Here are four of my favorite shots (click on them to enlarge). At the bottom is a link to the slideshow on Flickr, to see more.

Perfect

She's Ready!

Chris and Scottie

Pretty girls!

Cheese!

Check out the full slideshow

The slide show below consists of pics from our first few days visiting Denver, including pics from Dinosaur Ridge. I had to get funky with filters on a few of them, but ended up pleased with the results. So check ‘em out and enjoy. Wedding pics will be next!

The funny face never goes out of style

‘m so glad that April is over. It was a really crappy month for the Johnson/Conger families, and we ended the month with Jonah missing Easter because he brought home some strep throat (the gift that keeps on giving), and Chris and Zachary went down hard. Fortunately for Zachary, he was feeling almost 100% by the end of the week, and played a great baseball game Saturday. Unfortunately for Chris, the strep bug gripped him tighter than an upside-down pole dancer grips her pole, and he was a miserable mess for almost 3 days.

Which brings us to sushi and bowling. Chris wanted all of us out of the house so he could get some rest, and seriously, who can blame him? So he requested that I go and “do something fun” with the boys–I decided on bowling. Zachary hasn’t used his bowling ball since he received it for his 7th birthday (and he’s almost 8), and who doesn’t love a good bowling alley on a Saturday night?

First, however, we had to stop at Marshalls for some new pillows, and it turns out there is a cute little sushi place in the same strip mall. I made the decision that we were going to eat there; it was, after all, right across the street from the bowling alley. Turns out it was a pretty good decision. The sushi was really good, and I actually got Zachary to try some, which he enjoyed except for my wasabi-laden soy sauce. The dinner entrees were yummy, the ambiance was great, and the boys and I had a really enjoyable dinner.

Next stop, bowling! Bowling with an almost-8-year old, and a 4-year old can go one of two ways: great or awful. This time was great. We got there about an hour before cosmic bowling, and we bowled a few games. Then cosmic bowling started and instead of leaving, Zachary asked if we could bowl one more. Of course, I think he wanted to show off his awesome robot dance moves more than he wanted to bowl–we don’t have cool strobes and black lights at our house. So we stayed for one more.

It was a really fun night, and very memorable. The boys were nice to each other (which wore off the next day, I knew it was too good to last too long), and we all had a lot of fun. There were also a few laughs–Jonah never disappoints. Check out the video of poor Jonah, learning the hard way, not to follow the ball down the lane, hee hee.

If you’d like another little chuckle, check out Zachary’s smooth dance moves.

It’s also very interesting to see how Chris and I have influenced him, and his vocabulary. We never really talked to him like he was a baby or a child, which is evidenced by his use and understanding of words and terms well beyond his age. This can be a great thing, but every coin has two sides, and many words have multiple meanings. And it can often be amusing to hear Zachary’s definitions of words he thinks he knows.

A perfect example came from a Goosebumps book he was reading the other day. I randomly have him read out loud a few pages of the various books he reads to check his comprehension, and he came across the sentence “The window was framed by large, black, ominous shutters.” I made him stop there, because I was sure the word “ominous” was going to trip him up. As it turned out, however, I was wrong. He very clearly defined ominous as “scary and evil”, which, while technically defined as “…foreboding or foreshadowing evil…”, Zachary obviously got the point.

No, ominous did not trip him up at all–but he still had an odd look on his face, like he didn’t quite understand the sentence. After a moment of thought I realized the word that was causing him problems was “framed”, so I asked him if he knew what that word meant. He told me he did, but he didn’t understand what it had to do with a window. Now it was my turn to look perplexed, and I asked him to tell me what the word “framed” meant, to which he replied, “That’s when someone tries to get you into trouble by blaming you for something that you didn’t do. So what would someone be blaming a window for, anyway?“

Priceless. My 7-year old doesn’t equate “framed” with enclosing something, like a picture or a window; no, he understands the nefarious act of falsely accusing someone of something. Where did I go wrong? (That’s a rhetorical question. Heh, one of these days I’ll write a post about that word.)

