Andy and Lisa's Adventures

THAT'S A WRAP!!!!

2011-07-02T23:12:00.004-08:00

Today the girls wrapped their first film!! What a moment!! This has been an incredible journey...from thinking we're auditioning for extras in a small local film to landing a leading role in a LA produced film.

We have met some amazing people who I truly admire. LA gets a bad wrap...some of it justified...but there are still a lot of good people in the entertainment business. These people treated our girls with so much patience, respect...I'd even go as far as to say they treated our girls like they were their own. Even today one of the prop guys was telling Lisa how much he enjoyed working around the girls and how he holds them up there with his own neice. People who have a lot of responsibility and rarely are able to show emotion have this week broken down and very sincerely complimented our girls...our family. It has been an emotional week.

It may sound odd that we have made such close friends during this time...but then again we were at the movie set 43 days over the last 2 months. That is a lot of time to spend with people...you get to know them and they get to know you.

What an experience!

I get the most emotional when I think about how far my girls have come. That first week...they were so shy but were still trying so hard to do what they were being asked to do. And they SHINED!!! We had our ups and downs but the girls found a rhythm and dialed into it. I shouldn't be surprised...but I had no idea the girls were capable of this. I know they are beautiful but to see them on film is too much...they are truly BEAUTIFUL!! Oh, and their personality!!! It's the reason why everybody is attracted to them...it's that smile, wink, and a thumbs up. It's the hugs and signing "I love you" at the end of the day. It's the facial expressions when they're doing their lines that make your heart melt.

It's no wonder why so many people have told us that if they want to, they could really have a career in this. It's because of all those things and so much more.

But I keep going back to how proud I am to be their dad and be witness to them taking these huge strides and affecting so many people.

Yesterday, the girls posed for a picture with the sound guy, Paul. Paul later told me that he never had kids and that moment was very special for him...and thanked me and the girls. Little moments like that... make me tear up.

So we're done...for now! We still don't know if we'll resume filming in a month or so. We know it won't be the same but I have faith that if it's meant to be, then we'll meet up with our old friends and make new ones in the process. It will be a challenge these next couple of days to not wake up way too early, rush the girls to wash their hair, eat, and out the door to get to the set on time. Back to enjoying an Alaskan summer!

I took a video tonight as we wrapped. The guy talking at first is Casey...the main actor...and Katy's first heart throb. Katy LOVES Casey!!! But be sure to pay attention to about 2:40 when they wrap our girls. You can see Lisa start crying and turn around and hug our new very close friend Carrie (the mom of the other Alaska twins who we have come SO close to...and who we have relied on to get us through this journey!). Just watching it again is making me tear up. I can't say it enough...what a JOURNEY!!!!

only thing that would have made this day better...

2011-07-02T01:13:00.000-08:00

...was a giant rainbow overhead!!!

Today was our second to last day of filming. No, we still aren't sure if we will resume filming later this month or in August...so we are treating these last few days as our last with this cast and crew.

It has been an AMAZING journey. I can't believe how far the girls have come over the last 2 months. Today was one of those days where we were able to experience and really enjoy the friendships that we've made. One of the producers brought in ponies for all the kids today. What an awesome gesture!!

I would put this as the 3rd, maybe 2nd most excited they've ever been. Their faces when they saw the ponies for the first time was priceless. They could not believe their eyes. It was a ton of fun!

So behind the studio where our RVs had been, they set up the ponies. Everybody came out to watch.

Some of the actors soaking it up.

Alyssa looking pretty happy.

Katy waving to everybody.

Two of my favorite pics of the day.

I had to go to work so I missed out on the pinata. It sounded hilarious. They got a Dora the Explorer Pinata and the kids all took turns whacking away. So you can only imagine as they make progress and the legs start falling off. Well at the end, all that was left was her head. A gruesome but hilarious scene. Thankfully, none of the kids seemed to mind the Dora lynching...they just wanted the CANDY!!

There are so many great pictures from today but if I had to pick one, I'd go with this gem that Lisa took. Possibly another nomination for picture of the year??

So Saturday is our last day. The assistant director has asked if I would be in a scene as an extra so tomorrow I'll get to join the craziness...make it a family affair. Then we'll have a wrap party tomorrow evening with all the cast and crew. Should be a great time...but admittedly a little sad. This has ruled our lives over the last 2 months. You can't help but make some great friendships when you spend that much time with people.

well...probably shouldn't have done that

2011-06-22T22:31:00.001-08:00

Some of you may have seen my post on facebook earlier in the week that I need to take some posts off the blog. Ends up late one night I was having a hard time sleeping and it suddenly hit me that the contract might say something about sharing photos on the internet. I got up and checked it out and sure enough, there is some specific language at the end of the contract regarding disclosure of information about the "project".

To be safe, I am removing a few posts that might get us in trouble. Don't worry, I am not deleting them. They have been moved over to a new blog that is by invite only and when the time is right, I will make that blog public or maybe even just transfer those posts back over here so we can share all of our many adventures.

It is safe to say that I can still talk about the "project" but just not mention specifics or share pics of the set. In the mean time while I filter some of these pictures that I've taken, I have a few videos from the last week that I thought you'd enjoy.

The first one is of Katy singing a song by one of her favorite artists...Rachele. Yes, the same Rachele that we met earlier in the spring. The reason I started the video is because Katy and I were having a conversation about our bathroom renovation and she said the color we picked out was "dull". I didn't even know she knew what dull meant!! So I was trying to get her to say that again and instead got this video.

Second video is also Katy. She was on the toilet (sorry) and was very talkative. We had already had quite the conversation when I got the phone out to record this. She still managed to give a few gems.

Last one is hilarious!!! This was on our day off. Lisa and I were frantically cleaning and doing laundry while the girls were doing a great job of entertaining themselves....when we hear someone yell "ACTION!!" We investigate and find the girls playing this hilarious game.

This happened on Father's Day so we sent the director this email...not sure if he would really watch it. Sure enough, he told us later that he loved it and wanted to share it on his facebook page!! HAHAHA!! I love our girls!!! Entertaining the masses!

magic show

2011-06-12T22:02:00.001-08:00

Today, the producer threw a party at her rental house for all the kids. So we went out to this amazing house with an incredible view on the south side of town this morning for the magic show. The girls really enjoyed it...moreso than the rest of the kids it seemed. I'll say it's because of their excellent imaginations. :)

Quite the view at this house....

I can't believe how great this picture came out. The color..the lighting. Wow! Very cool pic of Katy.

Ahhh, the ole pull the hankie out of the pocket trick.

Niiiice!

Katy looks impressed. Justin...not so much.

LOTS of kids to keep entertained!

I like the girls faces in this one. They are both saying "Wooooooooowww!"

I asked them "how'd he do that?!" ...and this is the picture I got.

Katy went up to be a volunteer for the card trick. Once in front of everyone, she turned around and gave Lisa a big thumbs up. Classic.

The finale...making a balloon animal float!! Pretty cool.

It's no mistake that my girls were the last to get their own balloon animals. They are SO patient. I love'em!!!

Katy showing off her balloon puppy.

Good time was had by all. The director, producer, their families, and most of the kid actors were all there. Had lots of fun hanging out with everybody. I just wish there were more hours in the weekend...as I post this at 10pm and head to the grocery store!!

Everybody goes back to work tomorrow. More pictures/stories soon!

Memorial Day Picnic

2011-06-05T22:53:00.002-08:00

Been a while. We have been having lots of fun on set...and off. Before last weekend, we heard that a group of people were looking to get the cast together for a hike or something Alaska. Several ideas got thrown around but the consensus was a BBQ. What started as a small gathering ended up being almost the entire cast and crew. It may have had something to do with the PERFECT weather!

Katy meeting one of the cast members dogs that she brought up from California.

I asked Katy to pose. I never had a doubt that she would.

Me and Katy goofing off.

Alyssa playing some ball.

The girls were off playing in the dirt while the rest of the twins were hamming it up in front of the cameras. Kind of proud....but then again it would have been nice to have them in this picture. Oh well.

Lisa playing catch while the girls play in the dirt.

This guy decided to stop by for a while too! He was all dressed up because he just came from a service on Fort Richardson where he gave a speech. I'm getting more and more respect for him every day.

That's not a shadow, that's dirt on Alyssa's face! Not enough wet wipes in the world to get those kids clean.

It was cute for a while until I really saw the mess they had made of themselves. You can kind of tell I had lost my sense of humor at this point.

Friendly game of 2 hand touch football. Ends up the guy facing away from the camera in the black shirt (Isaac) took a fall and broke his wrist. Whoops.

The director, Sean, showing off his frisbee skills.

This is Casey. He's the male lead in the movie and he's awesome. At the picnic, I learned that he is originally from College Station and his parents still live there! So we had plenty to talk about. I was really surprised how athletic he is. Then again, all we've seen of him so far is on the set in a suit. First time we've seen him let loose. He apparently can make frisbees levitate! Impressive!

two more donations!!

2011-05-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

Two late donations put us over $4500!!! On Saturday, we received an email from the Kriedermans asking if they could still donate. The answer was yes...and still is actually. If anybody out there still wants to contribute, you can. We are still planning on hosting a luncheon at work to raise more money after we're done filming! So the Kriedermans jumped right on it and donated!! Thank you!!

Then we got a letter in the mail from a very generous man in Texas. He is a friend of Lisa's Dad and an Aggie (so he's family!)...and he felt moved to donate. Thank you Mr. Driskill!!

Amazing how much money we've raised this year...and we're not done! Like I said, we're still planning on doing the luncheon at work, probably in early July. We are also going to take a donations jar to the movie set and see if we can't get some cash out of these people.

The walk was this past Saturday. For the first time in 4 years, the weather wasn't perfect. On our way there, it started to sprinkle (you'd think I would have known...but I didn't) and we were not prepared. So we had our doubts but luckily that was about it...just a few rain drops and nothing major. We got there just as the walk was starting and let the girls run around while we caught up with some friends.

