24:09

we have returned from being "frenceforawhile" (which is incidently the blog of my brother-n-law that has much better info then you will find here).

my Nov. 6 was 24 hours and 9 minutes long.

i awoke at 6:45 AM and layed my head on the pillow at 12:54 AM this morning Nov. 7...please remember that I woke up in Le Rouret (Nice) France (12:45 AM EST) and went to bed in Pt. Charlotte, FL USA (6:54 AM Nov. 7 GMT--France time).

it was nice to visit. it is nice to be home.

Happy Mother's Day!

On Thursday I told the boys that I thought we should probably spend--at least part of--our normal afternoon out looking for a Mother's Day gift for...their mother.

Seeing that we were in her vehicle (because it already looked like one that a 4 year-old and 6 year-old boy lived in!) and it was nearly on empty I decided to fill it up with gas while the young men made their decision as to what that wanted to get for their mother for Mother's Day and where they wanted to look for it.

Upon returning to the aforementioned vehicle, I asked where they wanted to go. To which (as you can imagine) the answers were quite self-serving. Again, I reminded these two young men who I assure you DO love their mother very much, that Sunday was Mother's Day and we should probably find a gift for her while we still had time. Once more I asked, "what do you want to get her?"

No lie, the next thing I heard was...

"We put gas in her car!"

"Is G the same as 7?"

Today (during church), Toby asked Charity, "Is G the same as 7?" At which point she turned to me to shared the most recent "cute," yet bazarre thing to come out of one of our children's mouths.

A moment later, she turns to me and on her fingers goes, "a, b, c, d, e, f, g"--"G" indeed is the same as "7." Of course, our bazarre son is apparently smarter then his parents!

Boys ride their first "grown-up" ride

Dad had two meetings in Orlando last week, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday so we all decided to go and spend a couple of days in the ol' home town.

Mom and boys past the time during Dad's Wed. mtg. with @ Burger King with a flat tire. (Big indoor playground and fast AAA made it not as bad as it sounds...not to mention that Dad was 45 minutes late to his 1.5 hour mtg.)

Most of Thurs. was spent moving to a new motel, with a stop @ a Christian Book Outlet (not really any deals, in fact the one thing Dad was looking for was 2X as expensive as it is at Walmart!), miniature golfing (on a Pirate course!)--believe it or not Mom won by one stroke (3 hole-in-ones!) if you don't count all of Toby's "hole-in-ones" that consist of any ball that goes in the whole without having ever come to a complete stop after "tee-off"--regardless of number of hits. And finally dinner at one of Mom & Dad's favorite "artsy" (literally decorated with local art work, even had a couple artist working during the meal) tapas restaurant--that just happened to be next to the miniature golf place.

Friday was our along-awaited return to Sea World--why do they charge you $65 bucks to get into the place and another $10 to park?--at least they let you bring in your own food, but of course we were not that prepared! Toby only wanted to go to Wild Artic (polar bears, beluga whales, narwald and a huge walrus). We all went through the "simulation ride" intro instead of the stationary program for the first time. They have added some "kiddie rides" of which Seth wanted to ride all and Toby wouldn't do a single one. But the highlight was "tricking" Toby and Seth onto their first "grown-up ride"--Atlantis, part log-floom, part roller coaster. Seth made it on by about .023 inches.

Saturday was an all-day conference for Mom & Dad, while Toby & Seth got to go to "pre-school". Sounds fun and it was free day-care. But not according to Toby. Two friends were suppose to come but couldn't make it, so the only people they knew were each other...and classrooms divided them into different rooms. YE! Knew that wouldn't work. Toby spent the day with 3 & 4 year-olds. Highlight here...Seth "bent his tooth"! I don't know! Says he "hit it on the wheel of the race car when he was getting in" but no one saw it, there didn't appear to be any blood, however he wouldn't eat and still won't brush that tooth himself. But NO probably chomping down a 3 week old chocolate chip cookie tonight!

Back home, finally getting back into a "routine" and PopPop & GiGi will arrive tonight to surprise the boys...There goes everything!!!

BIG 6

As usual, the BIG happening in Colorado was Toby getting older.

This year was his 6th (though according to the number of candles on the cake, it was his 12th) and the 5th to be spent in Winter Park, CO.

We celebrated with mommy's entire side of the family and a VERY SCARY Colorado Blueberry Alligator cake (He refrained from placing his feet in it this year as he did for his first birthday in Colorado).