The afternoon’s love fest started with Zachary trying to watch the cartoon that Jonah was watching and Jonah blocking Zachary’s view. After a few renditions of “get out of my way!” followed by grunting and heavy breathing, I was not surprised when the high-pitched shrieking reached my ears.

When I got to the living room I found Zachary looking contrite and trying to console a wailing Jonah. Okay, he was really trying to talk him into not squealing on him. Which of course, Jonah promptly did. It seems that Jonah had been standing on the couch, and when he wouldn’t get out of Zachary’s way, Zachary pushed him. Off the couch.

From these pics it’s hard to see how big and dark the bruise was (the little bugger won’t stand sill!), but it’s several days later and he still has his “trophy”.

I’m sure this is just the first of many brother-inflicted wounds to come. I think it’s time to invest in a first aid kit. Or a stand-by EMT.

Sigh. Another rite of passage over. Next thing I know he’ll be asking for the car keys.

This is such an important and worthwhile cause that I’m having Zachary walk with me. I’m so looking forward to Zachary meeting my friend’s son, Will, who was born premature (at 25 weeks) and has his own share of challenges. From what Janey has said, Will is a funny, precocious, lively and dear kid and I think he and The Goose will get along famously. I hope The Goose can keep up with him!

I need some help, though.
As you can see if you look over there ————————————>
I’m a little short of my goal. Every little bit helps. $10, $15, $25, etc. Please open your hearts and your wallets and donate a little coin to this wonderful organization. Help me and Zachary help babies in need. Just click on the badge.

If you’re interested in learning more about Will, Janey is always too happy to talk about her wonderful son. Check out Confessions of a Middle-Aged Suburban Diva.

The cousins ran the race

March started on the water, with Chris and I still out on our cruise which you should have read all about by now. The first few weeks of the month were pretty normal. Then came the week of 3/21. Aunt Carol and Uncle Dick came to FL to visit. We didn’t get to see nearly as much of them as we would have liked but they did see Zachary and all the cousins participate in the Mirriam Kitrell 5K run for FLEC. Bless his heart, he ran the entire thing (not the whole 5K, the first graders run half that).

Carol and Dick even went to one of the Goose’s baseball games, and then treated us to a fun day at Joker Marchant stadium, home of the Detroit Tigers spring training. It was a glorious day and everyone had a lot of fun. That was also the weekend our refrigerator decided to go kaputz. I’d be lying if I said I was sad about that, because I had a sweet little number delivered the Saturday we were at the baseball game. It’s awesome with a capital awesome, and only cost us $560 of our own cash.

My new best friend

The rest of March was spent working, cleaning up crap (literally–Jonah just can’t seem to get his shit together, so to speak), going to baseball practice and games, and in general living the dream.

It doesn’t look to be letting up, either. April is already shaping up to be as busy as March. Oy Vey!

View the insanity below.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

In our search for the elusive house we did stumble upon an Irish bar called Kelley’s, and Kelley was from CO! What a small world. Even better was that Kelley’s was only a few blocks from our goal. So a quick tequila and we were off. We did find the house exactly where I remembered it to be across from putt-putt and the pharmacy, with the crazy pharmacy character still out front waving at people.

The door we were searching for!

On our way back to meet our friends we stopped at a local hole-in-the-wall (literally) and ate a scrumptious lunch of carne asada tacos and chicken tostadas–Mexicon style, not an Americanized version. All for $5!

After lunch we all meet back up, hopped in our taxi, and made our way to the beach. We ended up at a really nice resort-style place with a great pool, tons of beach chairs (that we didn’t have to pay for–even better), and a nice open-air bar. Unfortunately, the water was so rough and the waves were so big that we couldn’t do any snorkeling. This was a big bummer for the kids. I, however, chose to take advantage of the massage table. I can now say from experience that there is not much that can compare to a massage on the beach, with the sound of the surf, a nice breeze, and Mexican music playing in the background. H-E-A-V-E-N!

