Look out PGA!

Alex and Zach get golf lessons

At the suggestion of a friend, Zach and Alex took a series of golf lessons at the local country club with their friends (and fellow "double trouble") Jack and Ted. They had a blast learning how to putt, chip and drive over a five week period - so much so that they begged us to buy clubs for them, which they are frequently seen using in the backyard with wiffle balls. I took a few pictures from their first session and posted them in the July-Aug 2012 album.

Papa blows out the candles
 on his birthday pie

Also in the album are pictures from Papa's birthday, where we of course celebrated with the customary birthday pie. Never heard of birthday pie? Well, when you're the birthday boy, you get to pick your treat, and Papa couldn't resist a homemade raspberry pie - yum!

We celebrated another milestone in July - Zach lost his first tooth!  He was very excited to get a set of special Presidential gold coins for his first tooth (the tooth fairy gave a more "standard" gift of a quarter for his second tooth, which came out a few weeks later).  Alex hasn't lost any yet but has two very wiggly teeth, so we expect another visit from the tooth fairy soon!

Fun in the California sun - Part 2

The happy couple celebrates their union

 The remaining photos from our trip to LA have been added to the LA/Katie's Wedding album. They include a stop at one of Joe's favorite parks as a child, the amazing Heritage Park in Cerritos with an island that contains a playground hidden in an 18th century Boston town.

Also in the album are pictures from a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and a stop at Sunset Beach for some play time in the ocean and on the sand.

But most important of all - and the reason for our trip - was the beautiful wedding of Katie and Iose. After a ceremony at the LDS Temple earlier in the day, Katie and Iose exchanged rings in the lovely Gibbs Butterfly Park, followed by a reception at their church, where a mix of American and Samoan traditions celebrated the happy occasion in fantastic style.

Fun in the California sun - Part 1

With Katie and Iose at the
entrance to Disneyland

The Vandermark crew took a trip out to LA in mid-July to celebrate the wedding of Joe's sister Katie and her now-husband, Iose. We had so much fun at the wedding and during the rest of our time there, visiting and playing with the whole family.

The first batch of photos from the trip in the LA/Katie's Wedding album include a day at "the happiest place on earth" (aka Disneyland) with Katie and Iose and some video game fun at the Chuck E Cheese (check out Z&A's jam to "Slow Ride" :)). More pics from the trip, including Katie and Iose's beautiful wedding, are coming soon!

A festive(al) weekend

 Zach and Alex at the
BBQ Days parade

The second weekend in July is always a fun-but-busy weekend for us, as both our town and Cole's hometown have their big town festivals that weekend - BBQ Days and the Raspberry Festival, respectively. And starting this year, the big parade for each festival had some of the Vandermark boys in its list of participants.

Saturday was our BBQ Days day. Zach, Alex, Joe and I marched along with the rest of our Cub Scout Pack, handing out freezees to the parade-goers - a very welcome treat on a hot, sticky day! After the parade, we met up with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob at the carnival to have some food and enjoy some rides before Zach, Alex and I had to go work a shift in the Scout's pork chop and corn-on-the-cob stand. Joe spent the day working at the Knights of Columbus' burger and dogs stand. We were definitely worn out at the end of that day!

The next day was a little more relaxing for us but still lots of fun. We went up to watch the Raspberry Festival parade to watch Cole perform with the LMPM pep band from his school. Later that evening, we were back at BBQ Days to watch their famed fireworks, put on by a major pyrotechnics company based in town (they were amazing!).

Check out the fun in the July-Aug photo album, including a video of Cole's band performing (Hi Cole!)!

The boys of summer

Zach and Alex at T-ball

I'm finally catching up on our summer photos, and I've got the pics through the month of June up on the site. June was a great kickoff for summer.

As mentioned in the last post, the boys fired off rockets with the Cub Scouts and we spent a day at the zoo to see dinosaurs with Grandma Pat.
We celebrated Joe's birthday, including a special present where I took him to see Roger Waters perform The Wall, who was in town that night (great show!).
We honored 2 of the best dads I know, Joe and my dad, on Father's Day, a relaxing fun day up at Grandma Pat and Papa Bob's house.
Zach and Alex started their second season of T-ball, this year playing on the Maroon Team.
The carpet was installed in our basement - we have a functional space downstairs! Yay!! :)
Grandma Pat and Papa Bob spent a special day with Zach and Alex, taking them to the Como Town amusement park just to hang out and have fun.

Check out the pics and video clips in the May-June album.

From space-age to prehistoric

Zach and Alex are
ready for rockets!

We took quite a time trip in the last week, starting in the Space Age by shooting off rockets with Cub Scouts and finishing up the week going back in time a mere 65 million years to the Dinosaur era at the MN Zoo.


The Cub Scout rocket launch gave each scout the chance to fire off his rocket twice, and the rockets were flying high on a perfect Saturday morning. Zach and Alex had a blast (ha!) shooting their rockets - they went really high! Zach's rocket had a slight mishap on its second flight - the parachute didn't pop out, so it turned into a nice lawn dart on its return to Earth, burning itself halfway into the ground. Zach thought that was SO cool! :)

Did you stop by for a bite?

We finished the week celebrating the end of the school year joined by Grandma Pat for a trip to one of our favorite places, the Minnesota Zoo, to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. This cool exhibit features animatronic dinosaurs displayed along a trail similar to the other animals at the zoo. It was really neat to see the dinosaurs as they may have looked in life, really giving you perspective of their enormous size.

Check out the pictures (and a couple of video clips of the rocket launch) in the May-June album.

A birthday, baseball and Memorial Day

A great day for baseball

Just a quick post from a beautiful Memorial Day at the ballpark yesterday. Mom and Dad B had given Joe a family day at the game as an early birthday present, so the seven of us headed out to Target Field to watch the Twins "begainst" the Oakland A's. After a couple of days of weather extremes (cold, windy, rainy and then hot, steamy and windy with even more rain), it was a perfect day to spend a day at the ballpark as a family.

Because it was Memorial Day, the Twins had a number of tributes and memorials to honor and remember our veterans, particularly those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It was great to explain to Z&A what the real meaning of that day is for. One of the highlights was the National Anthem, when a WWII vet raised the flag in front of his family and wife of 65 years and a pair of vintage WWII fighter planes did a flyover.

Check out the video of the flyover plus pics from the game in the May-June album!