28 December 2016
25 December 2016
Christmas Morning
This year the Christmas holiday was longer than usual, since Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. We did the usual traditions, and not so usual traditions (I had a certain male procedure done on the 22nd). So, I was off from Thursday to Tuesday without much to do but hang out and spend time with the family and kids.
We went to Christmas Eve "Mess" at 3 and then can back to our house for our traditional fondue dinner. My parents joined us and watched us open our pajamas. After they left we watched Elf and then went to bed.
We didn't buy the kids many presents. They get plenty of presents from everyone else in the family. However, we did give them two presents and went with a technology theme. As much as I don't like the idea of giving them these types of gifts, it's inevitable and they are a part of life today...so we might as well start getting them used to them so that they can be properly managed. Plus, they are fun.
They were both given a kids "smart watch" they had been wanting. It's a just digital watch with a touch screen and small games like tic-tac-toe, fitness apps, and the ability to take low quality pictures, videos, and voice memos. Things like that. The bigger present was that we also gave them our old iPhones. We got new phones months ago but I kept the old ones to give to them for Christmas. Now they don't need to use our phones for games! The phones aren't connected to cell service, so they are basically like iPod touches. They can use wifi for some things, but otherwise have been locked down and only use limited functions. It's fun to get a text message from them while at work. They don't know the passcode to unlock the phones, so that's another way we can control usage. We'll see how it goes. For now they are having a lot of fun with their new big kid toys.
At the end of the video there are a couple clips of a fun little game for Jonathan. The strings are supposed to imitate laser sensors, and every time a player touches a string the countdown timer loses 20 seconds. The goal is to collect all the required cards/items and disarm the bomb before the time runs out!
We went to Christmas Eve "Mess" at 3 and then can back to our house for our traditional fondue dinner. My parents joined us and watched us open our pajamas. After they left we watched Elf and then went to bed.
We didn't buy the kids many presents. They get plenty of presents from everyone else in the family. However, we did give them two presents and went with a technology theme. As much as I don't like the idea of giving them these types of gifts, it's inevitable and they are a part of life today...so we might as well start getting them used to them so that they can be properly managed. Plus, they are fun.
They were both given a kids "smart watch" they had been wanting. It's a just digital watch with a touch screen and small games like tic-tac-toe, fitness apps, and the ability to take low quality pictures, videos, and voice memos. Things like that. The bigger present was that we also gave them our old iPhones. We got new phones months ago but I kept the old ones to give to them for Christmas. Now they don't need to use our phones for games! The phones aren't connected to cell service, so they are basically like iPod touches. They can use wifi for some things, but otherwise have been locked down and only use limited functions. It's fun to get a text message from them while at work. They don't know the passcode to unlock the phones, so that's another way we can control usage. We'll see how it goes. For now they are having a lot of fun with their new big kid toys.
At the end of the video there are a couple clips of a fun little game for Jonathan. The strings are supposed to imitate laser sensors, and every time a player touches a string the countdown timer loses 20 seconds. The goal is to collect all the required cards/items and disarm the bomb before the time runs out!
17 December 2016
Great Wolf Lodge
The Great Wolf Lodge just opened up near our house and we were able to stay there on opening weekend! I had never heard of this chain until they started work on the one in town, even though they are all over the country. It's a total family "staycation", complete with hotel, restaurants, and an indoor water park. There are also other games like MagiQuest (a electronic scavenger hunt with wands that is scattered around different floors of the hotel), miniature golf, etc....but the main attraction is the water park. In Colorado an indoor water park is like gold, since it's really hard to stay warm outside when wet even in the summer.
The hotel actually opened up a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, so we were able to make reservations immediately even though most of the dates in December and January were already booked. You have to be a hotel guest to use the water park, so I reserved a room for our family and my parents with my credit card points. When you stay you have access to the water park from 1 p.m. the day of check in and all day until close on the day of checkout. My parents joined us the first afternoon to see the place and to ride the waves.
Since it was the first weekend there were some glitches that needed to be worked out. But that was to be expected. Only about half our wrist bands that allowed us into the water park and that were our hotel room keys worked, so we had to get them fixed later. Right before we going to change into our swimming gear the fire alarm went off, slightly delaying our fun. But after that everything went pretty smoothly. It was nice staying in a brand new hotel, knowing that at most our room had only been used one night before we were there.
