National Aquarium

Took kids to National Aquarium in downtown D.C. It is pretty small, occupying the bottom floor of the Commerce Department. The new attraction is a pair of baby sea turtles. For those of you with kids who have seen Finding Nemo, they turtles pretty much look like Squirt. Very cute.

Drew was actually scared to get too close to most of the exhibits, especially the sharks and octopus. But the sea turtles were different. As you can see, he got right up next to the glass.

Happy Holidays from French Family

Somewhere far north of the Arctic Circle, Santa is checking his list for the2nd time..
Santa: “Hermie! Bring me my list, it is time to check it twice. Hermie! Where is that darn elf? I never should have agreed to let him take that online dentistry course...”

Hermie: (Comes running in with long list) “Here I am Santa. Are you ready to start with the next family? Let’s see, we were in the F's. Next up, the French Family.”

Santa: “Okay, I remember, they live in Kansas, right?”

Hermie: “No, they have moved twice since then. They actually have same address they had 5 years ago. Their house looks a little different now, but has the same coordinates...”

Santa: “That doesn't make sense.... Oh well, just make sure the GPS on the sleigh is updated. Let's start with the oldest child, Tyler. Is he still soccer nut?”

Hermie: “Yes, he loves all things soccer. He is playing travel soccer year round. His parents even let him attend a week long soccer camp at UVA this summer. He is also literally following in his Dad's footsteps, taking up running. Father and son completed their 1^st 5K together. He did quite well, finishing just under 25 minutes. He even won a pumpkin pie in a 1 mile race for his 4^th grade class with a 6:57 mile.”

Santa: “Okay, I’ll give him a “Nice.” Maybe a gift of shoe deodorizer for his cleats and running sneakers. I hear they get quite stinky. How about his sister, Eliana?”

Hermie: “She is into sports too, playing soccer and she took up swimming this year. She loved it, taking to it, well, like a fish to water. She started 1^st grade this year and has taken off with her reading and writing. She is a great big sister to little Drew - you should see them play kung fu with each other. She really enjoys the arts, and went to see both Mary Poppins and Sound of Music this year.”

Santa: “Sounds like sweetheart - how about a gift of tickets to Taylor Swift concert (not sure I can even get those). And the youngest? Little Drew?”

Hermie: “He is a real firecracker. Very sweet, but delights in pushing his parents buttons. He loves being back in their old house where he can pedal around the cul-de-sac, chase the soccer ball, and play with the neighborhood dogs. He is a big help around the house - he loves to cook and rake leaves. He loves to take things apart and is constantly getting bumps and bruises. His parents nicknamed him ‘Destructo.’”

Santa: “He’s only three – I’ll go with “Nice” this year. Maybe a gift of bubble wrap to protect his cute noggin? Now, Mom and Dad?”

Hermie: “The Dad, Dave, is doing well, still finding time to run a few races. He even completed his 1^st marathon this fall. He enjoys playing at photography and updating their family blog. The Mom, Melissa has 3 jobs, still working part time for Booz Allen and full time as a Mom, not to mention general manager & designer of the house renovation.”

Santa: “Hmmm. Hope she uses her new kitchen to make me cookies. I think the best gift would be to unpack a few boxes for them. So who’s next on the list?”

Hermie: “Let’s see....E...F..G.. Ah - Lady Gaga.”

Santa: “Definitely “Naughty” - and don’t get me started on her clothes...”

Leaf Jumping

Posting a few pictures taken a couple of weekends ago. One of the forgot joys of our old house was the amount of leaves to rake each year. This pile is only one part of the front yard, 6 days after picking up all the leaves. At least the kids enjoy it!

Carving Pumpkins

Carving Pumpkins! - This year the kids all helped, especially with removing the yucking pumpkins guts. Ty picked his design out of a template book. It was a little tricking, but it is supposed to be a flaming skull. Ellie's and Drew's match their outfits - a butterfly and very hungry Caterpillar.

Update on renovation project

Sorry for the lag in providing update on the house renovations. Between getting ready for the move, the kids starting school again, and last minute details on the renovation, we have been a tad busy, but in a good way.

A lot has happened since last update. We finally got all the inspections complete (phew), allowing the drywall to go up and flooring to go in. As you can see from the first photo, we have new entryway, the garage is complete, and windows installed. We still need siding, but for now, the contractor is focusing on the inside to get it ready for the move the first week of October.

