This past Sunday, Christine and I met Amanda and Murphy up at the Hyde Park pool so that Ben and Jack could go swimming together.
It was really cute to see the boys playing with each other, and giving each other five:
On the evening of the 4th, we drove out to Lakeway. Josh, Elise and Maly met us out there. Debbie and Raymond cooked dinner (mmmm, porkchops). We went to watch the Lakeway fireworks at the Lakeway City Park, but stayed in the car, because it was raining. Jack said “Gow, Gow!” a lot. Oh, and Josh almost ate his daughter:
Christine and I spent the night out in Lakeway, and I got up around 7:00 to head to work. The commute was about 45 minutes… which is about 40 minutes longer than my standard morning commute.
Since it was a short week at work, I ended up trying to get to work pretty early each day, and stayed until 6:00 or 6:30 each evening.
I got home on Friday afternoon to Christine and Jack out in the front yard:
Jack sure loves those sunglasses 😉
After playing outside for a while, we ate dinner (Christine cooked for us) and then we played with Jack’s cars inside before bed.
Last Friday, Christine and I got on a flight, with Jack, to Seattle. We were heading up there for the weekend to see friends (The Penfields) that we really hadn’t seen in 3 or 4 years, and to meet their daugher (who is 3 now) and let them meet Jack, and to see how big Joel has gotten since the last time we saw him.
Long story short, we had a great trip, but it was way to short, and getting there was “half the battle” so to speak… Needless to say, American Airlines cancelled our Dallas to Seattle flight, so we were facing the possibility of not even going to Seattle for the weekend, but one of their star ticket agents understood our plight, and booked us through Denver to Seattle on Friday. Instead of arriving at 2pm as we’d intended, we arrived at 11:00pm. Jack was pooped.
We were staying at a friend’s condo in downtown: Fourth and Pike. An amazing address, and a great little one bedroom condo: Perfect for “getting away” for the weekend, or a week or two…
On Saturday, we got up ‘early’ and met Kelly, Greg, Joel, and Aubrey at Pike Place Market, and watched the fish throwers throw a few fish… then we walked down to the park, and then headed to our Harbor Cruise reservation. On the cruise, we chatted and caught up, and enjoyed learning about Seattle from the water, and spending time with the kids.
After our cruise, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Red Robin, and then walked back to the fish market. Aubrey was cute… helping me push Jack’s stroller (he was passed out tired. We said our goodbyes and took Jack home for a nap.
After napping, we headed to the Seattle Aquarium… talk about fun for Jack. He really enjoyed looking at all of the fish and seals and starfish. It was really cute to see him exploring the aquarium.
We ate dinner at the Fisherman Restaurant on the peer, and let Jack have fun running around while we ate… I got up with him and ran around with him… the waitresses thought it was cute.
On Sunday, Jack and I got up early and went for a walk, and took some photos. Then we brought breakfast and coffee up to Christine. And then Christine packed while Jack and I took a nap.
As we were leaving our condo, we realized that the Seattle Gay Pride parade was taking place right outside our condo. Heh… “too funny” is all I’ll say.
We got in our car, and drove to the airport for the flights home. Jack was great on the 4.5 hour flight to Dallas, and fell asleep in Dallas before we even took off, and didn’t wake up until the morning.
It was a great trip, long overdue, and way too short.
The photo galleries are here:
Brooke and Steed asked me to come take some photos of their daughters (Louella is 2 and a half or so, and Adeline is 3 weeks) today, so I went over around 9 a.m. I was there for about an hour, and had fun taking photos of the girls.
One morning, Jack and I took a walk around the neighborhood. When we got to Herbert and Lori’s house, we spied Dylan and Lori outside playing in Herbert’s old beater bug.
Jack wasn’t content to just sit in his stroller, so we put him in the car with Dylan, and Lori took some photos. You can see them all here.
This one is my favorite:
Old bugs are cool. Herbert’s reminds me of the one I bought for $300 in high school. It had rusted out floor boards, a rusty body, a sunroof that was permanently stuck open, and a kickin’ Jensen stereo system that Josh and I put in one afternoon.
