Opening 2016!

This year is a big year for the Sawlaws, this is our first year with our lake home.  This has been a dream of mine for a long time.  I have been headed to Northwestern WI for a long time to visit my Grandparents, and last fall Mandi and I took the plunge deciding to purchase what we envision being our retirement home very nearby.  

This past weekend my friends Steven, Mark, Tim and myself packed up the cars, and at a brisk 4:00am we hit the road, electing for the scenic route north.  Take a look!

First stop was in Dickeyville WI, at the Grotto.  This is a very... um... unique shrine to our Lord and Saviour.  It was just a little past dawn when we snapped a selfie with this statue of Jesus.  It was a great start.

Here's another selfie at Kathy's Cafe in Lancaster WI.  I'm on the far left, and moving clockwise we have Mark, Steven and Tim again.  The breakfast was good, the donuts from the adjoining bakery were some of the best the boys had ever had (I didn't partake).

Its a bit tough to see, but our table included a view of the historic Lancaster Courthouse.

Tim is not amused at my RoadWarrior ways.

Arrival!  My caretaker Scott was there to meet us. He ran me through the paces of opening up.  Its going to take a few years to get the hang of it.  I really, really hope Scott doesn't retire.  The guy is second to none.  The lake was gorgeous :D

One of the purposes of the trip up was to get the new sofa and loveseat unpacked.  I think they fill the space nicely.  Thoughts?

There was ample time for R&R as well.  This picture was snapped with the express purpose of making my friend Alissa jealous.  Worked 100%.  New Glarus beer for those who don't know can only be bought in WI.  Its a summer time treat for me, had a little early this year... early in the year I mean. Not early in the day.  It was after 12:00PM when I had this beer.  I think.

The boys and I went to the Long Branch in Minong.  Definitely worth the stop.  The BBQ is solid, beers are cold, and the staff friendly.  During the summer you can grab dessert at the Scoop Next door.

All good things come to a close.  On the way home we stopped at the Dino Depot in the Dells.  I will always think of this place as a Sinclair station.  Sinclair holds a special spot in my heart.  My now departed Grandfather worked there when he was young, and always had Sinclair memorabilia around his office.  The big green Brontosaurus (its a thing again, look it up) makes me smile.  Steven was amazed by the size and power of it all.

Our last stop was Buffalo Phil's.  This Western themed restaurant has gone down a hill a bit in the past few years.  Food was okay, but the scenery was fun.  And you can't beat a place where the food arrives by train.  Steven managed to snap a picture with a hobo.

Overall it was a good trip.  I missed my wife and children dearly, and look forward to heading North with them soon.

Beginning of Spring

Spring has sprung for the Sawlaws.  Easter has come and gone and the weather is finally climbing out of the 50's.  Forrest and Charlotte are getting to enjoy some sun, and Mandi is digging up my lawn. Thats right.  My lawn.  Those of you who know that I hate lawn work might be surprised to hear me take such ownership over the green spaces of our lot.  Well, buying a monstrous John Deere lawn tractor will do that for a man.  Now that I have my rider, cup-holders and all, ready for some cruising I find myself a little more friendly to the idea of lawn care.  That is, if Mandi doesn't turn the thing into one giant flower bed.  

But thats okay, I give her a pass as long as she plants some habenero plants for me :D

But on to the fun stuff, the kids!

Forrest and I continue to get to know each other better everyday.  He understands now that I mean business, and generally have less tolerance for push back.  Mandi, to her great credit is kind, gentle, and a woman of routine.  Dad?  Well, he doesn't know those routines as well.  And when Forrest protests my breaking from routine, I don't generally apologize.

