Cole and Casey

Shortly after school was dismissed in late May and after a quick breather over Memorial Day, the Black family set out on a new Hawaiian adventure.  In past trips, Maui has been the relaxation destination but this year was different... and future trips to our 50th state may have been changed forever.  Having accumulated enough airline miles to allot for 4 free tickets, the money normally reserved for paying for said tickets were able to be redirected towards accommodations... and boy, oh boy, were those accommodations amazing.  The Disney Aulani resort was our new destination and it was wonderful.  The boys were the perfect age and the adults... well, let's just say that it was the first truly relaxing vacation in quite some time.  We can only hope to return... soon.  Below is a video slideshow of our wonderful getaway.



Aulani 2015 from JD Black on Vimeo.

The 2015 school year has begun and this is a very special year because a certain 5 year old will be joining his older brother at Roosevelt this year.

Cole heads into 4th grade as Casey heads into Room 8 with his good buddy and now teacher, Miss Walmsley.  Both boys were very excited as classes started this past week and for the next two years they will experience the only time in their educational career where they will be in the same school... pending grad school decisions :)

Welcome back to school boys. Here is a slideshow of their return / entrance into Roosevelt!! Have a great year!!

Music by Rusted Root - Send Me On My Way

Yes, again the long delay between posts and there are more to post but this one could not go by without an update.

Casey is now 5.  That's right... 5!  That is just plain crazy.  This blog, while updated infrequently of late, has not been up for almost 9 years and has seen two boys hit the big Number 5.

Happy Birthday Casey.  Here is a look back at his fun day and party.

As you may have noticed some of the previous posts are no longer showing up on the main page here. To view older posts click on the archive links to the right. They are broken down by month. Enjoy your day and as always, feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment below (where is says "comment"... who'd a thunk it)

This past year Cole competed in his 2nd U8 year during the AYSO season.  Cole was a member of the Grey Sharks and a leader on the team.  After a bit of a slow start, the team found their chemistry and started playing very well.  Cole went on a multi game hot streak which landed him the nickname - 2 goal Cole and finished the year very strongly.  This next fall, Cole will make the jump to U10 and find himself in games that actually count with winners / losers and playoffs at the end of the year.

We are looking forward to Cole continuing his growth as a soccer player and love watching him play.



As you may have noticed some of the previous posts are no longer showing up on the main page here. To view older posts click on the archive links to the right. They are broken down by month. Enjoy your day and as always, feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment below (where is says "comment"... who'd a thunk it)

Long time in between posts again but we are making an attempt to catch up now.  At some point I am going to rearrange and actually associate them with the dates they took place in order to be able to quickly find them in the future.

Part 2 of our wonderful Maui trip one year ago :)



As you may have noticed some of the previous posts are no longer showing up on the main page here. To view older posts click on the archive links to the right. They are broken down by month.
Enjoy your day and as always, feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment below (where is says "comment"... who'd a thunk it)

5 months... it only took 5 months to find the time to put part one of our Maui 2013 recap together.

This summer we were lucky enough to return to our every other year vacation staple... Maui.

We love Maui as it is a wonderful family friendly spot that allows us the ability to actually have a relaxing vacation with two kids. We have found a great place to stay and returned for the 3rd time this summer. It is a quiet condo complex with a private beach, modest pool but not crowded and superb views.

This year we were able to celebrate Cole's 7th birthday while on the island, as well as, share some time with our friends the Bennets who's vacation overlaped with ours.

Our getaway was packed full of fun and requires two recap videos to fit it all in.  Enjoy part 1.

 It's back to school time again and Cole is entering into the 2nd grade this year.  2nd grade... that is crazy.  It seems like it was just yesterday when he was staring Kindergarten but time flies as we know and before we know it Casey will be in Kinder and Cole in 4th grade... but not quite yet.

Cole, as we recall, was in a 1-2 combo class last year and is lucky enough to have the same teacher this year in just a 2nd grade class.  This is great for Cole as Mrs. Cohen knows Cole and what he excels in and what he may need some extra help with as well.  It also makes Cole very comfortable in a familiar environment along with 9 other kids from his combo class last year including a few of his great buddies.

We are excited for Cole as he starts another adventure at Roosevelt Elementary.  Good luck, Cole and have a great year.

Below is a slideshow of Cole's first day back.



As you may have noticed some of the previous posts are no longer showing up on the main page here. To view older posts click on the archive links to the right. They are broken down by month.
Enjoy your day and as always, feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment below (where is says "comment"... who'd a thunk it)

Still owe an Easter post, yes.  Have some fun photos to share from some other events too but let's just be happy that something is getting posted now right :)

Today while Momma was at a great Food Allergy conference, we had a boys day.  A friends birthday party at the park and then back home for a Summer Fun Day at Cole and Casey's Make Shift Water Park.

The water park featured a great water slide, pool and wet and wild bounce house.

We took the opportunity to try out some new Vine videos.  Vine is a new social networking app that allows for quick cut videos to be shot with a full length of 6 seconds.  And then they run on a loop.  Some say annoying... others say genius... we are undecided at this point.  Each video is muted to start.  When you roll over the video which will start to auto play you will see a speaker icon in the upper left with a red X on it, you will need to click on that icon to enable sound.

Anyway... here are three fun Vines from our day at the water park.











As you may have noticed some of the previous posts are no longer showing up on the main page here. To view older posts click on the archive links to the right. They are broken down by month.
Enjoy your day and as always, feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment below (where is says "comment"... who'd a thunk it)