The Nixon Adventures in 2011

Maroon 7 Soccer

Video highlights from Dillon's first year of soccer on his team, Maroon 7.

GOOOOAAAALLLL

In the last game of the season, Dillon scored his first goal. Coach James drew up the perfect play on an indirect kick, allowing Dillon to sink one into the back of the net.

Dillon's Birthday Video

Sneak Preview

Here is an early look at a present that Dillon, Connor, and Brenna are giving to their cousins Taylor, Kaleb, and Bradley.

One Proud Dad

Last night I was watching Ken Burn's updated Baseball: The Tenth Inning documentary and Dillon sat down next to me. I was already beaming in delight from him showing an interest without me prompting him, when Dillon turned to me and said, "Daddy, I want to be a baseball player when I grow up." It gave me a lump the size of a baseball in my throat.

Later that night, long after the movie was over, Dillon and I had the following conversation:

Dillon: "I like that baseball song."

Me: "What baseball song? How does it go?"

Dillon: "O say can we see, at the Dodgers we like"

By the way, I highly recommend the Ken Burns full baseball documentary if you are a baseball fan. It is very long, but very entertaining and informative.

Vacation 2010

Below is a video I made of our vacation. Sorry, no bidets are in it.

Connor's Time to Shine

Connor loves to ride his blue bouncy horse around the house. I was able to capture some of his excellent riding skills on video.



Also, one of the few words that Connor will say is "horse."

(For some reason Blogger is cutting off the right side of the video. Click here to go straight to the video on YouTube.

Gamer in Training

Recently Dillon has been allowed to play one of my video games, LittleBigPlanet, while Connor takes his afternoon nap. He tends to play by moving his whole body. It might be time to teach him how to use the Wii.



Note: The video is muted because YouTube has not authorized the song I had playing during the video. I hope to post the video (with sound) on Facebook soon.



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Now playing: Ramones - Blitzkreig Bop
via FoxyTunes

One more video

I know my last couple of posts have been videos but I took a lot of pictures during the week. The best way to view those pictures are in slide show form. Plus, Dillon loves watching these kinds of videos. Below is Dillon and Connor's Christmas week.

Christmas with Barbara's Bunch

This Christmas, all of my Mom's siblings were in Shafter for my Grandma's birthday party and Christmas. Below is are highlights of both events and everything that happened in between. And yes, that is a 70 year old jumping rope.

Happy Birthday Grandma

On Sunday my Grandma Barbara celebrated her 70th birthday. The family attempted to give her a surprise party but she had it figured out before it happened. The video below was shown at her party and encapsulates her life.

San Diego, The Video

At Last

Twenty years after building their house, the Cummings finally put in a pool. Christina and I went to Fresno Pacific with the pool's designer. He did a great job of blending the pool and waterfalls with the natural landscape.

The shape of the pool is meant to resemble that of a pond. The deep end is on the left and the shallow is on the right. As you can see, the shallow end also has an extended shelf allowing for more play room for little children.

The top of the two waterfalls make for great places to lounge. They also provide a relaxing white noise while sitting poolside.

The view from inside the pool. The infinity edge is framed nicely by the rocks and overlooks the hillside.

The video below is a quick snippet of Dillon showing off his moves. He loves to pretend that he is Buzz Lightyear while swimming. You can hear him calling Buzz's name out in his first few jumps. In the last jump he says, "To infinity and beyond!" One note, when this video was shot the temporary fence was still up by the deep end.




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Now playing: Beck - Where It's At
via FoxyTunes

Hotrod

I decided to record a daily occurrence around our house. Dillon would ride his tractor around the house for hours at a time if we let him. In the video below you will witness the havoc he creates when he does ride.




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Now playing: Eddie Kendricks - Keep On Truckin' (Part 1)
via FoxyTunes

Connor's Talent

Yesterday Connor discovered the piano at the Cummings house. Below is a video of his playing and singing.




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Now playing: Billy Joel - Piano Man (Album Version)
via FoxyTunes

Disneyland Video

Brotherly Love

Here is the reason why we can't leave Dillon alone in the room with Connor. Notice how Dillon goes from kissing Connor to almost squishing him in seconds. Listen toward the end and you can hear Christina (off camera) having a heart attack.

New Years Video

Christina's cousin, Laurie, and her family came to visit for New Years. Here is a little video I put together.



As you can probably tell, Dillon loved playing with Alec, Shane, and Lucas.

Daredevil

The video below is actually better than the Ben Affleck flick.





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Now playing: OK Go - Invincible
via FoxyTunes