Cam's B-day and Easter

If you haven't been keeping track, Cameron's birthday on April 21 was a special milestone. Yep, it was the big one-oh. He's now in the double digits. And I hope he makes it to triple digits. Dana took cupcakes and balloons to him at school and I think it's safe to say he enjoyed the extra attention. At home, he requested a scavenger hunt type search for his presents like we've done in the past.

Cameron and his "helpers" trying to find the next clue.

Can't have a birthday w/o a birthday cake. That's getting to be a lot of candles and I don't like it.


This year we had the pleasure of spending Easter with the Samps. I'm always amazed at how all the cousins pick up right where they left off despite not having seen each other for 1-1/2 years. Included in our typical tour of the area, was a trip to Monte Sano State Park and Wheeler National Park.

I like this shot I took of all the boys at Monte Sano.


On a short hike, we came across this little waterfall.

Cool shot of Tyler

At Wheeler, we found this psycho squirrel. It was slightly skittish at first, but Ryan was eventually able to pet it. Mr. Squirrel must have liked that because he started following us around. Like, all the way down the walking path and to the car. I don't think anyone would have been surprised if he had tried to get in one of the cars. The boys had some good laughs over this little guy.



What would Easter be without colored eggs? Unfortunately, 4 days after this photo was taken we lost power for several days and most of the eggs were lost. Sigh. Anyway, did you know if you leave an egg in the dye overnight, it doesn't really get much darker but the shell starts to look kind of weird and bubbly? I do now.


The Easter Bunny came! Please disregard my boys in their various states of undress.



All decked out for church.



The start of the easter egg hunt.


A bunch of good lookin' people. And me.

All too soon, Easter was over and our visit with the Samps was over. We all had a great time and I know Dana enjoyed the time with her big sis. Dana and I are still trying to figure out how to convince everyone to move out here to Alabama so we can see everyone more often. Unfortunately, I don't think the tornado outbreak in April helped our cause any.

Somehow, Cade figured out how to climb up the doorframe. Once again, please disregard underwear boy's choice of attire. He really does wear clothes around the house. I promise.

Wrestling, Soccer, Art. It's All Here!

Lots of stories to tell so try to keep up!

Gosh, where to start? I found my MIA camera in my coat pocket from our last snow day. We've added a few pictures since then but I obviously hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them.

Cameron quit soccer this season (boo! He was really good!) and decided to take up wrestling, of all sports. Hunter, Kevin's BFF and our neighbor's son, started last fall and they suggested Cameron try it. I took him to a practice to see what it was like and was surprised at how hard those kids work. They did some serious cardio exercises! Cam thought it looked fun so we forked over the dough and signed on the dotted line. On the way home from his very first practice, he was literally singing songs about how much he hated it and swore he wasn't going back. Sorry, buddy. We paid, you play. Like it or not. By the next practice, his attitude had improved again (kind of like labor, I assume, where people forget how bad it was and remember the good parts). The coaches really took a liking to Cameron mostly because he truly worked very hard and never quit. Cam was warned most kids don't win any matches in their first season but that didn't stop him from getting more and more discouraged as the season progressed and he remained winless. He led at times and came really close to winning a couple of times but just couldn't finish the deal. Finally, late in the season, he not only won a match but he did it by pinning his opponent (as we learned, you can win by a pin (best way = bragging rights) or on points). He followed that up with another win in the next tournament. We all learned a lot about a sport we initially knew nothing about and got to where we were really enjoying watching the matches. We even learned to shout something more profound than "Go!" by the end of the season. As fun as it was though, it was always very tough to see my son get twisted into a pretzel and out-muscled despite his very best efforts. It took all I had not to go out on the mat and kick some of those kids off him. That probably wouldn't be a very good display of sportsmanship.

One of Cam's first matches (he's on top). He wanted to look tough but he really looked cute in his singlet.

This has nothing to do with wrestling other than the fact that we were at a match but I just love the expression on Kevin's face.

We also bought a new, used dirt bike for Cameron. He didn't know it was coming so when I brought it home and asked him to help me get something out of the pickup, he was overjoyed when he saw it.

He's only ridden it a couple of times so far but he figured out the clutch and shifting pretty quickly. Hopefully we'll get more time to ride it now that summer is here.

