Butcher Block Counter Finished

Allison did an amazing job on creating a butcher block counter for our kitchen. The island countertop previously was tile which was chipped and cracked from the multiple times the kids banged the chairs into it. Well, now, it looks like a professionally done counter. Allison loves it and is excited about doing some cooking on it.

For the record, the only thing I did on this project was slice the wood pieces. Allison did everything else. I'm so proud of her for having a vision of what she wanted and then making it happen with no prior experience of building a countertop.

Jacen Graduates!

A special day for Jacen as he is officially no longer a little boy and is now on his way to kindergarten. He had a little ceremony with all his preschool friends and got his little diploma.

Achieving balance with sports

So after Jacen graduated, I went through possibly the most agonizing sports loss of my entire life. It ranks right up there with when the Angels lost the '86 ALCS to the Red Sox. One member of the Angels actually ended up committing suicide over that one. Anyway, the Lakers were up by 24 points in the third quarter, then completely fell apart. The Celtics eventually won Game 4 of the NBA Finals. 24 points!! How on earth do you blow a lead like that? At home?!!! In the Finals?!!!! Well, I didn't sleep all that well that night.

But things balanced out for me on Saturday. My dad and I went down to the US Open at Torrey Pines. We stayed there all day from about 7AM to 7PM and saw every golfer, but most especially Tiger Woods. I sprained my ankle real badly the previous Saturday playing basketball, so it was difficult walking around the whole golf course. But things got really crazy when Tiger got to us on the 17th hole. He hit one into the rough, missing my head by about ten feet. I was then able to stand right next to him as he hit out of the rough. He landed right next to the green which he then chipped in. Then on the 18th, we watched him drive the par 5 in two shots, then hit a miraculous eagle putt from about 40-50 feet away. The place went wild and I got to see it all. What makes it even more historic, he ended up winning the tournament in a playoff, and the next day we learned he was playing with a torn knee ligament and two hairline fractures in his leg. Absolutely amazing.

Going to finally go on that big vacation

So with the new stimulus check in our bank account, we decided that it was time to go on a big vacation...without the kids. Love the kids, but sometimes they just need to go away and spend some time with their grandparents. Next November will be one of those times. We're going to go with Tim and Kara Bell. Tim is a buddy of mine from my mission. We met on a dreary Thursday morning in St. John's, Newfoundland and after spending 4 months in the same apartment in Moncton, New Brunswick we became BOFF...we made matching bracelets and everything. :)

Anyway, we've been trying to do trips to Utah and Seattle to see family, but with gas prices above $4 a gallon. It makes it tough to do those big road trips. So we're just doing the Mexican 7-night cruise out of Long Beach down to Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. Never been on a cruise before, I'm expecting that we'll have a lot of fun.

Family day at Disneyland

Well, with Allison's family all in town for the wedding on Saturday we all went to Disneyland for the day. Luckily, the crowds were small and the weather was good. Jacen and Kate got to go on most of the rides that they could. Jacen was big enough for the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Star Tours, and even Splash Mountain. He was really brave! I remember being a little freaked out over the Matterhorn until I was about 8. Of course, it didn't help having to ride the skyway and see the huge frightening snow monster. No wonder I was freaked out. Anyway, it was a long day and someone had the bright idea to get in the Finding Nemo line at 7:50 right before the park closed at 8PM. It was a 45 minute line. So basically we were the last ones out of the park, and poor Kate slept through the entire ride.

The wedding on Saturday went well. Alex and Shauna got married at the San Diego Temple and had the reception back in Temecula. It was a grueling day though - 95 degrees and a photographer who took about 10 minutes between each picture. Sadly, we all missed Vati's 90th birthday EXTRAVAGANZA. Just really bad luck to have to have two of these things on the exact same day. It would be great to have all the kids visit Mercer Island...and plus Jacen needs to redeem himself for the first time he met Mutti and Vati where he immediately vomitted right on their entryway floor.

Kate turns 3/Jacen turns 5

Done with the big parties for Jacen and Kate. I don't have the pictures yet, but I will shortly. Kate had a magical fairy princess party that Allison got all crazy over. She hand drew the invitations and Kate had all her little girlfriends over. Then in May, Allison went crazy again over Jacen's party. It was a dinosaur party and Allison made huge plywood painting of a few dinosaurs including an eight foot tall T-Rex. Jacen had a great time and all his friends came and found the dinosaur egg pinata, and even dug up little dinosaur bones in the side yard.

One more coming!

Well - I just heard from Allison and she's pregnant again. I'm not sure how to feel on this one. We are really pulling our hair out with three, I don't know how we're going to make it with four now. Hopefully, we can have grandparents helping out a little bit more. We're definitely going to need a bigger car. She sent me this picture of the pregnancy test.

PS - April Fool's

Back from Washington DC

So we had a busy week in the Washington, DC area. I was participating in a study with the National Institute of Health regarding my kidney/liver disease. My liver/kidney problems are a long story and one day I'll explain it all but for right now just know that it's not too serious and I'm generally doing very well. For some quick information on it you can look here.

Everything was paid for by the NIH and we stayed in a hotel with joining rooms (I had to beg a little for the extra room as we probably would have gone crazy with all the kids in one room). We stayed in Bethesda, MD which is about 10 minutes outside of DC. I did some various tests in the morning and early afternoon at the NIH and when I got home we got to go out. On Wednesday we went to the Smithsonian Zoo. It's not as good as the San Diego Zoo, but it was free - so actually that might make it better. I don't know. On Thursday and Friday we had all day to ourselves so we rode the subway into DC and wandered around the National Mall. We really liked the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. Everything was free which was awesome. It was a little hectic trying to herd the kids around, but overall we had a good time. When it got later we went around to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. We really liked seeing those things. Jacen loved all the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

On Saturday we flew home. Luckily we got to the Dulles Airport early. On the cab ride over, Kate "deposited" her entire pancake/bacon/eggs/orange juice breakfast, onto her clothes and my lap. So we struggled into the airport and handed our cabbie a little tip that was a little soggy. I don't think he cared.

So we're going to start blogging now

It took me a while to get this going. Should have started a long time ago, but later is better than never.

I am going to try to use this blog to share news of the family. And when I say news of the family what I really mean is what the kids are doing. As I don't think anyone really cares about what Allison and I are doing. So hopefully, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and all of our friends can use this blog to keep in touch with what we're doing. So let's get started.