Obviously I have been absent from the blogosphere for quite some time. Quite honestly, I ran out of any kind of motivation and hit a wall. I have wanted to blog for quite some time, but never had the energy or just flat could not do it.

Much has been going on since I last wrote. The kids continue to do quite well as we forge forward with our new life. Hallie is quite busy with school and athletics. She is getting all A’s and recently finished basketball season and is well into softball. I am really proud of her and she is working really hard at being the best she can be in all her activities and becoming quite the athlete. Jack is about to wrap up his first year of school (pre-k). He is signed up for a couple of summer sports camp already and is eager to get going.

Big news… Kendall is now potty trained! So after roughly 9 years of purchasing diapers, I am done with that (well for the most part… we still have to get through the nights). However a box of diapers will go much farther only using one per day.

Yesterday I bought a pop up camper. Julie and I had talked about doing it for years and we were actually looking when she was diagnosed. So…. I have been looking and finally found a deal and took the plunge. And I am glad I did. It is something I can do with the kids and it somehow gives me a connection back to Julie. She loved the outdoors!

So I picked it up yesterday and we headed to Aunt Sherri’s and Uncle Brad’s property about an hour away for our first camp out. The weather could be a little better but the kids are having fun playing with their cousins and we are enjoying the country air and the bluebonnets which are in full bloom.I took a couple of pics…enjoy!

This will be just a short post as I need to ease back into blogging. : )

Well another milestone has passed.

We “celebrated” what would have been Julie’s 36th birthday yesterday out at the cemetery. Nana and Poppa brought the kids up from Galeveston (where they had spent the week). Lil Joe & Jack, Marty, Angie and their Kids, Debbie Dodds and I shared cake and soda as Hallie led us all singing Happy Birthday. The grave looked really good as I know many have stopped by and helped maintain it while leaving flowers. Thanks to all of you who have remembered her day and sent notes to me or stopped by the cemetery to remember her.

I apologize as I have not updated the blog in over a month, but things have caught up with me lately and I have not had much inspiration to blog. I think my funk started about the time we started prepping for our annual 4th of July trip to the river. For those of you don’t know, Julie and I met on this trip in the summer of 1996 and have been every year except for the year that Kendall was born because she was only 3 weeks old at that point in time. We (especially Julie) loved that trip and it was her yearly project as she would organize the entire event for 30+ adults and kids every year… from room assignment to meals to meeting and departure times for the big day. Ever since then I have been in a funk.

I recently realized that I am not getting any exercise what so ever. My day starts at 5:45 in the morning, I am at work by 7:30 home by 6:30, home chores and kids through 8:30 and then I crash into bed only to repeat the same thing the next day. No exercise to burn off stress. So… I went over to the health club, Lifetime Fitness that is right next to my office on Wednesday and I signed the kids and myself up for a membership. It is great b/c there is also a location near our house so I can go on the weekends with the kids. They have a rock climbing wall (which Hallie loves as she went to rock climbing camp this summer in Dallas) as well as a huge pool with water fountains a great shallow end for Jack and Kendall and two GIANT water slides. I took Jack yesterday (Hallie and Kendall went back to Galveston) and he must have gone down the slide 50 times! I have been everyday since I joined and I can already notice a difference in my energy level and mental well being.

As stated the kids have kept busy. I mentioned earlier that Hallie went to Dallas, flying on her own, to visit her friend Janis and go to rock climbing camp. Jack has been doing quite well with his swim lessons and gets better at it every week. Kendall is growing like a weed as she turned two this summerand becoming more independent all the time and talking up a storm (see pic of her on her new bike). They spent all of last week in Galveston and will probably spend most of this week down there as well.

My brother takes the bar this week and he talked me and Brad into a post Bar Exam blow out in Las Vegas this coming weekend. It is Vegas so he did not have to do much of a sell job on Brad! In fact Brad is leaving out tomorrow I believe to work some basketball games Derek and I fly out Thursday night and return on Monday so watch for Vegas updates and wish us luck at the tables!

On a funny note… I was at my parents house last week and my mom had a photo album of me just after I was born out on a table. Derek and I were looking through it and laughing at my parents sense of fashion at the time along with the contraptions that passed for acceptable and safe baby equipment (strollers, car seats, etc) when we came across a newspaper clipping. It was clipped from the small town newspaper where my grandparents lived in central Michigan. Can anyone tell me what in the world this is supposed to mean….???

Seriously… what in the world??? I guess my Grandparents owe me a lot since I earned them their due respect!!!

Until next time (which I promise won’t be so long)…

YAY GOD!

