The last 8 months in a nutshell

I am writing this to explain to people the journey I went through in the past 7 months as well as to express my true gratitude for my friends.

Over my life I developed the ability to dream bright dreams of the future and convince my employees to follow those dreams. That ability led my to a lot of success in life. For a long time I thought I was the king of the world, I had the wife, the kids, the job, the car, the house, everything.

But that whole life was based on a 21 year relationship that was fundamentally flawed from the beginning and as we entered our mid-life it became more and more unstable.

I really have no one but myself to blame for what happened. I had the false pride to truly believe I could hold that unstable relationship together just from pure force of will. As the relationship became more and more unstable I invested more and more of myself into shoring it up; beyond reason, beyond sanity and finally beyond the point of no return. And when that relationship shattered I shattered with it.

At first I could not see anything but the pain of that shattering. I stopped dreaming about anything. I learned what it was like to live a life that was so bad that you could see preferring nothingness to facing another day.In the days that followed my family stepped in to try and rescue me. My oldest son grew up overnight and returned 18 year of love by refusing to leave my side. I am ashamed to say that my child lent me his strength when I had none of my own. My family tried over a long distance to help me also. But they were slowly losing the battle.

And that is when my friends stepped in to help:

It was a good friend who branded a message on my back so that I would never forget it. A message that said; win or lose, only I could conquer the pain inside me.

It was my friend and mentor who spent hours listening to me talk and had the wisdom to know when to work me till I dropped, when to deliberately hurt me by making me face reality and when finally to slap me across the head and tell me to master myself.

It was the best couple in the whole world who spent a Sunday letting me vent pain and sadness until I was finally empty and could face another week of life and who spent the next 7 months checking on me to make sure I was okay.

It was one of my friends who faced a far worse situation that I had with such grace and dignity that she made me ashamed of myself and broke me out of my cycle of self-pity.

It was a little wolf who pinged me one night on my phone and spent the following months snapping at me every time I doubted myself.

It was an old friend who reached out to me, gave me a safe place to find peace and to begin bonding with my new girlfriend

It was my friend in California who let me complain all the time and who when I truly hit bottom wrote me a text I still keep on my desk cussing me out and reminding me of all the things I had to live for.

It was my friend the Sadist who stabbed me in the hand with a fork one night and told me the next time he heard me feeling sorry for myself the fork would go through to the table.

It was all the couples and individuals who reached out to M and I to help me begin a new relationship and to welcome me back into their lives when I was ready.

And last but never least, it was the woman who became mine. The woman who had the courage, love and trust to believe in us and let me be with her when I was still struggling to be with myself.

As I emerge from all this I am not the person I was. I don't smile as much and I lost the easygoing agreeable nature that I had. There are still times when I grow quiet and stare into space trying to think of what I could have done differently. But in the end I have become a better man from the experience. Now I see that maybe I needed to experience what I did to allow me to rebuild myself. I don't think I am really there yet but, as a friend of mine said... every day I wake up one step closer to my goal.

In the end it is my friends that gave me the strength I needed to survive the experience and to learn to love life again and I will never forget that.

She is beautiful and she is mine

It is funny how sometimes at the darker times you find something you never expected. M and I starting going to lunch after my ex left me. At first I was so focused on my pain that I really did not notice this amazing person who patiently listened to me and slowly got to know me better. After awhile we talked more about us and less about my ex until I finally broke free. 

It is amazing how much we have in common. Suddenly I have this social life I never had before. I have a companion who is constantly by my side and loves me. I have someone who admires me and is proud to be with me. We support each other and take care of each other. Lol, she is the light to my darkness. 

Pumpkins

We went to a pumpkin patch today. Chasing after 4 kids was a bit of a challenge but also a lot of fun. Getting all these kids to pose with a serious face was impossible so we went for all four silly faces. That worked out! It was a lot of fun. We picked out the perfect pumpkins and ate ice cream. Since it was 90 degrees here that was a welcome relief.

