Liam's Fifth Birthday

This has been a really long week and Liam got to celebrate his birthday off and on all the way through. Since I had to work his official birthday we let him open most of his presents on Monday. He has really got the whole tearing it into pieces down as there are little clouds of confetti that fly through the air when he opens the gifts. We then had a little get together at my parent’s house were he got a new bike from my parents that he can actually fit on, along with a lot of toys for Aunt Angie and Uncle Jason.

On Tuesday Mary took the day of so he could stay home on his actual birthday so he could play with his new toys. We then took him out for breadsticks and pizza (mainly the breadsticks) for dinner because breadsticks are probably one of his most favorite foods besides cookies.

Saturday the 12th was his official party at the house and he had lots of guests. He had some of his favorite people to play with; Charles, Taylor, Aidan and Brayden so he had a ball. He got lots of great gifts from everyone and did a great job of blowing out his candles.

All I can say is daddy is going to have to learn how to transform a whole bunch of new transformers, and since I still have problems with some of his old ones this will be a challenge. Liam is growing up way to quick and I cannot believe that he is five already. I sure do wish time would slow down just a little bit because trying to take it in is really difficult. We are both worn out, but it defiantly was a good time and worth it.

Cataract Falls & First Family Picnic

Well it is official we had our fist family picnic on the 22nd of August and used the picnic basket Mary and I received for a wedding gift too. Needless to say we have never used it the ten years that we have been married so it was about time to put it to use. Laim had never seen a real waterfall before and since he has seen pictures from my Smokey Mountain trip, has a Thomas the train waterfall track and movie we took him to Cataract Falls. He had been asking about what they were so this gave him the opportunity to see one first hand.

Ready for a road trip and feeling relaxed to be with my family we all got in the car when the inevitable “how much longer” rose out of the back seat. This would have been fine except we had only just backed out of the driveway when he started in. Though he did not like the long drive to the park once we were there Liam did seem to have a good time. There was a covered bridge, many waterfalls and even a little play area for kids. We got the picnic basket out and had a very enjoyable meal, and Liam was ecstatic because we had packed his cookie. I was able to spend some time taking pictures along with just taking in the beauty of it all. After lunch we went down to the lower falls for a couple more pictures then called it a day.

Thoughts on the Park:

Thought I would add a few thoughts on the park in general. I really liked the upper falls and all of the rock formations which made for several sub-falls. It was very scenic and I really love the sound of rushing water. The covered bridge they have on the property was pretty cool and makes for a great picture. You can read more about the bridge here if you would like. The lower falls while nice lacked the more scenic view of the upper falls, but is well worth the short trip down the road so you can say that you were there.

Now I now the “pit toilets” or what I like to refer to as “outhouses” are pretty bad, but there is nothing like watching men in the wide open taking a leak out in the general public. If you feel the need to skip out on the parks “facilities” I under stand, just head off the beaten trail to do it. I really liked the redneck with his 16oz beer taking a wiz right next to the waterfall, really come on.

When my grandfather was alive he had a little piece of property in Spencer, Indiana which we had to pass through Cloverdale in order to get there and all that time I never knew the falls were just a short jaunt away. I cannot believe it took me this long to discover Cataract Falls. Below I have some links if anyone is interesting in heading down on a trip of their own. I have also posted a couple of pictures in the “Al’s Selects” on my website, the rest I’ll upload with the August pictures. I also have some pictures up on my Facebook page for all those who visit me there.

Cataract Falls Links:
> http://www.cataractfalls.com/
> http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2960.htm

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

SPOILER NOTICE: There are spoilers in this write up, so if you have not seen the movie yet and want to remain surprised I would avoid reading this for now.

I figured I might as well write a review for this movie since I have already seen it four times. Now mind you I had to watch it once to preview it for Liam and then the other three times Liam wanted to go of course I didn’t put up any arguments. Thought I might also give some brief feelings on the whole transformer genre past and present.

The major plot of this movie is that Sam (who is now going to college) gets information transferred to him from a piece of the Allspark that gives clues to where The Matrix of Leadership can be found. The Fallen is actually a transformer who was one of the original primes fell to evil and became the first Decepticon. The Fallen is looking for the Matrix to use it for powering a machine that will create energon by destroying the Sun. While protecting Sam Optimus Prime dies so it is up to Sam to find the Matrix in order to bring Optimus back to life.