We were excited about going for another reason. Jonathan had grown to just barely over 42 inches (from my measurements at home). That was good enough to allow him to ride some of the bigger rides with tubes and mats (Julia was able to ride all the rides since she was over 48 inches tall). However, the first day, the girl working at check in gave him a red band meaning he had to stay in the little kid's section. Even though he was tall enough, I think she took off too much from his height since he was wearing boots. The second day I was determined to not let that happen again. We cut off his red (under 42 inches) bracelet so that he would have to be measured again. This time I stuffed the bottom of his boots with some of my socks to make him taller. And this time there was a different person (a guy) working the check in. Jonathan (and all of us) were so excited when he was given a yellow band for being over 42 inches tall. That allowed him to ride some of the bigger rides you'll see in the videos below.
Later that night we started the kids on a game of MagiQuest. We woke up and did some more of that the next morning too. The kids have been back a couple of times since staying there to continue their quest. I think they really had a lot of fun. I certainly had a lot of fun. I was the only one in the family to brave the green slide. This ride was at the very top of the water park. How it works is that you stand in a upright cylinder until the floor drops out from under you. Free Fallin' straight down for a little while until the slide curves around and you hit a bunch of water to slow you down at the bottom. I found it to be pretty unnerving the first time I did it. After that, the next several times were just fun because you knew what was going to happen.
It's not cheap, but we'll definitely be going back and doing this again.
The hotel actually opened up a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, so we were able to make reservations immediately even though most of the dates in December and January were already booked. You have to be a hotel guest to use the water park, so I reserved a room for our family and my parents with my credit card points. When you stay you have access to the water park from 1 p.m. the day of check in and all day until close on the day of checkout. My parents joined us the first afternoon to see the place and to ride the waves.
Since it was the first weekend there were some glitches that needed to be worked out. But that was to be expected. Only about half our wrist bands that allowed us into the water park and that were our hotel room keys worked, so we had to get them fixed later. Right before we going to change into our swimming gear the fire alarm went off, slightly delaying our fun. But after that everything went pretty smoothly. It was nice staying in a brand new hotel, knowing that at most our room had only been used one night before we were there.
We were excited about going for another reason. Jonathan had grown to just barely over 42 inches (from my measurements at home). That was good enough to allow him to ride some of the bigger rides with tubes and mats (Julia was able to ride all the rides since she was over 48 inches tall). However, the first day, the girl working at check in gave him a red band meaning he had to stay in the little kid's section. Even though he was tall enough, I think she took off too much from his height since he was wearing boots. The second day I was determined to not let that happen again. We cut off his red (under 42 inches) bracelet so that he would have to be measured again. This time I stuffed the bottom of his boots with some of my socks to make him taller. And this time there was a different person (a guy) working the check in. Jonathan (and all of us) were so excited when he was given a yellow band for being over 42 inches tall. That allowed him to ride some of the bigger rides you'll see in the videos below.
Later that night we started the kids on a game of MagiQuest. We woke up and did some more of that the next morning too. The kids have been back a couple of times since staying there to continue their quest. I think they really had a lot of fun. I certainly had a lot of fun. I was the only one in the family to brave the green slide. This ride was at the very top of the water park. How it works is that you stand in a upright cylinder until the floor drops out from under you. Free Fallin' straight down for a little while until the slide curves around and you hit a bunch of water to slow you down at the bottom. I found it to be pretty unnerving the first time I did it. After that, the next several times were just fun because you knew what was going to happen.
It's not cheap, but we'll definitely be going back and doing this again.
07 December 2016
Julia's 9th Birthday
Happy 9th Birthday Julia! What a big 3rd Grader. This year Julia celebrated her birthday with a party at Color Me Mine. She and several of her friends painted pottery together and then picked up the pieces later after they were finalized in the oven. A couple of girls had never been to this place in the mall, so it was a big hit. I've been there with Julia and Jonathan separately, and even I had fun. After the painting and pottery she opened her presents and they had cupcakes.
