Games at PP Pizza

Bobbins pretty much gave up on making dinner while I was on that business trip. One night they all went to Peter Piper Pizza. Bobbins let them get a few tokens for games. They chose to ride a car together. Owen held on to MM for dear life.

Dad's Little Guy

Owen really loves me. He loves his mom probably as much, if not more, and MM, and maybe even JoJo a little. But Owen gets real excited when I'm home, and Bobbins and Aunt Katie swear he was out-of-sorts while I was gone for a week on a business trip. The other morning he gave me the best hug when I picked him up out of his crib. It was a real act of tenderness, a choice to give affection, not a happenstance pressing of bodies.

This pic is at Costco the other day. I mentioned a couple posts ago about getting old. You can see some gray hairs popping on the side in this shot, as well as my healthy crow's feet. At least I've got some good arm muscles.

20 years

Today marks 20 years since I graduated high school. Wow. I keep joking that I'm getting old, but it's really true. I didn't bother to dig up an old photo, but I did find this gem from Sep. 1994, and I doubt I looked too much different the following May. I had the khaki pants I wore that May night up until a few years ago when Bobbins made me get rid of them. They still fit!

My strongest memories of that night are of Aunt Mel screaming at the top of her lungs when I walked out onto the field and she saw me; being overly nervous before delivering my salutatorian speech but then having an easy calm when it came time on stage, despite my cap nearly blowing off from the darn Bullhead wind; going to the post-graduation party at the Elks Lodge and winning a little cooler which I also still have; coming home to play ping pong with Atif and Shane at about 3am, then sleeping past noon the next day (no school or work!).

I think it was only a few days later that I packed up my stuff and moved to Phx to work at Walt's Ace Hardware before moving into Sonora Residence Hall and starting college in August. Those were the days. I was ready to leave high school and Bullhead. So that hot, windy night in May 20 years ago was a fitting cap to a stage in life I was glad to leave and the bridge to one of the best stages in my life to come.

2015 SOTH Tournament

Back in April, Steve re-gathered our foursome of himself, me, my dad, and Uncle Jack for the 2015 SOTH Charity Tournament out in Fountain Hills.  It was a beautiful day and we had a blast. We laughed at the recycle Dixon balls and failed to land the green on that par 3 (or any of the par 3's). We had a slow start behind the only foursome of all women, which Uncle Jack tried to rectify on our first tee but was swiftly rebuffed. I think we finished 6th overall. There was a nice BBQ lunch at the church afterward. Steve bid on and won a couple things in the silent auction. On the scorecard, notice our streak of birdies. We got hot there for a while. Also notice the drives - we used more of my dad's than mine!

At the Park

Easter Egg Hunts

After Mass and breakfast, we had a little egg hunt in our new backyard. JoJo found the golden egg on this one.

 

We went over to the Compound for a nice afternoon of hanging out and a wonderful Easter dinner. We also did another hunt there, this time with Dominic. MM found the golden egg.

 

 

Happy Easter

Although we had planned to go to Easter Vigil, that fell through, so we ended up at the 730am the next morning. It was hard to get up, I'll admit it, but well worth it in terms of avoiding the crowds. Jacopone and Paul and his family were all there. We also had a nice homily from Fr. Vietor. After snapping the photos below, we headed over to Big Apple for a delicious breakfast with the Dwyers.

 

Pool

The cold water didn't stop the girls from jumping in the pool in April. It's fun to see them using it and enjoying themselves.

 

Nana T and Pop Visit

Nana T and Poppy visited in March. They were going to come for Easter but Pop had to change his work schedule. No matter, we had a good weekend visit. Poppy put together the two black racks in the garage, and we all got to go to MM's school carnival together (pic at left). I think they enjoyed having their own room in our house. Kind of a bummer the pool was too cold to use, but there'll be another time.

Where's My Grill ?

Good thing he's not asking about scorpions, because they're there too...

All Aboard the Boochie Sucker Express

Ikea Builds

We've bought some new furniture from Ikea for the house - wall shelves and book shelves and a project storage for Bobbins' sewing room, a wardrobe for my office to store my clothes. Owen and Zach have been indispensable the whole way. The wardrobe was a bit of a pain to attach to the wall, but it turned out pretty good, and holds all my hanging clothes. Plus we added the CD rack Bobbins couldn't use to the side as a shoe rack.

V I D E O     [http://youtu.be/ZqIx8CDe01o]

Chillin

Master Bedroom Paint

Bobbins desperately wanted to paint our master bedroom and my office off of it. She had purchased a headboard for our bed to go with it. We used our date trade for the month of March to do the painting, just the two of us. We had some nice conversations and got the job done without any problems. And Bobbins was thrilled with the results. She did pick out nice colors.

Friday Game Night

Back in March we went over to the Weisse's after Stations of the Cross for pizza and games.  Matt & Maureen and their kids also came, as well as Maureen's sister and her kids.  It was a lot of kids of course.  We met Matt & Maureen on our last marriage encounter weekend.  Maureen went to high school a few years after Bobbins and Mary.  We ended up with a really detailed, complex board game, which was too much for my end-of-the-week brain but not for Bobbins.