Category: Family

Posted on by John

This past weekend was awesome. It was the best weekend it could be, especially for a first Father’s Day.

Evan and Ella came to visit us in Austin while Shadel visited some friends in Galveston for a bachelorette party.

Evan and Ella arrived around 11:30 on Saturday morning, and we all loaded up and drove out to the lake house. Greg and Cheri’s family were still visiting, and they’d invited us out to swim with them. We figured why the hell not? What else do you do with two babies all weekend, right? It’s not like you can take them a movie or a museum to keep them busy, can you? That, and spending time with Cheri and Greg and the kids and in-laws and grandparents is always fun… the pool was a bonus.

Cheri had lots of fixin’s for lunch ready for us when we got there, so we ate lunch and the jumped in the pool. I got sunburned (stupid me forgot to put on sunscreen again). Ella and Jack loved the pool. Just loved it. Matthew, Paige and Patrick loved having Jack and Ella around to play with, and I’m sure the feeling was mutual.

Jack did a little kick-boarding with a little help from Daddy. Ella danced on the pool patio to the tunes of Pat Green. Patrick showed us how good he was at pushing off of me to swim across the pool. Cool dude Mathew watered his mommy with a watering pail. Paige and Patrick learned a new trick with the floats (they’d jump off the side of the pool onto one of the floats to skim across the pool). All in all, we had a great time at the pool, hanging out with family.

When we got home from swimming, we fed Jack and Ella at the table, then gave them a bath in the big tub together… too much fun!

Evan and I headed up to Home Depot (with Ella) and bought some supplies for the little building going in out back. (Ugh… didn’t realize wires were that expensive). Christine headed to Babies-R-Us with Jack and bought a high-chair and a big baby gate for the entrance to the dining room, and some outlet covers (before, after).

Saturday evening, I cooked T-bone steaks for Evan. They were pretty good steaks, though I cooked them just a tad too long, or rather over a tad too hot fire… “But, John, charred edges on a steak are the only way to eat them!” you’re saying? I hear ya, but I couldn’t done a little better job. Ella told us that the peas and carrots were good (she ate half of both of the peas and carrots off our plates).

We watched Last of the Mohicans on Saturday night, then started to watch Troy, but Evan couldn’t hang, so we went to bed.

Sunday, we unpacked the stuff from Home Depot after playing with the kids for a little while… then Evan and Ella left to get home for Father’s Day activities with Shadel.

Jack and I hung out together (after a much needed nap) and talked Father/Son stuff. I gave Jack some advice about life, which he took pretty well. Christine went to HEB to buy some stuff to make dinner with.

When Christine got home, we opened presents. Jack got me two cool shirts that I’ll wear a lot this summer I’m sure. Christine bought me a good DVD. Then I put Jack to sleep (he fell asleep in my arms he was so tired after reading his book for the night which was too cool … he hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms in a good 4-5 months).

Then Christine made us dinner. She made Crawfish Etoufee from a recipe, and it was goood! Ummm!

Best Father’s Day Weekend I’ve ever had. Glad I got to spend it with my brother and niece too.

Lots more photos here.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 238 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

The last couple of weeks have been just crazy for Christine and I (and Jack).

Let’s see… last Thursday, Christine, Jack and I went out to Debbie and Raymond’s lake house to go swimming. Boy, oh boy, did we have fun! Debbie and Raymond had brought Paige and Patrick (Cheri and Greg’s two oldest) with them to the lake (Paige is 7, Patrick is 5) and we all went swimming in the afternoon together… lots of fun. Cheri and Greg showed up with Matthew (2 years old) on Friday, and we happened to head back out to the lakehouse to see them, and to swim some more.

Then we helped Josh build his deck (it’s almost finished by the way) and went to the Schuster wedding this past weekend.

Then, this week, Jack started taking swimming lessons from the City of Austin, thanks to their summer aquatic programs. Jack is in the Starfish class with 8 other kids, and he’s the youngest one there, and he’s learning a lot about swimming. (Kudos to Christine for getting our kid trained on how to swim as early as she can.) They swim for 30 minutes a day, Monday – Thursday for 2 weeks.

Jack has learned how to enjoy the water (that first dip in the pool out at Debbie’s was a little scary for him) and is learning to kick while his mommy drags him through the water on his belly. At first he didn’t like being on his back in the water, but he’s learning to relax and enjoy it … slowly, but not bad for 6 months old.