It took us several weeks but we (with the boys help) finally got around to putting our new outdoor fireplace together. Dana bought some huge marshmallows to roast. I'm talking Texas-sized. These things were monsters! We'll enjoy us some nice fires with this thing.

Look at the size of those marshmallows! Eat one and you don't want any more.

Pretty much as soon as we found the camera, Cade got back to taking self portraits again. Dana bought him some kind of detective kit at the dollar store one day so he took these pictures. I just love them.

Agent C is on the scene.

And he's packing heat.

"Don't make me call for backup. I'm the good cop."

Kevin's middle school soccer team had a great season. They almost went undefeated losing only one, close game. When the regional tournament rolled around they were the number 1 seed. The first game was easy, the second was a little harder and the third and final game was against the team they lost to. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half and hung on for a nailbiting 2-1 win. Regional champs for 2 years in a row (Kevin's first year, of course)!


Champs

(Kevin 4th from L on top row)

Cade is playing soccer again this season. He's really enjoying it. He's constantly kicking a ball around the house and out in the yard (Imagine that! Someone who actually practices!) He has improved tremendously this year and it's a good thing because he's the only one on the team who has played before. He's always very proud when I ask him to show his teammates how to do something.


Good or not, he' still pretty darn white.

Three little monkeys sitting in a tree. One fell off and bumped his... knee? This was obviously taken a few months ago before everything bloomed and my sinuses rebelled.


Sometimes I hook a strap to the skateboard and drag Cade around the driveway. The boys took that idea a step further and tow each other around the cul-de-sac.

Yet another self portrait. He figured out that he can put the camera on the table, push the button and immediately jump back to get a picture like this. Some day I'll show him how to use the timer but in the meantime this is more fun to watch.

My littlest buddy and me.


Spring time means chalk time. Yet another driveway masterpiece under construction.

Dana let me build a train track around the wall in our office! I've always wanted to do that. With that done, I'm trying to convince her to let me tunnel through the wall and go into another room or three.

More pictures to come. Cameron had a big day and we had some guests for Easter.

Returning to Normal

We've had quite the interesting week to say the least! As you all probably know, we had what's called a generational storm system, in that something like this only happens about once a generation. I've heard the worst storm on record in 1974 spawned 149 tornadoes but this one spawned 150 tornadoes - in Alabama. I don't know what the total count for all the states turned out to be. It started on Wednesday when the storms started rolling in. After getting stuck in the basement at work for an hour, I took the opportunity to go home early in between storm fronts. I'm so glad I did too because I got home just minutes before another storm hit and several of them passed through my route home. Dana and Cade had already taken shelter once under the stairs when it got nasty but it was just a strong wind at that time. One of our neighbor's trees fell but nothing was damaged. The rest of the afternoon and early evening seemed to be one tornado warning after another with several passing just a few miles south of us. We lost power around 5:00. At one point, Dana noticed debris falling from the sky even though it was calm outside (indicator of a tornado nearby). Pieces of insulation, tin, shingles, paper and other items littered the area. We found a church bulletin from Phil Campbell and registration form from Hamilton AL (both about 100 miles away and very hard hit by the tornadoes).

The next day, power was out across the area. We heard 1 million people were w/o power. Most of Athens had power (we did not) so all the neighboring cities were coming here for gas and groceries and causing all kinds of headaches with traffic. Reports were that getting gas could take anywhere from 45 minutes to over 2 hours depending on what time you went. The grocery stores that were open were quickly wiped out of bread, milk, ice and the like. Being from the southwest, Dana bought some of the many available tortillas and we made meals with those. Ha! These Southerners apparently didn't know what to do with them. It also started to become more clear how lucky we were. An F-4 tornado passed just 2 miles south of us and destroyed several homes. One brick home was completely wiped off it's foundation. We had nothing more than some broken twigs in our yard while those nearby people lost everything.

Some good came out of the bad. Our lives slowed down and we spent more time visiting with neighbors and each other. Dana volunteered to work an extra day at the hospital since they were short on staffing and I grabbed my chainsaw and headed out with a group from our church to help with cleanup efforts. The chainsaws ran all day as we cut and others hauled off the debris. I won't post any pictures but it looked like a bomb went off in the hardest hit areas. Houses gone, cars pulverized, huge trees uprooted... After seeing this, I couldn't help but feel like I had a little survivor's guilt. We didn't have so much as a shingle torn from our roof. We also started hearing some terrible and heart breaking stories from EMTs and first responders that I won't repeat here.