A new start

I think I am going to begin writing on this blog again. When I last blogged I was a happy husband with what I thought was a happy wife and four great kids. I still have the 4 great kids but not the happy wife, lol. She decided to exit our marriage and find happiness somewhere else. While I spent several months grief stricken by her decision I have begun to emerge from the fog and face the world again. I have a new relationship starting with a woman who looks to be away more compatible with me than my wife ever was. I have 2 extra children who hang out with us (hers) so now I am up to six! In the end I am stronger than I have ever been. I refuse to let my travails bring me down. I will face the world with strength and happiness. I believe in the end my ex will pay a price for not only what she did but how she did it. However, that is between her, Karma and God. I am moving on!

When your child exceeds you

When I was in high school I played football. I would say I was not so good at it. I played the line and my entire technique involved hitting whoever happened to be in front of me. I rarely actually knew the play nor understood what was going on around me.

I went to a small church school that had about 300 students and our football coach was also the priest for the school. He tried his best but there was only minor talent and he really had no idea how to coach. So we regularly lost and when I finished high school I never played again.

Which brings me to my son. He attends a church school also. But his school has 2500 students. And a football team that USA Today has ranked #3 in the nation. Their entire coaching staff is ex-NFL, the Varsity is sponsored by Nike and two of their games this season were televised nationally on ESPN. To them football is deadly serious. Last year the entire starting line had a football scholarship to a major college.

They learn techniques that most players never see until college. Where I used to just hit the guy in front of me, they study footwork and leverage points. They understand deeply the technique behind the game at a level that no one on my team ever approached. They also practice 6 days a week and off season their days start with a 6 AM morning workout.

This year my son played JV. For the 5th year in a row they were undefeated. The offensive line averages around 250 lbs. One team refused to play against them because in the prior game 6 of the opposing players had to be carried off the field. During that game I heard on team mom mention to another that "we are going to need more ambulances". And in this highly competitive mix, my son was selected out of 60 kids to move up to Varsity in his sophomore year.

Which brings me to the title of this post. For the first time, one of my children is clearly better at something that I could ever be. Even if he never plays college level he is still a better football player than I ever was. Which is sort of a funny feeling. It is like the time when they finally beat you in a footrace even though you are trying (instead of letting them win).

I find myself un-bothered though. I am fiercely proud of all my kids and very proud of my oldest son. To know that he is better than me actually makes me happy in a strange way.

What I do worry about is if in my pride I am putting an expectation on him that he cannot live up to. At the skill level he is playing at kids are thinking college ball and beyond. There is always the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs to stay ahead. I worry constantly that he will be pushed into something stupid. Especially since at "only"220 lbs (at 15!) he is considered "small" for the position he is playing.

So I encourage him to play while constantly cautioning him against drugs and reassuring him that even if he does not play college he will still have had the experience of playing with people who he will eventually see on TV in the NFL. And that experience alone is worth something! He will always know that he got selected for Varsity as a sophomore and was a success in a very difficult team. I hope that is enough. For me I could not be more proud of him and I don't care if he plays college or not. I just hope he believes me.

In South Florida we have Lobster Mini-Season. For 2 days in at the end of July you can go out and catch lobster (up to 6 each person). Regular season starts in August. It is sort of insanity. It has become this huge deal where it seems like half of South Florida (I may be exaggerating there) loads up on boats and hunts lobster. What makes it really funny is that many of them have no idea what they are doing.

This year three of us at work decided to go lobster hunting with our sons. So the six of us loaded up on my buddy's boat and headed out. I was inexperienced but my two friends were veterans.

Each morning we met at my friend's house and loaded into his truck. We then headed to a private dock we have access to (public docs are overcrowded on this day and take forever). We launched out by 6 AM and hit the water.

