276. Veterans Day

Veterans Day is always celebrated on November 11th. But this year, it was an even more special day; For some people, 11/11/11 was supposed to be doom's day. For others it was supposed to be a lucky day. Nicholas said that a lot of his friends believed that if they made a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11, their wish will come true. I kind of like that idea. So, at 11:11 AM, I secretly made a wish. According to the kids, you shouldn't tell anyone about your wish. So, just in case, I won't tell a you about it.

I made my wish while on a hike with Allan and the kids. We went to Vasquez Rocks. The kids had fun, and we got plenty of exercise. I also took some photos of the kids. This afternoon, I spend a little time playing around with the images. I am not particularly fond of special effects, but I had fun experimenting with textures. Here are some of my experimental images:

275. Instagram

A couple weeks ago, Allan, Nicholas and myself got the new iPhone 4s. For me it was definitely a major upgrade; I was using an iPhone 3G! I set it up quickly, just to get me through the next few weeks and left it at that. Since last week was pretty hectic, I didn't get a chance to set my phone exactly the way I wanted it, and I didn't have any time to look for new apps. But finally, this week, I had a little bit of time and was able to download a couple of apps I have been wanting for quite a while. 

Instagram is one of those apps; it's a simple photographic application that allows you to apply filters to any photos you take. Nothing special, you might say, there are plenty of other apps like that. But the great thing about Instagram is that it is easy to share your photos. You can share them on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. You can also download them directly, without having to plug in your phone, which makes using these photos for this Blog, much easier than other iPhone photos. So needless to say that I like this App and that I will definitely be using the photos for this project!

274. Roxy

Roxy: 5 months and future therapy dog!

273. A Dork Diaries Party!

Christina had a Dork Diaries Party; it was based on the popular series of books "Dork Diaries". Her and her friends played what they call "dorky games" such as bobbing for apples, musical chairs, pin the nose on the clown, and ball and spoon race. They had so much fun... They also played freeze dance and played outside. Christina looked so happy! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the party:

 

272. Birthday

Had a great birthday with Allan and the kids. 

Got a huge bouquet of flowers and some funny cardsand we had dinner at Black Angus... Yum!

271. Heart Breaking

The Cross Country Foothill League Finals were today and Nicholas had high hopes. He was expected to finish in the top 3 in the Soph/Frosh race. This is what he has been training for. So it was no surprise when after the first mile he was in the lead. Everything seemed to be going great and his lead was even greater after the second mile. He was on his way to winning the race. Only one hill left... And that's when it happened.

Nicholas has been having some knee problems for the past 2-3 weeks. Just growing pains but this week, all of a sudden, the pain had become pretty bad. He came home early on Monday, having cut his workout short due to pain. We started him on a regimen of icing and ibuprofen and cancelled all his soccer practices, hoping that his knee would be better for the race. And at first it looked like the ice and ibuprofen worked.

But then, while running uphill, during the last mile of the 3 mile course, he started to get shooting pain. He tried to push through it but couldn't and he eventually collapsed. He had to wait until the pain subsided a bit before continuing the race, but by then, he had been passed by at least a dozen runners. He fought the pain and managed to finish the race. But ended up with a time of 18:06 min., finishing in 14th place. Not the finish he was hoping for and needless to say that he was disappointed, frustrated and hurt. He collapsed after the finish line and had to be helped up by myself and an athletic trainer. It was heart breaking to see my son's face after losing his lead and his hope of winning.

After the race, all his teammates were very encouraging and tried to cheer him up. A lot of them said that they admired him for just finishing the race! But I think what made Nicholas feel a little better is that he still won a medal, and his team finished third. His coaches also told him not to worry, that he ran an excellent race and that it happens to even the best runners.

270. Happy Birthday Christina!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter Christina who is turning 10 years old today!