Our Green Belt

Noah graduated to green belt yesterday.  Even cooler, he graduated to the Junior class.  We are excited for him to move up with the big kids.  Mainly because Jenna and I are tired of participation success. Noah's ready to be in the world where everyone keeps score and he advances on merit. We are so proud of him.  This cycle was difficult because we were gone a lot and he missed a lot of classes but he was still a rockstar on his form and sparring.  Of course, Jenna's favorite is his freestyle where he really demonstrates he has a talent for martial arts.​

Here's a picture of him with the primary instructor, Mr. O'Connor.  Noah really likes Mr. O'Connor and always wants to impress him. It's nice to have your kid genuinely respect an elder and teacher.  Noah is just a good kid and we are very proud of him.​

Crystal Bridges with Magga

Magga was able to come up for the weekend at the last minute.  Her visit was short but enjoyable. I feel obligated to say the highlight was going to check out the Norman Rockwell exhibit at Crystal Bridges.  Noah liked it way more than I thought he would.  We messed up lunch though and didn't know we'd have to wait in line and be stuck so blood sugars got a little low and we had a cranky little kid cut the day short.  ​The actual highlight was Saturday night at bedtime when Noah told Magga all about the girls in his class and got himself tickled and embarrassed.  Mom and I couldn't stop laughing at him as he just kept blushing.  He wanted to tell her so bad but it was just so hard to tell on himself.

Dolphin Swim in Cozumel

When we ported in Cozumel we did a dolphin swim.  We were only able to touch the dolphins since Noah and Campbell were too young to actually swim with them.  The kids were able to make shake his fins, let him swim out of the water to their hand, give him a kiss, get a kiss back, and then pat him several times.  Our dolphins name was Daniel and he was awesome.  ​

We had a slight SNAFU booking it, by messing up time zones (Mexico doesn't observe DST) so the adults were a little stressed since we basically had to beg the people to let us go early. The kids didn't know it though so they were carefree and enjoying an awesome experience. Also, Melissa was able to take the pictures from a zoom lens but went to check on a taxi and missed the two big kids interacting with the dolphin but we still got some great shots.

Galveston

Galveston has changed a lot in the 16 years since I was there.  The beach was much prettier than I remembered and the boardwalk was packed with people and resorts. When we took the shuttle to the boat the next morning we saw the Galveston I remembered with the refineries and rigs.  Nice to see these things can coexist with each other.  ​

The Disney Magic

We got back to land yesterday and we still have our sea legs. There will be plenty of time to put lots of pictures and videos up but I wanted to briefly put a picture of us all in front of the boat.  This was taken in Cozumel right after getting off the boat. I like this picture because 1. we are fresh and 2. you can see the insanely blue water.  Loved every bit of Cozumel.​

Definitely my son...

Not that I needed a DNA test, but lets face it; the boy looks like his momma. Lately Noah has needing convincing he can read.  "But I don't know every word..." He never believes I don't know every word either.  A couple of days back he got into a little trouble and he was told he was limited to very few activities.  One was to read a book. ​

So he grabbed a Geronimo Stilton book his Magga gave him and started to read.  Then he read some more.  He read in the car while we ran errands.  He read at the table.  He went in the other room to read while we watched TV.  He finished the book the next day before bedtime.  When we got to Texarkana this afternoon, I took him to Books-a-Million and he picked out 3 new chapter books (all Geronimo Stilton of course).​

Tonight he and I are crashing together.  I told him it was 8:30 and he needed to get some rest.  "....bbbbuuuuuttttttt Daaaad! I'm at a really good part.  Do I have to go to bed?"​

NWA ATA Tournament

That's a lot of letters in a post title.  Noah's Taekwondo school hosted a tournament with it's "sister" club in Fayetteville this weekend.  This was Noah's last tournament (probably) before he moves up to Juniors and out of the Tiny Tiger class.  He and we are ready.  He did fantastic but he's a little over the whole participation medal thing.  He's ready to win or lose.  We are ready for him to be humbled so he can be a better loser.  He can be a pretty sore loser, like most Sullivan's to be honest, but the kid has never really lost at anything because they never keep score!  

With that said he was the same rockstar he always is.  We feel he was the star of creative weapons.  He was the only kid in his division that brought music and had a planned routine like they were supposed to. Of course I'm far from partial :)

Here's his creative weapons routine he made up, set to "Walk the Dinosaur!"

Santa 2012

The big guy got the best from both kids this year.  We tried the square in Fayetteville a few weeks ago but Santa apparently had the night off.  We made a quick sojourn to Tulsa this weekend and we did some quick research on the best Santa's in town.  Then we settled for number 3 on the list because it was where we were headed :)

Root Beer Floats for Christmas

I've felt bad about the lack of updates but honestly a whole lot has not been going on.  This month is 1 of the 2 biggest months at work for Jenna and I so we tend to go into survival mode.  Lots of takeout and lots of day to day.  I was going through my pictures though and realized I hadn't posted this.

Noah and I made root beer last weekend.  We didn't go whole hog and brew from sarsaparilla root.  We bought extract and water and did a quick boil.  We did keg the root beer though so I've devoted 1 of my 3 taps to the concoction.  

As an aside, we followed the recipe exactly and I now know why sodas are so bad for you.  There is enough sugar dissolved into the solution to choke most mammals.  Even without caffeine in it, Noah will not be allowed a glass after 5PM because he'll be hopped up on sugar.

I'll post a second picture of him pouring up a frosted mug soon.