Unlike on holidays past (when we’ve ventured to Yosemite, Hearst Castle, sand dunes, and elsewhere), this year we elected to stay close to home & to Mr. Seamus. Happily, though, we were able to brush aside the constant rain & put our cabin fever at bay.
Following our feast (augmented by Finn & Hen’s cookie-making skills), my cousin Andrea & her husband and kids came down from Marin to camp near Santa Cruz. We were able to meet up on Friday for ice cream (again, rain be damned!), and on Saturday we again bundled up, this time to see the Irish whomp Stanford!
As we get ready to celebrate Seamus’s first birthday, Google Photos happened to whip up a fun little retrospective of some moments we’ve shared with our young employee of the month since he joined our fam back in February. I especially love that Google keeps mistaking Finn’s little stuffed buffalo Bert for a very young Seamus. 🥰 Check out the quick tour:
By comparison, here’s the wee man when first we met!
It’s such a pleasure to turn the guys on to good music, and Hen in particular loves to request tunes on our Google Home devices. He’s a fan of classic rock, and earlier this year he & I had a blast seeing Texas legends ZZ Top in concert.
For Halloween we donned their iconic beards, hats, and cheap sunglasses while Mom made us some terrific fuzzy guitars. Kids of course had no idea who we were (“Gandalf the Grey…?”), but tons of parents gave us shout-outs as we trick-or-treated with Hen’s pal Esteban. Check out a gallery of our photos covering the assembly process & the big night.
One fun detail: Henry didn’t want to wear cheap sunglasses at night: “We’re not the Blues Brothers, and it’s not 106 mi. to Chicago.” 😝
Finn’s recently come to love the comedy Superstore, and for Halloween he decided to dress up as clueless manager Glenn, with Seamus joining in as his Employee of the Month!
On Sunday we headed over to a costumed-dog parade (yes, laugh it up, Dad, this is who we are now 😜) in downtown Willow Glen. In the car on the way over, Seamus got cozy with me in the back seat. “Good thing he sat on your lap & not mine,” Finn tells me, “’cause otherwise it would’ve been a violation of company code.” 😛
For science class this year, Henry was charged (hah!) with creating a silicon atom to show off & describe to his class. With some able assistance from crafty Mom-O, here’s what he whipped up. Neat! ⚛️
G-Man & I recently enjoyed a double bonanza of vintage vehicles. While Mom-O, Finn, & Seamus were off exploring on-street chalk art in San Jose, Hen & I headed first to Los Altos to walk among 100+ Corvettes. After getting our fill, we cruised over to San Jose’s History Park to see a huge number of even older cars, ride the trolly, and even operate an old railroad hand car! Hen did his best to channel Uncle Ted’s bus-wrangling skills.
Having heard about it from a lady passing by with her poodles, we headed down to Carmel last weekend to check out the crazy Poodle Day parade—and to let Mr. Seamus (“See-muhs,” according to the MC 🙄😌) strut his stuff on the cat (er, dog) walk. The event drew multi-colored pups & humans from all over the country, and we were treated to a truly rich cast of characters. Check out our photo gallery plus this view of our man in motion:
As it was in ’91, so it was in ’19: Having been treated to an incredibly memorable biplane ride in Minnesota for my 16th birthday, I thought it’d be great to share the experience with Margot & the lads to celebrate my 44th. We were treated to an absolutely perfect day, and after some trepidation (saying his final goodbyes, thanking us for having had a nice life 🙄😌), even Finn joined us in flight. Our pilot Jeff (a retired Air Force tanker flyer) couldn’t have been nicer, putting everyone at ease as he took us aloft in the 80-year-old Stearman.
Bonus for history-loving Hen: the old WWII-era Willys Jeep remains in loyal service, and G-Man got to serve as co-pilot while it pushed the plane back to its hangar, then help tuck it in for the night.
Sure, the dog park is great, but how about meeting some really big amigos—in the form of horses & cows?
