The Birthday Bret...

It's birthday time in the Bicoy home!

Okay, with eight people living in our house, maybe that's not all that unusual an occurance. But our son Bretty is excited because his birthday only comes once a year!



As you'll see in the video, Bretty is very quick to remind us exactly whose birthday it is...



Bretty got some of the typical birthday presents like a new bike...



And he really liked that his brothers and sisters wanted to get him this particular new game for the Wii...



He thinks "Big Brain" is the perfect game for him.

Cari does say that this little boy is a lot like his old man.

Well, there may be some truth to that because for his birthday we bought him his very own universal one of these...



Yes, that is my son's first remote control.

Goodness knows that a person shouldn't watch a single television show for more than a few minutes at a time. There is always something else you could be watching!

His first remote. Sniff.

My boy is done growed up.



Happy birthday Bretty!

Many Pumpkins and Manny Pacquiao

Las Vegas is a big city. A really big city. Nearly two million people call this valley home.

And yet in the middle of all this hullaballoo, you can find a patch of ground which would make even Linus a happy camper...



Yes my friends, that is a really big pumpkin patch.

And those five kids digging around in the middle of it are indeed five of our six children.

The pumpkin that Kekoa found is really unique, and he loves the fact that it is so unique...



Kekoa wants everyone to see the discoloration on one side of his chosen pumpkin which he says is really cool.

Whereas Bretty opted for a smaller version so he could hold it in one hand and strike what he thinks is a cool pose of his own...



Who knew crawling around in the dirt and picking up fruit off the ground could be so much fun?



Oh, and in case you noticed the pumpkin-fruit reference, I had to look that one up. Of course, all our boys already knew that a pumpkin isn't a vegetable, but actually a fruit. Those smarty pants.

This weekend we also had the opportunity to attend one of Las Vegas' famous super fights, the rematch between World Champion Manny Pacquiao and the former champ Marco Antonio Barrera...



If you're a boxing fan, then you'll know that the first Pacquiao - Barrera fight was a huge upset as Manny knocked out the heavily favored Barrera. But even if you're not a boxing fan, you'd love this fight because there is probably no more entertaining and energetic boxer out there than Manny Pacquiao. He's one of those small guys whose hands are lightening fast.

And coming from the Philippines, Manny is a sports superstar to us Filipinos everywhere.

Cari and I were lucky enough to receive a pair of tickets from a terrific lady who is a true advocate for philanthropy and a friend of the Nevada Community Foundation...



She knew that I am part Filipino (whose mother is from Wisconsin - figure that one out) and probably felt sorry for me because there aren't a lot of Filipino giants in the world of sports (if you can consider the 5' 6" 130 pound Pacquiao a "giant").

While my lovely wife has been to countless sporting events in her life, she had never been to a boxing match. Thus, she was a bit confused by the need to be continually reminded what round it was by someone wearing a bikini...



Curiously, there were three different "ring girls" (as they're called) each of whom takes a turn walking around the ring carrying a round card. As Cari explained to me, after their turn in the ring, it probably takes them the next two rounds to figure out which round card to hold up next.

I'm staying out of that one.

Anyway, it was a really fun fight. There is nothing quite like the electricity of a championship bout between two top boxers. If you really think about it, there is no other sport in which the game could end at any moment from the very start of the match.

Every second in boxing is like overtime in football - where it only takes one play to win the game. When you have two champions like Pacquiao and Barrera, both of whom can end the fight with one quick flurry of punches, it makes for a thrilling event...



It was a great fight (and I'm not just saying that because Manny won!).

Of course, the tickets for these superfights are quite expensive - and because the main event could potentially be over in one round - they give you a whole evening of boxing matches. I think there were 6 or 7 fights in total. That meant it was quite late when we returned home.

Usually we come home to find at least one of our kids camped out in our room waiting for us to get home.

Sometimes, however, our kids will fall asleep in the most unusual of ways...



She must have been waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise!

How 'bout dem Cowgirls!

As you may recall from that most famous of poems, Twas the Morning After the Night Before Christmas, my lovely wife has finally become a fan of the Dallas Cowboys...



