The Nonsensical Travels of Bret & Cari Bicoy

Now it's Malia's Turn...

2012-01-18T08:11:00.004-06:00

Now it's Malia's turn...

Go Malia Go!

Nalani on the Radio!

2012-01-16T16:55:00.001-06:00

Here's Nalani reciting the pledge of allegiance on the radio stations of Door County Daily News.com...

Congratulations Nalani!

Christmas Faces!

2011-12-25T10:35:00.000-06:00

When you have six children, inevitably each of them have different sleeping habits. So the early morning risers get up early on Christmas morning like every morning, but the sleepy heads sleep in as usual.

This leads to a most interesting picture as the early risers desperately want to know what Santa brought, but they stand around staring because nobody is allowed to touch anything until everyone is up...

Malia is a bundle of joy as she opens presents...

Especially when she gets the thing she wanted most - her very own art kit...

Kekoa insisted we start a fire so he could stay warm next to the fireplace.

Of course, starting a fire in our house means flipping a switch on the wall to turn on the gas. He liked it anyway...

And what more can a guy ask for than Star Wars lego stuff...

Bret Jr. wanted clothes for Christmas.

Seriously, he's 13 and he wants clothes.

So we bought him clothes. Look at how excited he is...

His Christmas spirit was overflowing...

The excitement was just unbearable...

His Christmas list asked for lots of clothes from Aeropostale, and that's a lot of what he got...

His older brother David, on the other hand, had some very unusual things on his list...

David has some pretty great faces when he opens Christmas presents...

You'd think he'd be an actor with all these faces...

I guess I'm too old to understand the joke, but he really wanted this shirt and he got it...

Alyssa is home from the East Coast for Christmas, and she has some good faces of her own...

I'm not exactly sure what her opinion is of this particular gift...

But when it comes to opening gifts, nobody does it quite like Nalani...

We take turn opening presents, and Nalani makes everyone wait while shakes every gift, sizes it up - all while she has the most unusual of expressions on her face...

I'm not exactly sure what she thinks she's going to hear...

Pondering which one to open next...

Sizing up another present...

And her overjoyed excitement when she opens the wrapper and finds a white box...

That's Nalani for you.

One of the Christmas presents for the whole family are tickets to American Folklore Theatre's beloved Guys on Ice...

They play is about a couple of guys who go ice fishing. One of their deep insights into life is that if hell is hot, the heaven must be really cold. And if it's cold in heaven, then there must be ice fishing.

As for me, my kids bought me this terrific book...

It's all about the 1990s dynasty of the Dallas Cowboys, which most football experts - including broadcaster great Pat Summerall - consider the greatest dynasty ever. It was only the foolishness between Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson that kept them from winning 4 or 5 Super Bowls in a row instead of just the 3 in 4 years that they won.

What a great Christmas present!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Decorating!

2011-11-25T20:34:00.000-06:00

It's the day after Thanksgiving. While that certainly means my wife went shopping at some ridiculous hour this Black Friday morning, it also means we set up for Christmas.

The day began with our annual walk through the woods of the Christmas tree farm to find that perfect tree... and as we like to point out each year... to find it, cut it down and kill it.

But we like to stick it in a pot of water for a month to prolong its agonizing death.

Here we are decorating this year's victim...

This was the biggest tree we've ever had. The entryway to our home goes up two stories, so the tree seems tiny even though it's too tall for any single story room in our house.

And like the hunter who shot some enormous 16 point buck, our kids wanted to take pictures next to their vegetarian prey...

Gotta admit that it looks great all lit up...

And while we're not over the top crazy with lights, we do like to do a little something outside...

Merry Christmas!

Sturgeon Bay Beats Algoma!

2011-11-14T21:46:00.001-06:00

The Sturgeon Bay Clippers (in white) finish their epic comeback against Algoma. Well, as epic as a 7th grade basketball game can get.

Bret Jr. is #35, and he's on the bottom right on the screen setting up to rebound as the video begins...

Go Clippers!

She's Leaving Home

2011-10-07T06:48:00.000-05:00

I think it's going to rain today.

Kekoa's Ready for Some Football!

2011-09-18T10:37:00.001-05:00

Football is back! And Kekoa is playing more this year than ever.

He's #22 - and lines up at wing on the offense...

On defense he is now the starting safety...

Kekoa's a little smaller than most of the kids. So when he makes a tackle, he has to throw his whole body into it. Here is a series of images of Kekoa helping to bring down the running back...

Naturally he ends up at the bottom of the pile!

Congratulations Kekoa!

He's Got Marty Feldman Eyes...

2011-08-31T22:44:00.001-05:00

Here is my son David's newest video...

Makes me think of that 1980's classic, She's Got Marty Feldman Eyes...

"Home Alone" - starring David Bicoy

2011-07-27T13:55:00.000-05:00

Our son David was home alone...

That's my boy!

Fire Dancing

2011-07-03T20:34:00.001-05:00

Some kids roast marshmellows around the fire. Other kids make smores. Apparently Bicoy kids dance.

Happy fourth of July!

Nalani Sings at Sea

2011-06-24T17:56:00.001-05:00

We bought a sailboat so we could have some peace and quiet at sea.

So naturally, Nalani uses the quiet as an opportunity to sing us another one of her original songs...

Thank you Nalani!

Nerd Plays Basketball

2011-06-17T21:03:00.001-05:00

An original video by my son David, starring David and his younger brother Bret Jr...

Nalani & Malia on Broadway (or at least Third Avenue)

2011-06-12T15:18:00.005-05:00

We had several errands to run today, so Nalani and Malia spent the time in the car composing their own Broadway tunes.

On the way home, they asked if we could drive down Third Avenue in Sturgeon Bay (a street usually populated with tourists this time of year) so they could roll down the windows and sing.

Well, here they are, Nalani & Malia, singing their original songs...

Another day in Door County!

Who Needs Football or Basketball?

2011-05-10T21:26:00.001-05:00

Okay, maybe running in a circle isn't quite as much fun to watch as football or basketball, but it was nice to see our middle son at today's track meet.

Bret Jr. runs the 400 meter dash and the 800 meter race.

He finished 4th in the 400 meter dash. And here are the highlights of his 800 meter run...

He finished third, which is really good considering that Bret has never been a runner before this year.

Of course, after his races, he is pretty worn out...

Congratulations Bret.

Kekoa is a Star!

2011-05-01T16:39:00.005-05:00

Our kids were asked to participate in a political commercial for their grandfather - which they were all happy to do (but unfortunately, Alyssa had to work). Their roles consisted of sitting on a couch with their grandpa as he read them a book.

But the director really liked Kekoa and asked if he would be willing to do a few more lines as a closeup.

Here he is, standing before the crew...

Of course, his brothers gave him a bit of grief as the the lady in blue applied more makeup on Kekoa...

But hey, no matter what his brothers say, Kekoa was a star today!

Congratulations Kekoa!

David Gets a Haircut

2011-04-25T10:51:00.005-05:00

Finally, after more than a year, our oldest son David decided to get a haircut.

Of course, he didn't trust anyone to do it but himself...

And here was the outcome...

For a while there, it was looking like we had four daughters - but no more!

Bret Loves Pi

2011-04-01T21:12:00.009-05:00

On April 1st, the bookstore on 3rd Avenue - "Untitled" - posted an unusual challenge on their Facebook page:

"Today and today only, we at "Untitled" will be giving away a $100 gift certificate to any customer today who can come in and recite the correct sequence of pi to the 100th decimal point. Come on down and have some pi!"

Of course, it was meant to be an April Fool's joke. Who in their right mind could memorize 100 digits of pi before the day was over?.

Well, apparently my son Bret Jr. isn't of his right mind.

Bret's teacher had challenged him to memorize 50 digits of pi in March. He spent two weeks doing it, but eventually he memorized the 50 digits - by far the most of anyone in his class! But that was as far as he thought he could go.

Then Alyssa noticed the joke/challenge on Facebook on April Fool's Day - and pushed her brother to see if he could memorize the rest.

So he spent about 4 hours working on it, and we went to the store about 15 minutes before it closed.

And much to the incredible surprise of the bookstore owner, my son recited all 100 digits of pi.

He was so impressed that he gave Bret the $100 gift certificate even thought it was supposed to be a joke:

Congratulations Bret!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bernie!

2011-03-24T21:32:00.004-05:00

A birthday video for Grandpa upon his 88th birthday...

Springtime for Children in Door County!

2011-03-23T09:49:00.001-05:00

It's springtime for children in Door County! Okay, maybe that's not quite a Mel Brooks song, but it does mean it's time for spring concerts!

There are few communities in the country that celebrate the arts more than Door County, so it's not surprising that we have very elaborate music and art programs. Here are the highlights of the concerts from three of our kids.

The first is Malia's performance. Here are the 1st graders doing a tribute to Appalachian folk songs...

Our elementary schools in Sturgeon Bay are separated by grade. 1st & 2nd grade go to Sawyer Elementary, 3rd, 4th & 5th go to Sunrise Elementary.

This means that Nalani goes to a different elementary school than Malia - but they sang the same songs.

Here is the third grade also singing a collection of Appalachian folk songs...

And finally, we have Kekoa and the 5th graders. They decided to be hippies for a day - complete with tie dyed shirts of their own design...

Springtime in Door County!

Plays & Performances Abound

2011-03-21T09:08:00.002-05:00

Bret Jr.'s basketball tournaments have been eating up a lot of our time - but there's also all the stuff that our other kids do on the side. For instance, David served as the co-host of the Sturgeon Bay Middle School Arts Night.

Here's a compilation of videos of my son introducing the acts along with his friend Charles...

Of course, everyone thought we were nuts. I was the only guy in the room who'd pick up the video camera to film the guys who introduce the acts - only to put the camera down once the acts began.

Last week we also attended the Destination Imagination performances of a couple of our kids. For the uninitiated, Destination Imagination (or "DI" as it's known) is a program in which kids have to perform a challenge in the context of a skit they write for themselves. They practice this for several weeks before performing it before an audience and a panel of judges the day of the DI Tournament.

Bret Jr., Kekoa and Nalani all participated in the program.

Unfortunately, Nalani and Bret Jr.'s performances were scheduled for the same time in different rooms. Cari was one of the coaches of Nalani's team, so I went to see Bret Jr.'s peformance on the day of the tournament while Cari stayed with Nalani.

But I wanted to see Nalani's skit, so I attended her final practice which her team put on before her classmates.

Here's a video of the final practice of Nalani's 3rd grade team. Early on, Nalani plays the role of the Fruit Queen - sending her troops to battle the evil Candy Soldiers. Later, all the girls are Cheesehead Aliens and they walk with a strange walk.

Hey, it's an original skit written by 3rd graders...

Kekoa's 5th grade team did a nice job as well. The story revolves around a dream of a "dumb nerd," played by my son Kekoa...

Bret Jr. also participated on a 6th grade team, but he asked his mother not to post the video online. Oh well.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

2011-03-02T18:48:00.006-06:00

I came home today and discovered stacks and stacks of Girl Scout cookies. The garage smells wonderful!

I was going to dig in, but Cari (the troop leader) wouldn't let me. Something about other people already paying for them.

Evil temptress.