Then on Wednesday of this week, Greg’s brother Scott, his wife Sara, and their 3 year old son Luke met Greg and Cheri at the lakehouse. Christine had taken Jack out there earlier in the day to swim and hang out, so I went out after work to have dinner and swim a bit as well.

Today (Friday), Christine and I went up to the neighborhood pool at Patterson Park to swim a little, as a fun way to cap off the week:

Here are some more photos of Jack and Christine in the neighborhood pool.

Tomorrow, Evan and Ella are driving up from Bellville, and we’re heading out to the lakehouse again, to spend some time swimming with Cheri, Greg and the kids.

It’s gonna be a fun summer, and hopefully we all come away from it with a good tan!

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 235 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

In the past 3 weekends, Christine and I have attended three weddings. The spring really is wedding season I guess. We still have 2 more on our dance card in the coming couple of months.

I wrote a little about the wedding we attended in Guanajuato and posted the photos from it here. The Hill-Hernandez wedding was a lot of fun, and for us was a mini-vacation to a place tht we’d long wanted to visit.

On the weekend of June 4th, Christine, Jack and I flew up to Dallas to attend Angela Pierce’s wedding to David Waters (Angela was Christine’s roommate in college). Christine was one of the bride’s maids in the wedding. Jack wore his little white wedding outfit (that just barely fits him anymore) and was super cute. He did well at the wedding, but since it was a full Catholic Mass, we had to take a break about half way through to walk around a bit out in the foyer of the church, and to change diapers. Grandmother Mary was with us too, so she took care of Jack a little at the wedding and then at the reception. The reception was too much fun. Angela and David hired a mariachi band (2nd wedding in two weeks with a mariachi band, woohoo!) and after they left, the DJ was pretty good. Jack left the reception with Mary when he had had enough of the loud noise and strange people… not that anyone there was strange, just strange to him – 😉

Christine and I stayed until the wee hours of the morning… ok, maybe we stayed until 10:30 or so, but we closed the party down. And man were we partying. Christine was dancing. I was dancing. We danced with each other, and with other people… it was a lot of fun and it was great to stay out all night with friends.

Photos from the Pierce-Waters Wedding here.

Then, this past weekend (June 11th) we went to Eagle Lake to attend Stefan Schuster’s wedding to his fiance Periwinkle Ferguson. They were married at 5:30 p.m. on a glorious Saturday evening outside (which in Texas means it was 105°F). But that didn’t slow anybody down, least of all Jack. It was a really nice small heartfelt wedding ceremony in the bride’s proverbial backyard (he father owns the house that the wedding was held at), mixing traditional wedding elements with folk elements, and lots of love. They wrote their own vows, and you could tell they were very special and from the heart. Jack wore his little white wedding outfit again (and I think this’ll be the last time). Jack played in the grass at my feet during the ceremony, and because it was so hot outside, we were allowed to drink beer during the wedding (rock on! Actually, I don’t know if we were allowed, but TJ’s husband Jeff graciously brought me a Shiner Bock, so I had to drink it!)

Photos from the wedding are here. Sorry that they’re pretty much all of Jack…

We stayed at the Schuster wedding until about 8:30 p.m. before making the trek back to Austin (about an hour and a half drive at 90 miles per hour). Did you know that bugs make a really loud smack on the front windshield of a Volvo late at night? I swear we must have hit every damn bug between Eagle Lake and Austin Saturday night. It sounded like I was sitting inside of a snare drum as we rolled down the highway, and when I went to look at the car Sunday morning, it looked as if the car was used as a prop in the movie Starship Troopers. ICK!

So, three weddings in three weekends (and we actually had to miss Jill and David Aronson’s (former co-worker) wedding on June 4th) and we’re beat. We’re taking the next weekend off (Stephanie Stein’s (old Bellville family friends) wedding is this coming weekend, and I just dont think we have the energy to make it to it, and to do all of the stuff around the house that we’ve been meaning to do but have been putting off).

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 300 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

or …

“Beneath the Sky of Mexico” …

That’s where your humble narrator found himself last Friday night through Monday morning. We spent our Memorial day weekend in Mexico. Not in some crummy border town where the rest of you that can claim to have been to Mexico have been, but rather deep in Central Mexico, up in the mountains, in a picturesque little town that’s barely been touched by the tourism industry.

Christine and I found ourselves surrounded by friends and family this past weekend and it was truly an amazing weekend. We left little Jack at home with his Godparents on Friday morning, and headed south (after a short trip north to Dallas of course).

We flew into Guanajuato, Mexico (by way of the airport in Leon) with Mary (Christine’s mom), Marc and Cyndi (our good friends from Austin), and Larry and Terry (Cyndi’s mom and dad), as well as a host of other friends that were all heading down to Jennifer Hill’s (friends of the Kamps) wedding to Daniel Hernandez. At the airport in Leon, I ordered a taxi for seven, and paid $40 for a van without airconditioning to take us to Guanajuato. Nothing like paying $40 to drive through smoke from fires in the fields and exhaust from a third world country’s lack of emission standards in 90 degree weather…

On the drive into Guanajuato, the air got moderately cleaner, and the scenery got much better. The town is built in the mountains, and is an old Spanish colonial mining town. The main road into town turns into a tunnel that we exited right next to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Luna near the Temple of San Diego in the “touristy” part of town.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we ran into lots of old friends. After we stored our bags in our rooms, we started enjoying cervezas. I was partial to Indio, a local brew in central Mexico, while Marc stuck to Victoria. The girls stuck to Sol and Pacifica (which is another of my favorites).

We spent four glorious days in Mexico, mainly walking from shop to shop, or restaurant to restaurant, or visiting one of the local sights.

We went to the Museo Mummificado while in Guanajuato, which is a museum of mummies that were created naturally in the dry crpyts that were built into the side of the moutains. It was freaky. I’ve seen enough dead naked people now to never need to see a mummy again.

We visited the church at the top of the mountain near the Vallencia mines. It’s amazing how beautfiful the churches in Guanajuato are, combined with the fact that the populace that actually visits them is so extremely poor. The altars in this particular church, or rather the three walls at the top chancel and to the sides of the transept were covered in gold. The entire wall on all three sides. Covered in gold. Surrounded by extreme poverty.

Also interesting about the churches in Guanajuato: Jesus is depicted in a much more brutal fashion than we’re accustomed to here in the states. He’s very bloody and looks like He’s in more pain than I’ve seen Him in in most popular depictions. We sort of hypothesized that the reason for this is that there is so much more suffering in Mexico, that this is done so the local populace sees how much suffering He went through, whereas in America, if you can’t eat dinner at a good restaurant you think your life is in shambles, so all you need to see is that Jesus ate at McDonald’s too, so your life isn’t that bad. In Mexico He’s all cut up and bloody, and very dehydrated looking, so the fact that you have little money isn’t a bid deal.

We walked through the Mercado Hidalgo, which is in an old train station that was supposedly designed by Eifel (yes, the one and only). It was a working market, not like the ones you might visit in a border town that’s set up for tourists… nope. While this market had touristy crap in it, it also had lots of raw meat and vegetables, and smelled pretty strongly.

We rode the tram up to Papila… a statue of the idian that guarded the town (or something like that… I honestly don’t remember). The view of the city from up there was gorgeous… We got some great photos up there.

We attended the rehersal dinner for the wedding we were there to attend on Friday night at a woderful restaurant in the San Javier part of town. The conversations were lots of fun, and the food was great.

The wedding was held in a small chapel at the Hacienda Guanajuato (a state park now), which as I understand it the groom’s brother got permission from the Governor of Guanajuato to allow the wedding to take place there. The bride was gorgeous. The groom was handsome. All of the guests were in good moods. We witnessed the wedding ceremony, which was special, as the officiant was the groom’s brother. He threw in plenty of personal stories and wished the bride and groom well, while he spoke in spanish and english for the benefits of both families and the many friends in attendance.

The reception was a lot of fun, held in an open garden at the top of a hill, just up from the wedding chapel. The mariachi band was amazing as they played their way into the reception leading the bride and groom. We ate a fine meal and drank good beer and wine while meeting new friends and conversing with friends of old. We danced a little (some people danced a lot) and even got Mary out on the dance floor with us (after a few shots of Tequila I hear … Mr. Hill, the bride’s father, claims to have seen Mary putting back the Tequila, though I can neither confirm nor deny his claim).

Christine and I closed down the wedding, then stayed up late into the night talking with friends and enjoying the cool moutain air (we did that many nights, usually sleeping until 10am or later each morning).

All of our photos from the trip are here, and photos from the wedding specifically are here.

Stay tuned for more… I bought a website and we’ll be putting more Guanajuato information and pictures up there soon, I’m sure.

update: The title of this entry comes from a movie made in 1937. I picked this title because Mark used the title I was wanting to use: Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and since it was a movie title, I figured I’d find another movie title for this entry.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 285 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Over the past few weeks, Christine, Jack and I have been busy.