And a picture of the happy family.

Thank you all for making this year amazing! I honestly can't believe we pulled it off. It means the world to us. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! Can't say it enough... Thank you!

now THAT'S how you finish!!!

2011-05-21T00:00:00.001-08:00

Whoah! Not much else to say but that. WOW! Today alone, we received 9 last minute donations for a total of $800!!! You guys had us worried that we weren't going to make our goal. Holy COW!!

Here is everybody that contributed today

Cindy
Nelson family
my Mom and Dad
Donna
Brooke
Tom
Solum family
Cassell family
and the Gilkeson family!

Way to go everybody! Well done!

The girls are fighting off a cold so we didn't make it outside today. We let them sleep in as much as they could to try and recoup. This bug going around the movie set is ridiculous...the director actually didn't make it today so there was a very different vibe going on. Not quite as enjoyable. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow.

Speaking of, we did manage to get the morning off tomorrow so that we could make the walk (thank goodness!). We'll have to leave straight from the walk and head to the studio for what we're hoping is a quick afternoon of shooting.

So here are a few pics from this morning...just goofing off during lunch.

Not sure what Alyssa was doing here.

Katy is also very SERIOUS!!

Happy.

Two very serious faces.

Lisa reading the girls a bed time story after a LONG day at the movie set.

And because this has been such an awesome day, I want to share two photos I snapped today. Without saying his name (hope you know or can figure it out), this is the major movie star in one of his full costumes. He is always stopping by to say hi and play with the kids while we wait for our turn. Today he sang us "That's Amore". It was PHENOMENAL!!

So tomorrow morning...we WALK!! Thank you everyone for making this another very successful year! We couldn't do it without each and every one of you.

Thank YOU!!!

Down to our last day

2011-05-20T00:07:00.000-08:00

It's been an awesome month of raising money. We're down to our final day so spread the word and be sure to donate if you haven't already. Today's post is because of two donations...

One from the Jakabosky family and another from Eileen (my mother-in-law). Thank you!!!!!!

I feel a little bad I don't have more pictures in the queue ready to go...but you all know how crazy it's been. Tomorrow I have off so hoping I'll be able to get the good camera out and take some good pics of the girls. For now, these will have to do.

This first one is in the "hold" room where we spend a lot of time waiting to go on set. There are quite a few toys, puzzles, and books in here and one enthusiastic baby wrangler who does a good job of trying to keep the kids entertained. Here she is on the floor with the girls, Lisa, and one of the other co-stars.

Alyssa went on set while Katy and I ended up back at the RV for a while. She was keeping me entertained that's for sure.

Made it back to the hold room a little later and Katy put together quite an impressive giraffe. She wanted to show one of her favorite production assistants, Haley, but she wasn't in her office. So Katy asked if I would take a picture of her with the giraffe in front of Haley's desk. I thought that was a great idea. That will be fun to show Haley tomorrow what she missed out on.

Another quick Katy story. I mentioned that Katy has had a hard time going to sleep lately. One night earlier this week, Lisa threw in the towel and sent me in to deal with the unruly child. It was kind of quiet when I walked in but found Katy sitting on the edge of her bed waiting for me while Alyssa snores away. Katy sees me and immediately says....

"Daddy, I love you. Look at Alyssa. She is doing GREAT!"

NICE!!

2011-05-18T22:23:00.001-08:00

Well done everybody!! Way to come through in the clutch!!

I should first say that our dear friends actually DID contribute yesterday but it was late the previous night...so I forgot. I am very sorry Andy, Kendra, and Malena. Thank you VERY MUCH for your donation.

Next, need to recognize everybody else that donated today. We got donations from Aimee, Erika, Carrie, AND the Petersons!! WOW WHAT A DAY!!! Well done everybody!

And finally before we get to the pictures, I wanted to share the end of the story that I started in last night's blog. The answer (Kriederman) is no, I did not leave the room to get Lisa. I told Katy she had two options, that I could stay until she fell asleep or I could leave and she could fall asleep on her own. She actually laid right down and fell asleep within a few seconds. She was SO tired!! What was kind of funny was Alyssa was then wide awake and proceeded to start goofing off. We can't win.

TO THE PICTURES!!

I owe the Petersons a few pictures from the recital. I hope you all don't mind me posting. I thought H did AMAZING!!

Not bad for taking pictures while sitting down with a restless 4 year old in my lap!!

So we have been asked a few times if we've noticed any difference with the girls since they started filming. Are they really becoming little divas? Well...they aren't too fond of the paparazzi!!

Makes it hard to get good pictures when I have to chase them around.

AH! That's why they were running. No pants!

Alright. 3 days to go! Keep those donations coming!!!!

11pm and no donations today...

2011-05-17T23:06:00.000-08:00

Kinda makes me sad.

I wanted to share what Katy said while it's still fresh in my head. She has been having a hard time recently going to bed so to give Lisa a break, I took on bedtime. It was not going well.

Katy was crying in her bed because she wanted Lisa. Alyssa was in her bed yelling at Katy to be quiet so she could go to sleep! I was trying to calmly tell them both to be quiet when Katy dropped this gem.

"Daddy, the ONLY way I'm going to stop crying is if you leave and Mommy comes in here."

Kids on set!!

2011-05-16T22:33:00.001-08:00

Thank you Dad and Terri for your generous contribution today! We are getting so close...but still over $1000 to go!

I wanted to share some pictures from Saturday when we met our new friends (co-stars from the movie we are filming) at the office to see the giant weather balloon off. Thus... "KIDS ON SET!!"

Cute co-star, huh?!

Balloon away!

A couple more plane shots.

Katy made some very bad decisions during our time with our new friends...so she ended up in the car a little early with me. Of course as soon as we started driving home, the little diva fell asleep. Not much longer, Alyssa fell asleep too. After we got home I brought them upstairs and plopped them down on the couch. 2 sleeping girls makes for a good photo op.

Especially when one wakes up and makes a Pulp Fiction pose.

Thanks again Dad and Terri for the donation!

Dance Recital 2011

2011-05-15T23:04:00.001-08:00

FOISY family coming through with ANOTHER donation! Thank you Foisy's!!

Today was a big day for the girls, it was their second dance recital. They were very excited (again) to dance on the big stage. They did not disappoint. They did GREAT!!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday's dress rehearsal and today's performance.

Like this one a lot.

Solid rehearsal, time for the big show!

Just a random good picture of one of the dances before our girls.

A view of the full house and stage from the back of the auditorium.

Since I got some good close-ups during rehearsal, I decided to sit in the balcony again and get some shots like last year. Hind sight...should have stayed down in the 3rd row. Lesson learned. Still some good pics.

The highlight was Katy singing during her little solo in the front right. You can actually hear her a couple of times before that but not very well...but when she came up to the front for her solo, it was clear as day and the audience ate it up. You can hear in the video everybody laughing at the 1:20 mark...absolutely gold!!

$1200 to go with 5 days to go!!! Let's get those donations in!!!

nice day off

2011-05-15T00:34:00.001-08:00

I can't tell you how bad we needed this day off! All of us are just exhausted. 5 days in a row of filming has been a real challenge. It's funny how our perspectives have changed. Last year, we were so nervous/anxious about the girls recital...so much so that we were rehearsing at home and talking about it nonstop. This year is quite a bit different. A few minutes on the big stage seems like such a sinch compared to what they are doing every day for the last week and a half.

It showed today during the rehearsal. They didn't even flinch. The highlight (for us at least) was Katy singing at the top of her lungs the song she was supposed to be just dancing to. Everybody loved it and I can almost guarantee she'll do it again tomorrow. Of course if you want to see/hear their performance, you'll have to donate!!!

Today's post is thanks to a good friend who moved far away from us. Thank you Renee (and family) for your very generous donation early this morning!!

I will provide a little tease. I got quite a few pics today during rehearsal.

After lunch, a trip up to the office to see the balloon off, and then to the grocery store, the girls were done. Katy had a melt down somewhere in there and both fell asleep in the car. Katy was still having a hard time waking up so she snuggled up with Lisa. I like this series of pictures. Seems like this movie may be getting to her head.

Thanks again Renee. Wish the girls luck tomorrow...should be another fun day.

blogger is back up!

2011-05-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the missed post yesterday. Kinda scary that blogger has the occasional problem...really makes me want to backup everything. Probably shouldn't worry but I do but it looks like everything is back up and running.

So yesterday was a great day. We had 4 donations!! Thank you to Anne & Kyle, Lisa's Dad & Terri, Katrina, and Becky! Wow, what an amazing day!! It's going to take that kind of effort to make our goal this week. Spread the word and donate...only 7 days to go!!

Our crazy adventure with the movie continues. The girls are still having a blast. I will admit the schedule is really tough. We are there for most of the day (8 to 10 hours). Of course they aren't "working" the whole time. The majority of that time is spent waiting. A 5 minute warning turns into 30 or 45 minutes...which is tough when you're 4 years old! The girls are absolutely perfect in front of the camera...waiting for an hour in a room with minimal toys and 3 to 6 other toddlers??? not so much.

Still well worth the experience. The crew love the girls. It's very obvious to us that the crew is responding to how sweet our girls are. The director is even finding time to talk to the girls, get hugs and high fives. It's awesome to see.

I also can't say enough about how much pride we have standing back and watching them perform on camera. The girls are so beautiful...and listen so good. It's SO rewarding to see them do this in front of so many people and when it really matters. Very VERY rewarding as a parent.

I don't think I'm breaking any rules here. I won't mention names and the pics don't have any parts of the set in them...so this first one is Katy with the director. He saw us sitting on the side and invited the girls over to see from his perspective. Another day, Lisa said that the girls actually got to say "ACTION!!" Later that night, they were running around telling each other "action". Awesome.

Lisa got this picture of Alyssa with the sound guy. He sits in the very back of the room and has a LOT to monitor...but he still found time to entertain Alyssa for a few minutes.