A School Board Adventure

2011-02-16T20:35:00.001-06:00

Last week we received a letter from the Sturgeon Bay School District, requesting that we bring our middle son, Bret Jr., to a School Board meeting this evening.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it.

Actually, it wasn't bad news, it was good news. Here is Bret being recognized by the the Superintendent and the School Board...

They presented him with this certificate "in recognition of your oustanding effort to help our district and students."

Here is the text of the citation: "Bret Bicoy is a dependable student and is dedicated to exemplifying responsibility, positive attitude, and open-mindedness. He has proven to be a thoughtful member of our school, and motivates his fellow classmates to try new things by simply being himself. It has been a pleasure working with Bret so far this year and we look forward to watching his success."

Feel free to send accolades to Cari and me as his parents!

Wife, Mother of 6, and Straight A Student

2011-02-08T20:33:00.001-06:00

We received this letter earlier this week...

Yes, my wife, mother to 6 children, just received "highest honors" for her perfect 4.0 grade point average in her first semester back in college.

My kids are mad because if their mommy gets straight A's and can still be a mom to six children, those six children have no excuse for not doing the same!

David Discovers You Tube

2011-01-30T22:21:00.003-06:00

My teenage son David has learned to use You Tube. Here are a few of his recently posted videos.

First, his Star Trek transporter...

Then there's his attempt at magic using his little sisters...

And finally, his first longer video...

He may seem quiet, but clearly he is my son - and a true Bicoy!

Two GREAT Basketball Seasons!

2011-01-29T08:11:00.007-06:00

This week marked the final games for our sons' Sturgeon Bay Clippers 5th and 6th grade basketball teams.

Yes, it's a bit sad to see the season end, but I will admit that my rear end won't miss sitting on a bleacher for 3 hours at a stretch a couple of nights a week. Put two basketball games back to back, and it's 3 hours, folks.

Here's our middle son Bret Jr. - the 6th grader - finishing up what he does best...

He just grabbed another rebound and is making the outlet pass. His coach says that Bret Jr. is the best rebounder on the team. He's not the tallest kid in class, although he certainly is among them. What makes Bret Jr. a great rebounder is how he uses his defensive tackle of a body to get position - and he knows how to time his jumps well.

Of course, he is a Bicoy, so when he takes a shot, you know it has to be done with an over-exaggerated sense of style. Look at how he finishes his free throws...

But for me, probably the coolest thing about his team is that in Door County, Wisconsin, there are three Filipinos on it - including the guy who is clearly the best player on the team (#51 above and below)! Okay, maybe Bret's Filipino blood has been diluted a bit, but it's still in there somewhere.

And of the Filipinos on the team, two of them are the starters - #51 below and Bret Jr. (in the glasses) walking next to him...

This is Wisconsin, the land of milk and meat and tall Scandinavian giants - and two Filipino boys are starters on the basketball team!

There are no playoffs at this level of basketball, but Bret's 6th grade team finished with a terrific 12-3 record for the season. Congratulations boys!

Our 5th grade son Kekoa isn't a starter on his team, and his skills are still developing, but he is probably the most tenacious defender they have. This boy doesn't know how to stop running and he never, ever quits. Here he is getting ready to take a shot...

The 5th Grade Sturgeon Bay Clippers played a few more games than their 6th grade counterparts - and they were perfect.

Yes, Kekoa's team finished with a absolutely perfect 17-0 record. These boys were amazing - and I must say that their coach is the best coach of kids this age I've ever seen. Our boys had some talent, but there was no truly exceptional player on the team like there was with Bret Jr.'s. Kekoa's team was just taught the fundamentals of basketball really well and every boy was coached to make good decisions on the floor.

Bravo coaches!

Kekoa's was a disciplined team, but since they finished the season with a perfect record, the coaches let them get a little goofy for their final picture...

Congratulations to both our sons on two great basketball seasons.

Free Throws and Rebounds

2010-12-21T23:56:00.003-06:00

Earlier this evening marked our final basketball game for a few weeks as the kids head into winter break. And boy, it was a fun way to begin their short basketball hiatus.

First, let's begin with Kekoa's 5th grade basketball team.

As we've said before, Kekoa has more endurance than anyone you'll ever meet, but the reality is that he's one of the smaller and skinnier boys in his class (he obviously doesn't get the skinny gene from me!). He moves well and can make his layups as he sprints to the basket, but he's had problems with his free throws in practice.

Because of his size, he has to put his whole body into the free throw - and even then, it's hard for him to get those shots to drop.

But up to now it's hasn't been an issue because he hasn't been fouled. That all changed earlier this evening. Kekoa made a nice rebound and tried to get off a shot, but he was fouled.

So to the free throw line he went. And boy did this young man give it his all. I captured the whole sequene on video, but my phone was acting goofy so I apologize for the jerkiness of the video. Normally my beautiful HTC Evo takes much better videos in full high definition, but I was having problems yesterday installing an Android upgrade on the phone.

Anyway, watch how Kekoa uses his entire body to propel the ball toward the basket...

We were so excited for him!

Then when the 5th graders were done, out came Bret Jr.'s 6th grade team.

Bret hit the very first basket of the game, but scoring isn't his focus. Bret is a rebounding machine.

He's a defensive tackle in football and he uses that body to pound for position. He's also developed a good sense on knowing when to jump for the ball.

And as you'll see on this little clip, he is also becoming a good passer from under the basket.

Watch him dish out a nice pass after the first rebound to set up a shot (which the shooter missed) - but it's the pass after the second rebound which is simply extraordinary. As he's coming down with the ball, he turns and dishes it off in one continuous motion.

You can hear me gasping with enthusiasm after that pass...

The next game is on January 3rd. Darn that Christmas. It's getting in the way of our son's basketball games!

Our Annual Hunt for a Christmas Tree

2010-12-18T15:10:00.014-06:00

We're a bit late this year, but we finally set out on our annual hunt for a Christmas Tree...

I tried to bribe the kids by saying we could order pizza if we didn't have to trudge through the snow to find a tree. Alyssa had no interest either way. The boys immediately picked the pizza option. And typically, Nalani wanted to hold out for a better deal. She said she'd skip the tree if should could have pizza every day for a month.

But the Christmas spirit is alive and well in at least one of our children. Malia wasn't going to give in for anything. She wanted a Christmas tree...

As we were walking through the trees, I realized that the boys are now old enough to do things like cook dinner and mow the lawn.

So aren't they old enough to handle a saw?

I thought so. And thus here is what I did when we found the perfect tree...

As Bret Jr. started sawing away...

It's really rather hard to cut down a Christmas Tree because you're cutting it right at the bottom of the trunk - about two or three inches off the ground. It's an awkward way to cut.

But Kekoa took his turn with the saw...

And finally David laid down in the snow and gave it a try...

This is how it was supposed to go in my mind...

Me lying there while my boys were cutting away.

Alas, it was not to be.

After a long while of little actual cutting, Cari pointed out that our boys are apparently girly men (where are Hanz and Franz when you need them), so guess who had to chop the tree down...

I did manage to cut down the tree, but then we had to carry it to the van...

Look at this next picture...

I'm not on my knees - the snow was up to my knees!

Another holiday tradition for our family. We walked through the woods until we found a perfect, beautiful and healthy tree that symbolized the very spirit of Christmas.

Then we chopped it down and killed it.

Actually, it's still alive. It's sitting in our living room, taking small drinks of water, dying a slow and painful death.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Magyar the Hun

2010-12-11T16:31:00.012-06:00

If our son David ever becomes a famous actor it will be the result of having never taken a class to learn French.

That's obvious, isn't it?

The good campuses in the University of Wisconsin system typically require students to have completed 3 years of a foreign language before they'll be considered for admission. David started 8th grade this year and he was about to begin work on learning a different language. He had his heart set on French.

Unfortunately, the Sturgeon Bay School District decided to end the French language program to save money. As a protest, David refused to take any second language this year.

But he had to take something in that hour, which meant band or choir - which was just not going to happen. So David took a class called Allied Arts. It is a program that takes different disciplines and combines them into one program.

David was in the Arts class - which is right up his alley. There is a Music and Choir class, which is about music, obviously. There's Family and Consumer Education, which is basically the old home economics. And finally there's the Tech Class, which builds things.

What's the one activity that combines all these disciplines? A musical, of course!

This year the Allied Arts program brought together these four classes to put on a performance of Disney's Mulan.

David figured his Arts class would be involved in the creation of the artwork which decorated the sets. And he was right. David painted a dragon and created a silk drape with different dyes and patterns.

What he didn't expect is that beyond the art design part of the musical, he would also be required to get up on stage!

Now David is quite a talented entertainer in many ways (like juggling or magic), but he's not exactly comfortable having to talk in front of an audience on stage. In fact, there are few things I can think of that he would be LESS likely to do than that.

But David did it. And he loved it!

These weren't huge roles, but they put him right out there and he had a grand old time.

Here's the opening sequence of the musical. David is one of the villagers on the left side of the screen (he's marked so you'll see him easily when he comes into the picture)...

We sat on the left side of the very front row, so David could see us very well. I loved how in the video he couldn't help but smile when he first saw us!

In addition to being a part of the chorus of villagers, David also was one of the three really bad guys in the story.

David played the role of Magyar the Hun...

Here's more of those evil Huns...

And finally, here's the finale...

Frankly, the entire thing was amazing. Remember, these are 8th grade students who made every costume, built the sets, and did all the art design. And then they were also the actors and singers in the musical.

When you consider that, you have to be absolutely amazed with the Allied Arts program. Bravo!

And congratulations to David for stepping outside his comfort zone and discovered talents he never knew he had! But he still needs a haircut.

Kekoa's First Basket!

2010-12-07T20:24:00.008-06:00

Our youngest son Kekoa is a great kid. His teacher told us that he's among the brightest children he's ever taught. His counselor says that he is far more insightful into people's feelings than most kids. He's just a great kid.

But he's small and very skinny. There's nothing wrong with that (I wish I was as skinny as him!), but when it comes to basketball, being by far the shortest kid on your 5th grade team is a challenge.

Yet you have to feel good about this young man. He may be small, but he wants to play basketball and he's going to give it his all. Kekoa is trying to live up to his middle name which he gets from his Uncle, my brother James, who was quite the basketball player!

Kekoa's season just started this week, but tonight Kekoa made his first basket.

And everyone went nuts!

(note, it's easier to see if you expand the video to full screen - press the expand button at the bottom right corner of the video box above)

I just love how his friend Jared #34 (and the tallest kid on the team) jumps off the bench and lifts Kekoa up - and how everyone is patting him on the head and shoulders.

Bret Jr.'s sixth grade team would play after Kekoa's game. Bret was the starting center for his team tonight - so you know he's a lot taller than his brother. Bret's team was sitting below us in the stands waiting for their game so in the background you can hear some of the 6th graders celebrating with Bret over his little brother's first basket.

Bret had a good game as well - he had multiple rebounds and a couple of points - and we're happy for Bret Jr. But tonight was really special for Kekoa!

Go Clippers!

Malia and Michael Jackson

2010-11-20T21:42:00.003-06:00

Our youngest loves Michael Jackson.

So here is Malia, dancing along with her favorite songs...

