As all of you know, Mark just wrapped up four weeks of ProTraMid in San Diego.  Marine week was “okay” (“fun” but a lot of “hurry up and wait”); Surface week was “horrible” (no ships for our favorite midshipman); Aviation week was “a blast”; and the sleeper was Sub week (just completed).  Mark is en route to Annapolis as I scribble this getting ready to start his Soaring Training Block tomorrow.  Flying gliders?  Who woulda’ thought?

I should have more ProTraMid pix and stories to relate in a few weeks.  Until then, check out these two quick hits:

First, a short (6 min) video of a Navy Trainer doing a lap around a carrier at sea.  (Please excuse the opening ad…a necessary evil.)  This plane is very similar to the one Mark flew in during Aviation week.  As far as the Navy Aviation “pipeline” goes, this flight pretty much sealed the deal.  Mark’s flight didn’t involve a carrier landing or take off, but he did have the “bag” ready.  He asked the pilot to show his skills, and show ‘em the pilot did…lots of fun!  And no need for the bag!

As you watch this, notice how much is happening on the deck.  Planes landing, planes taking off, blast shields up on the deck to keep everything and everyone safe as planes come and go.  The choreography is pretty cool.

As mentioned in the previous post, Mark had heard that Sub week was “amazing”.  The Sub guys do a serious sales job on the mids — they need new officers all of the time!  They didn’t disappoint.  Mark was on a “boomer” — a nuclear sub — carrying a whole bunch of nasty ballistic missiles with an undisclosed number of warheads.  His cruise was somewhere in the Pacific where he learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  He bunked between two of those ballistic missiles (“Dad, they’re huge“), he listened in on a bunch of dolphins having a chat, he climbed to the top of the sail (3+ stories up) when the sub surfaced to stand on top and watch the waves crash over the bow, and he enjoyed what I think he called “angles and dangles”…a drill that bobs and rolls the sub at 25 to 30 degree angles every which way while several hundred feet under water.  Oh, and he also loved the “full back” drill: think about locking up the brakes in your car while doing 90 MPH but visualize it under water.  Yeah…subs shake and vibrate too…

No cameras were allowed on the sub (for obvious reasons), but the Navy was kind enough to assign someone to take pictures of the mids.  I only have one, and it’s a cell phone picture of a picture (so excuse the quality), but I’ll have more when we see Mark in late July.  But check this out:

That’s a torpedo tube.  A BIG torpedo tube — 26 feet long, I believe.  Mark autographed the inside of that Bad Boy, filled it with water, and pulled the trigger just for kicks.  Even water carries a heavy wallop coming out of the end of that thing.

The Sub guys did their job well.  Mark is actually considering…considering (can you believe this?)…subs as a possible career pipeline.  That was unthinkable just a week ago!

The only major drawbacks that I can think of all involve his family: he will rarely be able to tell us where he’s going or where he is, he can’t talk about much of anything that they do (even on this trip), and communicating with someone who spends months under water can be difficult.  Plus, I don’t get any fighter jet rides…

Looking ahead, hopefully we’ll have some video of one of Mark’s glider flights.  I’m especially looking forward to seeing a landing.  I’d even settle for the audio…the screams of terror would be entertaining, don’t you think?

“Whadda ya’ mean there’s no engine!  I can’t land this thing there!”

Hopefully more soon.

It’s my understanding that the skies are gray in the Great Northeast, there’s been lots of rain, and the mood in general rates pretty low. So here’s a clip from sunny (and finally warmer) Paradise…

Double click on the clip to get it started — (we killed the original video…too many folks were unable to run it…)

For those of you that only see a black box above, please enjoy the video courtesy of Vimeo below:

As most of you know, we spent most of “the Holidays” in the New York area. It was great seeing family and friends, but as always, we didn’t have enough time. We did a lot, but we would have liked to do (and see) more.

I don’t have a lot of pictures from our trip. It was just that kind of time…we enjoyed everyone’s company, we had a great Christmas, but we were fairly “relaxed” when it came to pictures. So I’m not going to include any here.

Quickly: the kids (in order) –

Mark continues to excel at USNA.  Out of modesty (on his behalf…certainly not mine), I won’t mention his exact Order of Merit (class rank — the all-important number) , but let’s just say he’s in the top 100 out of about 1,250. The top 90 even. Did I say top 80? Okay, we’ll stop there…

Kristin…Kristin! Oh my God Kristin! Kristin just finished her first semester at William Patterson. She did well. Okay, she did very well. How should I put it…umm….she kicked ass! Everyone getting a visual?  Kick, kick, kick!  I’ve got a number in mind…hmmm…does something around 3.5 sound right?  Yeah…that sounds about right.  Nice!

