West Coast

Quick story... I spent 15 minutes last night analyzing song lyrics with Owen. The song was "West Coast" by Coconut Records. Owen wanted to know why he said "I miss you/I'm going back home to the west coast." We created an elaborate story about this guy (and this might be accurate) that he broke up with a girl he loved to move to the east coast. Then he realized he missed her and shouldn't have left. Owen's reaction was charming... "He had a job on the west coast working as a lifeguard at the lake, and moved to the east coast for a regular kind of job." We then concluded it was better to not only be on the west coast, but to work at the lake and be with the person you wanted to be with.

He also really liked the idea that the guy would "talk out loud like you're still around." To quote Owen "It's like he thinks she's still there, and wants to tell her something and then... oops I'm on the east coast now."

Blogligation

People talk about the enormous responsibility that parenting brings... but as I was analyzing that stress (and it is certainly a stress), I think it is more about obligation. It isn't the fact that I am responsible for the well being of my family that causes consternation, but rather the unrelenting obligations of:
1) Making money
2) Spending time with everyone
3) Being available
4) Staying healthy

others too... but when one is single, or even without kids, these obligations are significantly reduced. Add in other obligations such as Fantasy Baseball (and yes, it is an obligation), spending time with parents, friends, doing my job well, and well, it can make you go a little batty.

So why would someone do this? Why take these obligations on, and more importantly, why add an obligation of posting a blog on a semi-regular basis on a voluntary basis. The answer, is unquestionably, the pursuit of Joy (capitalized not to indicate the pursuit of a woman named Joy or Joyce, but rather for importance).

For example, I love, love, love my kids, and it brings me great joy that I have achieved enough success and have been lucky enough in life to be able to provide for them. Instead of seeing obligation as an evil burden, it is so much more liberating once you ask yourself why you keep these obligations, to arrive at the answer that it brings me so much joy. This gets into a greater philosophical discussion concerning nothing done for philanthropic reasons (instead, everything is done for the pursuit of some Joy), but that is a significant digression.

Anyway, I feel this blog will provide me joy if I keep my personal obligation to it.

In other news... I'm off to Alaska Saturday for a fishing trip with several of the people I work for. Interestingly enough, while I am relishing the break from the obligations of day to day life (no cell phone service), I seem to create obligations, trying to figure out how to stay in touch with my family, through email and blogging. It gives me peace to realize I do this out of love and not out of neurosis, at least that is what I tell myself.

Unrelated, Nathan's latest thing is when there is a noise, he will exclaim "What just happened?" The beauty is that you can answer just about anything and he'll say "oh."

Ain't no beach like a Pacific City Beach

Back from the beach today. 2 nights at a house on the sand and it was really an excellent trip. Weather was supposed to suck, but it was just about perfect... 60-70, very little wind, except on Sunday afternoon when it was 70+ with wind, which was just great because big ol' Owen got to fly his kite. As Katie described, he was in "boy heaven."

He was able to control the kite well, and the look of satisfaction on his face as he planted himself down and held the string holder between his feet and just watched the kite was just delightful.

Nathan really got into sliding down the dunes and getting as sandy as a person has every been. See pic which I'll put below. The boys got along great, and we spoiled them rotten.

One nice parenting save came when we went down to Lincoln City and messed around, then went to get lunch at a little dive fish place where there was a 15 minute wait and didn't look too kid friendly. Kids were hungry... disaster loomed. Instead of sitting and having a labored lunch, we went to the place next door that sold fresh fish, and the kids enjoyed fresh baby shrimp out of styrofoam cups while Katie and I had some of that, some fresh crab, and smoked sturgeon, all out of styrofoam. But what made it also was that we just all sat in the way back of the minivan and had a makeshift picnic in the parking lot. It is one of those things that seemed so right, as much for what we ended up doing than what we ended up not doing.

Nathan's latest thing is "It's my birthday." This happens every day, and it is best not to fight it, but rather to say "Happy Birthday." This has been going on since... you guessed it, Owen's birthday. By the time it is Nathan's birthday in October, he'll probably be arguing that it isn't his birthday.

It's off to the beach

Well we are off to the beach tomorrow (7/26) for 2 nights, which means packing galore (though, again, why we have to pack so much will never be in my cerebral cortex, it just ain't me). We are going to Pacific City tomorrow, on the Oregon coast, just the 4 of us. While we have been a little crazy this summer, it should be nice to have something, just us.

Pretty cool... we have a house right on the sand; it happens to be the same house we rented 2 years ago.

Kids are stuck on Bee Movie right now... how do they watch the same thing over and over?

Owen on the election (note: we have done our best to mildly brainwash him toward Obama, while not completely tainting the water in case McCain pulls it out):

"Obama seems like a real leader for the United States and Oregon. McCain... not so much"
Also, Owen's friend was telling him that his cousin was a solider (unconfirmed)... Owen asks: "Is he fighting for gas?"

We love our kids, we really do.