Rockwell...

Thanks to Grandpa Bob for turning his backyard tree into a Norman Rockwell painting waiting to happen. Notice the "cape"...Maxim and Brecken ran around all day with their Superhero capes on.


We buy them thousands of dollars in toys in a lifetime, when all they need is a rope and a little help climbing a tree.


I think the only time our boys wore any type of shoes this weekend was to go to church on Sunday morning.

Mike and the Angel.

The real TV news looked like Entertainment Tonight last night with all the celebrity deaths. Charlie's Angels was a little before my memory of pop culture life began, but I do remember that Farah was hot and every woman tried to do their hair like her...some still do. Mike Jackson was more my era.

I'll never forget when Thriller came out. I think my cousin Brent had the record, we listened to it all the time at his house, and some of those songs are still on my MP3 player.

Here are my 3 favorite MJ songs...for the record anything he did after the BAD album is junk....after BAD was the Wacko-Jacko era.

(If you click on the name of the song you get the video from youtube.com.

#1 Billie Jean

#2 Smooth Criminal

#3 Dirty Diana

Pictures for a lifetime...

I am pretty sure we all have a few pictures that have been deemed "family classics". They are the ones that resurface at graduations, weddings, etc. We already have a couple of them in our family, and I think I have posted some here.

We got a couple more pictures in the last couple days, and as I was looking at pictures tonight I knew I needed to share 2 of them.

The first one was taken with my BlackBerry's camera, but it turned out really good...Kolby sitting in her car seat with the cool new sunflower hat that Grandma Penny got her. I love it when Steph wears hats, so it is natural that when Kolby put one on it would melt me.

The other one was a picture that Steph snapped of the boys "running away from home". I am pretty sure Maxim was the mastermind behind their life on the road, as he told Brecken, "Come on let's get out of here and run away." As you can tell he took his most important possessions in his right hand, that is a plastic tote full of Star Wars guys and Super Heroes.

Both of them in white t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops, ready for life on their own...if only it could be that easy.

They actually got pretty far before they turned around.

Old Summer Jobs

Do you ever long for your old summer job...you know the one you had in high school and college. I know a lot of folks who read this are still doing their old summer job, working on the farm, but I'm talking about the minimum wages, minimum work load summer job, that basically gave you gas money, Taco John's money and movie money.

This morning I had to run out to the baseball field to take a picture of some new signage that my company sponsored, and the field crew was out getting the diamond ready for a baseball clinic. I instantly got the desire to take my shirt off, and drive around the "tri-plex field groomer" and also a rake, not to mention mow the afternoon away in the outfield. Those were the days.

Then it was into the office at the electricity factory, and when I went to get my coffee, I ran into my old boss from the Water Department. What a great first summer job that was working for the water department with Bryan W. We logged miles on every street in Huron, went into some disgusting basements to change out meters, and weed whacked around fire hydrants.

One of the funniest stories ever to come out of that summer was on one of our first days, we were called on the city of Huron's 2-way radio frequency. You see the water department employees all had "call signs" like Doug T. was "W-4"...some other guy was "W-12"...etc. Well Bryan and I were out on assignment (whatever that was) and we hear over the radio "W-4 to W-dipsticks, you got a copy?" Bryan and I looked at each other and he smiled and said that must be us.

So I answered the call, "This is W-Dipsticks, go ahead." Little did I know that all city of Huron employees with a 2-way radio heard that...we were the "W-Dipsticks" for the rest of the year.

Yep, some days I would trade jobs with a guy mowing outfields in a second...as long as I could have my job back a little later.

"Stoke" Defined

Cousin Erkel and I went out in his Malibu last night...perfect night in the water, on the water and in the boat. After a couple sessions we ran over to the dock to pick up "the boys". My nephew Carson is in town for a few more days and he wanted to wakeboard.

He pulled on our Jr. sized board and I gave him all my coaching ability and within about 5 or 6 pulls he got up for about 50 meters. The smile he had on his face was amazing. He got back in the boat a short time later and was still just one big smile.

He talked about it for quite a bit in the boat.

That night he was on the phone with his mom telling her about how he wakeboarded, it may have only been 20 seconds, but it is what it is...I know the feeling it's what surfers call "stoked". You get this feeling that you don't get on dry land, and you spend your entire life thinking about when you can get that feeling again.

My new favorite baseball player is...

I guess in the back of my head I always thought my favorite Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was on the juice. He went from a real likable outfielder who hit 30 or 40 HR's a year to a guy that smacked out 60 and had a body that looked like the Statue of David.

Well, the report is out there...he failed a test in 2003, no big sup rise. Just another little dagger in baseball's back.

With that said, I would like to tell you about one of my new favorite baseball players.

He plays for the Huron Park and Recreation Coach Pitch White Sox and is number 77, because an older kid had 7 already. He turned 7 years old today, in the batter's box he has trouble with the low pitches, but he doesn't quit trying, and if you pitch one up around his shoulders he can really smack it, and he does it with a smile. He kind of hustles to first base, his mom works him over for not running fast...he'll catch on to that later.

