Cub Scout Resident Camp
Real quick update. Jack and I went to Cub Scout Resident Camp last weekend. You bet there are pictures. What did we do? Well, we accomplished all of this
- Swimming Loop
- Swimming Pin
- Map and Compass Loop
- Geology Loop
- Geography Loop
- Marbles Loop
- Wildlife Conservation Loop
- Archery Loop
- Archery Pin
- BB Loop
Jack's favorite? Archery.
Posted at 02:09PM Jun 16, 2009 by schnee in General |
My Retirement Plan
The economy is getting hosed left and right. Obama may or may not be the 2nd Coming (probably not) but whatever happens, it will take a while and it will likely hurt.
I'm not worried.
My retirement is secure.
I present to you, my 401-j-a-c-K Retirement Plan:
Jack recently started playing basketball at the local YMCA. And his coach says he's got "great spirit". I'm hoping to teach him some of the finer points of the game, not so he'll be better, but so he'll be better able to enjoy being out there. He seems to have a good time, but he really doesn't play offense and defense as much as just play. He's on the cusp of playing and playing sports. I hope I can guide him through this journey.
Posted at 08:38PM Jan 20, 2009 by schnee in General |
Stung on the Tongue!
Jack went camping with his buddy Nico this past weekend. He was on Spring Break and I guess wanted to have one last lost weekend before returning to Kindergarten. Kathleen took him and his brother and sister out there on Friday and they all played. Jack stayed behind. Nico's parents were sort of planning on coming back on Saturday, but were also thinking of staying until Sunday.
On Saturday, we got a phone call from Shannon, Nico's mom. "Is Jack allergic to bee stings? 'Cause he got stung on the tongue". He was eating a peanut and jelly sandwich and a bee flew into his mouth. And nailed his tongue. And then he swallowed the bee.
I talked to him on the phone and he was pretty shaken up. But he shook it off after a bit and had a good time the rest of the time. Yay Jack!
Posted at 08:13PM Mar 16, 2008 by schnee in General |
Kindergarten Blues
Last week Jack needed to miss a day of school. There goes his perfect attendance record. He had a low-grade fever and a sore throat. Since his younger sibs just got over various illnesses, his mom and I weren't taking any chances.
I started to write the note: Mrs. Thomson, please excuse Jack Schneeman's 20071209 abs... and then I froze. How do I spell that word? If it was to anyone else, big deal. But this was to a Teacher. Jack's Teacher. I get this wrong and Jack is labeled for life as being the scion of a Bad Speller. I wrote abcense, and then abscense, but those didn't look right. Oh, for spell-checking paper!
Off to the Internet, I'm sad to report. But I got the word right.
Posted at 07:25PM Dec 17, 2007 by schnee in General |
Houston, we didn't have a problem
About a month ago, I took Jack and a buddy down to SpaceCenter Houston, a museum / playscape attached to the Johnson Space Center (you know, where Mission Control is). We got to the SpaceCenter, played, toured JSC and then played some more. Then, we found our hotel and crashed. Then we came back to Austin.
The SpaceCenter is pretty impressive - massive indoor multi-level playscape, small movie theater, moon rock vault - stuff like that. The JSC tour was pretty cool - we saw Mission Control (nothing going on), a simulation room with "high-fidelity models" of the Shuttles and the Space Station and then we saw the Apollo 18 Saturn V rocket that was never launched.
In the photos, you'll notice a rather persistent happy face. I do not have permission from Jack's buddy's parents to show him on the Internet.
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| Johnson Space Center / SpaceCente |
Posted at 01:43PM Nov 01, 2007 by schnee in General |
Jack's Birthday
Sorry about the delay and the brevity. Here are some photos:
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| Jack's Bday |
I had intended to caption each one, but I really am struggling to find time.
Oh, and yesterday, I ate lunch with a spork!
Posted at 07:34AM Oct 27, 2007 by schnee in General |
Kinderfamily
Today was Jack's first day of Kindergarten at Barton Hills Elementary. I'd been waking him up early for the last couple of weeks - getting him used to the idea. Last Friday, we went to meet the teacher day and prototyped the route, figuring out the optimal path and timing the 1 1/2 block trek. It takes about 8 minutes.
We loaded Ben and Anna up in the stroller, Anna just hanging out and Ben hanging onto his lunchbox and backpack, trying to be like is big brother, and headed over to the school. Saw many of his classmates on the way and delivered Jack to the school without any meltdowns by Jack. Kathleen was a little teary, however. I brought Ben and Anna back home while Kathleen got Jack to his classroom and hung out in the cafeteria for a "coffee and crying" session with other parents.
