Nearly a quarter-century ago, Dawn and I began our lives together. Actually, I had just moved into her apartment, so, at the time, we may not have realized that we were beginning our lives together.
The next year we were parents. And a year after that we officially began our lives together when we became husband and wife.
Read MoreOur youngest daughter, Makenzy, recently started Junior High (Middle School, or whatever you want to call it). I am still in shock. Where did the time go? Emily is a college freshman. Again, I am still in shock.
We have always taken a picture of the girls on their first day of school. Somehow, the 2006 picture never happened. Crazy to see how they've grown!
(click the picture for larger image)
I am so proud of our girls. They have grown to be such wonderful people!
Yesterday, we finally made it back to our favorite beach - Cowell Ranch Beach in Half Moon Bay, California. It was a little over cast but still a beautiful day. As is usually the case, there were hardly any other people on “our beach” the entire day. We had an awesome time just relaxing and just hanging out on the beach. We took a lot of pictures... here are the ones that made the cut.
Here are some pictures we took here in 2002 and again in 2005.
Although Emily's team played exceptionally well and shut of their first four opponents, a couple of crushing defeats at the hands of Denmark and Sweden kicked her team out of the championship matches. Instead, her team spent the last day of play as spectators. We talked to Emily a little while ago as she was packing her stuff before bed. She leaves Amsterdam in the morning and will be home tomorrow afternoon. Yippee!
We can't wait to hear more about all the fun she had while in Holland. Keep an eye on our podcast as I'm sure our next episode will feature a lot of her stories. Emily took a lot of pictures so I'm sure those will be up soon.
Emily is having a blast in Holland! Over the first weekend she visited a place where they make cheese and, of course, wooden shoes. She's also done some shopping and visited the Hard Rock Cafe. Emily also got to learn the game of Korfball and spent some time at the beach. Here's a picture she text-paged us from her hotel.
For the first few days her and her team worked on drills and had practices that lasted up to 4 hours - in less than California weather.
The games started today and Emily's team won their first two games, both 2-0, against Holland and England. As a forward and mid-fielder, she had a total of two shots on goal and one assist! Congratulations!!!
The team has a light day today with only one game scheduled which means, uh-oh... more shopping time!
Emily's flight was delayed leaving San Francisco and didn't arrive in Amsterdam until just before 4 am Pacific Time. We talked to her after she arrived and again later on in the morning. She slept for most of the flight and is just a little jet lagged. Right now she is in her room with her two roommates waiting to meet with their coach. She's hoping to get to bed soon since she is meeting the rest of the team at 7 am tomorrow.
Emily left San Francisco today for Holland where, along with the other People to People Sports Ambassadors, will participate in theYouth Friendship Games. Emily's plane lands in Amsterdam in just a couple of hours and will be shuttled off to the village where all the other athletes will be meeting, well, soccer players anyway since they went out a day earlier than the other athletes. Then she'll go to her hotel, meet her team and coaches and then drills and practice start Saturday morning. We hope to hear from her sometime tomorrow and will post an update at some point after that.
We're proud of you Emily. Have fun and play hard!
Opening ceremonies for the Stockton Girls Softball Association were held today. Our girls, the Pink Panthers, looked really good for the first game of the season.
That's right! Emily got the word today that she was accepted into thePeople to People Sports Ambassador Program and will be heading off to play soccer at the Youth Friendship games in Holland this summer! Way to go Emily!
Recently, we received an e-mail from an anonymous web surfer. Your Name: A random web surfer Your Email: anonymous Subject: Photos of Emo
Message: Hello Matt! Just thought you might be interested to know--the word, "Emo" in pop-culture slang refers to a genre of music somewhere between punk-rock and emotionally charged alternative music, as well as a life style and look centered around dark clothes and excessive teen angst. Many teenagers embrace this, but just as many hate it, mock them, and spread phrases such as the very well known, "cry emo, cry!" along with malicious pictures mocking their subculture throughout the internet. Why am I telling you this? Because a Yahoo image search on the word, "Emo" which I can guess thousands of kids do everyday, evidently brings up numerous pictures of what I assume is your daughter on the first dozen pages of links. I would like to point out that the Internet has a history of taking things which are innocent or random, and photoshopping them or otherwise transforming them into something meant to be funny and famous, but ultimately is simply hurtful to the person it's focussed on. There's also just the point that this is potentially a very easy way for people who know your daughter as well as a large number of people you don't know simply finding their way to these photos and your blog, which, if it were me, would be rather troubling. I would guess Yahoo should be able to remove them from their search results if you were to ask, but if not, I would suggest at the very least changing the names to the images.
Aloha and happy holidays! A friendly web surfer
Well, Web Surfer, let me say this. Yours is not the first comment like this we have received, and it surely won't be last. Actually, yours was the most friendly as most say things like, "I was searching for 'emo haircut' and got your site, you suck". We first discovered this genre a few years ago when we were searching the 'net for clothes that said "emo" on them. Since then, the term seems to have crept up more and more in pop-culture. That doesn't change the fact our daughter is also Emo. We shared your comments with Emo and asked what she would like us to do. She said, in her normal spirit, "I'm Emo and I'm not changing the nickname I've been called since the day I was born" (it was her uncle Ken that awarded her the nickname when he first saw her at the hospital).
That got us thinking, what else does Emo mean?
A gas station! A brand of binoculars! Some place in Italy! In fact there are even other people that go by Emo and let's not forget about the one that most consider the original Emo... Emo Philips!
A search on Yahoo! images for "emo" returned over 300,000 items... and only a few hundred or so are from my sites.
So, to all of you worried kids, thank you for your concern but, if you happen across our site looking for other emo stuff, sorry to have diverted your attention.
