So today begins a trip to that most unique and charming of cities, Seattle, Washington.
I need to be there for the early part of the week on business and my lovely wife will join me on Monday. Together we will take some time away from our children and simply enjoy each other's company.
Where are the kids? We left them locked in the downstairs bathroom.
Well, maybe not, but my mother-in-law has generously agreed to watch over them in Las Vegas and as wild as they can get -- I wouldn't blame her if she decided to lock them up from time to time.
Of course, it has been over a year and a half since either Cari or I have experienced a real fall. We were leaving behind the mid-90s of Las Vegas for this...
Okay, maybe it's hard to see, but the daytime temperature at the airport was 52 degrees!
Thank goodness Seattle has such a wonderful downtown. Seattle was long known as a place of meandering streets filled with quirky little stores and lots of outdoor cafes. I was so looking forward to sitting outside at some street cafe sipping a cup of that legendary Seattle coffee.
Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, after all, which is a testament to how the citizens of this city cherish their unique little coffee shops.
I took a quick walk around our hotel and found an incredible number of charmingly special gems only found in Seattle.
There was a wonderful aroma from this little shop...
A nice fellow I chatted with told me to search out this funky original place right across the street...
But you have to look around a bit to find this hidden hole in the wall...
But I cannot think of anything with more character than this place around the corner from the last...
Then there was this formal place that still managed to retain some charm...
Downtown Seattle is filled with office buildings, but if you search through them -- you can see from this building directory that the search for the needle in the haystack is worthwhile...
Some of these unique little stores choose to use a color scheme of their own...
But ultimately, you can take comfort that literally in this three block area in downtown Seattle, there are lots of choices each special in their own way...
Welcome to that most unique and charming of cities, Seattle, Washington.
My lovely wife Cari has an extraordinary number of exceptional qualities, but unfortunately being comfortable in water in not one of them.
Such was the case with each our six children. Every time we stayed in a hotel with a pool or otherwise went swimming, they enjoyed themselves but basically they still were, well, terrified of the water.
Dunk your head? No thank you.
Open your eyes underwater. Never happen.
Nalani is demonstrating as far as most of my terrific kids would get into the water...
Well, give our kids a mere three weeks in a house with a pool and I do believe they have become fish.
Consider our youngest boy Kekoa -- who three weeks ago barely would stick his feet in the water. And look at him now...
We bought an underwater camera and the kids kept trying to one-up each other as to who could convince me to take their picture most often underwater.
Here's my Vulcan son David...
And my boy Bretty waving hello...
What's really neat, however, is not just that they dunk their heads, but are really learning to swim through the water as David and Alyssa are doing here...
We kept trying to get our four oldest kids to pose together at the same time, but even after a dozen dunks, we couldn't do it. So here are Kekoa, Alyssa and David underwater...
Followed by Bretty, Alyssa, and David...
And here's my baby Malia with her lovely mother. Notice how Cari is joining right in there with the kids swimming underwater...
Hey, she's smart, sexy, charming, a terrific mom and a great cook. You don't need to do any of those things underwater!
We've closed on our new home in Las Vegas and moved ourselves for the third time in the last three years. Whoa, I just had to think about that to make sure it was right.
Early Summer 2002 - move to Marietta, Ohio
Early Fall 2004 - move to Henderson, Nevada
Late Summer 2005 - move to Las Vegas, Nevada
At least this time we didn't need to pack up the family into the van and drive 4 days 'cross country to get to our new home. We just moved 'cross town, but our younger kids didn't know what to expect.
Our 5th child, Nalani, packed up her van and asked me if we'd have to do this all over again...
Poor girl. She couldn't figure out how to fit 8 people into her van and this is what she came up with!
Alyssa's excited about our new home, but it's hard to get her to concentrate on anything but the impending Tom Cruise - Katie Holmes nuptials.
For the uninitiated (or those who have a life), Katie Holmes is the star of "Dawson's Creek" -- a cheesy high school aged evening soap opera.
Tom Cruise, is well, Top Gun. Risky Business. Days of Thunder. All big hits in their day.
We must emphasize "in their day" -- because to a 14 year old, "their day" was a long time ago.
To put it more simply, and in the language of today's teens, "He is waaaaaay too old for Katie."
And thus, our daughter is continuing the rabble-rousing political protest tradition of her father and has taken to wearing this T-Shirt...
Okay, maybe it's not exactly a political protest - but it's a start!
Well, after a week of moving and unpacking, today we enjoyed the spa...
Of course, it was 107 degrees in the desert today, but hey, we had to try out the spa.
Alas, there is only so much heat one can endure, so it was into the pool for all of us. We turned on the little waterfall that recirculates the pool water into the spa and pours it back into the pool and stood under it...
