Here are some pics from the same dive as the sea turtle :) I bought a Sony w290 camera and the marine housing for it before leaving. I did two dives on Saturday but only took pictures on one dive. I took the housing down without the camera on the first one to test it to make sure it didn't leak. Well it didn't so I took it down with the camera on the second dive. Great photos! Love my purchase!

Hey Kids,

I'm sorry I didn't get to hang out with you guys today on Father's day. I'm trying to find us a new house to live in. I love you all so much! You make me so proud to be a father and I could never ask for anything more. God has given me your mommy and you three kids and all of you are the best gifts I could ever ask for!

Guess what!?! I saw Crush from Finding Nemo yesterday. Daddy went for a dive and we saw a sea turtle! He was really big so he must have been really old. I brought my new camera so that I could take pictures for you to see. Here is a video so you can see him too.

so i was reading to landon last night before bed. i chose the book, "jack and the beanstalk" thinking it would be a throw-back to my childhood. it is absolutely amazing that i ended up a well-rounded law abiding adult after being exposed to such a felonious tale!

the kid is supposed to sell the cow but trades it for 5 beans... Thou shalt obey thy mother and father. STRIKE ONE
the kid climbs the beanstalk and steals a bag of gold from the giant... Thou shalt not steal. STRIKE TWO
the kid after stealing a bunch more stuff gets caught by the giant, who while in pursuit, falls victim to a dastardly act of premeditated murder! STRIKE THREE

This kid is lucky he lived in a stinkin' fairy tale or else his rear-end would have landed himself in a federal supermax prison where he woudl only see sunlight one hour a day!

and we read this filth to our kids!

Landon trying to get into Josiah's bassinet.




















Some friends of ours were very gracious to us and gave us their swing. Landon came into our room one morning and decided that mommy needed her pillow so he went out to get it. It was already with mommy so when he didn't find and didn't return I figured I should go find him... to make sure he wasn't playing with knives or anything. I went out to find this scene.



















Yvonne made this very nice cake for my big 3-0.














A friend of ours bought me this cake for my birthday. Sarcasm just isn't understood here. For example... people will ask me where I am from and I'll tell them that I am American. After that I will ask them where they are from. It is obvious that they're from this country but I'll ask them and then tell them that I think they look german... they usually give me a funny look like i'm crazy and then they tell me that they're locals. I tell them that I am joking and they kind of sheepishly giggle. Another example is when we were in a cab and a guy cut us off and was driving kinda crazy. I told my taxi drive that the driver was really smart... to which he looked at me funny and said, "no, he is stupid!" He just didn't understand the sarcasm. So anyway the point of this story. Many months ago we met a friend here that understands and uses sarcasm. She bought me this cake which says in Arabic, "happy birthday, you jerk!". Haha... the bakery gave her such a hard time saying that she couldn't do that and that it was shameful. She told them the cake was for her brother and it was a joke. Nobody at the bakery understood but hey... I sure appreciate unleashing my sarcasm on her.





























Bathtime fun...



















We went to a big Christmas bazaar here. There was a big playground and landon had a great time.






















































And of course we enjoyed getting our picture taken with Santa. He makes a special trip to the middle east every year for this shin-dig.

this outfit is a semmens' family tradition. my brother was the first to wear it almost 33 years ago. of course i got it as a hand-me-down.

somehow it was kept through the years so when my brother started having kids they started wearing it too. His sons Brennen, Ethan, Nathan and Jaden have all worn it. Landon was born in between Nathan and Jaden so we had to have it shipped out to us in Texas so that he could wear it. We then shipped it back on word that another Semmens was on the way so that Jaden could wear it. Since Yvonne's mom was coming out my mom had it shipped out to her mom and she carried it with her way out our way so that Josiah could wear it. It has now been worn by 8 Semmens boys spanning nearly 33 years!

i took landon out last night. mama needed a nap so we decided to hit the streets and run some errands. on the way back, right outside our building, i rolled my ankle. poor landon was up on my shoulders and when i went down, he went down... hard. luckily he didn't just go straight down and land on his head. i actually saw him take his fall and it was like he slid into 3rd base on his face. my heart breaks everytime i see his face... i feel like i won the worst dad of the year award. sorry buddy.

poor guy looks like he got in a bar brawl...