Oktoberfest

Keeping with the theme of being a little late in my posts, we recently went to Helen with Emily and Trip to celebrate Oktoberfest (the K makes it way more german). We had an amazing weekend. We woke up early saturday morning and took in a nice little hike through the north georgia mountains. brayden LOVED IT!!!


Emily and Trip on the trail...


It wasn't actually a midnight hike, as this picture suggests, it just came out dark, but here is brayden holding his first stick...


The falls were pretty amazing, probably dropping around 200 to 300 feet!!! brayden's wondering where he left that stick...


We were much more amused by them than this picture implies...


Ok, this is better (if you're wondering why you recognize this pose, its from the dancing elves video)...

After our hike we headed in to town and took in some traditional bavarian fare, tacos and margaritas. we would have eaten elsewhere, but the lines were absolutely unbelievable, apparently we're not the only ones who'd heard about the wonders of helen in october. We were actually lucky to get this table. stephanie convinced an older gentleman, with teeth the shade of brown m&m's, to let us sit with him. he left as soon as brayden and I arrived, apparently he thought he'd be dining with stephanie and a bunch of drunk teenagers, oh well...

not sure why the guy in the background is so made, perhaps he wanted to sit with the old man (there are 3 more pictures of this guy staring at us like this). Notice the traditional german "corona" umbrellas. also, notice how brayden still has hair at this point.

But we did stop in to the hansel and gretel kitchen and pick up some amazing chocolate, which lasted all of 2 days. We did our bests to fit in with all of the locals while we were in helen. Here's a pic of stephanie and I in our lederhosen...

sadly, this picture is not alcohol induced.

We were fortunate enough to witness an ancient german tradition, affectionately called "Misst Zeit aus"...

or translated to english "time out". it was hard to take this picture for a number of reasons, among others 1) i didn't want this guy to see me, 2) i was laughing too hard 3) the dad was genuinely upset at his son, and 4) i felt really bad for the kid because he was genuinely sorry for what he'd done.

We finished our day in helen by listening to some live music at helen's version of the hofbrau house. apparently there weren't stringent qualifications required to get the job of head entertainer at this venue, i imagine when they posted the ad in the paper it read something like "WANTED: Musician. Must play guitar and know most of the words to the songs you will sing". But it was Live music (with the exception of the background karaoke accompaniment cd), the weather was phenomenal, we were with friends and i had a cold beer in tote, so i really can't complain, it was a wonderful time.

Beautiful Destination Weddings (Part 2)

Ok, so now i am officially over a month behind, but back in early October (the start of my paternity leave which is sadly now completed) stephanie, brayden and i ventured out to vail, colorado for the wedding of erica derr and chris mcmillan. Anyone who knows Erica knows that the event was absolutely beautiful and went off flawlessly.

Erica was nice enough to have our room upgraded from a jr. suite to a full size suite. Our room was absolutely MASSIVE!!! It had a living room dinning room, 1.5 baths, a large bedroom and balcony, and a bathroom bigger than most people's bedrooms (with a tub to match). I felt like bon jovi or ozzy ozbourne (without the parkinson's). To top it off, the room overlooked the chapel at which stephanie and i got married on our last visit to vail (3 years ago this coming tuesday). A lot's changed since then.

We were so ready for this trip, our first chance to get away as a family. Brayden did fantastic on the flight out, sleeping for nearly the entire 3 hour flight, and we luckily had an empty seat between stephanie and I (not so lucky on the return flight). And brayden was all set for the trip, bringing all of his newest patagonia gear.

(did i mention how well brayden slept in the cool colorado climate)

We had an absolutely awesome trip, taking the time to sleep in (as much as brayden would allow)


We also did a little epic hiking to take in the absolutely gorgeous views offered by our surroundings in vail's "off-season" (you can tell how extreme our hiking was by our jeans and baby bjorn).

