Christmas card outtakes

Our yearly look at Christmas Card Outtakes. We started out trying to make our Christmas card at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum ... wanted to do something with stars. We just didn't end up with the photo we wanted. So, Cory next tried putting peanut butter on the boy's cheeks to get the dogs to kiss them. Well, that worked a little too well! They got their poochie smootchies all right! We ended up with Cory taking a pretty normal but beautiful Santa hat photo.

Shocker's 3v3 Tournament

Players from the Shockers played in a 3v3 tournament the first week of December. They had four games, and it came down to the last one to determine whether they would advance to the championship game in their age bracket. They played their hardest but came up short. Check out the cool jerseys!

Chuy's Parade

Every year a local restaurant Chuy's has a parade near Thanksgiving to get gifts for the Operation Blue Santa program. We hadn't been in a couple of years, so we braved the few raindrops to go. By chance, we hooked up with the Manceaux's.

The Rock Wall

Brian and Sean brought Logan along on a trip to the rock wall at Southeast Metro Park. This is a really nice park on Highway 71 East, past the airport. Along with the rock wall and regular playscapes, there are soccer and baseball field, hiking and biking trails and more. The boys really enjoyed the wall on this blustery day.

Shockers season-end party

Photos from the end-of-the-season party for the Shockers, Brian's soccer team. We had another fun year, this year, and look forward to next season. It's already time to sign up!

Sean earns his yellow belt

We are so proud of Sean and his effort with Tae Kwon Do. This week he earned his yellow belt. He had to learn a creed, some Korean commands and some structured moves. At the test he broke a board by kicking it, something he didn't know he was going to have to do. We are really please with Master Cha of Flying Tigers, and proud as can be of Sean, his effort, his focus and commitment to Tae Kwon Do.

Rippin' it at the skate park

Instead of a party for his birthday, Brian wanted to take his buddy Logan to the skate park. They had fun and found some guys to help them a little, since it was their first time. Riding, that is, not just to the skate park. They actually did all right and had fun. Then we went to Conan's for pizza ... man, the cook a good pie there.

Brian's 9th birthday

Brian turned 9 on Nov. 3. He's really been wanting a skateboard, so we got him one, even though we had told him he couldn't have one until he was 10. He's pretty coordinated, but it is taking him a while to get the hang of it.

A fear factor Halloween

Halloween was fun, as usual. Along with the normal carving of pumpkins, we went to Chandler's Fear Factor Halloween Birthday Party. Yes, that is a real, live worm on Sean's face, which he had to dig out of a bowl of spaghetti, put on his forehead and transport to another bowl. The other game was to put their hands in a box with live mice to pull out beads. Then they went on a hayride to go trick-or-treating.

The Shockers

This year, the boys moved to a bigger field and a bigger team. A couple of guys and the coach of the Raptors joined the Cheetahs and we redubbed the team the Shockers. We had a fun season, though we didn't take that many photos. Melinda made an awesome logo for them.

Caving in the karst

Every year, the area caving club opens up the caves at the Western Oaks Karst preserve so folks can crawl around and learn about them. We live on top of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, and these holes in the limestone are an important part of our environment, and water that goes down these holes end up in Barton Springs Pool, the signature swimming hole of Austin.

Some leftover Rita photos

I didn't shoot many photos when my brother and his family were here, but here are a couple. My lanky nephews who do nothing but play guitar ... and not bad, either. And then my brother's dog trying to get her head in the door, and one of ours trying to exit.

Longhorn Caverns

A couple of weeks ago I took the boys to Longhorn Cavern (photos), a cave just north of Marble Falls. OK, so the photos mostly suck. It was dark and they didn't really want folks to use flash photography. I, of course, was the only one to take photos with available light.

Some day I'm going to get a real camera. One that focues in less the 2.5 seconds in broad daylight.

Anyway, the trip was cool ... some good boy time. There's some neet history to the cave ... it was a dance hall during prohibition. It hosts weddings and different things. I'd like to go back some day for the special tour of its lower caves.

If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes

It's been an interesting month for weather here in Austin. First we were threatened by a hurricane only to get hot, dry weather. Then it climbed well above 100 in last September, breaking records for three or four days in a row. Then, yesterday, fall started. We went from air conditioning to heater in one day.

