Ryan and Debi

Category: Toren

  • National Youth Leadership Forum (Envision Experience and Envision EMI) – Pricey Summer Camps of Questionable Quality?

    My son was “nominated” by his 3rd-grade science teacher for what both the teacher and we thought might be a nice opportunity – a week-long summer camp that focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). The camp is put on by the “National Youth Leadership Forum” (or NYLF) and was called “Pathways to Stem.”…

  • Stan Winston toys

    I was cleaning out the closet this summer and found some of the toys my uncle Stan sent to each of his nieces and nephews.  I had all of the characters in one set but was short a couple in another set.  Toren saw the toys and really liked them, so I let him open…

  • Florida Railroad Museum

    I found a museum not far from our house that also operates a short train ride.  I took Toren one day to check it out.  Here we are exploring the museum (it’s an old sleeper car): Exploring the other cars: And enjoying the train ride:  

  • Going to scare Grandma

    Toren decided he wanted to draw a picture for his Grandma after she sent him a Halloween card.  He wanted it to be really scary.  Here he is describing how Grandma will react when she opens the letter and sees the picture: And here he is drawing:

  • new school, new backpack

    Toren started a new preschool in August that is very close to our house (I walk to pick him up most days).  He has to bring home a binder every day, along with his lunch and water bottle.  So, we got him a backpack.  It’s awesome!  It’s from REI and has a spot for a…

  • how Toren plays Risk

    I’m not sure what games of Risk look like in your household (You do play Risk, don’t you?!?), but ours involve some nontraditional pieces:

  • launching Toren

    One of Toren’s favorite activities when jumping on the trampoline is for me to launch him really high.  We used to call this “skyrocketing” someone when I was growing up.  The video isn’t great because I was filming it; I’ll try to get better footage in the future:

  • I knew this day would come

    I think every kid eventually learns a song like this and parents wonder how and why.  Anyway, I overheard Toren saying this in the back of the car and had to capture it on film.  He explains where he heard it and illustrates that he obviously has no idea what he’s saying:

  • hiking in Colt Creek State Park

    Toren and I did a little hiking a few Sundays back at a new park.  The layout was odd and the maps they had didn’t align with the actually trails as far as I could tell, but we did get to hike around a lake (Toren made it most of the way) and actually saw…

  • roadsideamerica.com visits

    In addition to our occasional hikes, I decided to start visiting some of the strange roadside attractions in the Tampa area.  Here are a few of the first places we visited. A local RV dealer decided to use a few old Airstream trailers to create a work of art next to I-4 called Airstream Ranch:…