sneaking and sipping

Jen and I just got back from a nice little quick get-away in Temecula. Jen's parents were kind enough to watch the kids so we could have 24 hours of relaxing at South Coast Winery. The place is really nice, the weather was great, and it sure was nice not to have to worry about anyone else other than ourselves for a change.
We got home this morning, kids were amped as ever. We did more swimming. Andy and Katie are becoming really bold now with the water. To the point where I have to watch even harder now as they will do crazy jumping and diving stuff that is beginning to make even me nervous! Katie is now able to dive down and get stuff off the bottom of the pool, do cannon-balls and tread water for what appears to be an indefinite amount of time. Andy... well, he just dog paddles like a maniac.

The Big Night

Well, after months of rigorous training, Katie finally faced her big Ballet Recital tonight. Expecting Katie to be nervous, Jen and I were pumping Katie with a lot of, "You are going to be great!" type of reinforcement. I quickly realized that Katie was not nervous at all, literally zero performance anxiety.

Me: "Katie, you are so beautiful, you are going to be great tonight!"

Katie: "I know daddy, just like I was last night!" (Referring to her dress rehearsal)

Me: "Are you nervous at all?"

Katie: "No" (The way she looked at me when she said this, was kinda like a look of "What are you talking about?")

She was simply a knockout. She did awesome and was a stand-out with some classic Katie moves and moments. Some people watch her and think she is hamming it up. But if you know Katie, you realize that she is not performing with the audience in mind at all, she is totally in the moment, she is pretending she is a princess, imagining that she is a star ballerina...

At the end, all the performers come out on stage and bow. Katie's class all stood in a row and the girls were supposed to bow together. Katie decides instead that she is going to do this long fancy lingering curtsy, that leaves her kneeling center stage with this gigantic smile. It was priceless. Something tells me this is the first of many performances I am going to be attending.

Great things come in 3's

I can't remember where I heard it, but somewhere I once picked-up the zen-notion that great things come in sets of three. This past week has been brutal at work with a lot of pending stress. Also, the kids have been sick, Jen's been sick, I've been sick, and worst of all... our pool heater just hasn't seemed to be getting the water warm enough! Sheesh!

Well, this morning I stayed home to help out Jen as she was running a fever last night. Then all in about the matter of an hour the following happened:

- Jen felt better
- The pool was all of a sudden 84 degrees
- My work issue got solved

Woohoo.

So we went for our first real swim of the summer. The kids were so stoaked and excited that they were litterally squealing in my ears so bad that it hurt. Katie hasn't lost a step (or should I say a stroke) in her water abilities. Andy (who was initially cowering on the doormat, finished by repeatedly jumping from the steps into my arms. Was really fun, can't wait for more...

Oh yea, we also finally made the plunge (no pun intended) on getting Satellite HD service! Thanks Jen! Tomorrow I'm going to have 30 channels of crystal clear HD programming, another 200 standard channels, amd a new HD DVR... Im so excited I think I might squeal myself!

2 Day

Another camping trip this weekend. We are getting to know Cuyamaca pretty well at this point and we got to reserve the best site(s) in the park. We were a bit surprised to find that the site we picked had a ton of poision oak as well as a giant hill of fire ants! This made for some interesting 'danger management' around the site but we managed to survive.

We were also very lucky to have our friends the Loys come with us. Both familes were battling a lot of sick kid stuff (colds, fevers, bad tummies) so we agreed we need to make another trip when everyone is healthy. Here is a pic from one of the nature walks.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at Katie's school (apparently...)

It's been pretty actrion packed over there lately. Yesterday was a special day as well, and all the dads were invited to a special "Dad's Day" session. They told us to bring 'water play clothes'... When you read something like that, you wonder what hey have planned. I was thinking it was going to be some kind of water balloon toss or something... oh no. It was a full blown 5-kiddie-pool + sprinkler water fest! Luckily I wore my trunks. Within seconds I found Katie pulling me into the middle of the fray and I was soaked. Good fun.

Legos from Long-ago

Went up to SB this weekend to spend some quick time with mom and pop. While I was there, I raided the attic for my old Lego collection. We have a laundry basket full of them, must be nearly 10,000 legos. As soon as I got home we busted them out and started making stuff on the living room floor.

Man these things bring back some fond memories. I used to spend a LOT of time making stuff, mostly spaceships and castles with intricate fantasies attached. I found myself playing with the Legos (and not the kids) after about five minutes of digging in. Great stuff, great toy. Thanks mom for saving this, we are going to get a lot out of it. (At least I will!)