And another short clip...

The Filipino genes are alive and well in this little girl!

From Basketball & Birthdays to Hurling Leaves & Halloween

2010-11-04T06:43:00.016-05:00

While Bret Jr. and Kekoa were spending their afternoons at football practice, Nalani was learning the fundamentals of a sport of her own.

Here is Nalani the basketball player...

What she lacks in shooting ability she makes up with in sheer intimidation.

Look at this girl try to psych out her opponent...

Of course, it's hard to seem menacing if during the game you keep chewing on your hair...

We also recently celebrated the birthdays of two of our kids.

First up was Bret Jr., who had a birthday party the same time as his cousin Tyler...

Tyler's little sister Analeigh was also there, hanging out with Alyssa...

While the presents were being opened, David occupied himself with other things...

Bret Jr.'s big birthday gift was a new bike. But rather than pick out the wrong one for him, we took him to Target and let him select a bike of his own...

Naturally, he's pointing to one of the bikes on the top shelf of the rack!

This time of year also brings work for our children. Specifically, it's time to rake leaves.

Malia has her own unique way of moving leaves from the front yard to the back...

Most of the leaf raking was done by our three youngest children this year for a very specific reason. They were building a pile in which to play!

Jumping in the pile is fun at first, but after a while it gets a little boring.

So I guess it's inevitable that a leaf war has to begin...

It didn't take very long before the leaf pile wasn't a pile anymore...

We also recently celebrated Malia's 7th birthday...

It's hard to believe that our little baby is now 7 years old.

She wants a puppy, but we have a 14 year-old dog that's near blind and deaf - and two old cats. So we opted for the best kind of new pet for Malia...

It's a digital pet she can raise in conjunction with Wii video game system. That's the kind of pet I'd recommend for everyone. Much, much cleaner.

And finally, there was Halloween. Here's our posse before heading out...

It's amazing how busy life can be with 6 kids!

Bret Jr. & Kekoa's Football Seasons!

2010-11-01T07:30:00.006-05:00

Both Bret Jr.'s and Kekoa's football seasons have come to an end, so this seemed like a good time to revisit all the fun they had.

Let's start with Kekoa's football team - the 5th Grade Bobcats.

Our youngest son is shorter and skinnier than most boys his age, so he played mostly in the defensive secondary and a bit at wide receiver, as we can see below...

That's Kekoa above, lined up at the far right side of the picture.

He didn't play a lot, but when he did, Kekoa had a grand ol' time.

Here is Kekoa playing safety, with the number 22...

Getting ready to throw a shoulder on a guy...

And chasing after a running back...

The 5th grade teams play first thing Saturday mornings - before the 6th grade teams - so sometimes it gets a bit nippy outside.

But at this level, they don't have handwarmers tied around their waists.

So Kekoa found another way to keep his hands warm during the game...

But of all the pictures from the season, here's my favorite of Kekoa...

Just look at the intensity of that boy!

While Kekoa's team is still learning the fundamentals of football, Bret Jr.'s 6th grade team truly learned how to kick some butt this season.

Bret Jr. is considerably larger than his brother Kekoa. Bret is a starter on both the offensive and defensive lines.

He's the starting center, and he's so consistent that he almost never comes off the field. Here's our boy just before he snaps the football...

While Bret Jr. is a very good center, what he really loves is playing on the defensive line. He starts at defensive tackle and he always seems to be in the offensive backfield, harassing the quarterback...

It's good to know that he wreaks as much havoc on the football field as he does at home...

This is one of his favorite pictures of himself just as he hammers the quarterback...

That poor quarterback got slammed to the ground several times by Bret Jr. that day...

The 6th grade Bobcats had a tremendous season. They finished up with a record of 6 wins and only 1 loss. Their one loss was by the score of 22 to 12. In the 6 wins, however, they were absolutely dominant.

Colectively in those 6 wins, the offensive scored 178 points and gave up only 18. The defensive was so overwhelming that they had 3 shut outs.

During the last game of the season, Bret Jr. had another great game...

He was consistently in the quarterback's face and harassing the running backs...

If there ever was a picture that tells you how good a game a defensive lineman is having, it's this one below...

Look closely at that picture above. Those are two offensive lineman and a fullback that are trying to block our son!

But the most exciting play of the year for Bret Jr. came later in that final game.

Bret is so quick off the ball that he consistently is in the backfield disrupting the play. He has claimed all season that sooner or later he would steal the handoff from the quarterback before the running back could get the ball.

Amazingly, in the last game of the season, that's exactly what he did.

Bret lined up at his regular position of defensive tackle and sliced through the offensive line. He got there so quickly that he disrupted the handoff and stole the ball away from the quarterback.

It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to get in position and take a picture of it with the camera. But I did capture Bret Jr. as he rumbled down the field with the ball...

He looks almost like a running back...

Unfortunately, like most lineman, he's not the fastest guy on the field, so they tackled him before he could score. But everyone went absolutely crazy on the sidelines!

Well, mostly crazy.

Here's how David, Alyssa and Nalani enthusiastically watched the football game...

And I'm not exactly sure what Malia's doing here...

But ya gotta love a football season!

Congratulations to both the boys. They worked hard and had a lot of fun.

Memories of Local Food in California

2010-10-31T11:13:00.006-05:00

Okay, these pictures are a bit dated - they're from May when we gathered in California around my brother shortly before his passing.

But I've been thinking of that lately, and came across a few interesting pics.

Here's a picture my sister Renee took of my brother James and me as we were entering the "best" Hawaiian BBQ in Mission Viejo...

And here's my picture of Renee at the same moment...

We were sampling food as we tried to decide if we were going to cater local food at a celebration of our brother's life...

As I did try out pretty much every local Hawaiian restaurant in the area (even a couple before and after my siblings were there from Hawaii), I can definitively say one thing...

This most certainly was NOT the best Hawaiian BBQ in town.

Oh, and if you ever need to find a good florist nearby, switch on your turn-by-turn GPS and get ready for a really wild ride.

When You're on the Moon

2010-10-24T13:51:00.005-05:00

A video of our children by Alyssa. Her singing is also the soundtrack!

She's good, isn't she!

Fall in Door County

2010-10-13T20:55:00.002-05:00

Nothing really to say other than I thought this was a great picture of the explosion of colors behind the sign at the entrance to Door County...

Click on the picture to get a larger view.

Welcome to Fall in Door County!

Chasing Leaves Along Lake Michigan

2010-10-10T13:06:00.004-05:00

The leaves are turning in Door County, so today we decided to take a walk along Cave Point. Alyssa and Nalani enjoyed the colors...

Everyone likes this area, but none more than our two oldest boys...

Because for David and Bret Jr., it's a place to climb and be dare devils...

The boys climbed the rock...

But Malia was just crushed she had to stay behind with her sister...

Bret Jr. found some purple flowers along the shore of Lake Michigan which he handed up to his sisters...

Here are Nalani and Alyssa from above...

And finally the whole family gathered in front of the explosion of color that is fall in Door County...

Fall has most definitely arrived!

Films by Malia

2010-10-02T22:20:00.007-05:00

One of the nice things about our old little sailboat is that it has a modest cabin below deck. It's great because Malia can go below and we don't have to worry about where she is while we're sailing.

Little did I know that she had taken over one of our mobile phones and started making little films.

The pictures are a bit bumpy - she's only 6 after all - but it defintely is Malia's idea of fun!

David the Klingon

2010-09-30T23:06:00.004-05:00

My son learning Klingon...

We're so proud.

The best part is the cat in the background. He's so excited by all that's going on around him.

Kekoa's Bobcats Take the Field

2010-08-28T16:55:00.004-05:00

Our youngest son Kekoa isn't the biggest boy around.

Okay, let's just admit the obvious. He's probably the shortest, skinniest 5th grader in his class.

But that boy has spunk, and he wants to play football. So darn it, he's going to play football!

Good for you, Kekoa!

This was his first game of his first season, and he was pretty excited. He was picked as one of the co-captains for the Bobcats this week so out he went to mid-field for the coin toss.

Kekoa is number 22 below...

His 6th grade older brother Bret Jr. is a bruiser. He normally lines up at nose tackle in the heart of the defensive line.

Kekoa is a defensive back. He normally plays corner or safety. Here he is below (circled in red), lining up at safety...

Look at my boy run to the ball!

He had a lot of fun today...

My favorite part was when they called up a blitz and away he want, charging into the heart of the offensive line...

But before he got there, one of the Bobcat's lineman stripped the ball and it flew straight up in the air...

Kekoa's team recovered the fumble!

Don't ya just love football!? It's going to be a fun season!

He'd Rather Be Sailing...

2010-08-21T17:50:00.020-05:00

Today marked the maiden sail of our new boat. Well, it's not really a new boat. She's actually an old boat. But like every hot woman, she'll be 29 forever!

Her name is Sewecane.

Sewecane is pronounced seh-wee-can-ee.

It is an Arapaho word which means "do this so all may eat."

That just seemed like the perfect name for our boat.

Well, that sounds like a great explanation, doesn't it?

But it's a complete lie.

"Sewecane" is actually a nickname we gave our daughter Alyssa when she was about 5 years old. We were going out to dinner, but we were late because Cari and Alyssa were waiting for me as usual.

Alyssa kept calling out to get me to hurry up. I teased her by saying, "why."

She yelled back as quickly as she could talk, "so we can eat."

But talking so fast, it came out sounding like "seh-wee-can-ee."

Henceforth that became Alyssa's Native American nickname.

And it's now the name of our new boat. Sewecane's a 21 foot sailboat with a swing keel.

We took her out last week under power to try out her engine, but we didn't raise the sails. Today, we let 'em all out and braved the tumultuous seas of Sturgeon Bay and her mighty 8 mph winds.

Here is the fearless crew as they get ready for their three hour tour...

I can't figure out which one of them is Gilligan.

It took a bit to get the sails set...

But we rigged them correctly and set underway...

You can see us here in the distance...

David even took the helm for a bit...

It was a fun first sail...

He dreams about one day, an island he'll find
Out lost in the ocean, just passing in time
He'd rather be sailing...

Marrying My Sister: A Mathematical Proof

2010-08-17T21:32:00.007-05:00

Dear Rob,

Congratulations, you're marrying my sister Dawn.

As you can imagine, I'm rather fond of her, so I want to make sure everything works out just as it should. I thought the best way to ensure that you were fully prepared for the experience of spending the rest of your life with her is to fully disclose all that she truly is.

I thought about writing you a letter about all of her good traits - and her little oddities - so that there would be no surprises.

But then I remembered there is nothing cleaner or more pure than a mathematical proof.

So I've spend the last few weeks trying to distill the very essence of my sister into a simple and elegant equation. I'm pleased to report that I've finally accomplished this most difficult of tasks.

Here it is, my explanation of that which is at the very heart of my sister Dawn...

Unfair Football: Bret Jr. vs. Kekoa

2010-08-12T10:05:00.004-05:00

Bret Jr. has been playing football for several years now.

His little brother, Kekoa, just started.

My lovely wife Cari decided that Kekoa's first tackle should be by his brother Bret Jr.

So they put on their new uniforms and went out in the front yard to see what happens.

