Rantings of an opinionated geek

Great Start

2011-11-28T11:43:00.001-06:00

Why I'm not an Astros fan

2011-11-17T22:14:00.001-06:00

I grew up in Houston. I've lived here most of my life. I haven't wanted to, but that's the case. During that whole time I've been an Astros fan. That is until this year.

The Astros have had plenty of ups and downs. They've gone to the World Series and then plummeted to where they are now. I was fine with them being horrible for a long time, until just recently. Being horrible isn't why I am not a fan of them. Moving to the American League isn't a problem with me. None of the guys on the team are a problem either. I stopped being a fan when they made my son cry.

Let me explain. The Astros were horrible this year. We knew they would be, but we went to games anyways. We took my son and we told him about the players. He really latched onto Hunter Pence and liked him. Then, midway through the year they announced the team was going to be sold and had a buyer. I thought this wasn't so big a deal and could be really good. After all, Drayton Mclain has done a horrible job recently. He fired the general manager that got the team to the World Series and they've gotten worse every year since. In fact we've even sent of all of our best players. Most of the time they've gone to the Phillies, coincidentally where our current general manager came from.

I thought to myself hey, maybe they'll spend some money and improve the team. Instead I watch as they dismantle it. They essentially announce they are giving up for the next few years and building a young team. I think to myself that Hunter Pence, at 28, could be a good veteran to keep around and build the team around, so I'm good with this. Then, with the new owner's approval they proceed to screw it all up. Apparently he wants the budget around 100 million or something else low. With Carlos Lee sucking up 1/5 of that we're looking at a tall order. Do do this they get rid of every good player they have on the team, including Pence. When my son heard about this he stared crying. I swore off the team at that moment. From them on I haven't watched a game or done anything with the team. I started rooting for the Rangers. That worked out a lot better at least.

Moving forward the Astros can win me back. If I see this new owner actually making an effort to be good then it will be a start. Firing the whole management office at the Astros would be a great first step. Doing whatever you have to do to dump Carlos Lee and swearing to never make a mistake like signing a washed up player believing you can make them good again would be a good second step.

Maybe someday the Astros will be worth following. They don't have to be good, but the team should at least be making an effort. If the ownership and management is going to act like they don't care then I don't know why I should either.

Movember

2011-11-01T10:05:00.000-05:00

It's Movember, the monthformerly known as November, which is dedicated to growing moustaches andraising awareness and funds for men's health. I have joined the movement andwill be donating my upper lip to the cause for 30 days. My moustache (Mo) willspark conversations, and no doubt generate some laughs; all in the name ofraising vital awareness and funds for cancers affecting men.
Why am I so passionateabout menâ€™s health?
* 1 in 6 men will be diagnosedwith prostate cancer in their lifetime
* A man is diagnosed withprostate cancer every 2.2 minutes
* 1 in 2 men will be diagnosedwith cancer in their lifetime
* 24% of men are less likelyto go the doctor compared to women
Please support my effortsby making a donation at http://mobro.co/RobertSterner.
You can even write a checkpayable to “Movember Foundation”, reference my name and Registration Number1988196 and send it to: Movember Foundation, PO Box 2726, Venice, CA 90294-2726
If you’d like to find outmore about the type of work you'd be helping to fund by supporting Movember,take a look at the Programs We Fund section on the Movember website: http://us.movember.com/about

Here I am clean shaven. A retarded looking mustache should be coming.

Movember is a registered501 (c)(3) charity, donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

ETBU, Year 10

2011-11-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

We recently went up to Marshall for Kendra's 10 year college reunion. On the way up Levi asked Kendra for his sun glasses. She ended up giving him hers. He thought it was hilarious and we got some pictures.

When we got there we went to a talent show. Levi wasn't as happy about that.

There are lots of oak trees on campus, so Levi took up acorn collecting.

Several of Kendra's friends came up and brought their kids. here's Levi with Peyton, Kendalyn, and Josiah.

Waiting for the parade.

Still waiting

Playing with Josiah and his Sister after the parade.

Oooh, candy.

Group shot of all of Kendra's friends and their kids.

Another shot at the football game later. Levi is being lifted up in the background.

During the football game I was watching the UT game on a portable TV and Levi was bouncing while Kendra caught up with friends. It all worked out pretty well and the weather was great.

Later we went to a pizza plays that had a play room. Levi and Kendalyn played some air hockey.

Then later they ran around some outside the pizza place

The next day we went to Kendra's friend Michelle's house to see her horses.

Levi wasn't so sure. At first I thought he was going to be like his mommy and afraid of horses.

Then he saw Kendalyn riding Snickers.

And Peyton.

And now he wanted to ride.

And he liked it.

On a date.

Brother keeping an eye out.

Then we drove down Stagecoach road. This is an old road in essentially the same shape it was in when stage coaches would drive down it. The road actually wore down and is below ground level. It is of course said to be haunted.

Levi in his cool shirt.

Here he is in the cape Kendra's friend made for him. Super Levi.

Flying to Fall

2011-10-21T11:54:00.000-05:00

A little bit of summer wrap up and then on into fall.

Here's Levi hitting the ball in t-ball.

And a shot of my mom, George, Levi and I on the way out after a game.

I think I've posted before that Levi got some running bands from a Woot Bag of Crap at one point. Here he is wearing them.

In the grocery store angry at the paparazzi.

There was a big event on site at Johnson Space Center this summer and we went with Olivia's family. Here the two of them are together with big grins.

And a hug.

Here's Olivia's family, her dad Jesse, mom Ann and brother William.

Here's the future astronauts earlier that night.

Angry lurker astronaut.

We also went to Moody Gardens to check out the Aquarium and Rainforest pyramids.

Here we are checking out some fish.

An area where you can touch some of the animals like star fish. Levi was not interested.

Shark!

We had just watched Rio and then we see the bad guy from Rio at Moody Gardens.

Being frogs.

A butterfly in the rainforest pyramid.

Trying to get it off.

Checking out the lizards and snakes in their areas.

Learning about rainforest stuff.

Oooh, monkey.

After realizing Levi isn't a fan of the pace of T-Ball we decided to try out soccer this fall. He seems to enjoy it and has a lot of friends on the team.

Good color for him.

What's that, where's Levi? Oh, that's him with his shirt over his head.

For National Night out he got his face painted.

With a blue spider. He chose the color.

They had cool slides.

Kendra took Levi to the mall and he convinced her to get him this cute hat. One night at soccer practice he wore this half the time.

He's also discovered ring pops. Lets just say he's a huge fan.

And he like to show how his tongue changes colors. Of course sometimes he's a bit early.

Playing at home with our neighbor Logan.

Soccer game.

Watching another kid playing in the dirt, in the most difficult way.

Eating cheese balls and watching football. This was a daddy and Levi day.

This is him in the store when he discovered the cheesy balls. We made him carry them around if he wanted them.

Working on some painting. Topless makes life easier. I suppose that would make painting more of a spectator sport depending on the painter.

The weather here has been crazy. We get rain so rarely and its normally so hot I don't think the weather app on Kendra's phone knew how to handle it when it rained and was cool. We checked, it wasn't actually snowing.

Levi has learned to climb on the slide at Chick Fil A and is now the envy of all the smaller kids. Of course that's how he looked at the bigger kids before he learned.

Balloons! Its Ballunar fest time at Johnson Space Center. They have a ton of hot air balloons flying on site and then have events all weekend. Levi was very excited seeing them all during

Straight over my head.

As a final picture check out our new door stop.