-Brendan

In the previous post, I wrote of my brother’s graduation from Harvard Law School which was the purpose of our trip to the city of Boston. However, I only focused on that event as his graduation from such a prestigious institution deserves its own headline. As I have not blogged since our return I thought I would share a few of the other highlights of our trip to this historic city.

As those that know me well can attest, I am a huge sports fan. A part of my personality that Julie “tolerated” but did not completely understand as she comes from a family that does not live and breath athletics. I always have some athletic contest running on the TV whether I am fully engaged in the event or not. Basketball of course is my love, but I enjoy football, baseball, golf (mostly the majors), as well as various other contests as the mood strikes me (I disdain curling however…. my apologies to my Canadian friends, but their is a story behind that).

Being the sports nut, I have always wanted to attend a baseball game at the famed Fenway Park. It is the smallest and oldest venue in Major League Baseball and home of the “Green Monster” (in Boston speak, pronounced “Monstah” of course). Since it is a small venue and the team is quite good, tickets are hard to come by. My dad, however, was able to procure six seats to a game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Although they were not altogether, my uncle Kev, my dad, my brother, my aunt PA, my son and I, attended the game sitting in groups of two. Let me just say, that although I knew it would be a cool experience, it far surpassed my expectations. There I was, in the Fenway taking in a game with my boy (yes we both bought BoSox hats on famed Yawkey Way just outside the Park). The moment you walk through the brick facade you are taken back in time to the early 1900 and can physically feel the history of the days of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and the other legends that played there. You have obstructed views as the engineering of the stadium does not match the technology of the day so in many seats you have to deal with steel beams supporting the roof. The chipped concrete facade on the interior reminds you of the age. The seats are foldable wood slats and not made for a person with a 6′4″ frame such as myself. Jack fit in just fine with his cotton candy, hot dog and the peanuts he was able to mooch off the guy sitting to his right! I think that guy was happy to share his peanuts because he was a big man himself and was thrilled to be sitting next to a small child which afforded him more room. In fact, when he approached his seat, he stated in a thick Boston accent, “Thank my lucky Staahs. I am sittin’ next to a tyke”… LOL! You can see all the pics if you click on this Flikr Link, however, here are a few of my favorites from the night…

The entrance to the park off of Yawkey Wa.

Pre Game Festivities on Yawkey!

“The Green Monstah”

Jack with his BoSox hat, hot dog and blue cotton candy (bag of blue stuff in the chair next to him). Think he is ready for a ball game?

Our obstructed view!

Proof my boy and I saw a game at Fenway.

Before the night was over… Jack had conned uncle Derek into buying him a “Rally Monkey”… LOL

The other major highlight of the trip was taking a guided tour of the “Freedom Trail” where you get to see many of the historic places in the city that sparked the Revolution. The exact spot of the famed Boston Tea Party, Boston Masacre, Bunker Hill, Paul Revere’s home, the Old North Church (where they hung the lanterns in the steeple as code to warn if the British were advancing by sea or land and sparked Paul Revere’s famous ride), the USS Constitution as well as other landmarks around the city. It was truly interesting and educational all at the same time. I had always wanted to visit this city because American History interests me greatly and this place is chock full of such history… There is only one other place that compares and that would be D.C. I have posted pictures from this tour on Flikr here, but again I will attach a few favorites.

Paul Revere’s house (with Kendall, Hallie, Jack and Me)

The Steeple of the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung in the two windows above.

My brood with the stern of the USS Constitution in the background (Oldest commissioned ship in the US navy… still active, although I do not anticipate it being deployed to the Persian Gulf any time soon.. LOL)

“Where everybody knows your name!”

Having a beer in Cheers… Our version of Norm, Cliff, Frazier, Diane and Lilith!

The only thing Kendall remembers about Boston is the Duck Boats…. There is a tour company that takes you around the city and into the Charles River via refurbished World War II amphibious vehicles that tour the roads of Boston pointing out the sites and ends with a splash into the River for a view of the city from a unique perspective. Everytime she saw one she would point it out and very matter of factly say “Duck Boat”. In fact if you ask her today what she saw in Boston she will say…. “Duck Boats”. That’s it… her entire memory of her trip to Boston…. Duck Boats!!!

In a way, I felt Julie with me. Boston was a city that Julie loved. She and Jenn, more or less on a whim decided to move there for a short amount of time (post college I believe or maybe for a summer). She always spoke fondly of her time there and she loved to recount her time spent there. I miss you J…

YAY GOD!!!

-Brendan