We also took some time to walk around the picturesque downtown vail


And we, of course, took the time to take in happy hour (not sure if you call it apre ski in the fall) at the Tap Room, site of our rehearsal dinner.

(warm enough to sit outside when we got there, but we actually saw snow the last night we were there)

And of course, we made a special trip to The Club the night before the wedding. Here is the happy couple celebrating the night before their nuptials, i believe they are practicing for their first dance.


We had an absolutely unbelievable trip, now the only thing to do is convince all of our friends and family to move out to DENVER!!!

Bonus Pictures!!!

view from the plane as we leave denver:


Brayden, Bert Einstein, and I hanging on a bench:

Brayden bundled up for happy hour at the tap room:


Brayden obsessing over his friend "roger":


Brayden in his little man patagonia vest:


You know you've had to much to drink when:
a) you're at the club the night before your wedding
b) you're dancing with your hands over your head
c) you're dancing with your fingers pointing (to anything other than "staying alive" or any "swing" dance
d) you're still dancing, yet the band clearly isn't playing (see guitarist in background)
e) you're at the club

Our Trip to the North Pole

We've been working as a family to put together a little something for the holiday's, i hope you all like it!!!

Check out our routine here

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween!!! One of the best holidays on the calendar every year by far is halloween. A great excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of candy (not that i've ever really needed an excuse), dress up like a fool (which i probably do more often than once a year unintentionally), and get engaged!!!! Ok, that last one might just be for stephanie and I, but we've celebrating our 4th engage-aversary this coming all hallows eve (or dia de muertos for jumpings spanish contingent). So think of us while your stuffing your second Candy Corn or Peeps into your mouth (i can't believe people actually eat those).

Brayden picked out our costumes this year, and he decided that as a family we should go as the fruit of the loom guys (i tried to tell him the banana wasn't one of the official fruits, but whatever, i personally wanted to go as crazy celery hand guy).

Anyway, i'm going as the apple, but i'll just be holding my breath until i turn real red, but here are some pictures of brayden in his costume.


A closer look, gotta love potassium...



And his special PJs for the day (notice the feet as well as the bum)...


And brayden in our nightly starring contest (his record is 104-0)...


And here he is taking some superman lessons...


Can you believe its been 15 weeks?!?!?!?!?!



And in the halloween spirit, here is brayden's Edvard Munch's The Scream impression


Happy Halloween Everyone, now give me some candy!!!!

Not Quite a Month Behind

So I'm not quite a month behind, but i'm getting there. If i Had posted closer to real-time it would have gone a little something like this....

"Just like Dennis Kucinich, my trophy wife just turned the big 3 - 0" (by waiting this long to post this, its actually true, her birthday was yesterday). "And what better way to celebrate than to have brooke and chris throw a failed surprise party for her to honor the big event. Unfortunately, we waited until a week before the party to actually plan it so the turnout was a little low, but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality.

(Here is a link to the pics)

Late september and early october is a big time for stephanie and I. We have our date-aversary (21st of september, thanks to earth, wind, and fire), stephanie's b-day, pj's b-day, and pieter's birthday (with julie's b-day in there as well). we decided to combine all of these events into one big birthday gala and celebrate with brunch at canoe's. Besides the hundreds of snakes that we saw in the water, it was a absolutely perfect day, i did a little research on the snakes and found out that they were "twig-snakes", a common variety found near trees.

(here's a picture of the group taken from somewhere around tennessee)

(great family photo of casey, pj and rece)

(our family picture with me, stephanie, and brayden..........and jeff.......checking out the twig-snakes)

(Oma and brayden)

(2 things to note in this picture: 1) Shadows make for aweful pictures and 2) kids love shinny necklaces........)


(kids really love shinny necklaces.....and Oma's should really leave them at home or risk asphyxiation)

"

So that's how the blog would have gone. knowing then what i know now, it would have been waaay...well, it would have been the same.

