Giving up...

Well, as suspected, I'm going to give up on keeping this updated.  However, I'm starting to become active on Flickr, so I'll be putting photos up there.  Please drop by and see what is new at http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_schultz/

John

New Years 2011

(You can see all the pictures here)

We spent our New Years eve over at Jason and Mandy's last night, as we do ever year. It was a great evening of finger foods and games. Tony, Jason and I played 31 for a while the girls played Bananagrams. You could watch the girls get more and more tipsy as their game turned into 'dirty words'. It was very funny!

The night was capped with watching the ball drop in New York followed by a TON of poppers all over the place (I feel very sorry for Mandy's vacuum).

John's 37th Birthday

(You can see all the pictures here)

Wow, what a birthday weekend! It started off with a party on Friday evening. We had all our friends and my Dad and Cathy over for a BBQ and drinks. That wrapped up around 1am. Dad and Cathy got me a Keurig coffee maker, very sweet!!

The next day I was moving a little slow (read the first paragraph) and didn't get up till 10ish. Melissa and the kids had a full day planned for me (all a surprise) so we headed out around noon. Johnny wasn't feeling well at all with a 101 temp, so he couldn't join us. We started out with a quick lunch at Quiznos then they surprised me with a trip to the Wild Animal Sanctuary to do some photography. This is a really cool place if you haven't been. After that Melissa navigated us over to Dick's sporting goods. There, they let me pick out a new set of golf clubs!!! After swing pretty much every club there I fell in love with the Nike Ignites. Amazing clubs!! We then went to a great dinner over at Decinnos (sp?). Just an amazing day!

Then on Sunday Ryan and I headed over to the Knolls and played 18 holes. I shot a 93 (45 and 48); on that course I'd take that score anyday...

Johnny's First Triathlon

Johnny had his first triathlon this morning over at the the Reunion Rec Center. He was first out of the pool and first off the bike. However, he took off running way too fast and puked a few hundred yards into the run! After a couple minutes of resting he took off and finished strong. Great job Johnny!!!

(You can see all the pictures here)

Before the race.

Into the pool.

First transition.

First loop on the bike.

Starting the run.

His medal.

Allison's Surgery

Poor little Allison had surgery to fix her broken elbow this morning.  She spent about an hour and a half in the surgery, but did very well.  The Dr. said we were lucky we opted for it since there was a lot more soft tissue damage than the xray showed and also because the elbow was dislocated.  She is home now and starting the road to recovery.  The next step will be getting the pins out in about a month.

Allison Broke her Arm

Ugh... Yesterday evening Allison broker her arm at cheer. Well, it isn't a true break, she chipped a piece of her bone off in her elbow. The Dr. said it is pretty rare for this to happen and is very painful. She is splinted for the next week then a cast. But, she is doing okay.

Kids Photo Shoot

Melissa did a photo shoot with all the kids when she was in Utah a few weeks ago.  Not to shabby with a point and shoot!

(You can see all the pictures here)

Johnny's 1st Brake Job

Melissa's car needed a brake job (front rotors and pads).  Johnny did the passenger's side almost completely by himself.  His introduction to air tools, oh yeah!

(You can see all the pictures here)

Johnny's Braces!

Johnhy got his new braces today!  He got them just on all the top teeth today, then will get them on the bottom teeth in 6 weeks.  Right now they are "cool", we'll see in a few hours when his teeth start killin' him!

Camping/Rafting with Friends

A couple weeks ago Melissa, Allison and I went up to the KOA campground above Canyon City for a weekend of camping and rafting. We met our friends up there on Friday night and hung out till Sunday morning. Saturday Melissa and Allison went white water rafting with the rest of the group. I wasn't feeling 100% so I stayed ahead of them and took photos. Johnny was in Utah with his Grandma and Grandpa so he wasn't able to enjoy this trip with us...

(You can see all the pictures here)

1st Car Show...1st Place!

Today we went to a car show downtown at the aquarium with my Dad. It was a Corvette show, but all cars were welcome. I entered the Camaro, against a bunch of Mustangs. When the awards came out Bumble Bee ended up in 1st place! To be fair, it was a Chevy car show (vettes), so I'm sure I got a lot of 'brand loyalty' votes... Here are a few pics from the event.

  

My new 2010 Camaro SS/RS

Well this isn't really 'new' news, but I bought a Camaro SS/RS about a month ago. This thing is SWEET!! Has the LS3 engine (376 cu in, 426 hp and 420 ft-lb).

A couple nights ago my Dad and I put an aftermarket exhaust on it. It's a Magnaflow Competition Series system. The sound is amazing!  We also spent a weekend painting some items under the hood...  Here are a couple pics and a video of the exhaust. 