Here's Alyssa and Lisa watching Katy in one of the scenes this morning. Alyssa is so much more interested in the behind the scenes stuff and loves to watch. Katy...not so much.

A few pics of the girls with their new friends (and co-stars!).

And back at the trailer during a break, the girls were putting on quite the show.

Tired of iphone pics? Well, this weekend we have off. By off, I mean that we aren't on the movie set...instead we have our dress rehearsal tomorrow and then recital on Sunday. I GUARANTEE I am going to get some phenomenal pictures with the good camera these next two days. Please PLEASE donate so I can share these pictures!!!!!!

Not to mention we are still about $1500 from our goal. I have faith!!

momentum is a beautiful thing!

2011-05-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today, we received two more donations bringing us to over $2300 with just 9 days left! Still have lots of work to do...hopefully we can pull this off somehow and make our goal of $4000.

Thank you Chasity and Laura for your donations today. I also need to go back and thank the people that donated last week. Lisa was posting for me (for the first time btw!!) while I was out of town. She was so wrapped up with the how...she forgot to mention the "who".

So going back to May 1, we need to thank Josh for his donation.
May 2, Mr. Dang came in with his 4th donation to keep the ball rolling.
May 3, Randolf made a generous donation. Lisa and I have to admit that we don't know Randolf...so however you came across our blog and felt moved to donate, THANK YOU!!

May 4, we received three donations...one from Michelle (who is also the mother of twins), one from Emily (who works with me), and a donation from Dad and Terri! THANK YOU all for your donation!

I think that catches us up to tonight. We had another very busy day on the movie set. The girls did PHENOMENAL again and continue to have so much fun. The only challenge is the "hurry up and wait". 4 year olds can only be entertained in a waiting room for so long...but once they are on set, they are perfect little angels and love doing their lines. After I left, Lisa said they had the whole crew cracking up. They really are little entertainers.

But before we get to some of those pictures, I have to share some of my trip down south. I had to go to Kansas City for a week for some training. I managed to squeeze in some time with a special friend while I was there...including going to see a Royals game. It's the first MLB game I've seen since 03!! That's a long time to go to see a major league game. Tom and I decided to do it right and pay for some nice seats. It was WELL worth it. It was an awesome experience. Here is the view from the bar up above our seats.

And the view from our seats.

On to Houston for the weekend to see my brother and his family. It was also my bro's birthday so it worked out nice that I was able to celebrate that with him too.

His kids picked the birthday restaurant...I'm guessing it had something to do with the huge sombrero. Scott took it in stride...even when they smeared some whip cream on his nose.

Future baseball star on our way to A&M.

Awesome picture of Scott and Austin as the train comes by. Of note, I sent this to my parents and they BOTH thought this was me!! not me....Scott. :)

One of my favorite spots on the planet. Too bad it was 95 degrees!!

Alright, back to the girls. Here are a few fun shots we took the last 2 days. First is Alyssa getting some makeup on her knees...because they have a few cuts and bruises on them.

Many people have asked if the girls are having fun...the answer is YES!! Of course they are. If they weren't, we wouldn't be doing this.

Nothing says entertainment like letting the girls take the pictures while we wait for the next shoot.

Quick family portrait (minus Lyssa) while we were waiting.

I shared this on facebook but wanted to post here too. This is on the side of the set where Katy was on. We found a nice spot on the side out of the way where we could watch Katy.

Thanks again to everyone who donated. Only 9 days left so get the word out and keep those donations coming!!!!

KIM-TASTIC!!!

2011-05-11T01:12:00.000-08:00

First of all, thank you KIM!!! You are awesome!!

Second...I am back! After a week in Kansas City and then a quick trip down to H-town to hang out with my brother and his fam. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see the extended family, but I did see my grandmother on Mother's Day. That was definitely special.

Well I know you all don't care to hear about my awesome 9 day trip. You only want to hear about the girls. Yes they got a part in a movie. From what we understand, this movie is going to be on the big screen (no idea when). They are one of 4 main toddler characters. As I've said on Facebook, I don't think we are supposed to share any more details. If you really want to see a few more pictures or hear more about the movie, email or text us...we'll be glad to share with our family and friends. I just don't want to blindly put it out there on the interweb for anybody to see.

So here are a few pics I can share that Lisa took while I was gone. Lisa met up with Kendra and Malena for a nice afternoon at the zoo. Always good for a few excellent pictures.

A few more pictures from a very special Mother's Day. Why was it special? Well one of the cast members from the movie hosted a Mother's Day luncheon at a downtown hotel...a very nice gesture from a sincerely nice man. I'm hoping I will get to meet him tomorrow on set. So, again, I don't want to give away too much info on the blog but you can ask us privately if you want more pictures/stories.

Here's one that looks pretty harmless to share...it's one of the girls (I have NO idea who!!) in hair and makeup.

So now that I am back home, we are balancing my work with the girls time on the movie set...not to mention all of our other family responsibilities. It's a tough and busy time. We are still dedicated to raising at least $4000 for the March for Babies so keep those donations coming!!

Thank you again Kim!!

Soaking up the sun (and last bit of freedom)

2011-05-07T21:49:00.002-08:00

Thanks Jenn from Missoula for getting us up and running again!

Tonight I thought I would share a few pictures of the "calm before the movie storm". We've had some gorgeous weather lately...and as we've learned over the past 7 years in AK, you got to get out and enjoy it when you can!

Katy soaking up the sun!

We even broke out the new "Bob Square Cheese" (or Sponge Bob Square Pants to everyone else) kite.

A&K took a break from soccer long enough to strike a pose for the camera.

And if that wasn't enough excitement, we rounded out the afternoon with a stroller ride down to the bike trail.

Katy pointing out the E.O.M. (Evidence of Moose)

I had to laugh at the girls for wanting to get into the double stroller...I think they sense that we intend to pass it along to some friends who are expecting their second child. It also made me realize how HUGE they have gotten. So I thought you would like to chuckle along with me and see a few comparison shots...

Returning to the hospital for their first peds appointment...so small you can't even see them!

Fake Christmas Tree Shopping in 2008

4 Year Olds Traveling in Style!

And the parting shot is Alyssa getting into character and channeling her inner "spy"!

MORE Fun With Friends

2011-05-04T23:38:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday we spent the day with our neighbors and friends,
The Nakanishi's.

We celebrated Rae's 4th birthday Bouncin' Bears style!

I know...I know...the picture is totally blurry, but Katy's expression was too priceless to leave out!

After Bouncin' Bears it was back to the house for ice cream cake, presents, and entertainment...

Happy Birthday Rae!

Entertainment was provided by the Rae, Gabriel and the Brown Twins...actually the real treat was Elizabeth's oldest son, Brock, playing the guitar and singing. He is an amazing musician!

Final funny thought for the night...I don't know why but the whole time the girls were "karaoking" (and I use that term VERY loosely) all I could think about was that old SNL skit of Bill Murray as the the Star Wars Lounge Singer. I couldn't stop giggling.

Thanks again to everyone that has contributed to this year's March for Babies campaign...we're halfway to our goal!!!!!

The Imaginarium and More...

2011-05-03T22:07:00.001-08:00

Just another day in the "Life and Adventures of Alyssa and Katy"!

They just crack me up!

These pictures were taken after their 3rd audition for the kid's movie filming in Anchorage. And just in case you were wondering...THEY GOT THE PART! We found out on Sunday and are still in shock...this whole thing came out of nowhere and has been such a whirlwind. Fittings, cast meet and greets, call sheets, catering requests...totally crazy...and that was only today! Hopefully this will be a fun, once in a lifetime experience that we can all treasure and laugh over.

And now back to reality...on Saturday we joined Kendra and Malena at the Imaginarium downtown. We had not been since they moved the exhibit into the actual museum. It was great...so much to do and see!

Here are Katy and Alyssa in front of a gorgeous (and HUGE) painting of Mt. McKinley

All the kids had a blast...they got to pet a baby alligator, watch a snapping turtle walk around and explore the exhibit area, play at the water table, puzzles, magnets...and don't forget the BUBBLES!

Jellyfish!

Malena, Alyssa and I playing in the bubbles!

After the Imaginarium it was off to lunch and the mall...

what a great day!

The Meet and Greet with Rachel

2011-05-02T21:22:00.001-08:00

After the show, we waited around with our fellow groupies to see if we could snag a few moments with Rachel. Let me tell ya...it was worth the wait. If you can't tell from the photo, the girls were just eating it up! Let's see...they told Rachel their names, that they were twins, and just turned 4 years old. After expressing their love for Rachel, they asked her to teach them the sign for twins...it was a magical moment!

I LOVE the expressions in this photo!

Katy's giving the "I can't believe it" face and Alyssa didn't want to take her eyes off Rachel.

Autograph time...we brought along the girls 2 favorite DVDs and got a personalized autograph for each of them!

Again...do you think they are excited?!?!

More Signing Time Groupies...

(and fellow parents in our "Double Cruisers" group)

Ginger and her twins, Averie and Andrew!

The family who made it happen...The Reiters!

Jen, Rich, the Twins (Noah and Avery), and Baby Jacob soon to make his appearance

The Price Family!

Alex, Carolyn, Lewis, and the Triplets (Ruby, Sage, & Miles)

And now it is our favorite time...

2011-05-01T23:30:00.002-08:00

SIGNING TIME!!!!!!

Last week the girls went to their first concert...Signing Time with Rachel Coleman. It was a blast! If you've never heard of the Signing Time series, you should check it out. It is an amazing TV/DVD series that teaches American Sign Language to children and their parents. Rachel's personal story is inspirational and touching. Her love and passion shine through in her work and the music she writes/performs.

A special thanks needs to go out to Jen & Rich Reiter and Jen Aist for making the night possible!

Back to the story...so we invited Malena and Miss Kendra to go to the concert with us. We made a night of it and took all the kiddos out to dinner and then made our way to Providence. Alyssa and Katy could barely contain their excitement. They (especially Katy) had to tell EVERYONE we were going to see Rachel. Once we got to Providence, we joined a bunch of our multiples group friends and enjoyed the show picnic-style. During the show Rachel pulled volunteers from the crowd to sign and sing with her...Katy and Alyssa wanted to go up SO BAD (there were even tears). However, the disappointment didn't last long when they got to MEET, TALK TO, HUG, and GAWK at Rachel and Hopkins! It was hilarious...their first celebrity sighting! Rachel was SO SWEET! We got autographs, pictures (obviously), and little goodies. She even taught the girls the sign for "twins". It was a GREAT night and another realization of how far we have come. I remember my little babies waking up in the morning and begging (and signing) for the videos. As usual, one of the girls managed to put it best. A la Katy, it was "a dream come true"!

And with that we come to the proverbial photo cliffhanger...

several more donations today!

2011-05-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

Thank you Debbie, Mary, and my long lost child Brooke! This next week is going to be challenging while I'm on the road but we'll try to keep up with the pace. And Brooke, you were promised a video...it will happen! Just not tonight. :)

Tonight (4am) is going to have to be a quick video that Lisa took yesterday of the girls doing some crazy dancing.

Thank you for the donations!! Keep'em coming!

Tom keeps the streak going!

2011-04-29T23:49:00.002-08:00

Now that I got your attention, go click on that button to the right and donate to an awesome cause!! We're almost to the halfway point. Keep those donations coming!!

Thank you Tom for your donation today! I believe that is your THIRD donation. Well played, sir!

I ran out of time before I had to head to work this evening so this has to be a quick post....still good pictures of course.

Some of you know that the girls have been going through auditions for a movie to be filmed here in Anchorage. From what we know, it's supposed to be a "made for TV" type movie...and a remake of a super hero kids movie from the 80s or 90s. From what we understood initially, they were just looking for some extras but during this 3rd call back, they were feeding the girls quite a bit of lines! So maybe they are actually auditioning for a bigger role...or ROLL for Tom :)

During the audition, I took a few pics with the iphone while the director was feeding the lines. I couldn't believe they did so great with all that pressure... standing by themselves with everybody watching and the camera rolling. It made us such proud parents! They did fantastic!

Big Kahuna on the right is the director... and no I didn't catch his name.

Katy hamming it up!

Alyssa's turn. Alyssa was a little more shy and wasn't talking very loud....but still did wonderful.

Funniest moment came when the director says to Katy...
Dir: "Say 'are we there yet?'"
Katy: "Are we there yet?"
Dir: "Are we there yet?"
Katy: "I just said that"

HAHAHA!!! I love that girl!!

Great friends stepping up and donating for a great cause!

2011-04-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

Can't say enough good things about the Shoemakes... life long friends. We love you two!!! Thank you for your donation today.

I wanted to go back and share some more pictures from the Easter egg hunt. I call this first one "red-neck Easter egg hunt".

Alyssa not too happy with her showing.

KATY GOT IT!!

Just wanted to hide one in the snow to say I did it.

The good news is... we were able to recover the lost pictures. I'll have to share how that happened .... next time someone donates!! :)

Thanks again for the donation today!!

Progress!!!

2011-04-28T00:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you Helen for your donation today!! Thanks to your contribution, I wanted to share the rest of the dance class pictures from last week. Here are a few more gems that we captured.

Alyssa watching herself dance in the mirror.

Lisa got some good ones this week of the pointed toes.

I wanted to share more tonight but there was an incident. About 30 photos were somehow deleted tonight and I spent a very long time trying to recover them. Hopefully we'll have some luck with that...Lisa and I are both very upset about these missing pics.

Either way, we have lots more ready to go so keep those donations coming!

keep'em coming!

2011-04-26T22:52:00.000-08:00

Today, we received two donations from friends back in the day. Sherri and Michelle, two friends that we have reconnected with over the last couple of years. Thank you both for donating today!!

These pictures are from the girls dance class this last week. Got a few good ones!

This is a little sad. Katy wanted the purple bracelets. :(

Another wink and a thumb. Love these girls.

I'm holding the rest of the pictures from Thursday ransom until we get some more donations!!!

Thanks again Sherri and Michelle for supporting a great cause!

Well played Tom!

2011-04-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

I was heading to bed when I get an email notification that we've received another donation! Thank you Tom!!

Here are a few pics from this today's festivities. I had to work most of the day but the girls had an amazing Easter.

Here are the girls' Easter dresses that they wore to church this morning.

So pretty.

EGGS!!!

Ignore the creepy guy in the background taking pictures with the good camera. :) *note* if you donate at 10pm, you get iphone pictures. :)

Tons of fun today. Thanks for donating Tom so we could share.

26 days left!!!

Up up and away!!

2011-04-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well evidently I never hit PUBLISH last night!! I blogged before I went to bed late last night but forgot to publish it.

The Ballards!!! Thank you Ballards for you support every year!! You are two amazing people!!

The pictures I wanted to share are very appropriate...since the Ballards are both meteorologists. We had an awesome day but one of the highlights was going to the office and watching the balloon go up for the first time. Go ahead and ask, how to you work for the NWS and the girls haven't seen that??? No idea...it just hasn't happened. So today was the day.

View from the inflation building...which is why I like to take a walk at least once every shift. Not a bad view at all.

While we were waiting, Lisa was teaching the girls "SUPER STAR!!"

We are of course near the airport so when the wind is coming from the south, the planes take off practically right over us. I like this one a lot.

Because it was kinda windy, we didn't let the girls help...just stood back and watched. They were still very excited. At one point, Katy blurts out "this is SO COOOOOL!!!"

And it's off!

Classic Katy.

Thank you again Ballards!!

BIG DAY!!

2011-04-21T00:41:00.001-08:00

Wow we are making some serious progress!! Thanks to 3 more donations, we have blown past the $1000 mark!

Thank you Foisy's for your donation today. The Foisy's just recently added a beautiful baby girl to their family. Congrats to them! It also speaks to their character and generosity that they found it in their heart to donate.

Thank you Nate!! Nate is a buddy that moved away from Alaska way before he should have. Look back at almost every fishing trip I've had and Nate is close by. If he wasn't there physically, he was there spiritually because I was drawing from his wise mentoring or using the flies that he made me! This is another guy that fell in love with my girls. I LOVED seeing the girls interact with Nate...and I can't wait to see it this summer when he comes back to visit. Can't wait to go fishing with you again this summer, Nate!

Third donation came from a great friend. I can't share who it is... but I can still tell him and his wife how much we appreciate their contribution. You guys are amazing parents!! Truly, thank you!!

Today, we had a crazy day....seriously a crazy day. The story goes... Lisa is involved now with several parenting and support groups at the hospital. Through some of those connections, she found out that there is a need for twins at a local talent agency (I think that's what they are) who is providing the extras for an upcoming movie to be filmed in Anchorage next month. Follow that?? So we have exchanged several emails with pictures and videos of the girls but today was the actual audition for the movie.

It went great. The girls were excited to "meet the people". First came a few pictures.

The girls talking about how the photo-shoot went.

Then we moved on to the video part of the audition. In this room, there was a videographer (Doug) who didn't say a word and the scout (I think) who was doing the "directing". All that happened was asking the girls simple questions, asking them to jump, and then told them to play with a little toy (to see how they followed direction). They did GREAT! They spoke up and did everything they were supposed to. It was fun to watch them.

So there you have it. Only doing this because it could be a fun way to earn some easy money for the girls college fund. As soon as this turns into something that isn't fun or something we don't believe in, we're OUT! But...we'll check it out.

They start shooting next month so we will hear back in a couple of weeks if the director wants to use the girls.

After we left, we found a nearby park and let the girls release some of that energy.

Here are few random pictures from the last couple of days.

First is Alyssa checking...her ... uhh.. email??? What the...??

Lisa took this one of the girls painting. Always funny when they are in identical poses.

Can't forget the sad and pathetic moment. Katy fell while playing outside and this was the cleaning of the cut on knee. Notice how Alyssa is being very supportive while Katy screams her head off.

Thanks again for the donations!

BFF...

2011-04-20T00:44:00.002-08:00

I'm just sayin!! Sam moved away from us a little over a year ago and he's been dearly missed ever since. This guy loves our girls. I know, I know... you ALL do! But Sam surprised me with how much he really cared about my girls.

Maybe Sam IS one of my children!! Sure does look like them when he's sleeping!

One more...

Well Sam donated last night so this post is for him. And it's especially funny because Sam (and a few others) have an insanely embarrassing photo of me so I'm walking on thin ice sharing these old photos of him!

On to the food!! The girls had a great time eating the ferocious Easter bunnies on sticks...ears first of course.

The carnage!

Thanks again, Sam! Who's next?? I promise not to show old photos of the next person to donate. ;)

Going to be hard to keep track of all my great friends.....

2011-04-19T00:40:00.000-08:00

Shaun... my man, Shaun!!! What a guy!!

Not only is he a great guy who donates selflessly every year to March for Babies, but he helped pick me up today when I found out some bad news. 'Nuff said. Thank you Shaun for being a great friend!!

And for Shaun's contribution, I will finish up part 2 of the early Easter Eagle River celebration...say that 5 times fast!

We pick up the festivities as the kids were lining up youngest to oldest to take a few whacks at the pinata.

Boys first...

Look at the anticipation...

...the focus

...the joy!!

One thing this dad did was teach his daughters how to swing a bat! I wish I could have seen it in action.

Good. Nice follow through!

Tongue is out... nice form!!

Keep your eye on the prize babe!

They earned it.

...and my favorite pictures from the day. The girls fell asleep on the ride home understandably. When Lisa tried to wake them up, they were a bit grumpy. To me, it looks like they had a little too much to drink... I mean, too much FUN!

They are going to hate us one of these days for these pictures.

Again...thank you Shaun. Waiting on more donations for more posts!!

Awesome new friendship...

2011-04-17T23:50:00.002-08:00

Isn't it awesome when you make new friends and they "get it"?! Mary-Beth, a new co-worker, 'gets it'! We haven't known her for very long but she understands how important March for Babies is and how much it means to us. Thank you, Mary-Beth! This post is for YOU!

Lisa and the girls headed north to Eagle River today to enjoy the nice weather and an Easter Picnic...complete with a bunny parade, Easter egg hunt, and a Easter Pinata! Sounds like a good time to me.

The girls met our friend Jennifer and her twin 3 year olds, Noah and Avery, for the festivities.

Noah...with style!

...and Avery

The girls!

Notice how the twin boys on the left chose to ride the swings one way and the twin girls on the right are sitting pretty. Hmmmm...interesting.

"The hills are aliiiive....with the sound.." ah nevermind.

picnic time

Girls look a little excited to find some eggs!

Katy!! A blue egg!!!

A great time was had by all...and guess what. There's more!!! Still plenty more pictures to share so keep those donations coming. Thanks again Mary-Beth!!!

Tom Tom Tom.....

2011-04-16T23:20:00.000-08:00

Well my buddy, Tom. What can I say about him?? He's determined not to let us have a night off which is perfectly fine with us as long as he's willing to fork over the dough!! So since it's so late, I'm not going to have time to go downstairs and pick through the D90 pictures...so I've spent the last 10 minutes looking through my iPhone pics and found a few good ones.

First...this is at the grocery store a couple of days before their birthday. The girls ended up getting these hats from someone. But the story is that Katy (pictured) was throwing a fit. I put the hat on her and she stopped crying just long enough for me to take the picture.

Picture taken one evening from my desk at the office. Just thought the contrast of the contrail and the deep blue sky was amazing.

no idea...

Evidently, I have children that look a lot like me when they are sleeping.

Birthday morning... bike poses!

If you didn't see this on facebook, the morning of the girls' birthday Lisa had to go to work for a few hours. While she was gone, the girls and I went outside and made 19 little snowmen for Lisa. She was pretty surprised when she got home.

If they look like me when they sleep, they look like Lisa when they watch TV.

I like this one because that is my baby blanket. My mom sent it to me and I was telling the girls how that's MY blanket. So they wanted to snuggle up with it one evening. I thought it was pretty sweet.

no idea what's going on here.

one more picture of a sick baby sleeping.

Thanks again for the donation Tom! See what happens tomorrow!!!

We'll get there...one donation at a time

2011-04-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

Today, we need to thank Jessica for her donation. We have a long way to go but we'll get there as long as friends like you keep donating!

Today, we'll wrap up (pun intended) the last of the birthday pictures. We had their birthday party on a Saturday...but their birthday was actually on Tuesday. So Monday night, Lisa and I stayed up and wrapped presents and assembled their new bikes. It was truly like Christmas Eve!

Christmas .... I mean Birthday Morning! Notice it even snowed!!

Alyssa showing us her shocked face.

Time for presents!

BFFs!!!

Wait...Alyssa!! Stop choking your sister!!!

Whew...ok...that's more like it.

Excited much?

Time for the bikes!

Could be a new favorite pose.

Well there you have it...another fantastic birthday. Thank you family and friends for all of those wonderful gifts. Keep those donations coming!!!

...and we're off!!

2011-04-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

First donation on the books! Thank you Pekala's for your generous donation! After a night of celebrating Lisa's birthday at the Moose's Tooth with great friends, I get to post more pictures from the girls birthday last week.

Princess Alyssa and her magic wand.

Blurry picture but look at that form.

One of my favorites...the girls kept looking for me or Lisa and giving us a big thumbs up. Not sure where they learned THAT?!

Maracas!!

The girls soaking up everybody singing Happy Birthday to them.

And watching the cake being cut up.

The cake was actually red and blue on the inside...perfect! Lisa really did think of everything!

Time to open presents.

It's now I feel like I need to point out how much Katy takes after her Daddy. She is ANIMATED!! She was cracking everybody up with her "over-the-top" reactions to every present. It was hilarious!

So pay attention to her expressions. Classic.

Our amazing neigbors surprised us by buying the girls tap shoes. Just recently the girls had been measure for them and tried them on... but we were going to buy them later. Well the Peterson's treated the girls to a very special birthday surprise. It also surprised Lisa....she was in tears she was so happy. Maybe you can get a glimpse from these pictures how excited the girls were about their new tap shoes. Thank you Petersons!!

Malena still enjoying the festivities.

Thank you to everybody who made this a very special birthday for the girls....and us. :)

Last one is Katy telling Andrea all about her special day.

Thanks again Pekala's for donating us and getting us rolling on our way to $4000!!!

It's that time of year!!!

2011-04-12T22:46:00.001-08:00

2008....$1400
2009....$2735
2010....$4045!!
2011....????

Time to raise money for a great cause!!! For any newcomers...here's the deal. Every day that we get a donation, we will make a post on the blog. It may not sound like much, but that's one of the ways we like to encourage people to donate.

So tonight starts our fund raising efforts! I promised some more pictures from the girls' "Kapunzel" birthday party and here they are (some of them at least).

First, the cake! Lisa found a lady that makes awesome cakes. The cake came out GREAT!

Alyssa getting ready for the big party.

The grand reveal. Unfortunatly I had my new lens on and was WAY too close to capture the moment. Still you get the idea.

Lisa did most..ok ALL..of the decorations. The one thing that I contributed was some frying pans, shaped out of styrofoam and painted.

The "floating lights". Lisa and the girls made lanterns for all the girls that came out. Great idea!

Katy ready to get the party going.

Alyssa too.

Am I not the luckiest guy on the planet?!!!

I love this one of Katy telling someone how old she is now.

Malena very serious about the party!

Time to dance.

Sorry, I was messing with the white balance during the party...trying to find the right settings so a few are a little yellow/orange.

Katy ... SO excited!

LOVE...LOVE this picture!! I wish I could have got both girls face in the picture but I love the thumbs up.

Good start? I have PLENTY more. They just keep getting better! So from now on, if we receive a post then I'll post on the blog. The walk is May 21, 2011 so we have 38 days!

You can click on the link to the right to donate which will take you here...our March for Babies peronal page. Help us reach our goal of $4000 this year!!!

Pretty special day

2011-04-06T00:21:00.001-08:00

Happy 4th Birthday to my beautiful girls!!!

Today was an incredible day. I think it was equal to Christmas...maybe even better because ALL of the attention was on the girls. It really was a lot of fun to spoil them rotten all day long.

We had a huge birthday party on Saturday at the dance studio. Today, we stayed home and opened presents....allllll...day! Tons of fun. I had planned on sharing dozens of pictures tonight but ended up watching the Lady Ags win the National Championship!! WHOOOP!!!!

Here are a few of the pictures from Saturday and Today. So many GREAT pictures to share...this is just a taste.

better...

2011-03-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

While the insomnia hasn't improved, I am certainly feeling better. Thank you family and friends that have let me vent these last couple of days.

Part of Epic journey

2011-03-16T06:57:00.009-08:00

Pick up our adventure after lunch. We did some local exploring

This could have made for an interesting event...but Dave wisly spotted the deep ravine and stopped Andy and I before we flew off the edge. Andy and I cautiously approached it and then started having some fun!

Make gif animation

Dave decided he wanted a crack at it.

Nice form....

Andy's attempt got him out quite a bit further.

I like this picture because you can see how far we are travelling. The two dots on the top right of the screen are Andy and Dave. I was that far behind...maybe a mile or more!

But once we made it to the top.... what a view!!!

Epic journey!!!

2011-03-12T22:26:00.008-09:00

Yesterday, I checked off a top 5 from my bucket list! A good friend Dave took me and my buddy Andy out snow machining! What a freaking adventure!!

I tried a new app that Lisa K told me about, it uses GPS to track the trip and then plots it on Google Maps. I can also import pictures and do lots of other cool stuff. There's even an animation that plots the speed and elevation. Really a cool app!!

Check it out here.

Snow machine trip with Dave and Andy

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Anchorage, Alaska

The trail out to the "playground" area was about 7 miles! It was a ROUGH trail that really beat us up. Unfortunately, I forgot about the every trail app until we had already done quite a bit of exploring. Dave tells us that according to his GPS, we logged 42 miles!! So I'm VERY sore today!

Anyway, this first pic was taken as we headed up this awesome hill away from the playground. I looked up and saw Andy tumbling in the snow as his machine slowly came to a stop. So I stopped and took a picture of where Andy fell off and where his machine ended up.

You can tell from this picture, it was GORGEOUS! I have never seen landscape like this. Just blew my mind.

Dave on his sled.

We started taking turns making this little jump. Andy went first.

Now it's Dave's turn. Just for background, Dave is a complete ANIMAL on snow machines. He owns something like 8 (3 of them vintage) and is always looking for an excuse to go ride. He even races his vintage sleds. So this little trip...you could say that Dave is in his element!

Another couple of early contenders for picture of the year!! I LOVE these two pictures!

Now it's my turn! Being my first time ever, I was a bit tentative (for good reason, I almost seriously injured myself). Doesn't mean I wasn't having fun. I was having a BLAST!

I like this one a lot that Andy took of me.

Didn't catch quite as much air as Dave and Andy.

Lunch break.

We split up for a while. I found some really nice untouched snow and on my way back to tell the guys I stopped to take in the scenery. My view.

I have lots more photos to share...just getting too late right now. The best scenery was yet to come!!

Iditarod 2011 Ceremonial Start

2011-03-08T21:38:00.011-09:00

Saturday morning, we got all dressed up to go to our favorite spot to see the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. We've done the downtown thing once and much prefer a little bit further down the trail where there is abundant parking and much less people. Not to mention you can get up close and personal with the dogs.

I have always loved the display of crazy hats and coats during the festivities.

The mushers throw old booties out to the kids along the trail. Our girls did really well this year!

I ran back to the car and missed this guy stop his team right in front of Lisa and the girls. Yes he's wearing a kilt!

Getting ready for some hot chocolate.

We saw mushers 28 through 63 come through. The girls lost interest for a while and just started playing in the snow. This is Katy trying to throw some on the camera.

Kendra and Malena joined us! It was Malena's first Iditarod. She was pretty excited!

My daughter has a real drinking problem.

Love this picture!

This is the girls loot!

Part Two of our Cabin Adventure

2011-03-05T21:56:00.006-09:00

We woke up Wednesday morning to an incredible view out front. Still a little hazy but the morning sunshine on Denali was incredible. Even the girls were amazed.

This picture had so much potential. So upset it's a little out of focus. Still a cute kid though.

So after a slow morning, we headed into Talkeetna. Just around the corner we found this view of Denali. Incredible.

Inside Talkeetna we were treated to this view!

The next couple of hours were the worst part of our mini-vacation. I did not bring a charger for the camera battery. Taking long exposure pictures when it's 15 degrees outside for 3 hours evidently takes a toll on a battery. Who knew, right?!! So during the day, we found a place in Wasilla that sold batteries and a charger so we drove the 70 miles back to town to pick it up. Thanks to Sam and Dave helping us out. After a lunch in beautiful downtown Wasilla (barf), we headed back to the cabin and took a walk around the area.

Just in case you thought Katy might be losing her stuff...she pulls a stunt like this and TOTALLY REDEEMS HERSELF!!! Lisa tells Katy to freeze and this is the pose we get. Awesome.

Looks at those eyes!!

The snow was probably 2.5 to 3 feet deep. I thought this was a cool shot of snow stacking up on a stump.

Back at the house, the girls were playing with the owners grand-daughter and the dogs...and....BUBBLES!!

Another glorious sunset in the books.

So after our huge side trip to get a new battery and charger, we were determined to stay up late and watch the aurora. Only problem, it wasn't nearly as active. It got going just enough that we packed up the girls and took them to a spot with a great view. We stayed there for about 45 minutes...and this is the only decent picture I got. A little disappointed.

Thursday morning. Time for some more bubbles and another walk before heading into town for lunch at the Roadhouse!

This might be the photo of the trip! I'd even put it up for an early contender for photo of the year! Wow!!

Bridge at Montana Creek. Going to have to come back here in the fall and so some fishing! It looked like a beautiful creek.

After an awesome lunch at the Roadhouse in Talkeetna, we made the 2+ hour drive back home. Amazing adventure!

If you're looking for a nice get-away, check out My Cabin.

Adventure..is out there!!!

2011-03-03T21:40:00.013-09:00

As many of you know from Facebook, we had ourselves a little adventure the last couple of days. I had taken off this week for a trip I was going to take down to Kansas to see the A&M game on Tuesday night. Well things fell through so we decided to have a stay-cation...make the most of the time off and make some memories here in Alaska.

So I started thinking about cabins that we could go stay and remembered Ben and Lisa found this nice little cabin up north before they moved. I called and sure enough, they were available. The cabin is located near Talkeetna...which is a little over a 2 hour drive to the north. When it's clear out (which it was), it is BEAUTIFUL!! The only problem is that we've been under high pressure so long that it's starting to get a little hazy so Denali wasn't completely unobstructed.

Anyway, the cabin!

Our view...an amazing panoramic that included Denali and Foraker. That first night was really hazy and some mid/high level clouds were hanging around the peaks making it hard to see. Still...

The girls showing our beds upstairs. It was definitely a tiny cabin. We actually had a hard time all squeezing in on the 2 beds!

The owners were SO nice! They had several dogs running around that were very kid friendly. This was the girls favorite.

View of our cabin from the outside.

From the front porch, we had a fire pit (that we didn't take advantage of) and a heck of a view.

I took a lot of pictures of birds. This was the best...very clear picture.

Getting ready to take a walk, Katy showing her sassiness.

Alyssa getting ready.

Time for a walk.

Sign for our cabin.

We were walking on a snow-machine track that had crusted over. I kept telling the girls to stay on the trail and they kept asking "why?" So I decided to show them how deep the snow was off the trail.

Great picture of Alyssa.

Getting ready for dinner.

Another one of Alyssa. She had fallen off the sled and rubbed her cheek on the snow so it was a little red.

Sunset. I took 20 or so pictures. Here are a few that turned out pretty good.

Spaghetti at the cabin!

After dinner, the ladies settled in to watch a movie while I got all dressed up to go outside and wait for the Northern Lights to show up.

While I was waiting, I started experimenting to dial in on the right settings...and managed to get some good photos too. This is looking next to our cabin at the owners incredible home. Check out Orion in the picture!!

Our cabin under the stars. The glow from inside the cabin is the girls watching tv.

Me goofing off with the flash. Notice you can still see the stars up above me.

A couple hours later...the Aurora got GREAT!!!

It's a long story but the battery died early in the evening. So I had to keep coming inside to warm up the battery then go back outside so I could take a couple of pictures...repeat. I think I missed a lot of great pictures in the process. But still, happy with what I got. This last one was taken from the couch inside the cabin. I woke up at 3am-ish and went downstairs to see how it was going outside. It was an amazing phenomena where the entire sky was a faint green and it was pulsating. It was moving so fast from north to south that it looked like low clouds screaming past me. So I set up the tri-pod and took a few pictures and managed to capture the aurora from inside. Such a cool experience.

I'm really happy with how everything came out but to fit everything on the blog, I had to cut the resolution by 50%. Hopefully they are still decent when viewing on here. If not, you'll just have to trust me! We looked at them in full size on our tv and they look GREAT!!!

So that ends day 1! I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures.

3....2.....1.........

2011-02-24T21:04:00.004-09:00

BLAST OFF!!!!

I wanted to share a video and a few pictures of the girls witnessing their first (and one of their last) space shuttle launches. What a special moment that we were able to capture on film.

And the moment...

One more picture I took of the Alyssa last night hitting the sauce hard before bed!

few videos

2011-02-15T23:53:00.002-09:00

I got yelled at today for not posting more frequently. To say the least, our life has been hectic recently...but still no excuse for not posting. Here are a few videos that have been on my iphone lately.

This first one was the day before Valentine's Day. The girls were cutting out hearts to go on Valentine's Day cards. Notice how Katy opens and closes her mouth when she cuts the paper.

This next one was Sunday morning...just having fun eating Eggos and playing on the iPhones. They are so spoiled!

This last one is so pathetic. Alyssa has caught a bit of a cold and it's quite sad. She is a real trooper despite her fever and cough. She's still a sweetie. Here is a video of her doing her best impression of Wall-E.

I'm on a boat!!!

2011-02-01T21:52:00.005-09:00

I think I've used that title before. Ah... doesn't matter. I don't think anybody got it the first time. MAYBE Sam...but that's about it.

So in an effort to start catching up, let me share some pictures from this past weekend. I worked at the NOAA booth at the annual Anchorage Boat Show on Sunday. It was a nice experience...mainly because I spent 8 hours chatting with an agent from the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement. This guy had some GREAT stories!! Plus, Lisa and the girls came up to see me. I took a break and we let the girls check out some of the boats. It was a good time.

Yes that says $123,000.

My view from my booth.

Random funny picture. This moose was hanging out the other day behind the office. I thought it would be funny if we incorporated the moose as a part of the training for interns....add it into the forecaster development program. I think it's only fitting that if you're going to measure rain/snow in Alaska, you have to run the gauntlet!

Random pics of cute kids today. My brother sent this picture today of his son, Tyler. Tyler was WORKING THAT CUPCAKE!!!

And the saddest thing you'll ever see. Katy spent half the night throwing up last night. No idea what happened but she was up from 11:30-1 and then again from 4-5:30. Rough night all the way around. She's feeling better today thanks to a little nap in the afternoon.

shaking the pretty out of that tree!

2011-01-30T23:07:00.002-09:00

We have lots to catch up on but I thought I'd share a quick video tonight. We took a walk the other day down on Madison's trail and discovered a new fun game...shake the tree and get covered in snow.

I didn't realize until I watched video that they weren't getting NEARLY as much snow as I thought they were!

taking off

2011-01-23T07:16:00.003-09:00

I am heading south for the week to visit with friends and maybe do some work related stuff too...you know, if there's time. Since I've been doing exactly what I said I WOULDN'T do by ignoring this blog, I wanted to at least share a quick video before I leave.

This was yesterday. We headed out to do some quick sledding. It was a blast but it got kind of crowded after a while. This was the last time we let the girls go down by themselves (you'll see why).

Yesterday

2011-01-09T23:11:00.005-09:00

Best. Title. Ever.

Ok, maybe not. I needed an excuse to post some pictures of my NEW UKULELE!!!!! Out of nowhere, my mom comes in from left field with the surprise Christmas present of the season. Totally unexpected and I don't even remember mentioning it to her that I was thinking about getting one but Mom found me the most beautiful ukulele. It arrived the other day and I haven't put it down. If you haven't seen on facebook, I am putting in my time and working on my calluses. It is PAINFUL...but worth it. I'm learning my chords and will be singing some songs in no time.

Here are a few shots I just took.

Ok, that's my excuse for posting. Now I should probably post some cute pictures of the girls from yesterday! We have had a friend visiting us since before Christmas, Rascal. Rascal is visiting us from O'Fallon, Illinois...a friend of Jacob Pekala. We tried to make his visit memorable. Here are a few pics from his last day with us.

Here's a bonus. I think this was after Christmas dinner. It was a hectic time of cooking, getting the girls to EAT, cleaning up, and playing with presents. As I was sitting with the girls, I realized that someones glass of wine was inadvertently left in front of Katy (unknown to her). Mad me laugh and I thought it was a perfect photo op.

Shameless Plug

2011-01-08T23:28:00.002-09:00

I have started a new blog!! I had the crazy idea around New Years to start sharing our dinners with everyone. I have always thought that we eat very well. Lisa treats us to excellent meals every night and I add in the occasional grilling masterpiece. So why not start a blog?!

I gave it a week to see if the excitement would wear off and it hasn't. It really is kinda fun and easy so I think I'll keep it going. So here is a link to our other blog Dinner With The Browns.