If you know who David Crowder*Band is from my previous posts you may have seen the drummer. Kendra and I went to one of their last concerts recently and they had two Bwacks (the drummer's nickname). I think one of their roadies dressed up a little. Also fun during the concert a speaker caught fire and made for an interesting pyro event.

Grand Canyon

2011-10-19T11:14:00.000-05:00

I had a business trip to Phoenix at the beginning of August (a fantastic time to be in such a hot town). After a week of work Kendra flew into town and we went up to the Grand Canyon and spent the weekend.

This is a few from the road around Sedona. Its such a beautiful area. One benefit that Phoenix has is the proximity of some great areas to visit.

Here's some shots from the Grand Canyon. Seeing pictures just doesn't do it justice. The scale is so massive its hard to comprehend. The tree in the foreground here is like 15 feet away. The rock outcropping in the near background is probably half a mile away and the background is probably 3 or more miles away. That's just crazy.

Looking out a window (hence the distortion) at the grand canyon. The top of the rim at its closest point from this picture location is about 8 miles away.

Kendra on an outcropping.

Self portrait.

We got someone to take a shot. The gorge next to Kendra is part of the trail that can be hiked. I would love to hike from rim to rim some day.

Taking a break.

I love how well all the layers show up.

A cave randomly out there. Makes me want to explore more.

Another self shot.

The beginning of the trail from the south rim.

A hotel that is on the rim. We ate lunch at their restaurant.

Another shot of the hotel. Great location.

Here's a shot for scale. This is from the distance. If you look really close you can see the picture below.

This is actually zoomed in on the last picture.

If you look at the red box on this picture that's where the previous picture is zoomed to. Crazy scale.

Living on the edge.

And rocking it.

The Colorado river far down below.

Moving towards sunset. You can see the forest fires in the background making it hazy.

The sunset makes for some great coloring. I love this shot.

More pictures are coming of course.

Swim Lessons

2011-10-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

This summer Levi took swim lessons. It was a great deal that really worked out. Our neighbors had moved to a new house not that long before, but had not yet sold their house. We had been using their pool and just watching out for any problems with the house. Another friend had found someone who could do swim lessons, but needed a site. We asked our neighbors and they were okay with it, so we had lessons next door. It was great.

I can't remember the names of the teachers off hand, but Levi really liked the girl and preferred her over the guy for pretty much the whole 5 day class. Big surprise there. Here's him kicking along. That's his friend Olivia on the side there.

Here's Levi jumping in.

Here's the whole class.

Levi swimming to the side of the pool.

Levi and another little boy, Will, were very similar and kept rough housing and splashing each other.

Here they are all at the deep end.

Here's Levi swimming to his teacher.

In mid air. He definitely perfected the belly flop.

Here they are all lined up to learn how to swim by themselves to the side of the pool so they could learn how to get out.

Not sure if the videos will work, but they do require Quicktime if there is trouble.

Still more to catch up, but I'm on my way.

Summer Wrap up

2011-10-17T15:44:00.000-05:00

Way behind on posts. Time to catch up some.

Here's a shot of Levi with a balloon dragon at a birthday party. It didn't last very long with a rough and tumble boy.

Here's a shot of Hunter Pence, a former Astros player who was Levi's favorite. Levi actually cried when he heard the Astros had traded Pence. I haven't watched a single game, worn my Astros hat or anything since then. As far as I am concerned that team is dead to me. They'll have to earn back my trust and fandom. For now I'm a Rangers fan, which worked out well since they've been awesome this year.

Here's Levi with Mimi and Granddaddy.

Levi wanted a better view.

All together

Big grin

After the game there was a David Crowder*Band concert, one of the main reasons we came to this particular game.

Kendra says I can't grow a beard like David Crowder. Not sure why she's so against it.

Self portrait.

The whole group.

Here we are at Chuy's after dinner one night, I like the self portrait with the shades.

Levi got a new bike that fits him better. He gets to go faster on it, so he likes that.

Here we are riding together.

More posts coming, but it was a busy summer.

Sea World

2011-07-27T13:14:00.058-05:00

Blogger got some pictures out of order and I am too lazy to fix the order.

Funny stuff, a clip of one of the shows.

And another one of the shows.

Family shot inside the park entrance not too long before we left the park.

Levi in the water play area having lots of fun.

Kendalyn playing in the water.

Riding the merry go round.

Peyton, Kendalyn and Levi on the shuttle bus back to the hotel.

The entrance.

The kids at the entrance.

The boys mapping out a plan of attack on the first day.

Checking out the sharks.

Does he look hungry?

It was hot and he didn't nap much, this is a tired face.

Levi didn't want his picture taken, but everyone else was fine.

This was in line for one of the rides Levi could actually do. His first roller coaster.

Cute little pose by Kendalyn.

The ride.

Hoping off after the second pass.

Levi with his mouth full of ice cream.

An Orca.

Showing off.

Levi and one of the mascot things.

Kendalyn with 2 more.

Dolphins begging for fish.

Me, me, me!

An otter during one of the shows.

A sea lion in his office.

Tricks.

That's the new guy on the left.

Look, a killer whale!

Upside down!

Splash!

Penguins swimming around.

Alligators and a finger tip.

Part of the Azul show. Don't sit near this guy.

Levi loved this show.

A beluga whale. Levi really liked these guys.

Dolphin flying.

People getting ready to fly.

And flying.

Kendalyn with one of the performers. She's a synchronized swimmer.

Levi talking to one of the performers.

Oooh a beluga whale!

The only way he'd take a picture with them was sticking his tongue out and of course its kinda blurry.

Watching the killer whale show with his ice cream dippin dots (Thanks Mrs. Trudy.

Trudy and Kendalyn.

Me and Levi.

Before Trudy, Woodrow, Peyton and Kendalyn went back home we met up with Stephanie and her kids at a park. Stephanie is a friend of ours from high school.

One of the few shots of Peyton. Not sure why I didn't end up with more of them.

Stephanie's son Noah.

Kendalyn

The boys of course wandered in to the woods and got some sticks to play with.

The next day our family went back to Sea World one more time. We watched Azul again. Here's that guy you don't want to sit next to.

Here he is, the main guy.

The sea lions enjoying the sun.

I guess that's a happy face.

Aorrwwww.

Salute.

The show.

Elmo sea lion.

The otter showing off his skills.

A walrus!

That is one big mammal.

Levi enjoying more ice cream. This was quite a mess.

As you can tell.

Heading to a ride.

Ready to go.

The exit.

Levi wasn't so agreeable to a photo.

Except with mommy. Later we got the one at the top.

T-Ball and Summer Fun

2011-07-26T11:05:00.022-05:00

Levi has been playing t-ball this year in League City. Here he is heading home with his buddy Stephen behind him.

Here is his team, the Texans, with their coach.

Practice.

More practice.

Lining up to throw the ball into the target.

Batting practice.

In the dugout.

Team meet after the game.

Team banner.

On the field for a game.

Fielding.

My father's day cookie cake.

Levi at bat.

On base.

Random shot of Levi drinking at a wedding. I assume Kendra will talk about the wedding more if she ever posts. I just though the shot was funny, it was sparkling grape juice, but there was also wine. At a nearby table the mom kept getting suspicious that her kids had the wrong type.

Fielding again.

Ready to run bases again.

After the game.

Fourth of July fun.

Watching the fireworks.

In the dugout again.

Levi and his fancy new bat.

Water Play

2011-07-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

Playing in the water in Texas during the summer is always fun. When its as hot as it gets here for as long as it gets that way its the only way to be outside sometimes.

Here's Levi playing in his little pool using a foam bat to splash in the water.

He enjoyed himself.

A lot.

