RS Field Trip – Sculpture Garden Ice Rink

Dylan’s RS class had a field trip this morning to the National Sculpture Garden ice skating rink and guess who volunteered to be one of the parent chaperons… yep, this is right up my alley. I just bought Dylan a new pair of hockey skates about a week ago and he’s been hounding me to take him skating so he can try them out. Hockey skates take a little getting use to, but he really wants to be able to skate like dad, so I know he’ll keep at it and one day be a better skater than me.

Dylan’s First Pinewood Derby

I never thought I would ever be working on another BSA Pinewood Derby car ever, but yet here I am designing and making a new car for my son to race in his very first pinewood derby. I must admit, I’m a bit rusty on the woodworking side of things especially when it comes to small scale projects, but I do have the tools and the time. I did make Dylan work with me on this project as much as his attention span could handle. Dylan picked out the design and helped with the sanding, painting and final assemble. It turned out to be a really nice car, just not the fastest car on the track. However, he did win an award for ‘best Race Car’ design for the pack. Great job Dylan!

Ice Skating with Dylan

I not the type of dad to force my son to do something or play a particular sport just because I like and play it. Instead, I try to give him the chances and opportunities figure out what he likes. My son’s interests in sports have changes so much over the years and forcing him to play hockey at an early age might have caused him to resent both the game and me, but I’m happy to report that he has shown an interest in trying to learn to skate, which as we all know, is the first step towards playing hockey. I’ll be okay if he decides he never wants to play organized hockey for a team, but it sure would be nice if one day he could strap on the pads and play in a pickup game with his old man!

Dylan’s 8th Birthday

Happy birthday to my awesome and amazing son Dylan! I am so, so proud of you and I still enjoy every moment of watching you grow. One of the most impressive things for me is seeing how you can change and adapt to this ever changing world. You are one of the most resilient kids I have ever seen. I love you with all my heart and soul.

Homestead Ski Trip Videos

Here are a couple of my cellphone videos I took of Dylan’s first time out on ski’s. As I told him at the start of the day… learning how to fall and get back up is just as important as learning how to ski. He did really well for his first time ever!

Homestead Ski Trip 2018

Several months ago we were invited to go skiing for the long Presidents Day weekend. Our good friends, the Baur’s, have been going to Hot Springs, Virginia for years and this year they asked us to join them. Nether their son nor ours has ever been on ski’s before, and they have told us that this is a great place for kids to learn to ski. The Omni Homestead Resort, located about 45 minutes southwest of JMU in Hot Springs, is about a three and a half hour drive from DC and surprisingly classy for an older hotel. The rooms are moderately priced go fast, so you have to book well ahead of time to get a holiday weekend reservation.
The ski area is small compared to most local ski resorts, but they do have a nice size ski lodge with several fire places, including an outdoor one on the deck, a bar and food service for lunch. There is only one double chair lift which will take you to either the midway-station or the top of the hill. After seeing the operation I would totally agree that for young beginner skiers, this is a perfect place for them to learn. The ski instructors here are young and really good with the kids. We had Dylan and his friend take two lessons and they absolutely loved it! By the end of the second day they were almost ready to go to ride the lift up to the midway-station.
Considering this was Dylan’s first time on ski’s ever… I thought he did very well!

Xmas 2017

Once again, Christmas time is here and as usual my son has waited until the last minute to write his personal letter to Santa Claus. We’ve already taken him to Tyson Mall to see Santa in person, and therefore I’m pretty sure he knows he is on the ‘nice’ list, so making out his gift list and Santa letter are just formalities to him. But Julie makes sure he follows procedure and finishes the letter and puts it out with the milk and cookies before he goes to bed on Christmas eve. Here are some photos from

ICE at National Harbour

It feels like we buy tickets to this event every year and every year the ice carvings just keeps getting more impressive. My son, being a true believer in Santa and ultimate fan of the Christmas holidays, absolutely loves these kinds of events. The cool thing about ICE (at least for us) is that the theme of the show changes every year and always follows one of the original children’s Christmas stories. This years theme was from the 1964 classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and the ice sculptors really nailed it right down to the very large Abominable Snowman that Dylan and I tried to get a selfie with. As always we had a lot of fun… click the link below to see more photos from this event.

Thanksgiving in Captiva 2017

We have always enjoy spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Captiva, Florida with family. It’s always nice to see Julie’s sister and her family and it also gives us a chance to catch up with her other cousins. If the weather cooperates, it’s also a nice way to grab just a little more summer sunshine before the reality of winter sets in. Here are a few of my favorite photos from this years trip to seashell capital of the world. You can click the ‘view more’ link below to see a slideshow of all the photos from the trip.

Pack 1229 Fall Hike

One of the nicest things about living in the Northern Virginia area is the diversity of the area and the ability to change your scenery by doing nothing more than traveling 30 to 45 minutes in any direction. Living in Arlington, we are literally walking distance to Georgetown, which is one of the more beautiful and popular spots in Washington DC. Even though we enjoy being close to the city, it’s nice to get out of the city and enjoy a nice hike in the woods from time to time.

This year the location of the Pack 1229 fall hike would turn out to be a favorite of mine… Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, which is located on the Virginia side of the Potomac River in North McLean. I’ve hiked these trails before and truly enjoy both the scenic views of the north river and the rocky waterfalls. Dylan has shown much more interest in hiking since joining the Cub Scouts and I believe this outing will be yet another positive bonding experience for both of us and his new Scouting friends.