The backseat caught on fire once. The paint job was red spray paint out of a can (which made touch ups easy to do). The suspension was totally shot. The front bumper fell off a few times. I used to feed cows in it by putting someone in the trunk (up front) and driving through the pasture backwards while they sat in the trunk with the feed and dropped the feed as we backed up. It had a top speed of 52 mph or so, but only going downhill with the wind at your back. The breaks sparked when you hit them (which was cool at night, as long as the cops weren’t behind you). And, I got a my first ticket in that car (for not wearing a seat belt). But, I made it to Dallas and back in it once (didn’t dare to try it twice). It was a good car.
I think my mom sold the car for $400 the next summer after it quit running… loved that old bug.
This weekend, we did a whole lot of stuff:
On Saturday, we got up and headed to Mayfield Park to take photos of Nora and Mason, Heidi and Lee’s kids (they live on the corner down from us). Holy cow… I had no idea how hard it was to tak photos of 2.5 year olds… especially two of them at the same time.
Got some good photos of the kids though. And a few good ones of the peacocks.
On the way home, we stopped and had lunch at Santa Rita, a swanky little mexican place on 35th, about half-way between our house and Mayfield Park. The waiter got our order wrong twice, and then charged us for the more expensive plate he brought us, Oy Vey! Next time, we’re going to keep on driving over to Amaya’s. If they get the order wrong there, they comp the meal, and have the right thing out in second.
Then, after Jack’s nap, we headed to Josh and Elise’s to see Maly. A week later, and she’s still gorgeous. Just adorable. We ended up staying for dinner. Joanne (Elise’s mom) had pre-made strombolli, and since the weather was so nice, we ate out on the patio… mmmmm… great food and good company. After dinner, Josh and I took a walk around the block with the kids. Heh, kind of cool to write that: the kids. Funny that Christine and I will have “the kids” in 5 months or so.
On Sunday, Christine got up early, then I woke up at 7:30 thinking I had to get to work (no idea what was wrong with me there). Since I was up, I told Christine to go get some rest before church. Jack and I took the photos over to Heidi around 9, and then walked around the neighborhood. We stopped at Herbert and Lori’s and Jack got to sit in Herbert’s 1978 Super Beetle convertible with Dylan… Lori took some photos. If she sends them to me, I’ll post them here.
We got home at 10:00, and Christine was still sleeping, so we decided to let her sleep and skip church (a pregnant mom deserves to sleep in at least one day a week right?) so we headed out into the back yard. I did some yard work, and chatted with the neighbor over the fence about jobs and kids. I turned around and Jack was pulling weeds for me (he was also pulling up perfectly good grass too).
Then we played fetch with Wesley. Wesley didn’t understand that he needed to let go of the stick when Jack was pulling on it. Jack didn’t understand that Wesley wanted to play tug of war with the stick. Jack got mad at Wesley, and Wesley got fiesty. He started running around Jack and yipping and yapping and barking and nipping at Jack’s arms… Jack got crazy and started playing back by yelling and flapping his hards around crazily. It was hilarious. Then Jack got scared and ran at me at about 5000 miles per hour. Heh. We decided to head inside about 10:40.
Christine was up eating a late breakfast and Jack an I felt we needed to head to church, so he and I piled in the car and headed to Home Depot. It’s where every good Methodist goes on Sunday morning when he’s skipping church and needs some spiritual enlightenment.
While at Home Depot, we bought some Mosquito-B-Gone, some Sevin Dust, some Roundup, some Mosquito pellets for the pond out back, and some super glue. Then we stopped at Sears and bought a swanky new spill-proof gas can, got some gas and headed home. Our spirits were filled and our wallets were lighter at that point… just like church! 😉
Christine fed Jack lunch while I mowed the lawn. Then after she put him down, I rounded up all the weeds in the flower beds and between the cracks in the concrete in the out front. I also sprayed the back yard for bugs, and then realized I was covered in bug poison spray… so I headed to Jason’s Deli to get Christine and I lunch.
Christine and I headed out back around 3:00 to start building Jack’s new sandbox (one of the neighbors in our ‘hood was selling a sandbox she’d bought for about 1/3 of it’s price because she realized she didn’t want to put it together, so we grabbed it). We turned on the tunes and worked pretty well together once I remembered Christine was a Civil Engineer at one point in her life and she knew more about how things go together than I do. Heh… That’s a story I can’t put online, but we’ll tell it to you anytime you ask… she was right, I was wrong, ’nuff said.