Christine has been focusing a lot of her time on working with Angela Pierce’s pre-wedding events (Angela is Christine’s college roommate, and has been our friend for a long time. She’s getting married to David this summer in Dallas).

This past weekend, we were in Dallas, visiting clients, spending time with the Grandparents and Uncles, while also attending a couple’s shower for David and Angela, and then celebrating Christine’s first Mother’s Day.

On Friday, I spent the day driving around Dallas, visiting clients. Both meetings were fun. I met a fellow Aggie at one client (which always help open barriers to conversation).

The shower on Saturday night was a blast. All of David and Angela’s friends are fun to be around… We floated a keg of beer at the party by 10:00 pm, and someone had 4 cases of beer that they filled the fridge with… Then… they broke out the bottles of various liquors and started toasting. I don’t quite remember what they were toasting, but it was fun. I also talked to Angela about private vs. public school, which was educational (heh… get it…?). Angela attended private schools as a kid, and now she’s works in the public school system, so I thought her opinion would help us, as we think about where Jack would best be served in the future.

Christine and I left the party early (around 10:30) and went home to get some shuteye. We’ll get some photos of the evening up soon.

On Sunday, the family gathered for Mother’s Day lunch at the Kamp house. We enjoyed a ham dinner, with home made potato salad and other fixins. Grandmother and mother opened their cards, and we all said thank you to them. Mother’s really don’t get enough credit usually, so it’s nice to set aside a day just for them.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 200 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

I’ve been traveling pretty much all month, thus we haven’t updated the website with new photos. We had two 512MB CF cards full of photos last night when I downloaded them from the camera. Here are some of the better ones:

  • On the couch – Photos of Jack and Wesley on the couch together, from yesterday.
  • Frank turns 60! – Some random photos from our recent trip to Dallas and Frank’s 60th birthday weekend extravaganza.
  • Payton and Peggie – We took some great photos of Peggy and Payton from their last visit.
  • The Arboreteum – We went to the Arboreteum for a picnic one Saturday with Jack. Jack enjoyed the open air and the trees, and especially the big pertified cows.
  • Jack’s First Real Food – Carrots. Blech! Mommy made Jack eat veggies for his first real food. Carrots must be the messiest food on the planet too!
  • Trip to the Park – Christine and I took Jack to the park at the begining of April. It was fun, and we got to meet some of the local kids from the surrounding neighborhoods.

I’ll try to post my ruminations on my recent trip to Denver sometime this weekend or next week. Sneak peak: It was snowing really hard there on Thursday, and I had to drive an hour north to the technology and agricultural mecca of Loveland.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 213 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

After getting home from Denver late on Tuesday night, I slept in on Wedneday morning (until 9:00 a.m.)

I got up, went to the drycleaners and picked up my suit and a shirt Christine had taken in for me. I went home, and started packing again.

Christine and I went to the airport around noon on Wednesday, 4/20, with Jack in tow. I checked Christine and Jack in at the Southwest counter, and accompanied them to their gate. They were heading to Dallas. Around 1:30, I left them to find my gate. I was heading to New York. Both of us boarded our different flights at 1:50 or so.

Christine’s parents picked her and Jack up at Love field in Dallas about an hour after she took off from Austin. I meanwhile flew to Chicago for a connection to New York’s fabulous La Guardia airport. The wireless internet stuff at O’Hare wasn’t working… typical. I hate flying through Chicago.

On the connection from Chicago to New York, I met the owner of the Monroe Salt Works. We talked about his business, his products, and advertising. It was neat to meet him, and discuss his business and how he got started. He reminded me of Raymond alot too.

After a short cab ride into the city, I checked into my hotel. The Hotel Pennslyvania. The Hotel Pennsylvania is across the stree from Penn Station, and Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. It’s an old hotel, in a crappy neighborhood (Hell’s Kitchen is just west of the hotel), but it’s also a block away from my company’s offices in NYC. It’s also a typical New York hotel: $200/night is the basic room. $250/night gets you a decent room with a window that gives you a view of the building next door (anywhere from 6 – 12 inches away from your window), and $300/night if they’ve sold half of their rooms. If you spend more than that at the Hotel Pennslyvania, you’re getting robbed… go stay at another hotel in Times square, or, there aren’t any rooms in the city anywhere, so you should be happy you have a room at all.

