On Saturday we had a ball journeying up to Marin County with my folks & the boys to celebrate my cousin Andrea’s wedding. From bagpipes to mariachis, from a cappella Guns & Roses to devouring jars full of Oreos, it was memorable all around. 🙂 Here’s a little gallery from the day.
Henry Seamus put his idle hands to good use Saturday at the Lego store. ☘️😊 (Roll over the image & click the little arrow by the mascot’s fist to see more pics.)
Finn, Hen, and their fellow Green Dragons closed out the season in style last night, playing their 19th (!!) game of the season and their first on the “majors” field. I took the boys to practice at the batting cage beforehand, and it paid off with Hen knocking in an RBI, then scoring a run, and with Finn connecting probably harder than he has all season. Here’s a little gallery and video montage of the game and celebration.
Wow—what a whirlwind last 12 months we’ve had! Here’s a quick compilation of some of Mom-O’s highlights with her dudes—from riding rapids & exploring a goldmine Colorado, to ziplining in Hawaii, to freezing in Yosemite, to plumbing the depths of Death Valley and beyond. The pics are also viewable as a gallery.
The dudes are really looking forward to their impending adventures in Galena with Grandma & Grandpa Nack. In the meantime, the video below is a fun little time capsule of some times with Grandma over the years (automatically created by Google Photos!), and here’s a little gallery of their times together.
As a very young kid, I spent innumerable hours (and gallons of water) playing in the sandbox, where engaged in the rather bizarre ritual of drowning “John Chancellor” (a Fisher-Price figure I named after the then-current anchorman). I also enjoyed taking my Lego armada into the tub for technicolor food coloring battles.
Therefore I’m one happy padre when I see our dudes partaking of the same kinds of fun (well, minus the late Mr. Chancellor), sometimes with the exact same boats! Here’s a little gallery from yesterday’s building & battling. (Note cameo appearances from the little Lego lion & whale Grandma Nack sent at Easter!)
Much like we did in 2015 and then again last year (pics), the boys & I dropped in on Google’s annual Take Your Kids To Work Day. After engaging in some sugar-fueled Greco-Roman beatdowns, the boys checked out an animal exhibit (how ’bout that anteater!), Finn got himself a new hoodie, and Hen scored a giant plush Android. 🙂 Check out a bit of the proceedings:
Bonus throwback: Finn doing his best Dad-O impression at the whiteboard during our 2015 visit:
Our strange world now demands that we speak up clearly in favor of reason & evidence, so today we did. After hand-crafting some signs with Mom-O, the boys joined us & our friends the Hogarties in our local March for Science. Take a peek!
[Side note: Here’s a collection of great signs (and sines & cosines!) seen at marches around the country.]
After stalking Easter eggs & wolfing down their candy contents, the boys headed up to San Francisco with us on Sunday to explore the California Academy of Sciences. Check out a few glimpses of our day:
The Willow Glen Green Dragons cool off after their latest victory 💦⚾️😄🐲
Something told me that my trip to the basement this morning wouldn’t end well… 😜
Before heading over to explore the Sutro Baths, cousin Patrick turned us on to San Francisco’s Esmeralda Park. Check out our high- and low-speed adventures!
What’s the sound of 1,000 little fingers slapping? Watch this vid & see, as the dudes & I circled the infield and high-fived a couple hundred of their fellow Willow Glen Little Leaguers:
On Saturday we drove north to SF to rendezvous with cousin Patrick Loughnane & his wife Jocelyn, then check out the ruins of San Francisco’s historic Sutro Baths. The crazy-gusty wind blew Finn & Margot back to the car, but intrepid Hen led the rest of us down to the caves & along the catwalks among the pools (much to Grandpa Nack’s unease :-p). Check out a few photos from the little adventure, and watch for Patrick’s hair to convey just how gusty things got!
From the redwoods to the Rockies…
From Death Valley to Dubuque…
From the Pacific coast to the shores of Lake Michigan…
…in every season and at every age, we’ve sure had some excellent times riding the rails with our dudes & pals.
Following Sunday’s train show, Old Railroad Man Hen decided he’d really like to print out an exhibit of our photos capturing just some of our adventures. Here’s a sample of the ever-growing set!
Oh, and here are our very oldest & very newest Hen/train pics. 🙂
On Sunday I took rail-crazed Hen to the aptly named Great Train Show in San Jose. Amidst the thousands of creations & vintage items for sale, he found a pair of cars he really loved & bought using his own dough. Here’s a rough video peek into our day:
Afterwards, G-Man—showing his eternal love of organizing things—took the initiative and created a little railroading exhibit on his dresser:
Our big man Finn turns 9 this week (What?! Nine?! Nein!!). Though he’s not fond of being the center of attention, we managed to get him to agree to a small, low-key celebration with two of his best buddies, Colton and Damien. We took everyone out to the Lego Batman movie, then went out for pizza, and home for cake, gifts, and a sleepover.
Finn also did an excellent job of art-directing and helping to construct his custom birthday cake: chocolate cake, frosted with Nutella, filled with more Nutella and banana slices, and ringed with cookie straws. A good, sugar- and nerf battle-fueled time was had by all. Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.
“Ohhhh!!” said Hen, cackling as he saw this bit of silliness I whipped up, “Get those off the screen & put them in my mouth!!” That kid has never met a carbohydrate he didn’t like, so it was fun to make him this tasty morsel.
This year the lads took a much more active hand in crafting their Pinewood Derby cars, applying hacksaws, a Dremel, paint, and glue to shape their hot rides (which ran much faster this year than last!). Here’s a little gallery showing the construction, plus a video from the day.
Hope you & your feathered friends enjoyed the big game. 🙂
