Happy Easter

Easter Egg Decorating

On Saturday afternoon we painted hard-boiled eggs with craft paint. The results were:

• A Southern Pacific Daylight Train Egg
• A Southern Pacific Daylight "Freedom Train" egg
• A frog egg
• Several "classic" painted eggs
• Lots of paint on us

It was a beautiful afternoon and a great time.

Easter Morning - Waking Up

Corbin woke up at about his normal time (6:30ish) and was ready to go. Here he is waking up Mimi & Pops.

Easter Morning - Waiting is the Hardest Part

This is Corbin & Emily backstage, waiting for the adults to get their act together. Unbeknownst to us, Corbin had already been into the living room and had seen his Easter basket. Too funny.

Easter Morning - The Hunt

WARNING: This is a 17 minute video...the bulk of the Easter Egg hunt. Corbin had a great time finding the "tricky" eggs that the Easter Bunny left and Emily discovered the joy of what's inside the eggs. You'll see her enjoying her treats on the video.

Easter Morning - Corbin & Friends at Church

This is Corbin's class at church, hopping out to the field to hunt eggs. The kids were bursting with excitement...not only about the egg hunt, but about the special day and what it really means.

Easter Morning - Emily & Friends at Church

This is Emily's class, enjoying some time in the grass, looking for eggs. I think by this time Emily had her fill of egg surprises.

Behind the Music

There's always a story behind the story of the music. This is a simple story of volume, percussion and the love and joy of noise and discovery. Enjoy!

More Steps

Emily is walking with the aid of Mommy and Daddy's fingers now...and is very proud of herself about the whole thing. Here are a few moments we captured.



Here's part deux



Here's part trey

Snow Day 4

Snow Day 3

Snow Day 2

Just more snow fun

Snow Day

A really unusual snow in Fort Worth on Thursday...3-4 inches. And it was the good snow. Packing snow. Snowball/snowman snow. It was calling to us to play. Begging us to bundle up and brave the cold and wind and endure the red cheeks to make some memories.

And make them we did. Enjoy the videos.

Simple Pleasures

Emily has really taken to walking behind her push toy. I need to realign the tires...looks like it always pulls to the right. She's got the walking part down...now we need to work on the turn.

Grace Defined

HSO (Hot sports opinion) warning:

The Tour de France is the greatest sporting spectacle on earth. And, cycling the most exciting sporting event on the planet. Now, hear me out before you tune me out.

Facts:

• Cycling has been desimated by doped up idiots who think the only way to win is to dope
• The world community has given up on cyclists being honorable people
• The UCI (world cycling body) is reeling from several gut wrenching scandals and is trying to get back on its feet
  
• The world community has no respect for American cyclists (Andy Hamptsten, Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong are reviled)...by the way, there are 10 tour victories between them.

So, with all of that against cycling, HOW can it be crowned the greatest at anything other than a disappointment? Some more facts:

• It is grace defined.
  
• Best teams win in cycling. If you doubt that statement, watch a stage of the tour with me this year and I'll show you. It is the consummate team sport. Armstrong will be the first to tell you that it was his domestiques that made the difference for him.
• The riders temper their competitiveness and enthusiasm with an elaborate but unwritten code of conduct. When possible, a rider is allowed to lead the race through his home village or on his birthday. It is considered unsporting to attack a leading rider delayed by a mechanical breakdown or other misfortune, one who is eating in the feed zone or one who is satisfying un besoin naturel (roughly translated to "a natural need"). Not sticking to these customs can lead to animosity. Unless the final stage is a time trial, or the gap between the top two is extremely close, riders generally do not attack on the final stage, leaving the leader to bask in the glory of winning.

So yes, the Tour has been riddled in its history with doping (both alleged and true) and other unfortunate controversies. It's a fact that disappoints me as a rabid cycling fan and shrouds the Tour, and cycling in general with questions. However the poor decisions of some shouldn't ruin it for everyone and therefore I choose to remain faithful in my support of the sport.

2008 Projections
I'd say watch for Alberto Contador to defend his 2007 win. But Contador won't be riding. It's a long story. It's an unfortunate story. I agree with heavy payment for past crimes...but this is sad...simply implicating and keeping a team out because they share the same sponsor as a team from 2007 that was a part of a major doping scandal. Over 60,000 people have signed a petition sent to the ASO (which owns the Tour de France) asking for these young men (including Contador and Levi Leipheimer) to be able to ride in cycling's grand sport.

So, we move on. This year's Tour has only 5 main mountain stages (including Alpe d’Huez, Col du Galibier, and Col de la Croix de Fer...40 miles of climbing in one day alone!) This short but important stint in the mountains also brings Michael Rasmussen to the forefront as a legit contender in the general classification. And, don't count out Cadel Evans, last year's runner-up in the overall classification, although he is better in the time trials. This year the tour features only two individual time trials (18 miles and 33 miles) and the length and placement of those stages will make it difficult for Evans to make up more an a few precious seconds he loses in the mountains.

My pick...Evans...assuming that Team Astana can't race.

So where do you watch this exciting 22 days of racing? Check out Versus (formerly OLN) on your cable network of choice.