I have been lazy, lazy, lazy so I apologize. Sorry for the delay in updates and I will try harder. Right now I am on my way back from St Louis again and got stuck in Detroit because of snow. Very early in the year for this but you play the hand you are dealt. We had a good fall and the kids are really getting into School. We have Parent/Teacher conferences now so that will be our first foray into that. Krissy updated the photos page so you can check that out to see our Star Wars Halloween costumes and some other fall photos.
I was way off on Spartan football this year so I have to take that last post back. They started winning games that they normally lost and turned into a pretty good team this year. Our fate is in our own hands this weekend at Penn State and we will see if we can pull it out. Krissy and I went down for the Purdue game and had a lot of fun with our old friends. I am going to try and make more games next year and I think we will take the kids for their first game then. My hope is we can get a big tailgate of friends and families together so the kids really get into it.
Krissy and I are coming up on 11 years of marriage next week and that is pretty cool. She has been an amazing partner and I am just lucky to have her. We are going to celebrate by heading up to Bay Harbor for a night. We are also going to head out to DC for the Inauguration so that will be a lot of fun. My friend Vince Frillici has been trying to get us out there for awhile and we are going to finally take him up on it. Should be an amazing experience and we are really excited about it.
We are going to try and stay close to home for Xmas this year but still get together with the families. The kids will be taking more Ski lessons then so hopefully we can all take a ski trip later in the winter. I am actually excited for the snow and I am looking forward to spending some more time on the snowboard this year.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and if anyone gets up North for the winter let us know. We would love to get together with you if you can make it and there is just as much to do in the Winter up here as in the summer. Take care…
Summer is winding down in TC now and it really went too fast. The weather still has been great but with the kids heading off to school (started Kindergarten last week), fall is now setting in. Football season has started and it doesn’t look like the Spartans are going to shine. We are still going to try and get down for a game or two if we can and visit with some of our old college friends though.
Kindergarten was a big deal last week and the kids are really liking it so far. They get to ride the bus so that is pretty exciting. They were pretty non-plussed when we took them the first day and barely realized we left. I think it was a bigger deal for Krissy and I. Krissy posted some photos on the Photos page so you can check it out along with some Camping pix we took. We started with the Swim Whisperer (Jim Rupert) a few weeks back and now our kids are swimming like fish. Jack has really taken to it and Maggi is making great strides so I can’t say enough of what Jim does. We think we wasted all our other money on lessons compared to what Jim has done in a few lessons. We will keep on it and just glad the kids are enjoying it. We also have Dance (for maggi), Gymnastics and Soccer (for Jack) starting up now so it will be a busy few months.
Holcomb was able to swing by while he was up in Reed City a few weeks back. I got to hang out with him and it always good to catch up with him. We even got a little late night Wii action in during 40 dog night.
We headed down to Grand Blanc last weekend for Dad and Ann-Marie’s 20th (Kelly and Kristin too) anniversary so we got us, The Muskgeon Kernans, The Alabama Kernans, the Brants, the Heibers and the Rinks together to celebrate. It was great catching up and the kids had a blast with their cousins. We don’t do it enough but we make the most of it when we do. We have another party in Grand Blanc this weekend so we will be back down there and then home for awhile. I am back and forth to St Louis for awhile for a project so Northwest Airlines will love me a little more.
Thanks to everyone who could make a trip this summer up to TC. We had a blast catching up with folks and playing with the families. Hope more people can come up and stay with us even through the winter. Soon enough it will be time to break the snowboard out so we are up for it.
I guess this is turning into the summer of the X-Games at the kernan household. We just joined the Grand Traverse Resort so we have been spending a lot of time swimming and I am teaching the family how to play tennis. The Big news this week is Jack has decided that it is time to ride a bike without training wheels. We have a secret weapon (the magic puppy bike) but that is a story for another time. Long story short:
We tried no training wheels on Sunday. Jack exceeded my expectations but there was no turning involved. He could ride by himself in a straight line right away.
Maggi was doing well but still likes to do things on her own time.
Monday morning comes and Jack goes outside. He proceeds to ride by himself to the neighbor’s house all on his own w/o training wheels. He just jumped on and off he went. Turned and now he doesn’t want to be bothered by training wheels or the annoying help from an overprotective parent. I guess that’s it…wake up, decide you are riding on your own and move on. Parents are not sure how to handle it so we take the path of least resistance.
Meanwhile Maggi has decided bikes are so 1980s. She has taken up the skateboard and will be in the 2010 X-Games. If I get some video this weekend I will post it but she is determined to go it alone and is currently working on her ollie to stale fish grind off the front porch.
Speaking of skateboarding…some know that I haven’t given up my hopes for getting sponsored and having my own deck but I am counting on that happening when I am 50. Nothing would give me more pleasure than dropping in during my middle ages. While I have no desire to be Danny Way I still break the deck out every few weeks and work on my kick flips. I still have the scars and the wounds heal a little slower but the joy never leaves. There is beauty and art in it as you can see here (thx Kottke).
Always remember:
I still owe some comments on the Traverse City Film Festival..I will do that soon. There were some gems there for sure so I will submit some reviews shortly.
This is what we spend all this money on for “education” (click the play button)
This was part of their Pre School Graduation ceremony.