I actually had a decent room with a King size bed this visit, and a key that gave me access to the Penn 5000 club louge (yes, that sounds a little weird, but that’s what they call their “exclusive club”). I got a free cup of coffee and turned in for the night.

On Thursday morning, I woke up on my own at 5:45 a.m. — travel really screws up my internal clock, and it’s never predictable — so I got dressed and walked around outside a bit before heading to the office. I prepared our conference room for my future clients that were going to be visiting at 9:30 a.m. before getting together with my boss and co-worker to game plan our presentation. At 9:35 I called my client to find out if he was on his way… he wasn’t. We were supposed to be at his office. (This is typical of this guy… our emails specifically agreed that he’d meet us at our office, but… that wasn’t accurate, and it was probably my fault).

After a decent presentation with the client and his staff, we headed back to the office. I grabbed lunch at a little sports bar around the corner with another co-worker that I’m heading to Cleveland with next week, and we game-planned that meeting a little.

I visited a bar after work with yet a different co-worker after work on Thursday. This bar was a little dive on 3rd and 28th or so, which was around the corner from his apartment. It was fun… he knew the owner and a few of the regulars, and we hung out until 7:30 or so, waiting on his girlfriend. After that, I turned in for the night.

On Friday, I spent the day trying to coordinate a future trip to Denver, while also trying to figure out where a few other deals I have in front of people are, before heading back to La Guardia.

My flight left New York late, arrived at Chicago late, and into Austin even later. I got home around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning, I got up around 10:30 or 11:00 and drove to Dallas, so we could all celebrate Grand Dad Frank’s 60th birthday. We’re driving back to Austin this afternoon.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 196 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I met Debbie and Raymond at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner on Friday night. Everyone’s dinner was good, if the portions were just a tad big… next time, we’re just getting one apetizer and 4 deserts. The cheesecake was fantastic. We didn’t stay long as Debbie and Raymond were both a little under the weather, but it was good to see them nonetheless.

On Saturday, Peggy and Payton came up to babysit Jack for us. Payton and I hung new blinds and valances in the nursery, and we enjoyed visiting, before Christine and I headed out for a fun night together.

We left the house around 6:30, and headed to Z-Tejas for dinner. We didn’t have reservations, and someone forgot to tell us that it was Prom night in Austin. We parked the car, took about 10 steps toward the door of the restaurant, and headed back to the car. There was at least 50 people standing outside waiting for a table.

So we drove down Capitol of Texas Highway, trying to figure out what to do… since it was prom night, that pretty much shot our chances of eating anywhere with a cool view… so we decided to head downtown to see what might be fun.

We eventually had a valet take our car on 4th street, and walked into Malaga, but the air conditioning was tool cold, and was blowing right on us. We really kind of wanted to sit on a patio, and they didn’t have one, or at least, didn’t ask us if we wanted to sit outside. (We noticed that they do have a small patio on our way out that had an open table on it).

So we walked next door to Fadó’s and quickly found a seat on the patio. Patrick Fleming was playing live music, and we were sitting under an open sky. The music on his website gives a good idea of how good he is, like this original: Nowhere, USA. I ordered a Black and Tan (what else do you order at an Irish Pub. We ate a Ahi Tuna Ceviche from the apetizer menu, and then sat back and enjoyed the music. Patrick did a good job covering a lot of popular music and he was fun to watch (we were sitting right behind him).

After Patrick Fleming went off the stage, we stayed to listen to a couple of songs by The Blaggards, an irish punk band from Houston. Go to their website and watch their irish punk version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” … they’re pretty good and a lot of fun to watch in person.

On Sunday, we got up, and I cooked breakfast: Eggs and sausage, with homemade wheat bread toast. Peggy picked up the bread at Hruska’s on the way up from Houston on Saturday. If you haven’t stopped at Hruska’s in Ellinger on the way up from Houston… you need to next time. It’s on Highway 71, and is a little like stopping at the Czech Stop in West, Texas.

After Peggy and Payton left, Christine and I watched Super Size Me, the story of Morgan Spurlock and his 30 day McDonald’s only diet. Scary stuff. It’s a pretty compelling story, and will definitely make you think twice about ordering that Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or those 44 oz. drinks at the fast-food joint of your choice. I’m convinced that Jack will never eat at a fast-food restaurant in his life, and I won’t eat at one by choice again. I’ll find the place selling salads and apples at the airport, instead of making that quick stop at McDonald’s or Burger King in the future.

