Playin' Pirate with Captain Tyler

For those of you who have had Tyler over to play at your house, you know how much he loves playing dress up with his friends. For those of you who haven't, you might recall that nearly all of Tyler's friends (and cousins his age) are girls. Much to his father's dismay Tyler is often caught being the pretty princess. So, it was with great relief (to me at least) that he returned from his last play group (at cousin Morgan's house) having played Pirate dress-ups which is considerably more manly. Although we don't have nearly as cool of Pirate gear as cousin Clayton with all his Jack Sparrow and Will Turner garb, we were able to put together a pirate outfit that satisfies for now.
All week Tyler would mention pirates and has threatened me with walking the plank if I am not careful. His "ARRRR Matey" is also pretty cute. On Saturday night when his mom was at a relief society conference Tyler insisted we play pirate. He also kept telling me we needed a pirate ship.

And now our story flashes back some 20 odd years ago. One of my most fond memories of spending time with my brother and sisters growing up was making "forts" in our basement and playing "Swiss Family Robinson" for hours on end. I'm not sure how my parents managed to get us to play together so well, but I do remember spending literally days together "living" in our jungle forts.

Back to Saturday night, I recalled my "Swiss Family Robinson" days of yore and built us a pirate ship "fort" with a card table Jamie had borrowed for the scrapbook night she had hosted on Wednesday. The top of the table became the lookout as Tyler and I sailed the seven seas (or at least our living room) looking for sea monsters and treasure. Down below were the barracks where we could rest and exchange pirate tales. Tyler got pretty good at singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's life for me."

Oh ya, Marcus got in on the action as well and I dare you to find a cuter first mate!

Harvest Time

I think I made a similar post last year about this time regarding our family garden as well as the neighborhood garden. So, if you want more information on what a rocking gardener my wife has become feel free to look back in the archives (listed on the right hand side of the blog). This year is much the same, only I think Jamie has canned even more this year.

I believe the count is something like 20+ Quarts of Salso, 40+ pints of Tomatoes, 30+ pints of Green Beans, Several Gallon bags of Corn, 14 Quarts of Peaches and today was scheduled to be a Pear canning day. Jamie is really great about keeping us eating healthy, fresh foods during the harvest season.

One unusual thing this year is Jamie's Marigolds. Each year she plants marigolds around the garden because the smell is supposed to ward off bugs (or something like that). This year she planted the marigolds from seed (last year I think she bought little starter plants). Well, those Marigolds have grown to be six feet tall!!! Its crazy, they didn't even start to bloom at all until they were over four feet tall. Quite the power flowers.

Oh yeah, for those who don't get to see our goofy Tyler very often, here is a quick video clip of Tyler with a gigantic Zucchini (sp?)

Marcus Being Marcus

For those of you who aren't baseball fans there is a player for the Boston Red Sox, Manny Ramirez, whose antics have earned him quite a reputation. Now when he acts up people in Boston mostly shrug it off and say that it is just "Manny being Manny."

What does this have to do with our family? Besides our love of baseball, we also have a little troublemaker and these videos are of "Marcus being Marcus." Fortunately, his antics are absolutely adorable and we LOVE when he acts up the way he is in these videos.

By the way, the only digital videos we have come from our little camera so that is why the clips I post aren't all that high quality. I hope you enjoy them anyway. The first one is definately my favorite. The other two were a minute or two too late. He was being really funny for them, but the camera missed most of the action. However, the first one caught little Marcus in full head shake.

Best Friends & Brothers Too

Last night Tyler woke up with a bad dream and was a little shaken. We sat together for a few minutes and I asked him "Who is your Best Friend?" I was thinking he would say I was, afterall I was the one asking. Instead he said "Little Marcus." How sweet is that!

Our two boys can definately be a handful at times, but they are developing a very special bond as well. I hope that they can have the closeness that I felt with my older brother when I was growing up. Added to that the fact they are so much closer in age and I get really excited for the adventures they will have together.

Here are a few pictures of our boys hanging out together.

Lunch in the Clouds and a Day Together in Chicago

If any of you are planning a trip to Chicago in the near future, Jamie and I would recommend having lunch at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock center.

Thanks to my cousin Sarah we learned about this fantastic place to eat and get a great view of the city and lake Michigan. We saw the dinner menu and its very pricey so we recommend sticking with lunch (which is more reasonable).

Jamie and I really felt like high rollers eating at such a fancy establishment. I guess its good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time.

We followed up lunch with a walk over to the Navy Pier where we rented bikes and spent some time biking around and enjoying one of Lake Michigan's beaches. Jamie is definately in better biking shape than I am. We pedaled until I thought I would die and she hadn't even broken a sweat yet.

Once that had us good and worn out we went to the Blue Man Group concert. Quite possibly the strangest concert experience you can possibly imagine. It was very entertaining, but Jamie and I walked away wondering what exactly it was we had just experienced.

