Barack Obama Holds & Kisses Our Daughter

 

 

 

This is not a joke. We went to the Barack Obama fundraiser at The Biltmore on Friday, September 19th and after his speech, Barack held and kissed our precious little girl and all the photographer's bulbs were flashing. Not only was he gentle and friendly but he spoke to us briefly. Amy made it happen by shouting, "Babies for Obama" and Barack's eye lit right up, stopped shaking hands and reached for her. When Barack heard Amy, he remarked, "and a Mama for Obama." You can kind of see it in the picture but we put Sarah in a onesie that we got from Sarah's Aunt Maggie. It reads, "Babies for Obama. Yes! It Is Time For A Change!" He loved it and definitely got the double entendre.

As you can see in one of the photos, Sarah started to get the unhappy face but then she looked up at Barack and realized not only who was holding her but also looking out for her interests ;) As he kissed her and handed her back to us, Barack said, "You know she almost didn’t make it but then she pulled through." Naturally, I replied, "that's because she's a Democrat." As Barack was about to walk away, I told him, "we're ready for you to kick McCain's butt in the debates next Friday." He smiled and nodded his head almost as if to say, "you just wait, it's on."

Regardless of where your allegiances lie, I’m here to tell you that Barack was a genuine and kindhearted person and we were the proudest parents in the world that evening.

We'll gladly recount the story to anyone who'd like to hear it but as you can imagine, we’re still on cloud 9.

Amy on Univision's Version of the Today Show

My beautiful, 23 weeks pregnant wife was asked to model maternity clothing on Univision's version of the Today Show, Despierta America this morning and I captured the video from their website. I'm blown away


Click here to view video at the Univision site. Check out the gorgeous model at the 1 minute 35 seconds mark in the video...

Wildlife Conservation Society - Yellowstone Trip June 2006

 

Me and my wife's family (at the time girlfriend) took a trip along with the Wildlife Conservation Society to Mountain Sky Guest Ranch and enjoyed an extended weekend viewing wildlife, fly fishing, horseback riding and hiking. It was a beautiful weekend and the guest ranch was fascinating (check out my review located here. The picture above is from a horseback ride my wife and I took. In the background you can see the Yellowstone river and Emigrant creek. It was such a beautiful day and it was the first time I rode a horse in over 15 years and we had a blast. Enjoy the picture! 

Parent's Oceania Cruise

 

So my parents returned from a 40 day cruise on Oceania's Nautica ship which took them all the way from Hong Kong to Athens. They made stops in some interesting countries like Thailand, Oman, Jordan, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Egypt and Greece. The week after they returned my brother and I went down to Miami for Mother's Day and we got to hang out with them for a nice weekend. They got Lael and I a few gifts and they showed a few things they picked up for themselves. In either Egypt or Oman, my dad picked up the outfit you see from above (minus the knife and belt - they already had that). Anyways, doesn't my dad look like an arab? Funny pic, right? 

Record Snow Day in NYC

So, no big stories with this post, but I wanted to post two pics that show how beautiful the recent record snowfall was. The event started on Saturday night, 2/11. Amy and I caught a late movie at Kips Bay, "Good Night and Good Luck," which paralleled the news situation today...I digress. It was barely snowing when we entered the theater but by the time we got out, there was already 2+ inches on the ground...a great start. Hoping for more snow the next day, I went to bed feeling like a little kid.

Fast forward to 5:30am on Sunday and about 5 fire trucks roaring to a halt on my block. Amy slept right through it, but I got up to see what the racket was. Not only was there snow galore outside but apparently the firemen didn't even get out of their vehicles. I guess it was none other than Ethan's personal NY fire department alarm clock. Darn, forgot to turn it off last night. Anyways, it was hard to fall asleep after seeing how much snow was coming down.

After we woke up, I threw on ski clothes and we headed up to Amy's apt. to grab some ski clothes for her. We trekked to the 70's to meet up with Amy's friend, Molly, her husband Matt and their 2 year old son Max. After a little pizza for lunch, we trekked over to Central Park and met up with Molly's mother, Erica. Since Max hadn't really seen snow this deep, he sorta had enough after about 15 minutes in the park, but since Amy and I are kids at heart, we kept playing.

The snow was deep. I know the news reported 26.9" of snow but it felt like alot more. You can see how deep it was in the picture above. Anyways, we really had a fun afternoon; warm cider at the boat house and sledding in Central Park. For those of you who experienced it first hand, share your comments. For those not in NYC, enjoy the pics...

Winter Break 2005

This past winter vacation was wonderful. IBM gives a generous amount of vacation and I had plenty saved up so my girlfriend and I planned a whirlwind itinerary. It actually came about with a mix of me stumbling on a cheap flight to the Bahamas, my parents returning from a 26 day cruise on Oceania's Regatta and my girlfriend's family vacation to Jamaica.

It started off with a few days at the Atlantis Resort & Casino in Paradise Island, Bahamas. We arrived on the 19th but my brother and sister in law arrived the night before and talked the hotel into providing an upgrade to the Coral Tower from the Beach Tower. From all the reviews I read on Tripadvisor I was expecting alot of cheese but the experience turned out to be wonderful. The property is great and the service was actually pretty good. Anyways, we ended up chartering a boat for half a day, ate at Dune a wonderful restaurant at the Ocean Club, did well in the casino and had an easy 45 min. flight back to Miami.

After hanging out with the family for a few days, playing some tennis and whatnot, my girlfriend took off to meet up with her family at the Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. A few days later I joined them at the resort and we had an enjoyable time. The resort looked very exquisite on their website and the surroundings were secluded and lush but the service left something to be desired. If anyone wants to learn more, check out my review of the property on Tripadvisor. Finally and back to the picture above, my girlfriend's mother planned a tour one of the days that was supposed to be a boat ride to Dunn's River Falls but turned out to be a whole day excursion of snorkelling, boating with free beer and rum punch. All the reviews of the falls say that its usually mobbed, but I think we really lucked out since there were no cruise ships in port. Anyways, we took this photo about halfway through the climb and it could be one of the funniest pics I've ever taken. Enjoy!

Canada/New England Cruise on Golden Princess

My family and I went on a New England & Canada cruise on the Golden Princess in early September 2005. We stayed in 3 outside cabins on the Emerald Deck (Deck 8) and really enjoyed ourselves. For anyone travelling on the Golden Princess there is this one $5 slot machine in the casino that paid out 3 jackpots for our family over the course of the cruise. I won't reveal how well we did, but that machine was unstoppable. The cruise took us to Halifax, where we rented a car and drove south to Lunenberg; St. John, where we took a VIP tour of the Moosehead Brewery courtesy of my sis-in-law; Bar Harbor, where we ate lobster at the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound; Boston, where we had Dim Sum in Chinatown; and Newport where we toured the mansions and admired the pretty sailboats. If anyone wants tips on the Golden Princess or those ports, email me.

Jazzfest 2005

Me, J.K. and Sam Baker at the 2nd weekend of the 2005 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest. We were at the Acura Stage watching the Dave Mathews Band. Skies were kinda cloudy but my girlfriend and I welcomed it considering we were sunburnt from the day before.