Fancy pants camera

I am still loving my fancy pants camera (and the fancy pants husband who gave it to me). I'm now coveting a new device that will let me post pictures even faster. In the meantime, here are some recent fancy pants pictures.

This girl can move! Here she is jamming at Andy's soccer game.

Classic father-son photograph. Classic picture of Mark refusing to smile.

The "boys", our boy kittens Perry and Mittens. I thought they were so cute asleep like that.

How good looking are these folks?

Our friends Jenny and Sean who were kind enough to ply me with wine and let me stay at their house last time I was traveling.

Andy getting a badge for his work at the last Cub Scout meeting. The whole Cub Scout business is really adorable. It also satisfies Andy's need for outdoorsy stuff that's not necessarily a competitive sport.

Mark really needed a haircut.

Dad in Arizona. We climbed "A" mountain in Phoenix right next to Arizona State University. It was a nice hike, and short, but staight up. I really dug Phoenix. Next time Mary does a triathalon, I want to bring the family and stay for a few days.

Sun Devil stadium from "A" Mountain.

Mary and Mom before race day.

Mary's car all decorated. Elizabeth and I did this after a few drinks and a $100 win at the casino. We are very cool and have fantastic talent.

Mary after the 1.5 MILE swim. That's right, 1 1/2 MILES in the water. And that's just the first leg of this Ironman triathalon. Seriously, it was amazing and inspiring. And naturally, I haven't exercised since.

Cool picture of the bridge and all the bikes.

The bridge at night. As you can see, I was really loving the fancy camera. I thought it turned out really nicely.

Mary after 1 1/2 miles in the water, 112 miles on the bike and 12 miles running. I was tired and I walked a mile. Seriously, it's amazing.

Bjorn putting the star on the Christmas tree.

Andy doing his spelling "sort."

What a good looking bunch of people

Mom and Dad took us out to a fancy pre-Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome and we got to see Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Turns out we clean up nice on occasion.
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Legoland

The kids and scoped out Legoland in anticipation of the whole family coming to visit for Christmas. It was the day before Thanksgiving at an outlet mall and it was PACKED. The kids enjoyed it a lot though. We had to actually wait to get in. They were only accepting preorder tickets. Poor Andy was in tears. We left to shop and came back and they still weren't letting people in. We had set to leave the mall when the clerk chased us down to say they were letting people in. Jubilee!

We didn't bring socks which was bad as the moon bounce thing required them. I thought it was a little lacking - not that much new and interesting for $50 for the three of us but they enjoyed it a lot even without doing the moon bounce or one ride. I suspect we will be back for Andy's birthday.

I went to Phoenix and all I got was $100

This is certainly a bad idea

But it's so fun!

Raingutter regata

Andy is in cub scouts this year. What a cool program. They do all sorts of outdoorsy and civic stuff including a camp out at cowboys stadium. How awesome is that?

This week we had the raingutter regatta where they made little boats and raced. Andy was displeased when he lost but loved his boat. He wants to build a raingutter in our yard so ge can practice before next year.

Sony Alpha Nex

As an early anniversary present, Bjorn got me a new camera, the Sony Alpha Nex-3. This is the new kind of camera that is small but has almost the same shutter speed and capabilities as a big DSLR but at a fraction of the cost and size. I've been taking pictures like crazy, partly because it's so easy to take 10 all at once and delete the bad ones. Here are some of the ones that made the cut.

Andy and Barrett playing Bakery Story.

These kids are fascinated with putting their bikes upside down and "fixing" them. It seems very familiar.

She's quite intense when scooting. Plus, shoes are for the Suri Cruise's of the world.

He does this funny thing when he's chilling, he spins in circles.

Andy's school obsession, a game called First in Math that we have a log in through the school. He's so proud as he's the second highest in the class consistently. He's definitely got Bjorn's math skillz.

Seriously? Look how pretty this kid is? The skin, lips and eyelashes just blow me away. And look what a great shot it is? Love this camera. And obviously I'm a gifted photographer.

See how gifted I am?

Andy really wanted to do the rock climbing wall at school during the fall festival. It was pretty cool. The whole rock climbing wall folds up onto a trailer to take away at the end. It was a little more advanced for him but I know we'll be back to do this kind of thing again.

She is totally the Ghostest with the Mostest.

I love the hair! And the dancing.

Mommy's little axe murdered, I mean, firefighter.

Bjorn and Fafa. We were scouting out Grapevine Mills for the Big Bennett Family Christmas this December. I totally want to take the kids to Legoland. It looks awesome.

Andy loved this spinning teacup.

Obi-Wan at Book Character Day at school. We don't call it Halloween here. Some of the Religious Right are very against pagan holidays like this.

Margaret and Fafa reading. Meg was so happy to have her grandmother to read her this book. She's also wearing her other Halloween shirt, "Out of Candy: Need Refill."

One very happy Batman (Batwoman?) with her loot.

Batman and Obi-Wan

I have a interesting/terrifying emergency room story to report thanks to Margaret's plan to self-administer some ibuprofen for her cough, but it is too long to type on my iPhone (spoiler alert - she is fine, thank heavens).

Plus, it's Halloween and the candy is wearing off to remind me how tired I am. Until then, I leave you with Batman and Obi-wan Kenobi.

Admit it

So admit it, my neighborhood is better than yours? I thought getting "booed" where you exchange secret Santa type Halloween treats like candy and stickers for kids was fun on the sly was fun, but this clearly takes the cake. A bottle of wine and skittles? I need to find this person and make sure she's my BFF. Stat.

Dance party

Meg's dance class had a party yesterday for what was once Halloween but now is a non-religious/pagan dress up day. My kid can sure rock the freeze game. Plus at this rate, she will be at Black Swan level by 2078.

