Well...we are only 2 days away fom our big Road Trip and we still have quite a lot of planning to do before we leave on Monday. Preparing for 25 days on the road with 6 people really does take a lot of work! We have made significant progress, and even had the time to look at a couple of interesting travel sites where we found tips for planning a drive across America and travel for kids. The good news is that our checklists covered the items found on these checklists so we are on the right track.
I also noticed another couple of family road trip websites that gave us some ideas: the first is a family that is travelling for 100 days and trying to make their trip carbon neutral by planting one tree for every 1000 miles they travel. I really liked this idea and am thinking about copying it or coming up with another idea to make our trip "carbon neutral." Suggestions are welcomed! The second interesting site I found was titled "All Across America 2007," a video of a small family as they travelled across America. The video was put to some great music and was really a sweet story -- hopefully we will be able to take some video footage that is fun and sweet and shareable with our friends and family.
Good news: the Stowaway2 Max Swingaway cargo box was finally completely installed today. This unit really is a practical way to store items for a long trip! As the name denotes, the unit actually "swings away" from the car on its metal arm and locks into place so it is *really* easy to put gear in and get gear out. And it locks in two places -- on the hitch itself so the entire unit can't be stolen and the lid locks. I am really impressed with the entire unit. My only complaint so far is I had to drill the holes for the license plate holder. I plan to give the company feedback about this one negative point. Very happy with this product so far -- we'll see once we hit the road!
Jill spent much of the day cleaning all of the kids rooms (with them) and packing at the same time. She is *such* a hard worker! We also picked up many of the things we needed for the trip, including memory sticks for our cameras, a Dynex external USB memory card reader for the PC, a micro tripod (useful for Nick's Lego movies), and tons of books on tape. We are estimating that with the 5,300 miles we are going to be driving on this trip, we will be in the car approximately 90 hours...lots of time for listening to audio books! We also picked up a number of nice used DVDs for the the trip and of course everyone has their stack of books to read.
And to wrap up the day, Jake's baseball team did well today in San Bruno, winning their game 16-4. They finished 2-1 in pool play (see LA/MV) and get to move on into the quarterfinals tomorrow. They are seeded 6th out of 16 teams which isn't too bad. They are playing the 3rd seeded Foster City Giants (championship bracket) which will be a tough team to beat...but they can do it if they play their very best game. In any case, the 2008 baseball season ends tomorrow win or lose. One more day of baseball and then its ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Until tomorrow,
Brian
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Day -3 : An All-American Day
Well yesterday was truly a day of Americana...baseball, hot dogs, watermelon, swimming, fireworks! We also squeezed in some cleaning and shopping for necessities for the trip. All-in-all, a happy, happy family day.
Jake's allstar baseball team did pretty well yesterday -- they won 1 and lost 1. They play again today at 4 pm and if they win that game they will win second place in their pool and go on to to the quarter finals on Sunday. Not sure what is going to happen as it is TOTALLY dependent on which 8-year old kids show up for the game, but my guess is we will be playing on Sunday. I am the team pitcher so my job is simply to serve up strikes and let the kids whack it. A high ERA is good! Here's a picture of Jake in action:
After baseball it was time for a family meal of barbecued meats and watermelon, and of course some of Jill's delicious berry cobbler (our proxy for apple pie).
Jake's allstar baseball team did pretty well yesterday -- they won 1 and lost 1. They play again today at 4 pm and if they win that game they will win second place in their pool and go on to to the quarter finals on Sunday. Not sure what is going to happen as it is TOTALLY dependent on which 8-year old kids show up for the game, but my guess is we will be playing on Sunday. I am the team pitcher so my job is simply to serve up strikes and let the kids whack it. A high ERA is good! Here's a picture of Jake in action:
After baseball it was time for a family meal of barbecued meats and watermelon, and of course some of Jill's delicious berry cobbler (our proxy for apple pie).
