Double Digits
Welcome to double digits Josh. Let’s see how you got here…
You were so anxious to join us that you got here 2 weeks early
You were so busy talking that you waited until you were 15 months to begin walking
Disney at almost 2
You’ve always been a ham
You are always smiling
You went to Preschool
And kindergarten
You are a water baby and have already learned to snorkel
Skiing has become one of your passions
and so is traveling
You have even learned to surf.
Whatever your hopes and dreams we know you will get there! Happy Birthday dude!!
Living the Dream – Jack Style
When your kids grow up playing sports, everyone has an opinion. They need to play on this team or that one. They need to have this one coach. You need to meet these people or those. All focused on one goal, making the high school team. We sweated through the choices, took turns coaching and bringing snacks to games and tournaments and drove our turns in the car pool. And now for Jack the time is here. And his first season is going great. Are they undefeated? No. Has he had a great game every time he has played? No. But this team, these team mates, this school, these coaches, our friends the parents. This is what he’s been waiting for. GO KNIGHTS!!
Santa was good to us…
… hope he was good to you as well.
Photowalk 2011
On October 1st I participated in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk, specifically the one at Chicago’s Navy Pier. At the end of the walk each walker is asked to submit their best/favorite picture to be considered for the photo to represent that location in the contest for all the photowalks worldwide. Here is the photo I submitted
Guess what? Mine was picked for our walk 
It Starts Now
3 1/2 years ago I started this blog as a way for friends and family to follow along on Jack’s People to People adventure. Well J.D. just left for his interview to be a part of next summer’s delegation. Good luck J.D. We know you will knock ‘em dead.
Photoshop World 2011 Vegas
Can’t wait for PSW to start! I learned so much last time, can’t wait to see what’s in store this time!
Photomatix Pro plus Topaz Adjust
Ok so Photoshop is wonderful and yes I know that many people have switched to processing their HDR photos directly in Photoshop, but I really like Photomatix Pro for the first step.
First the three raw pictures
Next here is what the picture looked like after just the Photomatix processing.
Next I ran Topaz Adjust filters over it using 2 different presents, each on their own layer and adjusted their opacity.
Finally I used layers to add a mat and a frame
The Infamous Sign
Jack was 2. Matt was 31 + 2. Jack’s favorite mode of transport was riding around on top of dad’s shoulders. When we would go under something with a low clearance you would hear Jack say “dunk” and they would both duck to avoid the obstacle… Except… This one time where no one said “dunk” and Matt ran Jack smack into this sign. What did Jack say? “you forgot the dunk!!!”
Of course nowadays Matt can’t even lift Jack up that high…
Above the clouds
We were lined up at the end of the runway waiting for clearance to take off. I looked over at Jack, who is a giant compared to the little boy who sat between us on the airplane plane so
long ago. I called to Jack ” don’t forget to push the button to make the plane go up” and he laughed. I don’t know if he remembers believing that pushing the button on the armrest would make the plane go up or if he has just heard the story so many times but either way he laughed. And that first flight? He rode as a lap child, now he barely fits in the seat.
Some Pictures Need More
I am a water baby through and through. Love the water love the beach love it all. Used to spend a lot of money on those disposable underwater cameras that suck. Haven’t quite made the leap to buy a waterproof housing for my Canon. Enter the Olympus underwater digital camera. Not my favorite camera in the world on land but it does pretty well under water. But the trick to good underwater pictures? Getting rid of the blue haze. Enter Photoshop.
Before:
After:
Some pictures don’t need much
In Iowa City over the weekend, where they have a project going on throughout the city where artists have designed giant books, I took this picture of one of my favorite books of all time.
Before:
The colors and lighting are both good. But a bigger than life book, it needs a little larger than life color I think.
After:
Think I will go find my copy and get reading…
Momma’s Boys
I am the momma of boys. Dirty rough and tumble boys. They don’t wear pink, they never liked dolls. They love mud and dirt and adventure and being scared. But in today’s world and in today’s classrooms, there isn’t a lot of room for old fashioned boys. Everyone is afraid of violence and bullying, and while I am against those things, sometimes my boys need to just be boys. They need to battle and fight an dominate and run a scream. It can be tough to find just the right environement for that to happen but amazingly enough; here where we live, it exists.
Belagarth is an organization of young people who reenact different battle types from Medieval times with foam covered weapons. Some are fancy – some are plain.
Don’t have one? They will rent you one for a dollar. They play outside in parks. They pick teams. And then they fight. TO THE DEATH – How do you kn ow someone is dead? Their sword is on top of their head.
And its on the honor system – you have to be truthful – If you get hit – you die – no fussing. What more could a boy ask for on a warm sunny spring afternoon.
Day 8 pic
After a busy day on the Na Pali Coast – we had the pool all to ourselves
The lesson I learned…
…from my parents in Hawaii. If you scroll down to the post about the end of the road, you can see a comment from my dad about life lessons. Once upon a time I learned a life lesson about traveling. You see my family was in a store on Maui. I think it was in Lahina. And my parents say a really cool sculpture of a whale in a piece of coral mounted on a piece of lava rock. As they walked around the store they just kept coming back to that pieve. Debating the price, how they would get it home. And ultimately put it down and walked away. Fast forward to a couple of days later and they were on a pay phone (you see kids we used to pay to use phones at airports that were mounted on walls) back to the gallery to make arrangements to purchase the whale and have it shipped home. They realized that they should have bought it while they were there becasue while they thought they would see similar pieces all over the island, nothing they saw lived up to the piece they almost let get away.
