The Nonsensical Travels of Bret & Cari Bicoy: 2006

Welcome to more inane holiday observations from the nonsensical travels of the Bicoy Family.

With Christmas only two days away, we decided to head out early in the evening to explore the holiday light exhibits that can be found all over town.

Perhaps the most dramatic can be found at Ethel M's Chocolates as you can see below...

Okay, maybe it looks pretty lame when we used a flash to take a picture of everyone.

Instead, look the exact same picture with the flash turned off...

In addition to having some of the best, most rich chocolate you'll ever find, Ethel M's is home to a botanical cactus garden which they dress up with Christmas lights...

Of course, one might wonder about the wisdom of wandering around in the dark with dimly lit cacti everywhere, but hey, everything is just fine -- as long as the kids go first.

After walking through the gardens at Ethel M's, we decided to head through what is regularly considered one of the top ten largest holiday lights displays in the nation. The Clark County parks department transforms Sunset Park into the "Gift of Lights" holiday exhibit.

A winding drive-through trail goes through the park which is decorated with some 300 light displays and over 8 million bulbs.

Can you imagine the electric bill?

Of course, you'll be glad to know that the commercialization of Christmas is now complete. To defray costs of this enormous exhibit, local companies have long been asked to sponsor the exhibit.

Now, just like "product placement" in the movies, the sponsors have become part of the exhibit.

With apologies for some of the blurry pictures (Malia got up from her carseat and was jumping for joy on my lap as we slowly meadered through the park), here is the modern version of Christmas lights...

The Las Vegas Review Journal, of course, which printed the guide to the lights. Followed by...

Then Southwest Airlines, and on to...

CPR, a consulting firm, then...

RC Willey, the West Coast electronics store, then on to...

Carl's Jr., the West Coast version of Hardees, followed by...

Meecham and Associates, another consulting firm, then...

CBS Outdoor, the new cable channel, followed by...

A Destination Travel, then...

Port of Subs, then...

NBC Channel 3, then...

US Bank.

The company logos have themselves become a symbol of Christmas when put in lights!

Of course, this being Las Vegas, there did have to be a few unique light exhibits. Consider this one...

A Christmas Elvis -- Viva Las Vegas, baby.

Then that other great local icon...

Liberace in lights.

Then some of the displays started getting a bit strange. Consider...

A Christmas lizard. Okay.

Then they had displays of famous structures from around the world...

The Golden Gate Bridge, the Leaning Tower of Piza, the Eiffel Tower, and on the far right, the great Sphinx of Giza.

Yes, the same Great Sphinx of Giza which was constructed completely by slaves.

Maybe they were Christmas slaves.

Then there was our personal favorite...

A Mayan Temple. As in the place upon which the Maya people conducted human sacrifices to their gods.

Ah, those wonderful Christmas memories.

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings and salutations to family and friends both near and far (but not those who live in the middle – we don’t like them). Welcome to the 2006 edition of that most infamous of holiday epistles, the Bicoy Beacon. If you find yourselves bored silly by the inane tales of the idiosyncrasies of our not so little family, remember that the delete key is your friend.

It is an annual family tradition that everyone decorates their own new stocking with gobs of glitter glue. Please feel free to send us a thank you card if you own stock in Elmers.

This was a year of great personal discovery for us. We found that you can have an exciting and dynamic year even if it doesn’t involve the birth of yet another child. Hmmmm, it probably would have been cheaper had we discovered that a few years ago. My husband Bret also found during our trip to Hawaii that he could spend nearly every waking moment for a whole month with our children and still like them. Who knew? And we even discovered a grocery store that sells both authentic Wisconsin cheese curds and freshly rolled sushi. Okay, maybe that last discovery is the best one of them all!

If you’re ever in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, give us a call and c’mon over for dinner. Although with our six kids, be prepared to fight for your food. Mele Kalikimaka e Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Cari & Bret

Alyssa be may be wearing a college sweatshirt in the picture below, but thankfully we still have her at home with us for two and a half more years – and we’re not just saying that because she is our built in babysitter. We’re saying that because she’s our FREE built in babysitter (she charges everyone else in my Mom’s club). In all sincerity, she is a terrific older sister and is growing up into a very fine young lady. Alyssa is in the middle of her sophomore year at the Technologies Academy and she is learning to create some incredible designs on her laptop.

Alyssa’s first college sweatshirt from Tufts during our Boston trip.

Like me, she loves music, but like her father, she has to do it her own way. Rather than be satisfied with what everyone else listens to, she seeks out different artists and delights in discovering new music that speaks to her. Of course, as a parent, I always worry what it is saying.

