David Monkey

Alyssa really didn't like her picture so we put a good one of David up so that she'd see that she has nothing to complain about...



My son David, after being genetically merged with a Colobus Monkey.

Will the Real Alyssa Please Turn Around!

Ah, the wonders of a teenage daughter.

My lovely wife noticed that many of our pictures of Alyssa seem to look a lot like this...



Amazingly enough, Alyssa always seems to turn herself in exactly the right way to avoid having her picture taken.

Aha, a challenge has clearly been issued to her father!

So the quest began for the perfect picture of Alyssa.

But Alyssa wasn't going to give up quite that easily. She has developed a number of different methods to avoid the camera.

For instance, she has mastered the last second head turn...



If that doesn't work, she has more moves, of course.

Like the crouch and duck...



Or sometimes Alyssa must resort to some less exciting methods of ducking the camera.

Like the "talk to the hand" maneuver...



But after an incredibly determined day of sneaking around the corner to capture the perfect picture, we finally got it.

Here is our wonderful daughter Alyssa in all her glory...



Hee hee!

Maybe after seeing this she'll sit still for a real picture!

Visiting Old Las Vegas

When you think of Las Vegas today, most folks think of the famous "Strip" -- with all its overwhelming opulance and extravagance! Well, with my parents visiting from Hawaii and my brother Bernie and his family driving in from California, we took a little trek to Fremont Street -- "the place where it all began"

Here's a wonderful view of the Fremont Street Experience, which is a four block pedestrian street covered by a giant canopy which is really the world's largest big screen television...



And how could any stop in old Las Vegas be complete without a visit by the King himself...



Elvis is someone worthy of a museum (and accompanying gift shop, of course).

Well, this is Las Vegas where people come ready to part with their money for a good time -- so lot's of things are in need of a museum and gift shop -- even fast food restaurants...



This is an exotic place where the risque is the norm. Everyone's trying to use an angle to generate business -- even one of the grand old hotels like the Tropicana...



See, in Vegas, baby, even our birds are exotic.

We stopped by a mall at one point, but ordinary malls are so passe. So how about a mall that's built to look like Venice -- complete with the canals and gondolas floating by...



After a long day of walking, my three sons needed to take a break with Grandpa Bernie...



Although one can't help but wonder what Kekoa (in the middle) and Bretty (on the right) have on their mischevous minds!

We did gamble a little -- and after four months in Las Vegas I finally placed my first bet. I'm proud to say I quickly doubled my money (only to lose all my winnings shortly thereafter -- at least I broke even!).

Here we all are (my parents Bernie & Betty, my brother Bernie Jr., and his wife Pat, my nephews Derek and Blake, and my lovely wife Cari) after an evening of gambling on Fremont Street...



Notice the biggest smile on my mom's face. She quintupled her money that night!

Of course, according to the sole protestor on Fremont Street, it really doesn't matter whether any of us won or lost because we're all doomed anyway...



Bummer.

Viva Las Vegas!

There's no place quite like Las Vegas...



This is the fastest growing city in America -- with Clark County adding roughly 6,000 new residents every single month! What is not well known beyond those that live here, however, is that the people moving to this wonderfully quirky city were inevitably the most popular people in their former home towns.

How do we know that everyone who lives here is extremely popular? Well, why else would we all have so many friends and family who want to visit us?

Tomorrow morning my parents arrive from Hawaii. That makes the sixth set of visitors we will have had in our home since our arrival in Las Vegas a mere four months ago!

Consider my Aunty Kani and Uncle Adrian (with my family)...



Or my Aunty Mary and her crew...



Then there was Thanksgiving with two sets of guests -- my in-laws from Green Bay and my Aunty Lori and her family...



Such is the challenge of my father being the eldest of 12 children -- that means I have lots of Aunties and Uncles and cousins!

Of course, I love it when folks like my cousin Fred visit...



L&L Drive In. Mmmmmm, good.

Marietta's Sternwheel Festival

Every year in Marietta, this lovely little town hosts the Sternwheel Festival -- a terrific event which lines the banks of the Ohio River and Muskingum Rivers with all sorts of sternwheel powered vessels...



Marietta has made an entire event of it complete with car shows, concerts, and lots and lots of food...



