Miami & Florida Keys

Alisha and I began our vacation in Miami. I went expecting to see lots of neon, white buildings, and sandy beaches. We were surprised that much of the city appeared to be what would happen if Hawaii and Los Angeles (the bad parts) had a baby. It was a mix of tropical weather and slumly charm. The entire city of Miami seemed to be run down, but things looked better once we reached our rented Miami Beach condo and looked out the window:

We soon learned that there were lots of dangerous things in Florida. One night I passed this on the beach, and after poking it in the video below I learned it was a Portuguese Man-o-War, which stings like a jellyfish:

Another day we drove through the Florida Keys. We visited the southernmost point in the United States. A few blocks away was Ernest Hemingway's house. We walked a few blocks further in the wrong direction and stumbled upon a more dangerous neighborhood (not pictured).

Of course being in the Keys, we got a piece of key lime pie. In Key West (the southernmost), we happened upon an old house that had been decorated to look like a cake for an old woman's birthday:

We also saw some key deer, which look like regular deer, but stand only about 2 feet tall:

Back from Florida

Alisha and I returned from a trip we took to Florida to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We were looking for a place that wasn't too remote, but one that we also wouldn't visit frequently once we have more kids. We chose Disney World, which was surprisingly on many top 10 lists of where to go for couples with no kids.

If you're curious what kind of face I make when I'm driving the gas-powered go-karts at the Disney motor speedway (for kids), here's what it looks like:

I got a few looks when I screeched the tires by letting off of the gas and turning the tires sharply. We had a great time at Disney World. While we were in Florida, we also saved a few days to visit Miami and the Florida Keys. The rest of the trip I'll cover in some blog posts coming up.

PS: I didn't want to say anything about the trip before we left, because it's pretty easy to look up our address online. Sorry for the silence. :)

The Transformation

This past weekend, Alisha and I helped some kids at church make a video about spiritual transformation. The kids had to write the script and act all of the parts, and we could only help with directing and editing. The result is pretty fun, you can see it below:

Phin's Journey Continues

Some of you may remember one of Roscoe's peers, named Phin. We posted a few times about her on the blog (here and here) as she struggled through health issues of her own with the support of her family. You might not have realized it, but until today Phin was still in the same Kaiser hospital on varying levels of support and care. So far it's been a total of 16 months of NICU and PICU living for her family.

After months of preparation, today Phin will be relocated to a children's hospital in southern California. Her family will relocate with her, so they can be closer to relatives. You may recall that transporting a baby on life support isn't easy. This transportation is much longer distance than any of Roscoe's transports to UCSF, so Phin will be getting her very own PLANE, equipped with medical staff and accompanied by her mother.

Alisha has developed a good friendship with Phin's mom, meeting her mostly weekly. We will miss Phin's family, but our prayers will continue for Phin's well-being and their integrity as they continue the journey to bring her home. Please pray with us.

Valentine's Day Flowers

Last night, I cooked a special dinner ("surf and turf") and then surprised her with the news that we were going to visit the UC Berkeley botanical garden the following day:

We woke up early this morning so that we could arrive at Acme Bread Company just after they opened. We got to see the sunrise while we drove down the highway:

We learned to enjoy their green olive sourdough one visit, and have been back to try other breads (including the ham & cheese turnover shown below) since. We usually get lots of bread and freeze it, since they don't have any locations close by. This time we went a little overboard:

Me holding 2 sourdough loaves (top),
3 green olive loaves (middle),

and a bag with 3 cranberry wheat walnut loaves (bottom)

Ham and cheese turnover

All was not food, though. The focus of our trip was the botanical garden. Alisha loves the colors, sizes, and shapes of flowers. Honestly I wouldn't have appreciated how complicated and intricate flowers are if she didn't adore them so much. We walked through different regions of the garden which included plants and trees from South and Central America, the Mediterranean, Asia, South Africa, and then a few greenhouses (including a tropical one which reminded us of Hawaii).

The best part of Valentine's Day was that Alisha surprised me with a project she'd worked on (with some help from Sarah Modgling). Alisha copied Roscoe's Story into book format and had it printed and bound into a 381-page softcover book, then presented it to me at dinner!

Staying Busy

I apologize for not posting regularly for the past few weeks. I hope to get back to regular posting. Work has been keeping me very busy, to the point where I was staying up late at night and going in early in the morning. Hopefully things have settled down, and I can get back to normal entries. I've still got a few ideas queued up to post about!

Also, I hope to start posting a weekly bible study. More details to come!

Javan's Vision of Roscoe

Around the new year, Alisha and I got a present from my sister and her family in Kentucky. Specifically, it was a present from my nephew, Javan, who painted several pictures on what would have been Roscoe's first birthday (10/6/14). Javan painted his visions of Roscoe, in the style of the cards that Paul Tate made for us through different points in Roscoe's life.

Roscoe the "Artist"
(painted from the perspective as if Roscoe himself had done it)

Roscoe, Cute Guy

Roscoe, Dragon Tamer

Roscoe: Ghost Fighter

Roscoe the Hero

Roscoe the King

Roscoe, Monster Killer

"What J said: Roscoe my Cousin"

Roscoe Play Times

Roscoe

Roscoe, Witch Slayer

We hope to hang these up somewhere around the house. They are so fun!