My daughter is smarter than yours...

Sophie is such a mimick these days. She's copies everything! Most recently, she's started reading books to us. Now if we could just get her to read in English!

Little Moments

This wonderful moment from Lesley's wedding in Oregon might otherwise have been lost if not for the fact that my camera was on the video setting by accident. I think it's hilarious.

More posts about Lesley's wedding to come! Stay tuned.

He finished!!

One of my boy scouts opted to do the hiking merit badge rather than the swimming merit badge. As a side note, the swimming merit badge can be earned in a week. Theoretically, so can the hiking merit badge. Loyal readers may recall that I have referenced going on 10 mile hikes with one of my boys at least a few times in the past 10 months. Two weeks ago we finished the final hike - a 20 miler. Truly a bittersweet moment.

I live in a beautiful area and I love hiking so this merit badge was the perfect excuse to get out and actually hike, much more than I normally would have planned to do. The requirements are to complete 5 ten-mile hikes and 1 twenty-mile hike. So I've seen over 70 miles of the Potomac Heritage Trail, Elizabeth's Furnace, Bull Run Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park and the C&O Canal.

For this hike we started early (5 am) to finish before the day got too hot. Having regretted not bringing my camera on most of these hikes, and knowing that sunrise one the canal would be beautiful, I made sure to pack it this time. I was not disappointed! The opening photo is from Lock 10, underneath the Wilson Bridge on 495 about 7 am. Click on the photos below for a larger version.

Need to insert another shout out to Jake for the great hiking socks!

Scout Camp!

I got to spend the first week of July at Camp Rock Enon, a small Boy Scout camp nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains about a stones throw from West Virginia. This is the best group shot of the boys who went, one is hiding in the back row. It was taken on the parade ground looking down on the "lake" or, to be more accurate, the deep puddle.

It was fun to go back to camp, even though as a leader I felt guilty getting involved in activities because it took time and space the boys could use to pass requirements off. In particular, theis camp had an excellent climbing wall and a brand new rifle range that were tempting areas I never actually got to use. On the other hand, there were other activities that I did get to do, such as the Polar Bear swim. I knew my boys hadn't spent enough time outdoors when they all commented on the fact that steam was rising off the water. They were amazed to hear that it happens nearly every morning.

Then there were the activities I had every intention of avoiding yet somehow managed to get roped into. One of these was the main event at the camp's Water Carnival. It was the Scoutmaster's diving competition. This consisted of four dives, each focusing on an important element of diving. That is, height of the splash, width of the splash, creativity of the dive, and last but not least, the ability to properly execute a belly-flop, measured by the redness of one's belly. My scouts were nice enough to snap a picture after the final dive.

Yes, I won (and it looks like I need to start working out again).







All in all, camp was great. They boys enjoyed themselves, earned lots of merit badges, and came home wanting to return next year on staff and to join the Order of the Arrow! Those last two are items I never thought I'd hear from my boys.

As an aside, I decided not shave for the week to see what kind of facial hair I am capable of cultivating. My assistant Scoutmaster snapped the picture below about halfway through the week. You can see how pathetic this is. So I decided not to shave completely until I was reunited with Lisa and Sophie - about 2.5 weeks. You can follow my progress in later posts!

With Love from CA

This post is mostly for Bryce, who is far away in Virginia right now. Can't wait to see you TOMORROW!!! I tried to post this last week, but the Internet was being dumb, so finally here are some pics of what we've been doing out here in the west...

Jacob and Lindsey play this penguin game that Sophie is rather intrigued with -- here they are all sitting at the computer telling the little penguins where to jump

Sophie showing Jake what to do...The Petting Zoo! Sophie chased a bunch of bunnies around the pen - those poor bunnies were running for their lives!!

Jacob, Lindsey and Nath -- note the sign language... I'm actually not exactly sure what this one means, but it's something to the effect of "cheesy smile"

Linds and her adopted guinea pigs at the petting zoo

Jake and Sophie feasting on the word

Nath and the girlz

On the 4th of July at the street fair down at the lake. Sophie got her very own plastic fireman hat which she promptly removed about 0.15 seconds after I put it on her head.

Sophie pushing her stroller at the Pioneer Day activity

After a visit to the dealership -- Sophie is sad and missing her daddy! Come to think of it, that's probably why she's not napping right now, too! Too excited at the prospect of seeing you tomorrow! Hooray!!! :)

Good Thing for Second Cousins-in-law

For those of you who did not know - Lisa is in California most of this month. Without her around, I've been doing a fairly poor job of making meals for myself. I finally motivated the other day to make a large batch of rice, which I could then use to make stir fry, arroz con leche, etc.

However, even in this valiant effort to nourish my feeble body, Murphy's Law decided to kick in. I lowered to flame to simmer and placed the lid on top of the sauce pan and left the room. Shortly thereafter, I heard a loud bang - almost as if something had fallen. I walked back into the kitchen and everything seemed to be in the messy state I left it - until I looked at the lid.


I couldn't believe it shattered! My beautiful, glass Calphalon lid had shattered! I moved the lid to a towel and put my hand under it to catch the boiling hot water (??). I later found a shard of glass in my hand as a result, so I threw out the whole batch of rice and had donuts for dinner.

Hearing of my plight, my Second Cousin-in-law had mercy on me and invited me over for dinner and Wii! I discovered I'm decent at racing cows and bowling. What an exciting night and what great friends. We're really going to miss our (distant) family here.

P.S. But never fear - the Calphalon warranty is here! I called them this morning and in 3 minutes they got my address and arranged to send me a replacement. It might even get here before we move!