Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Tonia's Teacher

This is my yoga teacher, Sri Dharma Mittra (with Pepper.) You won't believe this, but he is 68 years old. Check out his new web site, www.dharmayogacenter.com, he makes yoga look so easy. He is such a funny, cool, extremely humble man.

(If you look at the page for teachers at the studio you might find someone you know.)

Monday, August 20, 2007

Hangin' With the Big Kids

Liam was beside himself with joy when his friend Nickey's older brother and friends invited them to skateboard. The 10 and 12 year-olds also had fun imparting their boarding knowledge.

Practicing an Indy Grab, or so I was told.


Getting a ride back up the hill. The girl in the front was kind enough to let Liam borrow her board. He had a much easier time riding the larger board.

One of Liam's coaches, Nicky's brother Dennis.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Captain Noonan

Yet another side to Liam -- Captain Noonan. He loves to wear costumes and pretend -- he has an incredible imagination.

On Friday Mommy and Liam went to see "Hairspray." As they were leaving the mall, he let Tonia know that he wants to be an actor in the movies when he grows up. This is in addition to a hockey goalie, doctor, soldier, chef, Yankee, rock star, and...who are we kidding, we can't keep up.

How exciting! All the possibilities!!!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Sir Liam Noonan

Liam and Mommy went to the New York Renaissance Faire today and had a blast. Sir Liam Noonan.
Mommy and Liam.
Shooting arrows.
Riding a stubborn pony who decided he would just stop and stand whenever the notion came over him.
Throwing rotten tomatoes at a heckler. This was one of Liam's favorite activities of the day.

Hoover Fun

Liam got the vac out and just started hoovering (what the Irish call vacuuming) the joint . He loves to clean -- lets hope this continues when he really has chores to do.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Lords of D'Town and HS Musical

Liam was all "Lords of Dogtown" in the kitchen this evening - showing off his skateboarding skills.
Then Daddy and Liam were off to the backyard (after being kicked out of the kitchen for kicking balls in the house) to play "soccer." Liam is dressed like one of the kids from "High School Musical 2." (HSM 2 is the new Disney movie that is all the rage. Liam is like his Mommy and Daddy who love musicals.)

Liam got bored with soccer when he saw his digger - ah, the attention of a 5 1/2 year-old. I asked him to turn and smile at the camera. He looked for a second and then told me that he needed to watch where he was driving.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

What an Intra-Resting Day

What a fun and, as usual, crazy day at the Noonan's. The day started with Liam saying he had something "intra-resting" to tell me. (To be honest I can't remember what it was because I was so taken with the way he said interesting.)

While Mommy was teaching this morning, Liam went "working" with Daddy and had a ball as always (he is still waiting to get paid.) After work we went to the Farmer's Market and got lots of yummy stuff. When we got home we decided that we would only communicate by singing -- so much fun!! We sang everything we needed to say. This lasted until Liam went next door to play with his friend Nicky. I was surprised that when he came home after his play-date, he went right back to the singing. This lasted until Daddy got home -- Bob sang one sentence and decided that it wasn't all that.

Liam worked on his golf swing this evening. We didn't realize that he can actually hit the ball rather well. Bobby said Liam took one swing that went high and looked like it was going to go long -- thank goodness that the swing-set broke it's flow, it was heading for our neighbors window. We immediately put the clubs away and promised that he can go to the driving range soon.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Caped Crusader Came for Chow

Batman showed up for dinner...
After a little chow we learned his true identity.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

The Family Vacation

We have finally recovered from our jet-lag and are ready to blog. Can't believe how fast the week went. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were heading to Newark to catch our flight for the great Pacific Northwest.

Note: I started putting the pictures in date order and quickly gave up.

Bob and Tonia went to breakfast with these silly kids (Liam, Kiley, and Ellis) the morning before we drove to the beach. We had so much fun. Racing to the restaurant, drawing at the table, and then hiding from Uncle Bobby every chance we got on the walk/run home.
Grom and gromettes. (Translation: young surfers)

The gang checking out the water. Ellis, Liam and Kiley we ready to get in the water and they didn't care how cold or windy the weather was.

The Marias (Marie, and Maria Theresa or Resa.)

Liam and KileyUncle Tim playing soccer with Liam. Wish we had gotten some pictures of Brock and Tim playing tackle football with Ellis and Liam. It was hysterical, Ellis (who is very athletic) took no prisoners, and Liam chucked the ball before he could get tackled (although he was tackled anyway.)

Grandma knitting as Ellis and Liam did some needlepoint. Kiley was at her beach house getting some beauty rest.

Enjoying the fire. The shovel was a necessity to keep the sand out of the fire-pit.

Bob with the Dragon kite.

The GPs with the kids.

Zeba and Clay.

The Lowers
The Tyvands

Kiley, Liam and Ellis.

The kids enjoying the dinner they prepared (with a lot of supervision/help from Grandma) for the entire gang. We were sent to the Pelican Pub while they chopped and cooked.

Grandpa Tony and Marie

Grandma

Kathleen and Marie dancing to Bluegrass music. Don't know how it happened, but the choice of music for the week was Bluegrass.

Tim slaving (can you see that poor face?) in the kitchen as his wife enjoys a beer. Psst, psst...can you see the dishwater on Resa's shirt? Hmmm..........

A very familiar site.

Post surf session.

Brock shared his board with Liam and Ellis. It was very cute to see them standing and "riding" the waves.

Tonia coming in after a morning session. She is the only one with a board that is too wide to carry under her arm in the cool way that everyone else does (either that or her arms are way short.)

The kids with their trophies. This was Grandma's brainchild -- there was a contest for Best Manners, Best Attitude and Most Respectful.

Brock told us about all the fun stuff to do at the Forestry Center. So on the way back to Portland Bob, Tonia, Marie and Liam stopped for a hike and to check out the sites. Most enjoyable.

Even though our flight home was delayed, we had a nice time at the airport. We couldn't believe that as we were checking in, so was a friend of Tonia's from Dharma Mittra Yoga Center. We passed the time sharing stories from our respective trips.

The staff at Portland is the friendliest we think we've ever seen. They were so helpful and were great with Liam. He helped check the bags in, got stickers, wings, and a drawing of a smiley face on his hand. Then to top it all off, the pilot invited him into the cockpit. As we were taxing down the runway, the pilot introduced himself and thanked Liam for helping to prepare the flight-deck.