Tummies full, Jill and Natalie decided to hit the stores to purchase "necessities" for the trip (first aid kit, frisbee, gum), and the boys decided to watch an old favorite movie, the original Star Wars. What a blast! I don't know about you other old timers out there, but I can still recite verbatim nearly every line of that movie! It first came out when I was 13, living in Myers Flat, California (population 200). We had to drive 50 miles to Eureka, California to see it as my mom said there was a movie "I had to see." I remember being so amazed at what I saw and then driving back to Myers Flat, at night, looking out the window wondering if there was life out there and when I would be like Luke and go experience it. Pretty normal thoughts for a 13 year old boy I guess, but still as vivid to me as if it happened yesterday. And now my boys sat silently watching it, and I wondered if they were having the same thoughts of future adventure that I had had, 31 years ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
We ended the day with a fun swim at our little local swim and racquet club, Fairbrae. Of course what should have been a relaxing swim turned into WrestleMania, Lillie-style. For you other dads out there: is it my imagination or is it getting harder to wrestle your older children? Are they getting stronger, heavier, faster or is it just that we are getting a little weaker and maybe a tad bit slower? I am not sure of the answer, but I do know that there will be a day when Nick will make me cry uncle, will beat me in 1-on-1 basketball and in a game of ping pong (he's already close). Thank God for Cruz's boot camps to keep me young -- and Lord, please give me the courage to grow older with grace!
Happy 232nd Birthday, America!
Brian
Friday, July 4, 2008
Day -4 : Economics, Lego iMovies and more!
So much for Thursday being the day we "really get ready for our trip" -- we had a completely full day, and only in the last hour of the day (literally from 11 pm to 12 am) did we get anything done to prepare us for Monday's departure.
The day started with Nick going to TA computers at Blach. After the short drive to Blach, I went to Peets for my daily obligatory medium, triple nonfat latte (the drink of champions). After getting my daily dose of caffeine, I spent an hour or so discussing the economy with a banking colleague of mine. Needless to say we are ALL feeling the effects of the skyrocketing price of oil as it is affecting everything in our oil-based economy, especially commodities. I don't think the run up in commodity prices is going to stop any time soon, and commodity-linked investments may make sense in the short run as inflation is definitely "in the system." Whoever we put in the White House this year will hopefully focus on a *real* energy policy that will make our economy less dependent on foreign oil and less dependent on oil overall. Okay enough politics.
After the economic policy discourse with my friend, I went back to Blach to see Nick and May in action in the classroom. Wow, what a pair! There was a buzz in the air as the kids worked at their computers (all iMacs), learning how to develop stop motion animation movies from Legos. If you have never seen these movies, please go check out a couple on YouTube -- they are phenomenal! Nick showed me his favorite Lego movie on YouTube -- Grease (Summer Lovin'). Check it out - very fun to watch and absolutely amazing how nice a job they do with Legos! Below are Nick's Indiana Jones stop motion animation Lego movies:
Indiana Jones Part I
What do you think? I think they are pretty awesome for a 13 year old kid who just learned how to do this 2-3 weeks ago! Proud of you, Nick!
Lots more to say about the day -- soccer camp for disadvantaged kids, the Voskuil departure, installing the Stowaway box, ambulance in our neighborhood) but I am falling asleep at the keyboard and Jake and I have an early morning baseball game tomorrow (4th of July tourney in San Bruno http://sanbrunopeeweebaseball.org/tournament/index.html). Will have to wait until tomorrow after the games...
Goodnight,
Brian
The day started with Nick going to TA computers at Blach. After the short drive to Blach, I went to Peets for my daily obligatory medium, triple nonfat latte (the drink of champions). After getting my daily dose of caffeine, I spent an hour or so discussing the economy with a banking colleague of mine. Needless to say we are ALL feeling the effects of the skyrocketing price of oil as it is affecting everything in our oil-based economy, especially commodities. I don't think the run up in commodity prices is going to stop any time soon, and commodity-linked investments may make sense in the short run as inflation is definitely "in the system." Whoever we put in the White House this year will hopefully focus on a *real* energy policy that will make our economy less dependent on foreign oil and less dependent on oil overall. Okay enough politics.
