August 2013 Catch Up Mode
Alright everybody, it is time to get this blog caught up. We are back to being almost a year behind. A lot of what is stopping me from keeping it up-to-date is that I am living with the frustration of being behind all the time. So here’s the deal. NO VIDEOS. Videos take forever to edit, by comparison… so for now I’m skipping videos and may come back to do those later. The big thing is to get caught up, so let’s focus on pictures and audio/written. Hold on tight!
So, here’s all of August in ONE entry! GO!
Also, I’ll apologize in advance… I went into great detail about my story this month, because this is possibly the best month of my life from certain angles; I want my children to know that I got to do what I always wanted — at least for a little while.
August 1st, I hopped on a plane to go visit Grandma Sue, who needed a little help from her kiddo. This is O’Hare, where my layover was. See this image larger.
It’s really a nice airport, if you don’t have to stay overnight or anything. See this image larger.
I guess I went a little nuts with the pictures, sorry. See this image larger.
August 5th, and it was time to head home… Grandma Sue and I bonded a lot and we were both very happy I made the trip. Meanwhile, Steve from Geeta Games informed me that Lilly had won a conference… and I was going to get to go to PAX Prime 2013, for me, a near-Holy pilgrimage. And it was right around the corner, too! See this image larger.
August 6th, Ian got to go to the same wild animal reserve that Nina was able to earlier in the year as part of his summer camp at daycare stay. See this image larger.
Alligator is eyeballing Ian… See this image larger.
His whole class from the summer camp. See this image larger.
Giraffe in Michigan… how’s the weather up there? Crappy. Anyway… Thanks Mommy for chaperoning on this trip… I was busy making a video game! See this image larger.
August 9th, lazy summer… See this image larger.
After a hard day, we stopped for ice cream across from day care. See this image larger.
August 11th, Nina VERY neatly organizes her toys… See this image larger.
August 16th, our hope with Lilly lay in Steam Greenlight. If we were “green lit” the game would be an immediate success, we figured, based on the history of other green lit games. If only, we dreamed. See this image larger.
August 17th, we beta tested Lilly with some strangers… See this image larger.
Overall they enjoyed it, but a couple shortcomings reared their heads. Turned out, there wasn’t much we could do about them on our schedule and with our budget. This would come back to haunt us. See this image larger.
There were my two beta-testers, and we had a hilarious time. See this image larger.
August 19th, Uh… Ian with a napkin. It’s a shame this was a year ago, I’m sure there was a reason I took this. See this image larger.
Ian didn’t get it this year, but I can say with confidence that he got it in the spring of 2014… mostly because I’m playing catch-up now in the summer of 2014! See this image larger.
Little cutie! See this image larger.
Yeah, sometimes, little guy… sometimes. See this image larger.
August 19th, we got a visit from Phil and Joyce and their son Vonn. See this image larger.
Ian and Nina chilling out. See this image larger.
Oh, here we go, here’s a shot of the three of them. Recent rumor has it that they are trying to move from LA, back to this area, as of July 2014. No idea if it will happen, but I can honestly say I love Phil. He’s a really great friend, and having him around would be fantastic in all sorts of ways. We could watch Vonn, they could maybe watch our kids, the four of us could go out… Joyce and Melissa even get along great; so this would be perfect. See this image larger.
Here’s a pic of us hanging out. See this image larger.
August 20th, here we are at BC Pizza, and Ian is enthralled with whatever the heck was on TV. That’s what happens when you go from no Nickelodeon, to Nickelodeon in one sudden jolt. See this image larger.
August 24th, and who needs a trip up to the cottage? I sure did! See this image larger.
Nina is cute as a button, to this day, but there was something super duper cute about her this trip, so expect a lot of pics. See this image larger.
Some of her just giggling in the sun, for example. See this image larger.
Ian laughs maniacally, because apparently that’s the best way to laugh. See this image larger.
Quality time with Grandma Marcia! See this image larger.
Ian gets a little wet! See this image larger.