Jack woke up just as we got done with the heavy lifting and tightening of all the parts, so we headed back to Home Depot for second collection, I mean for sand and weed barrier.
When we got home, I carried 400 pounds of sand to the back yard. Luckily they put it in bags… could you imagine carrying that much sand one grain at a time?
I put Jack in the sandbox and he started sort of whining/crying. Heh… he didn’t “love it” yet. Christine went and got him his sandbox toys we’d bought him for Easter…
I grabbed a beer out of my office and we both got in there with him. He was still skittish, but by the time it was time to get out of the sandbox for dinner, he was enjoying it.
We took some photos of the sandbox after dinner… Jack was better with it then, and when we put him to bed, I asked him “Where’s your sandbox?”
He ran over to his window and pointed to it and said “eh!” So I’m sure he’ll fall in love with the sandbox soon…
Gotta go buy another 400 pounds of sand this week though… there’s not enough sand it in yet. Ugh… that’s a lot of damn sand… and it’s heavy after about 6 bags from the car to the back yard.
On Friday night, Josh and Elise drove the the hospital to see if it was time to have a baby. They arrived around 11:00. At 12:49, Elise had given birth to a beautiful little girl. Congrats guys!
The fun thing is that Josh and I were on the phone every few hours on Friday, starting around 8:00. We talked a few times beteween 8 and 11 when they headed to the hospital and he called at 1:30 a.m. or so to deliver the news.
Christine and I were sleeping in Bellville, but we woke up, and listened to the voice mail… a couple of times. We were so excited for them. I stayed awake until 3:00 or so, just thinking of how cool things must be for them right then… and how tired they should be, but that I bet they couldn’t really sleep either… not with a brand spanking new baby and all 😉
Then, on Saturday when Josh and I spoke mid-morning, they still hadn’t named the baby. I told him they had 24 hours from the baby’s birth to find a name.
As I understand it, Josh wanted one name, and Elise wanted another… so, they compromised and went back to the tried and true: Maly (pronounced “Maylee”). Maly is the name Josh used to announce that they were pregnant, because it means “small” in Czech.
Maly Elizabeth Janicek.
Since we were in Bellville to see the whole family, we couldn’t really make it to the hospital in Austin until Sunday. But, when we got back to Austin on Sunday, we dropped Jack off with the neighbors and headed up to the hospital to see their new baby girl.
Maly is beautiful, and already full of spunk (at least I think that’s what I smelled when I held her). She’s tiny, like all babies, and has the cutest little fingers and toes. She’s all Josh… in that she looks a lot like him, and he’s totally smitten with her. And she’s as big a ham as he is.
Before Maly was born, Josh would tell me about how he was really worried about having to change the poopy diapers… I kept telling him he’d be fine and that “they’re different when it’s your child” and that he’d be able to do it. Sure enough, he’s making me proud and has changed almost all of the poopy diapers in the hospital so far (so Elise can rest and get better).
Josh is so funny. He confessed to me that he’s going to plan on scaring the living crap out of any boys that show up on his front door asking for his daughter. I told him we’d have to train Jack to be Josh’s “eyes and ears” when Maly is out of his sight some day. I can already see Jack taking care of his “little sister” in 15 or 16 years.
Elise is doing really good. She told us she wasn’t in much pain, and that she’s only taken a few ibuprofen since the labor, and then she only took that because the nurses kept asking her if she needed anything for the pain… so she just took them to shut up the nurses. Mom and baby are learning how to breast feed, and from what we heard, they’re doing pretty good at it!
Congrats to the first time parents! We can’t wait to bring Jack over to meet Maly as soon as he’s not coughing and full of bugers guys!
Here are more photos of Maly from Sunday.
post script: Josh called “girl” from the beginning. Can’t wait to see the baby in her iPod onesie.
My mom hosted the family Easter get together this year in Bellville. We decorated the yard and the house with decorations to get into the spirit of the holiday (and so the kids would have something fun to play with).
