oc trip summer 2010

from the end of the jetty, what a beautiful view


amanda and i on the jetty

the strange natalie carving at the end of the jetty is still there but has faded. We searched again high and low for the carving Jeff did and were not able to find it :( I wonder if it got washed away with the salt water?
Amanda enjoying her Dumser's icecream

Larissa and I playing swordfight with our chocolate covered frozen bananas
breakfast at the Dunes Manor Hotel. Larissa and I both got the Victorian Eggs Benedict and Amanda got the blueberry pancakes. Both dishes were delicous!!

Hi Everyone,

This weekend we took our OC trip for the weekend and we had a lot of fun. Sorry we weren't able to get ahold of you, Gary and Nancy, we actually left pretty early this morning (sunday) because it was suppose to be thunderstorms. I spoke with Jeff briefly but my cell phone had terrible reception and then was not able to get back in touch with him. In anycase, I know you will be able to see the photos on here as soon as your internet comes back on!

Here are some of the photos from our trip! Amanda took a bunch too. We also will have to scan in our photobooth pictures. :)

Love ya!

The First Step That She Took - 8/25/84

She was ten months old and we were lucky to be filming Kacie when she took her first unsupported step. That brief moment has stuck with me all of my life.

Kacie Is Six Months Old

Kacie Is Three Months Old

Here she begins to focus on things around her and has started to smile and laugh- her sense of humor has begun.

Kacie Is Six Weeks Old

teatime this weekend!

Amanda, Larissa and I will be making our yearly ritual trip to Ocean City, MD this weekend! We will be staying at the Dunes Motel again, (owned by Dunes Manor) which means free tea and crumpets!! yayyyyy!!! New pictures from our trip to follow!! love ya guys. These are pics from last years trip.

pug of the week

Pugs Sing Batman!

dogs

here is my puppy, Eva... well I guess shes all grown up now. She is a little over a year and a half old. These pics were from a hiking trip at Harpers Ferry. Kacie and I talked about making a trip up there to go to the flea markets but never made it. I hope one day I will get to do that.

Our Last Several Minutes With Kacie

We had dinner in Catonsville at Mathew's Restaurant with Kacie and she drove us back to Mimi's house in her new car. I happened to see this new Crosley record and disc player that Kacie had just bought and I asked her to play us a record. She chose an old sixites album by the Lovin' Spoonful and played us this song-"Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?" When it ended she immediately walked back to her bedroom and that was the last that we saw of her. This song haunts me every time I hear it but it makes me happy to think that at least I influenced her to enjoy oldies music. Kacie was taken to the hospital four days later.

Kacie Is One Week Old

A Note In A Drawer

Beebs just found this note from Kacie in a drawer in her office. It was dated October 18.

Kacie's Favorite Surf Dogs

We were taking our usual Sunday morning surf walk today and came upon this French lady with her 5 French bulldogs. They were all bullies and the one called Coustea was the nastiest to Gus. I think that Kacie had actually wanted a French bulldog but settled for a pug because they're less expensive.

Return To Woodbine Dream

I had this dream this morning.

Nancy and I went back in time to our home in Woodbine, Md. It was winter and the house was full of people, mostly young kids and Kacie was one of them. She and her friends were happy and making a lot of noise running through the house. We watched her and then realized that her life would be very short and we were heart broken.

Daily Planner Dream

I had this strange dream just before waking this morning.

I had my daily planner with me with all of my appointments scheduled on a daily basis. I was looking for a particular date in July in my book but became very frustrated because I couldn't find that particular page. So I laid my book on the ground behind my mother's house and began to flip from page to page. Out of nowhere Kacie appeared as an adult and I asked her to help. She just stood there and smiled at me without saying a word and I woke up.

Adventures In Paradise

This morning we visited nearby Tybee Island. Here you see the lighthouse.

Here's a shrimper about two miles out in the ocean near Hilton Head.

John Mellencamp just built a house on the beach behind these birds. This is nearby Daususkie Island. That reminds me, Eddie Money will be performing on the beach near our house in September and we're getting our tickets today.

America's Funniest Video

Kacie would love this. After numerous technical problems, we have submitted my video to the tv show. Stay tuned for updates. If my video is shown, I have no doubt that I will be bigger than Seinfeld. Is America ready for my sense of humor? I'm very optimistic because I fully believe that if Dumb And Dumber can be a hit, so can I.

Par For Kacie

What are the chances of this happening? Well, pretty good with Kacie. I had just gotten this video camera and I was very protective. Watch closely. When Kacie throws the ball, it directly hits the camera lense and knocks my camera out of my hand.

Love At First Sight?!!! A Kacie Classic

Here she is ice skating at the Carousel Hotel outside of Ocean City, Md. Watch this one several times. When she and the little boy collide, they briefly exchange glances and something magical happens. Kacie soon looses it and actually skates off of the ice onto the carpeted floor and around a column. She then skates back to the boy, he rejects her and she flees to her mother.

Here a couple more...

Island Invasion

The last three days have been just about the most crowded that Hilton Head gets. The wealthy and the beautiful from all over the world have arrived.

Look what I found...

I found these pictures on an unmarked CD today

Lost and Found

Beebs wanted me to publish this recently found artwork. It was in a file in her office. Does anyone know when Kacie may have done this work? It was all graded by an instructor.

More Lost and Found

A Great Gift From Natalie

We just received this minutes ago. Beebs and I want to thank you, Natalie. Now we have to pick a wall.

Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius

The comments on this book caused me a reflect back on Kacie's situation.

When she turned 14, I began to see a tendency in Kacie to be drawn to the "nasty" side of life. Depressing and undesirable people and situations seemed to fascinate her. I tried everything to turn her around by exposing her to the finer things in life like great inspiring books, nice people and just an all round high standard of living. These things had no appeal so I decided that new surroundings would be the answer. We brought her to our island paradise and gave her the opportunity to get a college education here, not work, and go to the beach every day. The big city, Savannah, is only 30 minutes away. At nineteen she left and returned to the things that I knew would destroy her. On the same day that she left, I turned her room into a virtual museum of her life because I had no doubt that her life would be short and painful. It amazed me that she was able to last another 5 years.

In another year or so when I fell less pain, I will obtain Kacie's medical records and do a complete investigation of her cause of death. Any individual(s) that contributed to her death will be legally dealt with. I have an attorney that will guide me through the process.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

This was one of Kacie's favorite books, a more modern one. I found it on audio cd at the library and was really looking forward to listening to it. However, I started listening to it and it is very grotesque so far. I considered stopping listening to it. I have only gotten into the part of him taking care of his sick parents.

Here is the review:

Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Based on a True Story? For starters, there's a good bit of staggering genius before you even get to the true story, including a preface, a list of "Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book," and a 20-page acknowledgements section complete with special mail-in offer, flow chart of the book's themes, and a lovely pen-and-ink drawing of a stapler (helpfully labeled "Here is a drawing of a stapler:").

But on to the true story. At the age of 22, Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers. In the ensuing sibling division of labor, Dave is appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health. His child-rearing strategy swings between making his brother's upbringing manically fun and performing bizarre developmental experiments on him. (Case in point: his idea of suitable bedtime reading is John Hersey's Hiroshima.)

The book is also, perhaps less successfully, about being young and hip and out to conquer the world (in an ironic, media-savvy, Gen-X way, naturally). In the early '90s, Eggers was one of the founders of the very funny Might Magazine, and he spends a fair amount of time here on Might, the hipster culture of San Francisco's South Park, and his own efforts to get on to MTV's Real World. This sort of thing doesn't age very well--but then, Eggers knows that. There's no criticism you can come up with that he hasn't put into A.H.W.O.S.G. already. "The book thereafter is kind of uneven," he tells us regarding the contents after page 109, and while that's true, it's still uneven in a way that is funny and heartfelt and interesting.

The First Time She Drove A Car

Here she is causing total chaos in her bumper car at Hershey Park. Anyone that drove with her in her adult years knows that her driving skills didn't improve that much.

Bad Eating Habits

No one ever enjoyed food more than Kacie. Her table manners never improved as she got older. Here she is really enjoying cotton candy at Hershey Park.

Assateague Ponies 12/27/88

Kacie would have let the ponies climb into the car if she could have but Nancy and Mimi were absolutely terrified.

Poverty Stinks!

Anyone that believes that money can't buy happiness needs to visit Hilton Head Island. This last house was recently on the market for $15,000,000. Oprah Winfrey was negotiating with the owner but I don't believe she purchased it.

Breakfast With A Dolphin

When we heading out of the creek behind our house this morning before sunrise, dolphin were everywhere and were feeding. This one was looking for a free breakfast.

Twizzlers

Not sure if we have blogged about this before, but does anyone remember Kacie loving stale twizzlers? Today I was working in a client's kitchen and there was a bag of twizzlers on the counter wide open. This reminded me of how Kacie would buy a bag of Twizzlers and leave them open for a few days and then would eat them later. She thought they tasted a lot better stale haha. funny huh?

By the way, this picture is a dress someone made out of twizzlers on Project Runway.

Father's Day At River Road

Happy Father's Day Gary! Sorry I wasn't able to put these up sooner, but I made a stop by River Road on Father's Day to take some photos for you and visit Kacie. The whole place was sooooo greeeeeeen!

If you look closely, there was a whole family of baby tadpoles living right next to the carved initials and where Kacie's ashes were.

You can kind of see the tadpoles again in the upper left hand corner below. Click on the image to see it bigger if you are having trouble. Kacie's initials are carved out still on the rock too. I splashed some water on the rock to try and make it more visible for the camera.

The whole forest had orange tiger lillys spread out all over the place. It was absolutely beautiful.

