I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year we spent with ALL of Eric's immediate family, meaning we finally had the spouses all there and a few new additions like my neice! I loved getting to see everyone together in one place and as usual we have pictures, but some will have to wait for another day. Here are two pictures Eric's Mom took about 25 years apart! As she said, it looks like he(Eric) has better gardening skills now. :-)
For my birthday this year or actually it was for Mary Beth's birthday I went to Beautiful Colorado!!! It was just me since there was only one frequent flyer ticket so Eric bravely and sweetly took time off work to watch the kiddos!!! What a wonderful hubby I have! I was able to see two of my best friends and their families and while I was there I got to see my new neice (and of course my wonderful nephew and brother and sister too)!!! (Thank you all for driving me all around!!!) I am Aunt Nina now to a sweet and smart little nephew and a beautiful neice!!!! My camera was not working :-( and Katie's ran out of batteries when I was visiting so here's a link to a picture that turned out. http://morrowmoments.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-weeks-old.html
MB and Family!
Cara's family!
I can say that being back reminded me how much I love, love, love Colorado. The crazy weather changes like the afternoon thunderstorms and the smell of rain in the air were just a few that I was giddy about! The mountains of course are majestic and the people I got to hang out with are as always fantastic!
Like father, like son!
I felt like very little had changed and yet getting to know the children of my family and friends made me realize time has marched on. It's so fun to see glimpses of them in their children and see what sweet boys and girls they are. I feel so very blessed to call these people friends/family!
Eric's mom tells the story of the first word Eric could understand when she spelled it 0ut. Apparently she was wanting to know about some I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M and when she spelled it Eric yelled out "Ice Cream!" From then on spelling words was not an option anymore. Well, our time has come. :-) Tonight Eric and I wanted to watch a M-O-V-I-E and so we spelled it out. To which, Daniel yells, "That spells Movie!" So our own story is that Daniel can officially translate our 'spelling speak' and now we must think of a new way, maybe pig latin?
Here are a few pictures of Ellie and Daniel on Daniel's pumpkin patch field trip.
My lil punkin'.
D and his Big Pumpkin.
My little 50's girl.
Say cheese for Grandma!
Ellie enjoyed the photo shoot and even made up some of her own poses like this one.
S-perman can fly!
Love that S-perman curl!
S-perman contemplates life.
He's got all the gear! 
Seriously a fireman. 
A fireman's ladder. 
Today I got to go with Luke to his pumpkin patch field trip. Luke loved getting a big pumpkin and feeding the goats, but his favorite was to hang out with his buddies and play!
Luke and his pumpkin! 
He was so sweet getting down so the babies could reach the food easily. He loved the baby goats!
Daniel took home Toby again today so we played lots with our class bear and took him to Daniel's favorite place! It was a fun and busy day for us, who knows what will happen tomorrow?!
Daniel's school had a fundraiser this month where he runs around an oval as many times as possible and people (thank you family!!!) sponser him for the laps he runs. Most Kindergarteners run 19 so Daniel ran 20! The theme was the Olympics so they were running for Gold and at the end they all received medals. It was very fun even though after his 20th lap, Daniel said simply, "I'm done." :-)
Daniel's group that he ran with.
Here he's Joe cool on the medal stand. :-)
It's been fun to see how he has become my little man. He has his friends and loves to make new ones. He remembers faces and names easily so it makes it great for me to be in the know. :-) His favorite thing to do though is help!! He excitedly tells me he was the helper for the day or that he could pass out the napkins or snacks or whatever it is.
Finally, he loves sports, any kind! He told me today though that his favorites are football, baseball and soccer. He's such a competitor that even though he doesn't like to run a lot, soccer holds his interest. In fact he scored a goal in the last game! He's a lot like Eric because he doesn't get super excited about it. (In football) he won't be the type to spike the ball and do the dance. For now, Daniel just turns around looks for me (as I am doing the dance and jumping up and down), gives me a smirk and then gets serious as he heads back to mid-field and starts the process over. It just means I make sure to make time to listen to him so he has an outlet to share. Just like Eric, he's great and I love him! I love them all and their different personalities and it's fun to see Daniel develop into who God made him.
Daniel at mid-field.
Daniel loves going for the ball and stealing it away from the other team.
He also is not afraid of mud puddles!
For Eric's birthday he went on a three generation deep sea fishing trip. His dad had gone to the same place for his 30th birthday too and brought Eric so this was fun for Eric to bring Daniel and have his dad there.
They had a great time! By 9am they each had caught a Halibut! On the two other boats out in the Bay their boat had 15 caught fish while one boat had two fish caught and the other had only one fish caught. They were on the right boat!!! Eric and his dad both caught the limit of three and Daniel caught two but since the boat limited in fish, Daniel took home three fish. All nine fish after being gutted and cut into fillets were 33 lbs. Unbelievable!!! I'm glad for all of them, especially that Eric had a fun experience. The weather was perfect with very little wind and I'm told the water looked like glass.
Daniel watching the water.
Eric's fish!
They're bringing in the fish.
Caught it!
Here's Daniel calling me after he caught his first fish!
"My fish was THIS big Grandpa! How big was your fish?"
Daniel now wanted to put the bait on himself!
Happy Birthday Daddy!
School has been very exciting for the boys and in Daniel's class there were some extra special things they have done. One special treat has been for each child to take home a bear named Toby from their class. Daniel was the second one to take it home and we had a wonderful time doing things with him. We even got him dressed in a swim suit and Daniel wanted to make sure he had a shirt and sunglasses. This was one cool bear!
This summer Eric enjoyed another guy's backpacking trip. Here's a link to more pictures. http://joysmallpack.blogspot.com/2008/08/lets-go-there.html
As always he had a lot of fun hiking and fishing!
Luke had his first day of his second year of Preschool. He's been really excited about going to school like Daniel and the two of them have been excitedly talking all about school and friends and the fun things you do. When we went to drop off Daniel, Luke got his bucket and wanted to know where his class was. I explained he doesn't start Kindergarten until next year. This year he'll go to Daniel's class from last year, but he'll get a new teacher. I think he understood and he does get a different teacher so it seemed new and exciting.
Daniel wanted to take a picture with his brother. The two of them are such good buddies and can't wait to get home to hear about what the other did that day and play together. School has really brought them together.
Ellie though was missing her brothers and play friends. She seems lost without them and as soon as they got home she was so excited to play with them!
My littlest guy is off to school and there's no looking back. Have a fun year!