Day 1: We get out into Miami bay and the boat motor refuses to work. After about 2 hours of back and forth calls with my friend's boat mechanic we finally get it running and head out to the Keys. We hunted lobster until 5 PM that night. I was waxed. C1 was with me and that is as tired as I have ever seen him. We caught only two lobsters we were allowed to keep. No problem catching lobsters, big problem catching big lobster. We did manage to stag one huge 17 incher and one smaller one. It was a cool experience though even without the lobster. We had a barracuda swim right by us (mean looking fish), had a wild dolphin play around us as we swam, and saw a lion fish (highly poisonous fish). We stayed way away from the lion fish. It is supposed to be like being stung by a hundred bees at once. No thanks! C1 got stung by a jelly fish though which he suffered through surprisingly quietly.

Day 2: Better luck with the boat so we got out earlier. We decided to dive some reefs fairly far out. All the dads SCUBA dove and the sons floated on the surface looking for lobster. Again, caught 15-20 but had to throw all of them back. I did see this huge black spotted eel though. It looked and me and I swam backwards fast!

As my buddy and I were complaining about the lack of sizable lobsters I suddenly realized that people pay good money just to come here and dive these reefs. And here I have them in my back yard and I am complaining. So I finished the dive and just enjoyed several beautiful reefs. What was neat was that you just drive around the Keys and look for reefs. Once you fins one you drop anchor and dive in. Most of the reefs had no one else even close to us when we dove.

At the end the dads decided this is a new tradition. We are going to try and go next year also. Maybe we will have better luck. I know we will have just as much fun!

Lazy Summer days in South Florida

Well we just got back from our annual trip to Cocoa beach. I really love it there. Every day is so completely lazy. I don't wake up until 9 (which is unheard of, usually I am up before the sun). Then we either spend the day swimming or going to the beach. This year we also spent hours into the playroom where A and the RP lived. We stay at the Ron Jon Cape Caribe (you can look it up on the internet..awesome place).

So now we are back and yes you guessed it, back in the water! It is so hot that usually on the weekend we live in the pool. Then I cook dinner on the grill and we eat outside. The wonderful thing about living in the sub-tropics is that after the sun start setting the world cools down. So you have these wonderful evening breezes. We sit out by the pool and eat our dinner and it is super!

Other than that, not much going on. Still no hurricanes which is great! In other news, C1 is now driving confidently. We invested in a set of driving lessons for him and it has really paid off. He is confidently driving around. We picked up the Matriarch from her hotel recently and he drove her around! That was her first grandchild who could drive. So a great first! She survived the trip with only minor gasps and wimpers!

Oh yeah that is a rare picture of me (I am usually the one taking pictures) with the RP. I was trying to steal a kiss and she was having none of it. I have now officially gone on a diet after that picture. Time to get back to my fighting weight (though the shirt is sort of puffing out).

I have no camera and thus no fun pictures..I blame the dog

So I have lost my camera. That means no cool pics for the blog this week. Somewhere there is a red camera in my house. I am a bit skeptical about finding it. Last time I lost my Ipod I never found it. I think it is possible that my lab ate it. He eats everything else so it seems possible!

In the winter I always enjoy talking to my friends who do not live in the sub-tropics. As they freeze we still stroll around in short. It is hot now but in a tropical kind of way. So burning hot but a cool breeze. By evening it is still hot but you can sit outside and it is pleasant. These days though we pretty much spend 60% of our time in the pool trying to keep cool.

The family is leaving for Cocoa Beach tomorrow. In 2007 I bought a timeshare and I have never looked back. Each year I take my family for a week there and we love it. Everyone always warned me about timeshares but really this one works fine for me. Since I really don't have a big desire to go anywhere but the property I bought into I have never had a problem reserving the week I want.

During much of my childhood my family spent a week each summer at the beach. Now I have recreated that only in Cocoa! It is funny how you end up picking certain memories from your childhood and relive them with your family.

Anyway I just wanted to document something!

Pirate Party

Today we went to a pirate party. As I have said before, it always amazes me how a 4-5 year old birthday party has not changed one bit since I started going to them 10 years ago with C1.

