend and look forward to going back sometime, but first we need a little rest! :)

Herricane Irene with the Family

No, I didn't misspell Hurricane, but only wrote it the way Breanne understood hurricanes.  As we braced ourselves for the ensuing storm, Breanne commented that the hurricane must be a girl since it was a her icane without knowing it was named Irene.  I really think Breanne is onto something here.  Maybe we should call the ones that are girls hurricanes and the boy ones hisicanes.  It makes pretty good sense to me! 

Honestly, Saturday was a little disappointing.  It rained a lot, but the winds only got to about 30-40 mph during the day.  With all the hype, Breanne was often asking if the hurricane was here yet, but the storm seemed to delay.  Following a night of TV and videogames, Lauren and I decided to turn in at around 11 which is right about the time the real fun started.  At 11:30, the lights went out leaving us in the dark, and beginning a long spell of time without power.  I will admit, I was a little jealous we got the brunt of the storm in the middle of the night as I could hear the winds blowing very hard and would have liked to see it (and even been on my back patio to see it). 

When we awoke, the power was still out and there was a little excitement as we looked outside.  Since we couldn't have coffee, I ventured out in search of a place that had power so Lauren and I would be ready for our day.  It wasn't until I entered Howard County that I actually found a place with power and coffee!  By early afternoon, the novelty had worn off as the recording from BGE was telling us we may be without power until Friday and it was only Sunday.  We were refraining from opening the refrigerator unless absolutely necessary and I fired up the grill to eat whatever might go bad. 

By Monday morning, it was definitely not fun.  School was canceled (the first day of school this year) so I was home to help out, but the water bottles we froze to keep important stuff cold were almost thawed out and it was the end of most of the stuff still in the frig.  Fortunately the eggs had kept cold with the water bottles.  Seeing that this was our last chance to eat them, I fired up the grill and for the first time, I barbecued eggs.

The day went on with a lot of reading and playing outside (a very nice side effect of no power), but the kids were in need of baths and the sun was setting.  Lauren figured out, if you hang a flash light by it's string in the bath tub you have enough light to see to get clean.

This night was suppose to be the Circle Drive Fantasy Football Draft, but with no power and several people trying to draft online it was called off.  This didn't stop Josh, Joe, and I from hanging out and playing poker by candle light outside.  Notice Landry isn't present despite living in the neighborhood.  He couldn't take it anymore and headed to my parents where they had power!

 

 

Poker After Dark

Finally, at about 4:30 in the morning on Tuesday, I awoke to a bedroom completely alight.  I breathed a sigh of relief and fell back asleep.  The frig was empty, but I still had coffee!

You might think the rest of the week went grand, but it had it's ups and downs.  We lost power two more times, but never more than 12 hours (all the new food we got Tuesday didn't go bad).  However, the rescheduled Fantasy draft fell on a night we didn't have power, and the neighborhood crew drove all over before finally finding a McDonalds with wifi so we could complete our draft. 

Let's hope no more herricanes or hisicanes come anytime soon!

Breanne and Daddy Day or Days

So, last week while I was doing New Teacher Orientation, Breanne approached Lauren and said she wanted a daddy/daughter day before I went back to school.  Like any sensitive father, I wiped away a tear and, of course, agreed to spend a wonderful day with her.  The only problem was we were booked pretty solid for the next couple of days.  So instead of one special days, we did several chunks of days.  We began the 1st of many chunks by going to see "The Smurfs" Saturday morning.  It was a decent movie, but it was even more fun just watching Breanne react to seeing the Smurfs on the big screen.  Sunday, we were suppose to go to a lobster feast, but it was canceled due to rain (and quite frankly, I had just played my first soccer game in a decade and played 88 out of 90 minutes).  Instead we went and had ice cream.  Breanne had crazy vanilla and I had my usual cooked brownie topped with chocolate peanut butter ice cream with some extra peanut butter on top.  Hey, you don't keep a figure like mine by having frozen yogurt.  Our final segment happened yesterday.  I was able to get off work early because, of all things, we had an earthquake (5.9).  We went out disc golfing on a beautiful afternoon.