Perhaps even wetter? See this image larger.
Probably my favorite picture from 2014, right here. She was completely fearless and comfortable in the water, and what a little smile! See this image larger.
How’d she get her hair wet? See this image larger.
Mystery solved! See this image larger.
Nina’s best oompah oomph imitation happened when she wore her warm-up sweater/dress over top of her life-jacket. See this image larger.
A few beached porpoises… See this image larger.
WHO SAID BOAT RIDE? Nina leads the way. See this image larger.
Second-in-command! See this image larger.
*I have the best seat!* See this image larger.
*I have the best seat!* See this image larger.
“GO FAST GRAMPA DAVE!” See this image larger.
“Hey, how old are you?” See this image larger.
“PHREE!” See this image larger.
Thanks for padding the table each time, Grampa and Gramma! See this image larger.
Quiet reading with Gramma Marcia, and somebody is tiiiiired. See this image larger.
Comfortable yet? See this image larger.
Pigtails! See this image larger.
My totes adorbs fam! See this image larger.
August 25th, Nina and I cuddle on a bench while others swim at the island. See this image larger.
Home from the island, and the kids were out cold. You play hard, you sleep good. See this image larger.
August 26th, Nina sails over to Meijer Gardens! (Again, Mommy went with, and again, Daddy had his head in video games land.) See this image larger.
I want to pick her up and hug her! See this image larger.
A bit of an adventurer and archeologist… Ninana Jones! See this image larger.
More play… See this image larger.
August 28th, and Ian has a locker! And he gets to share it with whatever the heck a “Braylon” is. See this image larger.
Believe this was a bit of an orientation, as I said, on August 28th. It is sort of sad, when I look back, how much I had to miss to be a game developer. See this image larger.
But meanwhile, I was at Steve and Jessica’s reveling in good news. Valve had decided to green light ALL the winners of the contest. We wouldn’t have to spend the PAX conference asking people to vote for us! It would turn out, however, that Valve was letting ALL of the doors open… instead of some 15 games making it in that month… 200 showed up all at once. We were sort of lost in the shuffle. See this image larger.
August 29th, in the wee hours of the morn, myself, Steve and Jessica all hopped in his car to head to the Chicago airport. See this image larger.
On a plane again… See this image larger.
This is the weather that greeted our arrival. It was still pretty epic, with the evergreens everywhere. This was the only day it rained, and there was lightning. Seattle-folk told us that the weather we experienced in the time we were there was anything but typical. Usually no lightning… and a whole lot less sun. See this image larger.
That night I was at a party and I ate this mess. It was steak, french fries, and a sort of blue cheese dressing. It was America on a plate and it was freakin’ awesome. All of the food this trip was absolutely brilliant. See this image larger.
Christian is the guy on the left… we’re holding our two awards for the contest that we won. (It should be noted that I really didn’t have much to do with the demo, which is really what bought our tickets to get to Seattle. So I’m in debt to the rest of the team for making this dream come true.) See this image larger.
Which dream? This one. See this image larger.
And this one. Seattle very quickly became the place I’d most likely move to if I ever had a real chance. See this image larger.
And even this dream… I got to see one of the funniest live D&D sessions of Acquisitions Inc. See this image larger.
And I met Sonic the Hedgehog! See this image larger.
You can’t see them all here, but three of these people are the Stansels… they were an amazing host family that let us have the run of their house. And Jason (not pictured) let us tour a studio, and just pointed from a single parking lot, at all of the developers in the area that I would love to work for. Microsoft, Bungie, 343i, Sucker Punch, Valve… each in their own building downtown. The little boy in the foreground, I believe his name was Owen. Was a super sweet kid that reminded me of Ian. I was horrible during this trip, about touching base with home. The time difference, my phone being constantly out of charge, and just being on the show floor made for little contact with my family.See this image larger.
I won’t say much more, I’m sure I’ve said too much already about the trip. We worked the floor a lot, trying to get people interested in the game. This is us doing our thing… the guy on the left there is Mark DeForest, a legend in my eyes, he worked on Myst and Riven. Truly this was the trip of my dreams. The game went on to moderate reviews, and what I would call fairly poor sales. The team disbanded, and the dream was over. But for a bit, I had it, and I’ve never been happier, career-wise. I daresay it was even worth missing my son’s first day of first grade… which isn’t easy for me to say. See this image larger.
While I was out of town, Grampa Ray and Grandma Barb stayed at our house, very helpful! See this image larger.
July 26th. We’re on our way down to beautiful Tennessee to see the betrothal of Meliss’as friend Dietz and his fiancé, Jenny. Here we stopped at that Pizza Hut on the way down… you know, the one in Munfordville, Kentucky. No the other one in Munfordville, Kentucky. THAT one, yup. 
Travel weary. 
But not exactly tired. 
Mommy wisely ran the children around a bit to get their blood flowing. 
They did a couple laps. 
Aaaand, let’s get back in the car! 
This van… had a lot of carpet in it. At this point we were almost there. And I probably swore to never drive 8 hours in any direction ever again in my life. I say that a lot. 
July 27th. Cool restaurant. I think this was owned by the bride’s sister, so we went there to support the family. 
I enjoyed my breakfast, so did Elton. 
The kids were happy to be there. 
Obligatory silly face pic. 
July 27th, we drove by the Nashville “Adventure Science Center” on our way to the hotel and knew we should check it out! So we did. 
Nina attempts to give herself bunny ears… although the “batman building” in the background almost did the same. 
It had this cool inner structure for the kids to play in with exhibits built in. Toward the top level (I think it had eight, total) it starts getting claustrophobic. 
Here Mommy tries to flip around into the top part successfully. I don’t know if I ever did make it up to the top just because of how cramped it ended up becoming. If they ever have a fire in that place, they will be in big trouble. 
In line for the planetarium! A kind guy at the front desk showed us how we could buy tickets for the show and see the rest of the place at a discount rather than just buy tickets for the museum. 
Hard to get good pics in the planetarium. 
I think Nina was ready for a nap. 
That’s a big piano. 
Finally, the kids fulfill a lifelong dream of riding on the Magic Schoolbus with Ms. Frizzle. I can happily report that the bus did not end up in somebody’s digestive tract, or in space. 
*For Science!* 
Figuring out leverage! A fun day was had by all! 
July 28th, we met up with one of Melissa’s friends. He’s former FBI so we didn’t take a picture. 
This was an awesome restaurant though, and I’d go back again in a heartbeat. You might think I would forget the name of this place, and that might be true… OR I can’t tell you because of the FBI thing. Classified. 
July 28th, and the big day has arrived! 
Nina looked beautiful and adorable that day… 
Here’s some other stories that I recall from our trip, while we look at some pics… Ian’s jokingly cry-face reminded me of being at the Wafflehouse (and the kids were trying my patience) on one of the mornings, and having somebody “pay it forward” without our knowledge. Free breakfast! People are super nice in Nashville… that whole southern hospitality thing, they aren’t kidding. 
Love these kids. Ian, of course, had to go potty just as they started assembling the procession… so we scrambled to the nearest men’s room… 
…which turned out to be in the middle of the advancing procession as we got back out of the bathroom… 
… we couldn’t go out into the main area with all eyes waiting for the procession, soooo Ian and I had an adventure, ducking behind curtains and sneaking through back kitchens. It was pretty fun. 
Mommy looked beautiful as well. 
Selfie! 
*Mommy can I go dance now?* 
*No? Not yet?* 
*HMPH.* 
*We can now? No chaperone! You stay!* 
*I’ma go find 10 people to dance with!* 
*Weee!* 
She was on cloud 9… so happy! 
The boys fight over who is going to dance with Nina. 
I guess this kid won. This picture ended up out of focus, obviously, but I still think it is cute. Adds a little romance. 
Some little girl attempts to interfere. *Do you mind if cut in?* 
*Yup, I mind!* 
Such a sweetie. Mommy was kind enough to help out a friend during the reception part of the wedding, and missed a few of these moments, but got to re-connect which was good.
Ian didn’t dance much, but we enjoyed the music and the Karaoke. 
Saw a cute opportunity… Nina’s hand on the lights (the LED kind that aren’t hot, of course!) 
Both kids! 
Mommy got a couple nice dances in with Nina before it was time to go. 
We squeezed in a quick picture as the photographer was trying to leave. 
Here’s Dietz, Melissa and a Miller Lite! 
July 29th, on the way home, at a gas station… I think this was in Indiana. 
July 31st, video games at home again. I think this is the first (and so far only) time that Ian and Nina played “split screen” Minecraft. 
July 2nd, and Ian is apparently dressed in camouflage in case he stands in front of an American flag. 
This progression shows why nobody gives a six year old a license. Here he is smiling at me because he’s trying to hit me… 
Here he is smiling because he’s almost hit me… 
…and here he is grinning for pretty much running over my foot. 
Look at all of the red white and blue regalia! 
July 5th, at one of Conner’s baseball games, I wandered around and took pictures of things that I thought were interesting, because the score was 22 to nothing… and while I love my nephew very much, and I can’t underline enough the importance of seeing a game through to the end even though you’re losing… it was uh… less interesting than this multilayered paint. 
And whatever this is. 
This is wood. 
Nina flirting shamelessly with the baseball players. 
*Hi Fellas!* 
*Hmmph. They just keep plain’ baseball.* 
After a long day, Nina tuckers out. 
July 6th, Nina playing at Aunt Mel’s. 
The kids gather round one screen for a video. I think it was something about Jack Frost. 
July 12th, one of the best feelings I’ve had as a father came from the summer reading class that Melissa signed Ian up for. The smaller class size really resonated with Ian, and he picked up the pace on his reading skills in a hurry. He was so happy after class that he skipped alongside me on the way to the car. 
I thought about all kinds of fancy solutions, but in the end it was one of two blocks of wood that completely stopped an influx of nesting birds from trying to build under our deck. Up until this point I’d been having to take down partial nests every couple of hours! 
July 13th, Ian and Max playing some video games together… 
Wow, full house! Scott and Elena’s daughter and son, Rowen and Kevin join the crew. 
Max Ninja. 
Sometimes Max can look a little intense! 
Must be some kind of giggle club. 
July 14th, the good news is that this is mostly a picture of ice cream going in. 
July 15th, a storm and a rainbow in our hood. 
See it? 
A late celebration of the Kitty’s birthday. I think he’s 18. 
July 16th, and Melissa’s job hold an annual Garden Gala for vendors, clients, and family of the people that work so hard. Ian can be shy sometimes, but when play is involved, he warms up quickly. Particularly when somebody does him the service of asking him if he would like to join. This girl thrilled Ian by spending a little time with him. It is worth looking at this one larger so that you can see how happy he is. 
Triclops. 
After the Garden Gala; almost time to go home. 
July 18th, this is what it looks like when you have a large party at Jester’s Court. I think this was for Jake’s birthday, but there weren’t too many other quality pics. 
July 20th, I couldn’t get a picture of the actual mama in this pic because she was busy, but here’s Melissa holding Norah, Brandon’s daughter. 
July 22nd, that blur is Ian going for the gusto on a major dive. He did well! 
July 23rd, picking Ian up after reading class each day was a real treat; he was always so happy to see me, and yet also so happy with what he had learned. 
July 24th, Nina marching around pool-side, pretty much owning the place. 😉 
July 25th, hey Nina, is it hot? 
So hot that our trees needed a great big drink! 
Yup, keep going, they’re big trees! 
That’s probably enough for now, thanks! 
June 17th, this day a weird storm floated over Rockford. It was gorgeous so I took a few pics of it, hope you don’t mind! 
Look at these colors! 
The clouds looked like otherworldly spaceships parking in orbit. 