Oh, and by the way, Bret Jr. is almost 2 years older than Kekoa and outweighs him by about 70 pounds.

Swagger Wagon

2010-07-06T11:12:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I tried to convince my lovely wife that we should buy a new Macgregor 26 sailboat.

So on Sunday we bought a new Toyota Sienna minivan.

It's now official. Soccer moms rule the world.

But if I was going to be stuck buying a minivan, I wasn't going to buy just any minivan.

I bought a Swagger Wagon!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

2010-06-27T19:56:00.005-05:00

The time has come for the 7th season of the Bicoy Football League! If you're interested in being a part of our fantasy football league this year, please let us know as soon as possible!

It's hard to believe, but we've crowned six previous champions. The ultimate winner gets their name inscribed on the Bicoy Football League Championship Plaque...

The plaque is on display in our house, but the Champion gets to take home the Bicoy Football League Championship Trophy...

We have traditionally played through the NFL/CBS Sportsline system, but this year the NFL and CBS Sportsline have gone their separate ways. We're stick with the CBS Sportsline online software since it's most like the system we used in the past.

All of the costs for the Bicoy Football League are paid for by us (including the plaque and trophy). There is absolutely NO COST to any of our friends and family who do play.

If you've never played fantasy football before, it's really quite easy to learn. However, since we will almost certainly have to turn people away, we do expect that if you join us, you'll stick with it and actively play through the duration of the real NFL season.

Our league will have a live, online draft which has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 14th at 3 p.m. eastern time (that's 2 p.m. in Wisconsin, noon in California, and 9 a.m. in Hawaii). We'd like everyone to be online at that time, but it is still possible to play if you can't make that time.

So if you're interested in playing this year, please drop us an email or send us a message via Facebook.

Football season is back!

Bret & Cari Bicoy
Commissioners
Bicoy Football League

The Coolest Mobile Phone Ever!

2010-06-12T21:07:00.006-05:00

Here is the coolest, fastest, most powerful phone in the history of the world. The time-wasting possibilities are limitless!

Kekoa Getting Funky!

2010-05-08T23:43:00.003-05:00

Our Son Kekoa, truly getting down...

Go Kekoa Go!

The Nobel Prize in Physics

2010-04-24T19:54:00.011-05:00

On October 21, 1833, Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He wanted to be a poet, but his father insisted he study engineering. Nobel would eventually go on to develop ways to use nitroglycerine as an explosive, leading to the creation of dynamite. It made him a very rich man. It also explains why you never screw with a poet.

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, donating the largest share of his fortune to charity to create a series of prizes - what are today known as the Nobel Prizes. One of those prizes was dedicated to "the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics."

On April 24, 2010, our middle son, Kekoa Bicoy, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Well, at least according to his brothers and sisters.

In the eyes of his siblings, Kekoa earned this accolade for his incredible work constructing the world's first umbrella and snow sled fort.

Here is Kekoa, in the green sweatshirt, directing the fort's construction based on his theories...

And here's the finished product...

It was so exciting that his big sister Alyssa captured the construction crew singing the praises of Kekoa's design...

Congratulations Kekoa!

David the Juggler

2010-04-08T18:32:00.008-05:00

Two videos of our teenage son David juggling at his grandparent's house...

And here's the big finale...

The New Easter Look: Bicoy Style 2010

2010-04-04T20:45:00.006-05:00

I have to admit it. My girls are trendsetters.

They have a style unlike anyone else, and they're not afraid to show it.

Just consider their "Easter Look" for this year.

Here's Alyssa either showing us the trendiest head slap...

Or she's trying to cover a pimple on her forehead.

Nalani is always there with a smile...

What a happy girl!

For some reason, in our home the Easter Bunny thinks he's Santa Claus Lite. That's the only explanation for his insisting on bringing our children presents.

For Alyssa, her style revolved around receiving the "best pens ever..."

And Nalani was excited to get a new notebook, which she quickly marked as hers in her own unique and stylish way...

But of all the styles this Easter morning, none got quite into the groove as our little Miss Malia...

You go girl!

Happy Easter from the Bicoys.

A Birthday Feast to Begin Middle Age!

2010-03-29T19:49:00.012-05:00

One of the best things about birthdays in our family is that when your big day rolls around you get to pick your favorite meal for dinner. For my 40th birthday, I wanted it to be something truly memorable.

Maybe it's middle age setting in, but I honestly couldn't decide on what to have for my birthday dinner this year.

Thankfully, my six terrific kids took it upon themselves to work with their mother and come up with a dinner I'd like.

Here's our son Bret Jr. working hard in the kitchen...

Our boy David put on his beret today, so I was sure he was whipping up something French for dinner...

Nalani got right to work and started off quite neatly...

But that eventually turned into her typical mess...

Our son Kekoa loves to cook...

But I think that's because he likes the free samples while cooking...

Alyssa almost put her book down long enough to do her part...

While Malia thought her contribution could be simply to roll around on the floor...

So here it is, the birthday feast on my 40th birthday...

From front to back that's a coffee cake (recipe courtesy of Jen Bevins), chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, blueberry muffins, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies without nuts, three different kinds of ice cream, lime jello with pineapple - and a basket of fruit to round it all off.

For dinner.

Thanks kids...

Malia declared this the greatest dinner she's ever had...

Look at her plate and it's easy to see why!

Happy 40th birthday to me. Thanks kids.

Meat Jun and Ice

2010-02-14T16:45:00.005-06:00

There is nothing in this world I'd rather eat that a big plate of meat jun from Soon's Kal-bi. Without question, it is the greatest food on the planet.

This poses multiple problems for a guy living in Wisconsin.

Meat jun is considered Korean food in Hawaii, but it really is "local" Hawaiian Korean food. Koreans from outside Hawaii consider meat jun Korean food to the same degree that Japanese think Spam Musubi is authentic Japanese food. In other words, not at all.

And thus while there are Korean restaurants in Wisconsin, they serve only authentic Korean food - not the stuff we Hawaii folks love.

That is problem one.

Problem two is that if you are a true meat jun aficionado, you know that the version from Soon's is truly unique. It is crispier, thicker, and comes with a spicy sauce that is, quite simply, perfect.

So even if you should happen to find a restaurant in the Midwest that serves a Hawaiianized version of Korean food, and meat jun is on their menu, it will probably be too soft, too eggy, and too sweet. Even in Hawaii, Soon's meat jun is different than that which you will find at all other Korean restaurants.

In other words, living in Wisconsin, I'm pretty much screwed when it comes to finding my most favorite meal in the universe.

So over the last few weeks I've been toying with ideas to come up with my own version of Soon's meat jun. And here is the product...

I put a business card in the picture because Cari thought that no one would believe that I actually made this!

Here are my food models, Alyssa and Nalani, displaying my best approximation of Soon's meat jun...

It was really, really good.

I will admit, though, that I got a bit carried away. Even after our stuffing ourselves, we still had all this left over...

My recipe for Soon's meat jun is perfect, but my version of the sauce still needs work. And the sauce is the most perfect part of the meal at Soon's.

Oh well, the quest continues.

While a lack of meat jun is a major problem of living in Wisconsin, snow sculpting is one of the "cool" things. This is how they celebrate Valentine's Day in Door County - with snow sculptures...

Yes, those are made completely of snow.

David's favorite was the pointy eared Spock...

It wasn't until I got home and downloaded the pictures from my camera did I notice what was going on in this picture of Spock...

That's Nalani on the left side of the picture sticking her hand in Spock's ear.

She said she was cleaning his ear out.

I guess that makes Nalani a giant Q-tip.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Call me Papa...

2010-02-13T19:41:00.007-06:00

Not Tatinek. Call me papa.

So went one of my lines as Mr. Shimerda in Scott Schwartz's play adaptation of Willa Cather's classic novel, My Antonia. We performed last week to a full house in Ephraim.

While I've spoken to rooms of just a handful of people and convention halls of more than a thousand, I've never been as uncomfortable as I was last week. I think it's because in a play, your wedded to someone else's words - and goodness knows that I like using my own. When I speak to a crowd about charitable giving, I am in absolute control. The ideas are mine, the words I choose are entirely my own - and if a lady in the back of the room isn't connecting to what I'm saying, I can feel it. And I can change accordingly until I have her as well.

In a play, you have to place your trust in a playwright, in a director, and in the others who are on stage with you. You have to be faithful to the words on the page because the other performers are expecting you to. Interestingly, the way I overcame my discomfort was to completely ignore the audience because they're really irrelevant - which is exactly the opposite of what I do when I'm giving a speech.

I will admit, however, that I think most of the audience would be real pleased if I'd go back to giving speeches about philanthropy.

As for our daughter Alyssa, on the other hand, everyone kept telling me how terrific she was.

I was Mr. Shimerda, but Alyssa played my daughter Antonia Shimerda - as in the namesake character of Willa Cather's My Antonia.

Here's the playbill from our little production...

Immediately after the play, and for days afterward, I had people coming up to me or calling me to say how impressed they were with Alyssa (and they politely said little of my performance). For someone so softspoken, she blossomed on stage.

Here is a short video of Alyssa at the music rehearsal where we were working our cues to the music for the first time (note that this video was taken on my phone so you have to turn the volume way up)...

And a little more of Alyssa...

Here we are the night of the performance taking our final bow. Alyssa is in the middle of the picture and I'm in the brown sweater two to her right (blocked by the lady in the green sweater)...

And here we are walking off stage...

Oh, and the wildest part is that I had to speak with a think Bohemian accent. I have no idea what Bohemians sound like so my accent consisted of half a Filipino accent and an elongated Russian accent.

Basically I just imagined what my Filipino Grandpa would sound like if he were drunk on vodka.

New Year's Eve and a Homecoming!

2010-01-24T14:57:00.042-06:00

We're already a few weeks into 2010, but our little girls insisted that we mention the "fabulous" party they attended on New Year's Eve. It started with a round of beers (of the "root" variety) for everyone...

Then Malia and Nalani partied hard with all the folks in Times Square in the background...

At midnight we raised our glasses in a toast to the new year using the finest vintage of sparkling apple cider...

Earlier that evening, the kids also celebrated the new year by baking me a cake.

But this it wasn't just any cake, it was a cake "signed" by each of the kids to honor the House Champion of the Bicoy Football League 2009 fantasy football season...

And, yes, I am that champion.

Unfortunately, no one in our house won the actual championship of the Bicoy Football League, but we ran a house playoff series for just the "owners" in our house. Namely, the Door County Jumbos (my team), Mommy Rocks (Cari's team), Girlz Rule (Nalani & Malia's team), and the Bicoy Boys (Bretty & Kekoa's team).

And while there is no trophy for the House Champion, all are required to kneel and bow down before him...

It's good to be the champion.

Speaking of games, Bret Jr. continues to play basketball.

One of the interesting things about 5th grade basketball, you pretty much have to mug a person before they'll call a foul. Last week Bret was mugged in a game for the very first time.

And thus we witnessed our middle son's first attempt at a free throw. Here is the entire series of pictures from the moment the ball leaves his hands...

...as it arches through the air...

...and disappears from the frame of the picture and Bret drops his arms to his side...

...and then for some reason Bret proceeds to swing his arms behind him while still waiting for the ball...