Hope you had a good father's day Gary. I imagine you spent it out on the boat.

Hanging Out Before The Monster Race 5/28/92

Hopefully some of you will see some of your friends from Lisbon Elementary in this clip. The kids looked a little nervous prior to the big race. This was actually Kacie's second Monster Race. She also ran in 1991 and was amazingly fast for the first hundred yards but the mile race was a little bit too much for her. We never knew why it was called the Monster Race. I wonder if the school still has it.

Monster Race 5/28/92

This was really called the Monster Race. Just about the whole school, Lisbon Elementary, participated. Kacie and I worked out for a long time to prepare for this one and we were really psyched up. As you can see, Kacie had a strong finish but walked a little along the way.

Shark Gone Wild

We caught this bad boy early this morning at a popular swimming beach. I thought I would share this one because it shows the violence of the shark fight. I think I need a bigger boat.

Happy Father's Day!

Hope you have a good day Gary. Get out on the boat and find some more dolphins!

thinking of you with love on Father's Day

And when the brokenhearted
people living in the word agree
there will be an answer, Let it
be.
For though they may be parted
there is still a chance that they
will see, there will be an answer
Let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom,
let it be.
Two of Kacie's favorite things...daffodils and the Beatles.

Kitty Chips

Natalie and I were just talking about the recent videos Gary and Nacy have put up. We were discussing how much Kacie loved animals, and I asked Natalie if she remembered "kitty chips." I thought I had posted about them before, but Natalie didn't recall the story, so maybe I hadn't...

Kacie would sometimes scoop Royal up and hold him really tightly. Then she put put his little ear in her mouth -- just between her lips, not actually biting -- then she would nibble his ear and say "yum yum, kitty chips!!"

It cracked me up and I still do it with Carolina sometimes...believe it or not, both cats seemed to love it. Maybe Vince can try it out on Royal sometime. ;)

Theatre Of The Sea- Florida Keys 2/88

Kacie managed to be in the show and enjoyed her brief stardom.

Theatre Of The Sea- A Kiss After The Show

Kacie's Favorite Beach Walk- The Westin

Kacie liked to start out from the Westin and walk to Port Royal Sound.

Kacie's Favorite Beach Walk- Port Royal Sound

Kacie liked to walk to this area from the Westin Hotel. It was about two miles and she always walked here at a fast clip but would never jog.

Bleached By The Sun

As I was filming Kacie's favorite beach at Port Royal Sound on the island, I looked down and saw this perfect sand dollar.

Shark Frenzy

This morning we took Sweetpea to a reef in the ocean about five miles from the southern tip of Hilton Head. I had hoped to catch a really big shark out that far but got nothing. The shark in this video was caught about 100 yards from the beach. Sharks go into a frenzy when they see the boat. It's like an explosion that takes place.

West Howard Diving Competition-Circa 1993

This is Kacie's third and final dive at the meet. She really nailed this one.

West Howard Diving Competition-Circa 1993

This is Kacie's second dive at the competition. It's much improved over the first one.

West Howard Dive Competition-Circa 1993

This is Kacie's first dive at this meet. She won many ribbons during her diving years. The other girls simply walked to the end of the board and jumped off but Kacie had to ham it up a little.

Hilton Head Photo Of The Week

We took a walk this evening to the creek behind our house. This is where our dock is and our adventures aboard Sweetpea begin.

Kacie and the Beanstalk

We had fun that day in August of 1985 at the Enchanted Forest. In it's early days, the Enchanted Forest had a large zoo. Kacie was fascinated by the animals as we'll see in future videos. Humpty Dumpty was my personal favorite.

The Night Before First Grade

I previously posted a video of Kacie after she came home from her first day in the 1st grade but this is the night before. It's one of my favorites because you can see that she had quite a sense of humor at an early age.

Ocean City: There's an App For That!

I just read on msnbc.com that Ocean City now has an iphone app! It let's you search different, restaurants, hotel, and things to do and also gives you deals that are going on in the area.

Natalie, Amanda, and I will have to check it out when we go to OC next month!

http://ococean.com/iphone

Sweetpea and the Dolphin

Yesterday, we caught a really nice shark about 2 or 3 miles out in the ocean. It was about 5 feet or so. As we were returning to the island we saw a bunch of dolphin and we stopped. This one dropped by to say hello.

Furniture Dream

I had this strange dream two days ago.

Kacie was an adult for a change in this dream. Nancy and I decided to buy new furniture for every room of Mimi's house and Kacie would do the buying. I was concerned that Kacie would buy the most expensive furnishing available and when I questioned Nancy about this all she said was "you know Kacie."

For some strange reason I knew that if Kacie could not find furniture for the dining room, her life would soon come to an end. The phone rang and Nancy had a conversation with her about all of the furniture that she had bought. When Nancy hung up the phone she told me that Kacie found things for every room but the dining room and I woke up.