Scooby Snacks and Motorcycles

Why Kyle had a box of gummy Scooby Snacks (the non see through ones are the best), I'll never know. Owen didn't seem to mind, though and he found out that uncle Kyle was a pretty good guy who both appreciated the finer points of motorcycles and was generous with the gummy Scoobys.

On a (somewhat) more grown up note, Kyle and I went to the karting joint on Saturday and had a blast tearing up the course and trying to resist the urge to power slide around every corner. It was fun and I am happy I was finally able to talk someone into go-karting with me. Gotta love cousins.


Das guys. I can't wait until Owen is at least "this" tall so he can tear up the tracks with us too. I KNOW he'll get a kick out of that.

Bed Hog

Now that's what I call a bed hog.

Fountain Fun

Whenever we visit Civic Center park, we cannot keep him away from this fountain. Fortunately, in this heat his pants dry in about 5 minutes.


Owen's face when he is excited, along with his arms flapping, is priceless.


His neurologist told us that once Owen started walking, the troubles he had before that point [of walking] would be forgotten. Yes, that is partially true, but watching him run makes our hearts swell up with pride and happiness. I'm not sure we're completely in the clear but we're taking it as it comes and you know what? That kid can run!

My School

I've got about a week before I walk into the classroom and start filling young minds with English. Carrie, Owen and I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon getting my classroom ready. I'm excited. We changed it from a "hmm" to a "nice." Before the 16th I'm hoping to get to "wow." Aim high, huh? Well here's where it's all going to happen.


My school from the outside.


We're the scorpions, which, second to jellyfish, are my least favorite animal (in terms of things you periodically come across, I'm sure a shark or cobra would be worse company than either in absolute terms).


I'm guaranteed that by the end of the school year there will have been at least one child excited to be in my class. Now I'm just working on increasing my numbers.


All of Owen's lesson content took place in the bottom 12 inches of the board. I think I got where he was going with his material though.


Classroom from the back. I'm very excited about the smart board on the left. It's like a huge interactive iPad on the wall.


Classroom from the front. I've been told to expect 35 to 50 in the room, but I think with some of the laws that have been passed here lately, attendance is going to be at the lower end of that range this year. We'll see; that's a lot of brains to fill. Wish me luck filling them.

Adding Some Variety

We are milking these Seattle photos for all they are worth. Believe it or not, we have one more round coming. It's just nice to have photos of other people besides the little boy who lives with us. I mean he's cute and all, but it's fun to mix it up. So here we go - some photos that do not feature Owen. Not a single one.















That was kind of fun. We should do that more often. I think Owen would be okay with less photos too. He has grown quite tired of the camera. But given our daily consists of Ed, Carrie, Owen and the cat, if we don't take pictures of the Owen, that means you're going to get pictures of the cat. Maybe we'll stick to the kid.

Group Shots

What's more fun that seeing a picture of someone you like? Seeing a picture of multiple people you like. Yeah group shots! These are more from the Seattle trip, mostly because they're great shots and we want to let everyone in these shots see how well they turned out, but partly because we're having trouble converting the video of Owen smelling his stinky feet to a usable format. But like we said, mostly the former.


Here are three people we're especially fond of. I think there is something about being parents of 2 year olds during their birthday parties where you look great. It must be the sense that you got them this far, there's not a whole lot you haven't seen anymore.


Even though there is really nothing going on in this photo, I love this shot. For one, I can't get over how big Owen looks. Secondly, I love how comfortable he is hanging out with the family. Owen connected instantly with Suneela and Tejas. He liked playing cars with Tejas and bugging Suneela.


More people we're pretty fond of. I like how Jackson is more interested in the interaction between Jen and Owen than the camera.


If ever there was a Rosetta Stone among boys, cars would be it. I'd even go a step further and say if it produces exhaust, little guys can't get enough of it (even if it's as simple as pulling a finger, thank you Happy Grandpa).