Cousins!!

For Thanksgiving this year, the little boys were fortunate enough to get to have some cousin time! Kurt's cousin lives in Minnesota, so the kids unfortunately, don't get to see each other often enough. But its fun when they DO get to! Carson is an athlete's athlete. And Beckett? Well, Beckett is NOT. But Carson was so patient in showing Beckett the right way to throw the football and didn't get annoyed once they he only caught about 3% of Beckett's crappy throws, HA!

Best Buds

Grandpa and his little buddy!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Turkey day to all!!!!! We'll be enjoying the day with family, the way I wish everyone could....

City Boys on the Farm

Once a month, my extended family on my Dad's side gets together on a Sunday for lunch, rotating amongst different Aunts and Uncles houses. A couple of weeks ago it was at my Aunt Denise's and just up the road is a little farmette that had a new 2-day old donkey. That meant taking a tiny road trip to go see him =) Besides the donkey's there were lots of sheep, some goats and a few kittens. Parker wondered if the goats were safe because they were "staring him down" (his words, HA!) Beckett was so proud of himself because he was able to catch the kitty he is holding all by himself. There was LOTS of looking down while we walked, if you know what I mean!!!!

A Wedding in the Family

We had a family wedding on this past Saturday night, my cousin Molly got married and we celebrated on her and Curt's behalf!! I took well over 100 pictures, but just picked a few of people who don't really have a say of whether or not they make an appearance on my blog--HA!! Kurt had to work, so Arielle was my date and Parker came out after he was done with his golf meet down in Iowa. A wedding is always a good reason for family to get together =)

Wedding Reception--long time coming!

My Dad grew up in a TINY little "burb" with 3 other guys who all grew up and stayed close. They all married and the 4 couples did many things together, include raising a total of 10 kids. The FINAL one of those 10 was married yesterday and it was a reason to celebrate =) These are pictures from the big party!!

He works hard for the money....

I don't sound a THING like Donna Summer, so don't spend anymore time imagining me belting out that little ditty in the title.
No no--Parker had his Senior pictures taken today after school. (Flashback to Arielle's turn: she had at least 3 sittings and what seemed like 27 outfits---which had to be accomplished the nano-second she stopped being a Junior in HS. Parker: oh hey, we should get your senior pictures done one of these days....) We are fortunate beyond belief that FIL is a professional PHOTOGRAPHER, not even close to a FAUX-TOGRAPHER--big difference peeps! Even MORE fortunate is that he keeps agreeing to use his skills to make this motley crew look good for things like yearbooks and wedding albums.
And it's not easy! Between Parker making faces NOT suitable for publication in a book that half of his classmates will not be able to locate by 2014, Beckett tearing around insisting that he is NOT in the shot and the Mamarazzi, it's darn amazing that Grandpa doesn't self-medicate as soon as we clear the driveway!!
Anyhow, these are a few pictures of Grandpa working his magic for those he loves (and thank you Kurt for that!)

What stared out as the PFD picnic post

Today was the annual picnic for the families of our local fire department, of which Kurt is a proud 10+ year member. There's a yummy lunch, rides on an old fire truck, games for all ages, etc. The big draw for the boys at this point is getting to climb in, on, around, under, well--you get the idea--all of the big red trucks (we're a classic type of community!).
They'd had their momentary fill of the row of trucks in one area of the parking lot and were heading towards the big tower truck, when who do we see but Kurt's Uncle David, cousin Greg and his family! Including cousins Carson and Piper and their Momma =) Carson is Beckett's age and had been wishing he could see the trucks up closer and voila, there was Kurt to fulfill his wish =)
Miss Piper wasn't as enthralled with the apparatus as all of those boys and she wasn't willing to sit for a picture on those big red beasts without Cyndy, but we did get one!
We don't get to see these guys nearly often enough!

Olive Garden

Well, when I am slow between posts, it's easy to bust me! Clearly, we deviated from my well-thought-out meal planning by venturing out to Olive Garden last night! Beckett had an appointment with a dermatologist for a lingering rash and he was a VERY good boy so I said we'd go to OG as a treat. (Where he proceeded to only order breadsticks)
The trip had another purpose though, and we were able to finish off the last of school supply shopping and pick up the special soap and cream that was recommended for Beckett.
The 5yo has realized that Mom always has a camera in her purse and he takes great pride in documenting outings: his milk cup, the ceiling, menus, my salad plate, Paxton's hand, you get the idea. I get lots of practice with the delete button...

Chillaxing...

So since my parents camping trip got cut short the other day, there was food that WOULD have been prepared around a fire but wouldn't be. So Mom and I pooled resources and grilled out for 14 peeps with a buffet of brats, burgers, dogs, chicken breasts and legs. Round that out with cukes, potato salad, pasta salad, sliced tomatos, cut up fresh fruit and noone went hungry!
And since my point and shoot is with me as long as my purse is with me: say CHEESE!!!