Bret's Relatives Arrive (and not from Hawaii!)

When you live in Las Vegas, the appearance of a long lost relative is nothing out of the ordinary. You'd be amazed at how many old friends and family decide to pay you a visit when your home is in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cari's extended family members often fly in from the Midwest, and many a Bicoy has arrived from Hawaii or California. However in the case of my family, it has always been the Bicoy side that shows up at our door.

This weekend marked the first visit from my mother's side of the family - originally the Deerings of Wisconsin.

My dad is a Filipino guy from Hawaii who married a German lady from Northeast Wisconsin nearly 45 years ago.

Hey, come to think of it, that's basically the same story as Cari and me.

I'm a (half) Filipino guy from Hawaii who married a (part) German lady from Northeast Wisconsin. And in just a few short decades we'll have been married 45 years.

My ego would say that these ladies left Wisconsin because we Filipino men are just so darn irresistible, but then my wife reads this blog and I don't want to sleep on the couch tonight. So let's just be honest and say that this Filipino man was lucky enough to find a woman who'd marry him even though she's way out of his league.

Anyway, here are two of my cousins who visited Las Vegas this past weekend...



That's Bonnie on the left, my lovely wife Cari in the middle, and Karen on the right. And they were both kind enough to lose a few dollars at the tables and thus pay my taxes for the year.

Viva Las Vegas!

Looking for an Echo...

Normally this blog is entirely about the fun and sometimes bizarre happenings to our little family. But today is going to be different. Let me explain.

We're just figuring out how to use all the functions on the kids' new Wii game system that we set up in our living room. The newest discovery was the "internet channel" - through which we can surf the world of cyberspace from the comfort of our favorite living room chair.

So among the websites we were visiting last night was YouTube - the online video site. We were playing various segments of "Scrubs" episodes which never cease to crack our kids up. These are famous songs like "Everything Comes Down to Pooh", "Guy Love," the Star Wars Scene and my favorite clip of those men at work, "Overkill."

So after spending a half hour watching various funny songs which made everyone laugh, the kids went off to bed and I kept searching various musical clips through our television and discovered the Persuasions!

When I was in college, this was the song that we would sing - trying to pretend that we actually had musical talent. I couldn't believe that I still remember all the words and can sing it today (if you can call what I did "singing").

In 1992, shortly after graduating from Tufts, I travelled with a group of friends (old friend Amy DeBaun among them) from Boston to explore the environs of San Francisco. And wouldn't you know it, the Persuasions were filming a live concert in a small hall somewhere in Hayward! So we got to see them sing live!

So enjoy the Persuasions while they are "Looking for an Echo..."

Happy Easter to All, and to All a Good Night...

The tradition in our home is to color lots (and with six kids, we do mean lots) of eggs the night before Easter. That way the Easter Bunny can visit us in the wee hours of the morning and hide all the eggs.

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Of course, this also means there is an absolute frenzy on Easter morning as the kids tear through the house at some very early morning hour...



While we appreciate his efforts, the Easter Bunny could have been a bit more sanitary than to put easter eggs in and around the bathroom toilet and sink...



But hey, he is just a bunny.

Alyssa isn't too excited about searching for eggs anymore, so she just bundled up on the couch (even though the temperature today was 86 degrees) and watched...



Unfortunately, her brothers realized that the Easter Bunny put a few eggs on the window sill behind her and so they swarmed all over her...



In addition to hiding the eggs, the Easter Bunny also fills the kids' baskets with candies and a book or magazine of their very own...



Now, both Cari's and my extended family are very Catholic, but apparently nobody told the Easter Bunny. Just look at the reading materials he put in my and Alyssa's baskets, respectively...



There was so much candy you'd have thought it was Halloween...



And if our mouths weren't stuffed enough, we all went out for an early lunch...



Although Alyssa kept getting interrupted by text messages from all her friends...



Nothing was going to disrupt Malia, however. As usual, she dove into this day with all her energy and vigor...



But when her tank is empty, she just plops down and comes to a complete stop...



And to quote from that famous Easter poem...

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Easter to all, and to all a good night."