That brings us to the second photo, which is shot standing in the old kitchen, looking into the new kitchen. The perspective is similar to the first two photos from the July 5th blog update. The new kitchen will be in the area where you see the refrigerator now. There will be island in the middle, with new appliances, counters, custom cabinets, etc. We are really looking forward to the open floor plan.

In between packing, moving and keeping the rental we currently live in ready for showing to prospective tenants, I hope to find time to add a few photos of the second floor later this week.

Ty's 1st Race

Ty' has been asking to run a race with me for quite some time. I toyed with signing him up for mountain bike race, but we haven't had enough time to train for it this year.

Since we moved back to Virginia, he has started running with me on some shorter trail runs. I have to admit, he is in great shape - must be all that soccer he plays.

When I found out my work was sponsoring a 5 K, I signed Ty and I up for it. The Navy Federal 5K benefits the Committee for Helping Others and is run in Vienna, VA. I figured 5K was safe distance to start, and I knew the course fairly well.

On the day of the race, Ty was pretty excited. I talked to him about his expectations, and his goal was to finish in top 10 in his age group. Unfortunately, the youngest age group as 19 and under, so Ty knew he couldn't keep up with 18 and 19 year olds. He ran a great race, setting a comfortable pace, not chasing other kids that started too fast and picking them off later. After seeing the rest of the family new the finish line, Ty managed to finish strong, at just under 25 minutes. He finished 7th in his age group, and more importantly, 3rd fastest time for 10 and under. A great time, given it was his first race and I intentionally paced him a little slow. Needless to say, I was very proud Papa. He is already asking about his next race.

By the way, click on the Title above, or here to see race data captured by my garmin 305. For more information on my garmin, click here .

Steelers Training Camp

During the last week of August, I took a day to visit the Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College. The campus is located in scenic Latrobe PA, in the foothills of the Allegheny mountains. Both Tyler and Ellie came along and had lots of fun. We watched practice, took part in the NFL experience and even got some got some autographs. While we came close to getting fan favorite Polamalu - he one person down from Ellie, we did get lasts year's number 1 draft pick, Ziggy Hood.

Polamalu was impressive - last player off the practice field and last player signing autographs. And yes ladies, he does have better hair than you. The second photo is action shot of him making interception during practice.

There was plenty of stuff for kids to do - a whole NFL experience in which they could throw passes, kick a field go, go through obstacle course, and try one full pads. Take a look at the last photo - you can barely see Ellie's fingers sticking out of the shoulder pads

Guess Who Turned 3?

We had small celebration for Drew's 3rd birthday last Friday. A bigger party at the pool is planned in a couple of weeks. For now, he enjoyed cookies and ice cream. If anybody asks him how old he is, he holds up 3 fingers and says "Tee"

House Renovations - Exterior

Next in line of updates on the house renovations. I figured this time I would provide a view from the outside. The first picture was taken about 6 years ago. We actually used this to advertise the house as a rental when we were in K.C. You can see the single car garage on the right side.
The second picture of the outside is also taken from the front, but is from the opposite corner. You can still see the old garage that will become our new kitchen. Above the old garage, they have framed out the new Master Bedroom. The workers are putting on new roof and pouring cement for the foundation of the new garage, which you can see in the last photo.

The final shot is straight on. The new, 2 car garage is framed out, along with the new roof over the entrance and Master Bedroom. The 2x6 supporting the overhang on the garage will be replaced by columns with brick on the bottom. We will also have new columns to replace the existing ones around the entrance. The new garage does eat into the driveway a bit, but it will be nice to have space for both cars.

House renovations - 2nd Floor

Couple more pictures from the house renovation, this time on the second floor. These are before and after pictures from the second floor, which currently has master bedroom, (2) kids rooms, a study, and (2) baths. We decided to do was widen the hallway about 18", move the master bedroom out over the existing garage/new kitchen, then use the space that was the master bedroom to add new bathroom for the kids and new bedroom for Drew.

The first picture shows the old view from the master bedroom doorway, looking towards Ellie's room. You can just see the handrail for the stairs on the left. The second picture, is taken from within what will be the new master bedroom looking towards Ellie's room. You can see how much longer and wider the hallway is. The framing for the wall and door to the master bedroom is showing.

