AlmondIce Blog

Spring is here!

Day after Easter and the weather is wonderful and the wind is just right for Krystal to fly a kite.

This week is spring break for the kids. I was only able to take (1) day off from work this week and we wanted to do something special with the kids. I was looking online for stuff to do and ran across the Segway tours in Austin and thought, man that would be fun. I then looked at the site and it said that the kids had to be 12 years old. So, I tossed the idea aside.

Well, I told Jeanee about the idea and she performed her magic on the phone and talked to the company and found out that the 12 yr old statement on the web site was purely a guidance statement not a policy. So, we booked a tour for later on that day.

We went to the tour company in downtown Austin and went through the training class. Jeanee did the best on initial balancing and of course I did the worse. Ryan and Krystal both passed the initial driving test with ease. The Segways are amazing machines and can do so much. Once you get used to the balance aspect of the machine turning and shifting your weight to go backwards and forwards comes almost naturally.

So, off we go on our tour, we suddenly realized that we picked probably one of the worst days for 6th street to put a family of Segway newbies on the street. HELLO, it is St. Patty’s Day at 6pm during the SXSW festival. We made it off of 6th street just fine and the kids did fantastic controlling the Segway through lots of pedestrian traffic..

We stopped at the Capital building for some pictures and the guide let us go on the Segways a little bit, 12 MPH on a Segway is really fun! On the way back, 6th street was very crowded and we ended up having to stop a bunch on the sidewalk for pedestrians. We heard a few comments from the mis-informed about how they thought we should not be allowed on the sidewalk. The owner of the store educated us that Segways are sidewalk legal. At one point on the way back the group was split and Jeanee and the kids were around 100 feet and a stop light in front of me because of the volume of foot traffic.

But in the end we all made it back safely and had a AWESOME time.

…Pictures…

Yesterday was a big day for the kids as they got to go to the bank and open up their own bank accounts. Both Ryan & Krystal were amazed at how many questions they had to answer and the notebook of paperwork they took home. On the way home Krystal said, “Dad, do I have to read this legal agreement too?”. Of course I told her yes and then we all laughed.

Below are some good pics of the kids:

So last weekend Ryan lost his last baby tooth. Ugg, Why is he growing up so fast? Can I get a time machine to randomly pick days to “go back” to when he got his first few baby teeth?

Yesterday Krystal mentioned that she wants to get on the ice with Dad and Ryan at Stick and Puck. So, today we geared her up and she had some fun on the ice. She skated really well and had a lot of fun.

Good Job Krystal!

Getting Dressed

On the ice

Taking some shots

The full gallery of photos are here:

Notice something about this picture that the girls are holding up and that they have on some of their shorts? I have been coaching youth sports for many years and last season I started purchasing and rewarding soccer players with patches.

Why are the patches so great?
The players are eager to see what patches they earned. When players do great things they make sure to find me on the sidelines to remind me of the assist they got or the goal they scored to make sure I have it down. My soccer teams went from good kids learning and having fun to winning teams thirsty to learn while having lots of fun.

What patches do I give out?
First, I give out many types. I make sure that the players know they are earned and that the gold star patch is the highest honored patch on my team. The gold star is for an assist. I also give out patches for hustle, being tough, passing, goals, and attendance/sportsmanship.

The website I buy these from is soccerhelp.com and I was skeptical the first time I bought them.

At the end of September Krystal played in her first 3rd grade school play. The play was based on appreciation for the United States. Krystal was a dancer during one part of the show. She was so cute with her cowboy hat and scarf dancing.

Krystal was very excited days leading up to the play and was really excited to be in the show. Enjoy some the pics of her in the show here.

Today we had a hockey family on Ryan’s squirt team invite the entire team out to catch fish in a stocked pond in their sub-division. The pond was really nice and had a dock and the family went all out providing bait, poles, and dinner. Krystal and Ryan caught 3-4 fish a piece and everyone had a great time…

All the pics taken from the event can be found here…

I just upgraded my computer at work and found these funny videos that I did with the kids. I think Ryan was doing a school project to invent a healthy new food. So, I came up with the idea for Sea Sick SeaWeed and Krystal came up with Rainbow pony fruit snacks.

Check out these videos we made about it: