Dad and Quinn weekend

With Steph gone for the weekend, partying herself absolutely ragged with her friends in Boston, I took Quinn to see some of my friends at the lake. It was Quinns first time on ice, and he was loving every minute of it. More or less.

And it turns out the boy's got some pretty quick feet.

I haven't bought him ice skates yet, but he did enjoy the ice enough to warrant it in the near future. One advantage to being short is you can only fall so far. I didn't feel like the dad of the year laughing my butt off as he fell all over the ice. But he laughed just as much so it's all good.

Looking forward to another year being his dad.

On a side note, I finaly got tired of driving my old cracked up 95 saturn. Two years ago we took care of Steph with a nice luxury sedan, so I decided it was time for me to get a car. I buy the car I want, I drive off the lot and within a half hour, a car in front of me kicks up a rock on the highway and it smacks my windshield and cracked it. That hasn't happened in years. I just kept driving trying to figure out what it all means. Bad luck is all. I have been working so many hours I start to catch myself wanting to sweat the small stuff and get angry. But the heck with it. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves these days and living the good life.

Good Bye Restarnaut Hello Winking and Eye Crossing

Did I ever mention what a serious child Quinn is??? That's probably because, as you can tell, he's not. I'm not sure if it's genetic, anyone who knows Dan might argue for that, or if it's because when he was younger and he started to get mad we would make funny faces at him to get him to laugh. Picture Dan, Quinn, Marshall, and I all sitting at the dinner table making faces at each other and you have a very typical night for us. So about the time turned 3 he started crossing his eyes (which he won't let me take a picture of right now) and winking. He loves making funny faces. I should get some of those on camera too.

Along with promoting his silly side I make it a point to help Quinn use words accurately when he talks and to help him pronounce words correctly. There is one word that has always been an exception for me though, the word restaurant. Quinn has always said restarnaut and I just loved it too much to correct it. About the time he started winking restarnaut became restaurant, so bye bye restarnaut. I'm glad he pronounces it correctly, but it makes me a bit sad. Ah well. They all have to grow up sometime.

In other news Quinn got to sit in a fire truck today. We were visiting my school and the fire alarm went off in the building we were in, so of course a fire truck with several firemen arrive on the scene. Quinn was very excited about it and asked if he could sit in the truck. I told him no because fire trucks aren't toys. Well the Fire Marshall overheard Quinn and I talking about the fire trunk and probably noticed Quinn admiring it and came over and asked Quinn if he wanted to sit in it. Quinn lit up and quickly followed the Marshall. The Marshall picked Quinn up and put him in the drivers seat of the truck at which point panic set in. Before I could even get my cell out of my pocket to take the picture Quinn was ready to come down. Oh well, I enjoyed it and I got to point out to Quinn that these guys are real life super heroes. Quinn is very into super heroes and I want him to know that there are real people who dedicate their live to helping and saving people, like firemen, police, military, doctors, etc.

OK, I'll leave you with a little bit of fun.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!

Welcome to a Renaissance New Years. A friend of ours hosts a themed new years party every year. Last year it was a 007 party. This year it was a Renaissance party.

There were knights.

and Naves and Ladies.

And of course pirates. How can you have party without pirates.

Dan decided we should be a family of scoundrels. So, here we are.

Hope you all had a great night and good luck and fortune in the coming year.

The Aquarium and our first professional haircut

Grandma took Quinn and I to the aquarium on Monday. Here are just a couple of pics.
We of course had to go to the seal show and see boomerang, coco, and rider.

And the fish and especially the sharks. Quinn is very into sharks right now, and spiderman!!

So how did Quinn do with the haircut? Just take a look.

Not a happy camper.

I don't know why but we don't have an after picture. He was smiling the second the cut was over and told daddy he didn't mind the barber cutting his hair. What a goof.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday this year. Here is a little peek at ours.

Here is the tree Dan picked out this year. Quinn loves it because it's bright and colorful and flashes constantly.

Quinn's first gift was a barrel of dinosaurs. He played with it for about a half hour before he even looked at another gift.


Quinn asked for everything Spiderman this year. He wanted a Spiderman car and book. Santa did him one better and got him a Spiderman video and a helicopter. He also got a couple of Batman things, some puzzles (turns out the boy is pretty good at them, he can do a 50 piece floor puzzle on his own?!?!?), some more books, and a talking Walle robot.

He was pretty excited.

And we were very blessed to have both of our families over in the evening. I don't know where those pictures went.

Last Day in Florida

So before we left for the airport we decided to do one last thing. We visited a petting zoo that was right around the corner from our hotel. It really wasn't a petting zoo though. It turned out to more of a teaching farm, which was interesting for me. So, we went on a hay ride.

A pony ride.

And probably the highlight of the tour guides day, the part were mommy and daddy try to catch the chickens and the ducks.

Quinn didn't want Dan to chase the ducks. He said the ducks were scared and he was worried about them. So Dan never caught a duck. I on the other hand.

Did see a whole bunch of animals, but I figure you've seen them all before so I didn't post them. But I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing Dan and I trying to catch poultry.

And last but not least. We took a little train ride around the property. Then off to the airport and home from our vacation.

Back to Sea World

Since Sea World seemed to be more our speed than Disn*y we went back on Sunday.

This time the characters were out, so we got a picture with Cookie monster, my favorite and possibly Quinn's too. He likes the fact that he gets to eat cookies all the time.

Quinn was being very silly while we waited for the Orca show to start and wouldn't look at the camera to take a picture with mommy. Thus the hand on his head.

He loved the show, and is now fascinated with orcas. We let him get one souvenir from the trip and out of all of his options, he got an orca.

I could help put this picture. He just looks so confused. Not sure what was going on at this point.

The kiddie rides at Sea World were perfect. The line were only about five or ten minutes long and the rides were really built for younger kids. Perfect!!!

He had to ride on the shark when he got on the carousel.

Then Quinn and Daddy got tattoos.

Of course Quinn picked a shark.

He loved it.

Dan let Quinn pick his out. Here are the boys showing off their tats.

I finally got to touch a dolphin. Not exactly the same as they are in captivity, but its an experience none the less. Here is Quinn and I feeding the dolphins at Sea World.