Which made for the very odd sensation of being in the Mohave Desert, in 107 degree heat, in a cool pool, with 100+ degree water pouring on us from the spa.
Anyway, after spending all this money on the house, my wife let me buy two different pairs of items which are all I really need to make this place a home.
First, we picked up a pair of High Definition Wide Screen TVs. One for the living room and one for our bedroom. All the major networks broadcast in high definition and there is nothing like watching a football game in the absolute clarity of HDTV...
I'm watching Monday Night Football as I write this. Frankly, I am amazed as to how a television picture can be so ridiculously clear and yet my beloved Cowboys can still look so bad.
Actually, the picture above is of perhaps their best player. That's Matt McBriar, who's almost certainly going to be the best punter in the NFL. Perhaps its because he has so much practice.
But the other thing my wife let me buy were something that every Bicoy needs to realize true contentment.
It is central to our being, and is central to where we Bicoys spend a major part of our day.
Please join me in celebrating the installation of these beautiful things in two of our bathrooms...
American Standard. High capacity tank. Whisper silent. Power flush. Elongated bowl.
In other words, heavenly comfort.
Mmmm. Life is beautiful.
Today marked a first in the history of my in-law's family.
A child was born and it wasn't one of ours!
Can you hear the relief in my voice?
My wife is one of three girls but until today, she was the first to have a child. Cari's older sister went into labor yesterday afternoon and Cari was really disappointed she couldn't be in Green Bay to help her sister out. I must say it was rather amusing from my perspective, though. The phone rang with absolute regularity as her younger sister and mother kept calling my lovely wife (and mother of six) for advice and counsel on the birthing process.
Of course, my wife was concerned as the labor went through the night and well into today - and it was a problematic labor for a variety of gross woman-thing reasons. It should suffice to say that the doctors finally decided to do a cesarean section to remove the baby. Let me quickly say that mother and baby are fine, so don't worry about any of that.
Let me also say for you folks who love fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, that the term "cesarean" has nothing to do with Caesar's Palace. It comes from the Latin verb "caedere" which means "to cut."
Anyway, this post is not about the birth.
Rather, it highlight's my wife's efforts to keep her mind off things and to forever document for this little new baby girl what her Aunty Cari was doing at the moment of her birth.
Well, to keep herself occupied, my wife decided that we should have lunch at the Top of the World Restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere Hotel...
As you can see, the Stratosphere tower is an absolutely huge building. It is the tallest observation tower in the United States and is only dwarfed in our country by the Sears Tower in Chicago. We had lunch on the 106th floor, which is at the upper portion of the glassed in area at the top of the building.
Here is my wonderful wife next to the windows facing to the west...
The next picture is out our window looking down at the famous Las Vegas Strip to the South. As you can see, the Stratosphere looks down over every building in Las Vegas by a huge margin...
And in case you hadn't figured it out, at some point during your meal you will face in every direction because the Top of the World Restaurant revolves in a circle while you're eating. Seriously, it is a revolving restaurant.
It's pretty wild, and the view looking down is amazing.
Of course, this is Las Vegas, so building the second tallest building in the United States simply isn't enough.
Making the signature restaurant rotate 360 degrees during your meal isn't enough either.
This place needed something really dramatic.
So at the top of the Stratosphere, on the roof immediately above the restaurant in which we were eating, is the highest roller coaster in the world. It wraps around the top of the building!
But even that isn't wild enough. Thus the newest ride which opened earlier this year. Friends, welcome to "Insanity!"
This is a picture of some folks on the ride taken through the upper windows immediately above our heads...
If that doesn't freak you out enough, look at the ride from the side view...
Yes folks, this ride consists of four arms which hold two people on the end of each arm. Then the ride spins rapidly in a circle until the arms are almost vertical and the riders are looking straight down. They spin over the edge of the building some 108 stories above street level.
Cari's sister and brother-in-law were having trouble deciding on a name for their new child.
I'm sure that when naming this ride, "Insanity" was a really easy choice.
Well, to celebrate the birth of our first niece (on Cari's side of the family, that is), we thought that dessert was in order.
And it had to be something special, of course. So special that the waiter had to assemble it at our table...
As you can see, it is a model of the Stratosphere itself. The base of the tower is made of white chocolate. The glass top consists of tiramisu in a chocolate shell. The spire at the top is a chocolate dipped wafer. The whole thing is then covered with a vanilla sauce.
Healthy it ain't. But this new baby must be destined to be an angel because the dessert in her honor tasted like heaven.
Of course, Cari and I must be human earthquakes when we eat because the Stratosphere came quickly tumbling down...
And so goes our afternoon during the time Elliana Alyssa was born...
She was already learning to sleep late and drag her blanket around everywhere just like her namesake, our daughter Alyssa.
And as for having more children ourselves?
