Bradley Clipperhands vs. Goldilocks
You never know the events that will take place when a rambunctious 9 year old and his uncle have time on their hands. I was fortunate to catch this rare interaction on video and I thought I would share it with you. Oh yeah, we didn’t tell his mom about this either. Love ya honey and hope you like it.
Had some youtube problems, so we used dailymotion this time. I hope you can hear it.
Apparently, popping and locking refers to the knees in hip hop dancing.
Alli finally had the surgery on her bum knee last Monday. We were praying that her meniscus would not be torn, but alas it was. So not only was her ACL ripped, but her meniscus was a messiscus (latin for mess). Good news, she has pretty blue stitches, as you can see from the photos, in her meniscus. More good news, she didn’t have to use a muscle from a cadaver, which we all thought was slightly disturbing, but common from what I hear. She got to use a part of her own hamstring. We know it would be good for something some day. Bad news, because of the torn meniscus, surgery went from 1 1/2 hrs. to 3 1/2 hrs. and recovery time is now extended to six weeks, there goes her plans to jog a marathon this fall with Steph. I guess she can always shoot for next year.
Tra spent all day at the hospital, good times.
right after she got out of post op, still sleeping, lazy girl
does that say right knee? Uh oh......
In this family we have basketball, football, and soccer players. We have boys who have airsoft battles, jump off the deck, do flips and such on the trampoline, we have snowboarders, sledders, and daredevil bike riders. But the on that really messes up her knee is the one that does none of the above, just a little ballet with a side of hip hop. Maybe she had a little too much hop in her hip. Now that she took out a little hamstring, she has a little less hip to hop with.
finally awake and sooooo happy!!
I knew she was fine because the first words out of her mouth were, " I'm going to throw that camera at you" followed by "Daddy can I use your iphone?"
I need to heap some praise on my wife. During this week she has had to been at Alli’s beck and call, and she knows how to beck quite well. She has served as both her legs, taken her to the bathroom 32 times a day, from her new make shift bed to the couch and back, filled her cooler and generally done everything for her, except chew her food. Did I mention she did this while also watching an extra three kids for three days? She is pretty phenomenal in my book and we are very lucky to have her. I wonder if I was to have surgery on my knee, how well she would respond to my beck and call? I have a strange feeling the experience would not be as pleasant as it appears. Besides, my hamstring is 40 years old and well used, so I’d have to go the cadaver route, and I like my muscles fresh.
Her new bionic knee, she'll be dancing with the stars in no time with this thing.
Her new bedroom for the next 6 weeks. I like what she has done with the place.
Alli really wants to thank those of you that sent flowers and especially those who visited, she is really bored, and slightly annoying at times. But not with friends, just family.
Kenai River Fun and Nicotine laced popcorn
Twas an interesting day today; sunny yet windy, warm yet slightly cool, and an ever present weather change on the horizon. So we decided to venture out to one of our local annual events, the Kenai River Festival. Basically it celebrates….. well it uhhhh, hmmmm not sure what it celebrates, but it has something to do with the Kenai River, and people sell things.
You know we could be fishing.
Complete concentration at the fish painting table.
I can't work under such scrutiny
Kassie, a true artist at heart
It is a lot of fun for the kids. They have free face painting by very amateur local volunteer artists. Jo’s butterfly actually looked a little like a butterfly, well done. They also had a lot of FREE crafts for the kiddos. Several of the kids painted a wooden salmon on a stick, and no it was not edible. I have never so many glitter covered purple fish in my whole life. It reminded me of a bad prom theme. Then they went on to make birdhouses, again for free. Now I won’t say who, but one of our kid’s wood working skills resemble Dorian’s ( see previous post wood working 101) but for the most part the bird houses weren’t bad, good enough for the birds in our neighborhood at least; they’re not snobby birds, and not particularly bright as evidenced by the barrage of bird attacks on our windows.
butterfly girl
Finally, after two 10 gallon garbage bags full of kettle corn, we saw some rockets red glare blasting through the sky. Immediately the kids honed in on this activity and it was rocket building time. Jo, Jeremy and Ben all built their own rockets and then had a launching competition. Lest you think we let the kids play with rocket fuel, these were air powered rockets built strictly out of construction paper. I must admit, I was very impressed with the elevation those pieces of paper could reach, and yes Jo’s rocket went the highest!
That is one brave assistant!
good enough for Kenai River festival work!
that my friends is talent, hammer in one hand hair in the other. She is going to make someone a great wife someday!
Look closely at the bruises on her fingernails, all from Ben.
Big brother lending a hand to Jake.
