Philly

Well, daddy had to travel to Philly for 5 days for work, attending a Transit Operations Modeling application training class. It felt like grad school all over again since the gentleman teaching the class was a semi-retired professor from Carnegie Mellon and helped create the application. Let me just say, his teaching style was not favored by anyone of my colleagues. He basically taped all his presentations on video, which was a how to click type of video that didn't teach us anything and we could have watched the videos prior to training and just had 2 days of lab work. On top of that, he wouldn't help us, rather instructed us to use the built in help button and converse with our colleagues! Oh well, I learned a lot and enjoyed the class.

The best part though was that I met up with a great friend and old neighbor, Tim who picked me up at the airport Sunday and went to dinner with his wife and daughter over in Collingswood, NJ. We had a fabulous dinner at an Italian place and then he and I took the train over to Philly to watch the Steelers-Browns game. Ironically, a colleague in Philly lives 2 doors from Tim! We found this out Monday as I was telling him my events from Sunday. We went to a bar called Good Dog to watch the game and I enjoyed some local micros (of course!). Monday night we headed to a bar and watched the Dallas-Eagles football game after class and then Tuesday night, Tim again took the train over and he and I and another colleague from our NYC office went to the best Belgium bar in the US, The Monk's Cafe. Here, I enjoyed some fabolous beers from Belgium! Then Wednesday night we hit Jim's for cheesesteaks (YUMMY), then McGills (sp??) bar which is the oldest bar in Philly where I finally found Yards ESP on tap, then back to the Monk's Cafe where I had a fabulous beer from Flying Dog that was aged in whiskey barrels (which you could taste the whiskey) called Barrell Aged Gonzo (BAG) Porter! It was awesome! Then had a night cap at a micro called nobhead. All in all, it was a fun time.

Daddy goes to Bristol

Scot was fortunate enough to experience the best NASCAR track - Bristol during the last weekend of August. He drive up Friday morning and met up with his dad, brother-in-law and 2 other friends for a weekend of redneck fun and NASCAR racing! The 5 guys camped out (well some of us spent the nights in a RV) at the All-American campground, which was a 5 minute walk to the track. A better description is that when we watched practice and qualifying on TV from the RV and turned the volume down, we had surround sound. The whole weekend was nothing but a good ol' time. The one thing we really enjoyed was watching the locals (or those who appeared to be locals) drive around in the 4 wheelers, golf carts and ATVs - and I don't mean just your normal ATV's and all, these had homemade seats built into them, Jagermeister distributors, speakers gallor, jacked up big tires, etc....if you know what I mean. We even enjoyed the nice scenery that walked around the campground and track :). Friday consisted of walking around the souvenir trailers, watching qualifying, practice and the Nationwide race, while Saturday was more about beer drinking and watching the big boys race. The best part was that my favorite driver - Carl Edwards - won the race by bumping Kyle Busch out of the way with 20 laps to go. Then after the white flag, Kyle bumped into Carl who then slammed into Kyle and spun him!!!! SWEET! I just have to thank my wife for allowing me to go, even though I missed (and feel bad) my nephew's birthday party. We hope this becomes a yearly adventure as well!

End of Summer = FOOTBALL IS HERE

Well, school has start for Suzy and hurricane season is upon us, which all means that FOOTBALL SEASON is finally here! The Sibert family headed back north for their visit with pop-pop and grandme, but more importantly to the annual PENN STATE football game. The entire Sibert clan headed up in the motorhome (which Brice calls a bus) at 5am for a noon kickoff to tailgate. We had a blast. Brice was all smiles, especially walking up and down the rows of buses and watching the Blue Band practice. We had the usual 30 some people tailgate with us and actually baptised good friends the Stoners from Charlotte to their first tailgating experience at Penn State. What a blast.....

During the 4 day weekend, we also took pop-pop and grandme to dinner for their anniversary at the Lancaster Brewing Company (where else?) and held a baby shower for my sister where my entire extended family came. It was sooo good to see my most of my cousins and their children and watching them all play together. I guess it was what my parents and their sisters saw when we all were growing up. I wish my two youngst cousins, Katie and Becka a safe and blessed trip across country as they start a new chapter in their lives living in the Los Angelos area. Please keep in touch!

We were also blessed that Brice enjoyed his plane rides and did very well. I am also impressed with myself for not freaking out nor yelling at Suzy for forgetting her ID at home when we checked in at the airport. I guess is was a blessing for checking in 3 hours before our flight, which allowed Suzy time to drive home and get her ID while daddy and Brice strolled through the airport looking at all the planes. The best thing about it was that we saw a US Air plane painted in the Steelers colors and logo go by and as we were boarding, yep, that was our plane!! Like I said, FOOTBALL SEASON is here!!!