That was on Saturday. The next day we opened family presents at home with Grandpa and Grandma. Although family presents aren't as much fun as toys from your friends, they typically are the bigger gifts, the ones you end up using for a very long time, and the ones you remember when you're older. This year Julia got some seriously grown up presents...a new keyboard for piano lessons, a sewing machine from Aunt Michelle so she could learn how to sew, an apron, and some serious other gifts you'll probably see in the video below.
We love you Jules! I hope you had as much fun as we did celebrating you!
That was on Saturday. The next day we opened family presents at home with Grandpa and Grandma. Although family presents aren't as much fun as toys from your friends, they typically are the bigger gifts, the ones you end up using for a very long time, and the ones you remember when you're older. This year Julia got some seriously grown up presents...a new keyboard for piano lessons, a sewing machine from Aunt Michelle so she could learn how to sew, an apron, and some serious other gifts you'll probably see in the video below.
We love you Jules! I hope you had as much fun as we did celebrating you!
03 December 2016
Puzzles University
In case you're wondering what two proud, cute, kids look like after conquering a puzzle on Saturday morning...
25 November 2016
Ancestry.com DNA Results (Take 2)
Yeah...I did the test again. It's not that I didn't believe the results of the first test. I was more interested to see how much variability there would be between the two tests. After doing some reading it was clear that each test was accurate, but that the specific percentages were estimates. However, the specific regions were exactly as my family tree indicates.
As expected, the second set of results came back similar to the first. Great Britain (England) dropped by about 10%, Scandinavia (Norway) stayed about the same, and Europe West (France and Germany) went up several percentage points.
Taking an average of the two tests and rounding to the nearest 5% resulted in: 50% Great Britain, 25% Norwegian, and 20% France/German with some small trace amounts and rounding.
I also recently ordered a more comprehensive test from the site 23andMe.com. It gives you this ancestry information too, but also other kinds of information related to your DNA. It will be interesting to see how that compares to this test too.
As expected, the second set of results came back similar to the first. Great Britain (England) dropped by about 10%, Scandinavia (Norway) stayed about the same, and Europe West (France and Germany) went up several percentage points.
Taking an average of the two tests and rounding to the nearest 5% resulted in: 50% Great Britain, 25% Norwegian, and 20% France/German with some small trace amounts and rounding.
I also recently ordered a more comprehensive test from the site 23andMe.com. It gives you this ancestry information too, but also other kinds of information related to your DNA. It will be interesting to see how that compares to this test too.
31 October 2016
Halloween 2016
208 pieces of candy from just two neighborhood streets! Of course, I ate most of it since that much candy isn't good for children. Sometimes being a parent means making sacrifices...other times, it has it's advantages.
30 October 2016
Catching Up
I am pretty behind in posting family pictures, especially of the kids, with being out of the country for a couple weeks. Here are some pictures of things we've done since returning from Peru, the one exception being the go karts which Jonathan and I did the weekend before we left.
Julia's class field trip to Garden of the Gods and America the Beautiful Park...and Julia's field trip to the Air Force Academy for science class.
Jonathan rocking the soccer team photo (1st place in their league!) and cheering on the Falcons before their win against Navy.
Freckles in her Halloween "costume", Julia after her first piano recital, and a school get together at Skate City.
Julia's class field trip to Garden of the Gods and America the Beautiful Park...and Julia's field trip to the Air Force Academy for science class.
Jonathan rocking the soccer team photo (1st place in their league!) and cheering on the Falcons before their win against Navy.
Freckles in her Halloween "costume", Julia after her first piano recital, and a school get together at Skate City.
28 October 2016
11 September 2016
Peru Inca Trail Cause Trek - Day 10
The day had finally arrived. We woke up really early so that we could be at the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu at sunrise. A short walk of only 2.5 miles and we were there, seeing the most often photographed spot of the Trail with our own eyes. This may be the understatement of the century, but this overlook was quite spectacular. We stayed for awhile at the Sun Gate soaking in the valleys, mountains, and Machu Picchu.
We descended down the final steps of our journey and into the heart of this magical place for the rest of the day.
Our main guide Carlos gave us a private tour of the complex, hitting all of the major places. The three primary structures at Machu Picchu are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. You'll notice a couple of pictures of people on ladders. They are scrubbing the stones with toothbrushes to keep the them free of lichen. If not constantly maintain, this site would be overgrown with jungle in a few short years.
