Lucas turns 1 !

Lucas turned one year old on Sunday and the family celebrated with a pool party at the Maguires house. It was a hot day but we had a ball watching the kids. Lucas was laid back as always and got a lot of presents and clothes, along with some cool shoes!
I am having some issues loading the pics, so I will have to try later on when I have a better connection. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!!

Colorado Visit

Mom & Michael went to visit Beau, Jessica & Summer at their new place in Fairplay, Colorado for 6 days. Their house is high up on the mountain around 10,000 ft. elevation and sits outside of Pike National forest. Mom enjoyed all the pretty flowers and roads and was so happy to have taken the Diamox RX for altitude sickness! Here is a sample of the 300 photos they came home with. I hope to add more later on.

Lucas One Year old this month!

Lucas came over yesterday and played in the pool, we also enjoyed about an hour of peek a boo, he didn't seem to get tired of it - here are some new pics! Lucas turns one year on 7/27!!! He's such a big boy!

UPDATE: Lucas walked yesterday!!!! Lucas took his first steps on 7/10/08. He is just a few weeks away from his Birthday and already taking care of business! YEAH! Anya encouraged him to come to her and he walked on his own!!

Banksy

Some of you may of already heard of Banksy but for those who may of not, he is a graffiti artist from London. His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art that encompass topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique. Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist and/or anti-establishment. Subjects include animals such as monkeys and rats, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. He prefers to be anyomous and does not do interviews.











This type of art form is called "culture jamming" and has started a craze around the world and US. I find small stencils on power boxes , telephone polls and sidewalks all the time (even in Pcola!). Some of them are outstanding in their detail and message. I have always wanted to compile a collection of photos that would make a great coffe table book some day. I think this is awesome and get excited every time I find a new one - I wonder how often others notice these images? It would be great to come across a Banksy piece!

Hide The Torch

The Olympic torch played hide and seek with thousands of demonstrators and spectators crowding the city's waterfront Wednesday before being spirited away without even a formal goodbye on its symbolic stop in the United States.

After its parade was rerouted and shortened to prevent disruptions by massive crowds of anti-China protesters, the planned closing ceremony at the waterfront was canceled and moved to San Francisco International Airport. The flame was put directly on a plane and was not displayed.

The last-minute changes to the route and the site of the closing ceremony were made amid security concerns following chaotic protests in London and Paris of China's human rights record in Tibet and elsewhere, but they effectively prevented many spectators who wanted to see the flame from witnessing the historic moment.

As it made its way through the streets of San Francisco, the flame traveled in switchbacks and left the crowds confused and waiting for a parade that never arrived. Protesters also hurriedly changed plans and chased the rerouted flame.

Mayor Gavin Newsom told The Associated Press that the well-choreographed switch of the site of the closing ceremony was prompted by the size and behavior of the crowds massing outside AT&T Park, where the opening ceremony took place.

There was "a disproportionate concentration of people in and around the start of the relay," he said in a phone interview while traveling in a caravan that accompanied the torch.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge expressed relief that the San Francisco relay avoided the turmoil at previous events.

"Fortunately, the situation was better ... in San Francisco," Rogge said at an Olympic meeting in Beijing. "It was, however, not the joyous party that we had wished it to be."

Less than an hour before the relay began, officials cut the original six-mile route nearly in half.

Then, at the opening ceremony, the first torchbearer took the flame from a lantern brought to the stage and held it aloft before running into a waterfront warehouse. A motorcycle escort departed, but the torchbearer was nowhere in sight.

Officials drove the Olympic torch about a mile inland and handed it off to two runners away from protesters and media, and they began jogging toward the Golden Gate Bridge, in the opposite direction of the crowds waiting for it. More confusion followed, with the torch convoy apparently stopped near the bridge before heading southward to the airport.

As the flame traveled toward the airport, news dribbled through the crowds of more than 10,000 spectators and protesters gathered at the waterfront that the torch wasn't coming there.

Spectator Dave Dummer said he was disappointed.

"That upsets me," Dummer said. "My back hurts from standing around on this lumpy sidewalk. ... This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and other people messed it up by protesting."

Chinese state media declared the event a success, praising the last-minute route changes as a clever strategy for thwarting "Tibetan separatists."



The activists "ran into a brick wall in San Francisco," the Global Times newspaper, published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, said on its Web site. It called the changes a "brilliant idea."

"Today's relay was full of suspense and drama ... the whole story was like a Hollywood movie," China News Service said, though it also called the San Francisco leg a "harmonious journey."

Jiang Xiayou, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic torch relay committee, thanked San Francisco.

"Perhaps some of them failed to see the sacred flame today," Jiang said, speaking through a translator at the closing ceremony. "But we all have felt the passion of the Olympic movement."

There were signs of tension even before the torch relay began. Pro-Tibet and pro-China groups were given side-by-side permits to demonstrate, and representatives from both sides spilled from their sanctioned sites across a major street and shouted at each other nose to nose, with no visible police presence to separate them.

