Standing tall

He's just figuring how how to stand. And climb. Pretty soon it will be running, jumping, throwing, and crashing...


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Is it a good or bad thing that his older brothers are making muzzleloaders from their pop guns and AA batteries?

Load 'er up...




Tamp 'er down...


And fire away (directly at dad's noggin, of course.)


I did not teach them any of this. Totally figured it out on their own. Took their flashlight apart to get the batteries. Next thing I know, a AA goes zinging across the playroom.

(And yes, once again they are barely clothed. That's just how we roll around here...)

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At dinner tonight, Noah refused to eat his fish sticks. He's never once tasted one, but he was convinced...

"Fish sticks taste awwwful!"

"Noah, you've never even had one, so how would you know? Now eat one bite."

He eats one "bite," in reality a small nibble, consisting almost entirely of the breaded coating. Miliseconds after it touches his lips...

"Ugghhhhh, tastes awwwful!"

"Noah, the taste hasn't even made it from your tongue to your brain to tell you if it tastes good!"

Approximately 60 seconds pass, with him making goofy faces...


"Wait a second.... this tastes delicious!!"

Levi, from the peanut gallery... "Why would anyone want to eat a fish anyways?"



It's a good thing I like Calvin and Hobbes when I was younger. Only then, I identified with Calvin... not his poor parents...

Bryan Loritts

EVBC had a Men's Conference on Saturday. Bryan Loritts was the speaker, and he was excellent. If you want to get a sense of what he talked about, his first session was basically this sermon, on Coram Deo.

He also preached in church on Sunday... where he was also excellent. And incredibly convicting. Give it a listen...

Audio from EVBC

Bryan's church, Fellowship Memphis. If we ever make it to Memphis, we are going here on Sunday.

Bryan's blog

Our little great white shark

Notice any thing unusual?

Look a little closer...

The kid has shark teeth! We noticed the other day that her permanent teeth were coming in... behind her baby teeth! Luckily, Levi and Noah had a dentist appointment the next day, so Ella tagged along. The dentist said she can wait 6 months and see if the baby teeth fall out naturally. They usually do. But if not, she will have to get the baby teeth pulled.

Poor kid. She got her dad's giant beaver teeth genes, I think. She will spend her entire childhood terrified of going to the dentist, because every time she does he will be pulling teeth to make room for the new ones (ask me how I know this...)

I can't stand going to the dentist to this day...

Oklahoma! Where the wind comes...

...sweeping down the plain!

Seriously. It was like living in a hurricane there!

Friday I jumped on a Southwest (love them!) flight to the OKC to visit Angie.


She took me to the memorial for the OKC bombing. It happened to be one day before the 14th anniversary. These were the only photos I took the whole trip...

I must have done something, since I am getting that "my brother is nuts" look...


She told me that hundreds of government agents would swarm out of the building and waterboard me if I even pointed my camera in the direction of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.


Ok, ok. So she only told me that one of her fellow photography classmates took a picture of it, and some guys came out and made her erase the pictures. I told her I wanted to see if that was true. Apparently not, since I just published the picture on the internet.

This is a really old tree that was across the street from the bombed building. That is about all I know about it.


The reflecting pool... reflecting...


Angie went to the bathroom, and I got bored and started to pretend I was a photography student. How'm I doin' Ange?


Photographic evidence of Angie in front of the non-photographable federal building. For any super secret gov't internet monitoring programs, that is Angela. Spelled A-N-G-E-L-A...


It was nice to see Angie's house, her school, and the booming metropolis of Norman (got the scenic tour at 1 AM the night I got there, only because I got totally lost.) I also got to experience the amazing diversity of the population of Oklahoma. Some veeeeeery interesting folks live out there, let me tell you. Jumped on a flight home Monday morning to get back to work!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there was a sleepover going on in the top bunk.


And Paige found Levi curled up on his windowsill, wrapped in his drapes, taking a nap like a little cat in a sunbeam. Too funny...

The many (messy) faces of Luke

No texting while driving!

Totally random picture from this evening, because we thought it was funny. And yes, I did have to Photoshop pants onto Levi...

Easter festivities

Finally getting around to updating the blog...

We spent Easter down in Tucson with the fam. The usual Easter festivities occurred: lots of food, insanely chocolaty desserts, Easter egg hunts, and political debates. No rattlesnakes this year though...



Cousin Ron (once removed) and Mandi brought "cups of dirt" for desserts. The kids loved them...






The kids had fun finding the eggs, and getting all wound up on excessive amounts of sugar.



Cousin Ron is a really mean egg hider. Some of his were literally buried underground. This one they kept walking by without spotting it...



Even Luke got in on the action...





Our kids seem to love Mandi...





