Evan’s Baseball Game Schedule, Spring 2009

Evan would love to have people come to cheer him on! Here’s his schedule. If you’re interested in coming, let us know and we’ll bring you along or give you directions to the field.

Sat. 4/25, 9:00 AM

Mon. 4/27, 5:30 PM

Sat. 5/2, 3:00 PM

Sun. 5/3, 3:00 PM

Sat. 5/9, 1:00 PM (We may miss this one if we decide we wouldn’t have time to get to Fenway by game time. We have tickets to the Sox/Rays game that afternoon.)

Mon. 5/11, 5:30 PM

Sat. 5/16, 11:00 AM This is the same day as Evan’s First Communion, which is at 4:30 p.m., in case anyone wants to make a day of it in Easton and attend both.

Tues. 5/19, 5:30 PM

Sat. 5/23, 11:00 AM

Mon. 5/25, 5:30 PM

Sat. 5/30,  1:00 PM

Thurs. 6/4,  5:30 PM

Scott looks great and sounds smart!

The organizers of one of Scott’s many conferences have profiled him and posted his picture online. I can’t promise you’ll understand it, but if you want to see him, click here.

Evan and Mom talk about Florida

We went to Florida. We had a long trip there but we had JetBlue so we had TVs. When we got there we were really, really tired. I mean, really tired! We had a suite at the Disney All-Star Music Resort because they upgraded us from a room to a suite for free!

On the first day, we went to Apricot. (Mom says: He means Epcot!) We went in a giant ball which was actually talking about the history of the world. We got our faces on people flying in a spaceship in the future.  We did a lot of stuff that was really fun. We put ourselves in a videogame.  Mommy and I ate fish and chips which we got in England, but Daddy ate his food in Germany and we met up again in France! We sat on a bench to eat our lunch and then we walked away to find Dad and he came and sat on the exact same bench! We did lots of rides. One was a space mission. We felt like we were flying into space to go to Mars. We felt g-forces! Another was one that made us feel like we were hang gliding. We rode a boat through a greenhouse where they grow food in weird ways. We rode on Test Track where it feels like our car is being tested by a car company for safety.

Our next day we went to Animal Kingdom.  Mommy didn’t go on all the rides because some were roller coasters. Daddy and Evan rode those! One was Expedition Everest, where you go wicked high and you go down really fast and the track is broken and you have to go back and go a different way and then you see Yeti’s shadow and he’s ripping up the track. Fortunately, there’s an escape exit. But it’s really, really, really dark. Another was a dinosaur roller coaster. We also went on a dark ride where dinosaurs jumped at us. We also went on a safari ride and saw real animals. We saw okapi and giraffes and elephants and rhinos (black and white) and warthogs and flamingos and crocodiles. We also went on the river rapids ride. We got a little bit wet. Another guy on the raft was soaked!

Our last Disney day was at the Magic Kingdom. I did Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain but not Splash Mountain because we didn’t want to get wet. It was a little cooler that day. We did the teacup ride and It’s a Small World finally, because that was closed the last time we went to Disney! We also did Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin twice. We did Stitch’s Great Escape and Pirates of the Caribbean. We rode the railroad and watched a parade and went on the carousel and went in the Haunted Mansion and raced on the Speedway. Evan drove and Mom rode and we won! (We passed someone right before the end.)

After we left Disney we went to Vero Beach. We helped my Great Grandma (G.G.) get ready to move by packing. We also went down to the beach and did part-body surfing and we made a sandcastle and we never saw it get destroyed. We went to the playground. We went looking for manatees and we saw a mommy and a baby and it was my and Mom’s first time to see manatee. We also got really close to some pelicans and we saw a guy kiteboarding, which was this guy holding onto a giant kite and it pulled him across the water really fast on a board and he did lots of jumps and stuff.

(Scott says: All of these pictures were taken with my iPhone and uploaded on the day taken. Check our Flickr site for more pictures from our other cameras soon. Remember some pictures are password protected. Email me if you can’t figure out how to see them.)

Thanksgiving video on Flickr

Evan and Scott just posted a short video to Flickr. If you have an account and are friends with us already, you should be able to view it by following this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotthamlin/3061615725/

If you get prompted for a password, and don’t know what to do, you can use a guest account that I just set up for the site. Just email me for the login information.

Enjoy!

Dentistry news. No, wake up! OK, OK, it probably is boring. But it’s news nonetheless.

Yesterday, I took Evan to the dentist.

No cavities, except for the one that appeared as his lower front adult tooth grew out. (Apparently he’d hit it hard enough to damage it when it was still in his gums.) That one has emerged fully enough now that we were able to schedule a filling for it, though it won’t be done until December. At the same time, he’ll be getting some surfacing on the deep ridges in his molars, to minimize the chances of cavities forming there.

The other news the dentist had for us was this: Evan needs some teeth extracted! He’s only lost 2 teeth so far, but already the two that have replaced them are crossing a bit because his mouth is so crowded. The dentist showed me the x-rays of the teeth that are lined up ready to come in, and there’s clearly no room. They’re bigger than the baby teeth they’ll replace, so if we do nothing, he’ll have a lot more crossed teeth. The extractions won’t mean that he won’t need braces–he will–but the orthodontist won’t have quite as much to fix, and his teeth will be less crooked in the years before the braces come.