We also took a slide from another pool and put it on this one.

Shoveling some water.

Playing with my old super soaker water gun. That's an old water gun.

Playing with a new sprinkler toy.

Playing with a sprinkler back when we were still allowed to water. After over 100 days of no rain we had quite a drought. Recently its started raining again thankfully.

Playing in the neighbor's pool.

Shot with our water camera. Levi has started diving his head under the water some, which is good to see.

Jumping into the water with Paw Paw.

Will and Nathaniel in the pool.

Reagan swimming with her floaties.

Brooklyn doing the same.

Levi jumping in the water with Paw Paw and Nathaniel hanging out in the water with Will.

Swimming

2011-06-14T09:55:00.000-05:00

Last year we didn't do a lot of swimming with Levi, even though the year before we had taken him to swim lessons. This year we're regretting it, as he isn't doing as well transitioning to the water.

We're getting him back used to it, but he goes crazy when you try to get him to float on his back or be more on his own.

He has started jumping off the side of the pool pretty well.

By the end of the day he was even going under a little after he jumped and not freaking out.

We'll just have to keep going and I'm sure he'll get there.

Kicking!

He is getting better about the kicking, not as much on the paddling with his hands.

Levi taking a break with Granddaddy.

Jump!

Jumping in the deep end with me.

Group shot

Different lighting

Getting tossed into the air. He loved that.

At first he expected to hold our hands when he jumped. Now he will do it on his own.

Now some videos.

All of these shots were taken with our new Kodak Playshoot Zx3 camera. Its waterproof and works really well. I wish we'd had this when we went on our cruise. We were supposed to go on another cruise this summer, but the plans got mixed up, so that's out. We'll just have to find other ways to use it, like playing in the water closer to home.

Also, for anyone who wants pictures to print out you'll just have to wait. I don't upload the pictures to Walgreens immediately and calling to ask for it won't speed up the process.

Easter

2011-06-13T14:18:00.000-05:00

We went over to our friend's house to celebrate Easter a little early. We painted eggs and had a lot of fun.

There were different styles in the painting. Gus was more of a dunk using your hands and get dyed in the process kind of guy.

Evey was delegating and Levi was getting distracted a lot.

Tom was the designated egg holder.

Some finished products.

Some mess.

The day before Easter we had a little egg hunt at our house with Kendra's dad and step mother. We started at our house and then went to a hunt at a nearby church.

Here's Levi checking out a gift he got.

Its a bunch of toy frogs and a carrier for them.

Also a slip and slide.

When hunting he kept opening each egg and inspecting the contents.

Some got hidden in out of the way places.

The new toy has been very popular.

And he had a lot of fun at the egg hunt.

Plus a little time on the playground afterwards.

And some face painting as well.

A dinosaur!

And a picture with the Easter bunny.

Later there was some time for a little bit of baseball.

Levi loves playing baseball.

A hit!

Sitting with Nana and Paw Paw.

Levi's basket from us.

Hunting at Mimi and Granddaddy's house on Easter.

Trying out some of the treats.

Playing a little croquet.

Granddaddy and Mimi with Levi.

Grandpa and Sandra with Levi. Grandpa and Grandma got Levi a sword and shield for Easter. Its been taking away a few times, but he has started doing better with it.

Showing off his new "wep". Been working on teaching him weapon.

Showing him how to hit the shield only.

A picture with Grandma and Grandpa.

With Mimi and Granddaddy.

Me, Clint, Grandma, Sandra, Grandpa, Kendra, Mimi, Levi and Granddaddy.

Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Matt come in late.

Levi had some fun climbing on Grandpa before we wrapped up for the night.

Kendra's coworker Jennifer and her daughter were there as well, but I wasn't sure if they'd want their pictures on here, so I didn't post any.

Fun and Games

2011-06-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

We went to an Astros game in April and they had a mini car show going on outside. There was a green car with a little M&Ms theme going on, so we thought we'd take a picture with Levi, who loves M&Ms.

We also got a shot of the Astros Mickey Mouse.

And here's Levi's new hat. Its pretty cool, though I don't think they ever used it in games.

The field from our seats.

Levi had a great time.

He got to wear his cool new Hunter Pence shirt, who is now his favorite player.

Levi's favorite part of the game, the Taco Bell sauce packet races.

And Hunter Pence.

After the game, Levi is enjoying his sucker.

My favorite author, Patrick Rothfuss, released a new book recently. He had a photo contest a long time back and with the new book decided to do it again. Here are my entries:
Levi loves the new book, but he has a few questions.

Now get back to work on that third book!

Levi also went to a birthday party at Jumping Jungle.

Group picture. It was Levi's friend Brooke's birthday party.

Levi really likes his Woody slipper boots. They are a size too small, but he even sleeps in them.

Kendra's coworker Eric has a little girl named Erica, on the left, who recently turned 1. Levi went to her birthday party too. They had a special pinata that you pull the strands on instead of hitting.

And they also had yummy cupcakes.

For mother's day we went to a restaurant called Big Daddy's Gumbo (I think). We were disappointed in it, but we enjoyed ourselves anyways.

Later we went over to uncle Matt's house to hang out.

Uncle Matt, Mommy and Mimi as taken by Levi.

A better shot (kinda) as taken by Granddaddy.

Watching some TV.

My mom's retirement age birthday (you figure it out) was this year, so we met some people for dinner at La Brisa, Levi's favorite restaurant.

Here's my mom and my step dad George.

And my mom's pretty cake. Her favorite color is purple and Levi kept that in mind when he picked it out.

Our church has a water play day once a year as part of its community building efforts. This year we went and had some good fun. Levi wasn't eager to get wet at first, that resulted in me dumping him in this water. After that he had lots of fun.

For this one he liked me to super man toss him halfway down the slide on his belly.

Here's our friend Will and his son Nathaniel going down another slide.

And Levi with Corey and Aiden having some ice cream.

Natalie and Nathaniel.

Lots of kids out playing on our street now a days. Here's Sadie, Caroline and Barbara from left to right. Caroline and Barbara just moved.

The girls like Levi. They kept trying to take a picture with him, but he kept taking off before that oculd happen.

Another attempt.

Best shot yet.

The dogs weren't sure what was going on.

Levi kept hiding behind the rose bush until he pricked himself.

Levi's school has a small end of year chapel program we went to.

He sat next to one of his buddies that is no longer going to school there.

And they took pictures of each other.

Though Levi didn't want to share the camera.

Still some more pictures coming, but there's another batch.

Exploring

2011-06-06T09:57:00.000-05:00

Since we have a zoo pass we've been going quite a bit. As members we also get to go to the members celebration, where they close the zoo earlier and let members come in.

We got some cotton candy, which was a big hit.

And got to check out some animals, here a very big bunny.

And here's one of the chimpanzees.

Levi really likes this exhibit. Here you can see cotton candy on his face as he grins.

They also had slides set up for the kids. He liked that a lot.

We had to limit how many times we could go.

One of his favorite things in the zoo is the white alligator (not albino) in the reptile house.

Levi had fun learning a little about drills with his Uncle Matt.

For all the worry warts he did have safety glasses on.

This year we went again to the strawberry fields at Froberg's farm.

Levi had lots of fun and we picked a bunch of strawberries.

This year we did some canning of homemade jams, and they are yummy. He just had lots of fun being a big kid and doing stuff himself.

He did a great job only picking the ripe ones.

And posing with mommy.

We had three full buckets when we were done.

I love this shot.

Later in the month we went back to the zoo. As always we stopped off to check on the sea lions.

This time we got Levi to crawl through the tunnel in one of the areas.

He even stopped for a wave.