Spared the worst

It's a beautiful day in Austin today. Rita has brought us nothing but breezy dryness. It looks like Houston was spared the worst, but there is still concern. My brother called the League City Police department and they said damage was light and suggested they could come back. Houston officials are saying no, because fuel is hard to find. They'll leave this afternoon, I'm sure. They are anxious to get back to their belongings, and I don't blame them.

Just talked to Andy and they are all fine, too. He's heading back to his home from Adrienne's mom's house. They had lost power there for about four hours this morning. Andy said he had called a neighbor and they never lost power at his house. He says traffic is heavy but moving on the beltway.

Den 13 hikes the Barton Creek Greenbelt

This past weekend, the Folsoms hosted Den 13 and took us on a hike of the Barton Creek Greenbelt near their Travis Country home. We made some trail mix for the boys and bird feeders for, well, the birds, and then hiked down to Sculpture Falls. A real nice hike, though a little hot.

I really love this area ... I go on trail runs out there when I get the chance, which isn't nearly enough.

After our hike we were treated Italian sodas ... a nice way to end a lovely Saturday afternoon.

Kidventure day at SHCC

We had a special day at church in late August ... it was Kidventure Day, when the kids take over the big, boring adult church and tell them how to really worship the Lord.

Brian was in the choir and Dad was in the New Testament Rewind play, where we told the hold New Testament in about 25 minutes. It was pretty funny.

Grandpa comes to visit

Grandpa Ted came to visit in late August to spend some time with the boys. And how did they treat him? They confined him to their pirate prison, tried to gang-tackle him in the living room and made him walk the plank into the pool in the back yard. Ungrateful grandkids!

;)

Palmetto State Park and Luling

We made a day trip to Palmetto State Park (link to park | link to gallery) near Gonzalez, which was quite pretty and a lots of fun. The park is on the San Marcos river, so we got to swim a bit (and took Pickles in! She likes water, but Spot does not.)

Palmetto has a nice group area, though probably not big enough for our Cub Scout pack. Would be a nice family camp though. They have a nice dining hall built by the CCC.

We also stopped in Luling to get a Black Diamond watermelon, which we enjoyed with the Murphys when we got home.

Some late summer catch-up

This is purely a catch-up entry ... A couple of galleries from late summer.

• Here are the boys haveing fun with water in the neighborhood with the Murphys and Cases


• Brian and Sean sold lemonade and cookies to raise money for Shoes for Austin

August Cub Scout events

OK, I know it is September, but I'm finally getting to some late summer stuff. Here are three events from August in Cub Scouts.

• Astronomy night at Pedernales Falls State Park


• Raising the flag on the first day of school at Mills Elementary


• The Cubmobile Derby

Galerie: It's a geek thing

While this isn't a blog about technology, I have to share this somewhere. You might have noticed a change in the photo galleries on the last couple of entries. I had my iMac upgraded to Tiger and Photoshop reinstalled, and I lost my hack of the Photoshop Web Gallery template in the process. That was too laborious anyway, so I went searching for some photo gallery software to work with iPhoto and found Galerie.

You select the album or photos you want in iPhoto and then launch Galerie, set a template and poof -- gallery made. OK, that's pretty cool, but next it also has an ftp program in it to upload the folder of files to your web site.

So, once set the first time, future galleries are a snap. The process from selecting the photos I want to use in iPhoto to publish is about three steps.

Not bad results either: Seaworld | Games of Texas.

Witte Museum

Another adventure on our trip to San Antonio was the Witte Museum.

Sean really liked the mummy and other Egyptian artifacts. And the bugs from the river. And the instruments. I think Brian liked the dramas by the cowboy and vaquero, and the wacko water man puppet show.

They also had a nice exhibit on the Edwards aquifer and saving water in general. And dresses from Fiesta.

We spend a good four hours there and could've spent more.

I also snuck in a couple of shots from the pool at the Crocket Hotel, where we stayed while we were in San Antonio.

Trip to Seaworld San Antonio

During our vacation last week we visited Seaworld San Antonio where we had an absolute ball.

