The Siberian Grinder

On Monday, after a crazy busy weekend, we took a family day and went hiking in the jungle-like basin of the Econ River. I did not take many photos, but I’ll post a few of the kids, just for fun.

(M, 28mm, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 80)

(M, 28mm, 1/30, f/8.0, ISO 80)

(M, 28mm, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 80)

It is a little hard to see, thanks to the full trap set placed conveniently in front of the baptistery (the drums sound great, though).  But this photo is of my soon to be seven-year-old son, David, and I just a second before I baptized him last Sunday. He clearly understands the Gospel, and I could not be a happier dad.

And she probably could, especially considering she is about to be awarded her black belt in Taekwondo. If you missed the story on WESH TV last night, click here to see the video, or here to read the story. I’m not kidding – that is my 77-year-old grandmother in the video breaking a board with her foot. Go ahead, try to steal her purse.

We took a few days off last week to show Deanna, our friend from Moscow, around Central Florida. Some of the highlights were:

• Achieving the perfect sunburn at the beach.
• Getting stranded at Deep Creek. during a thunderstorm. Deep Creak is an alligator-infested deep water tributary off of the St. Johns River. We went out with some friends on a 24′ pontoon boat, and the motor malfunctioned just after we turned to head out of the creek. Then the thunderstorm hit, and we paddled it out with bolts striking all around us (it was a load of fun, actually).
• Getting stranded at Downtown Disney during a thunderstorm.
• Being blasted out of a canon at Castillo De San Marcos, St. Augustine (see the picture below).
• The kids enjoying themselves immensely (see the picture below).

Deanna left this morning to head to the Big Apple, and we are settling down again. All things considered, it was a great week.

I would like to ask any reader here to pray for my sister-in-law, Jennifer, and Chris, my brother. Jennifer, who is 25,  learned last week that she has Ovarian Cancer, and possibly Stage IIIb. Obviously, this is devestating for them. Please pray. My mom has written more about it on her blog.

Timothy is at a point in his life when he often senses a need to express his wilder side, so my Dad has been giving him Harley lessons. I had to put my foot down when he wanted a permanent tattoo, though.

David went through the same phase when he was a bit younger.

On Monday we ran a few errands in town before heading down to Disney World with our friends, Rodd & Kristie and Co. – and we had a blast riding the boats and the monorail. On Tuesday we went to Blue Springs and watched the manatees (see the pictures below).  Yesterday, we dilly dallied around the house and then went to the mall for a few hours.  It was a relaxed, family-oriented three days, and we have the pictures to prove it.

That is what we are doing today. And tomorrow. We will be back on Wednesday, though.

David and Hannah have been watching Sarah Palin in the news, and they so admire her that they wanted to join the NRA. Well, not really, but the three of us did go shooting on Saturday. David fired off several rounds and actually hit the paper a few times. He was using my first gun, a Marlin Model 60. Here he is sighting in on his target.

Meanwhile, my Dad and I enjoyed making a lot of noise with a 9mm, a .357 magnum and a .44 magnum. We had a blast. Where was Hannah, you might ask? She enjoyed herself too. See:

We had a great time.

From the family devos tonight, when Hannah wanted to pray for her slightly under-the-weather brothers:

Hannah: “Dear Lord, thank you that David and Timothy are always sick.”

David (whispering): “Hannah, I have a cold.”

Hannah: “Oh, thank you that David is old.”

David (not whispering): “I am not old! I have a cold. A cold.”

Hannah: “Oh, thank you that David is in snow.”

David: “Uhh”

Hannah: “And thank you that Timothy always cries much. Amen.”

Not to get too mushy-gushy with kid videos, but Timothy has changed quite a bit since he was 2-months old (see the clip I posted yesterday). Here he is at seven months:

Since a blog can also serve as a glorified scrap book, I wanted to make sure that we have plenty of photographs and video clips of Timothy. Here is a lengthy clip taken five months ago, featuring all three of the little people in our family.

Home. Family. Wife. Children. Bad internet connection. Subject-less and predicate-less sentences (fragments?). Sleep.

On one’s birthday, if he is fortunate enough to be in Russia on that day, he might expect to have his ears pulled once for each year of his life. I need to go pull Hannah’s ears THREE times.