...and finally, down comes the ball, right at the basket, to complete a perfect swoosh...

Cari and I absolutely exploded in sound with excitement!

This next picture is from another game and I'm not sure what's more striking.

First, there's Bret as the only member of his team fighting with three other players for the ball...

Or second, look in the background of the picture above. Ya gotta love how the referee positioned himself to watch the action.

Last week also marked what had to be an absolute first in the history of Sturgeon Bay Clippers basketball. For a few minutes during the game, the Clippers had three Filipinos in the lineup at the same time...

Okay, Bret Jr. on the right is only 1/4th Filipino. But his friend in the middle was adopted from the Philippines (and happens to be the best player on the team), and the kid on the left looks Filipino - so close enough.

Hey, this is Wisconsin, we need to claim all the Filipinos we can get.

But the most exciting part of the month (according to our kids) was the return of our oldest daughter Alyssa.

Alyssa graduated from high school last summer but decided not to go to college this year. She had a job in Green Bay but we moved to Door County in July. Thus Alyssa moved in with Cari's parents so she could continue to with her job in Green Bay. Unfortunately, that wasn't working for her, so last week Alyssa moved home with us in Door County...

Alyssa's brothers and sisters were really excited to have her home. Her room is upstairs so Kekoa's way of welcoming her home was to carry all her luggage up the stairs...

David was so excited to see her that he even took his hat off and showed her his mop head of hair...

But to Cari and I, there was one aspect of Alyssa's return that most excited us.

We were just giddy that she walked in the door wearing pink!

Pretty in pink!

And she even likes shopping in thrift stores.

Now if I can just convince Cari not to leave me.

(If the last few lines made no sense, you are obviously woefully uninformed about cheesy 1980s Molly Ringwald movies).

Something about an octopus...

2010-01-17T10:05:00.003-06:00

Another of Alyssa's videos...

And she'll fly...

2010-01-09T12:43:00.003-06:00

Our oldest, Alyssa, singing another wonderful song...

Mele Kalikimaka!

2009-12-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

Amazingly, surprisingly, unbelievably, this is the last Christmas of the "aughts." As 2009 comes to an end, both the century (and all of our kids) will be entering their teens.

Next year Alyssa will be 19 and David will be 13.

Bret Jr. will be a teenager in 2011. Kekoa will be a teen in 2013. Nalani in 2015.

And our little baby Malia wil be a teenager in 2016.

I am not looking forward to this decade.

But alas, before 2009 comes to an end, I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures in celebration of Christmas at the Bicoy home and share a bit of news from the last year...

That, my friends, is what a Christmas tree looks like when surrounded by presents for six kids.

The tree is in our dining room, so Christmas morning began with a caravan of kids carrying Christmas presents into the living room...

Malia was giddy with excitement while Bretty tried to carry everything at once...

The kids set up all over the floor...

And the adventure of Christmas morning began!

Our first daughter Alyssa loved her gifts of socks and a sock puppet...

That young lady really loves her socks!

While I cannot quite believe it myself, Alyssa really is a young lady. She graduated from high school earlier this year and was accepted by several colleges. But as the year progressed, she decided to take some time off before going to college. She is now working full-time and saving money until she's ready to futher her education.

Alyssa had enough credits to graduate from high school a semester early which meant she got to go with me to Hawaii earlier this year to celebrate my father's 86th birthday. We figure she earned that after working so hard in school.

Over the last few years, Alyssa has also become quite a talented musician. She plays guitar and sings quite well. Have a listen yourself...

Our oldest son David may be about to turn 13, but he's like his Dad and still gets excited when someone gives him a cool toy for Christmas like a Star Trek phaser...

David is in 7th grade and has become an artist himself. He draws wonderfully well and although he says he doesn't like to paint, I have one of his wonderful paintings hanging in my office.

Like me, David likes hats. But the word "likes" does not do justice to his passion. David is a hat fanatic. And I do not use the word "fanatic" casually.

David has more hats than you can imagine, and he's always on the lookout for more. The only time David isn't wearing a hat is at school - where they are prohibited. He puts one on when he wakes up in the morning, places it on his chair at the dining room table before heading out the door to school. Then he puts it back on the moment he walks back into the house.

And every single day it's a different hat.

Ya gotta love the boy's commitment!

Bret Jr. wanted only one thing for Christmas, so of course we kept him waiting through piles of presents before he got it. You can see the sheer joy on his face when he opened his gift and found Madden 2010 for the Wii...

Bret Jr. is now in 5th grade and is quickly becoming quite an athlete. He absolutely loves playing football. Bret's favorite position is defensive tackle because that puts him right in the middle of the chaos. At that position he can use his natural talent for being disruptive!

When football season was over, Bretty was heartbroken and didn't know what to do with himself. Cari suggested that he consider playing basketball, but he just wasn't interested. But at the last minute, Bret showed up for the first meeting and that was all it took.

We thought our weeks were busy with football - but at least they only played a game once a week. It seems we're at one of Bretty's basketball games every other day!

For Christmas Kekoa received his very own set of real tools and he quickly got to work building a jewelry box for his sister Malia...

Our youngest son is in third grade and is actively participating in Destination Imagination. "DI" is a program in which Kekoa's team will compete with those from other schools using their minds in creative ways. Kekoa's team's project is to build a robot and create a story surrounding it.

When he's not using his wonderful imagination, Kekoa likes using his quick moves to run around the football field as well. He played flag football this year for the Cowboys - which also happens to be his favorite NFL team!

At Christmas, nobody likes to be surprised quite as much as Nalani.

Nalani tears into the wrapping paper like a crazy person, but she won't look down at the gift until the very last second. This makes for the most unusual pictures as she looks away from the present while she's opening it.

That's Nalani. Everything she does, she does with panache.

Our middle daughter is in second grade and is the most popular girl in class, naturally. She also loves to dance, but I think she loves the fancy and frilly outfits even more.

When it comes to opening Christmas presents, however, nobody does it with more pure joy than our Malia...

With each and every present, Malia shouts with overwheming enthusiasm, "I always wanted this!" Her reaction makes you want to keep giving her gift after gift.

Either she's the most genuinely happy person you'll ever meet - or she's incredibly devious and has figured out how to get her Daddy to give her presents. I will enjoy my paternal delusion and opt to believe the former.

Malia started kindergarten this year and was very excited on her first day of school. It's hard to believe that our little baby girl is now 6 years old!

So that was our Christmas and another year in the life of the Bicoy family.

Cari spends most of her days chasing after our children from a practice to a game to the next recital. She's talked about going back to work now that all our children are in school. But I don't have any interest in helping out with the laundry so I'm hoping she'll get over that idea real soon. Cari also still organizes her bookclub (which the kids love because it means Dad's bringing home McDonalds on those days).

I continue to have the privilege of working for the Door County Community Foundation and do some consulting on the side through my own little firm. I've also been helping my sister to document our family tree - which you'll see at bicoy.com is quite an undertaking.

We're still lucky enough to live among the shorelines, art galleries and music festivals of Door County, Wisconsin - about the most beautiful place you'll find in the Midwest.

From our family to yours, Mele Kalikimaka, Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and enjoy the solstice. Geez, I can't keep up with all that. So how 'bout we end the year with just a plain ol' hau'oli makahiki hou.

Bret & Cari

Basketball and Ballet

2009-12-16T18:33:00.011-06:00

Actually, with all our kids, it's Basketball, Ballet, Gymnastics, and Destination Imagination.

Nary a day goes by without our having to be somewhere cheering on someone.

Over the last week we attended two of Bret Jr.'s basketball games. Unfortunately, neither of the games played by our Sturgeon Bay Clippers was at home.

First, the Clippers visited Algoma - which is on about 40 minutes southwest of where we live. The next day Bret's team played Gibraltar - which is about 40 minutes northeast of where we live. It's a good thing I've got great winter tires on my car.

Bret loved playing football, but wasn't so sure about basketball. After a few games, he's sure he loves it now...

Bret's still working on improving his shot...

But he's one of his team's best defensive players. Here he is about to slap out the ball from an unsuspecting player...

I think he just imagines the ball is the head of one of his sisters and he just tries to smack it as cleanly as possible.

Bret also does a good job using his body and bulk to muscle himself into position to grab rebounds...

I like this next picture because it shows how he's willing to throw his body into the mess to get the rebound (or just push out a few of the other guys so one of his guys can get the ball!)...

The way he chases it, you'd think that the basketball was filled with chocolate donuts.

This next one is far too blurry a picture, but watch my son leave his feet and reach for the ball!

During his last game I witnessed something I've never seen before at a basketball game. The ball got caught on the back rim of the basket...

Look closely at the picture below. The ball isn't jammed between the rim and the backboard - we've all seen that on occasion.

The ball is just sitting there on the back of the rim. The shot just barely hit the rim and spun around it until the ball came to a complete stop...

The whole crowd broke into laughter!

We also had the chance to watch Nalani in her ballet and tap dancing class this week...

It wasn't a recital (that happens in spring), but it was a chance for us parents to watch one of their rehearsals. They normally ask the parents to wait outside during rehearsals because having us in the room apparently is too disruptive.

Me, disruptive?

Anyway, here she is little Miss Nalani - in the center of the front row, naturally...

From basketbal to ballet...

Just another week in the Bicoy household.

Winter has arrived...

2009-12-09T10:54:00.004-06:00

Last night marked the first snowfall of the season and boy, it was a doozy!

14 inches of very heavy, wet snow fell over night. It's made a mess everywhere.

But it's great fun for Nalani as you can see in this video...

David and Kekoa started work on a snow fort which will continue to grow throughout winter...

Winter has arrived in Door County.

(Sorry about the poor video quality but these were taken with my Blackberry)

Presents and a FLAGRANT FOUL!

2009-12-05T16:58:00.000-06:00

For years my lovely wife Cari has been one of those insane people who gets up at 2 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving to stand in line when the stores open at 4 a.m.

This year, my wife was NOT one of those people who got up at 2 a.m.

Instead, she just didn't go to bed. Toys R Us opened at midnight for the very first time this year. And on she went shopping until morning. Oh joy, oh rapture.

By the time Cari got home around noon, she was done with probably 85% of the Christmas shopping. And since she does most of the shopping, I'm stuck with the wrapping.

In practical terms, this means the weekend after Thanksgiving always translates into one incredible marathon wrapping session for me (and as I come upon middle age, a very sore back).

After several hours of wrapping, the kids are allowed to come up from their banishment to the basement and see the huge pile of presents. It's their job to pick up the pile and place the gifts nearly under the Christmas tree.

Nalani grabbed hers by the armful...

And Malia could barely lift the biggest present for her...

Ultimately, everything was squeezed under and around the tree...

Now they just have to live with four weeks of torment of staring at all these gifts without being able to open any of them until Christmas morning! That's my form of payback torture after being stuck with the bill for all this junk.

On a completely different subject, our little athlete Bret Jr. had his very first basketball game on Thursday as his Sturgeon Bay Clippers took on the St. John Bosco Bobcats...

If I had to compare Bret to an NBA player, it would have to be Charles Barkley.

He's not the tallest kid, nor is he the best ball handler. But he uses his body well and muscles through the other 5th graders...