After the economic policy discourse with my friend, I went back to Blach to see Nick and May in action in the classroom. Wow, what a pair! There was a buzz in the air as the kids worked at their computers (all iMacs), learning how to develop stop motion animation movies from Legos. If you have never seen these movies, please go check out a couple on YouTube -- they are phenomenal! Nick showed me his favorite Lego movie on YouTube -- Grease (Summer Lovin'). Check it out - very fun to watch and absolutely amazing how nice a job they do with Legos! Below are Nick's Indiana Jones stop motion animation Lego movies:
Indiana Jones Part I
Indiana Jones Part II
Indiana Jones Part III
What do you think? I think they are pretty awesome for a 13 year old kid who just learned how to do this 2-3 weeks ago! Proud of you, Nick!
Lots more to say about the day -- soccer camp for disadvantaged kids, the Voskuil departure, installing the Stowaway box, ambulance in our neighborhood) but I am falling asleep at the keyboard and Jake and I have an early morning baseball game tomorrow (4th of July tourney in San Bruno http://sanbrunopeeweebaseball.org/tournament/index.html). Will have to wait until tomorrow after the games...
Goodnight,
Brian
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Day -5 : Peet's, A Publicist, DDay & Trailer Hitches
Well...only 5 days until the roadtrip begins and what a day it has been!
After a killer workout with personal fitness instructor Robert "All Smiles" Cruz (if you want an awesome personal fitness instructor, email him at rsfitness@sbcglobal.net ), I took Nick to Blach where he is TA'ing a computer class with the marvelous May Shelley and then headed to Peets for a quick cup of coffee. On the way to Peet's I received a call from a Ruderfinn Media Planned Television Arts publicist, a potential firm we will use to promote our daughter Natalie's book. For those of you who don't know, Natalie wrote a book based on her real life experience about getting head lice and how she/we dealt with it, what you can do to avoid it, and how to deal with the social issues that arise from it. The book will be published soon, and we are now working with a publicist to create awareness of it via various media channels, including online, magazines, newspapers and television. This was an exciting conversation and hopefully will turn into a full-fledged marketing plan soon. Our goal is to get this book into every classroom in America. What the heck, if you don't dream big life will be small!
At Peet's I noticed an older gentleman wearing a World War II "D-Day" baseball hat. I went outside and introduced myself to him and asked him if he was a WWII veteran, specifically was he a part of D-Day. He said his name was Chuck Ohman, a Los Altos resident, and that he was indeed a WWII veteran and was on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6th 1944. I asked him if he would tell me his story, and he proceeded to tell me how he was a member of the 299th Combat Engineers but was assigned to the Navy as a member of their newly formed Underwater Demolition Teams. He said he landed in the beginning of the invasion on D-Day with the responsibility to help clear the way for the troops behind him. He got wistful when he said he was injured that first day and basically lost the use of both of his arms due to shrapnel. He said that as he was lying there in the sand not knowing what to do (he was used to taking orders, he said, and his CO was dead), a sargent from another unit came up to him, pointed a pistol at his chest and told him to move his butt or he would shoot him. Mr. Ohman quickly got up and ran "like heck" to the base of the cliffs at the back of the beach and sat there with a few other infantrymen who had made it across the beach. As he was sitting there, he said some sand started trickling down his neck so he looked up and saw the cliff all around them caving in! He stood up in time such that the sand only went up to his neck so he survived. Sadly, he could not save the guys around him as they were buried alive. Somehow he said that he wriggled out without the use of his arms, walked up to the top of the cliff, dug a shallow slit trench in the sand, and spent the night waiting for help. On June 7th someone found him, moved him to a hospital ship, and he was operated on on the ship on the way back to England. After he recovered from his wounds (he showed me where the shrapnel entered and exited his arms), he returned to action in the Battle of the Bulge as a radio operator in the 2nd Armored Division. When I asked him what he thought of Patton (General in charge of the 3rd Army that came in to help defeat the German Army at the Battle of the Bulge), he echoed what many