To surprise Cari for Mother's Day, the kids wanted to make her a really big breakfast of all the things we never eat anymore (you know, the UN-healthy but delicious stuff).
Here is Cousin It cooking up a storm...
We were going to do bacon and scrambled eggs. But while in the store, someone else wanted to make Mom french toast. Then another thought of hash browns. I thought cinnamon rolls would be nice, but one of the kids wanted to make muffins. Unfortunately, they couldn't agree on which kind, so naturaly we had to get blueberry and banana nut.
And so was the Mother's Day feast...
And so what do you do after eating a huge Mother's Day breakfast?
Swim off a few of those calories, of course!
We picked up a new swimming vest for Malia and she tried it out today...
And Nalani has finally put away the swimming ring and has graduated to Kekoa's old training vest...
And Kekoa has tossed away the vest and is now swimming on his own!
Of course, it doesn't hurt to get a free ride from his big sister every now and then...
But if you have water, then you have to jump into it. And so began a series of "bombs" into the pool...
There was Alyssa's "peace" bomb (sounds like an invention of Vice President Cheney's)...
Or Bretty's bomb over his sister's head...
Or sometimes they just did it all together...
We do live in the desert. So the sun is always overhead. Of course, some of us tan at different rates than others in the house...
Well, we are all a little bit different.
Consider how many homes provide this as choices for an afternoon snack...
Freshly Inari sushi and Wisconsin cheese curds.
Mmmm good. (Well, at least the sushi).
Amazing as it may seems, three months have passed and today marked the final game of Bretty's Bobcats.
And after a one month training camp and two months worth of games, the National Youth Sports League finally did something useful and provided a real referee for the game...
Up to now, the refs were either some high school kids or parent volunteers from each of the opposing teams.
Bretty has been getting much better as the season progressed. Here he is taking on his man on a play which would lead to a big gain...
Doesn't he just look like a football player? Of course, in this picture, he is busy looking at me holding the camera and not his man...
The block below would help spring the Bobcats running back to a touchdown!
If you look at the picture above, the quaterback behind Bretty has decorated the front of his helmet with the little paw stickers that you recieve from the coaches every time you do something they want to recognize. Bretty has a good number of them as well, but he prefers to put them on the back of his helmet.
Well, the team ran out of paws after last game, so today the kids got something they liked even better. Here are the coaches recognizing players by handing out donuts...
The Bobcats finished their winning season with a snack. So we decided to do likewise and celebrate over a bite to eat at Aloha Kitchen. Malia loved her lumpia...
Of course, when Bretty took a lumpia for himself, Malia proved that she might be tough enough to play football as well. Here she is getting in Bretty's face for having the audacity to eat something that she likes...
When we got home, the kids couldn't wait to take advantage of the warm weather and jump in the pool...
Yes, the transformation is complete. Nalani and Malia have become fish as well, albeit using inflatible tubes. Nalani used to stand on the side and only stick her feet on the steps on the shallow end.
Well, that has changed completely...
And Malia wouldn't let go of me or Cari if she'd get in the pool at all. That's changed...
Of course, Alyssa, Bretty and David still love swimming...
And hamming it up for the camera...
Ah, life in the desert. 80 degrees in April!
Immediately after helping my mother check in with her e-ticket for her return flight to Honolulu, I picked up some dam visitors from our former home of Marietta.
Meet Jack and Barb Moberg as we visited the Hoover Dam...
I'd been to Hoover Dam on many an occasion, but this is the first time I've been on the dam tour. I must say, it's pretty dam impressive.
Consider the intake pipes which bring in the water which generates electricity...
The generators themselves are an impressive spectacle producing some 2.8 million kilowatts...
If you took all the cement needed to build the Hoover Dam, you could build a 4 foot wide sidewalk that would circle the planet.
The dam was originally named Boulder Dam. The final sites under consideration to build the dam were Boulder Canyon and Black Canyon. Boulder Canyon was the preferred site, but ultimately, they selected Black Canyon.
However, the public's familiarity with the Boulder Canyon site led them to name it Boulder Dam even though it wasn't in Boulder Canyon.
Sort of like Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill all over again.
Of course, then that darn Herbert Hoover came into the picture again and they renamed it Hoover Dam in honor of our former president.
Here's a freakier statistic.
Like President Bush, Hoover Dam is leaking.
