What’s the next best thing to cuddling up to one’s best pooch all day? How about having him keep one’s toes warm all day?
Finn reports that these custom socks, which I commissioned using a pic from Seamus’s birthday, are the softest in his whole drawer. I must say, the guys make a fetching (hah) pair. 😌
Knowing how much Seamy likes to run around with pals, we loaded up the Westy yesterday & headed to the SF Doodle Romp, a gathering of—you guessed it—all kinds of ‘doodle mixes (goldendoodles, labradoodles, etc.). Our man was in heaven, to the point that he & a few new buddies decided to make a break for the seashore! After a few tense & breathless minutes of chasing, we were able to track him down—a highly emotional moment for Finn that you can see in the gallery from our day.
Following a few months of hard work at their Saturday morning art class, the guys were proud to perform with their puppet creations, complete with hand-painted moving backdrops.
Will Finn’s lions ever get a hold of some tasty gazelle meat, or will they have to subsist on nasty melons forever? Will Henry’s Midwestern boy ever find the right store? You’ll just have to check out our galley (which contains a couple of video recordings of their performances) to find out. 🦁🥰
Happy New Years, gang! I thought I’d share pics from a couple of sparkling nights out we recently enjoyed. First, as is our yearly tradition, we drove through the lights in Vasona Park in nearby Los Gatos, and a few nights later Henry & I cruised the streets of Santa Cruz in style via the New Years Lights Train. I hope you enjoy our galleries:
Hey everyone—Merry Christmas!
We had a ball celebrating our first nativity with the Sea-Moose, hanging around Chez Nack and opening a bunch of terrific gifts before wolfing down the googley-eyed cookie trees we made. Since we’re in Carmel for a couple of days, I’ll keep things brief for now & just pass along our photo gallery to check out.
All the best to your & yours from all of us!
After months of painstaking basement collaboration, the dudes were proud to unveil “Crossing the Rhine, March 1945,” their first big Lego “MoC” (“My Own Creation,” in Lego parlance). Featuring hand-decorated GI’s & Germans, Molotov cocktails, skeletons, and more, the scene is now on display alongside many others until January at the Palo Alto Museum of American Heritage. Check out this gallery to see it up close!
Awaiting Christmas Day loot is a delightful burden, but sometimes one just has to jump the gun (or is it tracks?) a bit. Mom-O found a great little HO-scale engine & cars for Henry, and we surprised him with the gift a bit early so that it could liven up our tree for the next few weeks. Check out this quick tour Hen made to celebrate its inaugural run:
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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!
Check out some memories from the weekend:
As long as we’re reminiscing about Mr. S., let’s compare February to November. 😝🥰🐕
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.” 😛
Here’s our album of photos, including some Seamus-eye views.
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.
Check out our photos plus some videos of the action:
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:
Much like his big bro did last year (see below), Hen stepped up to el micrófono to tell tales of meteorological mayhem. Check it out!
A quick peek behind the scenes:
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.
Check out our photos plus this video montage from the flights:
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.
MareBnB
Posted by John Nack on Saturday, August 31, 2019
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.