Hmmmm, Ron. Good with kids... makes a wicked "cup 'o dirt"... Maybe you should keep her around, you know... long term like. ;)

And there were more dogs there than you could shake a stick at...

Not that I expected 20/20 to be fair, but...

I was amazed just how biased they were. 20/20 aired a special on Friday night, "If I Only Had a Gun." The premise, I suppose, was to examine whether having a gun could provide someone with a means of self defense. After listing a bunch of mass shootings, Diane Sawyer says, "No wonder more and more ordinary people are thinking about getting a gun to defend themselves." So ABC decides to conduct an experiment to test the ability of average people to react and protect themselves with a gun under stress. After offering police training on firearms at a university in Pennsylvania, they select 6 student volunteers to test. The student is given some minimal training, then handed a Glock loaded with practice rounds, and placed in a classroom. They think the self defense situation will occur later in the day, but then are surprised when a "gunman" bursts into the room and shoots the instructor. ABC then analyzes their reactions. You can watch the video here...

Part 1 (about 8 minutes)

Part 2 (about 6 minutes)

Each student admits that they did not do a very good job defending themselves, as the police instructor lectures them about how they failed. Meanwhile, 20/20 cites examples of cases that are only marginally applicable, or unsupported conjecture about how many times even police shoot an innocent bystander.

So, ABC concludes, how did their students do? Half couldn't get the gun out, those who did couldn't shoot accurately or fast enough, and there was the constant danger they would kill a bystander. All lessons 20/20 hopes you will remember next time you see a tragedy on TV and think "if I only had a gun..." Their advice to survive boiled down to run, lay down, play dead, call 911 and wait for the cops to show up... anything but actually attempt to defend yourself and others.

Hmmm, think they are stacking the deck a little?

• Four of the students had little to no gun training. Is it any surprise that they were not very accurate or fast?
• All six students are using an unfamiliar gun, in an unfamiliar holster, wearing a very long shirt that covered the gun. Is it any surprise that a few of them couldn't even draw the gun?
• They are placed in a small room, crowded with people. And yet, not one of them actually hit an innocent bystander.
• The attacker is a trained police firearms instructor. He is obviously highly trained and practiced at using a firearm. Not exactly your typical school shooter.
• The attacker knows that one person in the room has a gun and will attempt to shoot back.
• Not only that, but watch again each student sits down. Every other seat in the room is filled when they walk in, and the instructor points out where to sit. Right in the front row, center seat. Pretty much the worst seat in the house from which to defend yourself.
• Even worse, the attacker knows EXACTLY where the defender is sitting and where to to train his attention. If you notice, in every run through this scenario, the attacker shoots the instructor, then immediately directs his fire at the defender, and only the defender. Even the guy who couldn't get the gun out of the holster, who there is no way the attacker could tell he even had a gun, the attacker focuses ONLY on that student.

So ABC set up a scenario in which the attacker has the total element of surprise, knows exactly who to is going to shoot back, and has training that vastly exceeds that of the inexperienced student, who is placed in the worst defensive position, with an unfamiliar gun, covered by shirt making it difficult to draw the weapon. My police officer friend described the experiment as an "ambush, period." He also said that even in a room full of SWAT officers, a few would have died before taking out the attacker.

And from the results of this ambush, the conclusion of the show is that a gun is of very little use to defend yourself.

Of course, they don't show a scenario where the defender was in a corner, out of the way. Or even able to chose their own seat. Or where the attacker starts in the room next door, and then tries to enter the classroom, where the defender has had a few seconds to prepare. Or two students with guns for defense. Nope, only the scenario that is most effective at painting guns as a useless self defense tool.

However, did you notice that several of the students did manage to actually hit the attacker? And that while the attacker focused on hitting the student defender, that most of the other students were able to flee the classroom without being hit? Funny, 20/20 didn't bother to point out that while the students may have been poor shots, and may have been hit themselves... they did manage to save the lives of all of their classmates.

Compare that to what would have happened if no one had a gun for defense, and the gunman was able to completely control the classroom, and shoot any student he wanted at will. Kind of like what happens in the real mass shootings, which "coincidentally" seem to occur most often in locations where people are prohibited from carry guns...


Where was John Stossel on this one?

Am I Barabbas?

A guilty man, set free, on account of another? Yup...

And thankful that I have received grace, instead of faced justice...

We must be absolutely insane...

I mean, seriously. This is a "recovery plan?"

Stop Spending Our Future

And in case you ever wanted to know what a trillion dollars actually looks like. Below is $10,000. Click on the link to see $1,000,000,000,000. It is astounding...

It's probably too late to actually do anything, at least for the next few years, given that 50% of the people in this country wanted to "make history" and elected these bozos. Yeah, I would say that flushing our economy and future right down the toilet will make history, alright. Hope and Change baby...