That said, I am also learning to trust my son. He has a marvelous mind.  He amazes me everyday. I don't know many 3.5 year olds who can spell dozens of words, legibly write the alphabet, count to 200, and draw pictures of their families.  Montessori education people, its legit.  I should know better than to question the Boy Genius, but I lapse in judgement from time to time. Most recently I was picking the Kid Wonder up from School.  I asked him to put on his outdoor shoes.  There was a brief pause, as both of us struggled to pick out his shoes from the crowd.  After a few seconds he grabs these:

Now, I have never seen these shoes in my life.  And they sort of stand out.  "Are you SURE those are yours?" I ask.  "I am sure!" comes the reply.  I am not convinced.  So as we are walking out, I ask again.  A helpful classmate of Forrest's overhears and assures me that they are his shoes.  Still I am curious.  Walking out the building I check one last time.  "Forrest, are you totally sure those are your shoes?"  "I am sure daddy" comes the reply.  This time another child offers his assurances that he saw Forrest wear these in.  Okay, well, so be it.  

And what happened?  Sure enough, they were his shoes.  The little man was right, and I felt pretty stupid being that Dad who kept asking what must have been, from his perspective, a silly question.  

Charlotte also continues to grow.  We had some fun with selfies and managed to capture what is my Dad's favorite picture of her so far:

Cute, right?  And you might think that is the favorite pic.  But wait for it, because seconds later I caught this gem:

Oh Bean.  She was done with that game.  As always for more pictures of the children head over to Mandi's Blog.  She does a much better job than I do chronicling the adventures in parenting.

Another fun weekend in the interim was had when Grandma and Grandpa Sawlaw came to visit.  The Illinois Sheriff's Association (of which I am a proud member) had one of their annual Sheriff's conventions in Peoria.  Grandpa and I managed to make our hasty escape from some of the meetings for some fun at the gambling boat!

That kind of fun with your Grandfather is priceless.  Love that man :D

And lastly, I continue to work on my grilling game.  I generally try to restrict my food brags to texts to my friends and my father, but this particular one was blog worthy.

Delicious delicious meat!

Hope to have more of that this summer.  Paired with an Chilean Cabernet.  

In the next few weeks there is more to be done.  Opening up the Cabin for the first time should be a blast!  Check back in midway through the month for more updates.  Thanks for reading!

March is Here!

Hello everyone!  It has been a month since my last update, and what a month it has been.  First and foremost, the children are doing well.  Forrest continues to adjust to his little sister, and little Letty Bean has started to show us some of her personality.  She loves to smile, and make eye contact.  Its a fun time

I always hear from other parents that the children grow so fast. How very true. In the blink of an eye, Letty Bean is 2 months old. She smiles at me now, and love to sleep resting on my chest.  I know this won't last, and I am trying to enjoy it.  Tough what for all the sleep deprivation.  But I know she will only be this small once.

Work has continued to go well.  I am enjoying my position with UnityPoint.  There will be some transition forthcoming, but nothing drastic.  Just some regularly scheduled hours instead of being a total toss up.  

In other big news, Titan Games continues to grow!  We have added our THIRD store (inside of three years wooooot!).  We are proud to welcome Dan Crawford and the Peoria community into the fold.  Titan Games Core!

Our location is nice, but not ideal.  We continue to make the best of it, and hope to explore bigger and better options here in the near future.  

I have managed to begin gaming a little more.  Of course in my last post I talked about Armada.  Forrest and I had a boys road trip to Mahomet with Wes to meet Michael and his brother in law.  Had a good time.  Proud to say I am now 6-0 of my last 6 games.  Forrest had fun doing numbers and letters, and helping me pick which ship to activate.  Have also started RP again, with some good old fashioned D&D!

We have a healthy group of 3 players, soon to be 4 we hope.  Its been a ton of fun, Taiguk, Zeyla, and Caleb will have their first full quest on Monday in what will be their third session.  Should be fun!  Zombie-Goblins!  Gomblins!  Yeah... they are all gonna die.  :D  D:  And of course, what would a gaming session be without some awesome baked goods?

I hope my kids love to game some day.  That would be a good time.

Stay Healthy!

Cruising through January

It is hard to believe that we are already over halfway through January.  My goodness how time flies.  Little Letty Bean is now almost a month old.  We are finally, finally getting some times where she doesn't demand to be held.  That is nice.  Though I do enjoy holding her.  Sleep is still pretty rare, though that is mostly because of her being up every 3-4 hours to eat.  Can't really blame the Bean on that one, what with her tiny baby tummy.

This is the face I look at almost 100% of the time at home :D

Forrest is adjusting really well.  He likes being a big brother now, and there are no further requests to "take her back".  We had a pretty good snow right after Christmas that allowed for some fun sledding:

Our hill out front gets the job done for our three year old.  I think in the next couple of years he might outgrow it a bit.  We also had a fun father/son afternoon at the Children's Museum in Peoria.  Mandi's mother (Gigi) gave us a season pass for Christmas.  Very fun to get some use!

In other news, there were some HUGE developments for Titan Games - we opened another store in Peoria!  Titan Games PIA is now open for business, check out our facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/titangamespia/ Here are some pictures of our board meeting where we made the final decision (Bean was present).

And finally, a fun picture of the newest gaming obsession.  For Christmas I made use of my store access to purchase and distribute some sweet gifts for my buddies:  Starter sets for Star Wars: Armada.  Its a table top miniatures game that basically mirrors a game we used to make up on our own with Star Wars Micro-Machines.  Only this time my buddy Hart can't just cheat and make up rules as we go.  Here is a pic of some of the sweet loot:

My friend Wes and I have been playing 1-2 times per week.  Generally during Mandi's rest time when its just Bean and I.  Nothing helps passing the time like some table top strategy games, Beers, and Cowboy Bebop on the plasma.  Good times!

Letty Bean!

Hello world, meet Charlotte Rose, or "Letty Bean" as I have taken to calling her:

Yay!  Letty Bean arrived late in the night in late December, in time for Christmas.  Mandi was a trooper.  Around 6 hours of labor, with only the last hour being described by Mandi as "a little rough".  Pushing for less than 15 minutes and then a new person was here :)  The whole experience, without an epidural or any meds, was described by my tough-as-nails wife as being "Too easy".  Mom and baby are doing well.  Bean is a great eater, and a prodigious pooper as the best babies are.

Forrest is making the adjustment well.  He's an exemplary big brother.  He quiets down when he needs to be quiet, and is very gentle.  He's definitely not a fan of less attention, but he's toughing through it.

We also managed to have some great Christmas time fun. Forrest got a new trampoline, and a ton of other fun things.  As I am sure everyone understands, things are busy so today's post will be short.  Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Holiday Fun

As we near the end of 2015 I have found myself with some more fun pictures and vacation time.  The flexible nature of my position lets me arrange my days as such that often times I don't need to use vacation days to get time off.  This blessing leads to extra days at the end of the year where I get to do a little more relaxing.  This has been especially fun as it has given me some mornings and afternoons with Forrest.  Generally, Mandi takes care of the shuttling of the little man back and forth to school.  Sometimes you never really understand what you're missing until you experience the joy of a thing:

When we drop him off at school John, the gentleman who runs the school greets each student, helps them out of the car, and sends them on their way.  The kids then walk on their own around the back of the school and to the door.  Watching Forrest take this walk is fun in the most melancholy of ways.  But before we know it he's back in the afternoon, and this is when the fun begins.

Forrest loves to build.  In this picture we had begun building "houses" (as he calls them) from some Jenga blocks.  The actual game of Jenga is only fun for Forrest for the first... oh... 5 minutes.  After that though, we had quite a long bit of entertainment from stacking the blocks and building a house.  This one he built all on his own, arranging the blocks to support each other.  I was struck by the resemblance to Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater".  Forrest thought so too.

I promise this picture isn't as ominous as it appears, though it is as tall as it appears.  One of the father-son activities we enjoy is an afternoon trip to Monkey Joes.  This place is awesome for helping the little man get out some pent up energy.  By the end he was going down even the biggest slides on his own.

On the quieter afternoons we will poke around with some crafts, including building a Play-Dough snowman that Forrest received as a gift from his teachers at the Montessori school.

On one of our weekend nights we decided to get the whole gang together for some bowling at Uncle Buck's (Bass Pro Shop).  It was crowded, and crazy... but a good time.  LMC managed to win the day with an amazing performance... 5 strikes I think.  At least 4 and three of them in a row.  None of us could compete!  We fled the scene for dinner though, it was too crowded.  River1000 offered us all we could eat in Asian food buffet and Sushi.  That place has definitely improved.