No this won't effect how often I post on this blog. I hope to maintain BOTH!! We'll see....

A very happy new year!!

2010-12-31T21:20:00.011-09:00

As some of you know, Lisa and I celebrated our 11th anniversary (which was December 18th) by escaping for the first time in 1,327 days!! We have actually never been away (together) from the girls for the night until Wednesday. Incredible. But with Lisa's Mom here, we made it a priority to celebrate this anniversary in style.

So we booked an overnighter in Girdwood...about 40 minutes down the road. The surprise was that Lisa thought all along that we were staying at the Alyeska Resort. While that would have been nice, I found a "cabin" that was a little more appealing! ;)

So our outing began when we left at about noon to get there in time for Lisa's first ever snowboarding lesson!! The drive was BEAUTIFUL!! We had about an inch of snow overnight and Girdwood had about 4 inches!

Not sure if this was a sun dog or what, but it was incredible. Freaking rainbow across Turnagain Arm at 20 degrees!

Little snow shower on our way there.

Just a few short months ago, we were watching beluga whales right here!

Amazing. I don't care how many times I've seen beautiful settings in Alaska, this is amazing!

Arrival at our destination.

Lisa strapping on to the snowboard for the first time. Yes she was VERY nervous!

Lisa and her adult class of beginners. Amazing scenery for a beginners lesson.

Lisa and her instructor slowly going down the hill. Lisa did GREAT!!!

After a couple of hours of hard work on the slopes, it was time to relax at the bar with a huge stack of nachos...

and a couple beers... and .... Tom Collins!!

My HOT SNOWBOARDER!!! I am so proud of her!! She was nervous but she took it on and did so much better than I did my first time on the slopes. Looking forward to many more adventures together up on the mountain!!

A little later that evening we had an incredible dinner at the Double Musky! I have actually been there one other time...best steak in America is what I remember. It lived up to its reputation!

A few hours later, we found ourselves back at our cabin and so stuffed that we could barely walk. So I lit a fire and we curled up on the couch and relaxed. So nice.

Next morning...on our way to Alyeska where Lisa thought we were going to stay.

This guy was getting prepped for an amazing hour. I have only had one other massage and while it was nice, I was not ready for THIS kind of massage.

Lisa also looks very ready.

Our room where we had the couples massage. It had many candles and rose peddles...and of course ambiance music to set the mood.

I will say... that is one of the most relaxing hours of my life! I was probably resisting the first 5 to 10 minutes while she worked my back...but by the end of that, I was as relaxed as you can get.

After some coffee and relaxing at the resort, we made our way over to Chair 5 for a nice long lunch...full of fatty foods, carbs, and beer (for me). It was everything I hoped it would be.

An amazing 28 hours! We definitely need to do this more often! Hope you enjoyed. Back to Christmas pictures and singing videos later!!!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-27T22:29:00.006-09:00

I have been unable to share all of our Christmas festivities because of some exciting developments! Well...not yet, but I'm trying. I have been applying for a job that would take us to the lower 48! It has occupied me for the last several days if not weeks. Finally, I finished my resume and the application last night so I can get back to sharing all the fun we had during Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the zoo at about 6 to walk around under the lights. Only problem was it was COLD!!! Here is a picture of the car thermometer as we pulled up into the parking lot.

It was a really neat experience seeing all the animals at night. We've been there at least 20 times and never after dark. Very cool experience!

On a sad note (but happy for him), my buddy Tom is heading across the Pacific with his family. He is a very private individual so I won't share more...other than he is going to be missed during these 3 weeks! Have a great time, Tom!!!!

Girls screaming

2010-12-22T12:45:00.004-09:00

I came home from finishing up my Christmas shopping to find Granny playing a game with the girls. I HAD to join in. Too much fun to miss out on this.

SANTA!!!!!

2010-12-21T00:06:00.003-09:00

Lisa took the girls to see Santa! I didn't get to go unfortunately.

I need to thank a very special person for sharing these pictures. She is a professional photographer and very generously GAVE us these pics for free. So I need to make sure everybody knows this name!!

JEANEE MARROQUIN

Her website is http://www.photographybyjeanee.com/
So go visit and thank her for the great pictures!!

Christmas time in the city...

2010-12-18T12:23:00.010-09:00

We've been busy preparing for Christmas, how about you?? I wanted to share a few photos from a fun trip I took the other day to Girdwood. My buddies Andy D, David, and Todd met up at Alyeska for a day of snowboarding (and skiing for Todd). We all had a blast. It was a perfect day! The sun was out (well as much as it can be in December) and the temperature was COLD!! I don't think it got above 5 degrees. Didn't matter, we were dressed for the occasion and had a wonderful time. Hard not to with views like these.

Lunch with a view.

Alpenglow at 3:30pm

The other bit of excitement yesterday and today is we are finally getting our Christmas cards out! First of all, if you don't get one right around Christmas...it isn't because we forgot you!! Send us your address! We have several extra cards so just let us know. We've also been transferring all of our addresses from outlook back to our iphones and I think we might have lost a few.

Anyway, each year we take a ton of photos for the cards. Sam has helped us the last two years. Well now Sam is gone so we had our friends Andy, Kendra, and baby Malena over to have dinner and help us take the photos. We got a lot of great shots. I won't share the one that made the card but here are some that didn't make it...some good and some not-so-good!

I have no idea what happened here! It was tempting but I decided not to use this one for the Christmas card.

Not sure why Lisa didn't like this one... maybe because I wasn't smiling.

Baby Malena taking it all in!

Moose Action

2010-12-11T21:17:00.003-09:00

I have to give Lisa credit for that title. I asked her to help me out and upload the pics and put some random title and I would finish the post later. When I opened it up and saw "Moose Action"...well, it was a winner!

Saw this big boy at work the other night. The iphone takes great pictures when there is good light and the subject is a 5 to 10 feet away. At night when the subject is 25 yards away...not so much. But still, you get the point.

This guy was hanging out in the parking lot. He grabbed a bit of snow and then looked back in our direction. I thought it was a funny picture with the very distinguished looking white beard. Santa Moose maybe??

Then I tempted fate and went outside and tried to take a closer picture. You can kinda tell in this one he really was a big boy.

I don't think people like posts that don't have to do with the girls...so I'll include a quick video I took of Katy singing Jingle Bells this evening. I might add some annotations later because it's hard to understand her. Still you get the idea.

Cinematic Adventure!

2010-12-09T20:59:00.010-09:00

"Hello and welcome to movie phone. Today's features includes "Tangled": The long-haired Princess Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but when she falls in love with a bandit who was passing by she must venture into the outside world for the first time to find him."

Many of you know that Lisa came up with the great idea of setting up a reward chart to get past our difficulties with night time. The reward... going to see "Tangled". A preview for Tangled at the beginning of our Toy Story 3 dvd has had them interested so when we told them that we could go see it in the theater, they got REALLY excited. All they had to do was go to bed on their own and stay in their room all night. Sounds easy right??? Well it is if you have Tangled to hang over their head! They did great and it sounds like tonight (the first night without any extra incentive) went perfect. So hopefully we've made it past that hurdle.

Way to go Lisa!!!!

Here are their charts. They got stickers every night they did it.

POPCORN!!! After just a little bit, they both actually decided to stop eating it and just watch the movie. Wasn't expecting that!

After way too many previews, the movie started and their faces were hilarious. I got this picture really fast and had to lighten it up a bit but you can tell they were pretty excited.

The girls love to re-enact their favorite movies. So this is Kahpunzel and Pascal, the chameleon.

Now for a special treat... after we got home I had to take a nap because I'm working night shifts this week. I was asking Katy to do something and when I said "Katy...", she corrected me and said "I am KAH-PUNZEL!!" You see, for whatever reason they heard her name as Kahpunzel...so that's how they say it. So thought I would try and capture it on video so I got the camera and asked Katy to do something again and this is the response I got.

So how was the movie, you ask?? Freaking great! We don't get to see too many movies. In fact, I think the only movies I saw this year were Avatar, Inception, Toy Story 3, and now Tangled. But Lisa and I rent a lot of movies...not to mention watch all the Disney and Pixar animated films over and over and over.

So when I say this, you know I've put some thought behind this. I consider Tangled one of the top 5 animated movies OF ALL TIME!! Yes I said it! I strongly believe it is at the top of its genre...the old school Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Mulan, Lion King. I put this movie at the top of that list pretty easily. I have to think about it some more and re-watch it before I start listing it in the same sentence as Toy Story, Up, Ratatouille, and Finding Nemo. But I'm leaning in that direction.

Yes...it's THAT good. Hilarious, well written, great characters, perfect story, and amazing music. If you are a female or are the parent of one, you need to see this movie. Great flick! Well done Disney.

Hump day special!

2010-12-07T22:17:00.008-09:00

Now I'm just spoiling you! Two posts in one week? I think I only had two posts all last month! Well, what can I say? So for my few loyal family and friends that still occasionally check the blog, this is for you. We love you and thanks for loving us.

Speaking of, what do you think of the new banner up top? Those are about 8 pictures stitched together by my good friend Sam. I took those pictures when I was in King Salmon. That is the headwaters of the Naknek River where an incredible amount of salmon come through every year. When I took this picture, I could look down into the water and see thousands of salmon.

On with the random pictures! Lisa and the girls went next door the other day to make some holiday cookies.

And this was the other day when Lisa took the girls to meet Santa for the first time! It was a party put on by the Providence Hospital parenting groups that Lisa is involved with. I was working so I couldn't make it. I'll have to download some pics from Lisa's phone and we're ordering the "professional" pics. We'll share those soon. This was just the prep before the big day. Girls looked pretty excited, eh?

I call this picture "fancy pants!"

Notice they are holding hands. Pretty darn cute.

and a video for those who still look through all these pictures!

TWIN POWER!!