Okay, it's mostly because their quarterback Tony Romo is from Burlington, Wisconsin and he does a really good Brett Favre imitation, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Well, I'm also pleased to say that we have two new Cowgirls in our home...



Malia and Nalani had a western-themed party to attend and so they put on their boots and went to the store with Mommy to pick up a couple of cowboy hats.

But being my little girls, you just knew that they had to pick out the cowboy hats with the pink flowers.

Of course, ya gotta love a little girl who dresses like this...



Confused?

Well, look at the words on her shirt up close...



Cool.

And in the ultimate non sequitur, here's a picture taken in one of those souvenir photo booths more than a dozen years ago...



Oh wait, this post starts with the Dallas Cowboys, goes to their quarterback Tony Romo, then jumps to Brett Favre, who plays for the Green Bay Packers, which beat the Minnesota Vikings earlier today, in Minnesota -- which is where this photo was taken!

Okay, so maybe it does make sense that we include it here!

Or maybe it's just that this picture was taken the last time the Cowboys won a Super Bowl. That was a long time ago!

The Streets of San Francisco...

...or Karl Malden is a pirate. You decide for yourself what to call this odd posting. The pirate comes later.

For not quite the last week, I have been working in the city by the Bay - San Francisco, California. While I didn't have much time to actually walk those streets made famous by Michael Douglas and Mr. Malden, you have to admit that San Francisco is a fascinating place.

Unfortunately, the attempt to get there was a bit trying.

The flight from Las Vegas is only an hour, but first we had to sit in the plane on the runway for more than 2 hours while they tried to get the plane's parking brake to release. Rather than let us off the plane, they kept changing out various switches and parts and kept assuring us that "we'll be on our way in just another 10 minutes."

The unnerving thing is that even after changing out countless parts, it was only after they "jiggled the wires a few times" (as the pilot put it) that the brake just decided to release itself.

Anyway, that screwed up my plan to land in San Francisco and get fast enough to the hotel to watch the Cowboys game. To make this even more difficult, this is 49ers country and naturally that was the game on the local channel in the airport.

Thankfully, the wonders of technology allowed me to wirelessly connect my laptop to our cable box in Las Vegas (where the Cowboys were on tv) and thus I watched it sitting outside the security gates at a cafe in the San Francisco airport...



I sat there for hours staring at my computer, but it also looked like I was staring at the TSA security guys. The next time I fly I'm probably going to be flagged as a security threat. I do carry a tube of chapstick with me after all.

Eventually I did find my way to the hotel and spent a few minutes walking around San Francisco.

They still run their famous cable cars through a section of the city. At the end of the line, however, the cars need to be turned around to go back in the other direction...



...which happens on a big circular track...



...but is still turned using nothing more than the hard work and sweat of the cable car operators themselves...



Really, it was just three guys spinning that whole car themselves then pushing it back on the main track.

San Francisco is also a place that disdains big chain stores...



And that aversion to big franchises is very evident when you try to find something to eat. While I spent one of my nights searching for gifts to bring back for each of our children, I headed off to a food court in a mall hoping for a quick bite...



But none of the normal food court faire was anywhere to be found. These were unique places, but in what appears to be a typical San Francsico style, these were high end unique places.

Rather than a Wendy's or McDonalds in the food court, they offer this...



From my perspective, if I want a burger, I want it either quick (like a fast food joint) or really fatty and artery hardening like from some dumpy greasy spoon.

Burgers should not come from Bistros.

Rather than the typical fast food Asian food, they've got this...



Gourmet Thai.

Although I have to admit that I was happy to see this place...



Gotta love high end Korean food.

This food court is probably the first one I've ever seen to actually have a place that serves this stuff...



Yep, fresh crepes.

And just in case you didn't like the crepes from the first place, you had another option as well...



I will admit, that since I was in San Francisco, having a crepe from a mall food court for dinner seemed like the trendy thing to do. So here's the guy in action making my dinner...



While I wished I had more time to explore San Francisco, that was about it. Early in the week I was at a conference and later in the week the chief executives of some 30 foundations gathered at Stanford to create a new framework for our work.

We were meeting as a part of the National Task Force on Community Leadership. The first day of our meeting happened to occur on a very important day of celebration. September 19th was international...



