Hockey

Originally uploaded by aprilandrandy

Kes dug out the wooden mallets that we use to eat crab with, handed them to Randy and me and made us sit down and play her own version of hockey. When she learned the word ‘hockey,’ I have no idea.

Really it’s a lot more fun than trying to play her own version of Candy Land which has little to do with moving the pieces and more to do with looking at the cool things on the playing board.

Happy

Originally uploaded by aprilandrandy

An imperfect picture of a perfect moment of joy.

I’m amazed at how the little things can take over one’s life and that can be good or bad. A bad way would be the 20 minutes today that I searched for a piece of paper (which really wasn’t that important) only to find that I’d set my laptop down on top of it.  Grrr… A good way was Kes’ decision to play elephant with her dad by riding his back around the living room and dining room. It wasn’t a fast-moving thrill-ride but she had more fun in those 10 minutes (as long as Randy’s knees could take it) than she did on the several amusement park rides she tried over the summer.

These are the moments I play over and over again my head.

Randy and I tried out our new underwater digital camera (Vivitar ViviCam 6200W) this week while snorkeling at Blackrock at Kaanapali Resort on Maui. After years of wrestling with disposable or even refillable 35mm underwater cameras, it was soooo nice to have the luxury of taking digital photos and video and having an inkling if we got a good shot or not.

We encountered three green sea turtles who couldn’t have cared less about the swarms of snorkelers surrounding them. It was like a little bit of magic being able to swim along side them (keeping our distance because 1) they are endangered and 2) turtles can bite).

I’m loving this camera so far and it seems to be just a good back up digital camera so Randy and I don’t have to fight over the Kodak.

In a cool twist of fate, flickr.com is now allowing pro users to upload short videos. I’m loving it!

Back in the day, Randy had long hair. He was very popular around Easter as everyone wanted him to portray Jesus in their church dramas and musicals. The rest of the year, church people looked at him like, “We really need to get that boy saved.” Funny how that works.

One of his guitar students requested to see pictures of his hair and so I scanned a few to our flickr.com photostream. If I find any more gems, I’ll add them too.

Yeah. I know. Where have I been for the last few months? Well, I started working more hours and it seems to have wreaked havoc with my life’s rhythm. It feels like I’ve blinked my eyes and suddenly went from Christmas to almost St. Patrick’s Day.

I did manage to make a trip out to Seattle to see my family a couple of weeks ago. My sister flew in from Arizona so it was a nice mini-reunion. As I get older, seeing family has become more important, more valued, and more bittersweet. Now that I’m an adult and can really appreciate my family, it’s sad that we all live so far away from each other.

Amazingly enough, I didn’t gain any weight on this trip. It’s a miracle. I discovered The Confectional, a bakery specializing in mini-cheesecakes located in the Pike Place Market. They sell this hot chocolate, I think it was Colombian hot chocolate, which was unbelievable. I only bought a shot of it (yes, it’s that rich), but now I wish I’d indulged more. The cheesecakes are fabulous too.

I’ve posted some pictures on our flickr.com photostream. I didn’t take any pictures of the cheesecakes, but there are some food pictures, some family pictures and a zillion shots of Kes (naturally).

I’ve just posted pictures on our flickr.com photostream. It was great to spend the week of Thanksgiving with Randy’s family. Monday we went with our new nephew-in-law (is that a real term?) Mikey and his new bride our niece Cindy to visit Washington, DC. We went just a few months back with my sister and her family and at that time we felt broiled, but this time, we had to bundle up. The crowds were quite reasonable and the autumn leaves gave the city’s landscape a completely different feel.

One of the highlights was our dinner at Phillip’s Seafood Flagship Restaurant. Although we eat at Phillips in Ocean City, MD every summer during our family vacation, we’d never been to this location and never tried the buffet (we normally order off the menu). The seafood buffet was yummy. The sheer volume of food choices reminded me of the buffets in Las Vegas.

Another little adventure on this trip was our stay in the Marriott Renaissance M Street Hotel. Normally we don’t stay in 4-star hotels as they are just a bit out of our price range, but when we decided to stay overnight in DC, I remembered my beloved William Shatner and his campy Priceline.com commercials. Was I going to be a namby pamby? No! I offered a measly $65 for our one-night’s stay, and it was accepted! The hotel has undergone a multi-million-dollar renovation and it is lovely from the two LG HD LCDs in our suite to the modern bathroom sink and counter top. Ever since watching the movie “Beverly Hills Cop” in the ’80s, I’d always wanted to stay in a hotel that provided the guest bathrobes during their stay. Anyhow, we enjoyed our experience very much.

We’ve been busy and we’ve been sick. Not a great combination. I have managed to upload a few pictures to our flickr.com photostream. Perhaps I’ll have something more to say when the Daquil® kicks in.

Although I haven’t posted any new pictures this week, I have added a new way to look at them if you don’t want to head over to flickr. I’ve added a new page titled “Kes” and have changed the look of “Photos by aprilandrandy” (look on the left side of the home page in the box labeled “Pages”). Now you can click on these pages and pretty quickly scroll through the photos. Nifty, I think.

Yes, yes, yes. More pictures of Kes are on our flickr.com photstream. Honestly, I do other things besides take pictures of our daughter.

Randy is thrilled that football season is upon us. It’s too warm and humid outside for me to think “football.” Shouldn’t the air be crisp and a little chilly? I don’t mind televised football but really, I prefer the NFL Films version of the games. Watching the action in slow-motion, hearing the hits, listening in on play calls is pretty riveting. It makes the drama more personal.

I’ve only ever been to one professional football game and it was back in the day. My sister Raquel somehow got tickets to a home game of the Seattle Seahawks vs. the L.A. Rams. We sat in the nosebleed section of the Kingdome but the whole experience was wonderful (even though the Seahawks lost).

So, I will soon become a football widow but thanks to our DVR, the games won’t take forever for Randy to watch. I’ll work on learning more about the plays and the strategy (hey, I can call “offsides” now) although I still don’t quite get the difference between a strong safety and a full safety. I’m sure someday Kes will be able to explain it all to me.

Last month we were off to the beach for a vacation. We go to Ocean City, MD with Randy’s family for a week every July and his family has been doing this since before Randy was born. If you’re part of this family you can miss getting together at Christmas, you can miss Thanksgiving, but you better have a truly exceptional reason for missing the beach.

Although Randy and I have moved many, many times, going to the beach each summer has been a constant even if we had to fly there from as far away as California. There’s something very special about this annual tradition and now Kes will be a part of it too.

I’ve posted a few pictures on our flickr.com photostream. My favorites are of Kes in the swimming pool — she definitely takes after her dad who was a lifeguard back in the day.