There’s so much more I could write about, but then this post would go on for days. So, here’s a little more of the good and the bad:

This was great too

• Mojitos and moonlight while chatting with the nice couple from Minneapolis, on the Serenity deck.
• The comedians were, well, funny.
• Shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp. Fresh shrimp every dinner. YUM!
• Fruity umbrella drinks–rum, fruit, and umbrellas.

Not so much

• I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses.
• The water was so rough. Next time I have to have one of those little patches behind my ear.
• Grand Cayman. Sure, it was nice hanging with everyone at the beach for a few hours but the shopping was overrated and the prices were inflated.
• The casino sucked. No energy, no enthusiasm, and it took my money.
• The price of all those fruity umbrella drinks. You definitely pay for the rum, the fruit, and the umbrellas.

All in all, it was a great way to spend Chris’s 40th birthday. Thank you Dave and Ivonne, for inviting us to cruise with you and for footing part of the bill.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

I would like to say that I took Ferris’s advice, and looked around once in a while over the holiday season. That, however, would be a big, FAT lie. There was simply too much to do. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the holidays—I enjoyed them very much. I was just very busy which is really ironic, since I had 12 days off. ((That doesn’t include the other 3+ days I had off earlier in the month )) Let’s see where all the time went.

First stop, Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving, even if Chris did try to add his thumb to the stuffing. If you don’t take anything away from this post, take this away: iPod, cleaver, onions, 80s dance moves—they do not go together! Injury aside, it was a blessed day with FL family, and we all ate way too much (sans Johnson thumb).

Zachary and Jonah ham it up for the camera

Once November came to a close we rushed right in to December, and the arrival of mom. Things just weren’t working out in Denver. Mom’s friend passed away earlier in the year forcing her to move, and putting her out of a job at the same time. In this economy it’s tough to look for work and mom ran out of options. So we asked her to come back to FL, either for an extended visit or for the long haul, if we can manage not to kill each other.

Work was as busy as always with fun projects and interesting clients, both with eCollege and freelance. While December is usually a slower work month, since I had to take all of my vacation and personal time or lose it, I only worked 14 days. That would explain my workload, lol! Add to that a Christmas program, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s and Jonah’s birthday, and you’ve got “Wham! Bam! Thank you, Ma’am!” I can tell you this, it’s not easy playing mommy, Santa, Web Goddess, wife, daughter, and dominatrix, uh, wife. ((Wait, I said wife already, didn’t I?))

Christmas did seem to come and go, but it wasn’t a total blur. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve at Nana’s house. It was nice having so much family, mom included. Christmas morning brought another flurry of gifts, including a full-size telescope for Zachary and a plethora of Star Wars ships, figures, and clothing for Jonah. The gift that stole the show, however, was Rock Band 2. In a word, it ROCKS!!  ((Is that why it’s called ROCK Band?)) I don’t know who loves it more, Chris and I, or Zachary. We have had so much fun playing it. I even received the The Beatles version as a gift and it is awesome! Now that vacation has passed it’s been tough putting Rock Band on the back burner. I think we’re bummed out more than The Goose.

After Christmas we had Jonah’s birthday. I thought the stores had run out of Star Wars items, but if they did it’s because we bought everything. He won’t run out of Star Wars things until he’s an adult and by then he can sell them for a profit. It was awesome watching Jonah run around the house playing with the Millenium Falcon and Yoda. At 3 he actually flies them around and plays with them. Is that odd? Of course not!

Jonah blows out his candles

And there you have it. A flurry of activity in six short weeks. Or six long weeks, depending on how you look at it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s. I hope that 2010 is happy, prosperous, fulfilling and fun. I hope that all my family and friends get everything they deserve in this new year, and in many new years to come.