Ummm, my sincerest apologies to those I lied to about posting quickly on our latest canoe trip to Silver Lake Flat. It will never happen again.

So last weekend, we invited a bunch of friends to go up to the lake with us and hang out for the day. We couldn’t have picked a better day to go.

Rather than bore you with a bunch of words, I will post the pictures for the day and then comment on them.

I headed up early in the morning with Tony Benjamin and his son so that we could get the spot we wanted. Normally we load the canoe on the Durango but this time I figured out a way to load it on the Jeep so that we could have it until the girls came up. Doesn’t it look natural up there?

See the Jeep is just an all around great vehicle. Trees not spaced apart just right for the hammock? No problem! Just use your jeep!

Yes Joslin, we are.

Action shot.

Another action shot.

The family out in the boat. Oh wait. Did we forget someone?

Silver Lake Flat is not that big but it sure is beautiful! We took a jeep ride up the mountain and had some spectacular views. It was quite the ride too.

Besides having our canoe, the Blakes brought up a little sailboat. I would like to say it was fun but I was too chicken to get in.

Here is Joslin doin’ some ‘fishing’. Did anyone bring hand sanitizer?

Alas, all good things must come to an end. A storm started to come in as we were getting ready to leave. It chased us out of there real good. It was a great day though and I think everyone had a good time.

As we ramp up yet again for all the political campaigns for various offices locally and nationally, it seems that more and more people are becoming politically and socially motivated to affect change. Hopeful presidential nominees are campaigning up and down this great nation of ours kissin’ babies and shakin hands. It’s admirable that anyone would subject themselves to such public scrutiny. Most don’t have the intestinal fortitude for public service in this day and age.

So, it’s with great humility that I throw my hat into the ring. Yes, I am running for a public office. I don’t have the fancy tour bus or billion dollar campaign donation generation machine but I do have one thing. My family. They will support me and verify that I am totally qualified for office.

What office you might ask? President of the United States of America?

HECK NO!

Congressman?

HECK NO!

Something in state / local government?

HECK NO!

Without further adieu, I announce my candidacy for Father of the Year. This prestigious office and designation only goes to the best fathers. I feel like I fit in that category. To help influence the vote this year, I submit exhibit A for your review:

“I’m sorry for being a bad kid Love Noah”

Last night, I got mad at Noah because he got out of bed for the umpteenth time and I lost it. I said a few words, he said a few words and we both stormed off in different directions. Unbeknownst to me, he left the house with his bike and a sleeping bag. He was ‘running away’. Of course he didn’t get far, I think he made it to the other side of the neighbors fence and laid out his sleeping bag. He was determined to stay there until he realized no one really knew he was gone and finally packed up and snuck back into the house.

I was completely unaware and this morning I saw the above sticky note on our bedroom door. I was heartbroken. For some reason, I was blessed with a tender hearted kid who tries to always do the right thing and when he strays just a bit, I get upset with him.

Father of Year candidate? I’ll let you decide…

For the past few years and without fail, I have become seriously ill each Mother’s Day. And by ill, I mean a really severe man-flu/cold that prevented me from doing my Mother’s Day duties. Last year, Juli noticed that I was sick each Mother’s Day and so this year I decided to cool it.

No seriously, I had been sick in the past and did my best but Juli never really got her due Mother’s Day break from responsibilities. This year was going to be different!

We started the weekend by going on a date to the movies. (Despite what I write next, you must know that Juli did in fact pick the movie.) We saw the movie Thor. It was awesome. Very clean and a good message.

Saturday morning, I took the kids to the store and told them they could get Mom anything they wanted. Hailey picked out a little flower shaped pillow. I think she wanted it because the cart was hurting her head when she laid down.

Noah got her a snow cone maker with grape and cherry syrup. He also got her a bag of kit kats because that is her favorite candy. Smart kid.

Jos got her some popsicle makers that you put liquid in and freeze.

As you can see, we have some really unselfish kids. Always thinking of mom.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, go the kids ready and we got Juli her ‘presents’. I then worked by myself to get the kids ready for church. So what if we were 15 minutes late.

After church, I made lunch for the kids and whipped up some delicious tuna sandwiches with Kalamata olives, roasted peppers, spicy ranch dressing, and red onion served on ciabatta bread with lettuce and cheese. After lunch, we put the kids down for naps and Juli actually got a nap longer than 5 minutes.

For dinner I cleaned up the grill and we BBQ’d some chicken, Italian sausage with zucchini and squash, and some roasted corn on the cob. It was delicious if I may say so.

All in all it was a great day.

Why am I writing this then a day late? Well, I didn’t want to vomit….

This was Joslin’s statement when asked about her nightmare last night! Funny now, not so funny when it happens to you…

Just Sayin’

Life is super busy right now. We have a lot of irons in the fire so to speak and we keep adding more now that spring and soon summer is upon us. The kids have been loving the outdoors lately. Today, I caught them outside digging up my weeds. Now if they would do the whole back yard!

One of the projects we have going is Juli and I have come up with several ideas for iPhone/iPad applications that will help parents with autistic kids. The first one we are attempting is called Picture Me Calm.

In the office we have a picture schedule board that we load up with pictures of tasks for the kids to do. For Hailey it is a great way to communicate what we want her to do. She has a hard time processing auditory commands especially when you string 2 or more together. The picture board allows her to see a task, do it and then move onto the next one. We got to talking and thought, this would make a great iPad app. Then you could take it with you wherever you went. It could be used for everything from going to the dentist office to going to church to cleaning up the house.

The app will have a standard library of picture activities (brushing teeth, making a bed, going to school) that can be arranged and saved. The idea is to select a schedule and hand the device to the child (or help them with it if needed) and let them go to work. The nice thing about it is that it not only works for Hailey but for Noah and Joslin too.

I am racing to design the app and will have to find someone to program it. I could do the programming but it would take me 3x as long. I would rather get it out for Hailey’s sake and to see if we can make some extra income off of it. There aren’t hardly any apps out that do this and the ones that do are either in Japanese or horribly designed and overpriced.

Wish us luck!

In other news, I was going through my image library and remembered this image from when Noah and I went down to Arizona. One of the days, Bommy took us to the zoo and paid for Noah and Delly to ride a camel. Both of them got right up there and had the time of their life. They were real camel jockeys.

I just knew that Joslin was not ready for her bed! Last night at 2AM, we heard a loud THUD, with wailing immediately following. From a dead sleep, both Juli and I jumped up and rushed to Joslin’s room. She had fallen out of bed and was crying like a baby. She was pretty scared and slept in our room the rest of the night. Tonight, I moved the bed to a less than aesthetically pleasing arrangement and Juli padded the side of the bed that is exposed. Hopefully she gets used to the bed and doesn’t go bump in the night.

This picture is from the archives. Was too lazy to take a new one.

So I am in a pickle. Noah questioned me last night as I was putting him to bed about the Easter Bunny. In his most innocent voice, he asked, “The Easter Bunny is real, right dad? I mean, you saw the Tooth Fairy and took a picture of her so the Easter Bunny must be real too, right?” Oh goodness. Fortunately, he is easily distracted with my iPhone games so I quickly asked if he wanted to play Fruit Memory and like the dog in the movie UP, he went on point and said “GAME!” That was a close one. I think it might be time to come clean. I’m really regreting the picture I ‘took’ of the Tooth Fairy.

A few weeks ago, Joslin turned 4. It’s unbelievable really. Well, we have had her still sleeping in a crib. For the past few months before her b-day she has been asking for a big girl bed. I have steadfastly refused under the guise that “it’s too much money”. Secretly, I haven’t wanted to get her a bed because that means she is no longer a baby. My baby is all growed up. ;( Juli kept pressing me and I kept ignoring. Well, she finally got fed up with me and decided to save her babysitting money. She did the research and found the bed she wanted and went and got it. So this weekend we got a mattress and put it all together. Joslin was so excited. I don’t see why, who doesn’t want to sleep in a small confined space with bars? I mean really!

Speaking of Easter, we had a great day. We decided to take a drive after church up Butterfield Canyon. It was a little chilly but the kids had fun. Here are some pictures from our Easter Sunday:

How about this hot mamma?

Running down the road during our hike:

Umm, I think I forgot about this blog. Sorry ’bout that. Anywho, here are some pictures we took of the kids today.

It’s a little known fact that back in 1973, the office of Secret Creatures And Myths (S.C.A.M for short) was being investigated for misappropriation and mismanagement of funds. At the same time O.P.E.C. began it’s worldwide oil embargo causing significant interruptions in travel. These two significant events created a perfect storm in which the S.C.A.M. would take years to recover from. Some departments never did fully recover. Santa and his elves were the least affected but the Toothfairy, well she still hasn’t recovered. It’s all political. Some threats were made and resignation letters turned in but in the end, the Toothfairy negotiated with the Managing Director to hire regional representatives to collect teeth at the appropriate time. Unfortunately these new regional “Toothfairies” decided to unionize. Last night, after filing several grievances with the S.C.A.M., the regional toothfairies walked out on the job leaving many little kids with dashed dreams of big bucks this morning.

Our Noah was one such kid.

To his dismay, the “regional” Toothfairy didn’t come last night as expected and leave some money for his first lost tooth. Noah was so distraught; shaking his very faith in Secret Creatures And Myths. Juli and I assured him that some mistake was made but now we know that they went on strike. I mean really! Who strikes against making kids happy?! I think I will file a complaint with the United Toothfairy Association Local 4327 about this egregious and outrageous behavior. This Toothfairy should be fired.

** UPDATE

After Noah had gone to school this morning and when I was getting ready for work upstairs, I heard a loud sound coming from Noah’s room. I quickly grabbed my camera (cause that’s what you would grab when you think there is an intruder in the house) and rushed downstairs. It was dark down there but I was able to quickly fire off a shot of this:

Calling into Local 4327, I learned that the strike has been resolved and normal service will be returning. Apparently our regional rep is going to be putting in some overtime and delivering money for teeth while kids are at school. Whew! Noah will be so happy…

Just a quick video of my little ‘blondie’. Gosh this girl is cute. Don’t you agree?