Beautiful Destination Weddings (Part 1)

Brooke and Chris tied the knot with a beautiful ceremony at the Davenport House in Savannah last month. A great time was had by all, and brayden had his first experience with a non-family baby sitter. With all of the concern about the impending tropical storm, the weather turned out to be fantastic. But it didn't always seem like thats how it was going to turn out. The usual 3.5 hr drive to savannah turned into a 5+ hr crawl because of the monsoon like conditions. The windshield wipers on the jetta could barely keep up with the downpour.

There is actually a car about 50 feet in front of me in this picture. I realize taking the time to take a picture wasn't the brightest idea, but in fairness, we were cruising along at about 25 to 30 mph.

(warning, about to get to jumping's sappy moment of the day)

But sometimes you have to go through a storm like that to have beauty like the rainbow that didn't get captured in this picture (you'll have to take my word for it, it was pretty fantastic. Also, i realize that I either need to carry a camera around with me, stop posting about things i snap on my phone, or get a better camera phone).


On a side note relating to the pour quality of the camera phone, I've had to scrap 2 blogs due to the quality of the images taken by my phone. The first was the Amish choir in Dupont Circle that I came across before moving back to ATL, if this picture were at all clear, you'd be able to make out the massive sound system they were using to amplify their songs of praise. So apparently light bulbs and cars are out, but sounds ystems and iPod's are in.


The second blog that I had to scrap deals with the menu that I saw while walking through the Denver airport last weekend (blog to follow on this later this wee.....in the future). Now if you thought that the pic of the Amish Tabernacle Choir was pathetic, wait until you see the pic of the burger king menu, it makes the prior seem like an Ansel Adams. But basically the picture is of the burger king menu, more importantly, the portion of the menu that reads "picture menu available upon request". Now this is a great service that burger king is offering. Much like the Huddle House menus in the north georgia mountains that offer visuals of the available entrees to those who are literately-challenged, burger king is offering this same service to their patrons. The predicament lies in the conveyance of this feature to said customers. On the one hand, you don't want to ask every customer if they require the "picture menu", risking insult to potential customers. But on the other hand, you might as well advertise this in hieroglyphics, because the people requiring these menus would have a better chance of interpreting that (even without the rosetta stone). Not sure what the answer to this quandary may be, perhaps have a stack of "picture menus" available at the cash register? just a thought.

(perhaps this picture offers a glimpse into what it must be like to live as a functionally literate adult, who loves burger king). Second side note, as chris and brooke have pointed out, is it strange that the only fast food chain to offer a veggie burger as an option is the same company that offers the "Triple Whopper with Cheese"? Check out this hilarious commercial, again courtesy of brooke and chris (LINK TO VIDEO).

Stephanie and I, along with a fleet that rivaled the spanish armada, took a kayak tour of tybee island. It was a great workout, and we even had a chance to paddle along with a pod of dolphins (or school if you will).

Here are some pictures of the weekend (ALL unfiltered pics can be found HERE):

(Brayden seems less than amused about my attempt to make him laugh)

(The lovely bride and groom, did i mention it was warm in savannah in september?)

(Julie needs a moment, she's feeling a little verclimpt)

(Kristen and Jason all the way in from SF, getting a little practice at parenting, my assessment: naturals)

(In 2 or 3 more years henry will be throwing me around like this)

(4 non non Blondes)

(post reception at the bar, you only wear the dress once, make it last)

A good time was had by all at the wedding, from bryan's mismatched shoe's, the pedicab rides to and from the ceremony, the after party at the bar, kayaking, and julie's clogging at the rehersal....wasn't it a wonderful party.

One last note, for those of you wondering, paternity leave is going fantastic, especially those afternoon naps that allow me to entertain, well, at least myself if no one else with my blog. But seriously, any comments anyone wants to leave would be appreciated, topics you'd like me to cover, just say hello, whatever. I've got about 6 more weeks of this before i go back to "work", not that watching a 12 week old isn't work.