As you can see, Breanne is starting to get pretty good at throwing too.  Breanne actually played the first 3 holes by throwing, picking up, and throwing from where I landed.  During the round, I had one of my best throws of all time.  As seen in the picture below, I was more than 30 yards away from the basket when I threw and put it in.  The picture below shows my view from where I threw the disc from.

 

Sorry the photo is so big, but it is hard to see the basket otherwise.  Anyhow, it is great that one of the first things Breanne asks to do with me is play disc golf.  We did our usual playground time to break up the round and then finished it out.  Following disc golf we hit up Chick-fila' one of Breanne's favorites and low and behold, it was kid night and a clown/magician was there.  We ended our night watching a guy juggle, make napkins come back together, and play a guitar while standing on a ball that was 3' in diameter.  

As a father, there really is nothing better than having your child want to spend time with you.  The fact that she is so into playing disc golf is a bonus, but I would do anything.  Thank you Breanne for our wonderful day!

Bre's first photoshoot

My daughter melted my heart today. She's been doing that a lot recently, or maybe it's just the upcoming school year that has me sentimental and weepy. Today she told me she was going to do her very first photoshoot so that she can come and help me on my next shoot. She asked for help and guidance on where to put "Linda" her kitty and how to use the camera. It was a bonding moment, for me anyway. Ugh...I just love her.

Notice the leash keeping Linda steady and in one place. Not a bad idea. :)

She then decided she should take "brother/sister" pictures. I'm thinking I should try this technique with multiple children. Just get a single collar and strap it on both of them! It seemed to work for this duo.

Every now and again your kids will drive you nuts. It's just part of life. It doesn't mean you don't love them, or that they are bad kids. It's just that your kids will have an unreasonably large amount of energy compared to your own and you just won't know what to do with them. Today was such a day.

To say that David is a wild child compared to Breanne is an understatement. I am certain that over the course of his toddlerhood my little man will force me to purchase every baby proofing contraption ever made just to keep him safe, while for Breanne we bought...next to nothing. Now to be clear, he is in no way a bad kid. He is curious, energetic, sly and tall which makes it easier for him to get to things his older sister may not have had the reach for. At 14 months he can get his fingertips to the first burner on the stove.

Enter cousin C. A much older and wiser toddler, who knows about things such a lolly pops, glitter pens and mud pies and suddenly we have a dynamic duo that is sure to turn me gray earlier than otherwise necessary.

This is when newspapers come in handy. The kids don't read, they don't care what the president signed, who was found on what street corner or what the stock market is doing. They just know that they can destroy it. Rip it, crumble it, shake it, tear it to pieces, it really doesn't matter as long as they don't eat it. And that's what they do. For at least 20 minutes they will sit screaming and laughing and ripping a pile of paper to shreds and I get 20 minutes to myself...granted, not quiet minutes, but minutes non the less.

David "plays" with Cody

Currently I have a screamer on my hands. Usually these things are just a phase, we're working on that part. But I just had to get a clip of David "playing" with Cody. Poor dog might just lose his ear drums.

Charleston S.C.

Yesterday we spent the day with Uncle Dan walking around the city of Charleston South Carolina. We walked down Water street, saw Rainbow Road, walked past the huge farmers market (although we didn't go in) got some history lessons from Uncle Dan, went through the Market on Market Street, played in the fountain and ended with lunch at the South End Brewery. I have to say, this is one beautiful city. It's not built like most cities because you aren't allowed to build buildings higher than any of the churches so there aren't any high rises. It feels much like a more spread out Annapolis with it's great history and unique shops andrestaurants. We could walk through and point out to Breanne the oil lamps, boot scrapers, and horse steps that still exist from the 1600 and 1700's. Bre had tons of good questions about what life was like back then but of course, being four, her favorite part was playing in the fountain.

Bre wanted to climb to the middle of the fountain but didn't want to have to go through the wall of water to get there.

David fell asleep and woke up looking like he'd drank to much milk. :)

Bre found a friend to play with and they surprised a group of teens standing by the fountain.

Then her new friend really wanted to paint her nails. Hey why not, impromptu beauty parlor.

I didn't get any pics of the city yesterday, I was to busy just enjoying the scenery. Maybe next time.

Golfing at Mosquito Plantation

This is Where Chubbs Lost His Hand!