Check back for some cute photos of Jack and Payton and the rest of us.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 245 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I piled in the station wagon yesterday around noon, and drove as quickly as we could to Hostyn, Texas for a wedding. Rob Lockett invited us to his wedding to Ashley. Rob and I grew up together and were the best of friends. Our families have stayed pretty close over the years… and so, we were delighted to be invited to the wedding.

Hostyn is about an hour from Austin, just south of La Grange. We got to the chapel with about 30 seconds to spare (we still haven’t adjusted to having a baby and getting places on time — not that we were all that good at being on time before the baby, but now it’s a lot tougher).

The ceremony was very nice. A simple short Catholic ceremony in a beautiful country chapel. The bride was gorgeous, and there whole town was in attendance (I really think the whole town of Hostyn was there).

After the wedding ceremony, Jack got to meet the Lockett family, and the Fox family (Rob’s Grandparents and Aunt and cousins). Mrs. Housley (my 7th grade social studies teacher) was there too. We headed to the reception after saying hi to a lot of people…

Kari Burt, Rob’s cousin, is doing well at A&M. She’s a freshman, and the last time we saw her was when she ran hurdles in the state track meet in Austin last year. She’s still growing up, and still getting prettier every day. Amy was doing very well, and seems to be pretty much fully recovered since her accident 2 1/2 year ago.

Lori (Rob’s sister) and Jason are doing well… Lori seems as happy as I’ve ever seen her.

Halley’s middle child (Halley is Rob’s youngest sister) is just too cute… a little ball of energy with blonde curley hair.

Reese (Rob’s younger brother and one of Evan’s best friends) and Karen are well. Their two little ones are cute. Kade (the oldest and the boy) was the ring bearer in the wedding and cried all the way down the aisle, until he saw his mommy, then made a bee line for her with the flower girl in tow. Gabby, the little girl, still has the most beautiful dark brown eyes I’ve ever seen, with those long eyelashes.

Nanny and Bussy are still Nanny and Bussy… we just love seeing them. Bussy introduced me to one of his neighbors (I didn’t ask how many miles away this neighbor lived, but I’m sure it’s at least a couple of miles) and we talked about choices… Bussy’s always teaching me something, and I love him for that.

We also ran into Bronson Pilcik and his wife Becky. Bronson and I went to school together when we were young. Bronson’s doing well now. They have 2 kids, a two year old girl and a six year old boy. The boy is just starting to play tee-ball. We laughed about old times, caught up on old friends and where they are now, and then talked about family. Bronson’ll probably take over parts of his family’s business in Industry in a few years, and is doing great.

We left the reception before they served dinner, as it was time for us to head back to Austin for “Learning to Sleep – part two”. We did stop at Dairy Queen on the way home though, and both of us had a “Dude Sandwich” … love those things! Funny thing about “the Dude” is that I think they only sell them in Texas… you should have seen the look on the face of the counter clerk in Kentucky when I asked her for a “Dude”. Heh… I’ll have to tell that story sometime.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 294 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This was Jack’s first Easter. Christine and I had hoped to spend the afternoon at the church sponsored picnic and Easter Egg hunt on the lawn of the State Capital building, but, the weather proved difficult on Saturday afternoon. We went to the picnic, after picking up a couple of sandwiches at Jimmy John’s Sandwich shop (we found that place while we were at the hospital back in November).

When we arrived at the Capital, we ventured out onto the lawn with all of the other families gathered, sat down, and ate our lunch. We discovered Jack likes to people watch while Christine and I were eating. One of the preachers came and visited with us, and then we decided it was just too cold and wet to stay out too long… so we waited for the Easter Bunny to show up, took a picture with him, then headed back to the house. We stayed home Saturday night and watched Troy on DVD. (Nothing like watching a film about Greek mythology on Easter weekend right?)

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to church. Kim, Brad and Kim’s mom saved us some seats in the balcony (church was packed today with all of those Easter Methodists) and we sat through the whole ceremony without a trip to the “cry room”. I guess Christine got the feeding/nap schedule down this morning, because Jack was really good in church. He didn’t make any crying sounds, though he did start talking to me at one point during the service. We got a lot of compliments on how cute Jack was after the service, which tells me he wasn’t a bother to anyone around us.

After church, we drove out to the lake to have Easter lunch/dinner with Debbie, Raymond, Peggy, Payton and Shirley. Payton was wearing his school ring, which he’s earned as a Junior in High School… He sure is growing up to be a fine young man.

It was a gorgeous day today in Central Texas.