Bikes

I really like to ride bikes and I love that the kids are getting to an age when we can do it together. Andy can ride without training wheels but he likes them for comfort still (fine by me). Meg likes her tricycle but she's not fast enough to keep up. I have been letting her ride in the bike trailer (see below), but she's too big to want to be towed in what is really a big stroller. And I'm not patient enough to listen to her insist she wants to ride and then have to carry her and her bike half way around the block while begging Andy to slow down.

I'm starting to do some research now on the next step - the trailer bike. These are little half-bikes that attach to the back of the bicycle. The kid gets to pedal and help, a little, but if they do nothing, at least you're towing them vs. towing the kid and the trike.

I was all set to do this until a friend on Facebook recommended I look into a different invention, a bike tow hitch. Basically, you can attach the kids' bike to this trailer hitch and tow him/her like the trailer bike with the advantage of letting them ride on their own until they can't any longer, then hooking them up. I see potential. This could also be useful since sometimes I'd like to meet Andy after school to ride home, but there's no way really to get both our bikes up to the school unless we rode up there together at 7:20 in the morning. And if you know me, you know that just ain't happening.

Anyone have experiences with these, positive, negative, indifferent?

Birds and the bees

"Hey, Dad. My penis is all straight," Andy said this afternoon. "I think it's because I've been touching it."

I looked at Mark and Bjorn. "Is that what I think it is?" They both smirked and nodded.

Sigh, I am going to have to start talking to Andy (and Meg, eventually) more about awkward stuff, like where babies come from. I believe in doing it earlier vs. later to take out the surprise and mysticism of the whole thing, but I'm also somewhat terrified of this.

My very restless girl

My daughter has a problem. She really doesn't like to sleep in her own bed. I have really tried everything from briberly to threats to sleeping with her to letting her sleep with us. We usually play a game where she comes out of bed and finds us, we walk her back to her room, she says for a while and then gets up again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Usually in this process, she eventually gives up and falls asleep somewhere in the house.

Here she is asleep in the den. It's almost always the same pose, face down with her hands tucked under her stomach.

This time she's actually asleep in her room, but still on the floor.

Asleep off the kitchen. Fortunately, she found a matt to sleep on.

This is just off our bedroom. That hardwood floor is, well, hard.

This is impressive because she's actually asleep in someone else's house. We were visiting a good friend from high school and she snuck out there, too.

Just outside her bedroom. She fell asleep on a toy. Her shirt also came off somewhere in the process.

Okay, this was a planned sleepover on the floor of the den. Aren't they cute?

Here she is asleep in my sister Mary's house in Austin.

Half-way into her own bathroom.

This is a personal favorite. We were spending the night in San Antonio to go to Sea World the next day. I think she debated sleeping in the laundry basket and then thought it would make a nice blanket.

Cub scouts

Who doesn't love a man in uniform?

Andy has joined Cub Scouts (and I have had to try to remember over and over that it's cub scouts not boy scouts at this age). He's sort of an academic type kid and isn't as interested in team sports just yet so I think it's a good fit for his personality. Bjorn's been a trooper by jumping on the bandwagon despite it not being his first choice, including the whole outdoorsy/camping part that's kind of a requirement. 

Yesterday was the first camp out. I got sleeping bags for the guys and borrowed a tent from a neighbor. As you can see in the picture below, it's big enough to sleep eight probably. You could practically in that thing. So the boys trekked off to points a few hours west. started setting up shop and the skies promptly opened up and it rained. And rained. And rained. This is rather hilarious since it hasn't rained longer than a thunderstorm here or there since April. 

According to reports, Andy cried and cried (it is his first camp out) while Bjorn struggled to get the tent up during a monsoon. Then Bjorn put them both in the car, said goodbye to the others and went home. Considering it rained several inches last night, complete with thunder and lightening, I'd say it was a good call.

Work

A room with a view.

The most exciting -- an event at the former Versace mansion.

You know, a place like Miami isn't normally my style. It's dressy in an odd way, caters to over (and under) dressed people and is all about show. Yet after spending four days there for work, I kind of dug it. Hanging out in South Beach in a fancy hotel with a great view certainly makes it better. I just appreciated the flair of it being different than just the regular nice enough work hotel with a nice enough restaurant in a big city.

So?

Apologies, Internets. I've been busy. I'm taking a graduate level class that is so far way above my head. It's a math class. I know, what was I thinking? It's a required course in the master's in public health program so if I decide to pursue a master's, I've got to take it. Plus, it related to my job so I'm actually leaning a lot and putting into context some things I've picked up along the way. I just hate having to take tests and quizzes again. After my sophomore year in college, I successfully managed to only take classes with papers so 20 years later, it's a challenge. Sigh.

I've also gone back to work full-time for the first time since Andy was born. Granted, 40+ hours a week from home isn't quite the same as a full-time job in an office where I have to give up 10 hours a week to a commute and actually getting out of my shorts, but still. More responsibility, more stress.

Plus, when that new People magazine comes in with Toddlers and Tiaras on the cover, I have to read it immediately. It's not like it's going to read itself, folks.

I also have a new blog that's distracting me - http://surisburnbook.tumblr.com/. Check it out. You will cry with laughter.

Soccer

I love soccer. I always have. I still play it now and love the friends I've made playing as a kid and adult. 

But Andy? Not so much. This is his fourth season playing and his first season playing with real goalies.  I keep hoping he will love it like I did, but right now he's just not that into it. He always whines and cries before most games and practices. He's happy after he's done, but leading up is torture for me. And let's not forget, it's all about me.

But see how cute and athletic he looks all in uniform?

See? He's running!

I have this framed now. I love how grown up he looks here. And that it looks like he's trying to stifle a laugh.

Look at those vampire teeth?