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:
Category: Videos
The Willow Glen Green Dragons cool off after their latest victory 💦⚾️😄🐲
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A Fistful of Nerf Darts
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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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:
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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. 🙂
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.
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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:
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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:
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Ace of Base Plate
Witness the boys’ joy at receiving my old cache of Lego road plates (which normally cost an arm and a leg), courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa. 🙂
Back in the high-tech hothouse of late-’70s Galena, IL, my mom used to let me draw with melting crayons on paper over a hot plate. As cool (or rather, hot) as that was, I’m happy that creative experiences have evolved, and on Saturday I took the lads up to SF to try their hands at painting in virtual reality. We dropped in on Adobe San Francisco, where a bunch of my old friends and colleagues have been busy helping shape the future of expressivity.
Here’s a quick video plus a gallery from the adventure. (Much more to come, we hope!)
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Hen & Mom-O recently visited our local fire station with the Cub Scouts, learning that the brave folks who protect us don’t get to take holidays off. Inspired by this, they decided to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies & bring them over to say thanks to the guys spending Thanksgiving away from their families.
This proved easier said than done! As we parked in the morning, we joked, “Gee, I hope they don’t have to zoom off on a call right now”—but as we walked up, that’s exactly what they did! When we tried again a couple of hours later, history repeated exactly, and on our third visit (this time around lunch), they were gone entirely. Fortunately the fourth time was the charm, and the appreciative team treated us to a great mini tour. Check it out:
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Finnster growing up
Aww—just a little time capsule of our once-little man, courtesy of Google Photos.
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¡Rocas Ígneas!
I meant to post this last May when Finn & his bilingual amigos dropped some science on the San Jose district staff. As team leader of the group focusing on igneous rocks, Finn was really dedicated to creating a great poster & presentation—to the point that he skipped Take Your Kid To Work Day at Google so that he could ensure they finished the job properly. Here’s a little taste of how things turned out:
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Storytime: “We Found A Hat”
Hot (or maybe cold?) on the heels of seeing Hawaiian turtles, Finn here reads our latest storybook, “We Found A Hat.” He did it for our friend Sam, but I thought you might like it, too. 🙂
Our Henry is a quirky little dude: Sometimes he’s super fearful in cases where Finn would rush in (e.g. snorkeling), but in others the boys’ positions reverse. Here’s an example of the latter, where Hen got right up on stage with Mom-O to learn some hula moves at our Hawaiian luau: