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Its Christmas morning…but still quiet in the house at 4am.

I’m sitting here in the kitchen watching it snow and blow outside, and thinking about how wonderful things are right now….

• I have a house full of family.  Most of the kids are here (Adam and Sarah will try to come over later this morning);
• Everyone has jobs, and although money is tight for some of the kids, they are getting through;
• I have parents and siblings who live close by, and take an active interest in our family;
• We have great friends here in Tonganoxie that we share with and truly love;
• I have a son who is serving our country in the Air Force…loves it…and has turned his life around.  And he is home for the holidays;
• I have another son who is working towards getting into the Air Force, and taking care of his family;
• I have two daughters that are doing very well in school, are well adjusted, and participate in a ton of extra-curricular activities;
• One of girls, at twelve years of age, still believes that you put out  milk and cookies for Santa;
• I have a beautiful granddaughter that is going to be four years old this year…and she forces me to see life through the eyes of child;
• I have a wonderful wife who love me unconditionally and makes my life whole;
• And now I’m going to have a white Christmas….

See…I’m not hard to buy for at all!

Have a very safe, warm, and Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Kansas City Chiefs

Its taken twenty years…but I’ve learned that my life really doesn’t change because of wins and losses for my sports teams.

I had a ton of things to say….but I just don’t have the heart.

Ugh.

It’s almost Christmas…I can tell because the stores that we visit have Christmas stuff out…for well over a month already. Ugh.

Diane and I asked the girls for their Christmas lists…as we do each year. And this year like every other,  we are amazed at the quantity and quality of the items that we receive on the list.  It just doesn’t seem as simple as it was when we were kids.

I can remember when I was younger, one of my favorite things was to get out the big Sears and JC Penney catalogs, and pour through the toy section in back. This would be the backbone of my wish list. Then I might add a few things that I saw on tv commercials…usually things that were shown during Saturday morning cartoons. And to top it off, I would probably add a few things that I saw that my friends already had.

Fast forward to adulthood…and I really do not make lists anymore for gifts.

And that is the problem. My wife never knows what to get me.

Every year, we have the same little dance that we do over Christmas gifts. She always asks what I want, and I never have a good answer. Its not that I don’t want anything…its usually that what I want is expensive and unrealistic. Or expensive enough that I don’t feel right about asking for it at Christmas time, and taking away from the gifts that her and children might receive. And so I am always surprised by the gifts I receive.

You should not take that last line as a bad thing. In fact…its wonderful. I really love the gifts that I have received…even if my wife doesn’t believe so! One year, I received a gift-certificate for a massage. It was wonderful. The months around Christmas were very stressful for me that year (things at work…), and the massage certificate was the perfect gift. Of course, I put it away in place where I would not lose it…saving it for when I felt like I really NEEDED it…and of course I lost it. (But sweetheart….I would love another one!)

Another year, I received a really good book on Genealogy. It is a terrific book…and at the time, I was really into it. And then after receiving it, it went on the book shelf, with grand plans to dig through it during my spare time. Then things got busy in life, work got busier, family things took precedent, and I kind of lost the genealogy bug. But I’m hanging onto it because I know that someday the bug will bite again.

The gifts that have worked the best have been gift certificates and gift cards to places that I can go to pick out gifts for myself…or my hobby. Those I haven’t misplaced or lost. They were used to purchase items that I still use and love.

But the gifts that I love the most…are the handmade gifts from the girls. It really doesn’t matter what it is…if they put the effort into it…its wonderful. Of course now that they are pret-teens and teenagers, I don’t know how many more of those type of gifts I can expect.  Its a shame really.

Thanksgiving has come and gone…Black Friday is past…and the dance with my wife has started anew. She has again asked what I would like for Christmas…and again I don’t have a good answer.

I would like to think I have have come a long way from those days of looking for toys in the Sears and Penney’s catalogs….

But then again…I did get a B&H Photo catalog the other day…

The toys are just more expensive.

Sept 17.

That was the last blog post.

32 Days.

Thats a long time between blog posts.

In between, there have been volleyball games for two daughters, Saturday tournaments, long hours at work, four ugly Chiefs game, and very little free time.

What there hasn’t been…any blog posts, and no photography for fun.  There have been plenty of good intentions…but no pictures…no words.

That finally changed today.

Today, we made our annual pilgrimage the pumpkin patch:  Pumpkins, ETC.  Bill Wright and his family have been running the pumpkin patch since 1984, and we have been going every year since Jessica was one…1998.

And every year, we take photos.  Its something that both dad and the girls look forward to every year.

So the camera finally came out…pictures were actually taken for fun…and a new blog posting was created.

Now to just keep it rolling….

PS…here are the pictures

While we on vacation this year in Washington, we were eating dinner one evening when my oldest daughter just blurted out….

“Dad…you have a double chin!”

Imagine, if you will, how that would make you feel…Well, I felt the same way.  I mean…I know I was eating whatever I wanted…its vacation!

But at that point, I became determined to lose some weight…keep it off…get rid of the double chin.

So as soon as I came home from vacation, I started back on the South Beach Diet.

Now, you have to understand.  I was a McDonald’s child.  I grew up with Big Macs and French Fries.  We did not have it a lot when I was in elementary school, but it became a lot more common for me as I grew up.  Through high school and college, and while on the road with my first real job after school, I ate a lot of fast food.  Then our kids came along, and with every trip, game, long day at work…came a dinner or meal out.  The majority of which was fast food.  I love my fries…my carbs!

But…I was determined.  I did not want my daughters to think that their father had a double chin!

I was off to a fantastic start…lost ten pounds just like that.  Those are the easiest.  Then came the hard part…dinner with friends at “The Burger Shack” in Lawrence.  Fantastic burgers and fries.  So I cheated…had my fun…and then got back on the horse.

After I lost fifteen pounds, I was feeling pretty proud of myself!  Only cheated the one time (and I can still smell that burger….), and stuck to my diet.

So at dinner one evening, we talked about my diet, how much weight I had lost, and after a few minutes of conversation, I proudly asked Emily if she could still see the double chin.

And her reply….

“Dad, I hate to tell you this…but you still have a double chin!”

And then she proceeded to tell me about the spot on my chin where it looks like I have a vertical line dividing it into two halves….a cleft chin!

I could have killed her.

But I’m still losing.  I needed to do it, and I am.  As of this morning…lost twenty-two (22) pounds.  And only between twelve and seventeen more to go!

Thanks kiddo….

I never used to understand people who had a large calendar on their wall full of information.  Who could be that busy?

Apparently, we can….

In August, vacation came and went.  Way too fast.  Then it was the county fair.  Then school started…and we thought things would slow down…get back into a normal routine.

With two daughters in two schools, and both playing volleyball…nothing is routine.

The red items on the calendar….school items.  Games.  Places to be.

I’m afraid to look at October.

It has been two nights…two different hotels…and so far, not a bad bed. So at least momma has been happy. The girls: Well, there hasn’t been a pool in sight yet, so they are a little cranky.

Today is a little slower. We only have one sight to see, and we are hoping it is worth the drive: Mount Rainier National Park.

Its a little over an hour to the park from our hotel, so we pass the time with music from one of the iPods. Luckily we all like country music…because that’s all the girls want to listen to. Could be worse…the boys liked rap. Ugh.

The road we take to the National Park is forest…tall trees along both sides of the road. So tall, that you cannot see anything over them, and can only see the sky by looking ahead or straight up. Its beautiful! And our destination sneaks up on us because we can’t see it. And when we do finally see it…its by accident.

We stopped at a large stream just to get out and stretch our legs. You can see below in the rock bed of the stream that there are paths that take you over to the stream itself. Its about 30 feet below us, and over a 100 yards away. Initially, we tell the girls we are not going down there…but we caved. I’m so glad we did.

There was a small “bridge” that I told the girls that they COULD NOT CROSS, but I soon found out that we lived in a democracy, and I lost the vote…so all three of the girls crossed. Once they got across, they noticed the view that was initially hidden from us…

As we drove into and around the park, we noticed waterfalls, streams, and creeks everywhere. The roads were windy, very steep hills. The girls were amazed to see people on bicycles riding through the park. I believe their response was “That would suck on these hills!”

