More Vacation Pictures

At the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office

Hotel time on dad.

Outside the Lincoln Douglas debate site.

Outside the Lincoln Douglas debate site.

Smiling with mom.

Hannibal! Springfield! WOOT!

Hello again my peeps. Third post in one night! I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of personal greatness record. Me of course being personally great.


Kate and I took Lea on her first real vacation. The Galina trip was a test for Lea leading to the trip we recently returned from. We introduced Lea to more of Kate and my nerdom. First we visited Hannibal, MO. Why Hannibal you ask? Well, it's the home of Mark Twain. We toured the historic downtown area, which included Mark Twain's boyhood home and museum. From there we drove down the road to Springfield, IL. In Springfield we toured the Land of Lincoln. We took the munchkin to the Lincoln Presidential Museum, Lincoln's first law office, New Salem (living history farm which is a recreation of the village Lincoln lived before moving to Springfield), the old state capital, Darcy's Pint (featured on Man v. Food) and the Lincoln home. Lea did a very good job during her visit. She was complemented way too much. We think she's going to have a little ego on her now.


She slept well between our destinations, and was only crabby one day of the trip. Which to be honest, she wasn't all that bad. It was really hot, which makes all of us crabby. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Lea and I hangin with young Abe.



Kate and Lea by the steps of the old state capital.

Some random point in which Lea was really happy.

Lea and Dad having a debate at the site of one of the Lincoln Douglas Debates.

MORE Bonus Pictures!

Here are some random pictures take in the last week and a half.

Lea shown off her height. (Unofficial length 27 inches, which puts her in the 250% of all babies that live in my house)

Losing my pride.

Yup, it's gone. (I have worn thing thing in public. On a different note, Lea has entered the "Carlos Stage." Think The Hangover.)

This picture will be great for blackmailing when she's a pain in the $#@ teen.

Steve + Camera = AWESOME

Hey Gang! So it's been a few weeks since our last meeting and I have a few posts that I will be making tonight. If you took the time to read the title it should tell you that pretty much what this post is going to include.

Kate left me the camera when I posted about baptism and the following is what resulted. Kate and I were discussing how Lea's head had grown. It's been tougher to get her onesies over her noggin. Sooooo I decided to gather some visual evidence. So I present to you a photo journal entitled "Lea's Head"

Lea's head, a close up.

Lea's head compared to a book.

Lea's head compared to a bag of Goldfish "FLAVOR BLASTED" crackers.

Lea's head compared to the Playstation 3 controller.

Lea's head compared to my over sized coffee mug.

Gone Baptizin'

I have a few odds and ends I'd like to post on today, but I must be quiet. I feel a grumpy day is on the horizon and the little monster is sleeping at the moment. See below, taken 5 minutes ago.

This weekend Lea receive sacrament number 1: baptism. (She can now feel the guilt like the rest of us Catholics) Lots to cover here people, so we need to get moving.

First and foremost, I feel the need to explain some things. Most churches baptize by pouring water on the head of the munchkin --pretty standard. Our church practices baptism by immersion. This is something the wife and I were pretty nervous about. Just a tad. So when I refer to the dunking of the kid, that is what I mean.

Second, Kate and I were playing host to loads of family after the event. Lots of food, lots of people and hoping the child would be happy.

I believe we will take a journey through pictures.

Here is Lea pre-dunking. She was in a good mood. In the background you see my father holding back Patrick (my nephew, from the clan of Jason).

This is the baptismal font. That is my naked kid. Now when I say dunking, I'm not kidding. Her back side was dipped into the water. You can see Kate and my lower halves behind the priest. We couldn't actually see what was going on. Sooooo after the first two dunks we heard no screams. (There were four total baptisms that evening during mass. The little guy who was baptized before Lea was wicked loud. His scream echoed in the church. I laughed a little. Okay a lot.) Due to the fact that I couldn't see my munchkin's reaction, I read the faces of those across the church. I saw a woman make a face that said, "Oh look at that wonderful child. She's doing great after the first two dunks. I wish I had a grandchild that was as good as that special baby. I bet she's going to be something special when she grows up. She'll also not date until she's 30 and that'll be on with the intention that she's being courted to be married--but that'll be well after she's set up her private practice (either in law or medicine, or both...she could be a lawdoc)." That woman's face changed during the third dip to something like, "Here it comes..although all that other positive stuff is still true." Lea then screamed. Not as loud as the little boy though.

At the end of mass, Lea did what most young Catholic children do.

Me, Kate, Lea, and her Godparents: Chris and Joy Evans. Joy was concerned that she was going to be struck by lightening, or burned by holy water. Neither happened, Joy made it out of church unscathed.

The rest of the night included food and drink. I'd like to thank everyone who was able to make it out. Kate and I were very thankful to have so many people could share the evening with us. But I do have a bone to pick with you people. We bought 10 pounds of pork loin that we, okay she, made into pulled pork. We had at least three pounds left. I used to believe that our families are made up of big eaters. We thought about getting more. 3 pounds left? Really? Just sad.

On that note I finish by typing with one hand because the grumpster is now awake. No proof reading so forgive any major errors.

Happy 4th o'July

Random post in celebration of the Fourth. (not sure if I need to capitalize the Fourth or not. Thought about it for about 30 sec. and decided to risk it. If you are an English major you can post a reply as to whether or not it is a proper noun. That or you should reevaluate why you are editing a blog. Either way its up to you. Is anyone still reading.) Here are some pictures from Father's Day. Lea thought of many great things to buy me on Father's day. Kate vetoed all of them.


BTW- If you need something to do to celebrate our independence day here is a suggestion. Walk around slapping people while shouting "JOHN ADAMS WAS A GREAT PRESIDENT!!!!"

Giggle Fits

Okat make sure you read the "Lea doing us a solid" post first. Please. Put much more time into that post. This is just her being cute.

These are a couple of videos of the kid in the middle of a giggle fit. Now please ignore me (the bigger of the two) acting like an idoit to get a response. Focus on the baby.