Back to Work

Don't like being away. LOVE being back to work. This is the Montauk Lighthouse in Montauk State Park all the way at the tippy tip of Long Island. Scouting here for a Volvo car ad. This is the easternmost spot in New York State. I wish I could have brought the kids here today. (Besides the 6 and a half hour drive that is...) It wasn't as hot here (for mid-July,) and I think Evan and Eliana would have loved to hike up on those rocks that wrap around the lighthouse. Gigantic granite boulders were placed there to prevent beach erosion so that the lighthouse wouldn't fall into the sea. The rocks were placed very carefully and amazingly flat so that you can walk on them quite easily and it wraps around the lighthouse to the other side to reveal these really neat cliffs.

Here's a fisherman with the cliffs in the background. Really amazing out here. The water off of Montauk Point was pretty rough and rumor has it that it's a Great White Shark breeding ground. No wonder no one was swimming. 

4:00 AM

Just a few hours earlier it was a Mexican standoff. It was quickly approaching 1am and the kids were still awake. Already got the text from their mother; "Are they still awake?" She's probably hoping that they have been fast asleep for hours, but meanwhile they're still up giggling and watching funny YouTube videos (See the last post) because something Eliana saw earlier in the day was haunting her and she couldn't get it out of her mind and couldn't sleep. Anyway. Back to bedtime. Evan's elbow was touching Eliana's Hello Kitty pillow, (a jailable offense to Eliana ,) and a turf war over bed space became quite testy. "Eliana, stop kicking me." "Evan, you're crushing me!" It was very dramatic and borderline stressful. My attempts to intervene and get them to stop fighting over bed space just seemed futile. Meanwhile, I'm clinging to the edge of the bed like a billy goat on a cliff, just waiting for a slight nudge to topple me onto the floor. It got to the point where once they were finally asleep, I had to move to the couch in my living room just to get some sort of peaceful, non-territorial sleep. I woke up around 4am and quietly pushed open the door to find this:

Some how Evan got turned upside down. Territorial boundaries erased. Blankets discarded. Elbows and knees everywhere. Yet there they are fast asleep. Somehow they make it work. If my own kids can make things work, anyone can.

OMG so funny! Everything IS better with Doodles.

T-Rex on American Ninja Warrior Might be the Greatest Thing on the Internet.

This is just so great.

Proud of My Girl

From Facebook today: Eliana took a bouncer to the elbow today in her Softball game. I noticed it right away and made my way onto the field to get her, but the coach signaled that she was ok. I could see that she was crying but she got in the ready position for the next batter with tears streaming down her face. She finished out the inning and the game, even though she was hurt. I would never ask her or expect her to do that. For a little kid, that took guts, and I have to say that I'm really proud of her for shaking it off and finishing out the game.

Running to the Top. For charity!

Something I've been working on for the last few months takes place NEXT WEEK! I'm really excited about running up to the top of World Trade Center One again. Last year it went up to the 90th floor observatory. This year it's an additional 14 flights to the roof! Insane. But it's for a really good cause and I'm always happy to be a part of events like this.

Cherish it. It goes by fast.

Facebook puts up these little reminders of something you posted years ago on that day. I saw this pic of Evan from 3 years ago, and can't believe how much he's grown. So I took a shot of Evan yesterday, 3 years to the day that the pic on the left was taken, and put them side by side. He looks like such a little boy in his Phillies uniform, now he's one of the big boys. I miss when they were little, but it's great to see them grow up.   I have such clear memories of the picture on the left. Seems like it wasn't that long ago. You have to cherish every moment, because before you know it, they're all grown up.