Iphone Photo Dump

 

Best picture of Fric and Frac.  Ever.  Not sure if I posted this out here previously, but, hey, the more this picture appears, the better.

The first of the images of Hawaii shirts…..Cpher’s first crazy t-shirt.

Second of the Cpher’s crazy t-shirt.

Matthew’s crazy t-shirt

The Lahaina t-shirt….

My serious Hawaiian swag; nice new watch with Koa wood.  Hawaiian swag and birthday present combined.

Holly, the dog that acts like a cat, sitting on the couch looking outside with Marino.

The second stage of Matthew’s ortho; the expander has created quite a gap between his front teeth as his jaw has expanded.  Now he wears this at night, the contraption near his mouth has posts for rubber bands to attach to and hook on to his appliance in his mouth, pulling his upper jaw forward.

The bright spot of a long trip back to California after getting home from Hawaii…..the taco shop right next to the hotel in Fresno.  Chicken taco and cheese quesadilla heaven

And I had to take the redeye home from Fresno so that I could get back to mid-Michigan in time to take Kevin and two of his friends to this concert!

Kevin’s rabid fascination with prog rock over the last year has been very strange to watch; literally, not less than 9 months ago, he was heading to Chicago to see his pop princess Haley Reinhart.  We’re about as far away from that as we can get; these guys can’t be a day under 65 (ok, the lead singer is, since he’s not Jon Anderson, and yeah, I could write a lot about that…can’t believe that I’m paying good money to see Yes without him).

But, the concert was surprisingly good; they started on time, they played the albums, they took an intermission, and they got it done.  Kevin was happy beyond description, I think he posted on facebook that he was a “puddle of happiness…my life is complete.”

Still think it’s strange that he’s that excited over AARP rockers; Steve Howe looked like the crypt-keeper!

Seats weren’t bad at all…

From the Sports Desk – First Lax Edition

 

The rain stopped; the fields weren’t total mudpits (but they were pretty bad!) – let’s play some lacrosse!

It is so nice to have Fric and Frac on the same team.  And having Fric being the sixth grader on a 5/6 team can lead to some very large differences between the size of the defense and the size of the offense we are facing.

We are a big team; Cpher isn’t the tallest and there is some serious size back there on defense.  Cpher assigned #28 for the season….and played well.  Wish he was a little more active, but certainly knocked a few kids off the ball and held up his end of the deal.

#30 (a typical Cpher number) is assigned to Matthew.  It is nice to have a kid playing on the offensive end of the field; Matthew is playing midfield and is out there with his buddy Greg…they seemed to play well together.  The center on there line looks to be a bit of a ball hog (I don’t think I saw him make a pass)….I had encouraged Matthew beforehand not to feel to obliged to pass the ball often and certainly afterwards he figured that out…

Had one shot on goal, had a pretty decent run upfield with ball.  Ran up and whiffed on really nailing a kid at one point.  Pretty active, a good first game!

Racing into the center here as a face-off starts.  Typical Matthew game; wasn’t afraid to mix it up, always kind of near the ball.  He’s a little disappointed that he dropped the ball while trying to throw while running….something he said he will be working on.

We won, 7-2.  A good start to the season; next game, weather permitting, on Wednesday.

Pictures from Vacations Past

 

Getting ready for Hawaii had me going through and making sure that all of the memory cards were free of data; turned out there were pictures from days gone by on there.  Specifically, July through September 2010.  So, here we go…

Cpher, nearing the last of his soccer days, getting ready to receive a ball at OnGoal.

The camera, or the owner of this camera, confused me for a while.  I realized when I got to the end of the pictures that they are mostly taken by Suzanne, but, there are a few here and there taken by small boys…

Like the last one….and this one…

Most of the pictures are from the trip to California in late August….there are more than a few from Disneyland….

Matthew battling Darth Maul

Christopher taking his turn…..

and Suzanne getting ready to take her patented-pictures-on-Thunder-Mountain

Cpher, looking very Matthew-like to me!

Some great pictures of Matthew on the roller coaster here…

This one made me laugh out loud…

A series of pictures from dinner at Long Beach….that’s the diner out there on the boardwalk…

The boys played on the beach after dinner.

Boys.  Climb.

Some pictures of La Jolla

This one is notable….Kevin is still shorter than me, and Matthew, today, is taller than Cpher is in this photo (I can barely get my chin over Matthew’s head right now).