A couple of weeks ago we took Mr. Seamus over to our friend Matthias’s farm for some R&R with the animals (livestock, goats, cats—you name it). Check out some photos & videos I captured while Henry tried his hand at driving the four-wheeler.
Then for Labor Day weekend, the whole gang loaded into the Westy and took off to camp near Morro Bay, not far from San Luis Obispo & Hearst Castle. There too our pal got to interact with some horses while eating his fill of their stash of carrots. The rest of us enjoyed exploring town, finding antiques at an art fair in the park, searching vainly for Pop Tarts, and trying to take down a truly intimidating burger. Check out a few shots of the adventure.
What’s got eight arms, eight legs, and four mouths being blown into wide, windy grins? Our fam on jet skis!
During our marvelous Minnesota visit last week, we took advantage of having lakeside digs (more on all that soon!) in order to rent a pair of jet skis for the day. Though no Nacks had ridden before, we were in good hands: Maria & her brothers grew up spending summers on the lake, tearing up the waves, so she got us right in business. Before the lads could drive, she required that they pass “The Brenny Driving Test,” which consisted mainly of jumping off the vehicle & finding one’s way back aboard. From there we were off to the races, sandbar, and more.
After a couple of hours of relatively sedate motoring (in which we’d focused on not killing anyone), Maria got a little restless and asked to take the controls. “And that,” as the boys would quote a comedy bit saying,”is when the day went from good to great.” Turns out we’d had no idea what the machines are capable of, and as you can see in the video below, Maria delighted in (safely) scaring the wits out of each of us! Not pictured: her getting extra rowdy with Dad-O aboard, launching him into the lake—and then subsequently launching off both riders!
Check out our photo gallery (including delightfully wind-swept hair!), and click below to get a taste of the action.
They say it takes a village to raise a child—or in our case, to photograph one. 😌
Following our trip to Colorado, Finn & Hen set out on their first unaccompanied trip to visit Grandma & Grandpa Nack. Armed with iPads, flip phones, and what proved to be a truly ungodly number of in-flight cookies (thanks, kindly flight attendants!), they got through the process without a hitch. After landing, highlights of the trip included:
Visiting the Botanical Gardens with my folks.
Meeting up with lots & lots of cousins at Aunt Judy & Uncle Bruce’s house where they celebrated Henry’s 10th birthday & enjoyed a cake from Katie. Aunt Judy fell in love with Hen, we’re told, and cousin Matt observed, “That Finn is one cool dude.” ☺️
Riding on the milk route with Uncle Ted (9 hours for Finn, starting around 3am!) and on the Alpine Slide (a birthday treat for Hen while Finn caught up on lost sleep!).
Cruising down the Galena pool’s slide dozens & dozens of times.
Cuddling with “James,” the little stuffed pooch Grandma thoughtfully gave to Seamus-missing Finn.
…and no doubt a bunch more I’m forgetting! (The lads are once again spending time away from us as I write this, so I’ll have to ask for additions once they return from camp.)
Thanks to my folks & fam for showing them such a good time, and for cousins Jill, Amy, and Sarah for pooling their photos with my mom’s. Here’s a little gallery of the goings-on.
“Invest in experiences, not in things,” they say, and we’ve always regarded the Westy as a catalyst to making great memories (beating the heck out of staying at some random hotel!). Our trip to Legoland delivered on that promise in spades: the campsite Margot found (an out-of-the-way vineyard) happened to feature a young guy named Max who was delighted to show us the old cars he restores & even let Henry drive his ’52 lowrider Chevy!
