We had such a fun day with Luke, Nikki, Mom and Dad dressed up as Pirates as we celebrated with countless guest Luke's birthday. Above the picture of Luke with one of his friends Lilli (next door neighbor).
Below are pictures of the pirateship with the Jib down and the main up where CapN Jack is ready to throw aboard the Pirate in training for a swimming lesson. Next is the watermarking of the ship with the memorable beating off the Pirate-Pinata. The last picture speaks for itself.
With a hot day expected there was a gigantic waterslide that kept all the kids happy and at the end Pappa and Megan (babysitter) too. We positioned the water gun at the bottom to fire at those coming down the slide. The kids that were a little shy to get in could fish in the pond at the bottom.
Luke received such a booty (gifts) from our countless fellow pirates (friends), that we truly hope to have been able to show our appreciation by providing yum-yum (food), sum-sum (drinks), and drum-drum (entertainment) for all of you hungry privateers and pirates alike.
Thanks to Huffman's and Lenz's for bringing the drinks from the parties the day before.
Momma is happy to as she finally does not have to share her pots and pans anymore with Luke. Who can now go al out with his drumset, preferrably when Pappa or Nikki is asleep. Pappa is going to make this the first pirate ship with a drum-stel onboard.
Some Pictures of Maureen and the kids from the past days. Luke has recovered and is looking forward to his birthday party.
Maureen is having a good time with the kids, together with a great nanny and a Ben and Irene she is able to get some momma time for herself with tennnis lessons, volleyball lessons and games, and yoga classes. Every Friday the two of us have date-nite with a dinner and a movie or we go shoot some pool, shop etc. 
Today I took Luke and Stefan to walk in Neil Armstrong's footsteps as we toured the USS Hornet. This is the US Airplane carrier that picked up Neil Armstrong and crew upon their return from the trip to the moon.
Started the day of with pancakes at IHOP. We then drove over to have a great day at Wild Animal Park. Pretty awesome to see Rhino run acroess a field chased by Giraffe. Or to sit 1 feet away from a lion as they yawn. But the best was to see the kids have fun. How excited Luke was with a Parakeet 
sitting on his arm or petting a deer. We went home with him having a face painted snake and turned north to sleep at the Marriott in Newport Beach. Next day it took us 7 hrs to drive home. Just arrived in time for me to grab my stuff and put in a hard brick training.
Today Monday 8/8 on Grandpa's birthday we will be visitting Wild Animal Park North of San Diego. We hope to leave San Diego at 10am to arrive at the park around 11am. I hope the kids will like it as it shows the animals in a natural habitat. We have no idea where we will sleep tonight we might end-up in Santa Barbara or we might drive for 7-8 hrs home and go to Santa Cruz tomorrow. Either way we will have fun.
It was so great to see Luke enjoy SeaWorld. When the Killerwhales jumped out of the water Luke was going 'Aaaaawwwww' and then he reluctantly let go of his popcorn to clap for the performance. Really enjoying it. He is deadbeat in his bed and it is 18:25. Nikki enjoyed her ice cream probably as much as anything, she is such a content and gentle baby. Maureen and I took turns between spending time with Nikki or with Luke/Stefan in the attractions. We had fun.
Once Nikki Deborah was merely able to sit... but today, August 6, 2005 -- 2 days before GrandPa's birthday the girl decided it was time. After looking at the table for 2-3 minutes she pulled herself up. She stood there shaking on her little knees, Maureen and I watched from 3-4 feet away in awe. We then saw what motivated her as she went for the gold -- the cup of thee -- and pulled it over as we were still figuring out what was going on. So much for having it easy.
WORKEND: At the end of last week I went for a trip to Denver/Cheyenne to visit friends at the Echostar uplink facility. For those of you not familiar with my job... this is a visit to one of the largest commercial Dish farms in the world. It is an amazing site and I always take pictures of it. Going home we had to endure a 2 hr delay but this trip combined many more travel issues.
RACING: This weekend i participated in my first swim race ever, the CatFish - did a 35some minute 1.2mile swim. Although I like to argue the distance as my goggles fogged up so much I pretty much swam 1.4mi in my opinion ;-) ;-). However the time was good enough to be 4th in my age group and 69th overall (out of 150+). This is reasonable as it is my weakest sport of all.
Yihaa ... it is official ... as of this morning I received confirmation that I have been accepted to represent the Netherlands (NTB) at the ITU World Championship held in Honolulu on October 5-9.
The ship was hand build on land and has become a pirateship sitting on a dock. The dock comes with a drain (crawling tube/hiding spot on the right bottom), two bridges (one onto the dock and one onto the ship). The ship has a mast that holds the halyards for the main and job sail. The ship sits in a sea of blue water (rubber mulch from Miami). The kids can climb from the water onto the top deck of the boat through a hand knotted net, and there is an emergency exit with a speed slide. The poop deck has ports large enough to aim the water guns through and to serve refreshments to new privateers.
The boat is well hidden between trees, where the CapN can still steer himself clear, yet his crew can hide for a spontaneous attack. This weekend the last part being the bow was completed. Privateers can climb into the bow (netting) to feel the spray of the water on their face, yet offering safety in case of a storm. 
Phase one also included development of a 'Pirate's retreat' which is a tropical island (sand-box) for retreat of a tired pirates. This weekend two large Tonka trucks were spotted as it has been rumored that a treasure was found consisting of a large amount of gold. For some strange reason treasures are found regularly hidden in the sand. Fortuntaly the riverstone 'coral reefs' protect the treasures hidden in the send well from the seagrass.
<<< ORIGINAL
When we got into the car he said "Lukie going working like papa". On the way to school he wanted to carry his own lunch box the whole time, even when he was in his car seat he held it close to him. As he got out of the car he wanted to have the back pack on and the lunch box in hand even though it was only 4 meters (12 feet) from the car to the gate.
for Vineman. It is a local race called Jungle run and goes over trails and roads that can be considered my training grounds.
This weekend Maureen looked forward to well deserved some personal time, with a 'Korean sauna scrub down' and a lunch with friends on Saturday , and on Sunday a birthday lunch with friends.
On Saturday, I did a morning workout (swim, bike) and when I arrived home took the kids for a day in the park. Without too much preparation I just packed Nikki and Luke in the car and as I was driving away decided to go to Vasona park.
You should have seen us as we unpacked the wagon to pull ... Nikki looking barely over the edge packed in towels, and Luke sitting opposite of her with his fishing pole stikking out. We did some fishing activities where Luke was wacking people with his fishing rod.
We then went on the miniature train ride followed by a sugar load-up (Ice, Apple Juice, and a hot-dog make a great combo for Luke, Nikki and icecream was a sight to behold), next we tackled the merry go round where Luke chose the biggest horse ever!, and I do not like to go in circles so I got a little dizy from the ride.