soldiers have said about old "blood and guts": "it was his guts and MY blood!" Interesting to hear firsthand what I have read about for so many years. After the Germans had surrendered on May 7th, 1945, Mr. Ohman returned to the US and was preparing to go to the Pacific theater to fight. But when the US dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, and on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, he knew the war was over and that he would not be going to the Pacific (the Japanese subsequently surrendered on September 2nd, 1945). We finished our conversation with how he transitioned back into civilian life after life in the Army ("a difficult transition") and said he doesn't know what he would have done without the GI Bill, then termed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as it allowed him to attend college and pay his living expenses while doing so. He got angry when he thought of how the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were not getting the same treatment he was with regard to the GI Bill and said we need to "support those who risk their life to protect the life we have and love." With that, I stood up, saluted him, thanked him for his service to his country, and told him I was proud to be his neighbor. Mr. Ohman, you are truly one of America's Greatest Generation!
Well that's enough for now. Got to go pick up our Odyssey with its new trailer hitch on it (using a MAX Swingaway cargo carrier from Stowaway2 to carry all of the Lillie sports gear on our roadtrip) and then spend a few hours on the baseball field coaching Jake's allstar team.
BTW, I wrote this note from a great little coffee/smoothie shop in San Carlos waiting for our van to be finished. Check it out -- it's called Skinny Sippin' !
Peace,
Brian
After a killer workout with personal fitness instructor Robert "All Smiles" Cruz (if you want an awesome personal fitness instructor, email him at rsfitness@sbcglobal.net ), I took Nick to Blach where he is TA'ing a computer class with the marvelous May Shelley and then headed to Peets for a quick cup of coffee. On the way to Peet's I received a call from a Ruderfinn Media Planned Television Arts publicist, a potential firm we will use to promote our daughter Natalie's book. For those of you who don't know, Natalie wrote a book based on her real life experience about getting head lice and how she/we dealt with it, what you can do to avoid it, and how to deal with the social issues that arise from it. The book will be published soon, and we are now working with a publicist to create awareness of it via various media channels, including online, magazines, newspapers and television. This was an exciting conversation and hopefully will turn into a full-fledged marketing plan soon. Our goal is to get this book into every classroom in America. What the heck, if you don't dream big life will be small!
At Peet's I noticed an older gentleman wearing a World War II "D-Day" baseball hat. I went outside and introduced myself to him and asked him if he was a WWII veteran, specifically was he a part of D-Day. He said his name was Chuck Ohman, a Los Altos resident, and that he was indeed a WWII veteran and was on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6th 1944. I asked him if he would tell me his story, and he proceeded to tell me how he was a member of the 299th Combat Engineers but was assigned to the Navy as a member of their newly formed Underwater Demolition Teams. He said he landed in the beginning of the invasion on D-Day with the responsibility to help clear the way for the troops behind him. He got wistful when he said he was injured that first day and basically lost the use of both of his arms due to shrapnel. He said that as he was lying there in the sand not knowing what to do (he was used to taking orders, he said, and his CO was dead), a sargent from another unit came up to him, pointed a pistol at his chest and told him to move his butt or he would shoot him. Mr. Ohman quickly got up and ran "like heck" to the base of the cliffs at the back of the beach and sat there with a few other infantrymen who had made it across the beach. As he was sitting there, he said some sand started trickling down his neck so he looked up and saw the cliff all around them caving in! He stood up in time such that the sand only went up to his neck so he survived. Sadly, he could not save the guys around him as they were buried alive. Somehow he said that he wriggled out without the use of his arms, walked up to the top of the cliff, dug a shallow slit trench in the sand, and spent the night waiting for help. On June 7th someone found him, moved him to a hospital ship, and he was operated on on the ship on the way back