Almost all of our friends were unaffected by the storms other than not having power but some did have some damage to their homes. One group was watching the big tornado as it approached and said the water in the field across the road suddenly rose and shot straight towards the approaching wall cloud then went straight up in the air. At that point, they ran inside and down to the basement. Just about every tree on their property was knocked over (and they had a lot!) and several hit the house. No one was injured though. Another friend had some damage to the home they were renting and ruined a lot of nice furniture. But literally, just across the street, several homes were destroyed and the second stories on each of them were gone. I'm pretty sure they consider themselves lucky.

As the days dragged on with no power, we used our little generator to charge all the neighbor's cell phones and the kids' portable games. Dana also used it to power her blow dryer. She was the only lady in the whole neighborhood with perfect hair every day! Everyone else wore a cap or a ponytail. We grilled some of the food in our freezer before it went bad and shared dinner with our neighbors. And I must say, we LOVE our neighbors. Everyone has been so good about helping and watching out for each other.

We never felt like we were all that affected by the storm, only minorly inconvenienced by the power loss but others felt differently. I stopped at AutoZone and when I asked the cashier how he was doing he griped that he could be a lot better because he didn't have any power at home. Really? Your place of employment is still there and open, your family is well, your house and property are fine and you're complaining? Seriously?

The power came back on at our house late Sunday night and cable and internet followed on Monday. After being cut off from everything for several days, we were finally able to see the images and videos from the storms. Yikes!

The other day Cade and Cameron found a big box from a generator and dragged it home. They taped it back together and call it their "emergency box". It appears the storms had an effect on them as well.

As I type this, the Redstone Arsenal where I work still hasn't reopened so I've been off work for almost a week. I could definitely get used to this as long as the paycheck keeps coming!

Things are slowly returning to normal and it appears the rest of the country has moved on to the next big news story. It'll be awhile before it feels normal here because I have to drive by some of those devastated houses to get to work. Every time I see one of those, I thank God my family wasn't injured.

I started working on a blog early last week with some updates over the last month or so. I'll get around to it again soon and post some pictures of the kids' happenings.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers and for checking in on us. It was exciting but not the kind of exciting like a Space Shuttle launch where you immediately want to do it again. I'm good with going through that just once!

Mental Image Post

We seem to have misplaced our camera so we don't have anything to show for the last few weeks. You'll have to use your good ol' imagnation for this post.

Most of you probably know Kevin made the no-cut soccer team at school. We joke about it but in reality, he made the "A" team and gets to play in the games. Some kids are stuck on the practice squad and don't get to play or travel. I'd say he's part of the "B" team of the "A" team if that makes sense. He's done well and played in all but one of the games and he was even the first 7th grader to score this season. So far, his team is 6-0 and looks like they have a pretty good shot at going undefeated but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. So here's the mental image part: Picture Kevin in a gold jersey with black shorts and a big #10 on his back. In that picture, imagine him doing a super cool bicycle kick to score the winning goal against the #1 team in Alabama. Ok, it didn't happen like that but if you pretend it did then 20 years from now that's what we'll all remember.

Cameron quit soccer to take up wrestling. After his first practice he was singing songs about how much he hated it. If you're like us, you probably had no idea how hard wrestlers have to work and how good of shape they have to be in. Anyway, after swearing he would never go back he changed his tune after a day or two (we would have changed it for him anyway since we already paid the $70) and kept at it. So far, he's really enjoyed it and his coaches have been very impressed with how hard he works and how quickly he's learning. Why is it that when I was coaching him, getting on to him only made him mad but for these guys he works harder? What the heck? Oh well, whatever works for him. He had his first tournament yesterday and wrestled his heart out. He lost both matches on points but he led after the first round both times and avoided getting pinned. Most kids never win a match their entire first year of wrestling so for him to have been close on his first try was like a win to me. He was caught a little off-guard in his first match because the intensity was noticeably higher than what he was used to in practice. For Cameron, just picture him pinning a guy the size of the Incredible Hulk. Again, convince yourself it happened and eventually it did happen. As a side note, another kid joined Cameron's team on Thursday. Never wrestled before and in really good shape (shape = round). On Saturday, he had to wrestle in the tournament. Poor guy had no clue what to do. He lives right by us so he and Cam may become buddies.