Cameron…oh Cameron…

Cameron’s big hurdle this past semester involved surgery.  He managed to finally get one of his knees to go in a direction it wasn’t designed to go in.  Everything took a back seat to pain, surgery, and recovery.  But he’s going to bounce back this marking period, and his Fencing team is dying without him.  They send me notes telling me so…

Paris: the youngest of the four that benefits greatly from the experience of her siblings.  They treat her like gold, and she worships the very ground they walk upon.  Watching Mark, Kristin or Cameron with Paris is like watching magic — it never stops amazing you.  Mark and Kristin were each here (separately) after Christmas (Cameron was practicing his limp), and Paris loved every minute of it!

Like her oldest siblings, she is an academic wonder.  She’s a first grader reading on a fifth grade level now, and she’s just wrapping up third grade math.  She reads encyclopedias for fun (I’m not making that up).  She can tell you more about how the human body functions than most adults can.  She explains planetary movement to me.  On the way to the bus stop this morning, I got a lesson on the North and South Poles and why they’re so cold (and how that relates to the cold spell we’ve been suffering).  She is something…

Anyone get the idea that I’m proud of my kids?  Amazing…all of ‘em.

Speaking of “cold”, wanna see what happens when you combine Floridians with water and cold?  This looks like a gardening experiment gone awry…

I have no idea what someone was thinking here, but it involved running water when it shouldn’t have…

Okay!  This next chunk is about boxing.  For those of you not interested, please stop here.

A little background:

As usual, Mark worked out with Aaron Jaco while he was here, and we’ve got some video.  Mark asked me to get him the video for review, and the easiest way to do that is here on the site.

This is not a “normal” video.  I didn’t edit anything — I simply slapped together raw footage with a few explanatory comments.  No cool soundtrack.  This wasn’t intended for regular public consumption — it was simply a learning tool for Mark.  But since it’s here, we might as well explain it.

(By the way, Kristin enjoyed a session at Aaron’s gym too.  Yeee haaaaaaa!  Isn’t life great, Kristin?  Kristin?)

Okay, everyone remembers Aaron, right?

Yeah…he’s a hard guy to forget.  If anyone new wants more info on him, get it here and here.

Aaron has a twin brother — Adam.  Adam is also a professional boxer.  This is Adam’s promo shot:

This is Adam recently destroying an opponent and being awarded the victory:

(That might have been the only shot Adam’s opponent scored…who’s bleeding?)

Another one for the ‘W’ column

So!  Adam is a great guy outside of the ring, and at Aaron’s request, he gladly agreed to let Mark come over to his (Adam’s) gym to work out.  Adam is getting ready for another pro fight on January 22nd, so this was no small deal.  We really, really appreciate him making the time for Mark.

In a little “kill two birds with one stone” action, after some warm up, Aaron decided that Adam was going to spar some four minute rounds.  (That’s a one minute “bonus” for those of you unfamiliar with boxing.)  The format was straight forward: Mark and another young guy would take turns going one minute each with Adam.  That means the young guys get to rest so Adam gets a relatively “fresh” opponent every minute.  Oh, and Aaron would set new “rules” for each minute: “Adam, left hand only!”  “Adam, you can’t hit him!  Slip and move only!”  “Adam, body shots only!” You get the picture.  Adam was put at a distinct (and new) disadvantage every minute.  Like it mattered…

As you’ll see, Adam is going at about half speed.  I’ve seen this guy fight.  He’s a pit bull.  No mercy.  If his opponent slows down or drops his hands, the opponent is dead.  He was gracious in allowing Mark to work at “learning” speed…

The video is below.  You’ll need Quicktime to see it.  If you don’t have Quicktime, a link should appear that takes you to a download site (it’s free).  There’s a control panel on the bottom of the video, but if all you see is a black box, double click on the box to start and single click to stop the video.

Mark has improved a lot since the last video we posted of his sparring sessions with Aaron.  Some of that comes from boxing with the team at Navy.  But a lot of it comes from the time Aaron made for him while Mark was here.  Aaron went all out to be available for Mark over a whole bunch of hours while Mark was here (and we appreciate it!).

Oh, and Kristin will confirm…this shit will tire you out!  Enjoy!

Grammy and Kristin were here for a week (ending this past Wednesday).  Kristin is excited about the start of school, and Grammy was excited to hang with the girls (Kristin and Paris).  Mark flew in on Saturday and added to the mix, and then Cameron joined us on Wednesday.  We’ve been having a blast!