I hear the train a comin'

It's rollin' around the bend...

This weekend, we took the older kids up for a ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad. Paige and I bought two tickets at the fundraiser for Phoenix Christian School, and then decided at the last minute that Ella, Levi, and Noah would really have fun on a train ride.

So into the van we went, and made the 2 hour drive up to Cottonwood, after dropping Luke off at Grandma's.

The train leaves from the station in Clarkdale, under the watchful eye of the town of Jerome, high up on the hill...

Ella was the only one who would smile for the picture. The other two were barrelling off to who knows where...


The big diesel engines...


"All aboard!" Anxiously waiting for the train to pull away from the station...


Levi, lost in thought...


They loved the trestles. I have no clue how they even know what a trestle is. It just took me four attempts to spell "trestle" correctly. Too much Thomas on TV I guess. Regardless, they all squealed "A trestle! A trestle!" every time we went over one.


Some of the local "wildlife." Three of these guys in formation flew right down the valley and over the train, maybe a couple hundred feet off the deck. Very cool, and I doubt that happens every trip...


The scenery was unbelievable. The weather was perfect too. Blue skies, red rocks... Paige made a comment that it hardly even looked like Arizona here. Apparently I need to get her out and about more...

(click on the picture below for a bigger view. It is a good one...)



Some of the actual wildlife. Ok, "tame" life. And some real cowboys, going about their work. On the trip we did see several bald eagles, hawks, an osprey, and evidence of a beaver.


Levi, of course, missed most of this scenery. He spent the first 30 minutes in single minded focus, staring down at the coupling connecting the two cars, the air lines, the tracks, the metal plate bridging between the cars that turns back and forth on every curve. Gonna be an engineer, that one...


"No kids on the railings" That is seriously one of the rules. If you are shorter than 4 feet, you get to spend the whole trip with your face smashed up against the metal grate, peeking at the sweeping vistas through little tiny metal holes. We conscientiously observed this rule.


As long as you had a good hold on your kid, they were ok with it.

Ella, checking out the sights with her "binoculars." She saw some of the other kids with binoculars, and decided to imagine some of her own.


Did I mention the scenery is incredible?


Into the tunnel. The kids thought this was the best part...



Ella, paying strict attention to the rule of keeping all appendages inside the train at all times. I think I spent a good portion of the trip holding her up on the rail, with her head out the side like a little dog. She loved it! (and so did I...)


After 2 hours and roughly 18 miles, you make a stop in the booming metropolis of Perkinsville...



According to the guide in our car (who was excellent, and a native of Jerome. How many people can there be who were born (born!) in Jerome?) it was originally a ranch, started around the turn of the century by the Perkins family. Moved out there with their 6 kids and started a ranch. When the railroad was built in 1912(ish), they built a depot and a water stop for the steam engines of the time. The railroad folk, having obviously superior powers of imagination, named it Perkinsville. Creative guys, the railroad barons! The Perkins ranch supplied beef to the town of Jerome, which at the time had 15,000 people in it.

After the steam engines changed to diesel, the water stop was no longer necessary. The railroad buildings deteriorated, and Perkinsville pretty much went back to being the Perkins ranch. Still owned by the same family, some of whom live in the house in the photo above (not the one with the old jeep.) If you jumped off the train, you would land on their back porch. And this line runs freight trains at night!

And virtually every one of those details may be wrong, as I was trying to listen to the guide while fending off requests for ice cream sandwiches and trying to prevent hyper little boys from leaping off the now-stopped train.

At Perkinsville, they switch the engines to the opposite side of the train to pull you back for the return journey.



The trip back is, as you would imagine, the same sights as the ride there, only in the reverse order. That college degree obviously sharpened my mental powers...

Back through the tunnel...



More cool canyon scenery...


Which Levi and Noah missed, because they were completely cashed out. They slept for most of the two hour ride back...



So while the boys were sleeping, Ella was treated to a bag of Cheetos, and her first Budweiser...


Kidding!!!! It was the guy next to her with the Budweiser, that I cropped out of the photo.

We also got a good look at the Indian ruins on the way back. The kids were fascinated with this. There were several other spots along the way that the guide pointed out indian ruins.


Overall, a very cool trip, with amazing scenery, beautiful weather, and well behaved kids. Highly recommended by the Addink clan. In fact, Paige and I even commented afterwards that riding railroads could totally be our "thing." I'm fascinated by the history, Ella loves the wind in her hair, Paige loves the gift shops, and Levi and Noah will just stare at the train couplings the whole time! Money well spent! ;)



Oh yeah, Luke apparently had loads of fun doing his best to destroy Grandma's house. Thanks Grandma! (pics she emailed me while we were on the train. Who knew that Perkinsville would get a cell signal!)