Yes, International Talk Like a Pirate Day really is a day of celebration. I saw it on the news that morning.

So naturally, during that day's discussions of the National Task Force, whenever someone agreed with a comment, it was met with a chorus of, "Aye, matey." And if you said something foolish, you were a "scurvy dog" or a "scalawag."

Ah, it was a true honor to be gathering with some of the brightest minds in the community foundation world.

First Day of School!

Today marked the first day of the new school year and the excitement in our home was absolutely palpable.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Other than Alyssa who's in high school, our other kids attend a year-round school which takes periodic breaks throughout the year.

So for David, Bretty and Kekoa, the school year ended on August 10th. They had two weeks off, and now they're heading back to school one grade older. It sort of dulls the end of summer/start of the school year excitement when your summer vacation is only two weeks long.

Nonetheless, we still started the day with the obligatory picture of everyone with their backpacks...



Of course, there is one little girl who was really excited.

Today was Nalani's first day of kindergarten and she just couldn't wait for it to begin...



In typical fashion, this little girl was the first one in line outside her classroom...



Nalani had so much fun on her first day of school that she even drew a picture of herself and her teacher to bring to school tomorrow.

Of course, we must not forget that today was also the first day of school for Alyssa - and she really had a full summer vacation. Okay, maybe it wasn't a real vacation.

Alyssa's sixteen years old and about to enter her junior year. Both Cari and I were working at that age and thus we thought it inappropriate for her to just lay around all summer. So we gave her a choice. She could get a job for the summer and earn a few dollars, or she could choose to "volunteer" at the Nevada Community Foundation a few days a week.

She opted for the latter on one condition.

Alyssa would help out any way we needed at the Community Foundation, but she had to work for someone other than me!

That's one smart young lady.

For the entire summer Alyssa would come to work with me a few days each week to help out with our Philanthropic Services team (completely on the other side of the office from me!). She spent her time updating our files on local charities with the most recent information available. Our staff tells me that she completed the whole project!

In any case, Alyssa was very excited to start her junior year. She attends a technology based magnet school - which is the best school in the district, but unfortunately is a good ways away from our home. Because my schedule is so chaotic (my days never look the same) and Cari has five other kids to attend to in the morning, Alyssa has to take the bus if she wants to go to the magnet school.

A very, very early bus, I might add.

Alyssa made the decision two years ago that she'd rather get up really early in the morning to take the bus to the magnet school than attend the regular high school down the road.

Gotta be impressed with that young lady's priorities.

So here she is waiting for her bus very early this morning...



That lighter part on the right side of the picture is her.

Told ya it was early!

Happy first day of school.

The Long, Long, Long Road Home...

As no doubt many of our friends and family know by now, we have been in Wisconsin to be with family after the tragic passing of our niece, Ellie Zaidel. To see some wonderful pictures of this little girl and to make a contribution in her honor, visit Ellie's Fund.

As our days in Green Bay were coming to an end, we decided that it would be wrong for us to leave the land of the frozen tundra without taking our children to pay homage to the Green Bay Packers.

Or more specifically, the guy who started it all - Curly Lambeau...



But no matter how big ol' Curly is, no one is more important in Packerland than the man for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named, Vince Lombardi...



Of course, our baby girls being the girly girls that they are, the only thing that excited them was the opportunity to pose in front of all the flowers in the courtyard of Lambeau Field...



Note that their big brothers refused to pose in the front of the picture next to the flowers.

We also walked around the building to find two bricks in the wall that were purchased in honor of my wife's maternal and paternal grandparents...



The great irony of the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field is that the tundra never freezes anymore. Heaters are implanted below the field so that the ground never freezes and thus footing is always solid.

I guess there will never be a repeat of the Ice Bowl. As a Cowboy fan, all I can say is "good riddance!"

We also had to make a stop at Pancake Place so we could have the world's greatest breakfast feast at dinner time...



That, my friends, is their famous stuffed hashbrowns. It's a heaping pile of homemade hashbrowns stuffed with cheese and ham, topped with bacon and eggs over easy, all on top of wheat toast.

I think just writing those words has caused my arteries to harden a bit.

We also made a visit to the cabin of Cari's sister's sister-in-law (if that's not confusing enough). It sits upon a little river which presents a beautiful view...