We spent two days there ... the first we spent mostly taking in shows and seeing the exhibits. The sea lion show was a ruckus and we really enjoyed the dolphins and Beluga whales. We caught the Shamu show in the evening, which was nice for us but didn't make very good photos, sorry.

My favorite animal? The Rockhopper penguin.

The second day (with a day in between at the Witte, which I'll write about later) we spend mostly on rides and at the water park. It was really only half a day because we had to come back to Austin.

Like the photo? Compare it with one we took in 2001.

The Games of Texas

With Brian's 2nd place win on the 4x100 Freestyle Relay in the City Championship, he was eligible to go to the Games of Texas in Waco. He was also an alternate in the 25-yard butterfly, so he got to swim that as well.

We left Friday afternoon for a quick trip to Waco where we attended the Opening Ceremonies. The athletes paraded into the stadium, then listened to a couple of speakers and a drum and bugle corp, then watched as the Athletes of the Year lighted the cauldron, followed by a fireworks ceremony.

The swimming events were held at the Waco water park west of town near Lake Waco (I think.) Brian gave it his all on butterfly (video to come I hope) and he met the same time he swam at the City meet. Teo also raced butterfly, and he is also on the freestyle relay team with Max and Sam.

The relay team took 14th and the four of them were just a hoot. Thanks to Kyle and John for coaching them the last couple of weeks.

Swimming on the Dick Nichols Devil Rays

Sean and Brian both swam on the Dick Nichols Devil Rays this year, a City of Austin recreation league. They had four meets during the summer, plus the city championships at the University of Texas. They each swam three events at each meet.

Both boys really made a lot of progress swimming. Brian took on a new distance, the 50-yrd freestyle, and Sean raced in every stroke at some point. Brian's freestyle relay got second place at the city championship and is going to the Games of Texas this coming weekend. He will also swim 25-yard butterfly as an alternate.

Sean was awesome for his first summer on a team. He was excited every day about going to practice and the meets and he gave his best effort each time. We are so proud of him.

The program was Dick Nichols was great. We really loved the coaches and volunteers that make that team possible. It is by far the most popular team in the league ... they had more than 200 swimmers this year. They split it into two teams and they each were still the biggest in the league.

Video from Extreme Room Makeover

I finally fixed my computer so I could edit the video of Sean's Extreme Makeover, Room Edition. Click on the image above to watch the movie. If you need the Quicktime player, you can get it here.

Sean's Extreme Room Makeover

We surprised Sean this summer with an Extreme Makeover of his room. On his last day of Tae Kwon Do camp, he came home to watch a short video that showed the last of his room before we made it over.

Then we set up a toy bus in front of his door so we could shout "Move that bus!" and he could see his new room.

In the two weeks before, we had to tell Sean that the garage was torn up with "Dad's Scouting stuff" and that he couldn't go in there. Brian was in on the deal -- in fact it was his idea -- and he kept the secret well.

The theme of the new room was nature. The biggest change was we bought a used loft bed and painted it white, and then supplied it with some really cute camping bedding. We made a snake hat rack and snack handles for his dresser. We also painted up a knick-knack shelf and some other items in his room to change the color around. We adorned the walls with new posters and some of our own photos from our own family adventures. We finished it off with some new stuffed animals and a bean-bag chair.

Sean really, really loved the idea and he was soooo much fun to watch. I made a video of it, but I'm having trouble with the video stuff on the computer, so I'm still working on it.

UT Rec Sports Soccer Camp

Brian and his buddy Pablo spent a week in early summer at a soccer camp run by the UT Sports Recreation department. The went for half a day for five days, learning lots of skills and having lots of fun.

Bri really enjoys soccer and has a good head for it. We are struggling with what to do in the coming season with him ... whether to stick with a recreational league or to move him to more advanced competition.

Backpacking at Pedernales State Park

The boys and I went on our first backpacking trip 2.5 miles into the wilderness of Pedernales State Park.

The boys carried most of their own stuff ... clothes, eating utensils, blanket and sleeping pad. We started in the heat of the day on a scorcher, and they did fantastic.

Since it was so hot, we took our time going out; it took us about two hours to reach our camp site, more than two miles from the trailhead. I'm so proud of our boys ... they did just great! Sean even took a spill where he scrapped his knee enough to bleed, but he kept at it. Sean really knows how to hike, too! Keep talking and singing and having a good time.

