Easter 2009

What a glorious day today was - We celebrated our risen Saviour and He blessed us with a beautiful day!  Thank you Jesus!

         Dave, Cousin Ross, Auntie Irene & Kevin (Rachelle's fiance)
   Me & Wanda
Cousin Rachelle, Carole, & Nina (Ross's Girlfriend)
Cousins Frank & Pie

Gary, Daryl, & Ed Young (Friends from church)

     My guys!

Faux Asians Eating Faux-ish (but decent) Korean Food : )

My Brother and SIL where in town for a second (literally!).  Fortunately we were able to meet up in Jack London Square for dinner and coffee - It was really nice!  

                             The lovely Adina & my Brother Tage

Sammy slept through dinner, but joined us later for coffee : )

Sulfur Creek Nature Center

The boys went to a birthday party at Sulfur Creek - They really enjoyed seeing and touching all of the creatures.

                                         Paul with a chinchilla on his lap.

Celebrating March Bday's - Dave's, Arthur's and Mine

                                                 Dinner at Buffalo Bills

                                                Mr. "Phils" @ the Bills.
                              Sammy playing under our table : ) We sat outside.
                                   Sammy & Paul playing with Uncle Arthur

Karate Kids

    Getting ready for Saturday ITC (Intensive Training Curriculum)

Update on the black belt

So, being the picture freak that I am,  I tend to only like to blog if I have a picture to go with it. Philip did indeed earn his black belt, but we had to wait awhile for his new uniform to come in, which it has, but now I need to get a black ribbon-thingy sewed around the collar, which I have yet to do.  Thus there is no picture of Philip with his new black belt uniform, thus there has been no blogging from me.  Thought I should at least give an update though on this topic as Philip really worked hard and did a great job with everything and did earn his black belt.  It was very exciting and I will post pictures of him in his new uniform soon.

What'da ya know I did have some pictures to post with this blog.  I kept everyone waiting for nothing!

Getting ready to run at 7 AM on Sunday - when they get to the top of Garin hill, that's where the "real" testing takes place.

Almost to the studio.

Everyone waited on the corner of Mission Blvd. near the karate studio to cheer the group on as they came down the street.  (As you can see Paul is very into cheering his brother on as he is glued to his video game! : )

Philip & his partner for the black belt test.  They seemed to be evenly matched in size! : )

                               And here he is with his new black belt!

"Almost" a black belt --- Look out Chuck Norris! ; )

Philip will be testing this weekend for his black belt.  He has a five hour test on Saturday, which includes a 3-5 mile run followed by carrying someone on his back up Garin hill (for those of you who may not know, Garin is a pretty steep hill, takes me about 10-15 minutes to walk it, moving at a pretty good clip).  From what I understand that's not even the difficult part of the test!  Apparently once they reach the top of the hill, they have all sorts of sprints and things they need to do.  The test is then continued the next day on Sunday morning.  He has a list of Korean words (karate moves) that he had to learn and he also had to write a short essay.  If he passes his evaluation he will be considered a junior black belt.  You cannot become a full fledged black belt until you are sixteen.  Once he earns his black belt he will be in a probationary period for six months.  All I have to say is I hope that the instructor busts out a scale to weigh the kids, because I don't want Philip's back getting jacked up from carrying someone that's too heavy up that hill!!  Philip said he got paired up with a kid that weighs 125 lbs for a wheel barrel race last Saturday. (Philip weighs about 75 lbs!)  Other than this I think he will do fine.

Here are some pix of him getting his black/red belt last month.

                    Paul and Sammy videotaping for me