Back From De Islands Mon!

Well I have to say, this was by far the most beautiful islands and water I have ever seen! This was a first for the kids. They have never been on a plane and they have never been to the ocean. I have compiled some pics from a very VERY large amount of pics taken from both my and my wife's cameras. I may add more later as I need to go through all of them. Several hundred pics taken and I hope at least half are great. I have no doubt they are. So without further skadoosh!......

You can click on the pics below to get a better look at them. They blow up pretty nice.

Rae Found out that she loves the water

Here we are at Trunk chillin under the umbrella.

While driving to a beach, dad stops to feed the local wild animals.

Here was one of many jelly fish that we saw while swimming in the ocean. After one of the local life guards told us its a "moon jelly" and that it wouldn't hurt, I carefully lifted it out of the water so that we could all touch this beautiful creature. It felt a bit like soft stiff jelly.

The 2 pics above were taken at our pool in "Blue Beards Castle". There was a waterfall that we took full advantage of during the tropical noon day sun.

Taylor learned how to dive...Grandpa learned how to relax.

Not too many people can say they learned to swim in the Virgin Islands....Rae however, can.

These lizards were all over the place! In fact you can say they were the local "dogs" and they begged for food just as a dog would! See if you can count how many lizards are "begging" for food around the table of that family!

Rae and Taylor got to feed the stingrays in Coral World on St. Thomas.

One of many pics of my son under water. He loves to swim underwater more than he likes to swim over it... just like his daddy.

The pics above were taken at our favorite beach. It was named "Trunk Beach" on the island of St. John and was the most breath taking beach I have ever seen. I have to say, I have the most beautiful wife and children in the whole world. I'm one lucky man!

This picture was taken on an ancient sugar plantation on St. John.


My little camera man. He helped me carry around all my stuff all vacation.

Pop and my Taylor resting in the shade at the sugar plantation.

More pics of us at Trunk.

One morning Deidra and I woke up extra early...around 3...to be lucky enough to catch this pic out off our deck at Blue Beards.

This cove is where we were on live cam that day. If you look to the middle of the pic and then directly left you will see the tree line and beach area that we were standing on. You can even see the boat we were standing in front of and the dock itself.

Me with the most beautiful woman in the world standing above and in front of Trunk Beach.

Mom and Dad at

All of us in front of the ocean by the old sugar plantation.

I don't know what to say...give them a hat and let them go nuts.

They must take after their mom.

These are 2 of my favorite pics I took. It was late at night and as you can tell the clouds were rolling in. I pulled these pics off just before an island storm. They were taken from our pool overlook at Blue Beards Castle after a wonderful spaghetti dinner made by mom and dad at their room. We had many "Bushwhackers" that night dad. Good time.

The first day we got to the islands...I got this pic of my kids outside our room. They stayed out on that deck for many hours that first week.

For those of you who wonder where all the other people are....we didn't know! And we didn't care. We felt as though we had the whole place to ourselves..and most of the time...we did!

Here is a pic I took of Taylor looking out over the boats at our pool overlook. This is the place I set my camera up for those night pics of the cruise liner. If I cropped the pic a bit, I could send this into some photo place...could be a post card don't ya think?

Broncos go 2-0!

The Grill Says It All! HA! I'd like to say it was photshop..but this was actually right before the press conference. Wook at his wittle cheeks! Oooh da wittle guy is all angwee!

You got to love it when an NFL team gets what they deserve and in this case...Philip "cry me a" Rivers, the AFC's biggest trash talking QB gets to sit down to a nice quiet dinner of humble pie served by the next big QB to hit the NFL: Jay Cutler. I have to tell you it warms the heart. Spin it as you will guys...the bottom line is that with or without the officiating mistake on the fumble call, you can't erase the stats...Jay cutler 36/50 for 350 yds and 4 TD's and one 2 point conversion. He made it look easy. As for Rivers? Sure the score looks nice..but they got lucky on a returned kickoff TD and a "kiss my lucky ring" hail mary bomb. The score would not even be close if we decided to play it safe and run the ball in instead of the throw that was picked from Cutler in the end zone. The Broncos deserved the win ... and that's a fact. San Diego's QB crybaby needs to learn to shut his mouth, grow up and play ball. Enough said...on to "Nallin's!"

"Hey Jay, this is John...did you mean to make little Phil cry like that!?"

GO BRONCOS!

Broncos Absolutely TRASH the Raiders..as expected.

You just got to love it when the Raiders play the Broncos. At the so called "black hole" (well named do to the fact that they "suck") the Bronx handed the Raiders their first of many losses of the year. Everyone knows that the Broncos will win when they play the Raiders, home or away, but even I didn't see that massive throat stomping commin! 41-14!! Wow. Broncos go 1-0 on the season. Cutler looks clean, crisp, powerful and accurate and our rookie Royal looks to be a WR force to be reckoned with! ...on to the Chargers.

GO BRONCOS!

Enough Said

How bout that.

Click on the pic above to enlarge.

Pre-season starts tomorrow!