Right before we ate, we drove down to the Hamilton Greenbelt there in Lakeway, and took some photos. The best ones came from a setting on the creek, near a little set of rapids. Jack got a little cranky, because he was tired, so Christine and I headed back to the car early. Jack fell asleep in Christine’s arms as we walked back to the car. He was snoring in her arms. That was cute.

After a late lunch/early dinner, we watched Finding Neverland on DVD. Good movie. A bit slow at first, but a great ending.

Then Jack played “Who’s gonna eat that hand” with Raymond. Here’s a little movie from their playtime. Jack was laughing so hard. I wish I’d have grabbed the camera sooner to capture more of it on film:

We headed home shortly after 9:30, and Jack is sleeping in his car seat now (never wake a sleeping baby, right?)

Hope you all had a happy Easter. You can see all of our photos from this weekend in this gallery.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 257 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Last night, after a wonderful dinner (Christine cooked a delicious lemon oregano chicked dish last night), I spent some time downloading photos and movies from the little camera, and here’s a round up of recent photographs and a movie:

  • 29 – A few select photos from my 29th birthday party.
  • Ella’s a Year Old – These are a few photos we took at Ella’s Birthday Party (I can’t believe we didn’t take more).
  • Reading his book – Mommy took these photos of Jack reading his book during morning playtime.
  • Goodmorning Sunshine – On Saturday morning, Jack and I went out to greet the sun, while laying in the hammock. Afterwards, we went inside and woke up mommy.
  • Reading with Daddy – Jack and I read a book before bedtime last night.

And for this week’s movie, we present Life of the Party. At my 29th birthday party, Jack and I danced to a song Josh was playing on the radio. The poor guy was tired, but he hung in there, and was the “Life of the Party”:

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 152 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Over the past week, we’ve spent a lot of time celebrating birthdays:

John turned 29 on March 10th. Yes, I’m still a year younger than my wife. She’s still wiser. I’m still younger. I’m 4 weeks into my Weight Watcher kick and so far I’ve lost 11.2 pounds. Feels good being a little lighter, I just hope the pounds are coming off the right parts of my body 😉 To celebrate, Josh cooked an amazing dinner, and we spent the evening at their house, playing with Jack and talking about stuff. Josh also gave me a really nice knife and some stuff we need in the kitchen so he can come over and cook at our house like he does at his (and so I can learn some culinary arts from him in the process).

Ella turned one year old on March 13th! And boy is she amazing at one year old. Shadel and Evan threw the little princess a wonderful birthday party in Bellville. Christine, Jack and I drove down on Saturday (the 12th) and spent an evening with them before the big event. Evan and his friend Jason got up around 5:30 to start cooking brisket. I got up around 7:00 to help them. Shadel and Christine decorated, and around noon, I guess, the birthday well-wishers started showing up. Lots of family and lots of friends. It was a lot of fun, and I shot about an hours worth of video, so Evan and Shadel can preserve the event.

During the week of March 14th, we just worked. Jack started learning how to sleep a little longer through the night. I started reading a book on how to get him to sleep through the entire night. I closed another deal at work, this one with a bigger client based in Chicago.

Then last night, March 18th, we met Cheri, Greg, Raymond and Debbie at the Iguana Grill on Lake Travis, to celebrate Cheri’s __th birthday (I’d never ask a lady her age). We went ahead and celebrated all of the March and April birthday’s last night too (Debbie’s birthday is April 5th). The food was great. The conversation was better. The sky was overcast, so the sunset wasn’t as good as it normally is over the lake.

Today, I’m hoping to either a) get the garage cleaned out, or b) get the yard in shape. Depends on how much time I have.

Jack’s sitting in front of me playing right now, so I’m gonna get off this darned computer and go spend some time with him. He’s so much fun!

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 196 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This movie comes to us from the backlog of videos and photos I have on my hard drive:

Terrified Boy
Two Crazy Girls and a Terrified Boy

heh…

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I boarded a Southwest flight headed for Oklahoma City last Friday in the morning. We checked our baggage at the curb, then I parked the car, and met Christine and Jack inside the terminal. We were all ready for Jack’s first airplane ride.

Jack did really well on the plane on the way up to Oklahoma. We fed him on ascent and descent, or let him suck on his pacifier, and he was only fussy on the descent into Oklahoma City (we had to land in Dallas on the way from Austin to OKC). Not bad for his first flight. The flight attendants were quite taken with him too.

