Category: Jack

Posted on by John

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.

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Posted on by John

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.

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Posted on by John

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.

More photos here.

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Posted on by John

Here’s a few links to some photo galleries I finally uploaded:

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Posted on by John

I don’t think I’ve written about this yet, so here goes:

I think Frank really loves being a Grandfather (we call him Granddad). I think he loves it because he’s constantly making Jack toys (and stuff).

Back before we went on our cruise, Frank made Jack a little doggy pull toy in his spare time. It was lovingly hand crafted out of wood, with little rolling wheels and a string, and leather ears even. It was cute as hell.

I brought it home for Jack after a business trip and Jack proceeded to break it within about 15 minutes of playing with it… so we didn’t get any good photos of him playing with it before it died:

When Frank and Mary came down to watch Jack while we were on our cruise, he took it home, to fix it up for another day.

Then, this week, I got some photos of another toy Frank made for Jack:


The wooden airplane.

Jack will have these wooden toys that his Granddad made for him when he’s 60, and he’ll look back and think “Man, that was one pretty cool dude.”

Thanks Frank!

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Posted on by John

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!

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Posted on by John

I downloaded some more photos from this weekend tonight:

Shoes, Church and Groceries – photos from the shoe fitting, the ride home, church on Sunday, a trip to the grocery store on Monday, and bathtime last night.

Also, here are some photos I took of Dylan and Herbert (neighbors down at the end of the street) flying a kite last weekend.

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Posted on by John

We spent this weekend around the house… relaxing, playing and enjoying ourselves.

On Friday afternoon, Christine Jack and I went out into the front yard to play with our new bubble machine. It blows really big bubbles, and Jack loves trying to chase them down. While we were playing, and airplane flew over head… so Jack started imitating it. I don’t think he realizes the wings go straight out from the plane’s sides yet, but he’ll get it soon enough.

Before dinner, Jack and I watched the sun disappear over the house across the street.

After dinner, Jack gave me this look:

Sort of a “shit-eatin’ grin” don’t you think?

There are more photos from Friday here.

Then on Saturday morning, Jack and I got up early to play while Christine slept in a little (Jack only let her sleep until 8 though).

Around 10:00, we all headed to Sandy’s Shoes… a local kid’s shoe store for Jack’s first shoe fitting. It’s a fun store, but I think at least 20 other parents had the same idea, because the store was crazy when we got there. We played with toys, while we waited for Jack’s name to be called. While we were waiting, Jack tripped on the carpet and banged his noggin’ on the front door of the store. It left a mark (ouch!).

Jack got a pair of brown Mobility shoes, after the fitting lady checked his foot size. We bought a size 5 shoe, which should last him all summer… Jack is in this weird foot stage where neither the little baby shoes nor the big boy shoes we’ve been loaned/given don’t really fit that well, so we figured a good solid pair of sandals was in order for him. And, we know that someone else will wear those shoes someday… so they’ll get plenty of use. (We hit the mother lode when we had a boy, because my cousin Cheri has two older boys, and she gave us about a bazillion shoes for Jack!) You can see the new shoes here and here.

Right after buying the shoes, Jack got to eat lunch at Schlotsky’s… we all enjoyed it.

After getting shoes, playing in the front and back yard (got a cool photo of some bees drinking back there) and taking a nap, we waited for Christine to get home. Christine went to a get together with her friends around 1:00. They were meeting to discuss a book Cyndi bought that is supposed to help with their career decisions. Christine came home invigorated about the future.

We all loaded up in the car, and headed to Lakeway when she got home. Debbie and Raymond brought us a rocking chair for Elise, so we needed to get that, and we hadn’t seen Debbie since Christmas (we saw Raymond a few weeks ago here in Austin at a photographer’s convention that I totally forgot to write about).

After chatting for a little while, we loaded up the cars and headed to Mulligan’s to eat. Great food for a pool hall… glad they took us there. We’re definitely going to have to eat there again sometime.

We got home sort of late, so we quickly bathed Jack and put him to bed, before turning in around 9:00 ourselves.

More photos from Saturday here.

On Sunday, I got to sleep in, and Christine and Jack got up to play… then we got dressed and headed to church. At church we saw Erin and her new beau, Chris. Jack spent church in the nursery, so after church the four of us headed over to pick him up. Turns out Jack was a little clingy throughout church (and today was communion – so it was a long one) so they held him the entire hour and a half. Heh. Oh, and by the way (this one’s for Frank) we got taken at the second offering Frank… I thought only Catholics had second offerings before today, but nope… it’s infected the Methodists too.

We headed home after church, had some Macoroni and cheese, and Jack and Christine took a nap. I washed both the rice-burner and the safety-mobile and then I took the Honda for a lube job. When I got home, Jack had just woken up, so we loaded up the car and headed to Josh and Elise’s for a little play time and dinner.

Jack and Josh posed for an 80’s rock band album cover in between looking at the moon and a lady bug lawn ornament Josh has in the back yard while Christine and Elise chatted it up inside (talking pregnancy tips I’m sure). Jack also had a blast climbing up and down the steps on Josh’s deck. Gonna have to get me one of those soon.

Josh cooked steaks out on the barbie, and Elise made mashed potatos inside. We enjoyed dinner immensely… especially the ice-cream pie we had for dessert, and then we tootled on home to put Jack to bed and catch the end of the Oscars.

Photos from Sunday here.

Thank God Crash won best picture. Great movie and I don’t know that I could hear much more about Brokeback Moutain before I started puking… know what happens to gay cowboys in Bellvile folks? Neither do I… there aren’t any gay cowboys in Bellville.

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Posted on by John

Amanda brought Benjamin over today to play with Jack (Tuesday is Ben and Jack day in the Engler and Parks households).

I spied them in the backyard, so I grabbed the camera for a few quick shots:


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Posted on by John

I’ve been taking lots of photos lately. Here are a few:

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This past weekend, Mary, Frank, and Uncle Mike came to Austin to hang out. Actually Frank and Mary are babysitting Jack for a week while Christine and I head to Mexico via Carnival Cruise Lines… we’ll post about that when we get home.

In the meantime, here are some fun photos from this weekend:

Here are the photo galleries:

Riding the Duck

Hanging with Uncle Mike

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Posted on by John

Jack loves to build tall towers with his building blocks. I’m convinced Jack will grow up to be an architect, an engineer, or a demolition specialist based on his experience with his blocks. Come to think of it, he could also be a crane operator.

I think he’d make a good crane operator because he’s learned how to build his towers taller than himself, and he understands the importance of balance. He understand this balance thing in this manner:

If he doesn’t have his balance as he places that last really high block, he generally falls over, and brings his entire tower down with him. It’s pretty funny to watch.

Here’s a really fuzzy action shot, right before he tumbled over one of his towers recently:

Heh, the funny thing is, when he falls while building his tower, he generally gets right back up and starts over. Like I said: Crane operator or demolition expert.

More photos here.

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Jack got a present in the mail from his Uncle Mike and Uncle Steve yesterday: Bathtime Fingerpaints!

When Christine opened the mail, Jack was going crazy wanting to play with the fingerpaint, but she held firm and told him “we have to wait until Bath time”…

And he loved them. He painted the walls of the bath, then he painted his belly… too much fun.

More photos here.

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A few weeks ago, I spotted a Rocking Duck on sale from Playsam in Skandanavia (oh the wonders of the internet). I ordered one on impulse, because it was so damned cute. It arrived today, so I put it together tonight, and Jack gets to try it out tomorrow:

Cool, huh?

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Posted on by John

This year, for Valentine’s Day, Christine and I got up early (ok, Christine got up really early, and I got up at my normal 8:00) and gave Jack his Valentine’s present. It was an Elmo is sick doll. Ok, it’s really called a “Check up on Elmo” doll, but it’s the same thing.

We got this little doll for Jack because he’s been sick lately, and every time we take him to the doctor’s office, he hates it more and more. Hopefully playing with this Elmo will teach Jack that it’s okay to take your temperature, how to blow your nose, and that bandaids are fun!

Hopefully. Because if it doesn’t, I’m going to ring Elmo’s annoying little neck. Elmo has to be the cutest, yet most annoying doll we’ve had… mainly because of that little lispy voice he has… thankfully I don’t have to spend much time with Elmo. Poor Christine has to spend all day with him 😉

Then I went to work.

I knocked off around 4:00, and we headed to Central Park. Jack and I played on the playground, while Christine went to the store. She couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she came and got us. We went to the Bookstop and found my Valentine’s present: The Complete Photography Manual. Too cool.

I gave Christine her Valentine’s day gift at home. It was from Jack and I, so we opened it while Jack ate dinner.

She got a set of flip-flops, a stick of lip-balm, some Aloe Vera lotion, and a card from each of us.

We decided to keep the gifts pretty reasonable this year, because:

We’re going on a 6-day Carnival cruise next week to Progreso and Cozumel! That was our real gift to each other, and we are soooo looking forward to it.

Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day.

update: Photos from the park are here.

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