The Keenan Family 411

Christmas Card Picture: Behind the Scenes!

Ah...the beautiful Christmas card picture.  It almost brings a tear to the eye.  A perfect picture of nothing but family joy, happiness and Christmas cheer right?

Wrong.  Every parent of young children knows that the snapping of that particular photo is preceded by generous amounts of frustration, irritation, cursing (under the breath, hopefully) open threats, and questions as to why in the world we decided to have children in the first place.   All of this is triggered by the fact that the children apparently coordinate their efforts to ensure that at least one of them looks absolutely horrible in each shot.

The other problem is that no less than 125 shots need to be taken in order to produce the one shot that is acceptable to send to dozens of family members and friends.  Not only is the photo shoot itself time-consuming, but then poring over all 125 photo's and agonizing over which one is "the" shot takes countless hours.

In addition to the trials and tribulations of our annual photo, we were required to hike to the top of T-Rex mountain with Nan and Pop-Pop  in cold and windy weather.  Please note that Nana does not have a favorable history of climbing large hills, especially around Christmas time (inside family joke).  This grueling trek put us in the perfect mood for the photo shoot!

For video footage of the work that went into our Christmas card photo this year, please click here, here, here and here. 

Oh, and don't forget to click here.

Enjoy!  And Merry Christmas, you blokes!

"Good Love is on the Way" Video

What better way to work off those dinner calories than dancing around the kitchen to Good Love is on the Way by John Mayer?

Owen, our resident dance expert (who is still bitter about being knocked out of the Wii dance tournament in the 1st round this past summer) offers his unique interpretation of 1980's breakdancing.

Parents, please note that this particular dance routine includes two flying body splashes from the staircase that should not be viewed by young children.

And I'm still trying to figure out how that bag of Fruity Pebbles treats keeps finding its way into our family videos.  In this clip it's actually being weilded by Shane as a weapon as he tries to take out the camera man.

Click here...if you dare.

"Junk Dude" Video

I shot some video after dinner last night which provides a pretty good look at the spontaneous nuttiness that we have to endure on a regular basis.  

In this scene, Owen (for whatever reason) decides to transform the term "junk food" into "junk dude".  Shane then decides to contribute by quickly coming up with (what appears to be) some sort of rap song. 

To his credit, Cameron is valiantly trying to block the whole thing out.

I keep telling Amy that the boredom that will ensue when these kids leave the house will be unbearable.

Click here for the video!

 

Uncle Tony: The World's 2nd Most Interesting Man

 

Years ago, he lived in the hills of the Serengeti for a summer after being gifted a wife by a local tribesman.

Alright, we'll see you blokes in Wildwood, NJ!  Can't wait!

Shane's "Fountain Boogie"

We recently enjoyed some Chinese food at the fountain in the middle of town.

Then, for no apparent reason, Shane became inspired to bust some rather bizarre moves which I (unfortunately) captured on video. 

The strangest thing about the whole scene was the fact that his antics drew a surprisingly formal crowd.

Click here.

 

Behold...Shanie's First Baseball Hit!

This brief video footage is something you'll want to save.  It should be worth a pretty penny someday...when Shane joins the line-up for the New York Yankees and bats in the clean-up position about 20 years from now, we can all say it started with this memorable hit.

Besides smacking a nice shot right up the middle, he celebrates the hit in a unique (and somewhat dangerous) way. 

Please note that Annie, who is running from 3rd base to home plate in the video, is alive and well. 

Click here and prepare to be...amazed!!!

Owen Introduces...The Donkey Burpee!

The "Burpee" is an exercise that every CrossFit athlete is intimately familiar with. It's basically a four-step drill that works the entire body and becomes particularly challenging after you go past 20 repetitions.

In order to see a textbook burpee, click here.

Now Owen, the innovator that he is, has unveiled a variation of the traditional burpee that can be done much faster and is much, MUCH more comical.  We have dubbed it the "Donkey Burpee" because it skips the part where your chest has to hit the ground.  The result is that you end up looking like a donkey that has completely lost it's mind.

Click here to see Owen doing his donkey burpee's at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT this past weekend. 

Please note Cameron is in the background and offers a striking comparison between the standard burpee and Owen's own burpee interpretation!

Grocery Shopping

Here's some random footage from a recent trip to Aldi's (great prices and a neat business model, by the way). 

In this short clip you'll see the essential elements of a Keenan Family grocery shopping trip; kids hanging on mommy, irrationally loud volumes and the boys putting things in the cart which momma had no intention of buying! 

Click here to watch.

Video Footage of Seagull Feeding Frenzy!

Feeding seagulls at the beach in Wildwood with leftover table scraps has become a time-honored family tradition. 

I'm always amazed at how there will be one or two gulls within eyeshot when we arrive at the beach, implying that this will be a huge waste of time.  Then, within 30 seconds we're surrounded by half of North America's seagull population!

Anyway, click here for the video footage.  Pop-Pop and Howie attempt a novel approach to seagull-feeding near the end, but the gulls ultimately decide that they're not quite hungry enough to play along!

Karate Matches!

I was fortunate enough to get some video footage of Cameron and Owen taking their Thursday evening karate classes yesterday. 

While Cameron demonstrates a traditional (for the most part) approach to sparring you may note that Owen's style is a little more unorthodox. 

Owen claims he favors an ancient fighting style used by Australian aboriginal warriors that you rarely see anymore.  That style apparently calls for rapid-fire head punches. 

You may also note that Owen appears to be deeply intimidated by his larger opponent.  Poor little guy.

Click here for Cameron's match.  Cam's in blue with yellow headgear.

Click here for Owen's match.  Owie's in white.

You may have noticed that despite the fact that Amy and I continuously encourage peace, love and harmony in our household, all of our posted YouTube videos so far have a dominant "combat" theme.  Hmmm...