We’re not quite sure when the extractions will happen, because I had to discuss it with Scott before scheduling it, but the dentist said the sooner, the better. She also gave us a referral to an orthodontist, in case we wanted a second opinion and/or guidance because the extractions will be the first step into the wonderful world of orthodontia. So we may or may not see him before proceeding.

The dentist and her staff were impressed at Evan’s good attitude. As was I. Which is not to say that he isn’t apprehensive about the extractions, but he’s a good kid.

Fall soccer schedule

OK, so we’re a little slow. A few games have already happened. Nonetheless, here’s Evan’s fall soccer schedule, in case anyone can make it to a game. Evan would be thrilled!

9/6 10:00 a.m. (rained out)

9/13 noon

9/20 noon

9/27 10:00 a.m.

10/4 noon

10/18 noon

10/25 10:00 a.m.

11/1 10:00 a.m.

Finally, Evan posts again!

Maine

Hi! I’m back with some Maine news. I went to Maine this summer. It was fun. I learned how to play Monopoly and won the second game I ever played. We went kayaking and geocaching. Geocaching is, um, something where you have to find a hidden box with a GPS. We ate lobster. Boy, was it good! Fresh off the dock! We also had steamers. They were good, too. I slept on the top of the bunk bed.

Summer Camp

I went to summer camp. It was fun! I went to Maplewood and Moose Hill. Moose Hill is an Audubon center and Maplewood is a big place to have fun! The best thing at Moose Hill was making things. The best thing at Maplewood was, hmmm, that one’s hard. I liked a lot of things there.

Cub Scouts

I had my first den meeting. I thought it was fun. My best friend, Ryan, was there, too. At the end of this month we’ll have a pack meeting. Our den is doing the flag ceremony. I’m afraid to do it. I’m going to sleep over on a boat with my dad soon. A lot of cub scout people will go there. Oh, I forgot to tell you, it’s an army boat. [Mom says: a battleship] I also went camping with the cub scouts in the summer. It was fun. I met my friend there. We stayed for 2 days (one night).

Back to School

I’m in second grade now. My teacher’s really nice, but we have to do a lot of work every day. I’m not in my best friend’s class anymore, but I see him at recess. And my other best friend–I ride on the bus with him. My other friend is moving to upper Michigan, but that’s not until Oct. 1st.

Soccer

I just started soccer again. My dad and my friend’s dad are the coaches. One kid in my class in on my soccer team! We have red shirts.

Birthday

I’m eight! I just had my family birthday party. I’m so psyched, I got a lot of presents and I haven’t played with them all (haven’t worn all my clothes, haven’t built all my ships). I’m going to have a mini-party for friends, going to Boomerangs with three friends. Boomerangs is a big place with a big play structure and an arcade.

More notes from Harpswell

Six seals out on a rock this morning. I saw them on my way back from a 3 mile early morning kayaking trip (1.5 miles down toward the ocean and back again), and was able to show Evan and Cathy through the scope. Birding was OK. New for this trip was a common tern.

We have been continuing to enjoy ourselves. On Sunday, we spent the morning at the cottage, and the afternoon geocaching and exploring Orrs and Bailey Island (which are dierctly across the water from us).Saw the world’s only cribstone bridge and climbed around some beautiful rugged rocks at Land’s End and the Giant Staircase.

Monday we spent the afternoon exploring the Harpswell Peninsula, which included more geocaching and some great views in the rain off of Potts Point. We also got a late afternoon kayak out in front of our cottage. (I’ll post some pictures of the stairs to the shore when we get back. It was no small feat getting those boats down to the shore!) A good birding day too: eider, sanderlings, and osprey, semi-palmated plovers, willets, greater yellow-legged sandpipers, white winged scoters.

Tuesday was a hiking day, and gorgeous sunny weather. (At last! We have been dodging rain for days.) We hiked around George Mitchell Field  (abandoned military owned land with great views of the bay) and on another trail through the woods where people have built lots of “fairy houses.” We built two of our own! We ended the day at Cooks Lobster House.

Evenings have been nice… cool enough for fires. Cathy and I have been making good progress on our books and Evan played his first Monopoly game with us last night and the night before. (Maineopoly actually!)

We are off to the Topham Fair today!

Notes from Harpswell

We’ve got  our XO here, and there is wireless — so I figuerd I would look up the tide charts and see if I could post to this blog. Looks like I can! I’m not checking email though!

We arrived late in the afternoon yesterday at the cottage that we are renting up here in Maine. A beautiful spot, though our view of the bay is a little obstructed by trees. We can take stairs down to the water, though, and get a nice clear view.

It is raining this morning, but I still got a little bird watching in. Saw some small diving ducks, which I am still trying to identify.I think they are common eider, but they seem too small. We also saw two harbor seals on a rock out in the water. The spotting scope gave us a nice view. One of them looked young… a mother and baby perhaps?

I found George

I forgot all about this site until I found this bill in my wallet on Monday:

If you go to the site, you can type in the serial number and the date on the bill and get a full record of where the bill has been — well at least a record of those who bothered to go to the site and fill out the form. And if you go back, you can track where the bill has traveled over time.

Here’s the bill I found. As of this writing, it has traveled mostly around New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Evan spent it on his hot lunch on Monday (and was excited to do so, I might add — knowing that we could track it). So, I wonder where it will go next?