I know a lot of people really didn’t like this movie or the first one, but I didn’t mind it at all and thought it was enjoyable. If you go back and watch the original cartoons you really have the same basic plot over and over again which is the Decepticons are trying in some way to steel energy from Earth in order to take over the universe. So the plot really doesn’t bother me all that much. What I don’t really like about the movie is other then Optimus, Bumblebee, and Megatron there is really not much character development with the Transformers. You cannot get that emotionally attached, because there is just nothing there. I was very happy that they gave you some more of the old Megatron and Starscream infighting, it really added to the much lacking character development and gave you a sense of the old series.

I thought the fight sequences from this movie far exceeded the first in both visual and emotional sense. I still think they move too fast, but that seems to be how directors are doing action scenes as a whole nowadays. The second movie also had the transformers losing parts and spiting lubricates, oil or what have you. I’m still not sure how I feel about this but I know that they added it to give you more of a sense that the transformers feel. A fairly comical part was when Optimus ripped off Starscream’s arm then beat him with it and then after the fight Megatron beats Starscream with it as well. Of course the best fight scene was at the end when Optimus comes back and lets Megatron and the Fallen have it.

The whole transformer genre I think has grown especially the toys. The toys look a whole lot better now, but you almost need a PHD in engineering to transform them. Some of Liam’s takes me forever to change them from robot to vehicle modes. While I miss the original cartoon, I have to say I really like Transformers Animated on the Cartoon Network. When I first saw pictures and a little bit of the story I really didn’t think that I would enjoy it, but I was wrong. The story and plot are good and the character development far exceeds both the original series and the movies. What I don’t like is Optimus is not the overall Autobot leader, he is smaller then Megatron and Peter Cullen is not doing the voice.

Links:
> http://www.transformersmovie.com/
> http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/en_US/

Liam's First Swimming Lesson

On July 21st Liam had his first official swim lesson over at the YMCA, and after starting out a little nervous with out his mommy or daddy in the water he did a great job. He is in a kiddy pool so he can actually touch the bottom, which he likes and doesn’t need to where his float suit. I do feel a little bad for him because he got stuck in a group with all girls, but hey nothing like a group of girls at the pool to help find a few prospects.

During the part of the lesson where she was having the kids go under water Liam answered the question wrong and got a little surprise. The teacher asked him if he had been under water before, and he answer yes which was true. What he failed to mention was that he didn’t want to go under water and the next thing he knew after grabbing his nose was being submerged and coming up coughing. After getting over the initial shock and cleaning the water out of his eyes I gave him a thumbs up which seemed to pacify him for the moment.

They played a game where she would get them to jump in the water however none of them would just jump in, instead they all had to take her hands. I do have to say that we need to work on his jumping ability, because all the little girls seems to be able to get a bigger splash then he did. He seemed to do better at the second lesson, especially with going under the water which was good to see, but he still needs work on that jump.


Saturday we got him some goggles and took him over to the Y on Sunday while Mary Ellen worked out. With the goggles he actually decided he wanted to go under water and kept doing it the whole time we were there. After her workout was over Mary got in with us and we worked on his jumping, and now he will actually jump in without taking a hold of our hands. It does look like he is having fun and it is good to see him doing some organized activity with others his age.

Moon Beams

All the way through grade school to college I have always followed the space program, not as much of late but I still keep a keen eye to news coming out of NASA. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of humans walking on the moon I can’t help to think, what the hell happened? We have been spinning our wheels in space ever since and I just don’t like it.

I know it is hard to justify the big expense especially when we are in hard economic times, but look at the excitement and technological advances we made during that push to the moon. Humans are built for adventure and exploration and something has got in our way. Greed, wars, politics and a general lack of a common purpose has been staring us in the face and we have been so busy listing to our iPods, surfing the Internet or just caught up in our own financial struggles we have ignored the obstacle. I say it is time to break out it is time for us as a human race to find that inner adventurous spirit and do something that is positive.