Plus, he's got a mouth just like Charles Barkley's.

Bret's best sport is football and he's definitely a defensive tackle. And he plays basketball that way!

But tonight they were taking it to him. Here's a flagrant foul as one of the Bobcats literally elbows Bretty across the face as he's making a move with the ball...

But after a month of practice, Bret loved the first game of the season...

Go Clippers!

2009-12-03T19:45:00.002-06:00

My son David, the aspiring You Tube video star...

Here's a video with his head in the clouds...

And, well, this video is just a bit strange...

We're such proud parents.

Dexter and Scooby Doo Go Tree Hunting

2009-11-28T23:10:00.001-06:00

Every year our family sets out to cut down our very own fresh tree for Christmas. And I've commented often before on the great irony of it all.

We search for hours for the most beautiful, perfect tree that symbolizes all that is Christmas. Then we chop it down and kill it.

So you've heard that story before.

But what's a bit disturbing is how excited some of our kids are getting over the chopping down part.

If you've ever watched the Showtime series Dexter, you'll recall the demented glee that Dexter (the lovable serial killer) gets when he sets out the killing tools of his trade (knives, saws, etc.).

Somehow that's exactly what came to mind when Kekoa and I were getting out our tools for today...

Kekoa just seems to get really excited about the chopping part.

Well, I suppose if we cut down trees every year for our family's enjoyment, that makes us serial tree killers.

But Alyssa and David are hot on the case.

Doesn't this just look like a movie poster picture for a new Scooby Doo live action picture...

Scooby Doo and the Case of the Serial Tree Chopper. Watch for it next summer in a theatre near you!

This wasn't the greatest tree farm - they had lots of fields of balsam fir trees, but we prefer spruce because their stronger branches support our heavier ornaments. Unfortunately, their fields of spruce trees were largely cleared during last Christmas. Lots of stumps abound...

I suppose what humans call "last Christmas" the trees refer to as the "Great Spruce Massacre of 2008."

In any case our son David enjoyed himself.

He enjoyed himself so much that he just had to dance as you can see in this video from today...

You're on your own with that one. I don't think any further comment from me is necessary.

Ultimately, we did find a great blue spruce tree...

Because it was so warm today (mid 40s), it was a royal pain trying to get the tree back to the van. Although I cannot believe I'm about to write this, a good snow fall would really have helped.

Instead of lying in some nice clean snow to chop the base of the tree, I had to crawl in the mud.

And rather than drag the tree to the van over a bed of white snow, I had to carry it to keep it out of the mud...

Oh what Christmas joy! My back hurts.

We finally did get the tree home and we pulled out the ornaments.

Cari bought a new decoration for the tree just the other day - which was the first thing that Kekoa and Nalani hung up...

In case you can't tell, that's a Tony Romo ornament hanging just above their heads.

Everyone got in the act decorating the tree...

The above picture isn't the best one I could find, but it does have a nice view of Cari's rear end. After six kids and all these years, my wife is still adorable.

The really amazing thing about today is how much we actually accomplished.

Wandering through the woods, cutting down a tree, bringing it home, and decorating it was what we did in the middle of the day.

The day began with the kids putting up Cari's Christmas Village...

Mostly that entails taking little houses and people out of boxes and setting them up.

Here's a view from outside the house through one of the bay windows...

That was the morning before the tree hunt. After we finished decorating the tree, we had to decorate Christmas stockings...

Each year the kids create their own design for their stocking using glitter and colored glue. You wouldn't believe how many stockings we've accumulated over the years.

But that's how Christmas season begins in the Bicoy home.

Happy Holidays!

Twin Cities Adventures

2009-10-29T22:05:00.004-05:00

While Cari and our oldest daugther Alyssa are off at a Monsters of Folk concert in downtown Minneapolis, I have some time this evening to post a few pictures of our ongoing visit to the Twin Cities.

Aren't you just drooling over the prospect of reading all this nonsense?

Earlier today we paid a visit to the Science Museum of Minnesota, complete with their collection of dinosaurs...

Cari and Malia did their own newscast live from downtown St. Paul...

While Bretty and David piloted a tugboat down the river...

The Science Museum has a huge exhibit on all the different parts of the body, including a very large hand for Nalani...

I must admit that I liked the section on nutrition and the digestive track the best.

When talking about proper nutrition and what our bodies need to thrive, they had an example of what I can only assume to be the best source of nutrients for the human body...

Pizza = Nutrients.

The Science Museum of Minnesota says so!

Hey, that's considered good nutrition when you live in a place where it's 12 degrees outside 9 months out of the year.

There was also a neat exhibit that allowed you to use an optician's tool to closely examine the eye of a friend.

Nalani got all set up to look at her little sister's eye, but apparently Malia didn't quite get the concept that it's your eye that's supposed to be put against the eyepiece...

Eye. Tongue. Malia must figure what's the difference?

Then there was our little boy David who sat there while his big sister read to him from a dinosaur book...

The kids had a grand ol' time...

But of course it still was a museum. There's nothing quite the spectacle that is the Mall of America.

We were there yesteday, and again today. At the center of this monstrosity is an Nickelodeon-themed amusement park.

And with Nick, you have to start with the guy who lives in a pineapple under the sea...

That's Spongebob Squarepants, of course!

There is also a wonderful Lego playground...

And just look at what the kids built from Lego...

Okay, maybe the kids didn't build it. But the boys knew who it was. I was convinced it was Boba Fett, but they said it was Jango Fett because Jango wore a blue uniform.

I looked it up later and they're right. Geez, my kids know more about Star Wars than me!

We were back at the Mall of America today. But this time as the women in the family went shopping, we men decided to begin a noble quest.

A magical quest, to be specific.

MagiQuest is an interactive game in which you use a magic wand to explore a magical kingdom, find enchanted stones, and use them to become powerful enough to destroy the dragon.

Here are the boy's using their wands on a suit of armor...

You flick your wand, and the suit of armor talks to you.

Or you flick the wand at a chest...

And it opens to show you treasure or an item for which you are searching.

We spent way too much time running around that place!

Here's the great wizard talking to us when becoming a "Master Magi..."

It's basically a Harry Potter-like experience, without the creator having to pay Harry Potter royalties.

As noted at the start of this post, later this evening Cari and Alyssa heading off to their concert. Thus I was left to feed our five younger kids. And though our Marriott hotel rooms came with fully-equipped kitchens, there was no way I was going to cook anything.

It was off to Chili's to dinner!

In the picture below, if you look closely behind Malia's head in the dark background, you'll see the shadow of a man eating...

This older gentleman and his wife (not pictured) kept looking over at the kids during the entire meal.

Generally, that sort of staring freaks me out, but at least this couple was smiling. Then again, maybe that's even freakier.

Anyway, after the couple finished their dinner they came over to our table and asked me if all these kids were mine.

At first I thought of denying it, but I figured my kids already have reason enough for therapy when the grow up so I admitted to fathering them all.

The older woman then complimented me on having such wonderfully polite and well-behaved children.

I thanked her and said that keeping the kids locked up in the garage most of the time can work wonders.

It's a true story, but I told Cari about later and she doesn't think it was very funny.

However, the kids liked it. Or at least they're saying so after I bribed them with a stop for ice cream before returning to the hotel...

Well, that's another day in Minnesota.

We did discover one more place we really wanted to go. Unfortunately, it's about 90 minutes away and that's just a bit too far.

But if you're ever in Southern Minnesota, please be sure to stop at perhaps the greatest food museum of them all...

You just have to go to a museum which promotes itself by saying, "Get a taste of interactive meat."

Spam musubi. Spam on saimin. Fried spam in a Zip Pac.

I'm from Hawaii. We all must genuflect before the almighty Spam.

The Mad Hatter!

2009-10-07T18:28:00.012-05:00

I'll admit it. I love hats.

I love shopping for them. I love trying them on. I love buying them.

I'm not particularly fond of baseball caps, mind you, but almost every other kind of hat.

Somewhat oddly, however, I don't wear them that often.

But my children most certainly do.

In their mind, there is no place where it is inappropriate to wear one of their wonderful hats.

Consider my son Bret Jr., who recently wore his red fedora to the groundbreaking of his cousin's memorial garden...

In the picture above, that's United States Congressman Steve Kagan giving my son Bret a fist bump because even he thought that hat was so very cool.

But of all my kids, the true hatmaster is David.

He has more hats than all my other children combined (and that's saying something).

Here David is in his top hat...

David wears a different hat from his collection every day.

So you can imagine his excitement when we visited Fish Creek not too long ago and stopped at their wonderful hat store...

It seemed like David tried on every hat in the store.

Ultimately, it came down to whether he wanted to be Gilligan...

Or Sherlock Holmes...

He picked Sherlock in case you were wondering.

The other kids just had fun trying them on. There's Nalani as a Arabian princess...

Inspector Alyssa...

I'm not sure what this thing is on Nalani's head...

And Alyssa trying on what in college we used to call a granola hat...

While Alyssa didn't buy the hat, she did demostrate her true tree-hugging credentials by picking out a granola pullover...

At least there's purple in it.

That's my daughter the vegetarian.

Of course, when it comes to such things I cannot help but wonder. If God intended us to be vegetarians, why did he make animals out of meat?

On the way back from Fish Creek, we also took some time to go through a giant corn maze...

If you look carefully in the center-left of the picture below, you can see the heads of a couple of my kids as they make their way through the maze...

And once we were home, the younger kids still found things to do...

Another goofy weekend in the Bicoy house.

My New Wallpaper!

2009-09-25T18:27:00.004-05:00

I just made new wallpaper for my desktop...

Isn't she lovely?!

I'm overcome by thoughts of Clay Aiken and people in scrubs!

Okay, maybe that's kinda disturbing, but she still is lovely.

First Day of School, Football and Flags!

2009-09-19T19:45:00.009-05:00

These last few weeks have been filled with too much to do at work, followed by the worst case of the flu I have ever had in my entire life.

Thankfully both things are easing up.

But that translates into a really long blog post as we try to catch up on the silliness of the last few weeks.

The tuesday after Labor Day marked the start of the school year here in Door County. That meant the four kids to the left saw their summer come to an end...

The very next day, however, marked a first in our home. It was our baby Malia's first day of Kindergarten...

For the child that we thought would be a bit too shy for school - she proved us wrong and jumped into it with all the enthusiasm in the world!

For my lovely wife, however, this marked an important day as well.

This is the first day in nearly 13 years that we didn't have a little kid not in school.

Cari didn't know what to do with herself!

But as the first school day came to an end, there she was at the bus stop on the corner waiting for all our kids to come home...

To celebrate this week of firsts, we took a walk along the water...

And went out to eat for dinner.

I guess Cari was so busy not having kids at home with her that she didn't have time to cook!

I'm sure I'm going to get into trouble for that comment.

As a complete non sequitur, I was in Fish Creek the other day and stopped at my favorite hat shop - Hat Head.

What, you mean not everyone has a favorite hat shop?!

This place is great because it sells not only wonderful hats of all kinds, it also sells the most outrageous hats you can find. And in case you haven't noticed, most of my children seem to always be wearing a hat - some a bit more goofy than others.

Well, I discovered during my last visit that they also make customized caps.