I think the kids, other than Alli on crutches had a good time. I know I had a good time watching the kids, seeing some old friends and eating popcorn, until I got a stomach ache from sugar laced popcorn. Why can’t I ever quit eating popcorn when it is put in front me? Perhaps they lace it with nicotine along with the sugar. I can see popcorn regulations and warning labels in the near future.
Jake's bear. I think it is a black bear.
Exhausted from carrying around 30 pound bags of popcorn, we had to take a break.
There were a lot of unique shops and fish related activities. Perhaps this is a clue as to the purpose of this yearly fair. Next year I will make it my mission to find out, and maybe we will see you out there too, we can have a kettle corn eating competition till the death.
Rocket builders unlimited
Jo you got some kind of bug on your face, said Jake as he attempted to slap it off her.
Ben's birhouse
Jeremy's birdhouse
Livy's birdhouse, for purple loving birds
told you it was Livy's.
Wood Working 101
Dorian & Alli took a couple classes each semester at Soldotna High School this year. One class they took this last semester was wood working 101. Now I was never fortunate enough to take wood working, although I did take motion pictures, science fiction, and spirit club. All of which have helped me immensely get where I am today. Just look at my Youtube videos!
Every week I would talk to them about their projects and how they were going and get they typical teenage response, “good”. Everything is always “good”. Specifics do not exist, and if you try to get specifics, you get attitude. And me and attitude don’t get along, so I live with “good” for the most part. I tell you all this so that you can see what their definitions of good is with the following picture examples.
At the end of the semester they brought their projects home, and I was somewhat impressed… with Alli’s. Dorian’s was another story. They both decided to make a Costa Rican inspired coffee maker due to our recent trek south of the border. Both Tra and I thought that was a fantastic idea, (even if it was my idea) and we were very excited to see the finished products. So I have enclosed pictures of the finished products.
Alli's costa rican coffe maker bird's eye view
Alli's side view, notice the great lines and curves
Alli's great color, just overall great product. Can't wait to use it.
And now Dorian’s:
It takes a little more vision to get Dorian's concept here.
Maybe from this angle..... nope.
At least he got the "DUKE" sign done, that's something.
The good news, they both passed. The bad news Dorian’s looks more like firewood than a coffee maker. Apparently there was limitation on what tools could be operated by the students, therefore Dorian “DUKE” Godfrey wasn’t aggressive enough to get the teachers attention and missed out on some cuts. But fear not people, dad and him are going to get it done, before we move to Costa Rica. If you are really nice to us and comment, you may get one for Christmas, if we finish it by then. Also, I will do a youtube video of us making coffee in one of them soon, now I got ya really excited.
four minutes fun, 296 minutes of waterboarding?
Recitals, recitals, recitals. I have noticed that I spend a lot of time at recitals. This spring it is a little different. You see now that Alli is out with injury, just Olivia and Kassie are left holding the Godfrey flag in the world of dance. I love watching them dance, but I do have a couple of small complaints. In a two and 1/2 hour recital, why do I have to watch 2 hours and 28 minutes of everybody else’s kids dancing to see my kids 2 minute dance? It’s not that I don’t enjoy dance…. well okay maybe it is that I don’t enjoy dance. But I do enjoy watching my kids perform in anything. Maybe we could implement a take a number type of thing. You go in, take a number, and when your kid is on the stage that number comes up. You walk in sit down clap your fool head off and call it a night. Now that is a recital I would love to attend.
Another issue is the heat. I do not think it could be stuffier or hotter in that auditorium. The show is free, of great quality, and in a small town that equates to 300-400 hot bodies in the seats, and another hundred dancers heating the place up from their sweaty dancing. So there is naturally generated heat, which seems to often be accompanied by an odor for some odd reason, and not pleasant.
Not only did I get to do this Saturday for Olivia, but Sunday for Kassie as well. So that would be 4 minutes of my kids for 5 hours of dance. Post lunch, Sunday afternoon, darkness,heat and music all mix together to make a great nap time for dad.
None the less, I am very proud of all my girls. They are awesome and they have some great smiles and they did a great job dancing this weekend. It was all Alli could to do sit in the seat. In fact she danced every one of her dances while sitting in her seat, and at one point got up and danced a jig in sync with her dance crew on stage, except she was back in the doorway. I feel bad for her after the hundreds of hours she put into practice and two weeks before the big show, her knee gives out. And I feel bad for me, cuz if Alli was able to dance then I would have got to enjoy about 60 minutes of dance out of 5 hours. Poor me, at least I still have soccer and soon you will too…. on this blog.
2009 Group Dance Photo