He is good in the field and always thinks about his mechanics before he throws to first...he actually hurt his dad's hand the other day throwing the ball!

Congrats son you are my favorite baseball player, even if you play for the t-ball version of the other baseball team in Chicago...Happy Birthday

Liquid

For the last 4 days this blog has been perfectly named...at least for the rain that surrounded every moment of our weekend in Montana and our drive back to SD last night.

It rained pretty much the whole time we drove through Yellowstone.

I had some free time on Sunday so Steph and I went rock climbing east of Bozeman, only to get completely soaked and hailed on...I used my climbing rope bag as a helmet/rain coat so I could pick up all of our gear and not get pelted to death by the grape-sized hail. Then on the hike out I slipped on some mud and fell into a huge puddle and Steph got a good laugh out of that.

Then last night was the kicker...we drove with the windshield wipers on for 600 miles!

I can't tell you how ready for sunshine we both are!

Devill's Tower & Yellowstone National Park

A funny thing happened on the way to Kansas City...

First off I want to say that my wife is the most understanding person I know...aside from my folks who we pawned our kids off on for an extra day this weekend.

Steph's high school reunion has been on our planner for a few months now, and it happens tonight in the heart of downtown Kansas City at some trendy restaurant. A bunch of her girlfriends have been planning their reunion on facebook.com for a while, and I was looking forward to putting faces and names together, to go with all the stories that Steph tells me.

Thursday was going as planned until I got on a conference call, and it seems like a weird schedule of vacations, business travel and my willingness to do anything as an employee that could help the company landed me in Montana for the weekend and into Monday afternoon.

I called Steph and passed the news to her and she was excited. I was dumbfounded. She wanted to come with, and since we already had Grandma Penny and Grandpa Bob taking the boys and the Fasts looking after little Kolby it made total sense.

So we left yesterday, hiked around Devil's Tower, today we are hitting Yellstone NP (my company serves YNP and I have work to do in the park), we are also going to do some rock climbing in the area. Tomorrow morning we are climbing in the Bozeman area and I have to do a little work on Sunday, and then a bunch on Monday...then driving home.

Steph said she would rather hang out with me in the mountains and go rock climbing, hiking and do some shopping in Bozeman than go to some stuffy Kansas City reunion to listen to people brag about how great their life turned out.

I was totally ready to be MR. STEPHANIE DECKER/GLANZER for a weekend, but instead thanks to my super fun job, we get to tour around Montana....together this time. It's nice for me to travel with my wife for work...did I mention that our kids are back in SD? Boy we will miss them by Monday.

Passing of the Breck-Flu

You have heard of the the perils of the bird flu, the media has scared you with the swine flu...well, our friends and family experienced the Breck-Flu.

Here is how it went down...

Brecken was the initial human carrier, (we think he got this new strain of flu from a combination of handling dead animals, wiping his nose on his shirts, eating grapes off the floor, drinking water from our well, and a scrape on his knee he received while skateboarding).

Brecken passed the bug to Maxim, Maxim passed the bug to Kolby, Kolby passed the bug to Stephanie, Stephanie passed it to me, in the mean time we also knocked out Jerad and Angie Fast as they spent time at our house on Saturday night while Maxim was infected and in bed...in the mean time Grandma Penny and Grandpa Bob also got the 24 hour knock down from the Breck-Flu.

So to keep from anyone in our house getting sick again we are going to enforce a medical glove and mask policy for all visitors, or we will just use video conference to invite folks over from now on!

Thanks Brecken!

Saturday In Pictures

Here was our Saturday in pictures...except for the part where I worked for 7 hours on a retaining wall project in the yard.

Brats on the grill, perfect day at the lake.

Grandpa and his vaqueros taming the Old West.

Maxim riding all by himself. (notice the look of fear in Cookie's eyes)

Brecken and his "Buckle Bunny" Kolby getting her first riding lesson, and not really enjoying any of it.


Brecken and Grandpa driving the "tractor".

We capped it off with ice cream at Zesto...no pictures of that.

Wrapping Up May Birthdays

Today is the day we celebrate my cousin Jon's birthday...as I blogged about before May is a busy month for our family and extended family as far as birthday's are concerned.

Jon's, which is today, puts the end to our run which averaged about 2 per week.

So Happy Birthday to the guy that was basically the brother I never got from my parents. Jon and I have stories upon stories to tell our boys about things we did when we were young.

Here is one...I don't even know if Jon remembers this or not...we must have been about 10 or so, and I saw the Lone Ranger movie, and in the movie the Lone Ranger and Tonto cut their hands and shake hands to become blood brothers (long before the HIV epidemic). I always thought it would be cool to have a brother...Jon has 2 so this wouldn't have been a big deal to him...so my only alternative was to have a blood brother.