From what I've heard, South Carolina has more golf courses per land than any other state, so while we are visiting Dan and Holly, Dan and I had to get at least one round in.  We played a course called Redbank Plantation, but as you can see by my post title, I think it should be renamed.  This is not to say that the course was bad (on the contrary), it is just to say that it has it's fill of mosquitoes.  The course cost $24 with cart and was a par 70.  It was very forgiving (I know I played at least one shot from a neighboring fairway), which is probably why I broke 90 for the second time this summer by shooting an 87.  Here is a list of other things I learned while golfing in SC:

1. Bug repellent is considered to be necessary golf gear.  Carry it in your bag at all times.
2. Pace of play is strictly enforced, not by the marshalls but by mosquitoes.  Address your ball and swing or suffer the consequences.
3. This golf course has hybrid mosquitoes.  They were huge and the bites itch worse the next day than they do on the day they happen.
4. A new hazard has been added called close to the swamp or long grass.  You guessed it, this is where the mosquitoes wait.
5. You can skip a ball across a lake.  No, I can't take credit for it.  Dan skipped the ball across the lake just off the tee at 18.  While I have witnessed and done this myself, it is always super cool to see over and over again.  
6. Alligators are on the course.  Can't say I saw one, but I did get this cool picture taken above. 

Thanks, Dan, for playing.  I'd play Mosquito Plantation again in a heart beat!

Magnolia Plantation

Day two of our South Carolina trip took us to one of the oldest plantations in South Carolina, Magnolia Plantation http://www.magnolia plantation.com/

It was gorgeous...and hot...very hot...but very pretty. We spend the first bit of time walking around the vast gardens. I've read in books about the gardens on southern plantations and estates but I've never witnessed any and to say that it was a big garden is an understatement. It took us at least and hour and a half to walk through and we didn't even start at the beginning. It was neat to see the tags on the different sections, one in particular that read "circa 1685" and wonder about the people that wandered these gardens back then.

Black Eyed Susan's, Maryland never leaves us.  :)

A White Ibis, they were all over the plantation

These nasty things were everywhere.  Golden Silk spiders, or Banana spiders as they are more commonly called had giant webs spun all over the place.  They are called Golden Silk Spiders because their webs are actually a yellow/golden color.  The ones we saw had bodies that were anywhere from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long.  Huge...gross..and everywhere.

Golden Silk Spider (a.k.a. Banana Spider)

From there we went on a swamp walk, also on plantation grounds.  Saw a couple alligators, more spiders, some turtles...typical swamp stuff I guess.

A few more pics from today:

Red Faced David, did I mention it was hot?

Pot Bellied Tree, Pot Bellied Brandon

Breanne found an owl feather at the little animal section they had.  They called it a petting zoo but there wasn't anything that you can actually pet.  She said to me, "There are lots of people who like to wear owl feathers in their hair, I'm one of them, I've just never had an owl feather before."

South Carolina Beach Day 1

Hello all,

We made to Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina yesterday to vacation and spend time with our friends Dan and Holly.  Today we made our way to the beach (Isle of Palms) which is only a very short drive from Dan and Holly's!  Last years trip to the beach was a little difficult as David was only 2 months old so Lauren and I took turns holding David while the other spent most of their time running down Breanne.  So we were a little interested to see how things were a year later. 

Despite the short trip to the beach, David decided to take a nap in the car.  It was a 5 minute power nap that ended as soon as we arrived on the beach, but we did get this picture:

This would be the end of his napping though, as David loved everything about the beach.  He played in the sand, he played in the water, he ate the sand, and he drank the water.  Despite showing signs of being he tired, he just kept on trucking the entire time.  He loves playing with the sand toys and splashing in the water.  It is so much fun watching him explore the beach. 

Breanne has also made some changes in how she is at the beach.  Lauren has been working real hard with her on her swimming and you can definitely tell.  In years past, I had to drag her out kicking and screaming to get her to out in the surf with me.  I have not spent this much time in the water since I was 13 and spending every moment I could out there.  Isle of Palm's beach is perfect for kids in that it is very shallow.  Even where the waves get bigger I could set Bre down and she could stand to give myself a break between waves.  She is very confident in her swimming and no longer afraid of the water. 

