I wrote this (posting here for posterity)

I wrote this, although I don't remember writing it. I do remember going there -- and I am clearly the "me" in this post.

There was a time when we did not know how large groupes of people would react to our students in public. So we took a group to Kinds dominion to preform a few expermints. We found that the main reaction to doing the splits between the hand rails -- while waiting in line for the Hurler -- is only a few awkward stares. It turns out that most people don't even notice that we are exchangin a flurry of mock attacks while wondering between rides. Hardly anyone noticed that we were bowing to the camera on that first big drop.

The high points of our trip included such things as having to hold Joanna in the Rebel Yell (or she would have flown out!) and Sending Meline, Suzie and Me on the Extreme Flyer. I leaned two things from that ride -- Suzie is not scared of anything and Mel is freakishly strong.

Overall our trip to Kings Dominion was a success, While I am not sure that the Public in general is ready for wushu students, they did not reject us out right. However Keye did seem to baffel them with his softball-basket-toss skills.

Good times.

Labels: wushu

(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 6/29/2009 09:22:00 AM

 

The Russian Army

Guest post by Kelly

This week was a hard week. About this time last Sunday my brother informed me that while I was at church my parents had called to say that my Grandma Lawson had passed away. We’d been expecting it for a week so it wasn’t a shock, but it was still quite sad. She was my last grandparent. My mom had to play family peacemaker on top of grieving for her mother. Grandma never met Laurence. I certainly didn’t call or write often enough. And I had to explain death to Leah somehow since she had just seen my Grandma the month before and talked about her regularly.

The viewing was Tuesday night and I saw lots of family I hadn’t seen in a while. Services were first thing Wednesday morning and they were nicely done. And the kids brought some joy to an otherwise sad occasion.

None of this was the hard part of the week. Well, maybe telling Leah about death was hard.

The hard part of the week was the constant trials and tribulations thrown in our path from a logistical point of view. Here are just a few of the challenges we faced:

• Chris was in SFO, leaving me to single parent it while I planned and packed – I did tell him to go ahead and go, but still, it’s harder when he’s not around


• The garage at DCA is under construction and impossible to navigate


• The check-in machines for American don’t deal well with split parties


• Renting two cars from someone who didn’t realize we wanted two separate cars


• Reconciling TomTom’s instructions and my dad’s pre-planned routes


• Finding places to eat that are both kid friendly and dad friendly


• Sharing a hotel room with two kids who have different nap schedules


• The bazillion outlets and drawers in said hotel room that Lars was magnetically drawn to


• The tornados


• The 3:00 a.m. fire alarm – which the fire department didn’t show up to turn off until 3:30


• Locking myself out of the room during the fire alarm while Lars was still inside and I didn’t yet know it was a false alarm


• And of course the “moving the Russian Army” sized task of flying with two small kids half way across the country

And there was more to be sure, but I’m already placing a mental block on a lot of this past week. My bother and parents suffered through all of this with us Sextons and each had their own things to add to the list. None of us, except my mom, handled every situation with grace, but we were all still speaking to each other when we got home, and I think we’ll even be willing to hang out together again sometime soon.

So, hopefully this next week will be kinder to us all. We could sure use the break.

God bless you Grandma, we miss you lots, and you were worth every little bit of trouble that we went through!

Labels: family, kelly-post

(2) comments Posted by csexton @ 6/14/2009 12:08:00 PM

 

Golden Batido

Added another to my collection of Au Batido Pictures:



Dr. Harper was kind enough to not only drive me up there, but also take the photo for me. Aside from being out of Au Batido practice I think it came out pretty well.

Labels: aubadito

(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 6/11/2009 12:33:00 AM

 

May: The beginning of a summer of fun

Kelly and I have decided we are going to try our best to follow a summer of fun, and May was the start of it.

I have pictures to prove it.


Leah likes fountainses.


Fountain: 1. Laurence: 0.


Outside is fun for babies!


Playing Peek-a-boo!


This is how Thor relaxes.


Walking with dad in the sculpture garden.


The fountain in the sculpture garden.