Once we got out to the primitive campgrounds and decided where to pitch our tent, we went for a cool-down swim in the Pedernales River. It was really nice and refreshing. Then we had a wonderful meal of freeze-dried food. (Really, it wasn't too bad!)

The boys didn't have any trouble falling asleep. Me, I was kept awake by the sweltering heat and the raccoons trying to get into my backpack. Eventually I slept, and when we awoke we decided to head into own instead of cooking breakfast. Actually, we were kind of forced into that because I didn't pack enough water to stay.

It only took us an hour and a half to get back to the car, and again Sean had us going the whole time with his own made-up versions of The Hobbit.

Best of all, they said they would do it again, so we'll have to plan our next backpacking trip. A five-miler, anyone?

Cheetahs Spring 2005

Here are all the photos we took of the Cheetahs this year ... there aren't that many. Two games and the end of the year party at GattiTown. It was another fun year!

Pack 61: The USS Lexington

Pack 61 sent about 120 folks on overnight Live Aboard trips to the USS Lexington this year. There were two tours of duty -- one in March and one in May. The boys and I went on the second tour of about 50 folks, and we had an absolute blast.

The staff on the Lexington is top notch. They are such professionals ... and they put on a heck of a program. They host about 480 folks each week ... Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, ROTC, church groups and more, I'm sure. For about $50, you get to tour the ship for two days, three square meals, a couple of excellent programs, the IMAX movie 'Fighter Pilots' and a place to lay your head for the night. You can't beat that!

I really enjoyed the Pearl Harbor exhibit (part of the movie from a couple of years ago was filmed there) and all the different tours. The boys liked seeing the planes, the movie, and just playing in their bunks. And the gift shop, of course! The boys and I got dog tags, which was really cool.

On Sunday, the ship hosted the Harley Riders Group, which spend two hours bringing hundreds of motorcycles up to the flight deck for a photo shoot from a helicopter. I wish I could get a copy of that!

So, I took a bunch of photos, as did Sayeed, our unofficial Den 7 photographer. See if you can spot the photo of him taking a photo of me and vice versa!

Brian, Sean and I also went to the Texas State Aquarium, which was also cool.

Catching up: Pack 61 Graduation Campout

Pack 61 had the Graduation Campout on April 30 with a theme of Extreme Scout Makeover. The boys transformed from one rank to another with the help of the Webelos and the parents shouting "Move that bus!" Sean helped dad start a fire and Brian ran amuck with the boys of Den 7. The campfire that night was fun, the weather was grand and we all had fun.

Catching up: Pack 61 Father/Son cake bake

I didn't get that many photos out of the Pack 61 Father/Son Cake Bake, but it was a ton of fun and we did raise something like $1,100 for the pack. Brian made a cake full of scout spirit, and Sean's was full of his own buggy senses.

Catching up: Pickles ferments

Pickles the deaf Rat Terrier is fitting into the family just fine. She has gained weight and seems to be a healthy, loving dog. She's real curious about water and seems to enjoy a bath. Having both of the dogs begging to come in and our convinced us to put in a doggie door!

Catching up: The Grassapillar

Brian had to make a caterpillar for a class project, so we made it out of dirt, grass seed and a nylon. It was lots of fun watching it grow and his teacher thought it was a hoot. It was the first time anyone had done it, which kind of surprised me.

Catching up: The Schultz

I wish I could remember when exactly this trip to the Schutlzes was ... but it was more than a month ago, I think. I went to Houston to go to the wake of the mother of a childhood friend, but stopped by Andy's on the way there. You can read more about Olivia here ... I also got to see little Andy and Sara. Pistols, they are.

Catching up: Twin Falls

I have several galleries to post from the last couple of months. I won't do them all at once ... but here are some photos from a trip to Twin Falls with Jeff and his sons Sam and Simon. A bit chilly, it was, but it was nice to see water in Barton Creek.

Den 7 launches their rockets

After Den 7 made their rockets, they of course had to shoot them off. So Tim brought us out to Patton Elementary where we all had a blast .. off. Get it? Blast off!

Anyway, our Official Den Photographer Sayeed took photos (thank you!) and shared them with us all, so I thought I would post them here.

