Cottage Week 2009:

Cottage Week 2009 pictures here: http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/keyword/cottage%20week#602469993_f5x6v

Cottage Weekend 2008:

Cottage Week 2008 pictures here: http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Vacation/2008-08-14-Cottage-Weekend/5742907_s34FP#354834988_bCkUk

Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time: 5:45am

When the alarm went off, I opened my eyes, saddened. For the second night, Sarah hadn’t slept in the bed with me. With a sigh, I swung my legs off the bed and walked downstairs. Sarah slept soundly on the couch. I took a deep breath, continued my morning routine, and left for work an hour later.

Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time: 7:30am (approximate)

“Hello?”

Sarah’s voice answered through my phone’s speaker, “Hi.”

“Why’d you sleep downstairs again?”

I listened as Sarah explained. After some discussion, we both confirmed that we were still in love with one another, exchanged goodbyes, and disconnected the call.

Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time: 10:30am (approximate)

My phone rang three hours later. Sarah’s picture flashed onto the screen. I pressed the green button and waited for the tone in my headset to signal that the call was connected.

“Hi, honey,” she said.

“Hi, what’s up?”

“Well,” she started. I listened as she explained.

“How long?”

“A week,” she said.

Recalling her reasons for sleeping downstairs the night before, I replied, “Well, that would explain why you threw up last night.”

“Yeah, and why I felt like a furnace the night before that. So I was thinking about buying a pregnancy test when I go to the store today.”

Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time: 4:00pm (approximate)

She took the stick into the bathroom, while Tyler helped me in the kitchen with dinner; we were preparing corn on the cob and some meat for the grill. The instructions for the pregnancy test clearly stated to wait three minutes for a result. When Sarah returned from the bathroom, she set the timer on the microwave to three minutes and pressed the “Start” button. Over the course of the next 180 seconds, we caught each other sneaking into the bathroom to look for the blue line. We were simultaneously giddy and anxious for the results.

Ten minutes later, Sarah caught me sneaking into the bathroom again to look for the blue line we still had yet to see.

Barely loud enough for me to hear in the other room, Sarah said, “The instructions said not to trust it after fifteen minutes.”

I looked at the blank window on the stick for just a moment longer. I lowered my head, disappointed, then walked back to Sarah in the kitchen. My eyes flicked to the box for the pregnancy test. I picked it up and read the front of it.

“99.9% effective,” I mumbled, reading the box. Just about as accurate at detecting a pregnancy as a condom, birth control pill, or IUD is at preventing one. Sarah had her IUD removed two months ago, in the hopes of us adding one more to our family. We timed and planned it so that we wouldn’t have another summer baby. As much as we love, cherish, and adore Tyler, Sarah was miserable in the summer heat of her ninth month of pregnancy. You always hear of people that take pregnancy tests, scared of possibly getting a positive result, because the condom broke, or she forgot her pill “just that one time,” or from pure foolishness. We planned this; we wanted a positive result. A little more hopefully, I continued, “Maybe we’re the 0.1%.”

“Yeah, maybe. Even the test line didn’t turn blue.”

We then concoted myriad reasons we didn’t get a positive result, from the fact that she probably should have taken the test with her fist pee of the day, to maybe she held the stick crooked.

We decided to try the second test in the morning.

Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time: 7:00pm (approximate)

“I need to pee.”

It had only been a few hours, but I couldn’t resist. I told her to do it. So what if it was negative again? I’d just go buy another test for the morning. Damnit, I’ll just keep buying them until it gives us the answer we want!

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. I was too hopeful for a positive, and too worried about a negative. I took another deep breath as the bathroom door opened.

“Three minutes, my ass! It lit blue in three SECONDS!”

We high-fived and hugged and kissed each other.

Sarah asked, “Tyler, do you want to be a big brother?”

He answered without hesitation, “Yeah! Bruhver.”

We are overjoyed to announce that we are expecting our second child on, or around, February 15, 2011. As of the posting of this entry, we are nine weeks along.

On June 28, this year, my beautiful little boy completed his second trip around the sun and clicked his counter over to two. I, however, was not at home for this event. A work-related project had me a few states away for that particular week. But, I was home for the birthday party two days before his actual birthday. It was a very good day.

Tyler has recently developed an affinity towards Toy Story, and its characters, so we (let’s be honest, Sarah’s the event coordinator of the household, so I use the term “we” loosely here. To be even more honest, it’d be more fitting to say “Sarah and her BFF, Mel”) decided on a Toy Story themed party for Tyler.

Cupcakes, decorations, and games all oozed Woody and Buzz goodness. Sarah and Mel craftily made games and activities to keep the children happy. I did my part by putting up said decorations and making Toy Story-themed signs, directing people to the lemonade and the bathroom.