The 3rd pictures shows the old view from the opposite end of the hallway as the first - standing in Ellie's doorway and looking down the hallway towards master bedroom. Compare that to the 4th picture (ignore the mess). You can see again the wider hallway, and the framing for both Drew's room on the right and the new bathroom on the left.

Once again, I have included the architecture diagrams for the old and new 2nd floor layout. Next week, I hope to add some shots of the exterior. That should give an idea of how everything fits together.

Renovation - first floor

In case you didn't know, we are having major renovations done to our house before we move back in. When we moved back to Virginia last year, our tenants still had another year left on their lease. For the past year, we have been renting in the same neighborhood. We started the renovations about 3 weeks ago when our tenants moved out. Over the next few months, we thought it would be fun to post some pics of the work in progress.

This post focuses just on the kitchen area. We are having the wall between the garage and kitchen knocked out, and moving the new kitchen into what is the existing garage. The first picture shows the kitchen before work started. You can see the door from the "old" kitchen out to the garage on the right, and just a small bit of the door to the deck on the left. The second picture is the same view after the wall between the garage and kitchen has been remove. Pretty exciting!

The 3rd image is also a picture of the "old" kitchen, but taken from the opposite side as the first two. I was standing with my back to the garage facing the oven and sink. Do you like that faux brick backsplash? I know Melissa won't miss it. The last shot shows same view, minus the counters, cabinets, stove, etc. We are going for the minimalist look.

The last two images I have added are the blue prints of the before and after looks on the 1st floor. I apologize for the poor resolution, I had to convert them from pdfs to jpegs, so they might be a little hard to read. For the most part, we are leaving the living room & family room alone, and only making minor changes to the dinning room. The before or existing blueprint is on the left, with the new one on right.

Ellie Swim Team Trials

Ellie has joined the swim team at our neighborhood pool - The Wahoos. We are not wild about the team name (kidding), but the team is good and the atmosphere great. Of course, Ellie is only 6, so we don't want to get carried away. She has great stamina and swims pretty fast. She needs to spend a little more time in practice on starts and finishes, but she is doing great for her first time. The first photo is start of 25 meter butterfly for 8 and under. She is in the bottom lane, with the white swim cap.

She is competing in all 4 strokes:

• freestyle,
• back,
  
• breast, and
  
• butterfly

Most important, she has lots of fun with the other swimmers and coaches. Her first meet is Monday, June 28th. I hope to post update a couple of days after that.

Quick update on Ellie's first swim meet; she swam three strokes and achieved 3rd in Butterfly (out of 8 swimmers) 8 and under, 1st in Breast (out of 8 swimmers) 6 and under, and 4th in backstroke (out of 24) 6 and under.

Drew helps in Poppop's Garden

A couple of weekends back, Melissa took Drew down to Charlottesville to visit the grandparents and see a Sesame Street Live show. Drew had great fun watching Elmo, Cookie and the rest of Sesame Street. He also had a lot of fun helping Poppop plant his garden.

Ellie's new Bike

We final went and got Ellie a new bike, without training wheels. She took to it right away, zooming up and down our sidewalk. She still needs a little time to learn turns. The good news is, she has learned how to crash from one of the best, her old man.

Signings

Ty was lucky enough to get a couple of autographs recently. The first one was at a book signing for Rick Riordan. He has written the popular kids books called Percy Jackson Series, based on Greek and Roman mythodology set in present day. The first one was made into a so-so movie, called Lightening Thief. The author is touring to promote his a new series based on Egyption mythology, called the Kane Chronicles. Ty got an autographed copy of the new book.

The author signed books and answerred questions at Politics and Prose, a neat bookstore in NorthWest D.C. Ty was pretty excited, even if it did make for a long night.


The second signing was at a card trade show. Steeler running back Rashard Mendenhall . Ty was very excited to meet him and get his autograph.

Christmas Newsletter

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies….okay, this isn’t the condensed version of the classic The Wizard of Oz, and as you may have noticed from the return address, we aren’t in Kansas anymore. But like Dorothy, we survived the cyclone, of moving, that is.

Reflecting back, it has been a good year. It started out with Dave looking for a new job – Capital One decided to shut down their KC office by mid-summer 2009. I guess that would make Dave the ‘Scarecrow’, but looking for work instead of a brain. The combination of work opportunities and family lead us to follow the yellow brick road back to Virginia, where Dave found work at Navy Federal Credit Union. While he is enjoying his new job, it was great that he had time off to help with the move and spend time with the kids this summer, although we did not even make a dent in the “Honey Do” list.