Check out this gallery of both dudes getting a tour—and in the vid below see Henry getting behind the wheel:
This year’s July 4th was truly one for the history books. Having celebrated his 80th birthday zip lining with Patrick & Charlie, Grandpa Liggett figured what the heck, let’s get the whole fam involved this time. As you can see in our big photo gallery and in the vids below, our trip to Leadville’s Top Of The Rockies was a scream—quite literally. Check it out:
Figuring he’d spice things up with some friendly wagering, Finn bet me (some video game tokens vs. a nice drawing of Seamus) that he’d beat me down the lines each time. And sure he enough he was right—until the old man came from behind! Check out this Finn’s-Eye View:
What a different three years makes: when last we took the boys & their cousins whitewater rafting (gallery), ol’ Hen (then not quite age 7) hunkered down in the bottom of the raft, earning the name “The Turtle” as his hat & life preserver pretty well entombed him for the whole ride. But check out a side-by-side of how he looked then (left) vs. during yesterday’s trip (right):
We had a blast zooming along the very full and fast-moving Arkansas River yesterday (128 tons of water flowing by every second!), as you can see in our photo gallery and in the vid below. Patrick & Charlie stepped up to the front this time, forming quite handy human shields while the rest of us paddled from behind. Finn was the model of quietly focused efficiency you’d expect, and Henry gave some good pulls when not being distracted by sunken park benches & whatnot.
Turn up your speakers for the vid & you’ll catch some fun dialog, including Hen’s signature mix of grousing & celebration. 😛💦
Last year I somehow cajoled both dudes into joining me at the park for my CrossFit gym’s Family WOD (i.e. “Workout of the Day”). Although they’d both been pretty psyched out beforehand, they both had a great time.
This year Hen was busy with a trumpet lesson, so Finn accompanied me to the event. We had a ball warming up with a “Pizza Delivery” game that involved trying to knock pads off of others’ hands without dropping one’s own. Afterwards we knocked out several quick rounds of sprints, squats, sit-ups, and push-ups.
Here’s a little gallery captured by friends at the event, along with some first-person vids I recorded while we worked.
“The days are long but the years are short.” One feels that acutely on occasions like Thursday, when Finn received his certificate celebrating his last day (!!) at Willow Glen Elementary while Henry moved on up from fourth grade. Finn was proud to receive the President’s Award for Educational Excellence along with his certificate of biliteracy, while Hen was proud to receive a Sacajawea award for social studies as well as an Achieve 3000 recognition for completing a ton of reading. Way to go, lads!
Here’s a little gallery showing the dudes’ celebrating along with a few of their flashily attired cronies. 😌
Last weekend, after way too many months of drought in our Westy family adventures, we fired up the red gal and journeyed (with Seamus!) down the coast to camp in Big Sur. My friend Jim had booked a campsite just across Highway 1 from a rocky beach, and we had fun making a quick overnight outing of it.
Seamus in particular seems to have had a blast, roughhousing like mad with a fellow Goldendoodle pup (Parker), who outweighed him by a full 20 lbs. He came home a filthy burr-encrusted wreck, but after a thorough hose-down at home he was good as new.
Check out a gallery of our shots as well as an interactive panorama I captured via my drone during the short burst of golden sunshine that preceded sunset.
On Saturday following our marathon Golden Spike visit, Hen & headed down to Ogden hoping to catch the Big Boy ahead of the crowds. We knew that it was due to be on display at 10am, and figuring it was being kept south of town, I hoped to sneak in a little droning overhead. As it happened the engine was already welcoming visitors, so instead of flying we were able to get right up close & personal. Check out our gallery of the Big Boy Up Close.
When we’d finally gotten our fill of big engines (sounds impossible, I know), we started heading south towards Salt Lake City & our evening flight. Hen had previously spotted the Hill Aerospace Museum, so we swung by & spent a couple of hours geeking out among the massive bombers, transports, and fighters. Truth be told, after spending days receiving random train facts from Henry, it was nice for me to return the favor & share some of my aerospace knowledge.
Check out our separate gallery of museum pics. Be on the lookout for tiny Hen appearing “Where’s Waldo”-style by giant landing gear, as well as for the goofball caption he insisted on adding to one pic. 😌
