just chilling with the family

Otis turns two years old, holy crap. Next thing you know he'll be ripping out in the Tamarindo Rivermouth with Daddy and baby Happy.....Here he is at his birthday party in SD. We decided to have his party early and in SD, as getting Happy's passport has been a bit more trouble than we thought. Its been quite a while since my last blog. I go through spurts where I'll write a blog every other day, then at other times I'll go a couple of weeks or longer without popping up for air. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then I guess I'm going to have a 20,000 word blog today, because all I've been doing is chilling in San Diego with my family for the last ten days and taking photos of everything on my iphone (best invention since the headband). I've been doing a bit of work via my trusty laptop, and life just keeps on doing it's thing just like normal. I hope everyone had a good Easter and had some time off from working for the man.
A lot of my friends have asked to see my new son Happy Zephyr Walsh, so here he is (those bunny ears are fake). Happy is going to be turning two months old on April 1st. Holly and I think that he is bigger than Otis was when he was the same age, both boys were pretty big when they were born. Holly's brother is named Happy as well, thats where we got the name from, and he's 6'8, so if Baby Happy is going to be anything like his uncle I'll be accepting college basketball recruiter gift baskets at the surf camp. I've totally turned into that parent that spends so much of his time talking about his kids and showing kid photos to the stranger I sit next to on the airplane, pretty much the guy I used to make fun of, probably because I spend so much time with them whenever I can. It shouldn't be a bad thing and I think I've just gotten old enough to understand what life is really supposed to be all about. I guess its better in some ways than doing nothing but thinking about surfing. Here is Otis Easter morning right after he found all of the eggs the Easter Bunny hid around the house.
When you hang out with Otis, you have conversations, he tells jokes, it just doesn't seem like you're hanging with a two year old. I'm pretty stoked that we decided to have kids, no matter how much pressure it puts on me when I think about the responsibility of being a dad. I have a hard time with telling him that I'm leaving for Costa Rica because he wants to go with me, and soon enough he will... but for now I'm doing some solo trips to focus on working on the camp. I'm writing this from the airplane, currently somewhere above Mexico or El Salvador or ?, going to the surf camp and back to work. I'm burnt out from doing my taxes and seeing exactly how many days I spent in an airplane just like today. I've got the routine down pretty good, as in I only pack what I know I'm going to need and nothing more. I usually pack in the hour before I'm supposed to leave for the airport. I don't know anyone else who commutes to another country for work and I'm looking forward to the time when I have my family back in Tamarindo. Not that I mind things the way they are, I'm the last to complain, but lately its been working full time in CR followed by going back to SD and things being equally crazy at home. My house is a total disaster, there are kid's toys everywhere. Otis stole my credit cards right after I got home and I just found them last night. I trip over his wagon, step on legos, stack up his stuffed animals and try to clean enough room to sit and check my email. All he wants to watch on tv is Handy Manny, the days of Family Guy are numbered as I can only watch them when he's sleeping with fears that he'd otherwise turn into Stewie. This week the big thing was Otis' party, which I learned is the most important event in the first two years of a child's life for their mothers. We chilled in the park on Saturday in the same neighborhood of Tierrasanta where I grew up with my uncle Cory. Here's a photo of him and I from the party, looking as if we're sponsored by some surf camp in Costa Rica or something.
Cory is a really good guy getting his life back on track. He just got out of prison and just celebrated his one year sobriety. He has a job in the shipyards repairing navy ships, working for the same company my mom worked for for almost 20 years. I hope to bring him to Costa Rica some day, after his parole is up and he can leave the country. We are all really excited for him and his new life with us, he moved in and is working on getting his drivers license again. I can tell that this time things are going to be positively different for him and it makes me stoked. I'm not sure if I ever told anyone, but my dad has started writing a book about our bus drive to Costa Rica back in 2001. He has always looked back on that trip as a life changing one, I did too. I mean, we bought an old school bus and drove it through some crazy shit and not only lived to tell about it but have a surf camp to boot. It reminded me of the covered-wagon era, going west, but in this case I was heading south for the land of warm water where the poor college grad could find a life he wanted and could afford. Here we are, chilling on my parents deck, having another one of our all-too-common sunset conversations, enjoying what California has to offer, and no that isn't a denver broncos beanie.
Having such a solid family has helped make me what I am today. I'm truly lucky for this more than anything else. My buddy Kent and I chilled out at Otis' party, he has been trying to get me to finish some music I recorded last year. I put down some guitar and some vocals but really haven't done much more with it, so if anyone wants to take it and work on it be my guest, its a song about family which is always a good thing to have.
02_Family_Man.mp3
I wrote this song while Holly and I were on a road trip across America. We had just found out that we were pregnant with Otis, I figured it was the end of life as I knew it and kindof freaked out and bought this old Chevy camper van that we named Uncle Rico's van, and departed on a cross-country surf mission to Nova Scotia so I could get some hurricane swell during early September.
We made it to upstate Maine when we realized that the fact that Holly didn't have her passport meant that we weren't going to Canada. From looking at a map I don't think I could have started out further away from Nova Scotia and in the end never make it there. We drove back west, made it as far as Atlanta when I lost my patience and left the van in the Atlanta airport's long-term parking lot. We wrapped my surfboard in bubble wrap from Kinkos, left the van keys on top of the front-right tire, and boarded a plane for Costa Rica. Ironically I met a guy in my bar who was from Atlanta that same week, he picked up the van and took it to his house where it sat until past-WRSC-photographer Jamie Bott picked it up and drove it back to Cali so he could live in it and surf the winter season. Anyways, somewhere between Oklahoma and whatever state was next, I wrote that song and it reminds me of road tripping, which I love more than beer itself. Now that I'm heading back to the surf camp, I look forward to seeing the carnage from Semana Santa. Easter week is craziness in most any latin country, and Costa Rica is no exception as everyone from everywhere has the same idea- go to the beach. There are always plenty of things to do at the camp besides surf, and trust me I find them. We're getting ready for a group of 58 from the company Skull Candy who have booked out the entire surf camp starting April 5, so I guess WRSC enters a new era of corporate events and large groups taking refuge. I think it's awesome, as we've never had the entire camp booked out before. I'd like to throw a huge luau during that week, since my plans for a concert never really happened. Its would be a nice end-of-the-high-season party, roast pig, marimbas, cold beer, surfing, sunset, you know, pretty much what a Costa Rican luau would be. I'll put more info up as soon as I figure out wtf I'm doing, as I never really know until I do it, but for those of you that know me its no surprise at all. See you in the water-