I’ve always wanted to take a picture of lightning with just my finger and a shutter, and sort of pulled it off here if you open this up bigger and zoom in toward the left. 
June 22nd, Mr. Steve and Mrs. Jessica brough Holly and Hannah up to play with us for an afternoon. These are the people that I was making Lilly Looking Through with… It was nice of them to come visit! 
Didn’t realize we had so many dam turtles. (I mean turtles that live at our dam.) I honestly thought these were fake until they started moving. 
After a long day of play with Mr. Steve and Mrs. Jessica and the girls, the kids surrendered to a short nap. 
June 23rd, the kids get all dolled up for church. 
Now if I could just get a smile… 
…hmmm, halfway there… 
Perfect! And I mean, WOW, perfect! This one’s worth looking at bigger! 
What a cute haircut! You look bright and springy! 
June 28th. I don’t remember what happened that Ian and I apparently spent a lot of time together, but it looks like we spent the whole day together. (Even looking at the old calendar, I see nothing on that day that sticks out.) Anyway, let’s go to Dam Dogs! 
Have I mentioned the family carnivore loves his hot dogs? 
Ice cream for dessert. Try to get some of it in your mouth, kiddo! 
June 29th was little Jake next door’s birthday. He’s an intense little guy, that’s him on the right side of the “throne” back there in the light blue shirt. He’s the one that screams so loud sometimes that I think he might be using echolocation to find his brother. 
The kids really love this place. It is actually pretty nice for adults too, unless it gets really crazy busy. 
This is the baby area of Jester’s Court… Nina rides on pink giraffeosaurus. 
June 15th, I admit that it is a little hard to look at this shot, given the winter that we’re currently having… it has been a long and pretty difficult one for Michigan. This is actually a crop from a full panoramic shot that I made with my iPhone. I should figure out a way to have it pan-able. You know, when I have time. 
*Ian, look, I’m taller than you now!* 
*Nuh-uh!* 
Nina stirs the pancake batter… thanks for letting Nina help, Grandma Marcia! 🙂 
The bunny finger salute, a tradition of many families, but one that I’ll always think of as a Chapman tradition. 
Nina attempts to do a similar set of bunny ears on Ian with success! 
Elmo gets a hug while Ian considers peeing with door wide open, as if he were raised in a barn. 
Photographer Ian Chapman observes the den’s inhabitants in action. Here, the elusive and colorful Grandma Marcia is seen hunting down a side of bacon for the rest of the pack. 
A wild Nina appears! Only Ian’s skilled eye and super high-speed camera were able to capture her briefly before she sprang away out of view after a gazelle or pillow. 
Grampa Dave, the alpha male, sits high upon a golden hilltop surveying the surrounding lands and his digital camera. 
Daddy, in his usual sloth-like state, is prodded into action by his young cub. Ian’s camera captures the moment as Daddy wisely considers his options. 
With his experience and patience, Ian’s camera is at the ready just in time for a commonly heard but rarely photographed event: a wild rumpus begins! Daddy has determined that all his cubs may play outside of the den, in the sun! Then he wanted his camera back. 
Ian ran all the way to the next cottage and back, in an attempt to burn up his limitless energy! 
Hey, Cutie! 
My favorite girl! 
You’ve heard of Edvard Munch’s The Scream… This should be called “The Scheme.” 
It should be pointed out that Melissa literally has a bucketful of clout. 
LOOKITLOOKIT! 
A brief rest. 
What a little face! Nina springs away from the sprinklers that Grampa Dave got out for the kids to play with! 
Looks like somebody got a little soaked! 
“Thanks, Grampa Dave!” 
Grampa Dave fashions a little dress out of a towel, as Nina giggles. 
Towel is staying up, nice job! 
Nina needed help next with a band-aid… thanks Gramma Marcia! Hey these Grandparent-folk are pretty handy, huh? 
Ian waters the plants, thankfully using a bottle. 
Smiles during story time, and starting to wind down. 
June 16th, early afternoon boat rides are very popular with the little ones. 
There’s those bunny ears again! 