Cade is ready to start soccer and frequently talks about how many goals he's going to score this season. Practice should start next month. He also had a blast at the wrestling tournament yesterday and was climbing all over the bigger kids between matches so he might decide to pick that sport up later. They start at 5 but that just seems too young to me. For Cade's picture, just imagine him happy with a big smile on his face as he's running somewhere. That's perfectly normal for him.

Dana and I are well and are excited to see what our landscaping looks like when everything blooms and turns green again. Not so excited about the allergies though and Kevin is absolutely dreading having to mow. It's gonna take him a week with all this grass! We'll be sure to post some pictures of everything - if we can ever find that darn camera.

Snowpocalypse

Recently, we had our second snow this winter and according to the locals it was one of those once-in-a-decade-or-more events. Actually, they say snow at all is one of those rare events let alone snow on Christmas followed a couple of weeks later by ~7 inches. As the weathermen made the predictions, schools shut down before the storm even arrived and everyone made a mad dash to the grocery store to get their milk and bread. A friend of ours took a picture at Publix and the bread shelves are literally empty. Every one of them! (But there were still some tortillas) The best part, to us anyway, was the fact that the snow stayed around for several days. School was cancelled for 3 days and I got 2 days off from work! Woo hoo!

We took a lot of good pictures so that's what this post is mostly about. But first, here's a shot we took shortly before the world tried to end.

I like this picture because it was taken on one of those nice evenings when we were enjoying being outdoors and the neighbor kids were all playing together. That kind of thing never happened in Las Cruces. Maybe it's because everyone's house is surrounded by a rock wall. We all had a lot of fun that night. But I don't know why Hunter is kissing the Titan. I like it too, but that's a little extreme.

And then it snowed!

Dana broke out here not-used-since-the-80's snow gear and I provided the musical accompaniment by singing the Flashdance song every chance I got. I tried to get her to do the fast foot shuffle dance thing but she refused.

Kids + snow = snow angels, every time

Cameron and Cade do the deed here. Dana made one too.

Cade couldn't wait to go sledding so while we waited for his brothers to get their act together. He would run and jump on the sled to slide across our yard. I just love this action shot.

The neighbors on both sides of us joined us for sledding on a hill near our house. The dads were acting like kids and the kids were having a ball. If you remember Dana's last sledding adventure (see our December 31, 2007 post) you'll know why she vowed to never touch a sled again. Fortunately, I was able to talk her into it one more time. Can you tell she's a little apprehensive here? This hill is NOTHING like Ron's Suicide Run at Inlow.

Cameron charging down the hill. Surprisingly, he was the first one to get cold and quit despite the fact that he was the only one with snow pants and boots on.

Kevin and Hunter tried to build an igloo. They managed to build the walls about a foot high before realizing how much work it is. They called it good at that.

After a full day of sledding, snowball fights and eating snow ice cream, we were treated to this spectacular sunset.

Day Two dawned bright and early and with it came the news that there would be no school or work for the second day in a row. Not surprisingly, Cade was begging to go out before the sun was fully up. Eventually, we made it outside and Dana laid down the law and told the kids everyone had to build a snowman of their own. And that's where things took a turn for the weird. You see, Kevin and Cameron had been reading my old Calvin & Hobbes comic books. Remember Calvin's snowgoons? They sure did.

It's a little hard to see but Kevin's snowman's head is lying on the ground while the arms are reaching up where the head should be. I have to give Kevin credit for taking the time to trim the branches to make the arms look right. And yes, the red paint is the snowman's blood.

Cameron built this grotesque scene. The snowman with the lopping shears stuck in his chest has an "x" for each eye as you'd expect. The other snowman's evil look leads me to assume he's the culprit.

Good ol' Cade made a regular snowman but he really liked the idea of using paint to make the snowman look better. He started with eyes, a mouth and a couple of buttons. Then he added some more buttons. Then some more. And then hair. And then more facial features...

Here's our complete snowfamily. Kevin and Cameron are hard at work on their creation in the background. How do you like Dana's stick snowwoman?

Remember the snowman lean from my last post? These snowmen were doing "the lean" just hours after being made. I'm telling you, there's a hit song and dance here if I can just figure it out.

Dana also made this caterpillar by the curb. Pretty cute.

