Patrick turns one year old next week.
We'll get a pic of Grandma and the grandkids all looking at the camera at the same time ONE OF THESE DAYS...
Here I go...
...landing like a lead brick. 
Patrick & Julie 
Luke & Maureen 
Jackson & Grandma 
Taking a dip. 
The temporary Captain. Grandpa's only the captain until Jackson can take over. 
Patrick & Billy 
Grandma & Patrick 
Jackson needs an iPad! He has taken total control of his Dad's iPhone and Chris wants it back. Vote for his lemonade stand here http://thinkforwardfoundation.org/indexindy.php and he'll win an iPad. Voting continues for one week and you can vote once per day, so keep going back to vote!
Every year, as part of the month-long Indy 500 series of events, there is an Indy 500 Kids Festival downtown. It's a bunch of corporate booths that pass out free stuff, have little games, balloons, etc. Even if you've never been there, you probably know what I'm talking about. All major "free" events are the same - every Tom, Dick, & Harry from all corners of the city show up to get their free junk, which will be thrown out by the end of the week. Anyway, one of the events at the Kids Festival is a Rookie Run. You register your kid by age and they set up an age-appropriate course for the kids to race on and then give them a medal at the end. They try to set it up as a mini-version of the very popular Indy 500 Mini-Marathon, the largest mini-marathon in the country. This was our first year attempting the Rookie Run and Jackson really enjoyed it - despite all the waiting in 90 degree heat. As Jackson put it, "I didn't win first, but I passed 6 persons during the race." Apparently, life is all about who you leave in the dust to this kid.
Pre-race excitement 
Video of the Race (Sheesh, my posts have been all about the video lately, huh!?) \
Post-race shyness 
Because of his job, Chris is really plugged-in to activities and organizations for kids. He found out about this Lemonade Day in Indy, for example. Lemonade Day is a free, city-wide initiative designed to teach kids how to start, own and operate their own business – a lemonade stand. The other point of the exercise is to teach kids about what to do with their earnings - spend, save, and donate. Pappaw Jearl - Chris' step-dad - build Jackson a great wooden lemonade stand. He even thought ahead and made sure it could be put together without any power tools. Just a hammer is needed, which is about all that Chris can handle. :) Chris and Jackson then figured out a business theme and painted the stand.
Lemonade Day was technically on May 2nd, but it rained that afternoon, so Chris and Jackson took a rain day and just did it later in the week. They set up shop in front of the local Kroger and got to the business of selling. Jackson planned to save 50% of the earnings and give the other 50% to the Dads Inc. and the other 2 charities Dads Inc. is affiliated with - The Villages & Prevent Child Abuse Indiana. I wonder where he got the idea to donate there? Jackson's Bee Good Lemonade Stand stayed open for about 2 hours or so, which was really all that Jackson could handle, but he still had a good time. I think he most enjoyed charging me $10 for my cup of lemonade!
Pictures of Jackson's first game of the 2010 season - against the Cubs.
"Cheese". 
That ball didn't hit him in the head - fortunately. 
Getting into position. 
Baseball is a game of patience. 
Such concentration. 
Good hit! 
Rounding third. 
Luke had a good time watching all the kids at the game. 
He's still got a clean uniform post-game. 