Here we go folks! The 2008 Football season is about to commence! With Pre-Season starting tomorrow and our first time back onto the field gets closer, I get out of my summer funk and start to warm up for the fall! The Bronx have had some woes over the last half year including a stupid injury to our top receiver and finding out that our young new QB has diabetes and to add salt to the wounds, CJ has informed me...reluctantly....John Lynch is not with the Bronx anymore. Apparently we think we would be better off with someone else as our starter. (Ooof.) I hope our year starts out better than predicted by the football announcers. I have a feeling that no matter what they say, our Mile High Magic will overcome any skepticism that those "suits" and wannabe's can throw our way. Let the Mile High THUNDA roll! Broncos start the pre-season on Saturday, August 9th @ Houston. Let the butt whoopin commence!

I am coaching my sons football team this year and am looking forward to doing it. Of coarse I filled out the coaches paperwork as soon as I got it so I could enter my team choice. Got the paperwork back early this week showing my team.....THE BRONCOS! Booya baby!

GO BRONCOS!

Prayers of my wife's bro...

Just a quick post to all my friends and family out there. My wife's bro is in the hospital resting up after some pretty serious health probs that occurred suddenly and unexpectedly this weekend. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers during this tough time. I know he is a strong person and have no doubt that he will overcome this situation.

A New Post? ... yep!

Hope everyone has been having a great start to the summer! Mine has been a pretty good one I must say. In the last month Deidra's job has given her 2 raises! One for the gas price change, and one because I think they are afraid she will look elsewhere for a job due to the distance she has to drive to get there. I love that Deidra has a job that actually pays her for her job performance. My job is a job that pays you despite of it. Not to say I don't pull my weight, but there are those I have seen in the past 10 years that move up due to the time they put in...not the work effort. Will I become supervisor if I stay in my job...yes. Will it be because I am a great leader and someone who my workmates can look up to and follow? Although I would be a great supervisor and a hard worker..sadly these are not the reasons I would be chosen. Nope. I would be chosen specifically for the time I have stayed in my job and by passing a written exam that I would study for and of coarse pass. State work...nuff said.

Well we have been to six flags 4 times since it opened this spring and I have been to my first water park and busted belly first down a water slide for the first time since I was in my mid teens. Going to go there again real soon!

Dad has officially retired from work as of a couple weeks ago and is loving the home life! Although he officially has not seen home due to the fact that he took off to the islands right after his exit! Mom, Dad and my sister and two boys just got back from a long leisurely trip to the Virgin Islands last weekend. You know how when you leave your home and go on a long trip and when you get back you feel like you have had enough of vacations for awhile? Well they seem to have missed that memo. Mom and Dad are already planning our trip to the islands in the fall. Deidra and the kids are looking so forward to it! It's so close I can taste it! However I will have to call my brutha CJ on the weekends to see how the Bronx are doing. I will miss 2 games! Its all good...I will be thinking of them with a pina colada in my hand.

We have so many pics of our fun for the last couple months and I will make an effort to putting them on my computer so as I can post them up for you guys. However I do have some pics that were sent to me that I have to show you guys:

This is a pic from a "live" camera in the Virgin Islands. Shell called me up and had me go to this website and when I pulled it up..this is what I saw! Cool what the Internet has brought to our world eh? That is my mom and dad and my sisters 2 boys in the pic with my name in the sand. I was so excited to see it that I brought the kids down...of coarse they asked me to ask them to put their names on the sand as well:

They tried to get the names in before the water took them away..20 second lag time between pics but you can kind of see Hi Ray n Tay. That's my sister and one of her boys in the pic. Mom and dad are on the dock to the upper right coaching them on the job.

I also have some great pics from CJ that he sent to me of his little girl. Such good pics I had to post em:

Cute little girl. The guy is my best friend in the world. CJ. As for his new beard as of late. Not sure what you are going for here bro. I don't know..what do you guys think? I'm leaning towards one of 3 guys:

Grizzly Adams

Jake Plummer

Or this guy.

"Don't make me bring back the wings!"

Happy Fathers Day!

Ok. So it has been probably going on almost 2 months since my last post. In my defense it has been a pretty busy month and a half! It has been packed with so many birthdays and a mothers day and a fathers day. Lots of stuff to go over, but I have to keep this one kinda short due to the fact that today is fathers day and Deidra is making me pancakes! WOOHOO! First of all I would like to extend a "Happy Fathers Day" to my Father and my Father in law. You both brought up two crazy kids who found each other and due to the good morals and beliefs that you two gave us, we found each other to be a perfect match in a crazy world. Thank you.



On a personal note: HAPPY FATHERS DAY to my daddy.

Dad I am so proud of you. You have been working so hard for so long and to think you have about a week left before you retire! Congratulations and make sure not to lose that fishing license. We will be using it quite a bit this summer. I found this poem. It describes how I feel:

I find myself wondering...Did I give you your due..

For all that you've done for me

Did I ever thank you?
For all of my childhood memories

For helping me deal with life's stresses

For helping me accept my defeats

And celebrate my successes?
Or for teaching me the value of hard work,Good judgement, courage, and being true

The laughter, smiles, and quiet times we've shared

Did I ever thank you?
If I have forgotten, I'm thanking you now, you taught me right from wrong....

I hope you know how much you're loved and appreciated

I hope you, instinctively, knew it all along.
Happy Fathers Day,

"Dad"

Happy Fathers day to my brother CJ and his daddy Big B aka: COACH! Love you guys!

Hey CJ, I have to tell you that when I hear the words "fish" and "taco" together...I cant help but think of this:

"Yummy"