Now fast forward 30 years and we are planning for this trip. We looked at all the websites and ultimately decided on our adventures, dropping the cruise up the Na Pali coast figuring between budget and time, it wouldn’t matter if we missed it. But when we got here I thought to myself, we are going to regret it if we leave that on the table so we booked it. What an amazing trip. We saw
Humpback whales
Hawaiian spinner dolphins
and Green sea turtles
plus the coast itself
We also snorkeled in the shadow of cliffs that rose 1000 ft straight up out of the water – amazing.
And somehow I don’t think I could have called the catamaran company from the airport and had them ship it to Iowa.
Day 7 Pic of the Day
Tunnels Beach, Kauai
The End of the Road
The plan was a simple one. Take the highway that wraps around the island to the end of the road – where there is a beach with a reputation for great snorkeling. Got up early – check. Breakfast at Eggbert’s on the way – yummy check. Wind around the island to the northern side – check. Drive through the stream and across the one lane bridges – double check. And then the sign. Due to high surf – there was no snorkeling at Ke-e beach when we got there. Hmmm. Now what. So we did what we so often have to do. Backed up on e step and tried another option. We went back to the last beach before the end of the road. Parked our car and ventured out. Turns out this beach had it all. Surf, wide sandy beach, and when we took a little walk up to the point – beautiful snorkeling. Sometimes a bad outcome is just one step away from a great day. You don’t have to go back to step one and start over – you just have to back up one step and re-evaluate.
Watch that first step
I am not afraid of heights. Not at all. What I am afraid of is edges. Subway platforms, trail edges, stadium balcony edges. Yes it’s completely irrational as all of the good fears are. And yes it drives my family crazy. So what did I book for the vacation? Ziplining. I had never been. Neither had Matt. But I knew the concept; stand on a platform and launch yourself out into mid air… I wasn’t worried about the ride. But wow, forcing myself to that edge of the platform and taking a step off. Not my forte. But if you know Matt and I, you know we recently took a big step, off a giant platform and launched ourself into the abyss. We simply had faith – and jumped. So as I stood at the edge of the platform – I reminded myself that in comparison this was a pretty small jump. Plus my kids would have laughed themselves silly if mom had been too afraid to go. So take a deep breath and hit play – come along for the ride… the ziplining is fine.
Day 5 Pics of the Day
Everyone Sing Along – Everybody gone Surfin… Surfin U.S.A.
Josh got up first – literally first wave he tried he caught and got all the way to his feet.
J.D. was the next up
then Jack
When I Grow Up…
When I grow up I want to be a Hawaiian monk seal. They spend their days swimming in the beautiful water in and around Hawaii. No one cares how much extra weight they carry around their waists ( do they even have waists? ) Ok the being endangered is not a plus but here’s the best part. When they climb out of the water to have a day on a pocket beach here in town, the animal protection people here come along and string a barrier all around them in order that they may have an undisturbed day of peace on the beach. No one needs something to drink, no one bickering or setting up their towel too close. Yep thats what I want to be: a Hawaiian monk seal.
Day 4 Pics of the Day
One for each kid today.
JD
Jack
Josh
Wow What a Window…
When you are growing up and something doesn’t work out as planned, people often say “When God closes a door, he opens a window” And that can be a very tough lesson to learn. Especially when you are on vacation. You don’t want to look for the window, you want to go through the door and go snorkeling. We had planned for 2 full days in Oahu; one to visit Pearl Harbor and one to go snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a protected nature reserve. Its also where I had learned to snorkel with my dad when we came to Hawaii when I was Josh’s age. I REALLY wanted to take the boys there. And then the tsunami came. And yes it was small and caused minimal damage. And yes the inconveniences and stress it’s caused us do not amout to anything when compared to the destruction and devastation and the tragedy in japan. But it closed Hanauma Bay (sound effect – door slamming) I didn’t want to look for the window, I wanted the door! Bang Bang Bang went my head on the door.
But it wouldn’t budge – so we looked for alternatives and found Kailua Bay. An area on the East side of oahu that boasted excellent snorkeling. So we adjusted out plans and went. First – we came through the tunnel onto the East side of the island – and found the most beautiful place.
Then we found an amazing breakfast at a local restaurant (what is that the gentle breeze I felt – almost like a window has been cracked). We pulled in to the parking lot of the place we planned to make arrangements to snorkel with.
But Wait… What’s that… Segway of Hawaii? Oh but they always have age limits that exclude the boys. But still… it never hurts to ask… So while Matt went in and got the lay of the land in terms of snorkeling, I went to the Segway place and inquired about ages. Enter Rick – the owner of the place and one of th nicest people you would ever want to meet.
So it was a mix of good news and bad news. Josh was tall enough, but a little on the light side. But more good news. If he could demonstrate he could handle the segway, we could do it! Wooo Hooo!!!!!!!
I went and got Matt and the boys out of the snorkel shop – after all we could snorkel all over Kauai, but this? This was a one time shot. Feel that now – That was a full force hurricane wind coming though the window. You see, ever since Matt and I went on a segway tour a couple of years ago at Disney – the boys have desperately wanted to go. But everytime, everyplace they always said – they were too young.
We ended up doing a tour that lasted about 2 1.2 hours. We climbed to a lookout point. 
We walked on the beach.
We saw Michelle Pfeiffer’s house. It was awesome. And the boys did great. We all did. And had the best time. An adventure. As a matter of fact an adventure that we wouldn’t have had – were it not for that door slamming in our face.
Day 3 Picture of the Day
Paradise Cove Luau- Jodie’s Choice
Paradie Cove Luau – Matt’s Choice