Speaking of the kids, they have shown the heart of the Tin Man as well as the courage of the Lion adjusting to the move, a new school, and their activities.

Before we moved, Tyler attended his first overnight camp with our Church. I think we were more scared then he was, especially because of the spectacular summer Kansas storm that decided to roar through the first night. Tyler continues to play soccer – he joined the Annandale Boys and Girls Club travel team. He teamed up with a great group of boys and has excellent coaches who hail from England. Ty started the 3rd grade, and has not missed a beat socially or academically. He still enjoys anything sports related – he’s plowing through sports novels and even decorated his new room with Hokies, Steelers, and other sports paraphernalia. Dave and Ty also enjoyed going to the Steelers vs. Redskins preseason game.

Ellie was busy this summer, attending cheer camp and Vacation Bible School. She was very excited to start Kindergarten ½ days this Fall, and has made lots of new friends. After school, Ellie keeps busy with soccer in the fall and swimming in the winter. She also continues with gymnastics year round. She and Drew have a grand time reading and playing together in the afternoons waiting to pick Tyler up from the bus. Did we mention she lost her first two teeth?

If you know Drew at all, you will not be surprised that he insisted on not being left out while big brother and sis went off to school. The first day Ellie and Tyler left for school on the bus, he was NOT pleased (see picture on the right), so we found a great pre-school for him. He calls it "Drew’s School". His personality is really developing, somewhere between class clown and daredevil with a whole lot of sweet in between. It seems not a day goes by that he doesn’t have a new bruise or bump from trying to keep up with Ellie and Tyler and he always succeeds in cracking us up with his silliness. He loves life and makes the most of it every day!

Melissa (guess she is Dorothy?) has been the glue that keeps the family together. She still manages to squeeze in a couple of days of work each week for Booz Allen while taking care of the kids and house. Not sure how she does it, but my guess is it involves ruby slippers and flying monkeys.

Of course, we can’t forget our oldest child, Toto, I mean Aspen. She is doing well for an old lady of 14 years. She still loves taking walks and begging for table scraps. In fact, since we don’t have a fence, she has managed to take herself on numerous long walks.

In between taking the kids to practice, work, and the move, we have managed to have some fun. Before we left KC, we made a point to see several KS landmarks including the horse and carriage ride around The Plaza, the Liberty World War I Memorial, and College Basketball Hall of Fame. The highlight of the KC sites was the American Jazz Blue Room, where we heard an impromptu performance by KC native and Grammy-award winner Oleta Adams. She was amazing! We then moseyed over to the historic Musicians Foundation Club for an after hours performance (opens at 1:00 am). We wrapped up our KS stint with a going away party, complete with a huge water slide.

Dave & Melissa also finally made it back to Blacksburg for the first time in 10 years. We had a great time tailgating and watching Hokie football. Melissa took Tyler and Ellie to see their great grandmother – not sure who was more excited, Grandma Trout or the kids. Dave continues to find time to run and mountain bike, and even ran a 50K for his 40th birthday. Tyler has started to join Dave on the shorter runs. Don’t tell Ty, but his old man has trouble keeping up with him.

We miss our dear KC friends, Oklahoma Joes’ Z-man sandwich, and Gates BBQ sauce, but we are happy to be able to call on grandparents to help with babysitting, and to enjoy birthdays and holidays with family, catch up with old VA friends and make some new ones.

One more thing…remember at the end of the Wizard of Oz, where the Great Wizard leaves Dorothy behind while he travels home in a hot air balloon? Well, we will be moving again next year. This time, it is only about a mile down the road, back into our old Virginia house.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Fountain Head

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Fountain Head

Trying out new tool to share info from my garmin. This was ride at Foutainhead trail this past Sunday (beautiful day). You tube video of what the ride is like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VzA5wnf7Dk&feature=related

Halloween 09

First Halloween back in VA was a success despite a little rain and Ty recovering from pneumonia. Ty was a rock star, Ellie Wonder Women, and Drew was Elmo. Drew really got into it this year, loving all the candies. Dave's parents made the trip up from Charlottesville too. Dad French was Batman to go with Ellie's Wonder Women.