Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Well, I'm assuming my dad saw this coming since his birthday is just a week after my moms. However, I still thought it might be a fun little surprise for him. A lot that was said about my mom rings true for my dad as well. We really appreciate him and love him a lot. He has always been there to support us with our crazy ideas or extra curricular activities. He may have even supported us a little bit more with our crazy ideas, simply because he was the one that would show us weird stuff. While Mom was supportive and protective of us, Dad was supportive and well, more like Bill Nye the science guy. My dad wasn't afraid to be a little kid and he still is to this day, which I think is awesome. He'll make goofy faces or tell "Hale jokes" which everyone else knows as groaners. But you know what? I wouldn't change that at all.

He's the type of dad that would bring us over anytime he was fixing something on the house, yard, or car. He wouldn't make us do the work, but he wanted us to be able to see how to do it, just in case. I remember my dad showing me how to graphite a key hole, thinking to myself, "When will I ever need to do this?" Sure enough, when I moved in with Jess, the keys wouldn't slide in and out of the door easily. Well they do now. Jessica always wonders how I know how to do random things in the house and I say, "I don't know...my dad must have taught me." Thanks dad! Like mom, I want to thank you for being such a positive role model as a father. It's a nice feeling knowing that you're always going to be around, that you love mom and would never hurt her, that you would protect your family at all costs, and that you're MY dad.

I love that you taught us what true camping is (No premade campsite people...just pick a spot that looks good and set up. Also, no toilets or showers; you're in mother natures house now), that we went hiking on a seven day hike to Mount Whitney, that we went boogie boarding, that you always make sure that we were prepared for anything (Got your first-aid kit, luggage tag, snow clothes, EXTRA BATTERIES, that we watched the Three Stooges, Little Rascals, and other classic black and whites, that you have a first-aid kit larger than most carry-on luggage, and many more. Thanks for being you Dad and for being the other tool that shaped us into who we are today. Oh, also olives...my dad loves olives and anything else weird/interesting to eat like rice candy, honeycomb, or ginger candy.

And though he may not like to admit, I know my Dad is the type of guy that is really in touch with his feelings and empathetic to others. He always wanted to show others, especially his parents, that he loved them. So with that in mind, I just wanted to say that I love you Dad and I think you're great! "Looking Good Dad, Feeling Good Dad" Happy Birthday! OLD GUYS RULE!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mothers 25th birthday...how many times she has celebrated it, I will not divulge. I just wanted to take the time to tell her how much we appreciate and love her. She is amazing! We can go to her for anything: From a simple spelling question or recipe advice, to marriage advice, proper etiquette rules, to life lessons. She always has some wisdom for the subject. I guess we have finally come to the age where we know that we don't know everything, and contradictory to what we thought in the past...our parents are a lot smarter than us. Thanks for always being there for us mom and for keeping us out of trouble. We may not have understood why you did some things in the past, but we are better people for it now. Thanks for also being such a devoted mother and wife. We are so blessed to have grown up in a house where parents not only got along with each other, but loved each other. What a great example. I want to also thank you for being the type of mom that wasn't afraid to go camping at Convict Lake, who will camp out overnight at Chick-Fil-A, who made us wear long pants every Sunday to church, who would make homemade strawberry jam and mac-n-cheese, a mom that supported us through sports, band, choir, or anything crazy like dodge ball that we set our hopes on. Thank you for sacrificing yourself and things that would spoil you, just so we might feel happy. Thanks Mom. I love you! Happy "25th" Birthday!

Things I've been meaning to blog about:

There have been a lot of things happening and not a lot of time to blog about them lately, so here it is...just lots of pictures and short descriptions.

Chris and I spent a weekend at his Grammy's beach house. We spent most of our time surfing on our new boards and eating unhealthy food with lots of dark new beers.


I spent the night in a Chik-Fil-A parking lot with my parents and Brain and Jacinda for Chik-Fil-A's opening. Jessica came out to visit but couldn't stay the night with us crazy people. We did this in order to receive a free meal, once a week, for a year. It was actually pretty fun, but 5 grown adults in a 3-4 man tent was a little crammed. There was definetely some spooning. "My minds telling me no...but my body, my body's telling me yes" (<--R Kelly)


The Armstrongs took Jess and I to the Chihuly exhibit in SF. It was amazing! We had a great time just walking around and laughing.



We had a beer tasting with some friends. Don't worry, we didn't drink all of that! The winners ended up being the Golden Gate Park Porter and the Downtown Brown.

Chris turned 25 and we celebrated at PF Changs. Congrats old man. Again, lots of laughing.

E Rock turned 21. We tried to take him out to buy something at midnight but they said they couldn't sell to him because they didn't know what time of the day he was born! How lame is that?! We went to Las Vegas later though, so I guess we can't complain. Stay tuned for that post.

My dad and I staring down the biggest watermelon my garden produced. It was a weird variety that was yellow instead of red.

We went to the fair twice this year. One time Jess couldn't go, but that didn't stop Jen and I from betting on the ponies. We were so confused on our first race when the horse we bet on was a donkey! That race was a mule race...whew! FYI, in the programs, they list the jockey's weight...not the horses.

Last, but not least, Chris played in a tennis tournament (which was for all the winners of previous matches/tournaments)at Copper River and won the whole thing! That a boy

How Work Celebrated My Birthday:

I GOT DRAGOOED!!!

First of all, I didn't tell anyone at work that it was my birthday...to avoid any unnecessary circumstances. Also, we've been training some new guys. So we were checking hydrants as usual and we decided to show one of the new guys how to use the 2 1/2 inch hose and nozzle. I wasn't thinking anything of it as one of the older hydrant guys was showing a newer hydrant guys the basics. "First, you have to open up the nozzle to bleed off the air. And then you would open it up more and if Dave was on fire, you would go like this!" That's when he turned the nozzle on me. I was surprised and turned my back expecting a little water, but no...he drenched me for a couple of seconds. Awesome. It actually felt kind of good since it was hot out.

Here's the kicker though. Mind you I had a huge calzone (black olives, pepperoni, linguica, canadian bacon, and chicken)for lunch today...we got back to head quarters and my boss called us up stairs to the conference room. Sitting for me on the desk was a "Ghetto Burger." A ghetto burger consists of a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, sauce, a fried egg, pastrami, and some sort of hot dog/sausage link...maybe even some bacon in there too. Needless to say there was a lot of grease. "Don't get up til you've finished the whole thing. No pressure, but every hydrant guy has finished one of these...only one threw up." Half-way through I thought I wasn't going to make it and I'm not sure how I did. "Here come the meat sweats," was my best line after finishing. I'd write more, but I'm feeling a little lethargic at the moment. By the way, my buddy Matt is the one that purposely spilled the beans about my birthday...just you wait Matt...just you wait.

Has anyone ever done crazy things like that to you on your birthday? Any strange traditions?