Let us dream to explore once more. Let us sore to new adventures. Let us do what we need to do in order to advance our race, and put our petty differences aside and strive for a common goal. It could start with space and spread into other areas; environment, religious understanding, peace, who knows but we have to start somewhere and space/science is a good common ground.

Vacation & Father's Day

I was lucky enough to get a whole weeks vacation from June 15th thought the 19th which was badly needed. The best part was taking Liam to King's Island and the Great Wolf Lodge over in Cincinnati, Ohio for the first time. He wouldn’t get on the bumper cars after talking about them for the whole week before, so I got worried at first that this might not have been a good idea. He did get on this helicopter ride with Charles and then he rode the guided cars and had fun on those.



Before he could really see the Fairy Odd coaster (that used to be the Beastie for us older King’s Island people) we got him in line. As we took off he started holding his ears because he thought it was too loud, and then we got to the hill. Liam eyes got big when we started going up, and I though for a moment that he was going to freak out, but then we went down the hill and up the next I looked down and he was smiling while still holding his ears. He then turned to me and said, “Daddy this is awesome”! He then rode it three or four more times that day.

Great Wolf Lodge was pretty cool, we got a room with that had bunk beds set up to look like a little cabin. The indoor water park was really fund as well with lots of slides and a wave pool. We tried taking Liam down some of the slides, but he wasn’t really into it, but after we got back home he told us that he liked it. He defiantly wants to go back to both places epically King’s Island.

Father’s day was a good time because we made Liam wear his Tony Hawk shirt and put product in his hair. This all started at our last barber trip well he keep trying to push my hair down, so I told him if he did it one more time I would make him wear product with his hair up. For all those who don’t know Liam says he hates product and absolutely hates for his hair to be up, he likes it straight down. Needless to say we were able to get a picture before he rubbed it all out of his hair, and he looks really good with it done. We’ll see maybe we can get him to start doing it more, but I doubt it.

My 2009 Smoky Mountain Trip

All I can say is just wow! This trip was one of my favorite of all times and now I can only think about going back for more. Greg and I left on a raining Thursday, but once we got to Knoxville, TN it started to clear and we got good weather to put up our tent and cook our first meal. The campsite in the park was great with running water in the background and trees upon trees. The only problem with the campsite is the fact that there are not any showers.

On our first full day there we decided to tackle the rugged Chimney Tops Trail which is quite a hike up a mountain. The view is just great with all the running water coming down from the top, green trees and the rock filled trail itself. The round trip of this trail is just over five miles but the going is fairly slow with the grade and tough terrain. When you hit a tree that has a lot of it roots sticking out of ground you have made it to the pre-summit then you are just a rock climb away from the top. Greg and I made it most of the way up, but we had our large hiking boots on and felt it was not a good idea to go all the way since we could not feel the rock with our feet.

The following day was pretty busy because we tracked more distance but the trails were not as tough as the Chimney Tops. We hit the Laurel Falls which is just simple beauty. Even though the grade is steep the trail is paved all the way to the falls so it is pretty easy going. The falls itself are sixty feet high and as the water comes down it branches off on each side to give you a really calming view. Next, since we were so sore from the Chimney Tops hike, we decided to skip the Rainbow Falls and just hit the Grotto Falls. This is another popular trail but it is not paved and takes a bit longer to get to the falls. It is in the Mt. Le Conte area so it is pretty steep. You can actually walk behind this twenty five foot falls and feel the cool water as it comes down the mountain. Finally we had some time to kill before the end of our second day so we decided to drive up the Clingmans Dome Road and hike the very, very steep half mile trail to reach the summit of the tallest mountain in the park and on the Appalachian trail. It has an observation tower at the top and the view is just outstanding. Someday I would really like to hike my way to the top to be able to say that I actually climbed it.

Finally it was time to leave, and leaving was awful due to the fact we had to pack up and take down the tent in the pouring rain. Next time Greg and I will have to do some research on where to buy Yuengling Premium as we found copious quantities of Yuengling Larger, Larger Light & Black and Tan. Greg had his taste buds set for Premium and was pretty bumped about not getting any. I also need to remember to take my bag with all my clothes it so I don’t have to make a Wal-Mart trip!

Visit my website to find pictures and YouTube video links:
My Smoky Mountain 2009 Trip