Well, they're sensitve about the word leaking. They say that water is "seeping" through the pores of Hoover Dam as seen below...
According to the national park service tour guide, Hoover Dam does NOT leak, but instead experiences seepage.
Seepage to the tune of about 150 gallons per MINUTE!
Here's a view of the Colorado River below the dam...
Dam impressive if you ask me.
And the day ended with a dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant. That's Jack, Barb, my in-laws Jane & Dave Hansen, and me on the end.
And so goes another day in the desert.
Here's how they describe themselves:
While the origin of Durgin Park goes back to Revolutionary days, the era of fame for its chowders, Indian puddings, apple pan dowdy, johnny cake, and New England boiled dinners started some 130 years ago when John Durgin, in partnership with Eldridge Park, a livery man, and John G. Chandler, a dry goods merchant, took over. The theme followed to this day was decided upon then by these old Yankees, that the best advertising is plenty of food on the table.
Here's the truth:
They suck.
I mean really, the food here really sucks. We went there for dinner last night -- and it wasn't cheap -- but the cuts of meat tasted like they were actually held over from the "Revolutionary days."
Therein lies the warning. If you see this flag in Boston...
RUN AWAY!
My stomach felt so bad afterward that only Santa could make me feel better...
Today marked our final day in Boston, so we decided to make the trek out to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
The building itself is magnificent, designed by the acclaimed architect, I.M. Pei...
Here are Alyssa and Cari in front of the presidential seal...
The museum itself is highly interactive. They have designed a series of rooms to resemble various critical points in his political career, but use the video images of President Kennedy to tell his story in his own words.
Her are Cari and Alyssa at the Democratic Convention during which Kennedy accepted his party's nomination for the Presidency...
If you read the sign behind Cari, "Orange County New York for Kennedy Before Wisconsin."
I honestly don't know what that means, but it says "Wisconsin," so Cari wanted me to take a picture of it.
The museum also gives you a stark reminder that idiotic bigotry has taken many forms over the years...
In case you can't read this, it says "Wake Up Protestants" and "VOTE GOP" -- as an acronym for "Victory Only Through Elected Government Of Protestant leadership."
And look at this electoral victory, with Red being Republican and Blue being Democrat...
It should be a reminder that there is no such thing as an electoral lock in politics. Most of the Republican Red states above are today considered "Blue States" -- and most of the Democratic Blue states above are now called "Red States."
Here's another interesting urban legend.
Many say that Kennedy was President because Democrats stole votes in Chicago, giving Kennedy a razor thin margin of victory in Illinois, and thus the Presidency.
The reality? Even if Kennedy had lost Illinois, and though he did have a very thin margin of the popular vote, he still would have won because he had a very strong victory in the electoral college.
Once the museum takes you into the White House years, the hallways are transformed to give you the feel like you're walking through the real thing...
They even have a facsimile of Bobby Kennedy's office as Attorney General...
There's another of the Oval Office itself, but because of the precious artifacts from Kennedy's presidency, you cannot use a flash so the picture was too dark to post.
In any case, when in Boston, take the trek out to the JFK Museum. It really was worth the trip.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on the T, exploring Boston.
Here is Alyssa being anti-social and sitting by herself...
We had lunch at one of the two dozen Cheers pubs in town...
Like the drunken freedom trail of my college days, Cheers has come up with its own version.
The original Cheers -- the Bull & Finch Pub -- is on Beacon Hill, right near the first stop on the Freedom Trail. So Cheers has created its own map...
So you can travel the Freedom Trail and stop for a drink at any of the countless Cheers pubs along the way.
And in typical Red Sox Nation fashion, the folks at Cheers are still annoyed that Johnny Damon was defected to the Yankees...
Here is everyone in front of the famous Trinity Church in Boston...
This century old building is regularly included among the 10 most architectually significant buildings in our country.
And here is Cari's new favorite place...
Newbury Street, home to store after store of some of the fanciest things imaginable.
Thankfully, after all this time in Boston, we had no money left to throw away!
And we arrived back in Las Vegas just after midnight to a very full house. In addition to the regular 8 folks (Cari and me and our six kids), we also had Cari's parents and my mother.
So bedrooms were shuffled and the two littlest girls were on the couches in our bedroom. They were sound asleep when we arrived home...
Ah, it's good to be home.
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