Our 10 Year Anniversary trip to New York City

(View all our photos here)

It’s hard to believe, but over the weekend Melissa and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. She knew for a few weeks that I had something planned, but I didn’t tell her what we were doing! I did finally tell her we were going on an airplane so she could pack lightly. Friday morning (Feb 26th) finally came around and we dropped the kids off at school. While Melissa was talking to their teachers I checked on our flight….CANCELLED!! So, we dropped the kids luggage off at Mandy’s house (she took care of the kids all weekend for us!) and headed to the airport. At this point, Melissa still didn’t know where we were going. While we stood in line waiting to talk to a representative I gave Melissa her anniversary present. It was a small “Top Ten” book on New York City. She started crying and was very excited. That moment was priceless to me. After we finally made it to a representative we were given the option of flying to Milwaukee and catching a flight from there to LaGuardia. It was a gamble since we did not know if that flight would be cancelled (NYC got 26” of snow the night before). We rolled the dice and it worked out prefect getting us to NYC just a few hours later.

Once in NYC we took a bus to Grand Central Station. We decided to walk to our hotel (which was on the upper west side) since it was such a beautiful night. After we finally arrived and checked in we went up to the room. Yet another priceless moment! The room was very SMALL and very DIRTY! I saw the look in Melissa’s eyes, but to her credit, she didn’t say a word. We left the room and had a wonderful anniversary dinner at a small neighborhood Italian restaurant.

We made it back to the hotel to call it a night. Now when I say dirty, I mean disgusting! I pulled the sheets back to get into bed and there was hair everywhere. I swear I think an ape slept in the bed the night before us without having the sheets changed. Then, in the middle of the night I sat straight up… The water pipes from the heating system started banging very loudly and didn’t stop. It was miserable. After we woke up I told Melissa she could pick a different hotel and I didn’t care which one. Of course we first looked at the Plaza, but it was north of $600/night so we passed. She ended up picking a beautiful five star hotel called New York Palace. It was an amazing hotel, probably the nicest I’ve ever stayed at.

After we checked out of the old and into the new hotel we headed out for the day. We started by touring an amazing old church (can’t remember the name of it). Then, we walked up 5th ave and checked out all the fancy stores such as Tiffany’s and FAO Swartz. Melissa played on the big piano (made famous by the movie Big). Right across the street is the Plaza hotel, so we went over and checked it out. Afterwards we walked across the street and took a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park. It was incredibly beautiful with all the snow.

Next we walked over to Times Square to stand in line for some Broadway tickets. Melissa picked the play Next To Normal. After a couple hours in line we had the tickets in hand and headed back out.

We then grabbed the subway and went up to Tom’s Restaurant. This is also known as Monk’s Diner from the show Seinfeld. We had some desert there and hung out for a bit.

After our bellies were full we headed down to Macy’s department store, followed by going to the top of the Empire State building. I knew the views would be good, but they were beyond words. Totally amazing. We didn’t go to the 102nd floor but I don’t see how it could have been much better than the 86th floor observatory. At the bottom of the building was a pub we grabbed some dinner at.

Running out of time, we headed back up Broadway and caught our show. We were in the second row of the orchestra. Pretty good seats for an amazing (very dark and somewhat depressing) show!

That ended our second day. Right after the show we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the amazing bed!

We got up pretty late on Sunday and headed down to Battery Park. There we bought our Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tickets. Unfortunately they were out of Statue tickets so we couldn’t go inside her. So, we bought two more tickets so we could go back on Monday morning and go inside. While we waited for the ferry we walked over to Water Street and had some great NY pizza. Finally we boarded out boat and headed to Liberty Island.

Seeing the Statue of Liberty up close was breathtaking. We hung out on the island for a couple hours just taking it and the views of Manhattan in. I have no shortage of pictures of either view!

After Liberty Island we caught the boat over to Ellis Island. It was cool to see it, but it was not as impressive as I thought it would be for some reason. We walked all around it and took in the site. Afterwards we paid to do the immigration research to see if we could find Melissa’s relatives. We didn’t have any luck but gave it a great shot.

It was getting late by this point, so we headed back up to Times Square to get some more show tickets. This time we got two tickets to Mama Mia. We had second row slightly left of center seats. The show as incredible! We stayed afterwards and got autographs from the performers. This was one of my favorite things all weekend!

After the show we headed back to the hotel via Rockefeller Center. We hung out there while I played with some night photography, and then went to bed.

On Monday morning we were going to go back to the Statue of Liberty. Instead however we gave our tickets to the concierge at the hotel and headed over to the Today show. We saw (and shook hands with) Al and Matt from the show. Also, Robert Patterson was on the show that morning so we got to see him. I thought Melissa was going to have a heart attack when he came out! It was very cute.

We then walked down to the NY Public Library and checked that out. The building was amazing, but I didn’t see very many books? It was a little strange.

After we walked back up and hit the NBC store for some gifts it was time to pack up and head to the airport. We made it home without incident; just very tired.

This was easily the best weekend I’ve ever spent with my wife. We laughed and played just like we did 10+ years ago when we were dating. She is so beautiful, caring and still makes me laugh. I’m already trying to figure out what we can do for our 20th!!

   

  (View all our photos here)

Johnny's basketball season so far

Going into last night's game, his team was undefeated. Well, they did lose last night, but Johnny made is first basket of the year. He finally had the ball passed to him, took a dribble to his left and sank a 6 foot jumper. Nothing but net! Here are two pics I snapped of the shot.

Your Thing Magazine (Too Funny!)

I found this today. Allison made it I think yesterday...












My scan went bad on this last page. It is an 'index' page...