Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend! For starters, Saturday was Sawyer's birthday. He asked for a tea party for breakfast (why not?).

Than he and I went on a hike in Cub Run Stream Valley Park.


Later in the day, we went to two friends' wedding, where Sawyer was the ring bearer (he did great). Here is a picture of the three of us all dressed up:

On Sunday, we invited his friends from school to a party at a nearby nature center. They heard about local animals (including getting to pet a snake):


And they went searching for lizards (they saw two):


And they ate Spiderman cake (decorated by Becky).


I can safely say that a good time was had by all!

Sledding

We're in the middle of a record snowstorm, and we took a break from shoveling to try out our new sled.

Three

Sawyer had his third birthday at the end of August.

We had some friends and family over to my parents' house. Becky made a great robot cake.

It was a good time :-)

AAAAAHHHHHHHH

100

For one of her grad-school classes this semester, Becky had several large projects, including a 15 page research paper that took several weeks to write. The professor sent an email this morning saying that she learned a few things from Becky's paper, and that Becky got a 100 on it.

New Year's in Colorado

We traveled to Colorado for the week of New Year's with my parents, my sister's family, and my brother-in-law's brother's family. Snowy weather activities ensued.

Teresa, Alan and Sawyer ready for the slopes:
Jim and I at 10k feet in Winter Park. This isn't even the top of the mountain.

Sawyer and Nana making snowmen.

Becky and Sawyer taking a break outside our cabin:

Papa trying out his new snowshoes:

One very exciting thing we did as a group was go tubing at Fraser Tubing Hill.

Here's one run where we went down in a big group. It may not seem like it, but we're going very, very fast.:


To give it some perspective:


All these pictures are from the three family cameras. I don't even remember who took them, but most weren't me.

Thanksgiving '08

Living close to our parents has lots of advantages (including free babysitting). One big plus is that we're able to all get together for Thanksgiving.


My parents hosted, and we were joined by Becky's parents and their friend Wayne.


The food was great (my mom brined a turkey) and there was lots of it (I had a piece of each of the 3 pies). Here's my dad expertly carving the bird.


Here's Sawyer giving a tour of the photos in the house. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time. Thanks to my parents for hosting! :)

Wheeeeee

...eeeeeeeee...


...eeeeeeeeeee...

...eeeee!

(photos of one of the slides from our trip to Cox Farms fall festival)

Update on Becky's school

Becky's been busy with grad school, so I asked her a few questions for the blog.

---

What classes are you taking right now?
Intro to computers, intro to organizational systems, and intro to networks which starts in a few weeks.

How do you like the classes?
They are challenging. It's a lot of information to take in at once, but it's interesting. It's good to learn new things.

So you just took a midterm in your computer class, how'd you do?
Got an A. (a 97%)

Any other tests coming up. How do you think you'll do?
My first one for organizational systems. I'm nervous.

Anything else you want to say about school?
I'm hoping I can keep my job and pay for it :-)

Breaking News (from Becky)

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you the following announcement... I got into grad school! Class starts next week. Wish me luck!

edit from Tim: details in the comments.

Tour of Sprucewold Lodge

Last post about our trip! As I mentioned, we went to Boothbay and stayed in Sprucewold Lodge, which is an incredible log-cabin style lodge in a beautiful forest above the harbor. The building had a great classic look (the halls reminded us a little of The Shining), it was clean, the food was fantastic, and the staff was very helpful and friendly. We really had a fun time --

Here's Sawyer giving a tour of the lobby:

You'll notice the lobby features both an inside and an outside.

Also, they had funny hats in the dining area.
Which Sawyer refused to partake in.

Maine State Aquarium

While we were in Maine, we went to Boothbay Harbor to meet up with Becky's parents while they were staying there on vacation.

On Monday, we all went to visit the Maine State Aquarium. It's small, but just the right length for a toddler's attention span. Sawyer's favorite part (by far) was the 'Tidepool Touch Tank,' where a museum volunteer allows you to reach into a shallow tank and feel different animals; Sawyer wasn't gentle enough for creatures like starfish and crabs ("CAB CAB CAB!"), so we focused on more sturdy critters like oysters and clams.

Another tank had the biggest lobster ("LOPPER LOPPER LOPPER!") I've ever seen (at 23 pounds, it weighs as much as Sawyer.)

After Sawyer was good and wet from splashing in the tidepool tank, we went outside to watch the boats in the harbor. A very nice day!

At the lake

We had a quiet couple of days up in Maine.

Snow

Sawyer's first snow.

This picture was taken before he accidently got a face full of the white stuff, (which he didn't like).

Heading home

We flew up to Maine for my cousin Sarah's wedding this weekend. Everyone had a good time, and Sawyer enjoyed seeing my relatives.

Checkout is in 15 minutes, so we're packing up to go home right now...

Sawyer's eye view

Maybe this is how the world looks to Sawyer when he's laying in his crib.

Before / After

Here's a pic of Sawyer from Monday when he was about an hour old...


Also... here's a "before" picture taken last Saturday.