David saying something to make Alyssa laugh (he probably was making fun of their Daddy!)

Alyssa also directed the lighting during her high school’s holiday play – which makes absolute sense when you realize how often she leaves the light on. Because she is soft spoken, many people don’t realize how articulate Alyssa really is. She regularly posts her writings and poetry on her website and there you can see what a wonderful vocabulary she has (although like most young people her work is far more melancholy than she is in real life!). She has Bret’s command of language and ability to turn a phrase, but thankfully she didn’t inherit his compelling need to vocalize every single thought that enters his head!

David a made a change to his citizenship earlier this year. While sitting in a barbershop with his father, he found himself watching a baseball game (something we really NEVER do) and he was fascinated. When he got home he immediately turned on the television to search for a game – and so it began. David officially became a loyal citizen of Red Sox Nation. What’s amazing about this is that neither Bret nor I are baseball fans and so David has seen little baseball and never played the game. But in typical Bicoy fashion, this young man didn’t care what anybody else did and made up his own mind. He was going to be a baseball player – and so that’s what he did! Of course, in true Red Sox fashion, he was absolutely disgusted about one thing – he was assigned to play for the Yankees!

David holding up the “game ball” he earned for picking off a runner at first base!

When he’s not one of the boys of summer, David’s head is almost always buried in a book. He’s read all the way through the Harry Potter series and too many other books to list. Although he is only in the 4th grade, his proficiency exams (and it seems that’s all school is today, a series of never-ending standardized tests) show that he is already reading at a 7th grade level!

David is also very creative. He designs original superheroes and writes his own comic books. He even uses leftover cardboard boxes to make cars, forts and all sorts of other things. He must be growing into a real man as he thinks that duct tape is the ultimate construction material.

Bretty and David on a boat off Molokai

And in a story which warms this mother’s heart, David was selected by his classmates as the most honest person in his class. Not to pick on my husband, but in this way, David is just like me!

Bret Jr., or Bretty as we call him, has discovered that he’s one tough little kid. Bretty decided that he wanted to play football – and we don’t mean some sissy version using flags. He played full contact football complete with all the pads, cleats and helmet that you use in real football. Bretty’s coaches set up a whole training camp so the boys could learn football fundamentals. They practiced four days a week for 2 ½ hours each time – weeks before the season even began! Our son has never run that much in his life – and he has become quite the fit little boy! He loved playing defense (because he liked hitting people, hmmm….) but they put him on the offensive line because he was one of the few players who would listen to instructions and could figure out which way to block.

To make sure that we could see him, Bretty would wear a red shirt beneath his jersey. Typical Bicoy.

Unlike his more soft-spoken older siblings, Bretty is a talker – and quite a smooth one at that. Or maybe he’s a fast one. This young man always has an explanation for, well, whatever it is that he wants to explain. Bret Sr. insists that I tell you that extensive DNA testing has found that Bretty’s mouth is the result of some dormant gene that had never before been seen in our family. Oooh-kaay.

Kekoa strikes his surfing pose with Bretty near Hanauma Bay

In yet another mother’s heart-warming moment, Bretty’s 2nd grade teacher told us that he is the peacemaker in school. He is the boy who tries to engage everyone in the class and keep all the other kids playing together. Of course, this only applies to other children – not his own brothers and sisters. But even at home – where Bret Sr. is a diehard Cowboys fan and I grew up with the Packers, rather than pick sides, Bretty has decided that his favorite football team is the Atlanta Falcons! What a nice young man!

Kekoa is a pure ball of energy and excitement. He does everything with great enthusiasm and approaches life filled with joy. One day the younger kids were with us watching David’s baseball team practice and Kekoa decided that he wanted to run. For no reason in particular, Kekoa started running between the baseball stand and a school building across a wide open field. Bretty and Nalani ran with him for a couple of laps, but very quickly it was just Kekoa, running back and forth all on his own. Finally, after 12 laps, he decided to stop. When asked why he did that, Kekoa said, “I just wanted to run.” This boy simply does not know how to sit still!

Kekoa posing for a picture with a turtle that was brought on his uncle’s boat to be tagged by a marine biologist off Molokai

Amazingly, however, his 1st grade teacher regularly tells us that he is the most well behaved student in her class. He is unfailingly polite and always does what he is told. Now if only he would listen when we tell him to pick up his socks.

Because he is such a good citizen and is so responsible in school, Kekoa received a certificate for a free meal at a local restaurant. He would then often remind us that we can go out to eat anytime we want because the meal is free. Yeah, of course his meal is free… and then we only have to pay for seven other people!