Beach Trip

Well, I am getting better at updating our Blog! The Sibert Family spent a week at Kure Beach with Suzy and Scot's entire family (15 people in one house....). Amazingly, everyone got along. Scot's parents and sister and brother-in-law stayed for 4 days, as well as Scot since they all had to get back home to work, while Brice and Suzy stayed the entire week. Brice loved the sand and beach, but not the ocean. He enjoyed digging, throwing and dumping sand all over himself, in his dump trucks and buckets. He even was throwing a Frisbee to a sweet little dog on the beach. Scot made Low Country Boil one night and that was a huge hit! He also drove the Jeep down and enjoyed having the Jeep there. Suzy's family where a big help once pop-pop and grandma and Scot left, so kudos to them. It was nice to just relax, read and veg for the week. We took Brice and our two nephews to the Carolina Aquarium, since a tropical storm invaded our beach for two days. The three boys absolutely loved the fish!

The day before heading to the beach we also got great news. We had our ultrasound and found out we are having another boy! Whew...no need to buy girl clothes, change the nursery and clean the gun (hahah). At least we can keep the transportation theme and use the same clothes over again, especially since we have some cool clothes that Brice only wore once!

The other good news is that Brice's big boy room is complete and we moved him in right after coming back from the beach. He loves the room, especially the transportation moguls hanging from the ceiling and the trains sitting on the book shelf. The Monster Truck rug though is daddy's favorite piece.

Heat of the Summer

So it has been almost 2 months since we updated our blog...shame on us. It truly has been a hectic early summer. Scot has traveled to eastern Tennessee, Baltimore, Greenville (NC), Wilmington, Raleigh, and Greensboro for work events; some of these being day trips while others have been multiple days. Scot thought that the summer would not be so busy, but guess again. Suzy finished up her school year and it enjoying the summer off, even though she is doing summer school two days a week. She is enjoying the extra days with Brice.

Over the last 3 months or so, our friends from Jacksonville, FL, Amy and Curtis came and visit for 3 days with their 3 month old girl, Abby. Brice got first hand experience having a baby in the house and he did pretty good. Brice also received his first true haircut (the one daddy gave I guess doens't count) and didn't scream or anything, thankfully! We have also traveled and finished up some projects as well recently. The family traveled back to PA to visit with family, which Suzy and Brice stayed for a week while Scot drove back after the weekend to catch the Pearl Jam show with his good ol' buddy Uncle Sean and Aunt Kellie. Unfortunately, Scot got sick while driving to Columbia, SC and didn't make it into the show...very upset about that! While Suzy and Brice were in PA for the week, Scot ripped up the carpet in the spare bedroom. Suzy and Brice went to Hersheypark with Pop Pop, visited with his great Aunts and ran around having fun with his grandparents. Pop Pop drove them back with Aunt Jen and over the weekend, Scot, Pop Pop and good friend Greg put down laminate flooring in the spare bedroom, which will be Brice's new room. The following weekend, Scot surprised Suzy with a birthday dinner with community group friends, her old bible study girls, and her entire family at Brio. It was a total surprise and she loved it! Plus her whole family spent the night. Beth and Cameroon came early Saturday so that Cameroon could help Scot paint Brice's new room. Thanks Cam!! We then laid down his new big trucks rug and are awaiting a crib to move him into the room! 2 weeks later, Suzy took Scot to Mac's for dinner with the community group and good friends for his birthday...we like to get them over with quickly. The best part of that night was the guys gave Scot a homebrew beer kit and book!!! Thanks Tuttle, Pay and Briggs!!! Scot can;t wait to get back into brewing his own beer.

Over July 4th, we drove to Myrtle Beach to visit Suzy's best friend Debbie since 6th Grade and her family. What a great time. 3 of there 4 kids (the other one was in Europe on a class trip - envy her) were awesome playmates for Brice and can't thank them enough. They all had a blast playing with trucks, the dogs, swimming and just being kids! While the parents sat back and drank and caught up. The festivities also included 2 nights of awesome fireworks, conducted by Rob and and their eldest son Bobby. The best part though, was Scot's first time knee boarding and eating a Low Country Boil!! AWESOME! Though my knees felt it for 3 days straight.

Brice has also been to our neighborhood pool a number of times and has attended his first week of swim lessons. He is becoming to be a true water boy always wanting to be in the pool or never wanting to get out of the tub! Next week, we again travel (seems like the theme in our house) to Cure Beach for a week. This time, both sides of our families will be staying in one house. I sure hope we all survive this. So stay tuned on what happens....

I promise we will try to update our blog more often as well, since we are getting closer and closer to some big events for the family.

Never Blogged Before

Since all of our great friends in our community group have blogs,we thought we would see what this is all about. So for our first post: It is Memorial Day Weekend 2008. We don't have much planned this year except for Scot to watch the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Championships and the Coca-Cola 600 (GO Edwards!!), to attend a neighborhood picnic, nursery duty at church, lots and lots of yard work, Suzy to a work event, Brice, well, same ol' same ol', just running around like a crazy man interacting with all of our neighbors, and Scot helping out good friend Greg Stock up at his lot in Mount Holly installing an irigation system. I guess our weekend isn't boring nor slow after all.

Oh yeah, and Brice rode in the Jeep with the top down for the very first time!