More sledding. Kevin and Hunter on a small hill behind our house.

Cade catching maximum air off a 4" jump.

No joke, this boy would stay outside all day and night if we'd let him.

Later in the week, I got home from work just as the sun was setting. Dana told me Cade had been waiting outside for me because I had told him I'd try to come home early so we could play some more. Feeling a little guilty, I quickly changed and we hurried out the door to get a few sledding runs in before it got too dark. Fortunately, the sky was clear and the moon was out so we had plenty of light to continue playing even after the sun set. We had a great time and neither of us wanted to come in from our sledding in the moonlight adventure. That's a memory that will last a lifetime.

And finally, Cade bought some handcuffs (which he calls "cubbies" for some reason) at the store yesterday. I cuffed him to the oven handle. He thought it was pretty funny until I told him they broke and I couldn't get him out. He asked me to get some tools to get them off and I told him he'd have to wait until I finished fixing lunch because I couldn't leave the microwave unattended (chicken nuggets - that's about the best I can do so no comments!). He looked so sad and pitiful that I had to take a picture before telling him I was just kidding.

I thought it was funny.

Christmas 2011

This year, for the first time, we spent Christmas at home alone. Although we certainly missed seeing everyone and spending time with our families, we still had a great time.

On Christmas Eve, we went out to an early dinner before the church service and the boys chose to eat some fine cuisine from McDonalds. Oh well. After enjoying our meal together, we went to a beautiful service before driving around to look at lights. Our favorite house didn't decorate this year so it was slim pickin's. Then we went home and started our new Christmas tradition of opening one gift each - and that gift is a new pair of pajamas. After putting them on, lighting the fake fire (we have a gas fireplace), and watching a movie together, we sent the kids to bed.

As usual, the kids weren't allowed to see what Santa brought until they woke us up. Much to their dismay, Dana laid down the law and set a "no one bother us before 6:00" rule. Since the stairs to their rooms are right beside the living room, Dana and I slept upstairs in the bonus room to make sure they didn't peek.

At 5:58 am, we were awakened by 3 rowdy boys bursting at the seams with anticipation and excitement. Remember that feeling?

Here's what the boys found when they came downstairs. Cade got a Green Machine, Cameron got an iPod Touch and Kevin got a wicked-cool, electric Airsoft rifle. As their dad, I automatically called priority on all 3 Santa gifts when I want to play with them.

And then the paper shredding began.

Laser Tag with night vision! We've, I mean, the boys have had a blast with these.



You can tell Cameron didn't have any interest in this Metroid game for his Wii. He's been dying to get this since it came out in September.

Shortly after we got up, we noticed it was snowing! Before long, we had 3" of snow on the ground and it continued snowing all day and most of the next but we didn't have any more accumulation. Later in the morning, we went sledding on the hill by our house and were joined by our neighbors on both sides of us. We all had a great time together and it was quite different than our experiences in Las Cruces where everyone is confined to their own, walled-in yard. I tell you, we had a wonderful Christmas! However, Cade was a little bummed about the snow because he couldn't ride his Green Machine for a few days.

First snow tasting of the year.


I don't know why we took a picture of our table but I like this shot for the trees and houses in the background.




Out here, they have these things called trees that the snow collects on and they look really pretty.



The view across the road toward our old back yard.









Cade will spend all day, every day outdoors if we'd let him. Here he's getting ready for our second trip out in the snow. I found my old ski mask and gave it to him to keep his face warm. Doesn't he look awfully stinkin' cute?





I built a snowman on Cade's head.

Our neighbor built the big snowman in the background. He quickly developed a lean before losing his head. Then I noticed the little one I built on the Titan was doing the same thing. The Snowman Lean. Sounds like a new dance craze!

Cade and I had a contest to see who could throw a snowball the highest against the house. Here's his jumpshot.

This is on the 3rd day of the snow hanging around. We didn't have much left but that didn't stop Cade from taking advantage of what was there.

It took a couple of days but he was finally able to take his new wheels out for a spin. And he crashed right off the bat. For some reason, this thing doesn't spin so well on the concrete. The kids have a little trouble with it on the asphalt as well (I don't!).

Cade's first ride and his first crash.

He was hesitant to try it again but I talked him into it. Here's his first successful spin. (Special thanks to Cameron for letting me use his iPod to record this. Dang that thing is neat!)