Oh … my … goodness. Who needs exercise when you do what I did last week? I booked airline tickets for our family trip from Denver to Orange County, Calif. to visit our family later this summer. That might have been the most difficult thing I ever did.

It wasn’t nearly as simple as booking a trip for five passengers. There were a few special circumstances, to say the least. I dare you to try to read this without getting dizzy.

Here’s the challenge — we’re all five going out on the same flight. I’m coming back after five days. Two weeks later, Tiff (my wife), Jack and Ava are coming back. A week after that, Benjamin is coming back after an extra week with his grandparents.

We’re all going on Southwest — I love their flexibility. If you ever need to change your flight or cancel a trip, you get credit for what you spent on a previous flight. Of course, if you ever need to book for a family of five with everybody heading out on the same flight, three separate return trips, two people using travel credit and four people using frequent-flyer points, you’re in for a headache. That’s not even counting the vouchers I checked on, but couldn’t use. [Read more…]

Obviously yesterday was Mother’s Day, so I took two of my kids (Ben and Ava) to Target to pick out something for my wife (aka their mama) as a gift. Ben’s coming up on 11, Ava is 6 1/2. It’s always fun to see what goes through their minds when they pick out gifts. One year Ben picked out a really soft pink blanket. Another year, he chose a coffee machine (which we love and still use).

He was pretty good at taking a hints from Tiff (if you’ve never been here before**, that’s my wife/their mama) and picked up a gift card to Starbucks.

** If you’ve never been here, also check out my About page and my Foundation page to see what Operation Jack is and why I run myself into the ground to fight autism.

Ava, on the other hand, was the entertainment this year. She was dead-set on getting Tiff a mini-pillow pet that was a duck. I don’t know if there is such a thing, because we couldn’t find it. But then she was absolutely certain that Tiff wanted a pillow pet that was a cat. Never mind that we’re a dog family and Tiff has a pig pillow pet already, I think as a Mother’s Day gift from last year. Despite a good half-dozen attempts by me and Ben to talk Ava out of it, we picked up the pillow pet.

A couple of hours later at home, Ava started up a “random” conversation with Tiff. [Read more…]

On Tuesday morning, I finally came to the realization that I can’t do this any more. I try and try, but I can’t stick to a marathon training plan. It’s just not in the cards. Someday, I’ll get my chance again. Right now, though, it’s just not in the cards. [Read more…]

Oh … my … goodness. I can’t believe I survived the chaos at my house last night. Ten people with guns in my backyard. Deadly gas. Bodies sprawled out all over the floor downstairs in my house. I kid you not. [Read more…]