Green Bay itself is cut in half by the Fox River. As a major shipping lane, it's a city in which you can still be stopped so that the bridge can be raised to accomodate boat traffic below...



When's the last time you saw one of those!

We also visited Cari's cousin's house to let our kids play with their kids...

Of course, our oldest daughter Alyssa preferred to spend her time on her mobile phone...

The picture above was covertly taken through a window. She was nervously shaking her leg and smiling at the same time. Clearly, this had to be a conversation with a boy.

I think perhaps she doesn't need a mobile phone after all.

Since we left Las Vegas upon only a few hours notice, we had to fly into Milwaukee and make the drive up to Green Bay. Of course, we then had to reverse all that to go home.

But before we left Milwaukee, Cari and her two sisters insisted that we let our kids visit what was their special place to eat when they were kids themselves.

Welcome to Fuddruckers...

Home of the 12 pound hamburger.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but boy, those are big burgers.

It certainly was hard for us to leave during such a difficult time for everyone, but my lovely wife Cari managed a final smile with her sisters before we headed to the airport...

Unfortunately, the trip home was as miserable a flight experience as we have ever undergone.

To begin, Midwest Airlines delayed us substantially in Milwaukee and ultimately had us switch planes for the non-stop flight home to Las Vegas.

To make matters every more entertaining, we then found out that a thunderstorm in Utah meant that our plane would have to fly a longer route into Las Vegas. Of course, this being our lucky day, the Captain announced that we needed more fuel and would have to land briefly in Omaha, Nebraska.

He promised, however, that we would only be about 20 minutes on the ground and then we'd be quickly on our way.

Naturally, it couldn't be that simple.

I've flown all over the world, and that landing in Omaha was as hard and abrupt a landing as I have ever endured. And indeed, as they were refueling the plane for us on the runway, the Captain then announced that the landing gear was damaged and they would need to check it.

And oh, by the way, everyone would have to get off the plane because they technicians needed to run the engines to test the landing gear.

Did I mention that it was 2 a.m. by this time?

Ever try to wake up a bunch of sleepy children and get them off a plane? Not an easy task since we are only two parents and cannot carry six children simultaneously.

Incidentally, that just proves my point that the biggest transition for parents (aside having your first child) is when you go from two to three kids. At that moment, for the very first time, the parents are outnumbered.

Anyway, the Omaha airport at 2 a.m. is pretty much closed. And although the airport is a bit larger and there are places to eat and such right outside the airport, we couldn't get to them.

The Transportation Safety Administration - those guys who screen your carry-on luggage - well, they've all gone home by 2 a.m. So we were told that if we left the immediate gate area, we would have to catch a flight the next morning because nobody could screen us.

And while staying overnight didn't seem all that bad by this point, we were also told that if ANYONE left the terminal, the entire plane would be grounded. Apparently there is a rash of terrorists who ride planes across the nation just waiting for the moment their flight will be rerouted to Omaha so they can jump off the plane and launch their insidious plot.

Well, we didn't want to screw it up for everyone else, so in the terminal we remained...

And since nobody could leave, all we had was the serving carts they took off the plane. We had enough Diet Pepsi and chewy granola bars to last a lifetime...

Finally, they announced that the landing gear was fixed and we were ready to go. We were to begin boarding in just a few minutes.

Oops, they spoke too soon.

During the repairs to the landing gear, they apparently ran the engines for a good while. And thus while our plane had been refueled a few hours before, there was no longer enough on board to get us safely to Las Vegas.

And this now being close to 5 a.m., the guy who drives the fuel truck in Omaha had gone home.

So we had to wait until someone woke him up and dragged him back to the airport to fuel us up!

The crazy part? I had been gone so long that things had been backing up at the office. So it was only a few days prior during a conference call that I accepted a meeting for the very morning I was to return to Las Vegas. Someone was literally flying into town for one day only to see me. I'm not sure how coherent I was for that meeting!

As trying as the whole episode was for our family, we had to laugh at it throughout. We sat on the floor in some strange airport and ate cookies and told crazy stories.

And at least one of our little girls proved just how resilient kids can be...

Don't you wish you could sleep that soundly?!