The party was actually a lot of fun. It was at a local park. They had a lady come in who was the entertainer. She dressed like a pirate and the party began with face painting. Then we had a series of games. They included a treasure hunt, races, dancing, etc. The kids had a blast! At the end A told the birthday boy "this was the best party ever".

It is sort of funny since we have been to far more expensive birthday parties where A did not enjoy himself half as much. This was sort of a party distilled to what was really important...playing with your friends. I have going to have to think about that when A's birthday comes up this summer. Maybe having fun is more important that some elaborate setup!

Another note is the playground itself. If you look in the background of the first picture you can see the playscape. All the playscapes here in my part of South Florida look like this. We have a merciless searing sun during the summer. But always a cool breeze off the ocean. That means that under shade even in the height of the summer it is at least bearable. So all the playscapes have huge tents over them to provide shade. I have been to a couple of playscapes without a shade and they are essentially unusable after April and before October-November. With the shade you can play all year.

Daddy I need a doctor

And so begins the dreaded sick time! A started coughing about 4 days ago. We took him to the doctor after it became obvious that he was not kicking it in a day. Now suddenly the RP is coughing and has a 100 degree fever.

I get way more worried about the RP than A. Like all my boys, A is a bruiser. He was born at 10 pounds and now at 4 is weighing in at a petite 45 pounds. So when he gets sick I worry like any parent but in the back of my mind is the fact that, like all the males in this family, he can take a licking and keep on ticking (showing my age there, not sure how many people under 40 would recognize that reference).

The RP ,on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish altogether. She is still only 25 pounds. You don't really notice it when she is healthy because she is always running around with her brother. She eats like a horse but never gains weight. She has one of those Russian model bodies that is thin without being skinny. However, once she is sick is becomes obvious all of a sudden. She is this wet little puppy dog who needs to be carried around all the time. At least she ate something tonight so hopefully that will help.

I think tomorrow we are doctor bound. Unless I see a fever break we are going to have to brave the doctor's office tomorrow for Saturday clinic. Thank God for a solid insurance plan, a calm daughter and a Kindle. I think all that together will let me survive the 2-3 hours that is going t0 consume tomorrow.

No beach for us! I just hope it stays away from C1 and C2.

Lost Focus

Well I sort of lost focus on the blog recently. The Wife decided she needed a taste of Texas and took a week trip with the RP to Texas. Which left me as the single father of 3 boys. We survived fine. I will say that the house would be a lot more structured if it was just me. My wife is the creative, spontaneous one. I like structure and order. So while she was gone we hit our routine on Day 2 and there we stayed for the entire week!

This week I am dealing with hurricane planning. In South Florida hurricanes are a big deal. At my company we have an entire week of hurricane planning. Basically for the week we simulate what would happen if a bad hurricane was bearing down on Miami. So you have calls every hour, checklists to be filled out, plans to be reviewed and rewritten. It is incredibly busy. The first year I did it I sort of had a hard time getting into it. I approached it only quasi seriously. But I am surrounded by people who have survived hurricane after hurricane. And they are serious as a heart attack about the drills. This year I am really getting into it. You have to imagine what you would do if the hurricane was really bearing down on the city.

I work for a utility so we are last out and first in. We are the #1 restoration utility in the world. Of course I always have to follow that statement with..because we have a lot of practice! Once the storm is coming our job is to make sure that we weather the storm and then get power back on as quickly as possible. That is a intense job that takes everyone in the company focused. You actually have two jobs, a storm job and a non-storm job.

Here is a sign of what a great company I work for. If you are out of town when a hurricane is coming they send a crew to your house to help your family prepare for the storm. I think that is cool. It would never have occurred to my old employer to do something like that. I was in Ireland on business once and a hurricane was bearing down on our town. Never heard a peep from them.

Anyway, enough gripping. I just wanted to get something out on the blog!

My Church

Lately I have been feeling like a lot of people have opinions about us as Catholics but they never seem to actually come to Mass. Or at least not my Mass.

This all started when I was at www.califmom.com reading her blog. Her husband is dying of cancer and as she sat in his hospital room she prayed the Rosary. And one of her concerns was that she was Protestant and what would the Catholics think. And I read it and thought...Do people really see us that way? Do they really think we would have any issue at all with a woman whose husband of 20 years is dying taking refuge in the peace of the Rosary? Because I know any of the people in my parish would hand her their Rosary without hesitation. I just felt this deep sadness, first for what the woman was going through and second that she would even be worried about what people would think about her praying the Rosary.

And then on top of that I can't seem to open the paper without people endlessly speculating about what the Pope did and did not know about the sex abuse scandals. And even calling for his resignation! Like he was some errant city commissioner and not the spiritual father of over a billion Catholics. For him to resign means the Cardinals were not guided by the Holy Spirit when he was nominated and basically says that God has completely abandoned us. So I am going to have to go with NO as the answer to if he should resign.

So just to blow off steam I want to say what my Catholic church is like and what it is not like (despite what you may read in the New York Times):

1) We are a place filled with love. We care about the people around us and we support each other as much as we can.

2) We are not judgmental. We understand that sometimes we do judge because we are human and we fail in Grace but we do not see judgement of other people as a virtue. We do not see it as our job to decide if other people are less fit for God than us. We try to accept people as they are and if they sin we try to help them.

3) We love children. Children fill the Church. They are not assigned to classrooms so that the adults can get to the somber business of worship. In my Church they wander the pews and sometimes they are loud. But we understand that children are loud and that is okay. Everyone laughs, the priest speaks louder and we move on. Last Mass a two year old crawled into my lap. I thought it was funny and so did her dad.

4) We protect our children fiercely. We as Catholics have seen vividly that evil can fester in the midst of good. We have rigid programs to protect our children but still let them live a life filled with church activities. We have zero tolerance for the filth that infected the Church in the past. We failed in the past but we will never fail again.

5) We are a place centered on Scripture. Our priests see their job as explaining Scripture to their flock, not using Scripture to prove some kind of point. 90% of our service is based on Scripture.

6) The Pope is our spiritual Father. Anyone who has ever taken the time to read his books will understand he is a man deeply rooted in faith and connected to God. He is the person God chose to guide us through the current trials in the Church.

What is funny is I originally wrote this post right after Easter Vigil. Then I decided it was completely the wrong tone for Easter day! So I stored it away to post sometime later!

Easter Day

So,having just returned from a 3.5 hour Easter Vigil Mass, I am going to have to reluctantly agree with Over-Caffeinated X 4 who responded to an earlier post saying that maybe that was not a good "starter" service for non-Catholics. We even lost some Catholics and they should have know what they were getting into when they showed up for the Mass!

The service I went to was in both Spanish and English (alternating) and I think that added to the time. Spanish as a language just seems to take longer to say the same thing as in English.

The service started outside with the blessing of the fire and the lighting of the Easter candle. Then it was inside to begin the service. We went through 9 sets of Bible Reading, Psalm, Prayer then over again. Sort of takes a long time. Then a homily, then the baptisms, then confirmations and acceptance into the Church, then a Eucharist mass. Whew! My absolute favorite prayer of the year though is the Litany of the Saints and getting to hear that is worth the entire 3.5 hours.

Great service though. I still feel like if some non-Catholics could come and actually make it through the service they would really understand what the Church is all about. It is an intense service but what a great experience!

Best Friends Today

So today at the beach my kids both met other kids, bonded in under 10 minutes, became best friends and played together for the remainder of the day. Sort of amazing. I wish I could make friends that fast. My son came to me and said "He is my best friend!". I laughed and said "You don't even know his name!". My son thought about it and then said "Well he is my best friend for today!

P.S. I let RP and A put the suntan lotion on my back and now my back looks like an abstract painting. They thought it was funny to draw big splotches with the lotion and yes I burned everywhere else!

P.P.S. A claims it is my fault since they did "all the parts you told us to" and yes I am arguing with a 4 year old.