Tyler, the other children, and the adults all (presumably) had a really good time. When it came time to sing the “Happy Birthday” song to Tyler, the only thing bigger than the unflappable smile on his face was the garage we used as shelter from the blistering heat. The kids – and a couple adults – used the sprinkler.

And myself? Happy. Truly happy. I stuggle with some demons in my life; depression being the primary shadow that clouds much of my sky. That’s not to say that I’m never happy, because I am, quite often nowadays. At any given time, though, I feel a sadness/numbness/depression stalking me, always keeping its presence in my peripheral. But on this day, being with family and friends, playing with the kids, and watching Tyler have such a good time… Well, it made my heart warm. Whatever door Tyler has been pushing open within me over the last two years opened a little wider on June 26th, 2010.

Of course, I can’t discount the fact that Sarah has been instrumental in helping me to feel more balanced and comfortable in my skin. She has helped and supported me through all of my dark periods. Just the simple fact that she has put up with my crap for seven years – and counting – should speak volumes to her character. Or to her foolishness.

I suppose that’s enough of my soapbox rambling. Let’s take a short journey, through pictures of Tyler’s birthday party.

I won’t say that my Father’s Day was better than yours. I won’t say that my spouse loves me more than yours loves you. I won’t say that my child loves me more than yours loves you.

I will say, however, that I’d be hard pressed to recall a time that I felt happier and more loved than I did yesterday.

First, I need to run down the day before. We went to Sarah’s parents’ house for a family gathering/mini-reunion/party. We arrived around one in the afternoon, so by two I was drinking (cheap) tequila. As a result of this (and of not being in my early twenties anymore), I began developing a hangover before I went to bed. I think the only mishap that day was when Sarah’s dad was attacked by gravity and a concrete driveway. It wasn’t his fault though, because the canopy tripped him.

We slept in a tent that night, in Sarah’s parents’ back yard. When I awoke Sunday morning, the only hangover symptoms I had remaining – aside from still being very tired – were a strong need for coffee and food. This, coupled with the fact that Uncle Curt makes amazing breakfasts, started my Father’s day on the right foot; it was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had.

We hung out for a bit, packed up the tent, then drove home. Sarah, Tyler, and Delilah were all sleeping within five minutes of being on the road. We got home and I carried Tyler to his room to continue his nap. After helping Sarah uload the truck, she sent me upstairs for a nap.

After my glorious nap, I felt awake and refreshed. Tyler hand-picked a Spiderman-themed Father’s day card for me, telling Sarah, “Piderman for daddy,” when they were shopping for one. Then, they both surprised me with tickets to see Toy Story 3, in 3D!!

“Thank you, Mommy. Thank you Tyler. I am so happy.”

Tyler wrapped his arms around my neck, kissed me , and said, “Happy fahdders day, daddy.”

“Thank you Tyler,” I replied.

“I so pwoud of you daddy.”

There are no words to explain how I felt at that moment. None.

On the drive to the theatre, we told Tyler about the special “movie glasses” we would have to wear for Toy Story 3. He clutched the Woody toy that his Aunt Acey bought him and said, “yeahhh, moovie gwasses.”

When the lights dimmed, and the movie started, Tyler signalled his approval with “Wowwwwwwwwww.”

Twenty minutes in, Tyler loudly asked, “Daddy, what is that, daddy?”

Later, halfway through the movie, I whispered to Tyler, “Are you having fun?”

He looked at me with his special movie glasses and said, “Yeah!”

At the end of the movie – and I’m not embarrassed to say this – Sarah and I both cried. Not for any other reason than the realization that Tyler is going to grow up and move out one day.

Saying this was my best Father’s Day ever doesn’t mean much, because this is only my second Father’s Day. But, it was honestly one of the single greatest days of my life.

Also, since it’s now on Facebook, I think it’s okay to announce it here as well… On or around January 9th, 2011, I will be an uncle again. My sister (in-law, just for clarification, because I view all of Sarah’s sisters as my own) and her husband have a little plum-sized bean growing. They announced it at the party on Saturday and I couldn’t be happier for them as they travel down such a rewarding and trying path.

On the fourth day of our five day camping trip, my big brother and his two sons stopped up for the day. It was a nice treat, because Sarah, myself, and Tyler hadn’t seen them in a while. Here’s a quick rundown of the day, via pictures…

The very first picture I took on this day was taken just so I could dial in the manual settings on the camera. Upon later inspection, however, it was decided that I had to keep the picture. It seems that I have busted my big brother being a bad uncle. See for yourself. Here he is, giving Tyler a piece of gum. BUSTED!

Later, Tyler and his cousin Shawn had fun drinking water directly from the spigot.