We drove around the entire park, and finished at a summit that is only open during the summer months. By now, it was mid-afternoon, and the view was gorgeous!

We ended the day in Yakima, WA at another Best Western. Dinner was seafood…we could not take any more burgers for a while.

Tomorrow…The Grand Coulee Dam…and “the boy”.

And thank goodness…finally…we are in a hotel with a pool!

Day 2 – Wednesday.

It was cool and overcast in Forks. Great weather if your a vampire, but not so hot for vacation. Or maybe it was. Today was beach day, and I think that the overcast and mist added to scenery.

Breakfast. The hotel recommended the cafe just down the street, and it was busy! So it must be good, right? Well, the portions were huge, we ordered way too much, and Emily had to keep getting up and refilling our coffee cups as the waitress was very busy. We teased her (Emily) that she had found her calling. Hopefully not.

It was about a 20 minute drive to La Push, and then just a few minutes to Rialto Beach. By now, it was misting pretty good, and we were going to get wet. Didn’t matter.

After climbing over the driftwood, Jessica was out of her shoes and barefoot on the beach. The scenery, even overcast and misting, was breathtaking. But they soon found out…the ocean water here was cold! In the 50 degrees cold.

We walked about a mile down the beach, and saw the huge rock formations there. The driftwood, if you can call it that, was huge! And even in this cold beach, it was teaming with life. Crabs, starfish, and seagulls.

We planned on spending about an hour here, and spent three. It was worth the extra time.

Soon we were in the car, and trying to dry out and warm up. The next stop was the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park.

Along the way, we made a few stops, and finally found a small place to get a bite to eat: The Hard Rain Cafe. Not much here…but I highly recommend the burgers. It was as good as it looks.

The rain forest was immense. We didn’t spend much time there, as it wasn’t as impressive as we thought it might be. I don’t think we knew what we are supposed to expect. But it was fun nevertheless.

We spent the rest of the day driving along the coast, stopping at another beach, stopping at rivers, creeks and waterfalls. We really did not have anything else planned. We knew that today was going to be a little slower than the first, and we ended in Tumwater, WA. Dinner was at a Dairy Queen along the way (ugh), and overnight at a Best Western without a pool. (Thats what my girls call “roughing it”!).

Day two of vacation. Eight hours of sleep, and we (the adults) were feeling refreshed. The teenagers…well, we are used to them thinking that we have lost our minds.

Forks, WA. Its a sleepy town (at least it is at 8 am in the morning).

Its also the main setting for the “Twilight” series of books.

If you don’t have a teenage girl…Twilight, is a series of books about a teenage vampire love story. It is immensely popular, and Emily has read all the books, and they both have seen the first movie.

The location of the books is Forks, WA. I think it is partly because of the clouds, rainy weather, and such being good for the complexion of vampires. Obviously, I haven’t read the books.

We heard it a hundred times while were driving yesterday…

The locals: “Where are you headed?”

Us: “Forks.”

The locals: “Oh…is it a vampire thing?”

Obviously, we were not first family with teen-age girls to visit Forks. The Twilight paraphernalia was everywhere. T-Shirts, sweatshirts, pictures, tours, signs…if you can think of it…it was there. At the cafes, hotels, gas stations…everywhere. Its a big deal.

And as we started our morning heading to Rialto Beach, we drove through La Push, WA., we saw the sign:

Its a teenage, romance, vampire thing…you might not understand.

Its actually day five for us, but lack of sleep and Internet access has kept me from blogging, so now I’m trying to catch up. Forgive me in advance…

3:00 am: The girls thought we have lost our minds. “You want us to get up at 3 am? Have you lost your mind dear parents?

To maximize the amount of time that we had on our first day of vacation, we booked a 7 am flight from KC to Seattle. We had a short layover in Denver, and we told the girls they could sleep on the plane.