Since my youngest daughters Malia and Nalani desperately wanted their own Dallas Cowboys hats but couldn't find a girly one that fit - we had some made for them...

Here's a closer look...

And of course, it says "Malia's Cowboys" on Malia's hat...

This saturday marked the third football game of the season for Bret Jr.'s Bobcats.

Bretty loves playing defense, but he also played a little center during today's game. And wouldn't you know that across from him at nose tackle was the biggest 5th grader on either team.

But our boy held his own against a kid who must have outweighed him by 30 pounds and was a head taller than him...

But what Bret really loves is playing on the interior of the defensive line. On one play he drove the quarterback into the ground and caused a fumble...

He made his best effort to recover it as well...

Here's Bret dragging down the running back in the backfield with a little help...

He really got into today's game as our Bobcats overwhelmed St. Joe's from Green Bay 30 to 0.

Just as Bret's game was coming to a close, we had to run down the road so our youngest son Kekoa could begin his flag football game.

Here he is tossing a pass...

Kekoa doesn't have his brother's bulk to play on the line. He typically lines up at wide receiver or running back...

Although I'm sure when he sees a sea of blue jerseys like this he wishes he had his brother Bret in front of him...

Shortly after Kekoa's game began, Cari arrived with Bretty.

And like a good big brother, Bretty stood right at the line of scrimmage on the sideline to watch his little brother play (Kekoa is the running back immediately to the right of Bretty in the red shirt below)...

Of course, one of the great things for Kekoa is his team's name...

Yes, as his jersey says, Kekoa plays for the Cowboys!

It was a long day to say the least and we were all a bit tuckered out...

Bretty wanted to know how I was able to take that picture when I was the person driving the car.

Kekoa said I must have taken it at a red light.

Uh, yeah, sure. That's it.

Finally, to continue with the non sequitur motif, we also spent the afternoon meandering around downtown Sturgeon Bay for the harvest festival. Look who else happened to be in town...

Elvis has left the building.

Apparently he's in Door County.

A Visit to Cowboys Stadium!

2009-09-13T14:04:00.013-05:00

Growing up in Hawaii, I watched individual Cowboy players play in the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium.

But the only time I've ever seen the Cowboys play a live game was watching them beat up the Packers at Lambeau Field last year.

Hopefully I'll see that again this season as I've got four tickets to this year's Cowboys game at Lambeau Field.

But I've never seen the Cowboys play in Texas.

And this is a vision which tops them all. Here's a picture of the brand spankin' new best stadium in sports...

Yes, that picture is of the new Cowboys Stadium.

And it was a picture that wasn't taken by me.

Sniff.

It was taken by my niece Dina...

Dina was visiting Dallas from Hawaii to attend a ceremony honoring her husband Gregg as the "2008 Navy Civilian Fire Officer of the Year."

And while there, Gregg's fire chief got them a couple of tickets to the Cowboys-49ers preseason game...

Dina writes, "Although we were three rows from the top in the nose-bleed section, you still had a view, and an amazing view it was. It's amazing! The jumbo-trons are unbelieveable. Aloha Stadium or even the old Texas stadium could fit easily in there with lots of room to spare."

"In all honesty, I don’t think anyone could out-do this."

Dina says, "I guess it’s true that everything is BIGGER in Texas!"

And from Dina's picture above, the same holds true for the Cowboys offensive line. On that high definition video screen, those guys must be 50 feet tall!

The Last Few Days of Summer

2009-09-07T21:32:00.013-05:00

Or maybe we should just call this the longest post of the year.

Hey, our kids wanted to squeeze in every bit of play possible before school begins the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Since this is a long weekend, it had to begin with a cookout on Saturday.

While a cookout still means that I'm going to be outside on the deck in front of a grill, the kids now seem to gather in front of the Wii to play Guitar Hero...

You can always identify our sons in a picture because ineveitably they're the ones wearing the, well, distinctive hats. The other boy is their cousin John Paul.

When it comes to boys and Guitar Hero, though, no one is more focused than our boy Kekoa...

Aunty Dorothy, my cousin Sherry, and her daughter Rebecca joined us for a meal of hamburgers and hot dogs...

Which just left our vegetarian daughter Alyssa just overjoyed to be sitting in front of a giant tray of meat...

Thankfully, we did manage to pick up a loaf of fresh bread at the Farmer's Market that morning...

That's a loaf of "Aloha Bread."

Apparently Aloha is now a "Taste of Door County."

Even though it's made in Algoma.

Which isn't in Door County.

Oh well.

Since Aunty Dorothy was at our house, we used Skype to set her up on a call with my mom in Hawaii some 4,700 miles away...

I guess Nalani was so excited to see Grandma on the computer that she had to dance.

Later that day we walked to the beach (we live about a block away).

And while it's not like the kind of beaches you'd find in Hawaii, it is a sandy beach on the Bay...

David and Bretty were loving some of the pictures Alyssa had been taking...

And they all walked out to the giant rock...

But it was too late in the day to go swimming.

That didn't stop the kids from playing Baywatch...

On Sunday we took Alyssa back to Green Bay and spent the afternoon at Bay Beach Amusement Park.

Malia insisted that everyone get on the Merry-go-round...

Althought Bretty seemed to be riding a horse as if he were Atilla the Hun...

And I swear, if you look closely at the picture above, Nalani is riding a giant purple rat.

We also took the little train around the Bay which got David all fired up...

But that was nothing next to the thrill he and Bretty enjoyed on this ride...

To give you a better perspective on the ride, here they are from wider angle...

That's a bit much if you ask me.

But it wasn't enough for them.

In fact, Kekoa, Nalani and Malia all wanted to get in on the act.

So they all jumped on the next ride.

Check out their hairstyles...

And all you can pretty much see of Malia as she sits next to Bretty is her hair standing straight up...

On Monday, Cari said she wanted to go to Potawatomi.

I agreed because I thought she meant the casino.

Imagine my surprise when we ended up at a state park filled with green leafy things and bugs.

One of the landmarks of Potawatomi is this giant tower on the highest hill in the park...

And while all my kids climbed up at least a level or two, only Bretty was brave enough to climb to the top (gotta love that Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens!)...

Of course, Cari made sure to supervise all the climbing from the ground below...

We spent the afternoon walking along the shore...

Back at home, Nalani spent her last day of summer helping her little sister Malia learn to ride a bike...

Note the lovely purple door on our garage to complement Malia's purple bike helmet.

Malia got up a good head of steam...

Before she skinned her elbow on the sidewalk and that was the end of that.

David spent some time practicing his slight of hand...

All in all, it was a great way for the kids to end their summer vacation...

Because even though we're only a block's walk from the beach, there's always a sign pointing at what this beach will look like in just a few short months...

Happy Labor Day. School starts tomorrow.

Whew.

Playing with our new toy...

2009-09-06T22:02:00.004-05:00

Toy?

I mean valuable tool we use to record our wonderful adventures so that we may always look back and cherish our lives together.

At least that was my way of rationalizing to my lovely wife the exorbitant amount of money I spent on a new digital camera.

We now have a new Nikon D90, several lens, and lots of other assorted accessories that only a true techno-geek can really enjoy.

So how do we initially put this new toy to use?

Taking pictures of our son's football games?

Capturing memories of our daughter's first amusement park ride?

Otherwise simply documenting their childhood so that it can be forever preserved?

No.

I took pictures of vegetables...

And just 'cause those weren't enough, here are a few more...

Okay, maybe there is some point to all this. We wanted to see how well the new camera could capture color and detail. I don't know what it looks like on a webpage - but the originals are fantastic!

Another one of the fun features of the camera is its ability to snap 5 pictures every second. So we told Bretty to jump from the lifeguard chair at the beach.

I figured we'd get either a neat picture of him landing on his feet or clear documentation of how he broke his leg.

Either way, it would be a good test for the camera...

Then we started getting really weird.

Excuse the garbage cans in the background, but we needed a dark place for the next experiment.

We went in the garage and fooled around with very slow shutter speeds, a wide open aperture, and multiple flashes. Here's David, and David, and David...

Then David decided to make a star with a flashlight with the shutter open and Alyssa firing a late flash...

And this is what it looks like when you go crazy with a Mace Windu lightsaber and the shutter held open in the dark...

We have Mace's lightsaber because it's the purple one.

Mace is the only Filipino Jedi.

One of my favorite images is the double exposure with Alyssa and David...

That one's really odd.

And I even played a bit to get the streaking effect from the sun as the day came to an end...

This new camera is going to be a lot of fun!

Bret from Green Bay plays football again...

2009-08-29T20:26:00.018-05:00

This is Bret the football player for whom we can all cheer!

Our son, Bret Jr., spent this morning banging heads with other 5th graders in his first football game of the season.

This is August - and we still have another three weeks of summer to go - so we all dressed appropriately to watch football on a typical Wisconsin summer day...

Kekoa, in particular, was just overjoyed to be outdoors on this normal Wisconsin August summer day...

When Bretty last played organized football in Nevada several years ago, he played for the Bobcats. Amazingly enough, that's the name of his new team in Door County.

While the name is the same, the referees are competely different.

In Nevada, there was usually a single referee who was just a high school kid wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

That's not the way it is with Bret's new league...

There are four referees, and as David pointed out, they even have cool socks.

The Bobcats were the visitors at Chief's Field in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Bret played at varying times on boths side of the football, periodically at offensive left guard, but mostly at defensive tackle.

He seems to enjoy defense the best. Here he is getting real low just before the snap...

Bret is number 76 and he had a really good game.

In the second quarter he knifed through the offensive line disrupting the play, and another player stripped the football which was recovered by the Bobcats. Here is Bretty and another Bobcat wreaking havoc in the backfield and forcing that fumble...

Bret really did a nice job holding his position at the middle of the defensive line...

Later in the game the Bobcats forced another turnover and here is Bret just before he dived on the ball and recovered the fumble...

In addition to being involved with two fumbles, he recorded 1/2 a sack!

Here's my favorite picture of Bret after he blew through the offensive line and is in hot pursuit of the running back...

Bret's older brother David was overjoyed (well, as overjoyed as you can be on a summer day like this)...

Our boys thrashed Manitowoc...

But more importantly they had fun.

And since we were in Manitowoc - the birthplace of my mother - we stopped by my grandparent's grave...

We also dropped by to my visit my Aunty Dorothy.

But when in Manitowoc, we had to stop for lunch at one of the last car hops around...

Penquin's Drive-In, home of the big penny burger.

Although this isn't the 1950s anymore so it costs a bit more than a penny!

Brett Favre was treated dishonorably by the Packers!

2009-08-23T16:52:00.005-05:00

Favre should have been the Packers QB last year - and they would have been contending for a Super Bowl rather than the losing team that they were. After all, he had just led them to a 13-3 record and the NFC Championship game.

So to demonstrate our commitment to our belief in Mr. Favre, Cari and I went to the Packers-Bills game wearing our brand new bright purple #4 Farve Vikings jerseys...

Of course, I was only brave enough to do so while hiding behind our little girls...

With all that purple, you'd think a Filipino like me would love the Vikings! Hey, at least they're my brother Jimmy's favorite team.

Someone said we'd be risking our lives to wear our purple jerseys to the Packers game but I said that I wasn't worried.