Wait, see that bottle of water in the last pic? Directly above Tyler’s head? That’s Uncle Scott (my brother) pouring water on Tyler as he drinks the water. Always the practical joker, that one. Tyler didn’t seem to mind, though, if these pictures are any determining factor.

Later, Tyler and Shawn took pictures together:

Monkey see…

Monkey do….

Then, we went fishing. What do you think is going through Delilah’s mind here?

Cousin Kevin caught a frog for Tyler and Shawn to touch!

Later, just Shawn and I went fishing together.

And even later than that, after our very welcome company and made the drive back home, we (my parents, Sarah, myself, Tyler, and Delilah) all went into town for some Dairy Queen. Even Delilah had an ice cream cone. Then, Sarah and Tyler sat on the edge of the lake for a moment.

This was our last full day at the campground, and it was a very great day.

If you would like to see all of our camping pictures, they are here. Or you can view them one day at a time (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4). Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. This was Tyler’s first camping trip ever, and we all absolutely loved it.

I may or may not have one bonus story to share, but the memories of all the dialog have faded a bit. I’ll try to get it up, because it’s awesome, but we’ll see.

You’ve already seen a glimpse of the third day of our camping trip on the last Wordless Wednesday post. Two very substantial things took place on this day, which I’d like to share with you now.

Early in the afternoon, while Tyler was napping, I took Delilah for a walk. She seemed pent up, so I wanted to take her to a secluded area where she could run free and burn up some energy. We had a great time walking running through the woods, and through the marsh (which I found purely by accident). I could have taken Delilah back to camp covered in mud. I actually wanted to, so I could show off the fun we had. The problem was that Delilah crashed into me while running around. This was while I was snapping off some landscape pictures. She knocked my foot off of the fallen tree that I had presently been perched upon. When said foot contacted the earth, it promptly sank eight inches into warm black mud. This, my dear friends, was unacceptable. Next stop, the lake.

I share a trait with Delilah in that neither of us can swim. I promise to write about my reasons later. Delilah just thrashes around. This day, our third day of camping, Delilah “got it” and simply started swimming.

Later, my step-dad (Ganpa) and I had just finished a little fishing and were walking up a hill when he brought my attention to a snake slithering by. Minutes later, Ganpa was (nervously) driving us back to camp while I tightly gripped a thirty-six inch snake in my hands. I looked down to see blood on my hands. Resisting the urge to drop the snake, and likely cause Ganpa to send the truck careening into the lake, I carefully inspected my hands as the snake redoubled its efforts at escaping my grasp. I began to suspect that the snake was poisonous and had injected me with an anesthetic-like venom, because I didn’t feel any pain. Just as I processed that thought, the snake performed a barrel roll in my hands and I spotted a wound on its tail. It appears to have happened recently, but I know I didn’t do it, so I just made a mental note to scrub my hands later.

We arrived at camp seconds later, and I beckoned Tyler to me. Ganpa was able to get some video before his batteries died and caught me being an evil daddy by scaring Tyler with the snake.

In case you don’t have 2 minutes to spare to watch the video – really, you should watch the video – you can forward to the one minute mark to watch me scare Tyler with it.

Tyler helped me release the snake a few moments later.

Tyler then decided to make like his daddy and set off chasing the snake. AND CAUGHT IT!

He held it up by it’s tail and said, “Lonnnng.”

Then, he held it with both hands and STRETCHED it. I was preoccupied with laughing and taking pictures, so my mom (Gamma) had to tell Tyler it wasn’t nice to stretch a snake.

For reasons unknown to all of us, Tyler then put the snake up to his neck like it was choking him.

Afterward, Tyler set the snake free and we all went back to camp. The fearlessness of my son amazes me and warms my heart.

There was a single event during our five day camping excursion that shook me to my very core.

On day 2, Ganpa and I took Tyler fishing at the lake. Actually, Ganpa took Tyler and I fishing. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve been fishing. Fifteen years, maybe more. In preparation of this trip, Sarah and I previously bought a Spiderman fishing pole for Tyler. It’s got a small plastic fish tied to the line, so there’s no worries of Tyler taking a barbed hook, covered with worm guts, to his own cheek. That being said, there was a worry of him taking a worm-gut covered, barbed hook to his cheek by my inexperienced hand.

Tyler watched Ganpa hook a worm and cast his line, but lost interest pretty quickly in his own fishing pole. He’s a little young still and doesn’t quite have the dexterity to cast or reel a line anyway. Instead, he busied himself by playing in the water, with and around some of the other kids that were there. Ganpa walked twenty feet down the shore to see if he could get any bites out there. I remained with Tyler.

Sarah stopped by a few minutes later. She was halfway through her jog and needed a small rest. We talked for a bit about her run and how things were going, while I fished and watched Tyler play in the water. I told her that Ganpa had caught a bass and that Tyler touched it. I cast my line out again and slowly reeled it in while telling Sarah about the fish.