Den 7 builds rockets at Michaels

These are Sayeed's photos of Den 7 building model rockets at Michaels last weekend. I took photos, too, but haven't gotten them out of my camera yet.

UPDATE TO THIS POST: Finally got my photos, too

Governor visits with Den 3 Tigers

We took our Tiger Cub Scout den out to the Veloway today to learn about bike safety, and we were lucky enough to get an extra lesson from the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. As I was riding back to the group after rounding up the rest of the den, I noticed the security detail and the Governor's black SUV. I asked one of the agents if he would mind speaking with the scouts. The agent later brought me over.

"I was going to come talk to you whether you wanted me to or not," the governor joked. He asked where we were from etc., and then came over to talk to the boys. He was really nice, and made sure to shake each of the boy's hands and learn their names. He talked about the importance of wearing a helmet and told us about a story about a slow-speed crash he had on his bike where his head hit the ground hard. He was glad to be wearing a helmet.

Some of the questions the boys asked:

"How much money do you have?" Graham asked. The governor asked if he meant personally or professionally, and Graham said professionally. So the governor quoted the state budget and Graham was really impressed, saying "you are rich!" The governor explained that that was all our money, not just his.

"Were you and Eagle Scout?" Graham (again) asked. Yes, the Governor was an Eagle Scout. And today he had filmed a commercial for the Boy Scouts of America.

"What is your favorite theme," my son Sean asked. It took us a while to figure out if he said thing or theme, but this was just a way for Sean explain his love for all things Egypt. The governor likes dogs, and he has a weiner dog. He doesn't race her (I had to ask!)

We thank the governor for his time! I do think the boys will remember the visit.

Why don't we ever update?

I tend to wait until we have downloaded photos before I update the family blog. I'm not sure why ... we do occaisionally do other interesting things where you would think works would suffice.

Tomorrow we go to my Aunt Dora Jean's in Waco to help celebrate her 80th birthday. My brother is supposed to make it up there, too, and I hope he does. And then I hope he returns to Austin with us ...

Pickles has turned out to be a wonderful, loving, rambunctous little tyke of a dog. SPCA said she was 2 1/2, but she sure seems to have a lot of puppy in here. Wants to play, play, play all the time, until she falls asleep. She's awfully sweet with that, too, starting the night in one of the boys' bed before climbing into ours when we are too asleep to protest.

Introducing .... Pickles!

It all started when we heard about a Chihuahua puppy at the pound. Cory called on it and it wasn't very good with kids, so that was out. But they had a Rat Terrier named Pickles that was not only sweet, but likes other dogs as well. This was at 5 p.m. By 7 p.m., Cory and the boys had come to hijack me from work and we had gone and picked up the poor pooch. She had just been fixed earlier in the day, so she was scared and drugged up and skinny. Now, two weeks later, she is a pistol. She's really loving and sweet and sleeps with the boys. She's also deaf, we think, which is kind of a challenge, though more for us than her, I think, since she can't hear us yelling for or at her.

Sean turns 7 years old

We did carry on the nature theme at Sean's 7th birthday party, but we just had it at the house. We made leather tags and walking sticks and then played leap frog, caught fly crispies on our mouths and ate dirt. OK, dirt cake, which is awfully chocolaty.

Austin Nature and Science Center

Sean's 1st-grade class went to the Austin Nature and Science Center to learn about frogs and other swampy life. We were originally going to have Sean's birthday party here, but the trip ended up being the week before his birthday.

Blue & Gold

Pack 61 held the Blue & Gold Banquet at Small Middle School. At this banquet, the older Cub Scouts cross over to Boy Scouts and all the other boys earn their rank. Each Den decorates tables based on a theme. Brian's Den 7 had architecture, so we made a UT tower. Sean's was medical so they made a medical snow man, xray place mats and surgical glove balloons, along with a blood-pressure check station.

Pinewood Derby Race

Gentleman, start your ... um .... cars. Pack 61 brought it on at the 2005 Pinewood Derby at Summermoon Cafe. We had 94 cars racing four heats. It was a lot of fun.

