Off To The Races

On Saturday we had a fun outing and extended-family get-together at the Santa Anita Race Track. Mercy enjoyed watching the horses, eating ice cream, and playing with cousins. Great day! (SS)

Saying Grace

Every night at the dinner table we say a prayer to thank God for supplying our needs and some other things. Sometimes we forget but mid way through the meal Mercy reminds us by reaching out for both of our hands. In either case we close our prayer with an "Amen" which Mercy echoes with a sincere "Elmo". Sometimes she likes to pray two or three times a meal. I think I'm learning that there is more to pray for than just your food and what comes to mind in 30 seconds.

Aquarium of the Pacific

On Thursday we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Mercy loved looking at all the different fish and sea creatures, and she got to touch a small nurse shark! Eww! (SS)

L.A. County Fair

We enjoyed taking Mercy to the L.A. County Fair on Labor Day. I'd say her favorite thing was watching the Splash Dogs. Mercy is very into dogs, so seeing them run and jump in the water was the best. We went early and left when it got too hot and crowded and Mercy had a well-deserved car-nap on the way home. (SS)

Thunderbirds

I came across this shirt as I was cleaning out my tragically jumbled closet tonight, stuffed behind a drawer. It's a piece of my own childhood and so I thought I should immortalize it in blog since it is so threadbare now that you can see through it. I must have been ten or so when my dad took me to an airshow at March Air Force Base. Maybe I was older, but the point is that this shirt was my souveneir. For the first nine or ten years I owned it I didn't even wear it because I liked how it looked but not how it looked on me. After those ten years, retro shirts came back into fashion and I ran across that shirt again in my closet in mint condition. So I pulled it out, had fond memories of that day with my dad at the airshow and started wearing it. Eventually it started to wear out so it became a work shirt because I refused to part with it. As you can see now it is time for it to go but now I'll have this blog post instead. Pretty sappy eh?

So the moral of the story is that I thought my dad was really great and now I am trying to be a great dad to Mercy. So I hope some day she'll find some old crumpled up thing and remember the fun times we had when she was little. Boy I am way ahead of myself!

Penn Park

Mercy having lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. 

Love

Could there be anything better than your child spontaneously hugging and kissing you?  I think not.

(SS)