Poor deprived kid, in 6 years, he has never had a birthday party with anyone other then family present!

let it SNOW!

We have returned from the annual Netteburg Spring Break in Winter Park, CO.

Much fun was had by all (thanks to aunt Denae and uncle Olen NOT bringing their snowboards). We all skied this year, Toby even attempted a BIG HILL this year--Seth still prefers the "magic carpet" learner hills, where he can go "fast" on his own for a short distance. When not skiing, there was much time spent playing in the snow, trying to build "snow caves" in really dry snow and sledding on the public sled hill...where both Toby and Seth--bored with the short hill--used their sleds as "snowboards" to get down the hill (sorry, no pixs--you undoubtedly can obtain those from Gamma: rknetteburg@yahoo.com).

The highlight of the trip was that EVERYONE was there this year; Gamma & Gampa, Auntie "Tree-Hugger" Kristin & Uncle "Mad Man" Mike, Auntie "Danty Dare Devil" Danea & Uncle "60 Day-30 Country" Olen, as well as Cousin Emma & Heidi. The only think that could have made it better is if Sheba & Midnight would have been there!

Oh ye...AND that we all got to celebrate Toby's 6th birthday with him on Thursday.

One other adventure was spending part of our "rest day" visiting an Alpaca Farm in nearby Granby, CO. Good news is that no

one got "spit" on...though there seemed to be a couple of close calls. Seth was disappointed that there were no cats there, but Toby and one of the HUGE Great Pyrenees "guard dogs" really took to each other--on a good day, soaking wet, Toby would have still been less then a 1/3 Lucky's size.

Skiing a week later then normal, we were blessed with warm weather and the fact Winter Park has had over 307 inches of snow this year. In addition, "curse" of a big snow storm on the day after we leave was broken this year as it snowed our last two days nearly 1.5 feet total by the time we headed down the mountain...We are still not talking to Uncles Michael & Olen and Aunt Danea who skied an extra day as we packed to head home, and called from the top of the mountain to report 16 inches of fresh powder with only one set of tracks through it!!!

Though sore, we all arrived home safely~

THANKS! Aunt Kerri!!!

Dear Aunt Kerri and crew sent Toby a nicely wrapped Birthday present two weeks ago, and being the good parent that Toby's mom is, she made sure that he didn't get to open it before the big day. However, being that we would not be home for his actually birthday, she made sure to have me put it in (at the last minute) so that Toby could open it on his birthday.

--NOTE to Self-- When packing a present, send from overseas, that is still wrapped--with a foreign stamp--contact the sender to varify the contents AND pack it in your checked luggage instead of in your carry-on bags!

Being a last minute addition to the packing and a small package of "assumed" chocolate or the such, I threw the gift in the backpack that Toby was carrying. Much to my surprise, the nice TSA agent wanted to check the pack or something that looked suspicious. I of course just assumed that it was one of those "random" additional security checks that my kids seem to get singled out for or that my dear son was unwilling to depart with a precious half empty water bottle. The nice TSA agent went carefully through the pack, and of course found nothing...so announced that he would like to run it through the scanner again.

Upon returning from the second trip throught the x-ray machine, the nice TSA agent pulled out Toby's little gift from France and said he was going to need to open it. He got through the secure overseas packing envelope to find a nicely wrapped gift. As he began to rip into the colorful wrapping paper, he realized that this was a gift that Toby had not yet seen, so he turned his back to Toby--so he wouldn't see--and unwrapped before me a beautiful little SWORD!!!!

THANKS KERRI!!!!

This is the kind of thing that only seems to happen to Uncle Jonathan (of http://www.frenchforawhile.blogspot.com/).

I was speechless and began to prepare myself for a week in prison instead of skiing in Colorado. Luckly, my wife was very apologetic and thought to as if there was a way to send it back to ourselves. To which the nice TSA agent informed us that there was indeed a way--but it would cost! So one has stubbled onto a great money making opportunity...that have installed machines just on the other side of TSA check points in which if your "illegel" item is small enough, you can place it in a little padded shipping envelope and pay them about twice the items value PLUS SHIPPING to mail it back to yourself.

So, as you can see, Toby now has his little sword/letter opener and proudly carries it around in his jeans pocket, wiping it out at a moments notice--because it makes a "cool" sound if he pulls it out quick-enough.

Oh ye, and he stabbed his little brother with it this morning, because he wasn't doing as told by his older brother....

THANKS AGAIN KERRI!