Marathon Kids

Each year, RunTex and other companies like Whole Foods sponsor something called Marathon Kids, where boys and girls run a marathon, one mile at a time, during school. They start their first mile at the University of Texas campus track and finish at Burger Stadium, a high school track. They usually get to meet Longhorn and Olympic athletes, and this year they got free massages. Sean was a little speedster!

Yu-Gi-Oh Party

OK, there are these collectible cards ... no, TV show ... no, a game ... OK. there's this phenomena called Yu-Gi-Oh that has taken over our children. At first, we thought it was evil, then we watched the show. There are some redeming social values ... about friendship and taking care of each other. And then the kids learn about value of things and bartering ... OK, and cheating and dishonesty and ... So there are a bunch of life lessons to be learned.

Brian and Sean wanted to invite their friends over for a Yu-Gi-Oh party, so it was a wild couple of hours of dueling and pizza eating. The boys had fun and no blood was drawn.

Science fair

For the Science Fair this year, Brian made an electrical circuit and tested various materials to see if they conduct electricity. Sean did his on wearing seatbelts. He took his Pinewood Derby car from last year and put a walnut in it and ran it down a ramp ... with and without a seat belt. Sean placed 2nd in his grade for experiments.

Building Pinewood Derby cars

What a shop! A special thanks to Mike for letting the Den 7 boys come over to use his equipment to start building their Pinewood Derby cars. Mike has everything from band saws, to drill presses to belt sanders and more. And he let us come back to finalize weight and get everything in tip-top shape. The Den 7 dad's really enjoyed the shop, and I think the boys had a little fun, too.

Various ...

Some various shots of dfferent cute things the boys did that didn't fit into any other category. Like ganging up with the dog to choke Dad, playing lacrosse in the steet and striking up the Texas version of a garage band ... in the back of a pickup truck.

Lakeside house is sold

For all my friends that may have shared a cold one under the oak trees at my folks' house or threw sticks to my dog O.D. in Clear Lake, some sad news. The owners of the land where my parents (and I) lived for many years has been sold. It will be developed in some way, my brother Jeff tells me, but I'm not sure how.

Of course, we all kind of lost touch with it after Dad passed away, but Jeff was still collecting rent from the tenants for the owners. It wasn't really in my mind much and I didn't think it would be a big deal if they ever sold it, but I have to admit I'm kind of sad.

I have lots of memories of that place, as do many of my friends and many other people I don't even know. From keg parties to bon fires to fishing to just mowing the grass.

What's kind of funny, is that land has been for sale since we moved there when I was in 6th grade.

I did a quick look for photos of the place, and only found these two small sets: 2001 | 2000.

Christmas 2004

We had a great Christmas this year, of course. We started out by going out to Evergreen Farms in Elgin to get our Christmas tree. It was a beautiful day, clear and brisk, though almost 70 degrees in the sun. It didn't take us too long to find one, but when we got it home and into the stand, there was a definite lean to it. But, it was beautiful, fresh and hardy. It held the ornaments well. We enjoyed trimming it to apple cider and Christmas music. Brian topped the tree. We are so glad we take photos of this, because we have to go back to the Web site each year to check who had hung the angle the year before.

Christmas day was a hoot, of course. Brian says he saw Santa the night before, with Rudolph's red nose glowing through Sean's window (where he was camping out, as he did much of the holiday.) Santa brought them their coveted Yu-Gi-Oh Dueler Disks (this plastic contraption they strap on their wrists to hold their cards.) proving the jolly old elf exists, 'cause Mom and Dad would never spring for those! We did get, um, them, a Game Cube. Dad's enjoying that as well.

Den 3's KXAN Tour

One of Den 3's Go See It's had them visiting the local WB and NBC affiliate KXAN. They were sooo cool there, taking the kids all around, showing them the control room, automated cameras, the weather studio and newsroom. Our tour guide (and I'm so embarrassed that I don't remember her name) was most wonderful. One of our favortite things was seeing the models behind the studio desk. The boys were great and they really liked the trinkets the studio gave out ... bookmarks and a highlighter pens.

Building Graham Cracker houses

Sean had his buddy Cole over to play before the holidays and they had fun making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and milk jugs. Cory learned this little project at Shepherd of the Hills and had so much fun doing it with the kids there she had the boys make them. Not sure which as more fun ... making them or eating them!