First of many trips to the London Eye

Chris Wozny (pictured to the right of the clown)visited us this past weekend becoming our first official visitor. I hope he enjoyed the time he spent in town. He definitely kept busy. One of the field trips we took was to the London Eye. After I directed the group to the wrong tube stop we quickly regrouped and found our way through the foreign region south of the river. Luckily the giant Eye is visible from almost anywhere in that part of the city and it was our guiding light during an anxious period of thinking we were terribly lost.

Beautiful day to be a tourist

Pictures in and around the London Eye

Keeping watch as the year of the tiger begins.

It was fun snapping photos during the Chinese New Year celebration. It was quite the festive atmosphere.

Taking it all in.

Remember what it was like to be a kid? I think I would have been more scared than this kid was as he followed the dragon around with the help of his dad.

Chinese New Year party

Lindsey and I headed to China town to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We had fun following the dragons around as they ate up the cabbage hanging from the doorways of the local businesses.

Editors note

When you see a black area on the blog with a gray play button below please press play to enjoy the videos. This note is mostly for my parents. Sorry mom and dad for calling you and your tech skills out in a public forum. Love you ;) Also, there are now multiple pages worth of posts so please hit "older posts" when you reach the bottom of a page.

Kenny.....Where did you go??

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you fell off the side of the ski trail? Luckily for us we were all able to witness Kenny losing his way and trying to take a shortcut down the mountain. I will admit visibility was near zero and as I was trying to lead the beginners down the very narrow path I was having a hard time "guessing" when the next hairpin turn would be. I did make it safely but because of the conditions I was not able to look over my shoulder and realize that the rest of the pack had not been able to keep up with me and had definitely lost sight of me. It was really eerie just standing in a white out straining to hear any noise from the kiddies when all of the sudden I could hear a bunch of cackling and hooting and hollering about Kenny having gone off the edge. I will admit that I felt like I missed out on one of the funnier moments of the weekend but as I went further down the mountain to see if Kenny had fallen all the way to the next path I found him stuck halfway between and buried in multiple feet of powder. Looking back on it I realize I probably could have helped him but my one and only role (outside of leading them down the hill - which was taken away from me after this episode) was to capture the action through pictures and video. Enjoy!

Proof of how bad the visibility was.....

Yi Ding trying to conquer a tough spot

Luckily everyone made it through the weekend without any broken bones.

Snow train

There was a train that just kept going up and down the mountain. There were beautiful views from the trail and looks like a first class dining experience to be had on the train so if you ever need an activity for those that don't like to ski Andermatt should be your destination.

Pictures from Andermatt

Kunal's first time skiing.

Kenny is trying to figure out the concept of skiing. Going backwards seems to slow him down but doesn't get him very far. Going forwards seems to pick up the pace a little bit. Both are incredibly fun to watch.

Kennedy family photo

There must have been a piece of steak hanging from the camera. Not sure what other reason the dogs would know to look in the right direction.

Update from the arm wrestler in his own words

"they needed to install a massive metal plate and rod and remove the muscle from the bone." Get well soon buddy!

Kids ..........never arm wrestle (part 1)

So on Saturday night I experienced something that will be forever engrained in my mind. It all started out with an innocent comment by me towards Kenny and Lindsey. They were arguing back and forth regarding who knows what and to end the friendly banter I told them to arm wrestle to figure it out. Knowing Lindsey I knew that is wouldn't be taken as an empty challenge but I had quickly assessed the surroundings before throwing it out there and concluded that the bar was too full for them to ever find a space to dual. Ah, how wrong I was. They somehow managed to get two gentlemen to stand up from their table so they could settle this once and for all.

Thankfully for Kenny's sake, he disposed of her quickly. The problem was this was pure entertainment and soon the participants realized it was a way to spice up the fairly tame pub crawl that we were in the middle of. One of the gentlemen that stood up for the He vs She showdown wanted a piece of the limelight. Again, Kenny quickly took care of the 120 pound challenger and his confidence grew. Obviously any challenger would feel that he had a better chance at knocking off the reigning Champion of King's Head Pub. The new contender happened to be a young strapping Austrian fellow.

Once the lad positioned himself it didn't take long for the much more able challenger to dispose of the Former Champ Kenny. At this point I was really hoping to myself that would be the end of it. Nope not ever close............

Kids......Never arm wrestle. (part 2)

Lance, another coworker, decided that he wanted a piece of the action and to return the pride to the Getco team. As Lnace settled in to position to take on the Austrian I turned to one of the original guys that gave up their table to host the event and said "if this continues it will end badly one way or another." In my mind that meant evens odds between an all out brawl or a broken limb.

Eye balling the two participants I felt that the Austrian had a slight advantage over the New Zealander. The description of my vantage point for the match was roughly looking directly at Lance and behind the right shoulder of the Austrian. When "go" was finally it started out with very little movement away from the starting position. I could see the strain on Lance's face but could not assess the effort being expelled by reigning champ. My best guess would be that this position held for a solid 20-25 seconds. I really wasn't sure how it would turn out but figured fatigue would come into play and a winner would be crowned. I didn't have to wait long until that seemed to be the case. The Austrian quickly jerked Lance to the table and was declared the winner. But, something didn't seem quite right...it was too quick....... Lance didn't seem defeated. For a split second he just sat there. All of the sudden he cried out "My arm is broken! My arm is broken!" After the second or third time hearing his exclamation I figured he would break into a big smile and holler "Gotcha!" Sadly, that never happened - he continued to try and convince everyone else by continuing with the my arm is broken decree. I will admit it all became a little surreal for the next minute or two but I knew that somehow we were going to have to get Lance out of the crowded bar. Most people jumped on the bandwagon of it just being a separated shoulder. That sentiment definitely helped to calm Lance down even though you could tell he was in excruciating pain. In the back of my mind though I knew something had broken. (Luckily I did not hear the snapping sound that also coincided with the victory by the Austrian) Of all the stories I have heard retold about arm wrestling gone bad I have never heard of someone popping out a shoulder. Instead they had all ended in someone's bone questioning what was being asked of it and finally waving the white flag of defeat and shattering. The rest of the night involved getting Lance into a cab, the cab making them get out two blocks later for liability reasons, waiting on the side of the road for an ambulance, and following the ambulance to the hospital. All in all it was a very sobering experience and I will strongly encourage everyone to turn down a challenge of arm wrestling and will never participate in such an event again.