New Hampshire House

My childhood is filled with memories of mini-vacations north; New Hampshire to see Story Land,Six Gun City and Santa’s Village,Vermont for horseback riding and to witness to famous change of seasons. So when the Patraikos offered my family a weekend at the “New Hampshire House” I was more than excited. Memory lane plus a weekend with my favorite twins. Score! The cutest girls I know. There is nothing like being woken up in the morning to the sound of little giggles and these two jumping on your bed and then crawling under the covers with you. Plus I was invited to come visit them in the Hello Kitty house they’re going to live in when they grow up-I feel pretty special. Zach and I spent Saturday afternoon training to be telephone line repairmen 60 feet above the trees in an aerial adventure park. Here I am clinging to a piece of wood for dear life while everyone below mocks me in their heads but laughs out loud…including Mom and Dad. I could not figure out how to safely cross the obstacle before me. I just stood on the platform trying for what seemed like a half an hour and then I just threw my body at the piece of wood and hung on tight. Probably one of the scariest moments of my life, almost as bad as that time I plummeted down a ski slope in a wal-mart blow up sled backwards. Almost. (I’ll have to tell that story sometime).1//Zach on the tight-rope 60 ft up. He was freaking out and screaming at my parents while they tease him from the ground. I actually enjoyed the tight-rope walk. 2// Me clipping in ready to zip-line. 3//Zip-lining to the ground…wee! 4//Zach having a little trouble. Then we went “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” all the way down the Mountain Coaster! They wanted to go “super fast” and so we did…over and over again. Sunday we went up to Cathedral Ledge. I was beautiful. I can only imagine how amazing it is when the leaves start to change color and its a sea of red, orange and yellow below. I just love the picture of my mom and dad…seldom is my dad’s personality captured so perfectly.

Then we went to Jen’s parents house for dinner. The Bowen’s are awesome! It was pretty cool to get one-on-one advice from a former mission president and his sweet wife. Perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. Thanks to the Patraikos (and Bowens) for a wonderful weekend…and to Jen for letting me steal these pictures without permission ;)

London 2012

I think the summer Olympics are totally worth the 4 year wait. I love just about everything about them especially sitting on my but watching theses superhumanly fit individuals be the best in the world at what they do-it’s inspiring. These 2012 games had some great moments:like when the US Women’s Gymnastics team won goldor watching double amputee, Oscar Pistorius, race in the 400M semifinal and 4x400 relaywho could forget the Badminton Scandaljust about anything that had to do with Ryan Lochte (yes, I have shamelessly hopped on the bandwagon)

and then there’s the commentary by my family…my favorite part.

Swimming: "Michael Phelps was smoking pot and eating Doritos. Ryan Lochte was training hard. That’s what happens.”-Mom

Mom: What’s the fly? Me: Butterfly Jared: Why don’t they just call it the “Butter”?

“Michael Phelps is an Olympic Champion and he doesn’t deserve to be called a ‘flop’ by some fat, bald reporter from New York.” –Dad

Ryan Lochte on commercial: Luck didn’t get me to London, I swam here. Me: Kay, now swim to me.

Gymnastics: “I like how he’s wearing footie pajamas.” –Jared

“I love it when they feature the screw-ups.” –Jared

Mom: His mother can’t even watch. Jared: Could you? That’s her meal ticket up there swinging around like crazy.

Track&Field: While discussing the US medal count race against China- “Plus track and field is coming up. And there aren’t many black people in China." –Jared

Jared: Born in NY and raised in California, so he’s an American. Why is he racing for the Dominica Republic? Me: I dont know, we’ll just count that gold for the US. Jared: And isn’t Puerto Rico owned by the US? Me: Yup, we’ll count the bronze for us too. Jared: Way to sweep that one. (Discussing the results of the Men’s 400M hurdles)

everything and anything my family says is said lightheartedly and not meant to be offensive in any way

My Dad Is…

 

That’s me and my dad. He’s a pretty cool guy. No really he is (I’m not just saying that because it’s Father’s Day and I have to make my dad sound like “he’s the best!”) I’ll prove it…he’s a homicide detective. At least that’s what I tell people when they want to know “what my dad does”-I stop there because I don’t really have the time to tell them all things my Dad does and is. But this is my blog and it’s Father’s Day so I’m going all out. Here’s a list of others things my dad is:

• a builder of bunk-beds
• my late night movie watching buddy
• a sewing instructor way back in the second grade
• a back-handspring spotter, even if it meant being kneed in the face
• an errand boy whether it was going 30 mins out of his way for something or running down the road for tampons
• a plumber
• my go to guy for guy advice
• a photographer and videographer
• a story-teller
• a bedtime story reader
• a gentleman
• hopeless when it comes to fashion
• a total and complete goofball
• patient
• my first vocabulary and reading teacher
• …whatever else we need him to be whenever we need it.

Happy Father’s Day to the man who taught me everything I know about how a man should treat a woman, what responsibility really means, and how to make things with wood. I love you Daddy!

Saturdays are for shooting.Sundays are for planting…and shooting

saturday we celebrated zach’s birthday. the main party activity? shooting of course.  {listening intently to instruction} {super awesome cake by Kathy}

today after church and an afternoon nap, mom and i did a little vegetable/herb planting. then it was time for the adults to go out and have some shooting fun. mom made me crop her out of the pictures because she didn’t like her outfit; she said had she known i was going to blog this she would have put her good clothes on…she should know better by now. i loved shooting the cans of the target block with the 357 revolver. also, dad tried to tell me that the reason he didn’t hit all the cans with his new .45 was because the bullets were moving so fast they “went straight through the cans.” mhmm…whatever you say daddy.

the (somewhat) annual family front yard kickball game

I’m sure you all know what kickball is…that game kinda like baseball that you played back in elementary school. You either loved it or hated it. Yeah, ringing some bells?!

Well my family would fall into the love category and every year {on one family holiday or another} we play. I promise you it’s a ton of fun…well as long as you and yours meet the following criteria. You will need:

1. A terrible strategy for picking “fair” teams…we chose counting off “1…2…1…2…” 1’s go here 2’s go there-get the picture? This resulted in one team being made up of 2 adults and 4 children under 13-and the other of 5 adults, 1 teenager and 1 child. So not fair teams.

2. You have to have your grandparents play. This is of upmost importance. If possible work it so grandma and grandpa are on separate teams.

3. You need someone who plays the game as if his team is the Red Sox and they are playing in the World Series. It’s really entertaining…especially if his team members don’t fully understand the importance of this BIG game.

4. It’s awesome to have someone who is hungover playing. They’re depth perception just doesn’t quite cut it and their head isn’t completely in the game.

 

5. A player under the age of 3 {it’s best to put them on  MVP #3’s team so they don’t get pegged in the head or something}. Cute points-yes. Home runs-not so much.

 

6. Someone has to walk away grumpy because the game did quite go how they wanted…but really would it be a family activity if that didn’t happen ;)

7. Spectators. These are the wimps who refuse to play but have no problem commenting and laughing at the participants.

8. Remember that it’s just a game…with your family…so really it means nothing {except for the memories that are made}. Just have fun {which for my family also means make fun}. This is especially important for the superstar and the cry-baby to take note of.