Nana's Visit

We were lucky enough to have Nana come visit this past week from Maine.  We had an enjoyable visit with her.  Joe took a couple of days off of work to visit with her and they spent one day at the land. Joe worked her pretty hard...

 They also finished the dock.  Incidentally, the lake is back up to its normal level.

 She came and watched the boys at football.  Adam had a great game-he was player of the game in one of their games.

 Even Austin came, what a great uncle.

 Saturday night, just the girls went and saw the play "Mulan," put on by a performing group that is made of youth from 2nd grade to 11th grade.  The next pictures were with my camera phone, so that's as good as it gets.

Thanks for visiting, Nana.

Monster Truck Showdown

Joe recently took Adam and Michael to the Monster Truck Showdown.  They had a blast!  They started with "back stage passes" where they could go down and see the trucks up close.

 This is Joe with his friend from law school Jeff.  Jeff works for a law firm that has Joe's company as a client.  They got to go as client development.  Hey, being an in-house attorney definitely has its perks.

 The view from their seats.

A Short Trip to The Snow

Last winter, Adam kept saying that he wanted to go visit my parent's cabin so he could go ice fishing.  When we went to visit this summer he asked Grammie and Grandpa if he could come out this winter.  So, over Christmas break, the boys got to fly to grandma and grandpa's house by themselves.  Adam was pretty nervous to lfy by himself, but Michael was just fine. Luckily it was a nonstop flight, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible.

They got to go up to the cabin and play in the snow.  They went ice fishing once and then realized that it wasn't as fun as sledding.  Grandpa dragged them around the snow on their sled and that was by far their favorite thing.

 They also helped to pick out and cut down a Christmas tree.  Its a good thing because the most picking out of a Christmas tree we do at our house is picking it out of the box.

 While they were in Vegas, they got to go climb around at Redrock.  They had a great time scurrying up the rocks and climbing around.

 Uncle Clell came too.  After they climbed, they had a picnic.  During the picnic, Michael tripped over his own two feet.  We were all just glad he didn't do that on the rocks.

While visiting they also got to see a magic show and they got to go to the movies.  Thanks for the great trip Grammie and Grandpa!

Guess who's 10?

Yup, it's Adam!  Can you believe it?  We barely can.

 This first picture is his school picture from this year.  I love it because it is the first school picture in many years where his smile goes all the way to his eyes.  He is more confident than he has been in a long time.

On Adam's birthday, we got up a little early and opened presents. Right before he opened this present of Legos that made a boat, Nate told him it was a boat.

 Later on, Nate kept waiting for Adam to have time because he really wanted to build the boat Legos with Adam.  This next present is a game for Adam's Wii called Skylander.  Adam really wanted it, but I told him we were only giving him 4 presents this year.  I then asked if he wanted it bad enough to trade two of his other presents in to get it.  He decided not. What he didn't know is that one of the 4 presents was the game.

 This is what the dog does when he sees all the wrapping paper on the floor.

 Later that night, we had brownies and ice cream.  My kids don't care for cakes which is a good thing because I have 0 talent in the cake decorating department.

Adam has really blossomed this past year.  He has a great teacher that fosters his love for learning and so he enjoys going to school and learning in school.  If I am at the school for an event and I give him the option of coming home early, he always chooses to stay.  He is on Student Council at his school.  They voted the kids in at the beginning of the year.  They picked one boy and one girl by vote.  Adam was really nervous, but he gave a little speech and then everyone voted. His teacher told me, off the record of course, that there was no contest, he won by a lot.  She tells me that everyone loves Adam and when they have a choice of someone to pick to be in their group, other kids often pick Adam.  He is still doing gymnastics and as a result is growing quite strong.  He's also still doing piano, and progressing well, his songs actually sound like songs now, not as much finger tapping.  Recently he started flag football, and he has really enjoyed doing that.
He loves to read, is almost done with the Harry Potter series, and is starting the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe series.  He is quite helpful, and we are so lucky to have him in our family.