There are more in the photo album .

Labels: family

(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 5/31/2009 05:44:00 PM

 

That was a really good weekend.

It helps that it was a long weekend, but it also had quality content.

Saturday we went to Sweet Life Cafe and had an (almost) private show, met up with Beej to help on the kitchen (although we mostly just played at the park).

We wrapped up the day with Sean and Nina. We let them kids stay up a little later than normal so they could hang out. Discussion seemed to be centered around child development strategy and zombie board games.

Sunday we met one of Kelly's friends and her family for Lunch at P.F. Chang's over at Fairfax Square. Being a very hot and sunny day we decided to head over to the fountains. Luckily Kelly had preplanned and packed swimsuits for the kids. The boys were not so sure about this, but Leah was. She ran around with kids twice her size and had a blast. The impressive thing was the black eye she got. It was not impressive that she got a black eye, but rather she took the elbow to the face and didn't miss a beat. That is a girl serious about her fun. Laurence on the other hand decided he had quite enough once he caught a fountain to the face.

For dinner we headed out to National Harbor and met with the Tres Tulli for a tasty dinner at Rosa Mexacana. Which we followed up with Neal and Leah climbing on "The Awakening" and Gelato. The highlight of the evening had to be when Neal's dinner fought back and won. Now that's spicy!

Today was a lazy day at home. I got up with Lars around 7:30, played for a bit and then he and I went down for morning naps around 9. Slept until noon. It was legendary.

The rest of the day was just spent wrangling kids, making an experimental dinner, watching a movie with the wife during a simulnap.

Labels: family

(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 5/25/2009 10:58:00 PM

 

Henry's problem

Henry has a serious problem. No, not the stink butt. Well, related to the sink butt. He has taken to 'presenting.' I will be sitting very nicely on the floor reading books with my little girl and this cat will come settle down inches away (he is determined to get as close as felinely possible to my face), and raise his tail straight into the air -- haunches slightly elevated. If you brush him even slightly the hind quarters shoot into the air.

This is gross.

Especially if he is currently in full stink-butt mode. So, I have been looking for a way to fix this. I have tried simply turning him around, which seemed to be working ok, but he will often turn back around. And always starts by facing butt-wards.

I have tried scolding the cat while I turn him around, no workie. So I need to explore possible strategies for preventing this behavior. Here is what I have come up with:

• Keep a ball point pen around to insert into the nearest orafice when he presents. I cannot imagine the behavior will persist if there is any probing done on a regualr basis. I have ruled this option out, as I would never be able to look Henry in the eye again.

OK, so that is the only option I have come up with so far. If anyone has an suggestions please let me know.

Labels: cats

(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 5/25/2009 10:50:00 PM

 

What's the deal with them Sextons?

It has been a long time, I think twitter is bad for my blogging schedule.

Well, lets recap the last lots of weeks.

Leah went to Texas with her grandma, and returned with a strong command of family relationships. We can ask her questions like who is your Mommy's Grandma or who is Grandma's Mommy and she will nail them. I don't think I had that good of an understanding until I was 12. She has explained in great detail about how she went on the black airplane in the sky with <whisper> grandma </whisper>.

Shortly after that, or was it before that, Kelly went to Boston for work. I think she was gone 3 days, but it felt like weeks. I had to reconfigure the morning routine so that I could handle it. I cannot deal with the complexities of getting the kids dressed, fed and in the car first thing in the morning.

Before things settled down from the first couple trips I ran of to RailsConf in Vegas. The fun part of this trip was convincing Kelly to come join me. Vegas is a much different place when you decidedly pace your self and try to relax. I am really glad that my coworker, Scott, and his wife were able to hang out with us for the weekend. That town is just too weird to be with out friends. It was a good trip, from the sad story of Monorail Pidgin to the joy that was Bouchon.

We've only been back a week now but I am going to be scooting off to San Francisco for WWDC in a week -- poor wife. All this travel has Leah a little out of wack and I saved my longest trip for last. You know, to rub it in.
(0) comments Posted by csexton @ 5/14/2009 08:41:00 PM