I don't remember the circumstances of how both of us were bleeding at the same time, (which probably happened more than once), but we both had little tiny cuts on our fingers and we mashed the tiny splattering of blood together to officially become brothers of blood.

So Happy Birthday to my Blood Brother...how's that for an obscure childhood memory?

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend as our friends from Sioux Falls came to the lake for a little Summer Kick Off party.

The kids lived on the trampoline and had a blast...I think 11pm was the average bedtime for all of them.

This picture below of Brecken pretty much sums up his Memorial Day Weekend...I have 4 or 5 pictures of him from the weekend and he has a soda in his hands in each picture. He has been cut off and is now going through withdrawal.

Maxim picked today's video...

Maxim loves Ben 10 Alien and he wanted to choose today's video post, he chose this video from youtube.

Someday I'll make him type something into the blog...sorry it's been a while. Lots of travel and a super fun holiday weekend.

My Little SDSU Cheerleader...and another birthday.

Steph sent me this picture of Kolby in her SDSU cheerleader outfit today...I'm in Nebraska and she broke my heart that I couldn't give her a big hug and kiss.

I'm not sure she'll be the cheerleader type, but with Brecken and Maxim for brothers she might be the cheerleader that is always the one to be thrown up into the air doing cool stunts...we just have to make sure that they don't practice with her until she is at least 10.

OH YEAH...and Happy Birthday Uncle Lynn!

Spray Paint + Brecken = Graffiti

I was marking the ground where we are going to build a retaining wall the other day, and must have left the neon yellow spray paint sitting on the steps.

On Thursday Steph was in Sioux Falls and I was on vacation to babysit the kids...Kolby was crying and needing to be fed, so I sent the boys outside for a few hours. I hadn't seen them run by any windows so I was a little bit nervous as to what they were up to.

Then like clockwork I saw Maxim and there was Brecken right behind him carrying the spray paint...and before I could figure out what he was doing with it, he started to paint the outdoor fire place.

I jumped up and yelled at them to stop, and lucky for me I caught him before he did any damage! I said, "Brecken, no, no, no, you don't play with the paint."

Then Maxim the consummate professional big brother said, "Yeah, dad I told him to quit painting everything."

So my walk around the house started. You know those Family Circus cartoons where they show the neighborhood and the path that Billy took to do something...well, we have that path in neon yellow.

Concrete steps, landscape timbers, sidewalks, grass, landscape rocks, a bench in the front of the house, and the thing that took the most beating was a little car that the kids can wheel around in...all of it, tagged by the great graffiti master Brecken.

He didn't hit the house or his sister, or anything real noticeable...so we got lucky. I have a feeling we might find a few other things that were tagged. I did notice this morning, when I was cleaning out the dog kennel, that my scoop shovel is now a lot easier to tell from other people's scoop shovels thanks to the yellow paint.

Some people write their names on their property, Brecken just color codes his property.

Another Birthday...Cassidy Bay.

Cassidy turns 14 today...that means she can somewhat drive a car in Kansas...in South Dakota I think she can test for a CDL to drive a semi...we make kids grow up a bit quicker in SD.

Happy Birthday and now you can get a Facebook page right?

Here is a little video of me basically being mean to Cassidy while we were on vacation over Christmas.

One thing folks might not know about Cassidy is that she is pretty quick with her tongue, and very funny...she keeps me on my toes and I like to mess with her.

I so want to fly on this guys planes.

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone realized that nobody pays any attention to their flight attendent's little manifesto prior to take off, so this guy gets it and I am sure everyone got the point.

Kindergarten Graduation

Maxim's kindergarten graduation ceremony was last night, held in conjunction with the spring concert. He wore the little cap and gown and everything...I'll post pictures later.

This morning when Steph went to wake him up for school, he thought she was joking. "I don't have school anymore mom, I graduated."

She tried to convince him that it was a ceremony and that he has school for another few days. He wouldn't buy it. I was still in bed, and he comes in and jumps on me and says, "Mommy says I have to go to school today...tell her I graduated."

I then explained to him that he has to go until Wednesday...he cried.

I dropped him off at the playground and he was surprised to see a bunch of kids at school, so he grabbed his backpack and said, "I guess I'll see you later."

Yeah Maxim, like the last week of school for a kindergartner is real tough...ice cream parties, field trips, recess...just wait until summer vacation starts, I have a job for you hauling landscaping rocks around our yard, that I want done before Memorial Day Weekend. Oh wait, it was kindergarten graduation not 8th grad graduation, I got ahead of myself there.

MAY this be birthday month...

I was talking to a good friend of mine yesterday, and I asked him his when his daughter's birthday was...he thought for a moment, whipped out his BlackBerry opened his calendar and then told me.

I was glad to know that I'm not the only one that needs a BlackBerry to remember important dates, like your wife and children's birthdays.

May is a busy month for our family as far as birthday's go. It starts with Roger and ends with Dr. Jon...Here is today's big celebration.

Happy b-day to my niece Avery!