While we spent a little time building castles, it was hard to keep her away from the waves too long.  She also enjoyed playing with two squeaky frogs that she would fill up with water and squirt us with.  Of course, as she did this, she informed us that the frogs were peeing on us.  :)  Oh, to be four.

Having been at the beach for 3 hours, the kiddos began to tire.  Bre runs around so much she gets raw marks on her legs and has a hard time walking.  Today was no different.  David was fussy so we cleaned him off only to find an explosive diaper in the process.  It was time to go. 

David stayed awake for about a minute on our way home (another power nap) so when we first arrived back, we cleaned everyone else off before him.  After being taken out of his seat, we got this short video, showing how tired he was.

Currently, the kids are upstairs trying to nap (although believe it or not I can hear David still talking).  I have a feeling we may not hear for them for a couple of hours (or we might see them in 5 minutes). 

Hello blogging world! Brandon and I decided to start a family blog! The discussion started with a realization that up until this point we have no written history of our family. Tons of pictures, yes, I am a photographer, but very little written history. When I think of my Grandma's generation, so much of her life is written in letters. Unfortunately with the computer age, no one writes letters anymore and hardly anyone keeps e-mails around for longer than a week. I'd like to have some sort of record of our family so that our children can look back at our lives together.

That being said, I have the desire to record our lives for our children, this does not give me the ability to do so without grammatical and spelling errors. I am going to apologize to any English teacher or anyone reading this who has any reasonable talent in written English...I have no talent. I blame my 6th and 8th grade English teacher. (I had her twice)

Anyway, here is my anecdote for tonight and it's short.

As with all kids, Breanne says some of the funniest, most ridiculous things. Breanne made me belly laugh tonight. She is a thumb sucker and we have recently been threatening ways to get her to stop sucking her thumb. We were finishing up our bedtime routine, lying on my bed reading books and she looks at my toes. She notices my chipped and old nail polish.

She asks, "Mommy, is that the yucky stuff?

I'm confused, "What?"

"You know," she says, "The stuff you put on your nails to stop sucking your toes and thumbs?" My first thought, "Yup honey, I've been trying to get your father to stop sucking my toes for a while now."

Breanne's First Orioles Game

I know this was almost a month ago, but I was able to take Breanne to her first Oriole game.  All parents out there know this is a big deal not so much as to go to a baseball game, but because you never know how long a 4 year old will last.  Things didn't start out too well, as the sky opened up at about 1:15.  The good news was we got tickets under cover, but the game started about 15 minutes late.  All in all, it could have been worse.

I did find myself thinking back to when I went to games with my parents as a child and I always remember having a hot dog.  Now, I love hot dogs, but there is something about a hot dog at a ballgame.  They just taste better.  Here Breanne is just before digging in!

However, if you ask Breanne what her favorite treat was, it was not the hot dog, but cotton candy.  The cotton candy man seemed to avoid our section, so we eventually had to go hunt down a vendor inside.  The bag was gone in 15 minutes tops. 

I know you are asking about the game, but remember I went with a 4 year old, so the game came second.  However, after giving up 3 runs in top of the first, Adam Jones and Vlad Guerrero hit back to back home runs in the bottom of the first.  Adam Jones ball actually landed in the section in front of us about 4 rows away which was pretty cool. 

While we the score would change the next couple of innings we discussed other things like the different music that was played, why cotton candy is so good, and why aren't allowed to bring animals to the game.  At the end of the 5th inning Breanne announced she was bored and ready to go.  Baltimore does a pretty good job of getting kids excited about baseball though.  We stopped by and got Breanne a certificate for her first time and, of course, I had to get a picture of her with it next to #8 (she also wanted her picture taken with the Babe Ruth statue, although she wanted to know why a guy had the name of Baby). 

I do have to make a special thank you to one of the workers.  After leaving the stadium (you can not re-enter) Breanne announced she had to use the potty.  We quickly returned to the gate and after a little begging on my part, we were allowed to re-enter to use the potty.  That guy has no idea how much he helped me out, but I owe him a big thank you. 

Despite Breanne saying she was bored at the end of the game, she melted my heart the next morning.  Right before I walked out the door for work, Breanne asked if we could go back to another game again soon.  Can't wait to take my little girl back again!