And got to touch an iguana, I love how his tongue is sticking out.

Another favorite, the komodo dragon.

One of the elephants was moving the hay around to keep it from the others. They went all over the place.

A shot of Levi with one of the statues. I think we got a picture of him next to this a few years ago too.

Couldn't quite get up to the mask.

But someone nearby helped him out.

Playing in the African pygmy village in the zoo.

And the drums.

Saying hi to the chimps again.

And riding the carousel.

After the zoo we walked to a place nearby for lunch and stopped for a Geocache on the way. He liked that.

We had a busy April, there's more pictures to come, but this is all I had time for now. I'm also trying to keep the posts from becoming too huge.

Jumpin' Party

2011-04-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

One of Levi's classmates, Audrey, had a birthday party at Jumping Jungle, a bouncer place near our house. We went and Levi had a lot of fun.

Here's Levi with Wade, one of his classmates, and a coworker's son.

Here I am climbing up ahead of him to go down the slide.

And down we are.

He was doing really well climbing up by himself.

Makes me proud to seem him all rough and tumble.

We made it!

Afterwards there was cake.

And pizza.

And a group picture.

And then really cool parting gifts. Levi loved his glasses and lollypop.

Ro-dey-o Time

2011-04-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

We did our yearly Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo trip on St.Patrick's Day this year.

Levi and Olivia brought along their parents and Olivia's little brother William.

Here's Levi in his cool Shamrock 'n' Roll shirt.

They had a little market the kids can go through and "grow" or "harvest" plants and then sell them for fake money they could use for a treat at the end.

And of course a few cutouts to play with.

Fake sheep for wool.

Fake cows to milk.

Real John Deere equipment to climb.

Then on to the petting zoo. Here feeding a llama, no red pajamas.

Chickens, baby goats and wallabies.

You can get food in a cone to feed the animals. The rake in the background is someone taking care of the food after the animal is done with it.

Olivia and Ann feeding a goat.

Levi petting a baby goat.

And a llama

Some of the food was interesting. Its a pulled port Sunday. That's mashed potatoes on top with gravy.

Fried meatballs. So delicious.

And every year we get a Longhorn picture. This year Olivia joined in.

Hook 'em!

Watching the pig races.

Fried Oreos!

Levi passed out while we were in line for the fried Oreos.

We ate ours anyways.

And he got his when he woke up.

Once again we had a good time.

More pictures coming soon.

Falling Behind Instead of Springing Forward

2011-04-06T15:46:00.000-05:00

Looks like I'm getting behind again on pictures.

Here's a shot of Levi and I at the zoo walking. We were visiting for his friend Olivia's birthday.

Here's the birthday girl.

They had little games to play, like bean bag tossing.

And velcro ball tossing.

And noise makers, which are the blurs in his hands.

And of course safari hats.

And cake

Then there was a carousel ride, which all the kids enjoyed.

Then there was supposed to be giraffe feeding.

But the giraffes weren't feeling it and all left.

So we checked out the Chimps. They walked right up to the window.

Later we checked out the Komodo dragons. Good stuff.

He really likes them.

We have more space at the new place our church is meeting. One benefit of this is more space to play. We have giant parachutes that we're working into the lessons and playing with.

The kids really like it.

On the day before my birthday my favorite author, Patrick Rothfuss, came into town for a book signing. His new book had just came out and I was ready for it.

On one of his tour stops there were few enough people that everyone got to get together and take a funny picture. There were WAY too many for that this time, but we decided to do the funny picture anyways.

Way back when Levi won a contest on Pat's blog. This book that just came out is the one being referred to. There is going to be a new contest with the new book, so I'll have to see if I can get Levi to do some more pictures.

Lots more photos coming. We went to the rodeo, and kendra and I went on a cruise, so there's much to talk about.

Parties, Puppys and an Abominable Snowman

2011-02-11T12:57:00.000-06:00

Our friends Will and Natalie had a birthday party for their little boy Nathaniel turning 1. We all went over and hung out. He's a great little guy and I know he's a huge blessing in their lives.

Here's Nathaniel with Brooklyn. They were having fun playing with a toy that spins around and shoots little cars off it.

It was apparently cell phone time.

There were also kids wandering around with iPhones playing games on them.

Reagan decided Will looked like a jungle gym while he was down playing with Levi and Nathaniel

Levi and Reagan playing with a toy camera.

For Christmas I got a corn dog maker. We got a chance to go over and hang out with Kendra's brother Matt and his wife Jennifer, so we decided to make some corn dogs at the same time. It was pretty good.

This is Levi's buddy Russell, one of Matt's friends. He hangs out with Levi and plays ping pong and air hockey with him. Russell is one of Levi's favorite adults, he plays with him and never has to tell him no or discipline him. Good deal if you can get it.

Levi got to go to build a bear for his birthday. He picked out an abominable snowman from the Rudolph the Reindeer TV special.

He was asked what he wanted to name the guy and he said Blanco. I guess because he's learning his Spanish at school and the snowman is white.

Bathtime at the store.

Blanco is apparently a soccer player.

He really liked him.

We have a bunch of boys on our street around the same age. One of them, Logan, the one in the back seat drivers side, has a power wheel. The boys all went for a ride.

In the back is Levi and Stavro. In the front is Logan and Dmitri.

We also went over to our friends the Ulczynskis house for a visit and dinner. Levi played with Rebecca, who just turned one.

She was doing a better job at sharing than he was.

They had a lot of fun playing in the tunnel.

He did a good job of being gentle with her.

Where's Levi?

Hey, there he is. Of course, playing with a box.

Our church has a Valentines making party for kids and their families to come and make Valentines cards. Here's Levi, in the middle between Grace and Kyler. The moms are Genni, Kendra and Priscilla.

Just for fun I looked up youtube videos of cats meowing one day.

The dogs were very confused.

That wraps up most of the photos I have for now. Hopefully I'll remember to post again before two more months pass.

Birthday Boy

2011-02-09T22:01:00.002-06:00

Today Levi turned three. He got a cool new shirt and a neat Leap Frog Tag Jr. book set from us. He also got special chocolate milk and a cookie at breakfast time.
Tonight we had an impromptu party for Levi at La Brisa, his favorite restaurant. Lots of friends made it even on short notice.
Levis friend Olivia came with her mom, dad and new baby brother William. Our friends David and Jodi came with their girls Brooklyn and Reagan. Will and Natalie came with Nathaniel. Todd and Priscilla came with Kyler and Brianna. Uncle Matt and his friend Russell came. Russell is Levi's ping pong buddy. All the grandparents were there too. We had dinner and then cookie cake. The kids had fun moving around in an open area and talking with each other.
It was a good time and Levi got some neat new things as well. When we got home Levi had a package waiting from Uncle Larry and Aunt Sally. He also got a card from his Grandma and Aunt Janet.
It seems like he had a good day.

I'm using the blogger app on my phone to post this, so its a little different. Definitely less features.

Animals with Evey

2011-02-08T16:07:00.001-06:00

For Christmas we got a Zoo Pass from Nana and Paw Paw. During our holiday vacation time we decided to go to the Zoo and start using the pass. With the pass we can also get in friends, so we invited John, Kristen and Evey to come with us.

Here's Levi checking out some Meercats right after we arrived.

No, that bear isn't dead, I think it just preferred the idea of hibernating to doing anything else.

Evey was trying to hop her way through the crowd with parental assist.

Levi had a little fun in the play area they added in the new African Forest section at the zoo. The African Forest by the way is way over hyped and small. It only has like 3 animal enclosures and wastes a lot of space. I was disappointed.

