Mom-o's Day

Each year, I'm finding that Mother's day becomes more and more special to me. Not because of my own experiences with my mom, but actually from watching another mother in my life grow in grace, wisdom and beauty each day: My wife, Megan. I remember how the first few months had been rough for her, and how the struggles of motherhood can be overwhelming. I think of how much she's grown since then, impressing me with the amazing work she puts into being a mom each day. I have to say that I know it's not easy being a mom. In fact its harder work than I could ever do. God makes special people when He makes mothers, and my wife is evidence of that in so many ways. Happy mother's day, Megan. I love you!

Easter in Western PA 2008

This Easter we decided to pack up the whole family and travel out to the western part of the state to visit my parents for Easter, and to allow them the chance to meet Liam. After a wonderful trip up in which both kids were amazingly behaved and content, we finally made it to our destinate. And then came the snow. And then went the snow. Its hard to believe that the Saturday morning of our visit came with about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Enough snow for Audrey to get her first (and only, probably) chance to sled ride this year. Later that day, all of the snow was melted and replaced with sunshine to the point where we were outside blowing bubbles in my parents back yard. The weekend concluded with a magnificent dinner prepared by Carol and some Easter egg coloring for Audrey. Special thanks to our friends Chris and Lindsay Ramage, who, as always, provided us with food and shelter for the trip. Check out the album below for some highlight photos of our trip.

Easter 2008

Our Sunday Expedition

Today we decided to be brave and do something adventurous as a family. After viewing some photos online of a place nearby, we thought we'd take a hike near "Chiques Rock" as it is know around here to explore. Meg, Audrey, Liam and myself braved cliffs, dark tunnels, abandoned railroad tracks, and leaf-covered trails together. It was a great experience for Audrey, who really needed the exercise and freedom to explore. I think I was probably the wimpiest person on the hike, worrying about trails being too steep, etc. Nevertheless, we kept going and so did the fun. Click on the picture below to see the photos of our mini-adventure

ChiqueRock

First Smiles (Part 2)

3 years ago this past week, my daughter Audrey smiled at me for the first time. There have been many smiles since, but that one always comes back to my thoughts as the most memorable.

Fast-forward to 3 years later to the exact week, and my son Liam gives me a smile too. I'm thinking that it was a planned affair. Liam must have been reading my blog archives.

How to ruin the moment

So I decided to take my 2 year-old to the mall the other day to play in the play area and enjoy an Annie Anne's Soft pretzel (mmm, yummy!). One of the things that she enjoys doing is going to where the coin-operated rides are and pretending that they actually are real vehicles, or horses, or whatever. Now I'm sure that everybody remembers these types of "rides". They usually are parked outside of your favorite department store. Your mom or dad would sit you on it and drop in a quarter (nowadays it's between 50 cents and a dollar..yikes!) and the machine would move up and down or back and forth and play music or make noise for like 3 minutes and then stop. For the most part, a terrible waste of money. Meg and I have resolved not to waste our money on things like this in order to teach our children the value of money, as well as to save it for yummy soft pretzels.

Anyways, so we're at the mall and Audrey is playing merrily on the rides, role-playing between and astronaut or a bus driver (depending on which ride she is on), when some woman with her 0.5 year old comes over and drops in 50 cents into the machine so that her toddler can sit there in a trance, drool, and then eventually cry and try to get out of the thing. What ruins the moment for me is that, all of the sudden that parent has just created a situation for my daughter and I. She inadvertently "unlocked" the knowledge that money could be grossly wasted on these "rides", and that eternal happiness could be achieved at the price of 50 cents. I now need to convince my 2 year old that she doesn't need to slowly go back and forth for 3 minutes to the sounds of Old MacDonald playing over and over again for 50 cents. It took about 5 minutes to explain this to her, but thankfully she dropped the topic and went on to her new position as a train conductor.

The Blue Angels

This year we were able to travel down to Annapolis, MD to watch the Blue Angels perform their practice run at the United States Naval Academy. We joined up with some friends from the area for the event. It was quite a fun event, with plenty of room for the kids to run around as well as an outstanding day weather-wise. To view some pictures from the event, check out the link: Blue Angels