Here are some photos from Graduation
Update on Dad — Some of you know but my father went into the hospital for surgery a few weeks back. Long story short there were some complications and he has been there ever since. He is regaining some of his strength which is good and he is now in a rehab hospital so that he can get strong enough to go home. He is doing what he can for a full recovery so keep him in your thoughts. He has really fought this and is doing very well.
I had another great Mem Day this year in Seattle with some of my friends from high school, college and after. We rented a place in Hansville, WA right on the Puget Sound and got to head into Olympic National Park. We didn’t spend enough time in the park. but it was an amazing place. It has a very diverse ecosystem and is huge. I don’t think it gets enough mention after the big parks, but it well worth the trip. We also got to see Seattle beat the Boston Red Sox in the 9th inning, so it was a mix of things we did this Mem Day. Here are some pix:
An update on Daphne…she is MIA now for the last few days, and we are wondering if maybe a Fox got the eggs. Krissy tells me (I am traveling) that the nest may be empty, so hopefully they just hatched and left. However, it seems like something got to them unfortunately.
I am in NYC again this week continuing my world tour. Hopefully next week I can spend it at home and relax a little. Jack and Maggi graduated from Pre-School today so that was pretty exciting. We are also doing a bunch of landscaping around the house, so that has been our focus lately. It’s coming together, and it will finally end all the remodeling we have been doing over the last few years.
We had so much fun the first time having multiples we decided to do it all over again. Who would have thought after raising kids for 5 years (happy birthday jack and maggi today!) that we would do it all over again.
It wasn’t planned but we sure are excited. Who would have thought we would have 10! Mom is doing fine as you can see by these pictures:
So this is Daphne and she is our latest addition. She wandered up right next to our garage and camped out. We don’t know how long the nest was there before we found it, however she is sitting on 10 eggs right now. We are trying to leave her alone and let her carry to term now. She was so well hidden behind the hose cart that it took me shooting baskets outside to scare her right off the nest. She is literally camped out 1 foot from our garage door. The kids have had a blast checking in on her and hopefully we will have 10 new ducklings later this month. We will keep you posted.
In other goings on we got back from Chicago (new photos on the photo page) last weekend where we had the kids super birthday extravaganza. We had a lot of fun there and spent way too much money (as expected). Our kids are obsessed with escalators so we spent a major portion of our trip scouting out different escalators to ride. Even in our hotel we had to ride 1 floor up every time we were in the lobby and take the elevator from the 2nd floor so we could get an escalator in. Yes we had to stop on 2 on the way down as well. Other highlights (as if escalators aren’t enough) were:
The Sears Tower
The Lego Store
The American Girl Store (to which Jack and I promptly left to go to The Apple Store and play Star Wars Legos)
The Taxi ride ( started with The since the first 3 did) - few cabs were yellow though which disappointed.
The World’s Best Children’s museum - no lie…the Chicago Children’s museum rulez. Had to pull me out. I think we could spend an entire trip to Chicago there.
The Grandparents - We also got to spend some time with my parents going and coming from Chicago which is always a good thing.
The low points:
The drive home on Sunday in the rain - or what I call 6 hours O’ fun.
Jack saying “Another dinosaur! How many more do they have” at the Field Museum. He really just wanted to go back and build some legos.
Scratched DVDS that don’t work when you rent them from Family Video.
We are just winding down from all the Birthday festivities so things will settle a bit. Tonight we celebrated the real birthday with presents and cake/ice cream. They got a whole mess of stuff so now I have to go put it all together. That is if I can get all toys out of the packaging first. I honestly think the toys have more cost in the tape, packaging and ties that bind the toy to the box than the actual toy itself.
Krissy posted some photos from Arizona tonight so you can check them out on the Photos page. We had a great time there on vacation and stayed at a great place. They had a lot of activities for the kids and a fun water slide. It was sunny and 80s all week so we soaked up the sun. Jack also got to hit some golf balls with me so we are working on his skills. The favorite part for the kids was putt putt/go cart/bumper boat place and maggi made a bunch of friends along the way. She even sat with some on the way home on the plane so she loved it. We even drove 4 hours each way up to the Grand Canyon and it was more than worth the trip. I am not sure if the kids got as much out of it but it was something that Krissy and I wanted to do. I think it is something everyone should do in their life because the pictures you see never do the size justice. Next time we may do a trip to the North Rim to check out a little more. The kids were awesome throughout the trip and it was just one of those vacations that we didn’t want to end.
I am back out in NYC this week and they still haven’t gotten much done at Ground Zero. They are working late now to “catch up” but I hope they start figuring out what they are doing. It still seems like they are digging up some dirt, moving it to one place and then just moving it to another later. While I was here I got a chance to go to dinner with Matt Tindall and his girlfriend Deena. We went to Mercer Kitchen and it was awesome to catch up. I may see them next week when I come back if schedules allow.
Matt sent me a note about one of our Fraternity brothers today to a video about his running. His name is Mike Wardian and he has a Guinness record for running with a stroller and formerly had one for his time on a treadmill. He is just an amazing person and a great guy so it is good to see him chasing what he believes in. More on him at http://www.nyrr.org/races/pro/profiles/Wardian.asp and now he has a blog here.
