old, old camera

Hi friends and family,

The 4 Webbs are safe and sound back in AZ. Here is the proof. Buzz Lightyear and the Ballerina made it home with their wardrobe intact.


Although we made it home with most everything, the one thing I forgot was the battery and charger for my camera. Gah! Out of the 10,000 items we needed to bring back with us, that was at the top of the list for must-have items. I wanted the battery to be fully charged for the adventure night ride home. That didn't work out so well. Oma, if you find it, please FedEx it to me. I don't trust the US Postal Service with something so important.

You may be thinking, "well, if he left the battery in NorCal, how did he get a picture of Buzz Lightyear and the Ballerina? Was he smart enough to purchase a backup battery?" The answer is, no, i don't have a back up battery. But I DO have Layla's camera, which used to personal one a few years ago.

As I downloaded the pics to my computer I found a few keepers in the lot. I sifted through several dozen pictures of my feet, the ceiling, and Layla's fingers (covering the lens). Here is uncle Logan on Skype from a couple of months ago.


We wanted the twins to have some video time with him and Bree before meeting up with them in San Luis Obispo. I also found this gem of Kendra. Not sure if Layla took this or if I was showing her how to use the camera. Either way, i like how it shows her pretty smile and dimples.


and it doesn't take a genius to see where Layla gets her good looks from with this kind of comparison shot.


I'm not sure who this old guy is, but he spends a lot of time on the floor playing with Easton and Layla. OK, that's really just me trying to position my head into the picture as Layla fired off a random shot.


The other day I heard about a concerned grandma who spent time at her daughter's house observing her son and daughter-in-law as they ignored their three kids for the entire night. I don't know the details of the situation, but based on knowing those parents I can easily imagine how a typical evening at home would involve almost zero interactions between the parents and kids.

While there is something to be said for teaching independence, it breaks my heart to hear about kids growing up feeling like a nuisance or annoyance to the parents who ignore them continually. There are times when Kendra and I tell Easton and Layla to go play by themselves so we can cook or clean or take care of something. That part is healthy. However, I can’t understand how any parent or parents use all of their discretionary time for "me time", personal, isolated purposes while neglecting time with the kids.

Nobody says, “I want to be a bad parent” any more than a morbidly obese person says, “I want to be fat”. It just happens slowly over time due to inaction and denial. For the obese person they wake up one morning and can’t tie their shoes or fit in clothes or whatever indicator leads them to a realization of their situation. Parenting is different because there is no indicator or measurement to show how good or bad one is doing. That being said, the worst thing to do is compare to someone else because if my only goal is to do better than so-and-so then shame on me for having such low expectations.

There's a lot of rambling going on here, but I came to this conclusion: If you're a parent, you SHOULD be tired.

I don't mean tired from selfish indulgence or personal goals or chasing things with no long term value. I mean, tired from doing your best to provide, teach, and grow the kids. Giving my best to Kendra and the twins should be first and this priority is in the front of my mind every single day. I hope I never say I'm too tired to spend time with Easton and Layla because I wore myself out on selfish pursuits.

Kendra and I are firm believers in taking breaks and enjoying life (as can be witnessed by the soccer, martial arts, mountain biking, etc.), but not to the detriment of the kids. Hobbies are good, but I don't want to be "the best" at any hobby because doing so means I sacrifice time with Easton and Layla.

Sometimes they can seem like little birdies in a nest chirping away. For Kendra that looks something like this:


But even so, their needs are never more than we can provide if we do our best to focus on what is important.

On a completely new topic, we gave up on the turtle pool of balls some time ago. The turtle pool was destroyed by a monsoon, but the balls were kept safely in a big moving box. The twins are tall enough and strong enough their curiosity sometimes leads to great discoveries such as figuring out what is inside the big box.

I sat them in their together and they asked me to close the lid. After closing the lid I realized their plan all along was for more hide and seek.



We bought our plane tickets to visit Missouri in a few weeks. As a tribute to the anticipation already building in our house, here is a video clip of Layla from a couple of months ago calling my sister and her cousins on her fake phone during our tea party.



We're already back in the groove of things here is AZ after only 2 days, but we are gearing up for a "spending fast" for the next 4 weeks. More on that later...

See you soon!