Farther along the planned route, about 200 Chinese college students mobbed a car carrying two people waving Tibetan flags in front of the city's Pier 39 tourist destination. The students, who arrived by bus from the University of California, Davis, banged drums and chanted "Go Olympics" in Chinese.

"I'm proud to be Chinese and I'm outraged because there are so many people who are so ignorant they don't know Tibet is part of China," Yi Che said. "It was and is and will forever be part of China."

The torch's 85,000-mile, 20-nation global journey is the longest in Olympic history, and is meant to build excitement for the Beijing Games. But it has also been targeted by activists angered over China's human rights record.

Boober Pics

Hanging with Uncle LarBone....



Drool Monster!


Lucas and his Dad-Bob






Anya's little guy is growing up fast! His christening is at the end of the month I will officially become the God Mother! Lucas has been such a source of love and wonder for me, it has been so interesting watching him learn new things every day and hear him make new sounds and communicating with us so much - in his own way! His drooly kisses are a constant, he loves to be kissed. He is a big time explorer and loves to get into cabinets, drawers, anywhere he thinks needs checking out. It's been a good time for everyone since he was a newborn infant that was so "teeney tiney". Everyday more of his personality emerges and it seems Lucas is especially in a hurry to get on with it.

MardiGras 08

Andy Goldsworthy

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Happy Brrrrthday

Mom and I spent 5 days in Silverthorne , Colorado visiting Beau, Jessica and Summer. During our first few days is snowed constantly and we felt like we were in a winter wonderland. We celebrated Mom's 50-cough Birthday with a special breakfast of black berry pancakes and fruit creme cake. Yum! We also got to go on a great sleigh ride that day. I will post more pics and video later, I'm tired!!


Update: Here are a few short video clips.


Vega loves to fetch, and she will fetch the ball or frizbee almost anywhere you throw it. She does not mind 4 feet of snow! She will dive right in and loves it!



This video shows the sleigh as it pulled up to pick us up for our ride. That was my favorite part of the trip.



And, here is Summer riding the sled down the hill, she wasn't going very fast, but this is cute....

sorry, if this posted side ways.

Going on Vacation

Mom and I head out to Colorado to visit Beau, Jessica and Summer at 5am Thursday. I will post pics when we get back.

Special thoughts and prayers go out to Bailey, Larry and Judy's dog. Larry learned today that he has lung cancer. I feel especially sad for all of them right now.

Jip is going on an extended overnight with his Auntie Anya while I am away, and he will get to have a great time hanging with his brother Duff.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lucas going on 4 Mos!

What a delight it is to spend time with the little guy! His personality is coming out more and more each day. He loves being tickled. Here is some pics from lunch with Anya today. I wish I could record his laughter and post it....

David Tait Calls Off Double Traverse

Bowing out on a high

Few men could climb Everest and come away with a gnawing sense of failure.

But David Tait sets his sights higher than other men.

So it was with a heavy heart that the 44-year-old hedge fund manager announced he would be returning home to Cobham next week after failing in his attempt to become the first man to complete a double traverse of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.

Mr Tait successfully reached the top of the 8,858m peak last Wednesday, but will not attempt to retrace his steps and climb over the mountain again to complete the double traverse.

He said: "There might be some supermen in this world, but I discovered I am not one of them.

"During the latter part of the endless painful descent I realised I was not going to be able, in all seriousness, to motivate both mind and body to turn around and do it all again - at least not in the time-scale allowed."

This was the second time in two years that Mr Tait has reached the summit of Everest and was notable for the hazardous and rarely-trodden north-to-south route he followed.

But as the descent unfolded, he endured 36 hours without sleep, which took its toll to such an extent he could no longer ignore his mental and physical fatigue.

Mr Tait also paid tribute to fellow climber Phurba Tashi, claiming he would have been unable to justify holding him back just so he could grab the world record for himself.

He said: "In order for me to pander to my ego and claim to be the first person to double-traverse Everest, I would have to simply ask Phurba to step aside, the moment before we hypothetically summitted a second time. This was unacceptable to me.

"The fact is we both traversed Everest the first time as equals, despite his immeasurably superior experience and skills, but if I indeed had the surplus energy to attempt a second summit, I would have been a fraud in asking him to let me summit first."



Mr Tait has raised almost £96,000 for the NSPCC, which he hopes will be used for the Children in Court appeal, allowing victims of child abuse to give evidence electronically.

He has also announced preliminary plans for a book about his life and the remarkable experiences of the challenge, which started on March 29.

He added: "I also hope the charity finds a way of using both the significant money and minor profile I have raised in a positive way."

Larry & Barry Celebrate 60 yrs

My Mom and Michael had a 60th Bday party for Larry and Barry. Mom went all out with cowboy decorations and a special cake. It was a lot of fun and we all had a good time.