Your crew today will be Captain Dave Chapman at the helm and Cadet Ian Chapman as boat jester. 
The girls grab a little light near the bow. 
Life jackets on for safety! Don’t let that cute face fool you, she’s coming up with mischief. 
A little chat with Mommy while we cruise the canals. 
I like that windblown look on you, kiddo! 
Ok this one is definitely aiming to misbehave. That or he’s feelin’ the NEED… 
…FOR… 
…SPEED! 
I love these ladies. Great shot… want to give them both a hug! 
Must almost be time to go home… we had a great time, thank you Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia for having us over again! .JPG)
Almost forgot! A special shot to celebrate Father’s Day… a very warm, happy memory for me. 🙂 This was also a great weekend to spend a little time with my father. We did some maintenance on the boat and got it in the water. 🙂 General update I may have neglected to mention because the timeline covered here is actually almost a year ago from when this was typed up: Grampa Dave survived a pretty horrible motorcycle accident but healed up well and is doing pretty great, to this day. Gramma Marcia got attacked by a pothole during a charity run and wound up in a cast, which is why you see her as such in the picture Ian took. 
June 3rd, and… you know I don’t have any words for this. Well, ok… I’ll say this much: If you see a shot like this on the blog, know that there are about 10 more of them in any one session. 🙂 
June 5th, Ian attends a graduation party at school, even though it is not quite his last day of Kindergarten. In this image, we see a message from Ian that tugged on our heartstrings. Most kids’ messages said something like toys or recess. 
It is funny comparing these shots to present day. He looks like such a young pup here… still has such a sparkle about him. Recently I told a joke and got a full-fledged eye roll, which simply hadn’t happened yet back when this was taken. 
Water balloons were carefully handled, as if made of glass… 
Carefully son, carefully. 
You did it! You were super cautious, and you saved the water balloons… 
SO THAT WE CAN LAUNCH THEM WITH RECKLESS ABANDON! 
Ian scouts ahead for targets, looking innocent… 
and then strikes like a ninja! (That’s him flying on the right.) 
June 7th, and this sleepy little bundle’s last day of Kindergarten is today. 
I happily turned off the alarm clock for the summer… 
Morning preparations were made… 
On this beautiful summer day the whole family walked Ian to the bus-stop. 
Couldn’t be more proud of my kiddos! 
These are our neighbors, Aaron and his sons Jake and Brendan. It was interesting to have Brendan be a part of our morning routine, but that stopped abruptly for the summer, and didn’t happen again. It turned out that the boys joined their teacher-mommy Clara at a different school in the area. 
Nina came along to say good bye as well… 
I think that’s a present for the bus driver or a teacher. Melissa’s so good! 
Quick hug and a kiss, and he’s off! 
“Bye brother!” 
But Ian wasn’t the only one moving up in the world! Nina moved up to the Preschool room! 
He stepped onto the bus as a student… 
And stepped off as a free kid. Here we are at the end of the day, Ian with a bucket of treasure in tow. 
Ian mentioned recently (meaning in first grade) when this was written, that his current bus broke down, and as a result he got to ride in his old bus “Eighty-Four, I think it was?” And as you can see here… it was. The woman you can see driving here took her job very seriously and we really liked her a lot. 
June 7th, Ian made me a model of Totoro from the movie “My Neighbor, Totoro” a film by Studio Ghibli that the family enjoys. So creative! The coffee filter is an umbrella! 
The artist with his creation! 
June 9th, “It is my distinguished pleasure to announce the arrival of her royal majesty, Princess Nina of Rockfordia.” 
We were at Elena and Scott’s house for this evening. I think Melissa and I went out on a date and left them with the kids. 
This is June 11th, and swim class! 
And there’s that happy sparkle again. I think this was before Ian started giving us a lot of hassle about going. It is weird though, because even when he did start disliking it… he’d claim he didn’t enjoy it, but I’d always get a picture of him smiling. 
Nina, after a successful leap. 
Mommy dressed inappropriately for the toga party. 