Foreshadowing

In March, Matthew swam in his first meet ever, a family fun meet at our local YMCA. Little did we know then that he would join Stephen on the team just a year later. As you can see from the picture below, he's definitely got the game face of a veteran!

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8 & Under YMCA State Championships

February 7, 2010 was noteworthy for more than the Saints victory over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. It was also the day of Stephen's first "big" championship meet in swimming -- the New Jersey YMCA 8 & Under State Meet.



The picture above is Stephen's coach taking a Sharpie to him to "remind" him of his name, team and event numbers. Here are a few pictures from the meet.

Maybe Big Corporations Aren't All Bad

I admit I am biased because I work here, but this is a pretty good story.

Battleship Encampment

So there was more going on last weekend than just the trip to the Saints-Vikings game. Stephen and I spent the night before that trip with his Cub Scout pack aboard the U.S.S. New Jersey. The New Jersey is a very impressive, and highly decorated, Iowa class battleship. It was decommissioned in 1991, and now is docked in Camden, NJ. It is essentially a museum, and has a program for group encampments, which is what we did with the Scouts. It was a really fun evening, complete with a very informative tour, horrible cafeteria food, and sleeping in coffin-like racks in close quarters with the other kids and dads in our pack. After spending the night there, I have a heightened level of respect for the many sailors who spent months at sea on these things.

Here is where Stephen and I slept:


And here's a nice shot from the deck during our night time tour:


To see more pictures, click here.

Pictures From The NFC Championship Game

I've finally uploaded the pictures from the fabulous trip David and I took to New Orleans and Baton Rouge for the NFC Championship Game. To see the full album click here -- and remember to use full screen view so you can see the captions.

I also wanted to put some of the photo highlights directly onto the blog (scroll down to the posts below for my live-blogging of the trip).

So, first is a picture of David in full regalia outside the Dome just before we went in:


And I love this shot of Drew Brees psyching up the team before the game:


The Dome was absolutely shaking when Garrett Hartley kicked the game-winning 40-yard field goal. Here is a picture of the bedlam just after the kick was made -- you can see the score on the scoreboard, and also on the Jumbotron: "NFC Champions!"


Coach Sean Payton lifts the championship trophy:

Heading Home

New Orleans, 2:30 p.m. -- Well, David and I are heading home now from our great adventure. Last night after the game was like Mardi Gras Day in N.O. People poured onto the streets from the Superdome, screaming "who dat", dancing on cars, hugging and slapping high fives. Driving was virtually impossible, but no one really seemed to care.

A copy of today's Times Picayune is like gold. We're hearing stories of people going into stores this morning buying 5, 10, even 30 copies at a time.

Our flight is delayed due to bad weather in Newark, but like the people stuck in gridlock last night after the game . . . I just don't care.

I got lots of great pictures and will be posting them when I get back and have a chance to recover.
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BEDLAM!!!!!

Superdome, 9:22 p.m.

SAINTS - 31
VIKINGS - 28
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