When Kathleen came back, she told me that Jack did a great job getting situated - he found his name tag, put his backpack and lunchbox where they are suppose to go and waited for mommy to get out of his hair. He gets picked up at 2:45.
Posted at 09:48AM Aug 27, 2007 by schnee in General |
Some more summertime images
Some more photos taking during Graduation Day. I noticed that my scanner is getting dark - the thing is 8 years old. Maybe time to get a new one. Sheesh!
The kids and the dad.
Jack in flight, celebrating being a graduate!
Ben mugging for the camera.
Posted at 10:14AM Jun 12, 2007 by schnee in Photography |
Some summertime photos
Jack graduated from preschool last month. While I don't have any photos scanned from the actual ceremony, we needed to load a new roll of film during the event. The roll of Fuji NPZ 800 was developed at Costco, which provides relatively inexpensive scans of decent quality. Costco doesn't process slide film, which was used during the ceremony. Scanning that takes time since I have to do it myself. And time is of short supply, unfortunately.
Here's Ben screwing around in a tire-based playscape. This is on the grounds of Jack's old preschool. Fortunately for Ben, he'll be going there in the Fall.
More Ben and the Tires. He seems to enjoy them.
Ben has moved onto a swinging tube. This is a really good candid photography. Almost as if I placed Ben in the tube and told him to look at me.
Jack and his good friend from preschool Sam. They are playing with a water faucet. As I type this, it occurs to me that this was the last time they are likely to play together in this location. Sam will not be going to Jack's school in the Fall, but they've played on the same soccer team and have gotten together in the for playdates and birthday parties and the like.
Ben, looking like he is having fun
Jack, showing me that he has learned to swing by himself.
Jack and Ben on the swingset.
Posted at 10:27AM Jun 11, 2007 by schnee in Life |
First Day of the Rest of His Life
Jack graduates from preschool today and I just got back from dropping him off. The ceremony begins in a couple of hours, but right now, he's on his own. It was pretty sad walking him from the car to the room, knowing that we'll never do that again. Next Fall, he and I walk to kindergarten together which excites us. He really enjoyed the past two years at Faith Preschool, and Kathleen and I have watched him mature and grow. All his teachers like him and he tries very hard to please them - a bit of a perfectionist apparently. Jack has genious qualities as well - during a skills test, he was doing 3rd-grader activities. The teacher was blown away.
I'll take some pictures of the ceremony and post them (yeah, right).
Posted at 09:22AM May 21, 2007 by schnee in Life |
The other day, I met a bear
The other day
I met a bear
A great big bear
Oh way out there
I tried to remember those lyrics, wanting to contribute some song to the campfire sing-a-long to which my 15 girl scout hostesses invited the boys and I. They gave us s'mores and banana boats after-all and the only thing I brought was a hastily assembled bouquet of native grasses and a "goofy guests" verse to "He's got the whole world in His hands". Perhaps I should start at the beginning...
The boys and I camped at Inks Lake in Central Texas this past weekend. Kathleen made the arrangements and stayed behind with Anna as Ben, Jack and I loaded the Subaru and headed out for our Saturday night stay. Inks Lake is a rather nice state park about 90 minutes (or less!) from our house. Camping in Central Texas isn't the best (follow that link to see how I broke that promise), but we gotta do what we gotta do. Ironically, the boys and I got the campsite that the Choir was in (again, follow that link).
The site was about 30 metres from where the car could be parked. I had two boys, neither of which can be completely unsupervised. I had to set up the camp and be a dad at the same time. It was a bit difficult, but I managed. Once the tent was up and snacks served, I took the boys swimming at the lake. We met a very nice family ('hi Jose, Monika, Joseph and Jaden!') and played around for a couple of hours. Then it was time to head back to the camp, for cooking and eating.
That went pretty well. As we were setting up, the Girl Scout leader from the next camp over invited us for s'mores and banana boats later on. A very welcome invitation that was. The scouts totally owned me in the "campfire making" category - they had a roaring fire when all I had (initially) was a feeble matchstick. And, of course, Jack noticed ("Daddy, why is there fire so much bigger"). Eventually, we got our fire popping and all was well. Cooked hotdogs and had dinner, followed by a pre-s'more marshmallow or two. Then it was time to visit the Girl Scouts.
That was fun. We sat around and sang songs, roasted marshmallow and had a good time. Jack immediately joined in the sing-a-longs and Ben eventually caught on. We stayed for an hour and then went on a moonlight hike, which both boys enjoyed immensely (the super power flashlights probably had something to do with).