El palacio del el jugos

So this week I became very bold. One of my coworkers and I have gone to a really cool Cuban place on Flagler a couple of times. It is called La palacio del el jugos (The palace of juices). The whole place is set up like a market. There are fruit and vegetable stalls and between them are food stalls. A huge amount of food cheap. And they make this drink out of pure sugar cane that is awesome! You literally watch them grind the sugar cane into juice and then drink it right there. It is a great place to eat but not somewhere you should go more than once a month if you don't want to gain 100 pounds or so.

The only issue? I have always gone there with a Cuban. No one working there speaks English. Or at least they will not admit they speak English. When you really get into Little Havana the people there often mess with you by speaking Spanish even when they know English. They especially like to do it to obvious Anglos like me. So for me to go to La Palacio meant I was going to need to test my Spanish skills. But I really, really wanted some food and juice last week so away I went.

As I walked in people sort of looked at me funny. Then the lady upfront turns around and says

"Aquí viene un tipo blanco" to the folks behind here. "Here comes a white guy". I actually think she was trying to be helpful and see if there was an English speaker in the back of the room. However, I was ready! I boldly strolled up to the counter and declared "Yo necessito cinco tamales por favor y un guarapo tambien".The person then looked at me and said "Quince dolares". I paid my money, got my food and got out of there! A victory for the "blanco"!

Funny thing is that all this occurred in one of the largest cities in the United States. Welcome to Miami!

Spring Break 2010

So today I was hanging around with this girl and guy I know and we decided to hit the beach in Ft Lauderdale for some spring break fun. There were tons of cool college kids everywhere and we partied until dark.

Everyone was there, even a blimp!

Well...that is what I would have written about 20 years ago! The real story is that A and the RP and I decided to hit the beach today. When The Matriarch (my mom and yes at 42 I still call her mom) was in town last week we talked a lot about going to the beach but sanity prevailed (it is spring break in South Florida) and we decided to have a nice day at the zoo instead. But I had promised A and RP I would take them this week no matter what.

When I say there were a ton of college kids, I mean a ton of people sitting in their cars making a 20 minute trip to the beach take an hour. What a mess! Traffic was backed up for miles with folks trying to get on the main strip for Ft. Lauderdale. I was trying to get to the local part of the beach but to get there I had to sit in traffic with a bunch of people with license plates from all over the country. Once I got to the beach where we usually hang out there were very few people (it is way away from the action by the hotels) but getting there was a chore.

Anyway, we had a perfect day. Set up the tent and spent three hours on the beach. We built sand castles, picked up shells and swam in the water. Actually we waded in the water, the ocean is still a bit cold. Lots of Notherners splashing around but us Floridians need warm water!

The Day Begins - 75 degrees and perfect weather

The Wife thinks she looks terrified. A was laughing in

this picture, not scared. But I guess I can see

what the Wife is saying....

The game was to run from our beach tent all

the way into the water and back again. They did

it about 10 times which may explain how tired

we all are!

Ahhh...nothing like a cool ocean breeze and

a daddy leg to sleep on at the end of the day.

We did actually stay almost until dark!

Vivere senza rimpianti

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

So I have been thinking about this phrase ever since I saw it on the internets (As the Bloggess calls it). It means "To Live without regrets". I am not sure it is really possible to ever achieve this ideal but lately I have been trying to follow it in regards to my kids.

I am keenly aware of the sands of time slowing slipping away. In 3 years C1 is off to college, C2 is in high school and A hits the 7 year old range. In 4-5 years even RP will no longer want to hang out with me all the time. Right now it is a given that if I am going somewhere on the weekend then at least the two youngest children will be with me. But I know that will end. My time as the number one focus in my children's life is slowly ending. And I live each day trying to capture and enjoy as much of the time I have with them as possible.

I think I drive the Wife crazy because on the weekend I never stop. It is one adventure to another with my kids. She does not understand my need to frantically drink as much of the experience as I can. The need to make memories that I can hold to when the kids are older.