This is Wisconsin.

Packers fans are like a cult. But it's a polite cult.

We have four pairs of tickets to several games this season, so different kids get to go to different games. This is still the pre-season, so it was Nalani's and Malia's turn - mostly because they don't know what's going on anyway.

Malia was looking at the players on the field...

She was most excited at how big everything looked in the binoculars.

Nalani took her turn with the binoculars as well. She couldn't understand why people were yelling mean things at the Bills...

After all, Nalani said, "Bill is a nice name."

Nalani also got quite excited when it was announced that fans in a certain row would have a chance to win a gift certificate from Tony Roma's - the rib place.

She thought they meant her hero, Tony Romo - the Cowboys quarterback who's from Wisconsin!

Both of the girls joined in the cheering for the most part...

But Nalani kept sticking her fingers in her ear every time it got loud...

The most exciting part for the girls was halftime. Lambeau hosted some local 5th grade football teams and let them play on the field...

A little boy scored and tried to do the Lambeau leap - that touchdown celebration when the Packer who scores jumps into the endzone stands - but he was just too small to make it.

So the fans reached down and pulled him up...

It really was great.

The girls had a terrific time...

And Nalani made sure to subtly demonstrate her commitment to her favorite team by wearing a Cowboys hat with a blue Cowboys star on it!

A Very Long Day in Door County...

2009-07-25T21:15:00.002-05:00

One of the drawbacks of living in Door County is that there is always something to do, and somewhere to explore.

That can make for some very busy days.

Today started with a trip to the beach. Okay, so maybe it's not Hawaii, but Door County, Wisconsin has the best beaches in the middle of the country. We weren't going there to swim, however. We went to Whitefish Dunes to see the sand scupture competition...

It was a very Door County-ish event. A combination of art and the environment. The kids had fun walking around...

But since we were at Whitefish Dunes, Cari said we just had to take a trek over to Cave Point...

Cave Point consists of limestone formations that withstand the pounding of the waves from Lake Michigan. That makes for some fun places for kids to explore along the shoreline...

The boys loved climbing out to every rock point they could find...

But the little girls kept wanting to pose for pictures...

Although we did have a few showers early on, it turned out to be a beautiful day in Door County...

But going to the beach, then walking through the woods, then exploring rock formations along the shoreline - well, that's not enough to do on a single day for my lovely wife.

The American Waterways Wind Orchestra was arriving in town to play a concert tonight. And they have the name "Waterways" in their name for a very specific reason. They have a most unique mode of travel...

That vessel is a self-propelled barge which sailed into Sturgeon Bay and set up in the harbor. That middle section of the barge in the picture above lifts up to create a symphony shell like covering where the orchestra plays...

It is quite amazing and the kids seemed to enjoy it...

Ah, such is life during summer in Door County!

Goodbye Michael...

2009-06-25T19:12:00.003-05:00

The President visits and writes a note...

2009-06-11T20:30:00.011-05:00

Like me, he's from Hawaii.

This is the land of the Frozen Tundra.

So of course President Obama would want to hold his first town hall meeting on health care in Green Bay. Doesn't everybody from Hawaii want to be in Green Bay?

Obviously, it is not every day the President visits Wisconsin, so an invitation to the event was highly coveted. But because we know people way more important than we are, Cari and I got a pair of tickets to the big event...

The day began as we ignored the designated parking lot which shuttled you by bus to the town hall meeting site. Instead we parked in a one-hour parking zone a block away. We figured that it was worth the $10 parking ticket if we even got one - which we didn't.

Parking where we did had us walk by the incredible row of television trucks. This picture doesn't even do justice to the amount of stuff that was out there...

I must say that the process of getting in the building was amazingly efficient considering the security precautions that they took...

We ran into a lot of people we knew while standing in line, but even I was shocked to see Sarah Palin standing just a few feet away from us...

That last picture was taken with my Blackberry, so the slightly fuzzy picture doesn't do justice to just how much this lady looked like the pride of Alaska.

After getting inside, we first were on the bleachers, only to get called down to floor seats. Then we were moved to the other side of the floor to the very the back row (which was still a big improvement over the bleachers). But an usher came over to us and said that the whole back row was reserved for Senator Steve Kagan's family.

Although we pointed out to the young man that Kagan is a Congressman, not a Senator, we were moved anyway. But this time ironically we were placed in the best of the four positions. We were moved to the front left of the podium, in floor seats, about the sixth or seventh row back from the stage.

Thank you for booting us Senator Kagan.

Off to the side behind us was the unwashed media horde...

Cari was counting down the minutes to when the event was to begin - and I foolishly mocked her attention to the time. In all the political campaigns and events I've been involved with over the years, I cannot recall one that ever started on time.

But I guess President Obama is a man with a schedule because there he was, exactly on time...

The President spoke for a bit about health care, but then he stepped out from behind his podium and took questions from the audience. It really was quite amazing. He called people at random, and they just asked him questions - and clearly not all the questioners were in agreement with his policies.

He took each question from the audience, then answered them directly...

Whether you agree with the man or not, you have to respect the fact that he is willing to come before a crowd and tell you exactly where he stands.

And lest you think this was a hand selected audience, it most certainly was not. Other than a certain amount of tickets given to dignitaries and other political leaders and their friends and family, the vast majority were randomly distributed to anyone who signed up. You just filled out an online form with a name and phone number (or called an 800 number), and you were contacted if your name was drawn for tickets.

This is an enormous difference from some previous Presidents who only talked to hand picked crowds that never disagreed with anything the President said.

Anyway, one of today's questions was asked by a friend of mine. Here's John on the left asking the President his question...

Now John started asking his question by telling the President that his daughter Kennedy was skipping school today to be at the town hall meeting.

So the President asked if she needed a note.

John said that he'd take the President up on that offer, but then began to ask his question anyway.

The President interrupted John by saying, "I'm serious. What's her name?"

John, being John, replied, "John."

President Obama then said, "No, her name."

John finally told him that his daughter's name is "Kennedy," to which the President replied, "That's a cool name."

Here's the President writing a note to Kennedy's teacher...

And here's the note he handed to her written on a piece of paper torn off from some document he had with him...

It reads, "To Kennedy's Teacher - Please excuse Kennedy's absence... she's with me. Barack Obama."

Very cool.

Then the President got back to answering questions...

And when he was done we all rushed up to the barrier where a grinning President was shaking hands...

It's amazing how many folks were reaching out to him...

And they wanted to shake his hand even though if you look at the last two pictures above, you can see this foreboding Secret Service agent glaring at anyone who got near the President.

On our one block walk back to our car, we passed several protesters, including some calling President Obama a Nazi...

Which is a bit confusing because there were other protesters calling him a socialist.

Someone needs to talk to the protesters about doing a better job giving us a consistent message.

My favorite sign of all is the one that is at the top center part of this picture...

It reads, "Wake up America, the Matrix has you."

Where's Keanu Reeves when you need him. Then again, maybe Barack Obama is "The One."

Exactly 21 Years and 2 Days Ago...

2009-06-06T20:00:00.005-05:00

Exactly 21 years and 2 days ago, I was standing right there...

And "there" is the occassion of my graduation from Iolani School, some 4,739 miles from where I stood today. Yes, that guy with the poofy hair is me as I graduated from high school.

Today I could not help but think about that day because our oldest daughter, Alyssa Carolyn Bicoy, just graduated from Bay Port High School.

However, before we get to the graduation ceremony, we have to talk about how the day began. We started out with a really big surprise for Alyssa.

Alyssa has her guitar lessons on saturdays. I loudly told Cari last night that we had to see our accountant on saturday. That meant if Alyssa was to attend her guitar lesson, she'd have to accompany us to the accountant's office and then we'd drop her off at her lesson immediately after we were done.

Needless to say, spending time with our accountant is not how Alyssa wanted to start her graduation day.

But in the morning, rather than go to see the accountant, we drove directly to the music store and surprised Alyssa with a graduation present. We let her pick out her own first really nice guitar.

She was so excited she almost cried!

Of course, little did I know that selecting a guitar required such deep thought...

Alyssa liked one Martin Guitar in particular...

And although we spent a really, really long time trying out different guitars, she kept coming back to the Martin...

Quite honestly, I have no idea of how one kind of guitar is better than another. But when I learned that Eric Clapton normally uses a Martin when he plays acoustic guitar - well, now that I can understand!

And so where we began is basically where we ended...

A very excited and happy Alyssa picked a Martin Solid Mahogany Guitar...

Then we rushed home, changed clothes, and ran right back out the door so she could walk to the sounds of pomp and circumstance...

Cari and I were overwhelmed with emotion but the boys occupied themselves with the sounds of beeps and chirps from their Gameboys...

"Beeps" and "chirps" - how's that for dating one's self when talking about video games. Where's Ms. Pacman when you need her?

Here is our not-so-litle girl walking across the stage...

I'll admit it. I had a few tears in my eye when they played that music. As for Cari, well, she was bawling.

It's official. Alyssa Carolyn Bicoy, high school graduate.

Wow, those 21 years and 2 days just flew by. Just look at our oldest daughter...

Oh, and the leis are from Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bernie from Hawaii...

It's just so hard to believe that our daugther is a high school graduate.

Congratulations Alyssa. It's official. Your father is middle-aged.

Let the mid-life crisis begin.

And they swam...

2009-05-24T21:01:00.002-05:00

Through the wonders of Skype, video calls through the computer have become the norm.

And so what better way to use it then for Grandma Betty to sing to her two youngest granddaughters, Nalani and Malia!

A Unique Take on World Music

2009-05-03T20:37:00.004-05:00

While I normally reserve this silly little blog to posting nonsensical stories and pictures from our family, every now and then we encounter something so wonderfully different that it ends up here.

And this is the case with the videos from Playing for Change.

A record producer, Mark Johnson, heard this street musician in California playing a unique version of "Stand By Me" and decided to record him. He took that recording and complemented his work by adding other musicians from around the world. The amazing thing is that none of these musicians were ever in the same place at the same time. They each listened to the recording of the previous artist then added their unique take to the song.

I first saw it a few months ago on Bill Moyer's Journal (which is another reason why this show is very the best news analysis program on television) and they've now released a DVD of the music.

These are a couple different videos they put together. Enjoy...

Who are all these kids?

2009-05-02T17:25:00.004-05:00

Today five of our six kids jumped in the van and off we were to visit the hallowed ground known as the Frozen Tundra...

And though the ground finally thawed, it was still fun at Healthy Kids Day at Lambeau Field.

Of course, while there, we had to pay homage to Mr. Lombardi...

But the truth of the matter is that our kids aren't really Packer fans. It's kinda hard to tell from this picture...

...but Kekoa (in green) is wearing the hat of his beloved Dallas Cowboys and Bret Jr. (in red) has his Atlanta Falcons cap on. Nalani and Malia also cheer for the Cowboys and David, well, David isn't a football fan. David likes baseball.

His guidance counselor wants to him to talk to a professional, but we assured her that it is possible to cheer for the Red Sox in Packerland.

I must also point out that I am wearing my most favorite of all t-shirts. If you can't read the message, here it is again below...

Who are all these kids? ...and why are they calling me Dad??