Sleep that night was a challenge for a bit - both boys kept screwing around it the tent until I had to put my foot down and separate them. Sleep eventually followed and was too-soon followed by morning.
We went on a long hike into the granite (documented by the craptacular cellphone camera, below) and loaded up into the car for the drive home. It was quite fun!
Posted at 02:46PM May 07, 2007 by schnee in Life |
Father's Day
The SchneeWorld Corporate Retreat was a terrific success. All
SchneeWorld employees returned from the Retreat refreshed and ready to
face the hot Austin July. The overnight backpacking trip became a
highlight for those who participated.
n.b. all photos are clickable to larger
views. all photos are likewise reproducible; either take the higher
resolution image and print it yourself OR request a repro from the SchneeWorld Chief
Photographer. You will likely get better photos if you take the 2nd option.
The day before Father's day. All of the
fathers and sons are lined up before boarding the Durango to Silverton
Narrow Gauge Railroad. Backrow: Danny, Steve and Brent. Front Row:
Jason, Alex, Sean, Aiden and Jack. We were eventually joined by Uncles
John and Tim, but they were...especially tired...that
morning.
Jason, Jack and Alex have secured key window
seats on the train. Notice Jack and Alex's critical use of protective
eyewear - we were all cautioned about cinders and ashes that can blow
into the eye and really ruin a day (or three).
And here is what was viewable throught the
windows as the train navigated the tight canyon formed by the Animus
River. It was a three-hour ride (at about 18mph) upto where we
disembarked from the train and embark onto the backpacking
adventure.
Three views of the tracks near our
campsite. Notice the smoke and the train in the last two photos. Our
tents were within 50 metres of where these photos were taken, but we
did not have any soot or ashes land in our campsite (that we noticed).
We did learn, however, that coal really does not burn in campfire all
that well.
A picture of Aiden and Jack on the rockslide
that provided hours of entertainment both days. As I was scrambling
over the granite fall, I could not help but think "hey, that would make
a nice countertop".
The bridge provided other sources of
entertainments as Fathers and Sons alike took turns throwing rocks.
Steve and Danny won the "biggest splash award". I chalk that up to
their experience from last year when they did the same trip. Watch out
for next year, however.
A picture of Jack as he and I hiked back from a
brief excursion up the side of a mountain. It was a nice short hike. We
turned back before the rest of the party did, but we still had a great
time.
At night, the boys (L-to-R: Sean, Aiden, Alex,
Jack and Jason) played Batman Uno to whittle away some time, but
eventually, the campfire called. 
All but three of the Lyons men are in this
photo (Jack, Uncle Tim (sitting), Uncle Dan, Jason Sean and Uncle
John). Missing are Uncle Tom and Cousin Donald, and Jack's little bro
Ben. I'm via marriage, so sometimes I count myself, sometimes I don't.
They are sitting near the campfire, which explains the squinty eyes and
the odd orange coloring of John's right foot.
The next morning (Father's Day!) after a very
cold night in the boonies.
A rare look at SchneeWorld's Chief
Documentarian, me. But really, this is a picture of a father and son on
Father's Day, 2006.
All the sons shivering around the fire. I do
have to say that I moved up to a professional fire starter that day - I
got the fire going without using matches (the embers were still hot
from the night before and just required a little stoking and strategic
use of kindling, but still, the kids were
impressed).
Breakfast in the woods, with Jack, Tim, Jason
and Sean.
Starting the hike back to the train pickup
point. That's Jack in the tracks, and Uncle Dan adjusting Jason's pack.
Off in the distance are the rest of the campers (minus Tim and John who
when their own way).
A look back at the campsite, which is right
between the river and the tracks, just
left-of-center.
The metaphorical photo - a father and son,
hiking together. Doesn't matter who they are - they stand in for all of
us.
A simple, scenic look at Uncle Dan and his boys
off in the distance.
"Which way to I go". Jack is pondering the
switchtracks, likely extending the simple choice they represent into an
allegory for his young life.
Jack has decided - take the main, not the
siding. Someday, he'll start taking sidetracks, but not on this
day.
The combination train ride / backpack / camping
trip was very fun. Spending quality time with the cousins and uncles is
always a kick. I learned a few things about relating to my son, and I
learned a few things about relating to myself. We're going to be doing
this sort of trip next year, but before then, Jack and I will be
shaking the Pillars of Heaven once again on a canoe
trip.
Posted at 12:00AM Jun 28, 2006 by schnee in Life |