Levi brought his wagon with him and Evey rode along.

Here's Levi checking out the African Forest brochure while Evey takes a drink.

Oooh, chimpanzees.

The carousel was a big hit. We get half price tickets with the pass, which was cool too.

Evey looks serious because she's busy taking it all in.

I think Levi was busy making noise, hence his expression.

Levi the Lion tamer.

A smile from Kristen and Evey.

Taking a break after a busy morning.

Levi was ready to get going, he was getting rowdy.

But the train ride in Hermann park calmed him down.

At least for a bit.

Self portrait.

Shot assist from the people behind us.

The train!

In the park you can get on the train at various spots. I thought it was funny when this group in the front got on. There was only one row available, so all 5 of them got on. These were not small people.

This last week was Evey's 2nd birthday. She was born almost a year after Levi exactly. For her party there was a petting zoo and pony rides.

Levi was not afraid of the animals. here he is with a baby goat.

And terrorizing some bunnies.

And riding the smaller pony, Soldier Boy.

He did a good job and was an example for some of the other kids that were more worried. He wasn't so sure about the larger pony, Paul, though. I finally told him Paul was taller and had longer legs so he could go faster. That did it. Never mind the fact that the handler was walking the ponies at the same speed.

Here's Evey, Gus and Levi watching the 3 week old goat get some milk.

It was a fun time, and everyone was tired afterward. Another post will be coming soon.

End of Year Blowout

2011-02-07T17:57:00.000-06:00

December was a busy month for our house with lots of grandparents in town. We started out the month by doing some decorating. Levi got his own tree in his room this year, which he loved. Here we are checking out the battery powered LED lights.

And decorating the tree.

Little plastic ornaments for him.

We also did some baking together. Levi loves to help and to use the mixer. Here his is in his fancy apron and not much more. He's our little naked chef. Undies only.

Kendra's company has a great Christmas party each year. We get all dressed up and go out for a fancy dinner. This year was in Galveston and was a casino theme. It was lots of un.

Kendra's mom works for the same company, so we took a picture together.

Some good friends Brian and Ann-Marie also come.

We also hosted a holiday dinner with our small group from church at our house. Here's Reagan playing queen of the mountain on Levi's play set. He's on his way up.

And then down the slide.

Here's the whole group. Seated is Jodi, Reagan, Natalie, Will and Nathaniel. Standing is David, Brooklyn, Levi, Myself (Robert), Kinsey and Kendra.

Here we are cooking again. Clothes this time.

We went to Dickinson's Wonderland of Lights again this year. We went with Levi's Nana and Paw Paw. They got him this fancy light up spinning thing.

He couldn't take his eyes off it.

Here they are together.

And Levi with his mommy and daddy.

And a shot we reproduce every year.

And again with Nana and Paw Paw.

There was also an eclipse this year, so I played with the camera. It was nice and clear to start with.

By the end it was a bit cloudy, so the long exposures got a bit blurred by clouds that moved by.

Levi had lots of fun opening presents. Here he is at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

He got a cool Toy Story 3 book with his name in it that he is reading here.

He had fun hanging out with Grandpa on the recliner.

At our house he got a really cool book from his Uncle Larry and Aunt Sallie. He loves the pop out dinosaur book and we read it relatively often. Dinosaurs are an automatic win, and when they pop out they're even better.

Here he is checking out the front.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Kendra's mom's house. I went to get a soda from the fridge and it slid sideways off the pile of sodas when my hand slipped on the condensation.

Jennifer's pie did not fair well in the ensuing impact. It was still good.

Later we opened presents again. Levi liked the Scentsy stuff, he loves smelling them.

He wanted to help everyone.

The tree was all decorated and loaded up.

Levi got a frog you scrape to make a noise from Uncle Matt and Aunt Jennifer.

This is a great book called The Aliens are Coming.

This is my new awesome corndog maker.

And Levi's new Toy Story 3 Duplos.

He's excited about them.

Later we played with Duplos in the living room.

And took a family shot.

Then a bit more play time after bath.

The next day at home on Christmas our tree was ready to go.

With all sorts of new stuff.

Another dinosaur book. This time with Dinosaur Train, a PBS show.

A new Thomas the train set addition. A crane!

Setting it up with the set.

Later on Nana and Paw Paw came by to open presents.

And watch videos on the phone.

Nana also came over for dinner and Levi showed her his cool new Super Duper Computer from Super Why on PBS.

This was taken as we wrapped up the year at the Dougherty's house for New Years Eve. Levi started out with us and then headed out to party with Mimi and Granddaddy.

2011!

That wraps up 2010, so Happy New Year and I'll catch up more coming up.

Vacation and more

2010-12-07T13:38:00.001-06:00

This is going to be a mega post, so be prepared. I'm covering October and November in a big 100 picture blur.

Here's Levi showing his hook 'em signs. This is more exciting with yesterday's news of our very offensive offensive coordinator resigning. Maybe next year the games will be more fun. Levi is also sporting his tool belt here, looking ready to go repair anything.

Here are Kendra and I all dressed up at a friend of ours' wedding. I'll leave that to Kendra to blog about.

This is a great shot of Levi in a bouncer at one of our church's picnics. He had a lot of fun.

This is a friend's little girl Brooklyn. She doesn't really speak much yet, so here she is signing "cat". She's playing with the Talking Tom application on my phone.

And now begins the Sterner East Coast Tour 2010 pictures. For Thanksgiving this year we went to visit Kendra's family in North Carolina, both our families in Baltimore, and then friends and touristy stuff in Philadelphia.

This is Levi playing in the airport in Nashville. We had a layover and they blessed parents by having a playground.

He got out a lot of energy, which was a good thing.

Once we got to Kendra's grandparent's house in NC Levi discovered he loved their stairs. It wasn't cold there, just cool, but he spent most of his time outside on their steps, much of it without shoes on.

We also got to meet Kendra's new 2nd cousin's, Isabella and Victoria. Her cousin Carolin is their mom.

Levi isn't so sure about those kids. Are they going to eat his Cheetos?

They aren't so sure about him either.

Later, after the girls were napping Levi went out to throw some pine cones in the creek.

He cleared out the yard.

The next day he went sledding with Maw Maw and Granddaddy. Pine needles, a plastic pan and an incline was all he needed for fun.

Here's a good shot of us out on the dock. Levi wasn't so sure about being out over the water though.

At night we watched some of the Christmas specials that were on.

And we even managed to get a group shot where Levi wasn't too grumpy before we left. He didn't like saying goodbye, so sometimes when we left people he just wouldn't say it.

Levi, Aunt Janet and Granny were having fun. Levi kept wanting to control Granny's chair, and Granny wasn't so sure about that idea.

Levi then got to meet another baby, this is Isabel, my 2nd cousin, my cousin Christina's baby.

They chatted on the phone and seemed to do fine together. Eventually he'll have to get used to mommy holding another kid anyways.

Here's Christina watching as Levi extorts money from my Aunt Janet. He had pockets in his pants, and the standard rule is she puts money in if that's the case.

Here he is showing her he has pockets in the back of his jean's too.

I love Levi's look here. He just looks so casual. Much more like an older kid pose here.

Levi adores his cousins Liz and Laura. Here he's showing them his crayons. He really liked seeing them.

Here is Grandpa George, Grandma Lois, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Linda, me, Levi, Laura and Liz.

Levi sure likes them.

While in Baltimore we went to the B&O Railroad Museum. This is a shot inside the roundhouse looking up.

And here's Levi next to one of the steam engines outside.

And an outside shot of the roundhouse. Its a very pretty building.