“JOE! JOE!”

My eyes immediately flicked to Tyler, who was face down in the water, struggling to stand up. I dropped my pole and raced into the water. Not a single thought entered my head. Water soaked through my shoes and splashed up my legs. As I ran, I saw Tyler, head submerged, bring his arm up. A small wave of relief hit me when I saw him move. He put his arm back down, trying to push himself up. His hand broke the plane of the water, giving him no surface with which to push. The five seconds that passed were a parental eternity. I watched as Tyler unsuccessfully tried to lift his head out of the water. My son was effectively blinded and unable to breath. Fear gripped me harder as the resistance of the water slowed my run.

I finally reached Tyler and lifted him out of the water. He looked confused and scared, but otherwise intact. The thinking center of my brain resumed its duties. I set Tyler, feet first, back into the water and put on my happy, “nothing to worry about over here”, face.

“Did you fall down, buddy?”

Still scared, Tyler started crying. I grabbed him by the hand and walked him to shore. Sarah was on the same “don’t let Tyler know how freaked-the-f—-out you are” page and remained calm and passive.

She asked, “Are you okay, TyTy? Do you need a hug from mommy?”

“Yeah.”

As mother and son hugged each other, I mentally started kicking my ass. I looked away for one second. One second! One? Maybe five. Maybe ten. I really just wasn’t sure how long. I remembered then that I can’t swim. What if he was out further? What if he wasn’t breathing? I don’t know CPR. I get the concept, and may be able to “wing it,” but don’t know the proper technique. I forced myself to remain calm. I never want Tyler to have the same fears of water that I have (from a traumatic childhood experience of my own, no less). We comforted Tyler for just a moment, and talked to him about what happened. I knew it was my fault. Sarah knew it was my fault. All the parents on the shore – presumably watching their own kids – knew it was my fault. The truth is, I really didn’t know that I wasn’t paying attention to Tyler at the time. I was enjoying the fishing experience, and talking to Sarah. And Tyler has always just been so… good at everything. He’s big and strong, and he’s got a pretty uncanny sense of balance and awareness that amazes me daily. So, I dropped the ball. I keep telling myself that this is part of parenting. That even though something tragic could have happened, it didn’t.

Mark my words. I will know how to swim before the summer is over.

While we all sat around, Tyler decided to play with the construction toys that Gamma and Ganpa bought Tyler previously:

Then, we found out that Tyler doesn’t really care for roasted marshmallows:

Instead, he likes to eat them raw:

Later, Tyler decided that Delilah needed to go for a walk.

A side note about Delilah. She was fantastic during our trip. You’d think that she was born to go camping. Not once during our five days there did we need to tie her up. She was only on a leash for a maximum of about a half an hour total. Even then, we don’t think it was necessary, but there were other unleashed dogs around and we wanted to be completely positive that Delilah was under control. Above, she was on the leash because we were walking through an area with many campers. Delilah became interested in meeting another dog, so we leashed her while we walked through that area.

After the walk, us boys (me, Tyler, and Ganpa) went fishing. Ganpa showed Tyler how to hook a worm:

We caught around nine fish. We were having such a great time, that it didn’t occur to me to take pictures of Tyler touching the fish, or the fish scaring Tyler by flapping it’s tail fin on Tyler’s hand.

After the fishing trip, we were all pretty tired. Delilah went to sleep on what we came to call her “Princess Perch,” which she was quite fond of:

Pay no attention to the three empty six-packs of Smirnoff Ice at Tyler’s feet…

On the first day of our camping trip, Tyler learned some very cool things from his Ganpa (grandpa). After camp was set up:

and after Tyler played in a bucket of water:

Ganpa showed Tyler how to pump water. Tyler helped by holding the bucket in place:

Then, Ganpa showed Tyler how to drink water using his hands:

Tyler also washed his feet while over there:

Then, Ganpa showed Tyler how to skip stones on the lake:

Then, Tyler learned what happens when your “sensitive area” touches the cool water in the lake:

Delilah also had a lot of fun splashing around in the water. She doesn’t know how to swim though, so she doesn’t go deep, and she kinda freaks out if she goes out to far:

All of the pictures (119 of them) from our first day of camping can be found here: Camping Trip, Day 1

And that’s how our first day went. We grilled chicken and had smores that evening. Tyler fell out of bed and rattled his brain, but slept well otherwise. On the second day, Tyler almost died… seriously. Stay tuned for that story.

Happy 30th Birthday to the best wife on the planet, and to the best mommy that Tyler (and Delilah) could EVER hope for. We love you with all of our hearts!

And yes, readers, keeping with the theme, these are camping pictures.