2010-12-05T22:06:00.006-09:00

Well good Monday morning! I have been slacking ... as many of you have pointed out!! I know. I know. I am trying. We have SO many pictures to catch up on. I haven't even finished showing my parents trip...not to mention my friend Tom's trip, my trip out to King Salmon, Lisa's trip to Portland, Grandpa and Nana's visit, plus all of the random pictures and adventures that we have every other day. I'm not ready to tackle one of those trips yet so here are some of those random pictures of the girls.

Cowgirls

It's almost like they're twins or something!

Cowgirl 'Lyssa

Goofball 'Lyssa

This is weird. I think this is the first time this has ever happened!

I love these pictures of the girls. Their hair is pretty fantastic. I'm a proud daddy.

Growing up too fast!!!

Iphone pics... take 2

2010-11-16T22:15:00.011-09:00

This could take a while. Did I mention Lisa had over 500 pictures on her iphone?!! Well, I'm picking through them pretty fast. Here is the next batch.

Back before Lisa's epic journey to Oregon, we worked on what the girls wanted to dress up for Halloween. They wanted to be cowgirls in the spirit of one of their favorite character from the movie Toy Story, Jessie. This isn't the complete outfit (you'll see that in another few days) but this was pretty cute. They were SO excited to be cowgirls!

Time to take their horsey for a ride.

I have some vicious wrestlers!

One of my faves. Lisa posted this on facebook. If you don't know, Lisa and I met in high school. She was in the drill team and I was in the marching band (a drummer, of course). So we thought it was hilarious that one of our girls dressed up all cute and was dancing around while the other went and grabbed the drum. This was all them.

The day that Lisa and the girls left for their trip, we tried to figure out a way to save some money on travel. This worked out well.

Their plane left after midnight so we let them sleep from about 8:30 until 10:30 and then headed up to the airport. We thought they would be groggy but NOPE! ...they were SO excited to get on that plane!! I was very fortunate to get a gate pass so I could go through security and help them to the plane.

I almost teared up when I got these pictures Lisa sent from the plane. I was so proud of my big girls! ...Lisa too. :)

Arriving very early in the morning and waiting for their luggage. They were very concerned about the luggage!

So many pictures taken in Oregon while Lisa and the girls visited "Aunt" Micki. I'll get to those in the next couple of days. In the mean time, here is what we did on our day off...took the girls to Bouncing Bears. Not sure who was having more fun here.

wow it's been a month!

2010-11-14T20:55:00.008-09:00

Ok...I got called out on facebook today. It's been a month since my last post. Unbelievable! Where has the time gone? Well...I'll tell you what happened. Iphones! Yeah, Lisa and I got Iphones and it's kinda changed the way we do things around here. All of our pictures and videos have been taken on the phones lately and either text'd back and forth or posted on facebook. I've done a terrible job keeping up with the blog since that happened.

So the other night I finally downloaded the hundreds of pictures from the phones. I'll start catching up with those. Sorry if some of you have already seen these posted somewhere else.

This goes way back to before the snow arrived and the leaves were still changing.

LOVE this picture. Not bad for a phone!!

The girls have discovered ice cream. Oh boy.

First haircut at a salon!

There was a funnier picture taken moments before this one. This was just a few minutes after A&M lost a tough football game and I was pretty upset. We decided to tackle the pumpkins and I was in the perfect mood to stab some unsuspecting victims. The picture that Lisa deleted...well, I it was similar to this except I had a little more emotion behind the knife. And the girls face was more fear then curiosity. Still, this is pretty funny.

Many of you know we had to take the girls in for allergy testing. We decided to run the full test and it was pretty tough on the girls. Heck, it was tough on us too.

This was a few moments after the 40 pricks. Katy screamed but Alyssa was very brave. But Alyssa had a much more severe reaction to peanuts so the next 20 minutes were pretty miserable while we waited.

This one, you can see how she was trying hard to move around and get comfortable while the prick on her right side was really itching. She was a trooper.

Soon after...Benadryl and some relief. We were doing everything to help them including giving them our phones to play any game they wanted. It actually did help.

So yes Alyssa has a pretty severe allergy to peanuts. We are going to treat them both the same so there's no accidental encounter. As much as that sucked, I'm glad we know for sure.

Next, I'll share the pictures from our huge adventure down to the lower 48! I went on a 2 week business trip (2 different workshops) while Lisa took the girls to see "Aunt" Micki near Portland.

quick trip out east

2010-10-07T19:50:00.012-08:00

I mentioned that I was heading East to attend a memorial service for a close family friend. It was a very quick trip but worth every second. It was an amazing experience to see family and celebrate John Randy's life. Because so many people couldn't come with us, I wanted to be sure I took as many pics as I could to try and capture the weekend. Making it more difficult, I can't share all 200+ pictures on the blog so I'm going to have a hard time picking through and just sharing a few.

I arrived in Charlotte at 5pm after leaving Anchorage at 2am! My brother had arrived a couple hours earlier so he rented a car and was waiting for me to drive the hour and a half to where we were meeting everyone else. We timed our arrival perfect with a dinner at a local Mexican food restaurant favorite with my parents, my sister, and Lois and Susie. Lois is the wife of John Randy and Susie is Lois' sister who has lived with and helped take care of John Randy for a long time. We had an awesome dinner...catching up...laughing...sharing...enjoying each other's company.

The next day was designated to be the GOLF day. John Randy and Lois were members of an exclusive club near the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. Lois had arranged for us to play with some of John Randy's and Dad's old college buddies on this AMAZING golf course. We arrived early and hit some balls to loosen up. Then it was off to the single greatest golf experience I've had!

Scott warming up on the chipping green.

The Association of Former Students hydrating before the round.

The gang teeing it up at hole #1. Unfortunately they really enforced the common rule of no groups greater than 4...so we had to split up. Front 9, Dad played with his old college buddies and the back 9 he played with Scott and I.

I thought this was a great picture of Dad whacking the ball off the tee. I don't recall where it went exactly but I do remember laughing about it and teasing him that we'd always have a picture to remember what a bad shot it was. Whoops.

As Scott and I were waiting to make our approach shots, I took this of the old fellas putting around.

Scott's approach.

Who's that dude with the nice follow through?!

Scott took this awesome shot of me blasting out of the bunker.

"Hey look! Your son is hiding in the woods taking pictures of us! Don't mess up."

It looked good...but he still messed up.

On the 9th hole, Scott and I were still licking our wounds from a ridiculously bad 8th. I smacked my drive down the middle of the fairway. Scott hit his on the other side of this little creek. So as he looked for a place to cross to find his ball, I told him to wait so I could get the camera...you know, just in case he fell in.

Unfortunately....I mean...fortunately, he made it over.

Awesome 10th hole. I hit mine just to the right of the fairway bunker...but still managed to 3 putt for a bogie. Scott and Dad parred this hole.

Scott and Dad talking about life, lunch, the course, John Randy, or maybe just how great it was to be together again playing golf.

Signature hole. BEAUTIFUL!!

Scott never reads the blog so I'll say it here...hey Scott, you need to not go so far back on your backswing!

Dad making contact.

Love LOVE this picture. Give Scott credit for taking a great picture. Give me credit for having a nice follow-through. ;)

This picture will hopefully be blown up and framed on each of our walls soon.

The clubhouse...oh this BEAUTIFUL clubhouse.

After a quick shower, we headed out to Lois' house for dinner and support. It was an amazing night filled with learning about the man that shaped so many people's lives. I had a hard time going through the pictures and choosing which ones to share...because I want to share stories about the people that mean so much to me. In the end, I need to be respectful and sensitive...so I will just share a few. This is my sister and Susie. I had never known Susie until this past week...she is AMAZING!!! I feel like we've always been family.

Just a scene in the semi-chaotic kitchen. Some delicious bbq being served up.

I like this picture of Scott and Susie talking while doing some dishes.

Much later in the evening, Lois is entertaining us with a great story.

The next morning was the service. It was held at the 10th tee box and I think I heard over 200 people were in attendance. It is a testament to what an incredible man John Randy is. It was an emotional and very powerful service.

I'm not sharing most of my pictures except for this one. This man told stories about John Randy that really changed me. He made me realize how much I missed out by not knowing John Randy as an adult. You see I grew up with John Randy like an uncle. He was my dad's college roommate, best man at my parents wedding, and close friend...but I never knew him as an adult. This man told stories about John Randy's character, leadership, service, influence, honor, courage...traits that I strive to achieve every day.

I had feelings of guilt for not getting to know him better as a man...selfish that I was wrapped up in my own world while he struggled daily with brain cancer. But comforted by his strength...knowing that he was surrounded by people who loved him dearly and that he fought for four and a half LONG years when the doctor's said he wouldn't last one. What an incredible man. I am honored to have known him and to call him my friend.

heading out of town

2010-10-02T18:33:00.005-08:00

I wanted to do one more quick post before I head to the east coast for a quick visit. A close family friend passed away last month. My entire family is flying out to celebrate his life in South Carolina Monday and Tuesday. Dad said it best in an email...

"Randy’s impact on my family was great. What’s more, it is only one example of the many lives and families that he influenced. Randy will not be forgotten. I look forward to seeing them at the celebration of Randy’s life at the Valley."

So while it seems like a long way to fly for such a short visit, it is well worth the time to be there to join in the celebration and comfort my parents while they grieve for the loss of such a close friend.

But before I leave, I wanted to share a few pictures that Lisa took today of the girls playing in the leaves today.

See you later in the week!

TIMBER!!

2010-09-27T23:00:00.009-08:00

I need to take a break from the vacation to share an interesting day we had last week. I was at work and we were having quite the wind storm. Lisa gives me a call to tell me that we lost a tree!!!

The next morning, our neighbor called a friend to come out and take care of it. After the first cut...

I hear "well, that didn't work".

Then I step inside and I hear screaming. So I go downstairs to see what's going on and I see my little tree-huggers.

Isn't that sweet?! My girls LOVE that tree. They cried and cried while the guy cut it down.

Something else completely random...tonight we decided to be pirates.

Hope you enjoyed the random post tonight.