Sterner Family | Made of Sterner Stuff

Bugs, Airplanes and Fireworks

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Robert

Going to post some videos. Beware, they’re around 40 megabytes each, this means they’ll take a bit to load. If you have dial up then don’t bother.

The first is of Levi laughing. I was swatting a bug down from the ceiling with a dirty dishtowel. He thought that was great. Zoe did too, as it provided a snack. Then I flew Levi around the room like an airplane. He enjoyed all of it.

The next is a video of one of my favorite bands, Skillet. The audio is horrible because our camera apparently can’t handle it when you turn the amps up to 11. The song is called Rebirthing from their Comatose record. It is one of many completely awesome songs they play.

Posted in fire, Levi, skillet

Thanksgiving and Festival of Lights

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Robert

Levi didn’t watch TV until he was around 14 months old. He’s a pretty big fan now. Here he is trying to change channels. He’s a big fan of Bob the Builder, Dinosaur Train and Word World.

Okay, which one starts playing all 30 recorded Bob episodes.
PIE! Apple pie I made for Thanksgiving. Yum.
MORE PIE! Two pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.
Levi building an airplane with Duplos. He love his Duplos now that he’s got them more figured out.
I build towers for him to destroy. I also make planes, trains and automobiles for him to play with.
At Thanksgiving the picky ones got together so we could turn our noses up together at the more exotic dishes.
Levi hung out with his Mimi and read some books before the meal.
Then played with his uncle Matt afterward.
After his bath he wanted a little wine, but aunt Jennifer wasn’t sharing.
I think he still wanted some of the wine.
He got lots of snuggling, not all of it voluntary.
Here he is about to go for a ride with uncle Matt down the hall.
Again!
Kendra and her cousin Christa
We gave Levi a Duplo Bob the Builder toy of Scoop. He was very excited about it.
Here he is with the assembled toy.
One evening we went to Festival of Lights in Galveston with Levi’s girlfriend Olivia. Here they are together.
He rode in the stroller, walked, was carried and rode on my shoulders. It was pretty warm for late November, as you can see.
Here we are all together waiting to ride the train.
And here they two of them are playing. They were flying around like airplanes and went in for a close approach.
Here we are on the train. Levi looked away at the last minute of course.
There he is! That’s Olivia in the foreground.
And there they are together in their train car.
After the lights we went to the aquarium. I believe they’re watching either the seal or the penguins here.
Recently Levi has been playing lots of video games with me too. He loves Mawio. I play Super Mario Galaxy and he laughs as I blow things up, swim and basically frustrate Bowser and his minions.
A few days ago we got around to setting up our Christmas tree. Our outside lights are up, but we hadn’t done the inside ones yet. Levi helped hang the ornaments. We also setup his nativity. Its from Little Tykes, so its perfect for him. When you press the angel it plays a song, too.
Here we are putting some decorations on the tree.
Then he noticed the Little Drummer Boy Little Tykes set. I’m not sure we’ll be able to pack this stuff up.

Posted in Christmas, Festival of Lights, Levi, Olivia, Thanksgiving

Retreat!

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Robert

We went on a couples retreat with our small group this last weekend. We stayed in a cabin at Camp Allen in Navasota and it was great.

This is looking across the lake from our cabin. It was a neat view.
This is looking back at the cabin’s back porch.
The constellation Orion (I work on a project called Orion). I was having fun playing with the camera.
A very bright star or Jupiter. I haven’t been able to confirm for sure. It may even be Uranus. No seriously, I looked it up.
The moon rising made for a great shot and reflection in the lake. Notice the double reflection.
Here we are playing some poker. No money, just chips, but its plenty of fun.
The poker outfits.
And another one.
The morning was great. It was below 30 the night before, so it was a nice steamy lake that greeted us.
Great shot in the direction of the cross from the night before.
And straight out from our cabin.
The dock was a little high with the drought this last summer.
We collected wood. This piece was a little big.
Mike found some smaller stuff. We were enjoying the fireplace. We even helped a group staying at another cabin get their fire started.
Some of the wood was a bit too big for us.
A female woodpecker doing her work.
I’m guess this is her mate. He was two trees over.
We played some football a little later in the day.

This bird was so lazy he didn’t want to catch the fish the old fashion way. Instead he was using two poles.
Here’s Kendra and I by the lake. We really enjoyed the weekend.
It was nice having a porch. I could use this in the spring and fall.

It was a great retreat and our group is already planning the next one.

Posted in Camp Allen, retreat, uranus

Concerts! and Such

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Robert

We went to a lot of concerts this fall. Its been a great time. Here we are taking a self portrait at the Newsboys concert.
The new lead singer of the Newsboys, from DC Talk, Michael Tait.
Their guitarist recently returned as well after Paul Coleman left.
Here they are doing a little jam out on the catwalk. They played some old songs and some DC Talk songs.
Back on the stage.
It was a good concert and we had a lot of fun. It reminded me a bit of how old I am when the young middle schoolers were around and I realized a few of the songs they played were older than the kids.
We got to get some stuff signed afterward, so here is the band up close. They were nice, but it was pretty rushed.
A few weeks later Switchfoot was in town. I didn’t get to go to the concert, but we did get to go to a CD listening party with them at a local radio station. It was cool hearing from them about the process and thoughts on different songs. They seem like a cool group of guys.
Previously a CD of theirs, “Oh Gravity” was flown in space. They were presented with it at one point by the astronaut. However, only one copy means the band basically just hangs it in their studio. The same astronaut flew again, and this time each of them got a copy. Pretty cool.
We got our picture taken with them, though I haven’t gotten it yet from KSBJ. Here they are with someone else.
We later went to a concert that I really loved. Hawk Nelson, picture below with us, as well as Skillet, Decyfer Down and The Color Black. It was an awesome concert.
Kendra’s brother, Matt and his wife Jennifer were at the concert volunteering for a charity they help with.
I love Hawk Nelson, and here they are, including magical glowing lead singer. Spotlights confuse cameras in dim rooms.
I love the label on their new CD. Pugs always look so weird. More so with 3D glasses on.
Here’s some of the band with the glasses on as well.
Here’s the self portrait.
You can see the massive bank of speakers here. This is without zoom. My ears were ringing for a few days. It was totally worth it.
yes, that’s a skillet they’re holding.
And this is Skillet on stage.
This was definitely a rock concert. Fire, air cannons, steam, fireworks, moving risers, it had it all.
There’s the air cannon or whatever its called.
This is their drummer singing. The lead singer is on the acoustic behind her.
You can see the whole band here. The leader singer on acoustic, the drummer singing, the keyboardist and the guitarist on the far right. The lead singer also does bass guitar. Also, what goes great with rock, flames and fireworks? Head banging violinists and cellists.
Green!
Fire…there was a lot of it. You could feel it in the crowd.
One of several guitars used that night.
Fire and the air cannon stuff.
It was an awesome concert. I have a great movie that goes with it, but I need to trim it down. Right now its over half a gig and in HD. It shows a bunch of the fireworks and such. Of course the audio is a buzz since the camera couldn’t handle the levels.