Magical Birds found in Rochester, NY

In January 2000 Jennifer and I visited Chatt Seniors in Rochester, NY. It was late January and a pretty cold day. I don't recall why we made the trek to Rochester from Youngstown, Ohio but it was a magical afternoon for all of us that day. Mom or Dad said, lets to on a hike and see if we can feed the birds with seed. Jennifer probably coaxed me into going as I am sure I had plenty of other things to be doing and we made the trip to the "bird" trail with seed in hand.

We started out on the trail and began to put seed in our hands. With a little patience birds came to our hands and ate the seed. Consistently as soon as we put out seed, the birds came. We started putting seed on our shoulders,our hats and they ate seed wherever they could find seed. It was an amazing experience and those few hours went by in a flash. Take a look at the photos below and please look past the coke can size glasses. What a great memory!

You can see from the above picture that Chatt Senior has a bird on his cap. We all had birds on our head that day. Just an awesome experience on a cold wintry day in Rochester, NY.

Grayson at swimmming lessons in Bradenton Florida

Jennifer signed up Grayson for swimming lessons at the Bradenton, Fl YMCA. It was inexpensive and was a good idea for Grayson to get some "professional" training. Last summer, 2008, at our home on Anna Maria Island Grayson was jumping in the pool without floaties but I could tell was still uncomfortable with the whole idea of water and Grayson with no Dad in the water. I would rather he be scared than to be jumping in the pool without regard for his safety.

Anyways he would stand on the side of the pool and jump in. Then go figure, the training really took off when I started to challenge him to jump past a string float in the water. I took off his floaty's and he started to jump in and get himself to the top and struggle to the side of the pool. Then the cold came and the training stopped. Until now...

March 31st is the last day of his swim lessons and we will be getting his grade if he is ready to move on to the next class. He doggy paddles well but is not quite comfortable yet swimming under water. This summer he will get it at our home on the canal with a pool. He will get plenty of practice and we will no longer need to worry about Grayson falling into the pool.

Below is a video of Grayson I slapped together. Have fun watching it. Gramma and Grampa Bryant left yesterday and so far Grayson has been so busy I dont think he has gotten a breather to realize there are no more grandparents in town. I am sure he got used to it since between the Chatt and Bryant Grandparents he has been spoiled for two consecutive months.

The above picture was taken in the Summer of 2008 just as Grayson was learning how to jump from the edge of the pool into the pool at our Beach Vacation Rental on Anna Maria Island. It is not often you capture this amount of fear in a boys face. Awwwww....

Above Picture taken in Orlando at Water Park in 2008. This is the Wave pool which we all loved. Good stuff! (It has a swimming, so threw it in)

Grayson's first play - Anna Maria Elementary

Grayson was pretty excited to be in his elementary school play. He practiced for weeks, prepared, and constantly reminded us about his big night. Each child had a line to say and Grayson had it down cold. His elementary school puts on a play after the PTO dinner. The dinner in February was provided by Lee Roy Salmon's. They donated 100% of the food so all the proceeds from the $6 per person dinner went to the Anna Maria PTO. Thank you Lee Roy Selmon's, the ribs and chicken was fantastic. The PTO announced 2009 they will be using their raised funds to hire a computer lab person to aide all our children in computers. Sounds like a great plan.

So, below there are several videos. The first is Grayson practicing his parts. If you know Grayson when he puts his mind to something he wants to do it right and he is pretty serious. I cut out a few parts but take a look at the below video.




The next video is of Grayson and the actual play. There were two parts to the play however the most active part is shown. About 1/4 of the way through Grayson says his line and is downright serious!



Grayson is a very lucky boy, Gramma and Grampa Chatt, Aunt Patty, Jo, Carol and Uncle Marty, mom and dad made his big play. Below Grayson is doing his rounds in the "after play party" in his classroom. Hugging everyone that was nice enough to take part in his big night on the town....



Thank you to all that made the play and are making Grayson's childhood so special. As a father, Grayson's videos are priceless. I hope you enjoyed his big day as much as I did.

Memory lane - Karate Kid - Orange Belt

I woke up a few mornings ago and took a trip down memory lane for myself. I visited with some old friends on Facebook and found some Elementary school pictures through several friends from Leary Elementary school. What was a amazing to me is several of my friends in high school were friends in elementary school. Alot of them! What a lucky group of children to grow up through the same school system and know each other all through childhood. Amazing.

Anyways I began to make the connection to my son and hope for the same childhood for him. Of course nothing is the same but my friends that were able to find old class pictures reminded me that a picture is worth a thousand words and I hope my immediate and extended family continue to enjoy this blog. I hope it will be like a fine wine, as we age, this blog will be even more valuable.

Anyways, Grayson has been in karate almost 8 months and figured it is high time to show some pictures as well as a new belt he earned...Orange. Thanks to Granpa Chatt for the pics and the video. He enjoys it and is going two to three times per week. Early in the week it is stretching and practice, Wednesday if he goes it is "weapons" class and finally on Friday's he spars. Take a look below....

Below - Grayson in full body gear for sparring. See his grin?

Below - Greyson and Grayson sparring, that's right, our Grayson is on the right. Who ever said girls can't punch. Ms. Greyson is one tough cookie! Plus she is a little bigger too. She would be a tough big sister....

Below - A proud Grayson admiring his hard work and dedication. Ahhh - finally the Orange belt...only another 22 to go. Can't eat an elephant in one bite.

Below - Grayson video receiving his Orange belt.

Chatt Senior Spring Break on Anna Maria Island

Well the Chatt Senior's came down for the month of February 2009. They just left today March 1st so it is the first time I have had a chance to post some of our pictures together. They stayed at Sandy Pointe which is just across the street from Publix. They enjoyed staying out of their car and walking to the supermarket or across East Bay Drive to the wonderful white sandy beaches of Anna Maria Island. We did lots together and enjoyed our time but as usually it went way too fast. Below are some miscellaneous photos of the family with some highlight act ivies listed later.

Grayson Fishing for the first time on Key Royale, Holmes Beach

Grayson and Larry together at our new home on our new to us couch.

Mark, Patti, Dad, and Grayson enjoying Daytona 500 at Vista Grande in Holmes Beach, Fl

Jennifer grinning from ear to ear - a cold Feb this year!