Something told me that my trip to the basement this morning wouldn’t end well… 😜
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Slip slidin’ the day away
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:
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Splish-Splash at the Sutro Baths
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!
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Our Life on the Rails
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. 🙂
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Me & Enrique, Down By The Train Yard
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.
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Sweet child o’ mine—literally
“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.
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Pinewood Dervishes 2017
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.
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Superb Owl Sunday
Hope you & your feathered friends enjoyed the big game. 🙂
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Mole Hole Mudslide
Henry can be a touch, well, unenthusiastic when it comes to certain sensations (from trying new foods to getting his hair washed), so we were doubly delighted when—amidst lots of muck & mud—he braved Camp Campbell’s giant “Mole Hole” tube slide over & over. Check out his first, and most questionable, landing. 🙂
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Space Looens!
Recipe:
- Ingredients:
- Two young dudes
- Innumerable cardboard scraps pulled from recycling
- $3 worth of random hot tub tubing
- Assorted memories of James Bond’s “Moonraker”
- One sleepy dad
- One rainy Saturday
- Mix well, serve cheerfully.
While I dozed on Saturday following the march, the dudes took a break from screen time and surprised me by constructing a really elaborate launch pad, jet packs, helmets, communicators, and more for Leo, Tim, and other members of the animal posse. Here’s a little gallery of some space-age cuteness.
I felt so proud & privileged today to march alongside Finn & Hen (and in spirit alongside Mom-O in DC) in the record-setting Women’s March. Numerous marchers smiled & took pics of the sign Hen thought up and made by himself (well, with a little questionable spelling assistance from Finn). I’ll translate: “You fried circus peanut, you’re not going to rule our state, you’ll rule the dungeon. Boo Trump!” :-p
Here are a few shots from the day.
Poor Finn simply wanted to look nice in a portrait.
Henry, diving into the shot, wasn’t having any of that. 🙂
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Drones away—Far away!
Auntie Laura’s Christmas gift just about made a one-way trip to purgatory (i.e. Neighbor Todd’s sketchy yard), but fortunately we were able to rescue it just after I stopped filming. 😬🚁😀
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“We Found A Hat,” El Segundo Edition
Following in Finnster’s footsteps (see previous), Hen reads aloud Jon Klassen’s magnum opus, “We Found A Hat.” 🙂
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Christmas Eve Serenade
After attending a very nice service at the Stone Church at which the lads joined us in singing Silent Night outside, we all enjoyed surveying Christmas lights. Here’s a super short video glimpse:
It’s hard to believe that Christmas 2016 has already come and gone! This year, it was just us four California Nacks, enjoying a quiet, relaxing day at home. Although Henry and Finn tried to wake us up at 3:30 a.m. to open presents, we put them off until the only-slightly-less-unreasonable 5:00 a.m.
Santa and our extended families bestowed many gifts upon the lads this year, especially the much-discussed and eagerly-anticipated big lego sets that each boy was hoping for. Henry got his Lego Airport, and Finn got his Lego Volcano Exploration base station. Certainly not forgotten was Dad-o, who was the happy recipient of a Lego Creator Big Ben set (which he is still constructing!) and a remote control drone! Among other wonderful gifts, I got a terrific Lego Beatles’ Yellow Submarine set. Needless to say we spent a great deal of the day working on our Legos, alternating construction time with dinner, movies, naps, and snacks.
Here’s a gallery of our day.
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Santastic Tidings, 2016
With the help of eyewitness reports from Scout and (I’m just going out on a limb here here) the calligraphic stylings of a certain little elf, the boys have just received this year’s beautiful letter from Santa. Check it out!
See also Santa’s letter from 2013:
Oh, and here’s the boys’ letter to Santa from back when they were just 2 & 3 years old.
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Chase of the Hat, 2016 Edition
Our friend Dave is a bonafide kid-whisperer. The boys fondly remember chasing him endlessly around a park during Dave’s son Cameron’s birthday party years ago, trying to grab & hide his hat. Now that Cameron is a kindergartener, he was able to join in the silliness this past Sunday. Check it out:
Bonus vintage Dave: a lightsaber battle with Finn three years ago: