Joshua's Hero

We had some excitement in the pool Sunday. Anna was playing with Maria and talking with another person. Jesse was taken by Sammy's pudgy cuteness and Sammy was laughing with delight in the water. Meanwhile, Joshua was walking back and forth along a long ledge in the pool that was only 1.5 foot deep, but it has a 1.5 foot drop. Joshua fell into the deep water when we about 15 feet away and not paying attention. A woman )fully clothed) sitting nearby and watching her kids saw Joshua slide under. She jumped into the water and pulled him up. We and the life guards would have gotten to him only a few seconds later, but she followed her motherly instinct and made herself a hero.

One of the life guards, Jewel, helped comfort Joshua. She promised Joshua to help him swim on Monday and to bring him chocolate. Joshua felt so special that Jewel took such interest in him that he became proud of his scary experience. Before we went to the pool Monday evening Joshua quizzed us, " who is going to bring me Chocolate? Jewel is!"

While our cautious Joshua was not swimming laps after the swim lesson, he was a little more comfortable in the water. Thanks Jewel for paying so much attention to Joshua and making him feel so special.

Sting Rays

We went to an aquarium with Carrie Lane's Family (she's our company's General Manager). They had a big shallow pool with 15-20 Sting Rays. We bought a few sardines and these big rays would come right up out of the water and eat the fish out of our hands.
Joshua was apprehensive at first but warmed up to these big friendly fish very quickly.
Maria wanted nothing to do with them the whole time. But she did enjoy riding on the indoor Merry Go Round.

Joshua's "kinimatic punch"

Joshua was interested in the little round white discs that were left in our room by the housekeeper. Anna told him they were cosmetic sponges. We gave him one to play with.

Later in the evening after dinner Joshua was wandering around the room asking "where is my Kinimatic Punch!"

It took us a few minutes before we realized that he was trying to say cosmetic sponge :-)

Joshua is a real "lady killer"

Joshua captivates and "scares" a group of female Boeing employees.

What a place

The Opryland hotel is amazing; it is the largest non-gambling hotel in the nation.
So far we have went on a boat ride indoors, seen a woman on stilts covered in vines moving around slowly like Treebeard, walked about 5 miles through their 9 acres of lush green glass covered gardens.

The Delta river that looped around the largest of the three atriums and it had water from 1700 other bodies of water in it, including Galilee. There were tons of catfish in it (including a big albino catfish) and some wood ducks.

Joshua held a little snail and had fun watching him pull his eyes in when he was touched.

We'll tell you more about our trip as more things happen. I will be registering for the convention today, and be busy all weekend in the seminars and tradeshow. Please pary that Anna has the energy to keep up with the kids in this huge place.

We're in Kentucky now.

A little help for our trip so we don't get lost. Thanks Dad!

Getting ready

I have my last final exam tonight in my Financial Statements class. After a few hours of sleep all of us will leave for Nashville. We are going to the Building Service Contractor's International (BSCAI) convention. It is the biggest event for our industry. My dad started going to these annual conventions nearly 15 years ago.

We will be driving down 8 - 10 hours which will be our longest family trip ever (with the kids). My dad was kind enough to lend us his Garmin GPS navigator that uses satellites to keep us on the right path.

We'll be staying at the Opryland Hotel which looks like an amazing place with two huge green houses that are like a city and rain forest under glass.

Please pray that we have a safe and tranquil trip down.

A visit to the wild

When we pulled off the dirt road we were greeted by the sight of a big colorful ring-necked pheasant. He didn't fly off, he just walked slowly along his way as we watched him.

We got out of the car and zipped up our coats to help deter the blowing wind. The kids were wondering where we were, we told them that this was the land that we are going to buy. We asked them if they wanted to build a house out in the field we were standing in...they said, "yeah," (but I am sure they didn't understand what that meant). In case you didn't know already, we are joining with my parents, my sister and brother in law, and some friends to buy 50 acres out in the country with plans to build houses in the future.

We walked down the steep slope to the river bank below. We got some mud on our shoes and Anna mentioned that having a shower in our future mudroom will be a practical necessity when we live out here. I thoroughly agree, in fact we might need to set up a decontamination chamber for kids to go through after they have played out in the woods all day :)

The river was flowing slowly. We measured it with a big branch and I think it was about 3-4 feet deep. Anna and I were talking about how we don't know what the 12+ acres of wilderness across the river holds. For all I know it could be unexplored territory, never touched by civilized man. There could be some ancient tribe still living on our land as they have been for a millenia. Well, probably not, but I sure am looking forward to the first time we make it across the wide river. In the mean time Joshua was trying to fill the river with sticks by throwing them in one at a time which would take a long time, so we had to ask him to stop so we could go back to the car.

On our way back to the car Joshua and Maria were so cute holding hands. I think this land is going to be a really great place to raise a family. Please pray that God will be with us as we work to build a strong Christian family culture that glorifies God.

Joshua's ABC's

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We had little green pancakes with chocolate chips in them for breakfast.

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
-Mother Theresa 1910 - 1997

Sammy pulled himself right up on the bed rail. His legs are getting strong enough to lift his chubby body.

Fun with Dry Ice

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At first Maria thought this stuff was hot because it looks like steam, but it is actually quite cold. Much colder than, say, an ice cube.

This is cool, when you put a lid on the container the gas creates enough pressure to pop it right off. Maria thought this was funny.

Hello Dada

Maria has been saying "hi" for a while, but she just started saying "hello."

Fun at the park

Today, which is Sunday, we got up early, and Anna made blueberry pancakes (our Sunday tradition) . She makes big ones for her and me and little tiny ones for Joshua and Maria. Joshua loves to say "syrup pleeeease" and have us drip real maple syrup on his plate. After going to mass at Christ the King, we met the Browns (Cindy, my older sister married Ben Brown) at a park in Plymouth. It had been dreary and even misty in the morning after some rain last night, so we took a chance by going out. After only a few minutes the sun came out and the temp touched 60F + which is a great temperature as far as I'm concerned.

The Joshua and Maria played around with Dominic and Damien Brown on the play structures for a while, but then the nearby stream started beckoning and we all walked over. After a bunch of splashing and throwing balls into the water we made our way down stream to where the water had collected and was standing in low spots of the grass (about 6" deep at most). Our kids didn't hesitate to walk right in (and we didn't want to stop them because it looked like so much fun). Other parents with kids in fancy strollers were walking by and would look at us like we were nuts. Their kids would ask "mommy can I go in the water too?" and the response would be something like, "no we don't do that." Well we do and when Dominic and Damian finally joined Josh and Maria the party was on: running, splashing, falling ect. After about 20 minutes we went back to the cars and were glad that we had thought to bring extra cloths.
Too bad we forgot to bring our camera. Oh well. Next time we'll remember.

Joshua pushes Sammy around in a bucket

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Sammy in line for confession (quite the sinner wouldn't you say?)