I do have a life outside of my kids. I work, I go to Mass, I spend time with the Wife. But for me right now in life this is the key focus when I am not trying to make money. Today I spent 5 hours at the zoo, next week I will go to the beach or the park or somewhere. Because I refuse to look back at the years I have now and think that I missed something. To regret even a moment of the time I had with my children. I refuse to live with regret.

A Silly Made Up Song

So when my oldest child was only one, I made up a song to sing him to sleep. I have a horrible voice but none of my children seem to care. The Wife does care but it is not her I am singing to!

I had a starting and ending verse when I started 14 years ago and for each child I have added a new verse over the years. Each verse for each child is tied to a thing that child loved to do with me when they were young. Each verse captures a memory of my children. It goes like this:

Hey little boy

Will you play with me

He said "I'd love to dad

Just you and me"

For C1 I added

Hey little boy

Let's go to the park

We'll run and we'll play

we'll stay out past dark

For C2 I added

Hey little boy

Let's go to the pool

We'll splash and we'll swim

We'll look real cool

For A1 I added

Hey little boy

Let's go to the beach

We'll dig and we'll build

There's a lot I can teach

For RP I added

Hey little girl

Let's go to the zoo

We'll look at the animals

We'll act real cool

Hey Little Boy

Your Daddy loves you

He said "I know Dad

I love you too"

A silly song that I have now sung to four children. When I sing to the RP I have to change all the "little boys" in the song to "little girls" and all the "hes" to "shes". But the song still works and after 14 years it is still putting children to sleep.

(RP told me last night that "this is my favorite song daddy"

In which I try to go to the zoo but fail in a good way

So today RP, A and I decided to head for the zoo in Miami. For anyone who is visiting Miami the zoo is a good break from the endless beach and water. If you like zoos, and like walking a lot. The zoo is laid out in a 3 mile loop and you walk the whole thing. It has a monorail you can ride but if you do you miss all the animals. It does have Surrey Bikes for rent if you are willing to bike. My family signed up for a membership last year and I would say we have been about 7-8 times. So not every week but still fun enough to go back once a month or so.

Anyway, we were heading to the zoo when we saw the Railroad Museum (hard to miss since you have to drive by it to get into the zoo). And we saw a huge Thomas the Tank engine sign. So we never made it to the zoo.

If you are ever in Miami and your kids love trains, the Railroad Museum is a must. Forget the zoo. At the Railroad Museum there are all these old trains that you get to crawl around in. Based on how dirty you want to get, you can really crawl around some of them. The place is chock full of old, real trains from the last 50 years. It also has the world's largest (INHO) train playroom.

So instead of the zoo we went and saw Thomas. Of course that also involved ice cream (funny how many activities we do seem to involve ice cream at some point :-) ), and a bouncy house and a lot of other fun things to do. It was fun. Then we waited in line and saw Thomas.

We decided not to ride him though. You don't actually get to ride him, you ride in a coach pulled behind him. I can do that any week at the Railroad Museum. I don't need to do it with Thomas. So we passed on that but the rest was fun. I realize the kids will probably not remember Thomas but we will have pictures and I will always be able to show them that we met him in person!

Feast Day

So today was the Feast day for St.Katherine Drexel, the patron saint of our local church. They really did it up for the event. The Archbishop was there and he gave most of the service. The whole thing was outside in a local park and the entire church showed up.

Then we had free hot dogs, hamburgers and cake! Well sort of free. They asked for donations and you sort of felt like you had to contribute something.

Afterwards there was a big fair that everyone hung out at until 4 PM. Lots of people brought chairs and blankets and there was a DJ. For the kids we had bounce houses, a rock climbing wall and a bunch of games (sack cloth races, soccer shootouts, etc). The kids had a blast. Except A got sunburned so now I feel like a bad parent for not putting sun block on him.The sun kind of snuck up on us. In the morning we were all in coats but by 1 it was sunny and warmer. So I ended up carrying around a whole bag of coats by the afternoon. Some people left and came back in shorts!

Ana had her first cotton candy also! She voted a big yes on the American treat!