It was a fun weekend for us for sure. The weather was perfect, it was probably 80 degrees, sunny, and the breeze never died.
Frank, Mary, and Michael drove down from Dallas. Christine, Jack and I drove in from Austin. And lots and lots of other family members and friends were there… must have been 40 or 50 people in the house and yard throughout the day on Saturday.
I took a few photos throughout the day: Roland and Cheri having a conversation. Roland telling a story. Rodney posing for me. Helen on the swing. Two ladies on the deck. Mother and Son. Roland and the girls. Laura and Clay. Jacob hunting eggs. Christine on the deck. Where did it go? Jessie Otis Boyte. Nicky and her pearly whites. Nicky’s Jack. Clay, Laura, Drew and Cannon and the second shot. Jack after his nap. A rusty rooster. Doughboy. And a great laugh.
The kids did what kids do when they’re outside… the played and played and played and got dirty and then played some more:
The adults chatted inside and outside and outside and inside.
Everyone ate around 2:00 (and some of us kept eating… there was a lot of food, and some yummy deserts – thanks to everyone that brought something).
After food and drink aplenty, we all took turns taking photos in the bunny cutouts my mom had made:
Then we had an egg hunt. Jack and Ella were both taking naps, so all the other kids hunted eggs, and around 6 p.m. after everyone had left, Jack and Ella got up and hunted for their eggs… Frank forgot to bring his shotgun with him, so we had to let the big one get away.
Then on Saturday night, Michael, Evan and I headed out to Rose and Rodney’s house to play poker with them… I lost a little, Evan lost a little, and Michael won a little… but we all had fun getting caught up on what our cousins have been up to for the past few years. Good times!
Happy Easter everyone.
So, in case you guys didn’t realize it… Josh and Elise should have a baby in about a week…
I came across a website today that I think Josh needs to make a few orders from:
They make onesies… but not the cute little onesies that everyone else has… great “alternative” ones that make me think: “This onesie would get Josh to say the word ‘onesie'”.
Josh, aren’t you going to order a few?
It’d be too cool for him to get a few of these in the mail from his friends… lol. I’d love to see that kid wearing this one (warning this one’s pretty explicit).
Found that site here: BabyRoadies.com.
This past weekend, Christine, Jack and I headed to Bastrop State Park with Marc, Cyndi, Rowan, Jenny, and Michelle. Christine and I haven’t camped out there in 10 years… it was lots of fun then, and now.
Christine rented a tent for us from REI for a very reasonable rate ($24 for the weekend – not bad for a 6 man tent that costs $300+). Cyndi, Marc and Rowan came over to the house around 10:30, and we all drove out to Bastrop around 11:00 a.m.
Talk about a gorgeous day… man it was an awesome day to go camping: blue skies, green grass and tall pine trees, and friends… who could ask for more?
Jack got all scratched up and beat up on his first camping trip. He got scratched on both legs, he got a few bruises on his arms, and he got a nice shiner on his right eye… heh. Fun times!
Here are some photos from the camping trip:
Jack did really good sleeping through the night out in the woods too, though, he did wake up about 4 or five times. Eventually, Christine pulled him out of his Pack and Play and put him in bed with us (we had a blow up mattress) and he only woke us up 3 or 4 times when he was in bed with us… heh… but it was fun. An adventure even.
Rowan was hilarious at times… he’s really getting to be a big boy. We did things like sit around the campfire and make Smores, and walking along the really long windy nature trail, and climbing the hills, and playing with balls, and killing mosquitos – everything you’d expect on a camping trip in Texas.
Here’s a photo I took of Nora, one of our neighbor’s daughter tonight:
We were outside playing in another neighbors front yard, and she stopped just long enough for me to take that quick snapshot… heh, I love trying to take photos of 2 year olds 😉
You can see the rest of the photos from tonight here.
Christine’s birthday was Friday… she turned 29 – woohoo! 😉
To celebrate, she headed to Chezee to have dessert with her girlfriends. They stayed out until midnight, and from what I can tell, had a great time, just hanging out and talking (three of them are pregnant, so there wasn’t much “drinking and partying” — just hanging out).
Our neighbor down the street turned 40 this past Friday too, and his wife threw him a surprise birthday party on Saturday… while Christine and I were there, we found out that Herbert and Christine share the same birthday.
Photos from Herbert’s party are here:
Here’s a few links to some photo galleries I finally uploaded:
On Friday, March 17th, Marc Swendner called me in the morning and said something like “Today, I’m claiming my Irish heritage, so it’s a national holiday… take 1/2 a day off and let’s go drink!” I laughed. And then thought “great excuse!”
I told him to call Christine and talk her into it, and we’d do something.
Around 11:00 a.m., we met Marc, Cyndi and Rowan at the Dog and Duck Pub downtown. We paid $40 for 2 beers and 2 orders of fish and chips. Maybe not $40, but way more than they were worth for sure.
We walked around a bit, looking for seats… they had a big tent erected outside the pub, in the parking lot, and there weren’t any seats available… at least not 4-6, which we needed for the adults and kids. So we went inside to eat.
After eating, we headed back outside to enjoy the bagpipe band that was playing… yes, it’s entirely possible to enjoy a bagpipe band, but you have to work at it. Heh. Actually, the bagpipes were cool. Jack dug them… and when they were done, they played the “I’ve been working on the railroad”, or as they call it in Austin, the fight song of t.u. Then two of the bagpipers (do you call them bagpipers?) played the Aggie War Hymm… and there were a surprising number of people swaying during the “Saw Varsities Horns Off” part… cool…
We listened to another Irish-type band (they weren’t Irish, maybe Irish-Americans, but you could tell they wanted to be) or two… which was fun…
Around 2:00, we headed back home, so Jack could nap, and so I could finish out the day at the office, and at least act like I was working… though the Guiness didn’t want me to. Fun times!
On Saturday night, the 18th, Josh held his annual Godfather’s Club meeting. First rule about the Godfather’s club is that you don’t talk about what happens at the Godfather’s Club. At least until Josh does, so I’ll wait until he posts a story about it, and then I’ll point you to it.
Long story short: it was fun, but I paid for it on Sunday. And frickin’ Marc won the contest we had…
Godfather Club photos if you’re interested.
The weekend of March 11th and 12th was a weekend of Birthdays.
I turned 30 on Friday, March 10th, and Ella turned 2 on Monday March 13th… to celebrate, we had a couple of parties!
Christine threw me a relaxed happy hour birthday party at Brentwood Tavern in Austin on Friday afternoon. We started things around 5:00 and ended around 10:00. Christine brought an Ice Cream cake from ___ and it was gooooood!
John’s 30th Birthday Party photos are here.
On Saturday, we got up and headed to Bellville for Ella’s party.
We got there in time for Jack to take a nap, so we headed over to Grandma’s house, and tried to put Jack down after a quick bite to eat. He wouldn’t sleep. He’s spotted a bucket of toy cars on his way from Chrsitine’s arms into the crib. He went nuts! He just wanted to play with his cars… so we played until it was time to hit the party.
Ella’s party was too much fun. There were kids galore, and lots of friends and family. Some kids fell off the new playscape Evan and Shadel bought, but no one broke them, but no one got seriously hurt. Ella got lots of presents. And all the kids got to eat cake and ice cream (as did the adults).
I took lots of photos, and got lucky (I think) capturing this photo of Conner:
Conner is Lori Lockett’s 3 month old son… isn’t he just adorable?
The photos from the party here.
On Sunday morning, we all got up, and headed to Newman’s bakery for Breakfast. Bussy met us for breakfast, and we had a nice conversation over omelets and pancakes, donut holes and kolaches. Then we went to Grandma’s house to play and show off the deck. She’s building a big deck off the back of the house that should be done in time for Easter.
She’s also got some great places for kids to play in the backyard… including this “funny car” built out of wood with horns and mirrors on it. Got a really great photo of Jack and Ella on that thing:
More photos from Grandma’s house are here.
On Sunday evening, Evan, Chad and Jake Payton (Jake was the ring bearer in our wedding almost 8 years ago (has it been that long?) and is now 15/16 or so), and I played poker. Chad took us all.
On Monday morning we got up, drove home, and returned to the grind.
Had a great weekend though!