to England. After he recovered from his wounds (he showed me where the shrapnel entered and exited his arms), he returned to action in the Battle of the Bulge as a radio operator in the 2nd Armored Division. When I asked him what he thought of Patton (General in charge of the 3rd Army that came in to help defeat the German Army at the Battle of the Bulge), he echoed what many soldiers have said about old "blood and guts": "it was his guts and MY blood!" Interesting to hear firsthand what I have read about for so many years. After the Germans had surrendered on May 7th, 1945, Mr. Ohman returned to the US and was preparing to go to the Pacific theater to fight. But when the US dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, and on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, he knew the war was over and that he would not be going to the Pacific (the Japanese subsequently surrendered on September 2nd, 1945). We finished our conversation with how he transitioned back into civilian life after life in the Army ("a difficult transition") and said he doesn't know what he would have done without the GI Bill, then termed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as it allowed him to attend college and pay his living expenses while doing so. He got angry when he thought of how the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were not getting the same treatment he was with regard to the GI Bill and said we need to "support those who risk their life to protect the life we have and love." With that, I stood up, saluted him, thanked him for his service to his country, and told him I was proud to be his neighbor. Mr. Ohman, you are truly one of America's Greatest Generation!
Well that's enough for now. Got to go pick up our Odyssey with its new trailer hitch on it (using a MAX Swingaway cargo carrier from Stowaway2 to carry all of the Lillie sports gear on our roadtrip) and then spend a few hours on the baseball field coaching Jake's allstar team.
BTW, I wrote this note from a great little coffee/smoothie shop in San Carlos waiting for our van to be finished. Check it out -- it's called Skinny Sippin' !
Peace,
Brian
Monday, June 30, 2008
Hello and Welcome to the Lillie Family Blog!
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the Lillie Family blog! I decided to create a blog to share with all of you, our family and friends, our crazy life at the LilliepadUSA. "Life with the Lillies" is never dull, especially with four wonderfully busy, extremely special children. The other "forcing function" for this blog is our upcoming Lillie Family July 2008 Roadtrip.
We will be departing the Lilliepad on July 7th and driving through, or staying in, 15 different states, including: Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California! Over 5,300 miles will be traveled, nearly 250 gallons of gas consumed (please don't shoot me, my other car is a Prius), and almost 90 hours of books on tape listened to in our 25 day long journey. The trip will also be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for our family to spend this special time together as a family and experiencing some of the beauty in our great country we call home. I intend to blog every day of the trip, and expect my wife and children to do some blogging as well (Nick is "Mr. Beast"), to give you their individual perspective on what I know will be a trip of a lifetime.
Thanks for reading and may God Bless each and every one of you!
Brian
Welcome to the Lillie Family blog! I decided to create a blog to share with all of you, our family and friends, our crazy life at the LilliepadUSA. "Life with the Lillies" is never dull, especially with four wonderfully busy, extremely special children. The other "forcing function" for this blog is our upcoming Lillie Family July 2008 Roadtrip.
We will be departing the Lilliepad on July 7th and driving through, or staying in, 15 different states, including: Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California! Over 5,300 miles will be traveled, nearly 250 gallons of gas consumed (please don't shoot me, my other car is a Prius), and almost 90 hours of books on tape listened to in our 25 day long journey. The trip will also be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for our family to spend this special time together as a family and experiencing some of the beauty in our great country we call home. I intend to blog every day of the trip, and expect my wife and children to do some blogging as well (Nick is "Mr. Beast"), to give you their individual perspective on what I know will be a trip of a lifetime.
Thanks for reading and may God Bless each and every one of you!
Brian
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