Last but not least was the annual UnityPoint Holiday Party.  A big thank you to both UnityPoint for hosting, as well as to Gigi and Poppy for taking care of Forrest for the weekend.  Mandi and I enjoyed our date weekend :)  Friday night we got all dolled up for the party, with a trip to Monticello and Champaign on Saturday.  We got to enjoy all of our favorite places to eat, see family, and enjoy adult conversation without interruption.  No doubt Forrest is a blast to have around, but sometimes a break from the 3 year old is just what the doctor ordered.

December 2015

December is here and the snow is falling.  November seems to have flown by.  If there can be said to be a downside to this job it is that time seems to go by too fast.  I believe that my ever changing schedule and irregular hours prevent me from getting into a routine that slows me down.  Anyway, on to a recap of events and of course, some pictures.

Occasionally Mandi gets a day off.  She's the hardest working lady I know, and her job is almost 24/7.  When I am off, I encourage her to take some personal time... time away from the house, from me, and from her motherly duties.  Its hard for her, I know.  Forrest is her absolute favorite (I'll settle for second fiddle, he is cuter than me after all) and leaving him behind is tough.  But its also an important mental health check :P  Her time away generally involves time with her sister, or bebopping around town.  This means the little man and I get some Daddy/son time.  Its always a little awkward.  My ways are not mommy's ways.  So I try to keep us on the move.  This past Saturday that meant meeting up with Great Grandma at the mall :)  Forrest enjoyed riding the "escayator" and a "Bob the Builder" ride.  

I'm going to take a brief moment to brag on my son.  He's funny, he's cute, and he's smart.  He also thinks about others, a lot.  He's thoughtful of his mother, other children at school, and of course Gigi. If I could be said to have one concern it is his picky eating.   This kiddo is terrible at trying out new foods.  In his defense, he comes by this difficulty from me, and I came by it from my mother.  Hes the latest in a long line of picky eaters.  I now know, intimately, the struggle my father and mother had with me.  I fear for his nutrition.  He likes to eat: cookies, ice cream, donuts, strawberries, and bread in that order.  That about covers it.  Mandi and I have read the books, the blogs, and talked to his pediatrician.  I have done the research myself, and scoured medical journals.  None of the advice has worked, and the best we can do is give him vitamins as we can, and hope that he gets enough protein.  Well... pictured above is a little bit of victory.  This is Forrest after devouring a piece of french toast... which as you likely know is covered in egg!  GOTCHA LITTLE MAN!  Heh Heh.  He not only ate it, but he wanted seconds.  It took powdered sugar to do it, but hey, protein is protein.  He also tried and tolerated beef toasted ravioli, which while not a great food, at least has beef.  We will keep working, and from my own experience I know his diet will expand with time.  But at least we have a way to get some eggs into the boy :)

Thanks to one of my staff members at work, I came into 4 free tickets to a Rivermen game.  It was decent hockey with 2 fights (Peoria came out on top for both).  Almost won a free biscuit.  Noah, Helton, and Wes tagged along.  Good times had by all.

And finally, a little Christmas spirit.  Those of you who know me know that I don't care for Christmas.  I traveled quite a bit as a teenager (often going to Florida for the holiday), and because my parents are split the Christmas tradition was always a little haphazard.  I have very fond memories of the Holidays to be sure, and my Mom and Dad always did a great job.  But it wasn't the idyllic tradition I think my wife had.  As well, I don't particularly care for the pagan symbolism, commercialism, and materialism that comes with it.  The music is nice, but the bottom line is that Jesus was probably born in the spring.  And kneeling before a pagan symbol (a burning tree at Beltine) and exchanging material gifts is not something I think Christ would approve of.  The whole thing is just backwards.  Family, Yukon Cornelius, giving, love, etc... those things are great, of course.  But it just rubs me the wrong way.

BUT, I lose on this argument.  My wife wants a tree, so we have a tree.  And if its going to be there, I am certainly going to enjoy a glass of Malbec in my Laz-E-boy chair and bask in the glow.  Merry Christmas, and bah humbug.