I can absolutely assure you that my lovely wife Cari and I will under no circumstances be having any more children anytime this year.
You have my word on it.
If all goes well over the next few days, our home in Marietta will finally be sold. The optimist in me is ecstatic over the fact that we've finally found someone willing to purchase that wonderful house that took such good care of us over the last few years.
The pessimist in me would point out that I've been paying a mortgage over the last 10 months.
Thankfully, the last 10 months have not made me a pessimist. Just broke!
We leased a home upon our arrival in Las Vegas because of our little experience in Ohio. Although we loved our home in Marietta, we had to pick it during a five day visit to that fair city. In retrospect, we might have selected a different home had we been more familiar with the community. You know -- closer to the library, or schools, or whatever.
Anyway, since we fully intend to make Las Vegas our home for a very long time, we didn't want to make that mistake here. So we decided to lease a house for the first year and purchase only after we got to know our new community. Ironically, it worked out perfectly since we didn't have to carry two mortgages for the last year or so.
Well, my wife, in typically efficient fashion, made the decision on Friday, June 17th that it was time to start looking since our lease is up at the end of August.
A few hours later she had us preapproved for our mortgage.
A few days later she had a whole list of properties for us to visit.
A week later we made an offer to buy a home.
That woman doesn't waste any time!
My cousin's daughter, Chasity, lives in Las Vegas and is a new realtor so she helped out immensely. Of course, she is a Bicoy woman, so between her and my wife you knew that I was just going along for the ride.
Hence, if all goes well, we'll close on our new home on August 15th...
Unfortunately, the car doesn't come with the house!
It has a great living room...
A nice open area in the kitchen...
A terrific loft space which will be a play area for the kids...
Which they've already christened by beating each other up...
Which, of course, is a good reminder that despite my wife's heroic efforts, with our six kids this house will never look this clean again.
Although here is the kid's favorite part...
Complete with a hot tub with a little water fall into the pool...
It even is really close to the architectural award winning Centennial Hills Park.
Keep your fingers crossed and we'll be moving in after August 15th!
Today we were lucky enough to get tickets to the super bowl of the Arena Football League. Welcome to Arena Bowl XIX in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.
Of course, when you need to get eight seats to accomodate each member of your family, those seats tend to be a wee bit away from the field...
Actually, we all had a grand old time. You have to say this for the Arena Football League -- they sure know how to put on a good show!
Here is the introduction of the players, complete with scantily clad cheerleaders and pyrotechnics...
Arena Football is played on a field roughly the size of a ice hockey rink -- which allows the entire game to occur inside of a normal sized indoor arena...
The game is played with only eight players to a side, and the rules are changed from the NFL to promote scoring. Touchdown passes happen with frightening regularity and fireworks are always around the corner...
During halftime, the real fireworks took place, and if you look closely on the stage below, you can see the entertainment...
And since you can't probably see him, here's a picture of him on the jumbotron...
Yep, it's Bryan Adams.
The sad part, though, is that when they announced his name these three teenage girls behind our seats said, almost in unison, "Who is Bryan Adams?"
You know, Bryan Adams. "Summer of '69." "Run to You." "Heaven." "Cuts Like a Knife."
No?
Geez, I must be getting old when teenagers have no idea who I'm talking about.
Anyway, the Arena Bowl is a time of craziness and excitement which cannot be ignored. There were the mascots from around the league walking through the stands throwing t-shirts to the fans...
We came home with a free t-shirt (well free, if you don't count the $10 to park the van, the $24 in hot dogs, $14 worth of sodas, $4 in nachos, $12 in french fries... well, you get the idea).
The game was actually amazing. The Georgia Force scored a touchdown to tie the game with about 4 minutes left. The Colorado Crush scored the go ahead touchdown at about 1 minute to go. Georgia came back to tie with 18 seconds to go.
Finally the Crush threw a bomb to the 3 yard line and kicked a field goal to win as time expired.
Here is the celebration as the confetti fell upon the arena...
A stage came on the field and the band began to play. A lot of the Arena Football Teams are owned by NFL owners and players. The Cowboy's Jerry Jones owns the Dallas Desparados, for instance. The winning Crush is owned by Bronco's owner Pat Bowlen and hall of famer John Elway -- both of whom stood with the team to accept the trophy...
It's a good thing that the game is played on a hockey rink because the trophy looks like the Stanley Cup.
Here's John Elway handing it to another player...
It really was a fun time. As you can from all the pictures above, you really couldn't help but be fascinated about everything that was going on.
The sounds, the action. The lights, the music, and the fireworks.
The place was rocking and crazy.
The kids had a blast.
Just ask our daughter Alyssa who couldn't take her eyes off the action...
Or see little Malia who was enthralled with everything...
Oh well.
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