Cari and the kids (with countless cousins in the background) on a shelter on a sand bar off Molokai that was built by Bret’s grandfather – the last remaining one in Hawaii (Alyssa is off on a boat somewhere)

As surprising as it was for David to decide to become a baseball player completely out of the blue, Kekoa had even a more unusual request. He announced that he wanted to bowl. Yes, bowl. So we signed him up for a league and bowl he did, quite well actually. Bretty joined him but Kekoa was most impressive if only because the ball weighs almost as much as he does.

Nalani is one of those wonderful children who awaken every morning with a smile on her face that usually lasts all day long. Now that Kekoa is in first grade, only Nalani and Malia remain at home all day long – and Nalani thinks up a whole day full of activities for herself and her little sister. She is just like her mommy in that she will go to my mom’s group play day, remain quiet throughout most of the day even as kids run all around her, then will return home and tell you how much fun she had playing with all those new friends!

Nalani, she’s just an adorable 4 year old

While each of her brothers has involved themselves in a sport of their own, Nalani is as girly a girl as there ever was in this world. Her favorite color is pink (just like her Mommy) and she never, and I do mean never, wants to wear anything but a skirt or dress. We are also thinking of changing her middle to Imelda because she has piles and piles of pink, blue, silver and other colored dress-up shoes. Thankfully, Nalani also has a whole bunch of princess outfits to match!

Malia and Nalani play together all day long

Although Nalani doesn’t play a sport, she is as active as any of her brothers with her weekly dance lessons. She tap dances, studies ballet, and loves modern jazz. She has to practice the choreography of her dances just like Bretty has to learn his football plays! Every Wednesday when Bret Sr. gets home, Nalani pulls him aside and demonstrates all of her new dance steps she learned from earlier that day. If we’re lucky, Nalani makes him take a lesson from her!

Malia quite simply adores her Daddy. Yes, I know that is a bit stereotypical – the baby girl and her father – but it is absolutely true. She climbs on his lap when he’s watching a football game. She loves to go to the store with him. Her favorite color is purple because that’s her Daddy’s favorite color. She even runs up to him periodically and for no apparent reason, just gives him a hug. Of course, this also means that Malia has him completely wrapped around her finger. Bret lets her stay up late to just hang out with him and always seems to have an extra cookie for her. But she isn’t Daddy’s little baby any more. As Malia pointed out recently, she’s a "big girl."

Malia holding still, if only for a moment!

As of just a week ago, shortly after her third birthday, Malia put away diapers forever and started using the “potty.” To give you a perspective on how big a change this is, December 2006 is the first month I haven’t purchased at least one package of diapers since February 1997. Yes my friends, with 5 kids born during that period, we have always had at least one child in diapers for the last 9 years and 9 months. By even the most conservative estimate, that’s at least 24,000 diapers. If you were to pile up every diaper we used over the last decade, the stack would be the same size as the former world trade center – only if you placed the two towers on top of each other. Of course, my husband kindly offered to calculate how much poop that is, but I didn’t think we needed to go there.

We’re just 2 ½ years away from Malia starting kindergarten when we were hit with another realization. Malia will be starting school at the same time Alyssa will be heading off to college! Oh my!

Bret & I remain as blessed as we’ve always been. In addition to our happy and healthy family, we’ve had some professional successes as well. In April we traveled to Boston where Bret was honored by his alma mater with the Young Alumni Achievement Award. It is given to a graduate of the last 15 years “whose distinguished accomplishments bring credit to his community, his profession, and Tufts University.” Alyssa and Bret’s mom went with us to Boston and I’m not sure who was more excited – Bret’s mom for his receiving this honor or Bret himself because someone still considered him “young.”

Bret sitting on Santa's lap during our Tufts trip

Bret continues to work as the President of the Nevada Community Foundation and was humbled to be recognized this fall as a person of influence in the In Business Las Vegas annual "Influence" issue as one of "the men and women who make things happen" in Southern Nevada. You’d think with all that influence he could get me out of my parking tickets!

Me visiting the historic political sights in Boston

My days are dedicated to my children and I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom. It offers me the time to give our kids the attention they need and crave. I’m also active in a couple of different mom’s groups and coordinate a women’s book club. It’s funny that I now find myself reading those same books I avoided while back in school!

I am so proud of how terrific each of our kids is turning out and feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. Our home is loud, crazy and filled with activity. We laugh, smile and enjoy our lives as much as anyone ever could – even when we’re driving each other nuts. I hope and pray that this holiday season finds your life as full and complete as ours!