We woke up this morning to the first snow of the season. In St. Louis, it normally doesn’t snow and accumulate this early in the year, but we had the unexpected surprise today that put a nice exclamation mark on a great Thanksgiving week.
The week included some great visits with our very good friends (the Lubrano’s). They drove up from Baton Rouge to visit family and friends. Then Monta and Matt’s family stayed with us over Thanksgiving.
The best news of the week came on Friday when Jason and Meaghan got engaged. Congratulations to both of you! Melody and I are very happy for you.
Here’s a video I shot this morning of the snow. We put the Christmas decorations up just in time.
I was working late tonight and this Tweet came across the wire:
Goodnight Moon is my favorite book to read to the boys. Kaleb and Lukas are a little old for it now, but Myles is finally entering the age where he’ll sit through a book reading. Note to self: Enjoy these early years while they last.
In this picture, Kaleb shows off his Joker-like Kool-aid mustache. It’s, sad, but I haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet. I hope to see it this week, though. It’s breaking box-office records and getting awesome reviews. Between, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, we’ve certainly seen the big screen resurrection of the Batman series. Too bad Superman Returns didn’t have the same impact on that series.
In a related note, if you haven’t seen it yet, Iron Man was the “comic” movie surprise of the season for me. Robert Downey Jr. had just the right attitude playing Tony Stark. Plus, Marvel is about to do something that has yet to be done with comic book movies. It looks like they are going to interweave all of the movies together around S.H.I.E.L.D. (You did catch the extra footage after the credits in Iron Man, right?) Done well, this strategy could be very entertaining (and will make for some very big box sets!).
We had a great time playing with fire on the 4th of July. Like last year, Matt and Jen hosted. His house isn’t really in a suburban neighborhood like mine, so fireworks off the back porch is acceptable as long as they aren’t aimed at the house or at someone. Dan joined us as well but Melody and Myles were in North Carolina with Monika, Justin and their new baby Magnolia.
The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. First of all, it involves fire and blowing stuff up. Secondly, it’s not overly commercialized and thirdly, it was one of my Dad’s favorite holidays. So I always remember him when the 4th comes around. Here’s the video I put together of this year’s celebration.
At our last Coyote baseball game last Saturday, we got a nice surprise. Torry Holt (NFL Pro Bowl receiver for the St. Louis Rams) helped with the game! It turns out that his son played for the other team and he was there to watch. He stepped right up and helped out behind the catcher.
He was awesome with the kids. He encouraged them (our team and his team players) and even stayed late to sign autographs. Most of the kids had him sign baseballs. Explain that one to a sports collector: I have this signed baseball from Torry Holt…You mean the NFL Pro Bowl receiver for the Rams, right??
I tweeted about this during the game, but I messed up the spelling of his name.
Anyway, I trusted Google Mobile and the internet(s) and it seems that I got it wrong a second time. But it looks like a lot of people make this mistake.
Aside from my spelling problems, it was great to see one of my football idols helping with kids baseball and participating in the St. Louis community. Tori, Torrie and Torry, don’t be surprised if you all end up on my fantasy football team this fall. Go Rams!
Today marks the ten year anniversary of our wedding day. Melody and I are celebrating with a weekend in Chicago. The kids are with our Nanny (Jill).
Looking back on ten years of marriage, I see two very different people. We had no idea on our wedding day what the future would hold. We are different today, but we grew together. It’s easy to see where marriage goes wrong. Change is inevitable. How you handle that change can be the difference between a long-term relationship and one that eventually becomes a bad memory.
I’m not saying that we have it all figured out. But I can proudly look back on the last ten years with no regrets. We are closer than ever. Our kids are amazing. We are truly blessed. I’m confident that the next ten will be even better.
Disney’s Cinderella Castle was inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps (southern Germany). When we were inside the castle at the Magic Kingdom, I of course, had to explain this factoid to my family.
The pictures of my Amsterdam/Germany trip can be found on Flickr here. I’m hoping to get back to Munich next year for Oktoberfest.
Have I mentioned that Lukas has no fear? The boys spent most of the day in the Ski Patrol Training Camp area. This part of the park is for kids that are older than toddler age. There were age-appropriate water slides, a fun ice berg rope walk and a zip line plunge.
Lukas was having fun on the water slides. He got bored of them after awhile and wandered over to the zip line. I couldn’t see the top of the kids water slide, so I thought he was in line. I got suspicious after a few minutes and went to look for him. It was already too late. He was being hoisted on to the zip line by someone in line behind him. He happily went down the zip line and plunged 12ft or so into the water!
He was fine, of course. For me it was a bit of a Nemo moment. I would never have let him on that ride voluntarily. But, in retrospect, he was fine and he loved it. So, we let him ride it again and caught it on video. Kaleb also took the plunge. Ironically, he was too scared to do it at first. But when we told him about Luke’s unplanned excursion, he decided to give it a try.
Our “Water Park Fun & More Option” tickets included access to the water parks. Disney has two water parks in Orlando: Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Each park has a different theme.
On day three of our Disney vacation we went to Blizzard Beach for a half-day. Blizzard Beach has a fun ski theme. The most exciting ride, Summit Plummet, features a 120ft free fall! Needless to say, I avoided that one. In fact, Melody and I didn’t go on any non-kid friendly rides at this park.
The highlight of this park for the kids was a zip line that was about 15ft above the water. Lukas had to be lifted up to the handle bars! I have some video I will share later.
Blizzard Beach was a nice change of pace from the main Disney parks. It made the “Water Park Fun & More Option” well worth the extra $50 per ticket. I’m sure we’ll do this again the next time we visit.
The Power Rangers made an appearance at Disney Hollywood Studios. This was Kaleb’s favorite character sighting. He wanted to get a picture with Red Ranger, so we waited in line. I noticed that most characters take their time with the kids. They aren’t rushing to get through the line of kids. The Power Rangers actually took the time to help the kids pose.
