Jen thinks Tom has been drinking during the day. Tom insists he has seen a large goldfish in the Koi pond. The problem is, no koi have ever been put into the pond. But for two days in a row, while visiting with Tristan's froggies, Tom insisted he had seen a large, silver/orange fish, the size of him palm, swimming amongst the pond-weeds. Jen wanted to know what Tom was drinking.
Tom reached for his camera. Like any search for an elusive prey, the photos are blurry and leave much to the imagination.
None of the pictures provides a definitive koi shot. But Tom knows what he saw...
There is the fish...right next to the leaf that looks like a rubber ducky...
Jen and Tom were pulling together some photos for Jen's dad's apartment and came across a couple of classics. Here is Norm and Mary Ann (Jen's mom) sometime in the 1960's:
Here is Grandpa Norm somewhere in Africa with the Army some time in 1963-65:
Tristan loves his froggies. Hardly a day goes by where Tristan doesn't insist on visiting his slimy green friends. Sure he wants to poke and prod them. Sure he wants them to jump into the water...or jump out. Sure he throws wood chips at them. But there is no doubt about his affection.
For several weeks now, Tristan has been using mommy against daddy...and vis-versa. "Daddy said it was OK" "Mommy said it was OK to stay up". This morning, a new form of manipulation emerged...bribery. While trying to convince daddy to get out of bed and go downstairs to play (and watch "the Car" movie), Tristan told daddy that they could go downstairs and "watch the news". Daddy wasn't going to fall for this, but unfortunatley for Tristan, he slipped and let it be known that his intention was to watch Puff, the Magic Dragon. As it was time for coffee, daddy, nonetheless, relented and proceeded downstairs. (At this point, all bets were off and we watched Snow White.)
Someone had the brilliant idea that we should all go to the Quick Check Balloonfest in Readington, NJ this weekend. It sounded like a great idea at the time. Tom, Jen and the boys joined Grandma, Pop-pop, Aunt Tara, Professor Stewart and Aunt Debbie on the runway at Solberg Airport. We also hooked up with Steph, Bill, Amanda and Matthew (no Kayla)...and Jane, Bill and Olivia.
While Tristan had an absolute ball on the amusement rides with Matthew...there was little else to bo but wait for the balloons to inflate.
And wait...
But it never happened. So neither did the promised mass accent of 125 balloons. (The balloons pictured above were "rides". You could pay $1 for the privledge to walk through the partially inflated balloon. After paying $25/adult to simply get on the field, this was not in the cards).
William's vocabulary started out with "daddy" and "thank you" and has expanded to include "mommy" and "hi". (Tristan has added "ka-chow"...thanks to Lightning McQueen and Cars)
On July 3rd, William celebrated his first birthday! The day started like any other...with a HUGE William smile:
Then the crouds of people started to arrive...
Here you can see Uncle Skull, Anita and Anthony chatting. In the background is Jen, Tara and Godfather Bobby. Many family members came over to help celebrate William's birthday.
The excitement culminated with the traditional birthday cake...from the Susan Lawrence bakery in town.
