What Exactly Are We Looking For...

So Katie and I have been talking about getting some family hobbies.

Our criteria were:
It needed to be something we could do together.
It would be nice if it counted as exercise
It needed to be cheap (or free!)

With these things in mind Katie happened to catch a show on the Travel Channel that mentioned Geocaching. It met all of our criteria so we decided to give it a try. Katie found us some good starter caches and we set off with our GPS. We explained it to Liam by telling him we were on a treasure hunt...which is really what geocaching is.

We followed the coordinates to the first location and looked....and looked....and looked.

Geocaching is dumb.

We decided to try another location with some doubt as to the accuracy of our GPS and/or the coordinates we were using. At location #2 we found the cache at the exact coordinates so we knew that our GPS was accurate.

Geocaching is fun!

We went back to location #1 with a better idea of what we were looking for. Low and behold there it was. Full of confidence and new found excitement for wondering around in the toolie-wahs, we headed to location three which was billed as "Jacki's Toy Box." Sure enough this one was a box loaded with toys for the taking. We let Liam choose one and left one behind in trade.

All in all, it was a fun start to what could become a longtime family hobby.

These smiles are totally natural and not at all forced.

Grace is about to 'recalibrate' the GPS.

Idle Hands...

Katie and I have been working pretty much non-stop on the house here lately. Mostly painting, but we have also replaced all the interior doors and hardware. Lots of little projects so far, but now we have moved on to installing new countertops and backsplash in the kitchen. I never really thought about how vital the kitchen sink is until I could not use it. So now we are relegated to using the bathroom sinks for the immediate future.

What a hassle.

I just hope it all pays off come resale time.

Grace is an open mouth kisser...usually with tongue.

Grrr! That is olive oil on her head (to help with the cradle cap.)

Just resting his eyes.

Long Time No See...

Okay, it has been one year since I last updated this sad excuse for a blog. It started out that I was just really busy with the transition out of the Army, but the subsequent events and our proximity to the people who most often read the blog led to further procrastination. At one point I sat down to try and resurrect the blog but was at a loss. I decided that since I had waited this long, why not make it an even year?

So here, in brief, is the last year in review.

Katie’s birthday
Got out of the Army
Moved to Texas
Grace is born
Bought a house
5 year anniversary
Liam’s 2nd birthday
Started a new job
My birthday
Started a new business on the side
New side business becomes fulltime job
Various home remodeling projects…

I am sure there are things I forgot, but even so we have had quite the busy year. Katie has taken on a blog of her own,so the likelihood of quasi regular posting is much higher these days.

With that, I bid you welcome (if anyone actually comes to read it) and look forward to getting back in to the swing of things.

Here is the first video of Grace crawling.