All in all Chicago was a great vacation for Jamie and I. I am so grateful to mom and dad for watching our boys so we could have this time together.

School's Over...Time to Get in Shape

This blog entry could also be entitled "I'm #101".

With school behind me I knew I wanted to try harder to get back in shape. My friend in the program Marcus Skeem convinced me to sign up for a half marathon race he was planning on running. Well, given that I hadn't run a mile, much less 13.1, I was hesitant but in the end I did sign up. I even tried pretty hard to train.

I had just started to train when my neighbor Kirt Melling invited me to join him in Burley Idaho for the Spudman Triathlon to compete as his runner. So, thinking he would swim and bike I agreed. Turns out he wasn't planning on swimming either...so in the end I did the mile swim (thank goodness it was in a river with a current) and the 10k run for our Spudman team of two. Our goal was to beat 3 hours and we totally killed that with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. My times weren't great, but I felt I did just fine for a guy who doesn't swim and who hadn't tried running in over 3 years.

The Spudman was just the motivation I needed and my training went much better after that for my race (the hobblecreek half marathon). Of course, the morning of August 25th when my alarm went off at 5 am I really felt like bagging the whole idea. I didn't though and fought through the cold morning air.

The race was very crowded and was not a timing chip race. I was a little disappointed because it seemed to take forever just to get to the starting line. Once I got going I did pretty well (fortunately a lot of the race is downhill). I was feeling great until about mile marker 12 and then I could barely move at all. Fortunately, before long there was Jamie, Tyler and little Marcus cheering me on. What an adrenaline boost. I nearly cried, but also found new legs and was able to get to the finish on a good stride.

After I crossed the finish line I saw a young lady handing out medals to everyone. I was pretty excited because I realized that I must have made the top 100. They only give medals to the top 100. Of course, as I stepped up to her she just turned around and left. That night when the official results were posted sure enough I was Mr. 101. Jamie thinks that makes a great nickname.

It feels weird to blog about your own events. I'm much better blogging about Jamie or Tyler or Marcus. However, my time was one I was happy with: 1:36 almost even. It comes out to about a 7:20 pace per mile average.

Okay, the best part of all of this is that between Jamie's triathlon in May and my race in August, Tyler is always talking about wanting to be in a race. Then Jamie started the Family Fitness Challenge and he has seen us exercising more (well Jamie more, me at all) and has really become quite the little exercise fan. We love it. (See video which is mostly because Tyler was so jealous that Marcus had a "computer video" and Tyler didn't).

First Day of Pre-School

I know what you are thinking...its boom or bust with this guy and his blog. Three months of nada then two in one day. I just felt bad having a blog that didn't include our children since they are far more fun in front of a camera than Jamie and I.

Besides today was a monumentous one as Tyler had his first day of preschool. He looked so grown up with his Spiderman backpack and Polo shirt. Unfortunately, the polo shirt soon met its demise because Tyler was given the opportunity to try using scissors for the first time in his life. Once the shirt was ruined, he was given instructions on the proper use of scissors.

Tyler is in a class that is predominatly girls, but that will suit him just fine. Cousin Morgan is in the class and 2 other little girls from our ward are as well. Maybe he will turn into the ladies man his dad never became.

In other news, turns out Marcus is the king of the clap. In another family blog pioneer moment I am attempting to blog my first video. Sorry its sideways, I haven't figured out how to flip it yet. That will be my next feat. For now, you can enjoy how cute little Marcus is with his new found clap. He's growing into one mighty fine Cubs fan.

A Dream Come True

Seeing that Miranda and the California Besaws have caught the blog fever makes me wish I had been better about keeping my blog up. I have tons to blog about from the summer and just never took the time to finish up my Asia Trip blogs, or tell about the races I've done or graduation and the goings on of our children. So, the next series of posts may not necessarily be in any kind of chronological order, but I'll try to put out a few pictures and tell a few stories of the things we did this summer.

Most of you know that last week Jamie took me on a trip to Chicago to fulfill my childhood dream of catching a game at Wrigley. I have to admit I got a tad emotional when I walked into the stadium. I must be wired wrong, but it really meant a lot to me to see the Ivy on the walls, the scoreboard in straight away center and to sing "Take me out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. Jamie surprised me by how much she got into the games and seemed to really support the CUBBIES!

They won the night game 8-2, but blew a lead in the ninth inning of the day game and lost 7-4. Both games were against the Dodgers and were a lot of fun. Jamie even treated me to a Derek Lee Jersey (which she loves to tell about because we couldn't find one in my size until we shopped in the kids section of the Sears across from our hotel). Overall I couldn't have asked for a better fulfillment of my dream to see the Cubs at Wrigley. Especially because I was there with my amazing wife who really is too good to me.