Happy Independence Day!

Deacon on July 4, 2005.

Wishing everyone a very happy Fourth of July. God Bless America!

Maren's 7th Birthday - Long Beach!

In grand tradition, Maren managed to stretch her birthday celebration over multiple dates/events.

After her big birthday bash at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center on Saturday, she celebrated her actual birthday (June 29) with some BFFs at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach!

Jason, Maren, Payton and Deacon. And a giganormous blue whale.

Whale bones!

Fish. Derek is glad he doesn't have to clean this tank.

Payton and Maren pose on the lifelike fake rocks in front of the fake ocean.

Outside!

Payton and Maren.

Time for the Bubble Rollers. The kids get in these giant plastic balls and become "human hamsters," rolling around on the water. Here's Payton taking a giant leap for mankind...

In the water! But totally dry.

Maren had a great time!

Deacon tried his best to stand up! It was a challenge.

This was Jason's third visit to the Bubble Rollers!

He's up!

Relaxed and comfy at the end of a great day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAREN!

The Queen of America is turning 7 today.

She celebrated with some of her friends at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center last Saturday. Here are some pics!

The Santa Clarita Aquatic Center Splash Pool and Waterslide (thanks to Deacon for these pics).

Since the Aquatic Center offered birthday party timeslots at 9AM, we decided to make it a poolside breakfast!

We made our own french toast, from a recipe out of one of Maren's currently not delinquent library books. Here's Derek's plate.

Grammie was on hand to help.

A Krispy Kreme donut cake!

A movie!

Enjoying "cake".

Later at the house... a few friends (and a weird guy) helped Maren open presents.

Star wars action figures!! I do have the coolest daughter in the world.

Happy 7th Birthday, Maren!! We love you very, very much!

Awards Night 2011

I know it's not the eagerly-awaited Chipotle post, but hopefully this is better than nothing.

Editor's Note: Why these pics aren't clickable, I have no idea. Sorry!

St. Paul's Awards Night 2011!

Deacon and Maren on the way in.

Deacon... and fruit punch. I think.

Emma, Micaela and Maren show their award-winning gaming skills, playing Angry Birds.

A winner! Deacon received this certificate for his participation in the Spelling Bee.

Maren and her Spell-tastic friends.

Deacon receives his Regional 3rd Grade Grand Champion Art Fair Award from Mr. Koeppel.

We had to pry it out of Mrs. B's hands, but here it is: an Ocean Scene, completely constructed using torn paper!

That's it for now, but we'll have more soon. Really!

Please direct complaints about the Chipotle post delay to the AFB IT Admin and Assistant Grand Dictator of AFB Editorial Content.

Maren's Baptism 5-1-11

Hello!

I must explain that yesterday I said there would be an imminent update, only for Google Blogger to go down for the next 24 hours, not only causing me to delay this post, but also preventing me from taking down my Imminent Update post. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, here it is, at last...

Maren's Baptism, May 1, 2011!

For your convenience, coverage of this event is available in three different formats:

1. Pictures

2. Video

3. Heartwarming Slide Show

You can take your pick. Or if you're Grammie, look at all three 800 times!

First up: video, courtesy of famed videographer

Deacon.

It's not quite as daring and avant-garde as his previous effort, but it serves well to document the event. About 3 minutes.

Next: the slideshow shown at church last Sunday.

DISCLAIMER: We did not know our pictures would serve as the sole content of the slideshow, hence the seeming overemphasis on Maren.

Finally, Pictures! Some of these will be repeats if you just watched the slideshow. But for the sake of completeness (and captioning), here they are again!

Maren waits!

I'll have to ask Pastor Tim if his official Baptism Bible is waterproof.

Maren is IN! Here she is with Pastor Brian and Daddy.

Done!

We celebrated at that famed Burbank institution, Dino's Pizza!

Maren waits, contemplating the Contacts on Mommy's phone.

(It is in fact an R2-D2 Droid Phone, for all you geeks out there.)

Happy!

Daddy and Maren, dried off.

It was a great day for our faithful little Valley Girl.

Thanks again for being patient with us. Soon we'll have an epic Good Eatin' post about Derek and Brent's special-ops invasion of the new Burbank Chipotle. Check back soon!