This room had like a hundred train models. He kept going around saying, "There's a train, there's a train, there's a train". I think he said it for each one.

Of course he found the Thomas trains to play with. Completely ignoring the real thing available to climb on and play with.

There was a huge Lego train setup for the holidays. It was really cool.

We also got to go on a real train ride. That's Aunt Sallie and Uncle Larry, who we stayed with in Baltimore riding in front of Levi and Kendra

And a real conductor punched his ticket. That was probably the highlight of the day for him.

Then there was a model railroad with lots of trains. Best part of that...it was inside a train car.

Here's Levi with Uncle Larry in the top of the caboose.

Climbing down "on his own".

Well thairs your problem!

Levi the train engineer.

This is one of the little hidden things in that big Lego setup. Buzz Lightyear landed at the airport.

Doctor Who! That's a British television show if you don't know.

The portrait while fighting with Levi.

Granny, Isabel and Levi, right before he took off to run around.

Ben, Christina and Isabel.

Some of the kids from Thanksgiving. There were like 36 people there, so it was smaller than normal. They were playing with a baby doll that had moving parts, so Levi really liked it. It actually belonged to the little girl on the right, named Sophia if I remember correctly.

Here's the yearly kids portrait, with all of them together.

And Levi causing disruption.

And Levi hamming it up for our family shot.

One of my cousins, Thomas is a furry. He wears a fur suit for various events, many of them fund raisers. My uncle has a pool table, and Thomas wanted to get a shot of himself playing while dressed in the fur suit. The kids were very intrigued by the outfit.

Levi saw this as double fun. A costume and a pool stick.

Here's my Aunt Doris, my mom, my Aunt Janet, Uncle Larry and in the back Uncle Mel. That's my mom and 4 of her 7 siblings. Uncle Kenny was at his mother in law's Thanksgiving, Aunt Carol doesn't go out for Thanksgiving and Uncle Jimmy lives in Texas.

Here we are at a great park we went to last time we were there in Baltimore.

This shot may seem familiar.

Here's Kendra's family with Levi not wanting his picture taken. This is her cousin Thomas and Uncle Francis in the foreground, then Kendra, Levi, Aunt Janet and Aunt Betty.

Here is Levi, flopped on the ground in protest. Kendra's aunt and uncle have a very nice house with lots of nice things that aren't really setup for a 2 year old. This meant he couldn't run around like he wanted.

This is Levi and my Uncle Bill horsing around. We went there after Kendra's uncle. My Aunt Carol works with children and used to have a day care at her house, so there were lots of toys for him to play with.

Uncle Bill was his favorite toy.

Levi slept in an inflatable bed Uncle Larry had for his granddaughter from a long time ago. It was pink, but we didn't care, it was comfy and so he was happy. Here he is conked out with his pig and the Wocket nearby.

On our last day there Aunt Sallie made some home made play dough for Levi.

They had a lot of fun playing with is while we finished packing up to head to Philadelphia. We had a great time staying with them and wish we could have stayed longer. They are great hosts.

We stayed with Kendra's friend from college, Beth. I leave most of those pictures to Kendra. The big thing for Levi, in addition to having Beth's kids to play with, was Sesame Place. This is a whole theme park aimed at young kids.

He had a ball, even though it was in the 40s outside.

Here's a Snuffalufagus bush.

Our first ride, the merry go round. This horse had some sort of crazy hair dye.

Next was a ride that spins you around and lifts you in the air.

Then a teacup with daddy.

Then an Elmo live show. Levi got a little impatient from sitting still for this.

So we did the big slide about 20 times.

Then back to spin around.

In line with Beth's kids.

And at the big parade. Cookie monster and some holiday dancers.

Telly, Big Bird, Zoe and more dancers.

Snuffaluffagus, Cookie, Zoe and someone else.

The crew all together.

The street sign everyone recognizes.

And a portrait with Elmo and Cookie Monster. I think the green screen is to allow special backgrounds, but they didn't have it setup. I may have to edit it myself.

This is where we stayed in Philadelphia. Its funny that its almost as old as my state.

Fancy.

Some things you have to do in Philly. Cheesesteaks from Pats and Geno's for comparison. We picked Geno's because the bread and amount of cheese was better. The steak had a better flavor at Pats though. We've heard there are better places to go, but we wanted to hit the big names in the short time we were there.

The traditional Love sign shot, with a tree for the season.

Independence hall is being renovated right now. They had huge scaffolding up and then a picture of the building on the scaffolding. It was a bit odd.

Levi was pretty bored by the tour, so we had to tag team him.

Here's a more colorful picture.

The Liberty Bell with a bored Levi. There was a group of about 1 billion Japanese people in front of us. Every person wanted to take a picture of every other person. They would not get out of the way for anyone else to take a shot so we ended up having to wait almost 30 minutes. One of them touched the bell and almost got herself tackled.

Out of the stroller gets a smile.

A little blurry, but all together.

We got half price tickets to the Academy of Natural Sciences, so we went to go see the T-Rex. It was a big hit, except when I tried to feed Levi to it. He didn't like that.

Big guy.

He wouldn't let me stick his head in the mouth, so I did.

They had this cool area where they kids could dig for bones with paleontologist tools. He loved it.

And a treadmill where you could walk and make the dinosaur in the window walk to see how they moved.

They had an area specifically setup for younger kids with various animals to checkout. The bunny was a lot less threatening than a 45 foot long T-Rex.

They also had a life animal exhibit where they showed them to the kids. Here's a chinchilla.

Levi got his own queen size bed in Philly. He had pillows lining the bed on each side to keep him on there if he moved.

When we got home we were back to warm weather again. The Christmas parade for our city was the following weekend and several people were in shorts. I had pants on because I was worried about mosquitoes. How sad is that.

Here's me, Mimi, Levi and Granddaddy.

Levi loved the candy from the parade.

He did get tired from standing so much.

He liked the beads though. And relaxing with Mimi.

The pre-school at our church sang on stage this last weekend too. Levi thought he was the star and took over the microphone. In the second service he wouldn't even share it.

You could hear him really well singing. It was really cute. I'll have to rescale the video I have, its pretty large right now.

That catches us up for now. I'm sure it'll be a little while longer again. Having a 2 year old keeps you moving too much to take as many pictures.

End of the Summer

2010-09-29T15:09:00.001-05:00

Well, its the end of the summer, at least officially, though the temperatures are in the 80s still here this week. Its funny how our highs drop out of the mid to high nineties and everyone celebrates.

A while back we went to Camp Allen for a retreat with our church small group and had a great time. We did a camp fire on one of their lakes and they had a cross across the way. A friend and I both had our cameras trying to get neat shots. I really like this one.

And this one turned out cool as well.

Levi is officially moved into his big boy bed now. The crib is still in the room because its storage space needs cleaned, but he hasn't used it once since his new bed was put in. He has done a great job.

Its football season again and we went to a game this year with Levi. Its not his first game, he went to a high school one as a baby, but this is the first since he's more mobile. It was here in Houston at Reliant Stadium, where the Texans play. It was against Rice.

Texas has a lot of young guys, so its going to be a rough season, but lots of fans showed up regardless. At least this game wasn't much in question. Here's our Longhorn mascot.

Levi in his Hook 'Em shirt.

And some Longhorn stickers. He kept playing with these. By the end of the game they were on our hands.

The band makes some cool shapes. Here's a UT and 2 stars.

A big T for Texas and two smaller UTs.

The Rice band is called the MOB and they don't really march, but they do funny formations and such. Here's an accordion in their band.

Levi and his mommy.