We got out of the house on time, picked up Grandma so that we did not have to leave a car at the airport, and after breakfast at McDonald’s, we were at the airport. We were even ahead of schedule.

Weather would fix that for us.

We had a short delay, and then we were off. It was a BUMPY flight. And we were now behind schedule. As we were landing in Denver, Diane began to lose stomach lining over the fact that we might miss our connecting flight. We had less than five minutes to get to our next gate and board. As it turns out, the vacation gods were smiling upon us, and our connecting flight was right next to our arrival. Time to spare.

The girls spent the next flight relaxing by watching TV. (Special thanks to Frontier Airlines, Direct TV, and $12.)

We arrived at the airport, had a quick scare that they lost part of our luggage (just a blocked luggage belt), grabbed our rental car, and we were off. First stop: Pike’s Fish Market.

I’m sure that Seattle is beautiful. I’m sure it has some amazing places to visit, tour, and spend time in. But we wanted mountains, oceans, and open road. So we zipped down the Interstate, and found the fish market. And it was worth it!

Lunch was first. By now, it was almost 1 pm (Pacific time), and it had been five hours since breakfast. So much to Emily’s chagrin, we had fish for lunch. Lucky for her (she is picky, and hates fish) they had chicken strips. We ate at Lowell’s at the Pike’s Place Market. Jessica was in “Fish and Chips” heaven, and Diane loved the prawns. Even Emily finally broke down, had a bite of Jessica’s fish, and begrudgingly approved of the fish.

We walked the length of the market, and found the guys that throw the fish around. The girls had a ball watching them throw the fish, and looking at the different types of fish and seafood there.

Then we took a short drive to the ferry to Bainbridge Island. This was the highlight of the trip so far. The girls absolutely loved it! The scenery was beautiful, and they were amazed that we could take our car on the ferry with us!

So far so good!

Then we had a long drive along Bainbridge Island, up to the coast, and along a few lakes. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We were zipping right along, making good time. We made a few stops along the way…bathroom breaks, scenery breaks, etc.

Diane wanted desperately to visit Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point in the continental United States, and is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. But to call it “secluded” doesn’t do it justice. We were a little worried that we might not get there before dark, and knew that it would kill us the next day if we had to back track to see it. So we pushed on. By now, it was almost seven pm, and we decided to keep going rather than stop and eat.

Big Mistake.

We made it…and it was gorgeous. I blogged about it a couple of days go, and trust me…the pictures from the amateur photographer do not do it justice! The light was perfect! Dusk. A little overcast. Everyone should see it this way!

Now the road to Cape Flattery is curvy and hilly. Its fun to drive! But its not so fun for two girls that are hungry, tired, and maybe just a little cranky. As we left the Cape, the girls were complaining about headaches, stomach aches, and being pissy. They wanted to eat. NOW! But thats the other thing about the Cape…it is literally on the end of the earth! No civilization. We drove about thirty miles back to Neah Bay. By this time, its past 9 pm. Its been ten hours since lunch. We had been up 18 hours, and the girls were feeling the pain.

We found a little cafe at Neah Bay, and they closed at 9. But they felt sorry for the girls, still had some customers there, and took us in. The girls ordered…Emily – Chicken Strips (of course!), and Jessica wanted Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes, and cup of hot chocolate.

Now any sane parent would have put their foot down, and said no to the Chicken Fried Steak. They would have had the discussion around the fact that she had an upset stomach, that she needed to eat something light. They would have reminded her that we had a long windy road to Forks, WA for the night. Unfortunately, those sane parents were not around at the time, and Diane and I stood in for them, and allowed the order. Jessica “downed” the hot chocolate, ordered another, and then the stomach sent the message….

You now have 30 seconds to recognize this message, and find place to get sick! She did make it to the bathroom, but not the toilet. Ugh.  Obviously the vacation gods were now looking over some other family…

We apologized profusely, ate quickly, paid, and took off. We still had over an hour to Forks, WA where our hotel reservation was.

We arrived safely…10:45 pm. And fell to our beds exhausted. A twenty hour day.

What the hell were we thinking?

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