In Oklahoma City, we rented a car from Avis, and headed to Grandmother’s house (Grandmother is Christine’s Mom’s Mom – Gulah Daron) for lunch. It was nice to see Grandmother on Friday, only our visit was too short. We drove to Tulsa in the rental car after lunch.

We arrived at Uncle Ben and Aunt Gayle’s house (Gayle is Christine’s Dad’s younger sister) around 4:30 in the afternoon, and visited with them until Dinner. For dinner, Gayle hosted a dinner party that included Christine, Jack and I, Mary (Christine’s Dad’s youngest sister), Elizabeth (Mary’s daughter and Christine’s cousin) and her boyfriend Mark, Keith (Elizabeth’s Dad and Christine’s uncle) and Oma (Christine’s Dad’s mom — Jack’s other Great Grandmother).

Gayle served a Cream of Aspaaragus soup, a salad, and a shrimp dish as the main course. All of the dishes were very good. The conversations centered around what Elizabeth was doing as she finished up her schooling at university, and how Christopher (Keith and Mary’s other child) is going to law school later this year. We also talked about how little Benjamin, Gayle and Ben’s grandson, is learning to wear hats a lot, as he gets bigger… We discussed living in Austin and being an Aggie, and how Mark is doing in the police academy there in Tulsa.

After dinner, Oma and Jack got aquainted quite a bit. Jack was having a good ol’ time trying to figure out what Oma was saying in German (she pretty much only speaks German most of the time), while the rest of us were also trying to figure it out. Jack laughed and giggled as Oma tickled him. He enjoyed meeting her and the rest of the family very much.

We spent the night at Ben and Gayle’s – I slept a full 12 hours (I have some sort of flu… sucks) while Christine got up a few times during the night to take care of Jack.

On Saturday morning, we got up, enjoyed breakfast and lunch with Gayle and Ben, as well as just playing with Jack. Gayle was really helpful and loved just holding Jack while Christine and I ate together (those moments are rare). We packed the car, and headed back to Oklahoma City around 2:00 in the afternoon after a too short trip to Tulsa.

Back in Oklahoma City, the family had gathered at Grandmother’s house to start celebrating Grandmother’s 93rd birthday party. Let me spell that out for you folks. Ninety Three. That’s right: NINETY THREE. Wow. Just imagine all the stuff that’s happened since 1912 folks. Grandmother has seen it all… literally.

The family for this trip consisted of Roy and Carol (Christine’s Mom’s oldest sister), Mary (Christine’s mom) and Charles, Shannin and Shaina (Charles is Mary’s nephew and Grandmother’s grandson. Shannin is his wife, and Shaina is their 5 month old daughter – Jack’s 2nd cousin). We all met up at Grandmother’s around 5:00 for dinner and to catch up with each other, since the last time we’d been together. Everyone seems to be doing well, and we all agree that we don’t get to see each other often enough.

Shaina is adorable, and is growing by leaps and bounds. She has got to have the longest eyelashes I’ve seen on a 5-month old ever. Carol and Roy have new grandchildren, and Grandmother really enjoyed seeing Shaina and Jack together. We ate pizza for dinner and I turned in early (getting over that flu still).

We attended church at First Baptist Church in downtown Oklahoma City with Grandmother and family. It was a wonderful service, with the Oklahoma Baptist Univeristy’s Bison Glee Club sitting in for the choir. The pastor recognized Grandmother and had some wonderful words to share with the congregation about her, as did all of the members of the church that we met. It’s easy to know that Grandmother is dearly loved by her church family there in Oklahoma City.

After church, we went to lunch at Abuelo’s, and then headed back to the house to pack. We said our goodbye’s and headed to the airport. Christine, Jack and I barely made it to the airport in time for our flight, only to find it delayed by 30 minutes.

We boarded the flight and then got the Dallas just in time to catch our connecting flight to Austin. Jack did really well on both flights, finally falling asleep right before we started descending into Austin.

When we got to the car, we started searching for our car keys — only to call Gayle and discover that I’d left the car keys inside my jacket that I wore to Tulsa… And that jacket is still in Tulsa. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Gosh!

So, we took a cab home.

We had a great trip to Oklahoma City and really enjoyed spending time with our family… its too bad the trip was so short.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 154 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Finally got around to cataloging a few more photos we’ve taken, and thus, I posted these galleries today:

Peggy Visits
Taking a bath
Standing in the crib
The Dog and his Jack
Jack up close and personal

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 239 user reviews.

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