How to get a boy to play with dolls...

Saydie—Please play with me, Skyler.

Skyler—Fine.

Saydie—Let’s play with my dollies.

Skyler—Ugh! Ok.

Saydie—Here are your babies.

Skyler—No, I can’t take them with me, it’s war. I might get hurt or killed.

Saydie—It’s ok. I’ll just put them right here.

Skyler—No! I’m a soldier. I have to fight. You stay here and keep the babies safe.

Saydie—(starting to get upset)—Fine.

Skyler—Bang bang bang…(shouting army command to his soldiers).

Saydie—(very sweetly) Oh Sky-ler.

Skyler—Ya Saydie.

Saydie—You wanna take the babies?

Skyler—No Saydie. I have to fight. It’s war. I could die!

Battle noises…

Skyler—Saydie! I’m hit! Help!

Saydie—I have to cut off your leg.

Saydie cuts off and replaces Skyler’s leg

Saydie—Stay here with the babies, I’ll go fight.

Skyler—No, you stay. I have to get back out there on the street.

Saydie—But you have a broken leg. You need a wheelchair.

Skyler—I’m a soldier, I’ll be ok. I got my soldiers to help me.

Saydie--(to herself) you wanna play that way?

Saydie picks up the phone (calculator) and dials.

Saydie--Ring ring ring…ring ring ring.

Saydie—Hello. Mr. President, get…me…Super Man.

Saydie laughs an evil villainous laugh.

The ensuing battle between super hero and soldier was dramatic and theatrical. Finally, after all soldiers and super heroes had perished, all that remained were Skyler and Saydie.

Skyler—You wanna dance?

Saydie glares at Skyler with an evil smile.

Skyler—You know how to dance don’t ya?

Skyler raises his Crayola marker gun/sword. Saydie raises her play dough bomb, tosses it up and catches it as she stares Skyler down.

Skyler—Dance!

Bang bang bang…machine gun noises. Saydie throws her bomb.

Saydie—BOOM!

Skyler—ARRGHH! I’m hit!

Saydie quickly switches from super hero suicide bomber to doctor. She grabs her stethoscope.

Skyler—Am I ganna live?

Saydie (listening to his heart)--Your heart stopped beeping. I have to operate.

After the operation, saydie brings the babies to Skyler.

Saydie—Here are your babies. You keep them here while you get better. I have to go to battle.

Saydie laughs as she walks away to battle, leaving Skyler with the babies.

Virginia

Here are a few pictures from our last trip down to Virginia Beach. We were lucky enough to be put in a hotel on the beach. The weather promised it would be warm, so we didn't pack any coats. It ended up being a little cooler when we got there. The kids had a ton of fun, though, even with it being foggy and a little rainy. I think the kids' favorite part was getting to see King Neptune. They thought he was King Trident from The Little Mermaid.

Finally out of the car!

Skyler's favorite part of going with dad...Cartoons!

He wouldn't look away fromt he TV.

Saydie loved the balcony.

She went out, put her feet up, and just watched the waves.

The kids checking out the view from our room.

"Mom! I thought the beach was supposed to be warm."

--Luckily, the next day was very warm.

Um, ok Skyler...come away from the water!

Run! The kids kept playing

"see if you can out run the waves"

of course Skyler had to push his luck and get all wet.

Going to see King Neptune, er-um...I mean Ariel's dad.

Saydie is swimming like a mermaid.

He is kind of scary looking.

Skyler is being eaten by the octopus.

On our way home the next day, we stopped on the bridge to look at the boats.

This is Saydie's "Rock Star" pose. She wouldn't just look through the hole.

Poor Saydie was too short to look through. Dad had to hold her up.

A destroyer going through the channel.

The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever.

The boat is crossing over the tunnel between the bridges.

We tried to go see this lighthouse, only to be told we would have to go through a complete person and vehicle inspection.

Sorry, a strip search is not worth seeing the lighthouse. I'll just take the picture from here.

Um, that's a big bridge...

I had to put some pictures of the kids...aren't they cute?

Our GPS told us the fastest way to Virginia Beach was via an island. We didn't question it because it said there was a bridge to take us across. As we got closer we started to wonder if our GPS knew what it was talking about. The gap between the island and the main land seemed to be growing the closer we got. Finally we got to the toll booth and were relieved to see all was working and well...it was a tunnel. That made sense, since most of the larger rivers had tunnels not bridges. When we started driving across a bridge, we figured it would only be to get to the tunnel. When it kept being a bridge we thought, "Ok, wow. It must be a big bridge"... then it turned into a tunnel, then a bridge, then a tunnel, then a bridge. Pretty soon we felt like we were never going to get across.

In total the trip across Chesapeake Bay took about 20 minutes. When we got to our hotel, I found a brochure for the massive, nearly 20 mile long bridge/tunnel...

Here are some of the pictures I took while crossing...

It keeps going and going and going...you get out in the middle of it and there is nothing around you but miles and miles of ocean!

New Years

We don't have many pictures of New Years. It was a long day driving in the snow and working all day, so we didn’t really celebrate.

Here are the few pictures we do have of the family and our New Years in New York.

It started snowing around 6am. By the time we got to New Jersey it was really coming down. When the sun started to rise, the roads all turned to ice. The traffic quickly became bumper to bumper, five mile an hour, traffic. It took us hours to get into New York. The top level of the bridge into New York was closed because of ice; this only compounded the traffic problem.

There were so many accidents. This is a very minor one. We saw a couple of 6-12 car pile ups and even one where a truck jumped the rail and landed straddled over the median. Mostly, the cars just ran into the concrete barriers.

After a long, cold day in the car, we finally made it to our room. Saydie was ready to ring in the new year, New York style.

“Party!”

As you can now see, we are a bunch of party animals. Woo-hoo! ;o)

We ended up staying in the room and watching the ball drop on the TV. We were too tired to brave the cold and crowds of Times Square.

The view out our window, in our room.

The kids thought it was still night when they woke up because it was so dark in the room. Skyler looked at the clock a little later (around 10-ish) and thought it was late at night. Around 11 he went over and looked out the window. Because it was cloudy, he thought it was early morning and said, "Saydie, the sun is coming up! We must have stayed up all night!" Needless to say, Skyler was a little upset. I had to explain to him that it was really almost noon and he had slept fine all night.

The kids were so tired. They had to take a nap after staying up the night before.

We drove down to Long Beach on New Year’s Day. It was a lot of fun. There wasn't any traffic and nobody was out and about--It was a very cold day.

Long Beach, New York.

You can't see it in this picture, but there are sandy beaches and it is very beautiful.

Sunset over the ocean on New Year's Day.

This is the bridge we cross every week to get out to Long Island.

It is called the Verrazano Bridge.

Happy New Year!