Of course, when it comes to my kids, the best part of the Sternwheel Festival is the myriad of junk food available. Despite my repeated request that everyone smile for the camera, the boys just couldn’t turn around for fear that another of them would snap up the rest of the food on my lovely wife Cari’s plate…



Sort of reminds you of a mother bird surrounded by screeching hatchlings.

Here Comes Santa Claus - DUCK!

For a few years we lived in the wonderful city of Marietta, Ohio. It is a wonderful little community that has a character all its own. Of course, like every place that is truly unique, it does have it's little quirks.

I just dug up this little picture...



North Pole Gunsmithing.

Because when Santa comes to Marietta, he's packing heat.

The Bicoy Beacon 2004

The Whole Family!

Happy Holidays and welcome to this year’s internet edition of the Bicoy Beacon. Since my lovely wife has entrusted the authorship of this year’s epistle to me, you can be sure that you’re reading this far later in the year than she had planned. Since I’m horrible at keeping track of snail mail addresses, some of you are receiving this via email this year. So if you’re even remotely amused by this nonsense, please send us your mailing address so we have it in the future!

2004 has been a time of exciting change in our lives. We left Marietta, Ohio – a community we had grown to love – so I could accept a position with the Nevada Community Foundation in Las Vegas. Needless to say, Vegas is most definitely not Marietta!

Living in Las Vegas is as surreal an existence as one can find in this world – and I mean that as a compliment! Where else can you walk through Wal-Mart and see Elvis buying a jar of Vlasic Pickles. Okay, maybe he was an Elvis impersonator, but the pickles were definitely real.

This remarkable city has been growing at a phenomenal rate for the last 25 years. Nearly 6,000 people move to this place every single month. Since 1980, the population has tripled to nearly 1.7 million residents. To add to the nuttiness, Las Vegas is the most popular tourist destination in the country. Some 37 million people will visit Vegas this year. (As a basis for comparison, my home state of Hawaii hosts only about 6½ million tourists annually.) If you drew a two-mile wide circle in the heart of the hotel district in Vegas, you would encompass 17 of the 20 largest hotels on the planet. Just imagine the whirly burly possibilities! The mere thought truly boggles the mind!

(For the uninformed, a “whirly burly” is what results upon the collective flushing of all the toilet bowls in a metropolitan area simultaneously. As a former elected official with the City of Green Bay, I can testify that this is a real concern of municipal solid waste departments during restroom breaks in major television events like half-time of the Super Bowl. I’m sure how I choose to use my high priced college education makes my parents extremely proud.)

And we mustn’t forget that Las Vegas is also the city of love, although we leave that brotherly stuff to Philadelphia. A total of 99,310 marriage licenses were issued in Las Vegas last year, only 478 of which involved someone named Paris or Brittany.

I could go on and on about what a wonderfully quirky and exciting city this is, but my wife is continually smacking me on the back of my head in an effort to refocus me on the task at hand. Hence, I will now commence with the highlights of our past year. Should you ever find yourself in Las Vegas, be sure to drop my wife a note at ccbicoy@yahoo.com. Since we’ve moved to Vegas, we find that we’ve become far more popular with our old friends and family!

Mele Kalikimaka…

Bret & Cari Bicoy

Alyssa Hates to Shop!

Alyssa & Malia

I could tell you about Alyssa’s membership in the National Junior Honor Society, her participation as a Band Manager of the Marietta High School Band, or her service as an office aide. I might want to highlight Alyssa’s exceptional academic performance at Greenspun Middle School since our arrival in Nevada – her straight A average in a full load of honors courses. But the thing that most amazes my wonderful wife about Alyssa is her absolute disdain for shopping! As a father who pays the bills, I cannot tell you how much I adore this young lady! Alyssa even has her own Visa debit card that we gave her to teach financial responsibility – but she never uses it because she doesn’t like to shop. All I can say is, “Yippeee!”

Alyssa is nearly 14 years old (which makes me feel quite old myself) and continues to be a wonderful big sister to all of her many siblings. She has become an expert on using Instant Messenger on the computer to talk with her friends both here and in Marietta, and has even set up her own personal weblog – which is sort of an online diary, except the whole world can read it! You can peruse her thoughts at her personal blog website of http://acbicoy.blogspot.com – and be sure to leave comments. She loves comments!

Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Malia & Nalani

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist a song title theme. Anyway, what can I say about our two delightful little girls? I could say they are delightful, but I already said that. So let me first tell you that Nalani Jayne is as girly a girl as a girl can be. When I travel out of town, I typically bring back small trinkets and gifts for each of the kids. It’s kind of an adventure for me to find things that match each of my kid’s unique personalities. For Nalani, I just stop at the first shoe store I find.

Seriously, this two year-old loves her shoes. She loves her “Snow White” dress. She loves dressing up and doing all those stereotypical things that characterize little girls! Clearly, Nalani differs from her older sister in that I cannot imagine she’ll ever have trouble finding the energy to go shopping.

Thankfully, Nalani’s personality includes a strong mothering instinct. She often insists on playing house with Kekoa as the daddy, her as the mommy, and Malia as the baby girl. She insists, literally.

As for Malia Clare, well, she is daddy’s little girl – and it’s Cari who told me to write that. Every day when I arrive home from work, it’s Malia who runs to the door to greet me. She is constantly grabbing on to my legs in an effort to get me to pick her up and often falls asleep sitting next to me on my big blue recliner.

It’s difficult to tell these things given that Malia is only the tender age of 1, but she is already using basic words which makes us think that she’s very bright and as much a talker as some of her older siblings. Oh boy!

The Boys Are Back in Town...

David Daniel, Kekoa James & Bret Nalani Jr.

Okay, maybe my boys have never been to Las Vegas before, so they couldn’t exactly be “back” – but that song was the anthem of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys when they won their 3^rd, 4^th & 5^th Super Bowls and, well, that’s just something we should all remember from time to time (knocking the Packers out of the playoffs each of those years, by they way – a fact for which my lovely wife still holds me personally responsible).

Anyway, my three sons (I’m just flying with the cliché’s today, aren’t I?) are absolutely terrific boys in most every way – yet they are all so very different from one another. David Daniel is now in the second grade and doing very well at Cox Elementary School. Reading has finally clicked for him and he recently received a grade of 98 on his report card! He loves his comic books and the Captain Underpants series of books. David also recently received the “Good Citizen” award for his positive attitude in school. He must take after his daddy.

Bret Nalani, Jr., or Bretty as he likes to be called, started kindergarten this year also at Cox Elementary. He has taken to school like a fish to water (oops, another cliché) and enjoys it immensely. Bretty has breezed through the Easy Reader books the rest of his class is using so his teacher has recently begun assigning him more advanced materials for him. He has also made friends with a slightly older first grader who lives across the street. Bretty’s friend comes over to play almost every afternoon and they have a grand old time. His friend likes playing with Bretty’s toys and Bretty enjoys telling him what to do. Seems like no matter where they grow up, Bicoy children always turn out to be Bicoy children. Oh joy.

More than anything else, Kekoa James enjoys hearing the sound of his own voice. This remarkably energetic 4 year-old has no interest in learning the concept of an “inside voice.” He loves playing games on the computer and gets along wonderfully with his sister Nalani – right up until the moment he decides not to get along wonderfully with his sister Nalani. Kekoa is a delightful little boy who brings great joy to our home and enthusiasm to everything he does.

Back in the High Life Again...

Me with a Hot Babe!

Well, I needed to think of some song lyric to match the picture above. Anyway, this summer I accepted a position as the Big Kahuna of the Nevada Community Foundation (www.nevadacf.org). It’s an exciting time of expansion as our small staff of four has quickly grown to nine in the few months I’ve been in Las Vegas. My wonderful wife Cari is making some new friends and has already organized a weekly gathering in the park for other stay-at-home moms who are new to town. We can honestly say that as difficult as it was to leave behind our life and friends in Marietta, this was absolutely the perfect move for us.

In all seriousness (and that’s not something I’m really good at), we do hope you take the time to visit us in this fabulous city. You’re welcome in our home (although I can’t speak for the dog or two cats) for a stay or even just for some time away from the wonderful craziness of the famous “Strip” and Fremont Street. From our family to yours, have a wonderful holiday and we hope to see you soon!