Matthew, Kevin, and Mom went to Seaworld while Cpher and I went to the zoo….

Love this picture!  A classic showdown!

And lastly some pictures from whale watching.  I think the best of this trip is on video or another camera.  But the seals (or sea lions…I always get confused?) are nice here…

and there are a few good dolphin pictures….

Glad I rescued these photos…..they’ve been missing for a while!

Spring Break Day 14 – Going Home

 

Might be easiest to do a timeline again.  It does take a whole lot of time to get there and to get home…..

All times are Eastern

4 am – On the plane, heading from Kahului to LAX.

The big question at the airport is how TSA will react to Matthew’s new acquisition, the walking stick.  We did not check it (wouldn’t fit in any of the luggage) and think that checking it really wasn’t the best option.  Told Matthew in line to not make any attempts to hide it; figure that if an agent saw it they would pull us aside and tell us before we got all the way up to the scanners.

A couple behind us expresses doubt about it to us; they checked the one they bought.  I figure it’s just like a cane and people bring those onboard all the time.

Cpher notes that one of the signs says “No Clubs”…

Turns out there isn’t a problem; walking stick goes through x-ray machine; nobody says anything.  Fits in overhead on way to LAX; flight attendant puts it in closet for trip to DTW.

The other interesting thing was that Delta lost our seats; in the end they rediscovered them AND moved the two frequent flyer seats up into Economy Comfort so, while an annoyance for a while, it turned out to be a good thing.

9 am – Land at LAX.

1:15 pm – Leave LAX.  Three of us, Fric, Frac, and Dad.  All five of us volunteered but they only needed two, so, Suzanne and Kevin stayed behind.

These two weren’t even awake for take-off.  Zonked.  Cpher woke up after an hour but Matthew slept through almost half the flight.

5:15 pm – Land in DTW.  Surprisingly, realize that Kevin and Suzanne haven’t left LAX yet…they were supposed to be three hours behind but they now have mechanical delays. 

7:30 pm – Arrive home with boys.  Suzanne and Kevin in air but delay has screwed up the plan to take a flight from DTW to Lansing and now they are renting a car (one-way) for $60 when they arrive at 11:30 pm.  I’ll be seeking reimbursement from Delta for this (should be a no brainer, they were going to put the two of them up in a hotel).

11:30 pm – Suzanne and Kevin land

1 am on Wednesday – Suzanne and Kevin arrive home

Spring Break Day 13 – La Perouse

 

Hilton Head had Fiesta Fresh; San Diego has Roberto’s, Las Vegas has the renamed Roberto’s…and Maui has Maui Tacos.

To be fair, Maui and Hilton Head are a step up from Roberto’s.  But we had more than a few meals here and stopped here for a late breakfast as we headed out for the day after checking out of the hotel.

One of the best things is the salsa bar.  the hottest, the habanero up there on the top, is a green salsa (it is hot, but, Suzanne and I aren’t fans of green salsas).

The middle one lists pineapple juice as one of the ingredients…and you can taste that a little too much in the salsa.

The Hula Heat down there was our favorite.  We, by the end of the trip, had taken to mixing 1/3 Habanero and 2/3 Hula Heat into a cup as our preferred salsa of choice.

We had to check out of the Marriott by 10 am; gave them our luggage and we headed out for the day.  Stopped and got breakfast (supermarket doughnuts for the boys, Maui Taco breakfast burritos for Mom and Dad.

After that we headed east along the south coast with the ultimate goal of La Perouse Bay, about as far as as you can go along the Piilani Highway.  This is near the end, just a giant lava flow…

But a stunning bay; Suzanne’s favorite…blue skies and water against black rock.

We could have walked more but didn’t…not really set up for a hike today; many of the shoes were packed up.  But I think we’ll come back here next time (if there is a next time).

Boys.

Boys Plus Two

Boys.  Rock.  Climbing. 

After the stop at La Perouse we headed back to Makena State Park for the last of the beach time.  Everyone in the water here, not enough sun but a lot of fun.  Saw a turtle in the water near us and Cpher found a woman’s sunglasses after she lost them after a big wave. 

We headed back to the hotel, which offers a hospitality room for people who have had to check out but are still on the island waiting for a flight.  Watched Michigan lose to Louisville while the boys were in the pool….they had showers so both Mom and Dad were able to get the sand out and change before the flights home.