The third picture in this row is taken at the base of the temple of the sun. As I mentioned in an previous post, the Inca worshiped "Inti", the Sun god, as their supreme deity. This temple was built right on top of a natural cave/rock on the site. This is significant because the Inca believed the first of their kings entered this world through caves. Notice how straight, smooth, and tight the joints of these stones are. The Inca spent extra time making sure that these stones used in holy places were perfectly cut and arranged.
These pictures are of the cave below the Temple of the Sun (check out the hourglass stonework), the Condor Stone, and the outside wall of the Temple of the Sun.
The first two pictures are of the Inti Watana stone located at one of the highest points of the site. It is one of many ritual stones in South America. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The name Inti Watana is literally meant to be a place to "tie up the sun", translated in English as "The Hitching Post of the Sun". The Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. At midday on 11 November and 30 January, the sun stands almost exactly above the pillar, casting no shadow. On 21 June, the stone casts the longest shadow on its southern side, and on 21 December a much shorter shadow on its northern side. Structures like this and others that line up with the solstices are great examples of how well the Inca understood and revered the sun and its movement.
The above picture is of our two main guides, Carlos (left) and Emerson (right). In case you're wondering what it looks like when millennials first have access to the internet after 4 days of being disconnected, this picture from the cafe at Machu Picchu says it all. After a very early start to the day we caught one of the last trains out of Aguas Calientes, the town located at the base of Machu Picchu.
After a late train ride back to Ollayataytambo, and and even later bus ride back to our hotel in Cusco, we finally got to sleep at about 1 a.m. We were probably awake and hiking for traveling for 20 - 21 hours. The next day we woke up early, did some last minute souvenir shopping in Cusco, then headed back to the airport for our eventual red eye flight from Lima to Miami, then to Dallas, then to Colorado Springs.
After 12 days of traveling we had arrived back home with the kids safe and sound, filled with some pretty unforgettable memories of Compassion children and projects, Peru, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu.
We descended down the final steps of our journey and into the heart of this magical place for the rest of the day.
Our main guide Carlos gave us a private tour of the complex, hitting all of the major places. The three primary structures at Machu Picchu are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. You'll notice a couple of pictures of people on ladders. They are scrubbing the stones with toothbrushes to keep the them free of lichen. If not constantly maintain, this site would be overgrown with jungle in a few short years.
The third picture in this row is taken at the base of the temple of the sun. As I mentioned in an previous post, the Inca worshiped "Inti", the Sun god, as their supreme deity. This temple was built right on top of a natural cave/rock on the site. This is significant because the Inca believed the first of their kings entered this world through caves. Notice how straight, smooth, and tight the joints of these stones are. The Inca spent extra time making sure that these stones used in holy places were perfectly cut and arranged.
These pictures are of the cave below the Temple of the Sun (check out the hourglass stonework), the Condor Stone, and the outside wall of the Temple of the Sun.
The first two pictures are of the Inti Watana stone located at one of the highest points of the site. It is one of many ritual stones in South America. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The name Inti Watana is literally meant to be a place to "tie up the sun", translated in English as "The Hitching Post of the Sun". The Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. At midday on 11 November and 30 January, the sun stands almost exactly above the pillar, casting no shadow. On 21 June, the stone casts the longest shadow on its southern side, and on 21 December a much shorter shadow on its northern side. Structures like this and others that line up with the solstices are great examples of how well the Inca understood and revered the sun and its movement.
The above picture is of our two main guides, Carlos (left) and Emerson (right). In case you're wondering what it looks like when millennials first have access to the internet after 4 days of being disconnected, this picture from the cafe at Machu Picchu says it all. After a very early start to the day we caught one of the last trains out of Aguas Calientes, the town located at the base of Machu Picchu.
After a late train ride back to Ollayataytambo, and and even later bus ride back to our hotel in Cusco, we finally got to sleep at about 1 a.m. We were probably awake and hiking for traveling for 20 - 21 hours. The next day we woke up early, did some last minute souvenir shopping in Cusco, then headed back to the airport for our eventual red eye flight from Lima to Miami, then to Dallas, then to Colorado Springs.
After 12 days of traveling we had arrived back home with the kids safe and sound, filled with some pretty unforgettable memories of Compassion children and projects, Peru, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu.
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