Levi wasn't so keep on the group portrait. The guy behind us though it was a good chance to throw up his horns. The lady though Levi fighting was funny. They were the ones that gave him the stickers on his cheeks that by this point have migrated around.

After the game he was pretty tired. I had to carry him the whole way back to the car and he slept much of it.

Levi's Granddaddy Charlie had a big milestone birthday this year, so after the game we went straight to his party.

Here's his fancy cake.

Levi's I guess cousin (Uncle's wife's brother's son) Matthew was there and they are very close in age. Here they are playing some ping pong.

Two of Levi's favorite people are Kendra's brother Matthew's friends Amy and Bob. Here he is talking to Amy. Bob has two broken feet in the picture due to an error in gravity calculations.

One day after doing some laundry we came into the room to find this:

We've been working on teaching Levi to play catch. He's been doing a pretty good job and he loves doing it. He'll ask to do it a lot of nights. We play in the kitchen, where things are put up enough that he won't break anything, at least nothing expensive, like say my big screen TV.

Here's a great video of him playing

We got a great chance to go onsite at Johnson Space Center to one of the big mockup area's with Levi's friend Olivia and her family. I had been in there a long time ago, but they've added a lot more modules since then, so it was cool.

This is Orion, the vehicle I've been working on that Obama is currently screwing up with all his changes.

A look inside. To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "its only a model"

Here are the three things I spend most of my time on in my life. (Buzz isn't one of them)

Here's the reason Orion had so many problems, Ares.

Here's Olivia with her family inside the Space Station mockup. This is how big the actual station is, with bonus gravity. Olivia didn't want to take a picture.

Levi decided to try to float away, so I had to hold onto him.

Here they are looking down into the Russian section.

They were playing like they were hiding in the Russian sleep area.

I see you!

Here's Levi in the Commander's seat in a Space Shuttle mockup.

Which one of these moves the seat up so I can see out?

Olivia wasn't sure she wanted to climb up into the cockpit.

Kendra was in the pilot seat in case Levi needed any help.

Old school technology with all those buttons. A toddler's dream.

A shot from behind of Olivia in the pilot's seat.

Her daddy, Jesse in the commander's seat.

Where's the guns.

I've gotten to climb in these before, but having worked on the shuttle cockpit in the past I still find it cool.

After all of that we walked over to the Mission Control building.

Holding hands, how cute.

Here's Levi, the flight director, making the tough calls.

This is the Apollo mission control, you may have seen it in the movie Apollo 13.

The red phone was used to call the president. Here Olivia is giving him a piece of her mind.

Levi is telling him to increase NASA's budget.

Here they are watching the space station mission control in real operations. I used to do the software for all of this, and actually helped with the big upgrade of all their systems to modern stuff. Olivia's mom is one of the flight controllers.

Here they are. Right after this Levi managed to wipe out and cut himself, so no group picture for us.

After we calmed down we walked over to the duck pond on campus as JSC.

Checking out the fish and feeding them some.

The ducks want some too.

There are three ponds, they came from all over to get the food. They were flying to beat each other to the food.

Here's some video of them feeding the ducks. They had to hold the food over their heads so the ducks wouldn't steal it.

They had a lot of fun feeding the ducks, and then decided to chase them when the food ran out.

Most of the ducks took off.

We had to go catch the kids before they took off too.

We have a busy fall planned, going all over, even up to North Carolina and Baltimore to visit family. After that we're going to Philadelphia for a few days. It should be a great time and I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures.

More summer fun

2010-08-27T14:13:00.000-05:00

We saw two more concerts in July of this year after the Hawk Nelson one. The first was a band called Seventh Day Slumber. They are a rock band that does praise and worship, general rock and even Spanish songs. They are awesome, and their version of "I Can Only Imagine" puts Mercy Me to shame.

There was another good sized crowd at this concert, though it was a little more diverse because the band does Spanish language music as well. It was an awesome concert and at the end the lead singer gave his personal testimony and story and it was great.

For a while we thought Attic Cat had disappeared, but every once and a while she will show back up and say high to our animals by teasing them and getting them all stirred up. Can you find her here? The dogs did.

Here we are at a very expensive free Astros game.
Kendra's brother Matt, and his wife Jennifer got these great club level tickets for the game, and asked us if we'd like to come. We said that would be great, it would be a good chance to hang out with them. Then, on our way up there my car starts messing up about 5 miles from the stadium. That's about 25 miles from home. Basically I was in the fast lane driving when it basically dropped to first gear speed wise. I managed to get off the freeway safely and get on the side roads. We stopped the car and looked but couldn't see or hear anything major. We drove it over to a Home Depot parking lot nearby at a whopping 10 mph. That was the highest it would go. We called Matt and Jennifer and they came and waited with us for the tow truck and then took us to the game. We thought about driving it home to avoid the tow truck, but at 10 mph it would have taken a LONG time.

Matt and Jennifer were very nice to come get us and then to take us home. They didn't live very close to our house, so this added a lot of driving for them. Of course a few weeks later they moved down to our area, and it would have been much simpler then. My car repair was about $400 with the tow. It needed a new cam sensor, which essentially kept the engine from firing correctly. This in a three month span where I got new tires, a new cam sensor, new window motor and new car battery. My car is pushing it.

Little did we know it, but the game we went to was Oswalt's last to pitch as an Astro. It was also the last time we may ever see Lance Berkman as an Astro. Sad.

The next week there was another concert in Kemah. This time it was a group called Superchick.

It wasn't near as nice weather this time.

It rained before and even during the concert. Loads of fun!

Here's one of the Superchicks.

And the other with their guitarist

The bass and lead guitarists are funny. They make faces while they play. The lead guitarist is really good. He did a solo that rocked.

Here's our self portrait for the night.

The next weekend we had Levi's girlfriend Olivia over. Here he is playing inside Annie and Clarabel, the cars that Thomas the Train pulls.

And here's Olivia.

We also setup the tunnel. They were running through the tunnel, into the train and then back into the tunnel.

Sometimes they even took the balls with them. We were having to hold the tunnel steady so it wouldn't roll off.

Olivia's mommy is pregnant, so she decided on her own to look that way too. I swear, Levi had nothing to do with this, and he better not until he's married.

After a busy weekend Levi decided to put Tyler down for a nap, covering him with a snuggly. Then he took a nap on Tyler.

One of our friends has a little girl with Spina Bifida. They have a fund-raiser bowling thing every year. This year we joined in at the bowling event for Team Brooklyn. Of course due to problems with the space station Brooklyn's dad was busy and they had to move their vacation to the weekend of the bowling. That didn't stop us from coming, and Levi bowled for the first time.

Our friends Natalie and Will came with their little boy Nathaniel and bowled as well.

Here Levi and I return from a triumphant toss of the ball.

And mommy helps Levi take a shot.

This wasn't a good release, but it made it down there.

The little boy next to us had a lot of problems from his condition, and it really made us realize how blessed we are with Levi. We also weren't aware of the variety of problems Spina bifida can cause. Our little buddy Brooklyn has been blessed to be relatively healthy and she does a great job with it all.

Here's Will, Natalie and Nathaniel.

And our family.

And all of us together.

We went to one more game this year and actually got to see the Astros win this time. Plus there was no car repair involved.

This was Levi's first game for quite a while and he liked it.

He liked his free backpack he got too.

But most of all he liked the Taco Bell sauce packet races midway through the game. He couldn't understand why they only did it once and kept asking for them. He still talks about them weeks later.

Rapt attention for the race.

Checking it all out.

Self portrait and one of Levi's patented crazy smiles.

Luckily finally someone hit a home run so the train moved. Levi loved that. The Astros scored lots of runs, so he got to hear the train whistle, but that's not the same as it moving.