But!  All of this fun and games makes it hard to gather thoughts and photos from Yosemite.  I promise more Yosemite is coming!

Until then, let’s talk boxing.  Whenever Mark is here, he loves visiting Aaron Jaco.  Everyone remembers Aaron, right?  Former National Boxing Association Light Heavyweight champ.  Trainer extraordinaire.  All around good guy.  If you need a refresher on him, check out  this post.

So Mark wants to train with Aaron.  As an added bonus, Cameron decides he wants to as well.  Cameron’s first day was Friday.  It’s safe to say he learned a lot, but it was a tough day for him.  Everyone’s first day is a tough day.  Cameron threw more punches, did more push-ups, and did more ab work than he’s probably done in his entire life.  All of this in one, joyful hour.  But he did it!

After the workout, I asked him what he thought.  “I’m going to puke”, he said.

“Nah”, I said, “that’s just your ab muscles doing a little spasm thingy.  You’re fine!”

“I might need Mark to stop the car.  I’m not feeling so good.”

It turns out we made it home without stopping the car.  On the way, I said “Cameron, you did such a great job today that tomorrow I’m going to introduce you to kettlebells.”

“Oh my God, Dad.  Is he worse?”  (Kettlebells aren’t a “he”.  Kettlebells are weights.  Cannonballs with handles.  I think Cameron was a little tired.)

So Friday was a success!  Mark and I enjoyed the workout, and Cameron is really looking forward to Monday.  Yes!  He’s excited!  This is a good thing.

As an added bonus, Mark sparred with Aaron on Thursday.  Aaron likes to “slow things down” when sparring with someone new to the sport.  He coaches the whole time, he offers a ton of encouragement, and he’s pretty easy-going on his sparring partner.  Do not confuse “easy-going” with “easy”.

Mark busted his butt.  Aaron had fun.  We have the video to prove it!  It shows Mark — decked out in a 2009 Detailer shirt he won from an upperclassman.  And it shows Aaron — shoes off, having fun, hands down while encouraging Mark to “throw your jab!”  Mark learned a ton…

…but learning can hurt.  Check it out:

Important note to current or future plebes that get clever and find this: Mark is most certainly better now (when you read this) than he was in the video.  You probably want to exercise a little discretion.  Comments about this post or video will absolutely make your day-to-day more difficult.  Just a thought…

Kristin graduates on Tuesday (the 23rd).  We’ll have pictures up soon after.  But until then, check out her little sister’s graduation!  Paris celebrated the conclusion of kindergarten on May 29th!  I know, I know…it seems likes ages ago, right?  But I had some video issues, and although I’m not thrilled with the quality of this one, I’m happy enough to feel comfortable sharing it.

Our videographer was none other than our favorite midshipman.  He managed a week with us after his training block in Mayport, FL.  We expect to see him again in about a month.  Kristin will be with us at the end of July, and our resident golf stud (Cameron) will hit Paradise in early August.

Okay!  Video!  It’s just under seven minutes, folks, and it should load up very quickly.  Hit “play” and you’re off!  Be sure to watch to the end!  It gets better as it goes along, and we also slip in some “credits” for a nice gift to help Paris celebrate.  A gift?  “From whom?” you might ask…

…check it out and see –

I think we’ve got things under control: we have streaming video of decent quality that should not bog down your machine.  You’ll need Quicktime, but just about every machine in the known universe has Quicktime on it somewhere.  The video should load up quickly — all you gotta do is hit ‘play’.

Okay…the original post started with a Happy New Year!  Off we go –

Some disclaimers:

First, the lighting in the auditorium was kept low.  The camera is working very, very hard at trying to stay focused, allow enough light, and capture the audio of the kids’ singing (as opposed to those around us).  You’ll see plenty of times when the focus is poor or the picture quality diminishes.  Bear with me.

Second, it was crowded.  This particular time slot was for kindergartners and first graders only, but man was it packed.  I tried to keep the crazies out of our field of vision, but I wasn’t always successful.

And finally, I’m no videographer.  Maybe as we do more of this, I’ll get better.  But Hollywood isn’t calling.

Okay!  Enjoy these two songs, and Happy New Year!

But he’s got a birthday coming!  We’ll make it up to him!

Enjoy –

Okay!  If you have not read the prior post (the one just below this one), please give it a quick read.  You’ll have a much better chance of understanding what’s happening in this video if you’re armed with some background first.

This is a YouTube linked [UPDATE - Flash] video. The quality is just so-so as a result. EXCELLENT! I have a high res version if anyone falls in love with it…which I doubt. I do not claim to be good at this.  I will try to get better.  Bear with me…