Making memories

Having taken no time off this summer apart from 2 Fridays, since mid-June and the family having been gone much of that time, I wanted to build a few memories together for the whole family.

So, we intentionally built in some time this week.

On Wednesday, I left the office at 3:30 to round up the boys and head to SunSplash, a local water-slide park for $10 Wednesday nights. Although it was a little chilly, it was their first experience at a water slide park. They're ready to go back... :-)

Both especially fell in love with the wave pool.

Brendon chose, as his first ever water slide, one of the wilder solo slides. I knew he was nervous as I looked at his face for the last time before I headed into the darkness of the tube. He has told me to go down first and he would follow. It was a fast dark tube that broke open into a toilet bowl in which you spin around and around, eventually dumping you in several feet of water. When he finally emerged, he was so thrilled with his accomplishment and still scared from the ride that his whole body shook for 15 minutes afterward.

On Thursday, I left the office at noon and we spent the day together as a family. We rode our bikes together at a leisurely pace to the local library, perused the books, came home to rest and then headed out for ice cream. We finished the day with a DVD and popcorn.

On Friday, we headed to the Bay. It was a foggy day in San Francisco (go figure, it normally is) and a little windy as we found our way to the Zoo. Ian was in heaven as we explored the animal areas one by one. His favorite, of course, was the insect zoo. He described each insect to us in detail and informed us about how dangerous it was.

After wandering the zoo for several hours, we set the GPS for Fisherman's Wharf to delve into a mountain of Ghiradelli Square Ice Cream for supper. We attempted to walk off the sugar rush on the wharf and the beach before fighting rush hour traffic back home.

Saturday morning greeted us with sleeping in, pancakes and cartoons.

Time makes all the difference...

"Just don't think about it dad.."

I walked into the kitchen a few moments ago to find my youngest drawing and coloring. It's one of his favorite things to do.

I asked him what he was doing and, after a long pause, got "the look" and he said, "it's a surprise."

My response was a question. "Oh, is it a surprise for me on Fathers' Day?"

Longer pause...

[sigh] "Dad, just don't think about it." [long pause and sigh] "Don't think about if it might be for you or not and then it won't bother you."

After I recovered from my laughter I left him alone.

Eventually he came in and offered me this as a gift.

Choices

When our family finished our Sabbatical time last summer, Kiley and I took some time to talk about what we learned and what changes we might need to put into effect in our family life. 

As I've reviewed some of those commitments recently, I've come to realize that we've slipped away from some of those healthy changes. It's time to step up and re-invest in some of those commitments.

Confession time...one of the hardest ones for me is to make myself more fully available during the "peak" relational times for our family. This means leaving the computer in the bag and not continuing to deal with e-mails and issues during the times of potential peak family time each day. For a techy like me, that's a challenging discipline. :-) And...for a person with my guilt-driven work ethic, it's going to take me a while to just "let it be."

A Vulnerable Moment

I took Nyquil before I went to bed last night because this stupid cold is back again. Normally Nyquil doesn't affect me too strongly. It evidently did last night...

I got up in the night to go to the bathroom (sorry if that's too honest for you, but hey, it happens to us all). 

I woke up 20 minutes later still sitting in the bathroom...

She said "yes!"

14 years ago today at a picnic dinner by a river, I asked her...and she said yes...I'm still in awe...

Next to Jesus, she's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

When she walks into the room, she still makes my heart go into over drive...

Celebration

Got to celebrate Mom's Birthday tonight (aka "grammy"). Her wish was to eat at Leatherby's and have the boys spend the night...let's see, "You mean I get to eat ice cream and be alone with my wife all night for your birthday gift?" I suppose I'll sacrifice...

Too close for comfort?

I've been wondering lately about how our family will do in such close quarters for the next few weeks. You always hear the stories of families who just don't get along when they actually have to spend time together. I guess we'll find out won't we?

Just call me Clark Griswold...



This just makes me laugh...