New Project

A week ago I started a new project; a backyard playset for the children. I found a great deal at Sam's club and thought it would be a weekend project. I was wrong. Some assembly required would be the understatement of the century. What I bought was 200 lbs. of lumber pre-cut and pre-drilled and 50 lbs. of hardware to hold the sticks together and a simple booklet with 100 easy steps to the playset of my children's dreams. Hopefully it'll be ready by next summer:) Here is a picture of what it's supposed to look like when it's finished. Here is what it looks like after the first weekend of working on it. Here is the rest of it.

We're home

We made it back Saturday evening from our enduro drive to the west coast. The trip was great (except for the driving part). We had a great time and were able to see lots of friends and family. Below is a slideshow of our photos from the Disneyland Resort. Clicking on it will take you to the photo album where you can browse more leisurely and see larger pictures. I am working on getting more albums created of our time in San Diego.

Heading West!

Wow, I'm really bad at keeping this site updated. We are off to the west coast. Tomorrow morning we leave (at 4am) for Disneyland. We are driving. The kids should be getting used to this, but I'm sure as soon as they wake up (hopefully at 9 am) they will ask if we're almost to Disneyland. We're hoping to make a lot of progress tomorrow and make it to Tucson so that Sunday will be a pretty easy drive into Anaheim. We're spending 3 days/4 nights in Anaheim then it's down to San Diego where we will be for 8 days. I don't have a laptop so I can't provide updates along the way, but I will take plenty of pictures and video to post once we return.

Climbing Higher

It's been quite some time since I last posted, and yes, the complaining from some of you has finally worked and I'm updating the blog. I have several pictures and some video of the kids that I will post over the next week (if I can figure out the whole technology aspect of it). Here are some pictures from a birthday party last Saturday where the boys tackled a rock wall. There is also a video of each boy climbing the wall. The quality is pretty poor because I had to take it with my cell phone. William is in the blue shirt; Grant is in the white shirt.

Spring Sports

The spring sports season has begun. William decided to play soccer again this spring so I am coaching his team, the Cannonballs. William and Grant both played with the Cannonballs last fall, and I was the assistant coach. This year, I am the head coach, and Grant has left soccer to pursue baseball. He will be playing for the Ironbirds, and he is excited about baseball practice finally starting (tomorrow). We have already had our first soccer game and we lost--actually we don't keep score at this age, but since I am who I am, I keep the unofficial score and the Raptors demolished us 9-4 in 40+ mph winds. I was actually happy that the field was in desperate need of mowing since that kept the impact from the wind somewhat under control. William played great and scored 3 of the team's goals, but we definitely missed having Grant in the game while William was on the bench. Of course the most important thing is that everyone had lots of fun. Claire did have her cast removed, but if you were to see her walking, you would think she still has it on. She limps around a lot and walks very stiff-legged. It's going to take a few more weeks to get her back to walking normal. This week she is suffering from some infection. She has conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) in both eyes and an ear infection. Also, I have changed the settings on the blog, and if you are so inclined, you can now submit a comment at the bottom of each post. The comments are viewable to everyone.

Claire adapting well

It's now been a few weeks since Claire received her special gift from Grant, but she is adapting well. She has been walking on the leg and has even attempted running a few times when she gets excited. As you can see from the picture, she is not slowing down at all. Yes, that is a scooter she is trying to ride with her broken leg. She gets her cast off tomorrow morning. I think we'll all be happy that the sponge baths are over--especially washing her hair with the spray thingy at the kitchen sink. One last thing. If you haven't checked yet, you must take a look at the ACC standings in men's basketball. My beloved Hoos are tied with the Tarheels for 1st in the ACC. It's been an exciting year with more to come hopefully.

My first fracture

We visited the orthopedic clinic at Children's Medical Center this morning. Claire does have a fracture on her lower leg--the fibula to be exact. She will have a cast until Feb. 20, but the doctor claims she can walk with the cast on; she has a little shoe to wear over it to help her walk. The question is will she walk or will she be a drama queen and make me carry her everywhere. Here are some pictures of her with the initial leg splint and now her cast.