Woo Hoo!!

My mom and step dad George go to case lot sales through the military every once and a while and get lots of good deals on stuff. One time they got some steaks cheap. We had them in our freezer because they ran out of space. Just recently we had them over and grilled those steaks up. Levi isn't a beef eater, but the rest of us really enjoyed them.

I'm sure it will be a while again before I post. Time just gets away when you're busy chasing a 2.5 year old.

Summer Fun

2010-07-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

When you're a 30 pound beagle trying to escape because you're in trouble, remember, the cat toy for 12 pound cats won't shield you.
It will in fact hamper your escape and result in your human taking pictures to make fun of you and posting them all over the interwebs.
We've had a lot of rain in the last several weeks. Over 10 inches in 3 days at one point. Levi got to use his rain boots as a result.
Notice the splash. He had lots of fun.
For the fourth of July we went to Webster to watch the fireworks. They put on a good show. We got there a big late, so we decided to sit in a grassy field at a nearby shopping center. It worked out really well.
Here's the whole group, all in our flag tees from Old Navy.
We had a Sonic picnic. Here's Levi and I with our milkshakes.
Levi and Mommy.
And the fireworks.
That weekend we also went to see Toy Story 3. Levi loved the first to, so this became his first movie in a theater. Of course the picture is blurry.
Mimi and Granddaddy went with us.
As did Uncle Matt and Aunt Jennifer. All of these people provided abundant laps and snack providers during the movie.
That Monday was a day off from work, so Paw Paw and Nana came over for dinner. Levi's slide was moved out to the yard finally, so we played a bit after dinner.
And the attic cat observed. The next Friday we got the hole into our attic patched up. Unfortunately this meant she was stuck up in the attic. At one point I managed to grab her, but she wasn't very happy about this, so I just ended up getting scratched and bit. More on that later.

The afternoon after I tried to catch the cat we went to the beach. Levi had a ball.
We dug holes with his large number of buckets and shovels.
Then we rinsed off and played in the gulf.
And checked out a hermit crab.
And gave Mommy a sandy Oreo.
And put water into the hole.
And walked on the beach with Daddy.
And Mommy.
And then rinsed off before we left.
It was a good time at the beach. Unfortunately the rest of the weekend wasn't as great. It turns out cat mouths, especially strays, carry lots of bacteria. Where I got bit an infection was growing. Within 24 hours my hand was starting to turn red, swell and get warm. You can't see it real well here, but I got bit in the middle of my hand, and on the knuckle of my middle finger. The swelling ended up making me take my ring off so it wouldn't get stuck.
These pictures were on my phone while i waited at the Redi Clinic to see the nurse. I ended up getting some antibiotics and my hand is a lot better now.
In a good ending to the story on Monday night (she got stuck Friday afternoon) the cat was lured out of the attic and into our house through a crawl space access. I hadn't given her any food up there, just water, so when I put some food on our floor she was on it. I closed the access door and then we herded her outside. We still want to catch her and get her to a safe home where she won't make kittens, but with 2 cats of our own we didn't want her getting them ill, so out she went.

Father's Day Camping

2010-07-15T09:05:00.002-05:00

For Father's day it is our tradition that instead of a card I get a cookie cake card. This year Levi picked out a robot for the decoration.
This is part of why I get the cake. It gets shared. Levi really enjoyed himself.
I mean REALLY enjoyed himself.
It was quite a mess. Luckily his shirt matched the icing.
That weekend we went camping with our friends Ann, Jessie and Olivia. Levi and Olivia had fun swimming. At least until Levi discovered Olivia didn't like being splashed. Then it devolved into two year olds hassling each other.
There's our rooms for the night.
We brought some Duplos to provide entertainment. They had fun playing together. Olivia would tell Levi what to do, and he would ignore her. It was like they'd been together forever.
Getting ready for bed.
This is actually taken while he was asleep. He did a great job.
Here we are getting ready for breakfast. We had a good meal and then went to go check out the park.
Levi wasn't very good about sharing his chair though.
But Olivia shared her wagon with him.
Yeah, we have ferocious predators at our closest state park. Of course when we went looking for them we couldn't find a single one to show the kids. They are normally laying out sunning themselves. I think it was too hot though.
Looking for gators.
Family portrait
Checking out snakes at the nature center.
Touching a snake!
Oooh, soft.

And our first alligator sighting of the day.
There are also buttons that can be pressed to make animal sounds. Levi spent most of his time here.
The final group shot before we left.
I'm sure we'll do more again in the future, once Olivia's little brother is here and a little older.

Anniversary Concert

2010-07-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

For our 9th anniversary Kendra and I went to a concert. KSBJ is having free concerts in Kemah all month with some of my favorite bands. Here we are together in a self portrait.

The first band was a group from Australia named Revive. We hadn't heard of them, but they were pretty good.

I snuck in a quick shot of my date between bands.

Apparently the concert wasn't exciting enough for her the whole time.

There was a pretty good size crowd there.

Even some staying in the hotel at the boardwalk.

Then Hawk Nelson put on another great concert.

Complete with beach balls and crowd surfing.

Afterwards we all got in our cars and waited in traffic for an hour to go home. That's the main problem with that place. Kemah has no scheme for handling the traffic that the location creates. Complete traffic failure.

End of School Year and a Family Visit

2010-07-14T08:57:00.011-05:00

Levi's school has an end of year program where all the kids sing with their class, and then everyone goes back to have lunch together in their classroom. Here we are waiting for it to start.

And a shot with Mommy.
Here's Levi being hauled onto the stage.
He didn't stay long. Kendra's friend Elizabeth's camera was more interesting.
We had a quick snack of juice and crackers as a class.
And then we headed to the classroom.
This is Levi with one of his teachers, Ms. Kelly.
Walking again.

Here's Levi having a cupcake next to his friend Kate.
This is Levi's other teacher Ms. Hillary. They have a lot of fun together. He's had great teachers this year.
Here is Levi, Erik and Addie looking at his end of year scrapbook with me.
Here we are at home eating a giant chocolate easter bunny. We finally decided to let him have some of it.
He was a fan.
Some of my family from Baltimore came down for a visit in June. My Uncle Kenny, Aunt Linda and cousins Liz and Laura visited. Levi had a lot of fun with them.
We went to Space Center Houston for the tour. Kendra and I work there, so its always interesting to see the more tourist side of things. This is the building that houses a real Saturn V rocket that would have been for Apollo 18.
Levi has a Space Station book that he reads with us at night. In it they talk about the beginning of the station with the Zarya and Unity Modules.
Needless to say he was very excited to see the real size versions of them at the Space Center.
Here he is with his cousin Liz.
And his cousin Laura.
This is an engine bell for one of the smaller rocket engines used in the Mercury or Gemini programs I believe.
And this is a Saturn V rocket. Its pretty big.
It makes you feel small.
There are banners for each of the missions that were flown.
Here is the front side, with an Apollo capsule not restored on the front.
Here's the whole group. Robert, Laura, Kendra, Levi, Kenny, Liz, Lois, George and Linda. Don't we look small.
Here we are on the ride back to the Space Center indoor area.
Heading inside.
We had a barbeque at our house later that day and here's a shot of everyone together again.
And if you read my twitter or facebook updates then you've heard me talk about a cat that has been living in our attic. Here she is. She's been evicted from the attic, but I'm hoping we can catch her and get her to a no kill shelter so she can be adopted. She is a nice pretty cat.
Levi likes messing with my hat sometimes. Here we are playing.
And once again, the cat. This time she was taunting our cats with her freedom.