Mr. Webelo

Here's Noah all ready to go to his next Webelos meeting. He's in his second year as a Webelo, and will become an official Boy Scout next spring!

At the last meeting, Noah earned pins for engineering, swimming, and his outdoorsman skills.

In this photo, Noah is wearing Rich's old neckerchief clasp from 28 years ago.

Strung out on cereal

"Oh please, please, PLEASE don't take away my baby cereal."

Sarah's first Halloween!

Here's Sarah wearing the cute Halloween outfit that her nanny and Grandma Gordon bought for her. I don't think she'll be scaring anyone during trick-or-treating tomorrow night!

She says, "BOO!"

Little chompers

Sarah turned seven months old on Oct. 18! Here she's showing off her new teeth, which she likes to click together. She also swiped Dad's cell phone and is trying to figure out a way to call YOU.

Sarah's Aunt Ellaina flew in from Oregon to visit a week ago, and they got caught up on some snuggling time.

Sarah sits for photos

Erin took Sarah to Babies R Us a couple of days ago and they got snookered into a free photo session there. Sarah was a little sleepy, and since her crazy daddy wasn't there to help get her to smile, she's a bit reserved on all of her photos. Here's daddy's favorite...

Just a big hole in the ground

The old Letcher-Gordon family homestead in Richfield is no more. It was razed to the ground in late September. Here's a view (taken about a week ago) looking northeast from the intersection of 17th Ave. S. and 64th St.



This is looking north from 64th St.



Looking northwest from the driveway (visible in the foreground).

Where's Bam-Bam?

Sarah is sporting her "Pebbles" hairstyle, courtesy of her mom. Erin did her hair up like this, and the boys laughed and laughed, and Sarah giggled right along.

Sarah attended her first Twins game on Sept. 27, when Rich took her and the boys to the Metrodome ... alas, the Twins lost to Kansas City, 6-4. Sarah cried a bit during the first two innings whenever the crowd cheered, but later she got used to it and even took a little nap in the fifth and sixth innings.

A little Letcher reunion

Roger and Gloria held a mini-Letcher reunion at Bowstring last weekend, attended by Bud and Anne, Loren and Diane, Norma, Marie and Dick, Stuart, Sigrid and Thea and Stephanie, Festus and Riley. It rained a lot, but Sunday turned out to be a nice fall day, as you can see from this photo.

Sarah and her mommy!

Our little cutie enjoying her first-ever swing on a hammock.

More reunion pix

Rich and Ellaina's cousin Stuart with his wife, Sigrid, and their five-month-old baby, Thea, who was born about five weeks after little Sarah!

Aunt Marie with two of her kids, Stephanie and Stuart.

Stuart with Thea and Rich with Sarah.

Cutie patootie

Sarah-bear really likes her cloth book, "Counting Colors."

Sarah can't wait until she's old enough to try Lucas's Game-boy video game.

Six months old

Sarah's six months old (and a day) in this picture. She sits up by herself (although she falls over a lot) and likes to say "Da da da da da da da da blooh oooooh aaaaaah!" Lately she just can't get enough of her Gerber pears and applesauce! But she won't eat vegetables, just like her daddy!

Such a big girl

Mom and Dad are sure amazed at how big Sarah is on her six-month birthday! Eighteen pounds and 28 inches long ... she's going to tower over her brothers!

Rub a dub dub

Here's Sarah with Lucas and Caleb in her first bath in the big bathtub. What a bunch of stinkers!

Back to school!

The boys are back in school! Noah and Lucas are in second grade this year, and Noah is in fifth grade. They all like their new teachers.

The second photo was taken last weekend at a 40th birthday party for Erin's cousin Lynnette. Erin is holding Sarah, her sister Libby is holding Peyton and Brian is holding Zane.

Oshkosh 2006

On July 25 Rich, Roger and Noah took their first-ever trip to the EAA fly-in at Oshkosh, Wis. We saw hundreds if not thousands of aircraft, and had a great time!



From the top are Noah and Grandpa in front of a P-40 Warhawk, Noah sitting in the cockpit of a Vietnam-era OV-10 Mohawk, and Rich and Noah in front of a P-51 Mustang.

Noah's dream car

Roush Racing had a bunch of their souped-up cars at the airshow, and Rich and Noah kinda liked this blue Mustang with about 500 horsepower...

Our own magazine cover

Looks like Noah's taking Rich for a wild ride!

Our future airplane?

Rich is a member of AOPA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Each year they refurbish an older aircraft into like-new condition and give it away to one of their members. Here, we're pictured in front of this year's giveaway airplane, a 1967 Cherokee Six 260. They've already put in a new engine, propeller and glass panel, and they're getting ready to do the paint and interior next.

Hmmm, let's see ... six seats in the airplane, for (1) Rich, (2) Erin, (3) Noah, (4) Lucas, (5) Caleb and (6) Sarah. Yep, that's about right!

B1 bomber

One of the more impressive military planes we saw at Oshkosh was the B1 Lancer. Here, Noah is standing by its landing gear.

Future Blue Angel

Noah hopes to be sitting in the cockpit of one of these in another 15 or 20 years. Blue Angel No. 7 was at the fly-in, and during the afternoon airshow we saw him give a ride to actor Harrison Ford, who was in the backseat! They pulled up so hard after takeoff, we're pretty sure ol' Harrison was nearly puking his guts out! He got about an hourlong ride before they returned. Harrison Ford is a pilot himself, in both fixed-wing and rotorcraft.

End of an era

It was a bittersweet day Wednesday, Aug. 16 ... I helped mom and dad move their belongings out of the old Gordon family home in Richfield, and we drove away for the last time. The house where we lived for some 27 years will be razed to make way for a new Super Target. Still, mom and dad are now freed from having two houses and can focus on their retirement home on Bowstring.

Here's how the house looked on that last day. Dad removed many of the windows from the house so he could install them in his workshop up north. So we had to board up the house so nobody could get inside.

Bouncing baby girl

Look how excited Sarah was to get her new bouncy baby play station. Lately she's not been too happy with reclining a lot, so we got her this so she could be upright more without us having to hang on to her.

She passed her four-month checkup at the doctor's office last week with flying colors! She's almost 16 pounds (90th percentile), is 26 inches tall (95th percentile) but still has a smaller head circumference (50th percentile).

Dr. Manney told Erin, "She's perfect. You should have five more just like her!"

Mmmmm ... no. Four's plenty!

Tender loving care

Lucas likes to hold Sarah while he sits on the couch! She gets lots of kisses from Lucas, and he's always one of the first to help try to calm Sarah down when she's fussy!

Little green thumb

Here's Caleb with just a few of the many plants he's nurtured lately. If there's mud on the deck or grass seed scattered in the garage, we know Caleb's been at it again!

Cute bald guys

Four of the best-looking cats at the Gordon reunion!

Rich, Arthur, Bill and Paul...

Mary Ellen and Dick's clan

Thanks to Paul for this picture he took of Mary Ellen and Dick's brood. Only Amy and Sonja are missing. They'd better show up next time!

Roger and Gloria's clan

Here's our family's photo at the 2006 Gordon reunion in Crawfords-ville, IN. We're missing Ellaina, Aaron, Madeline and Ella, who weren't able to fly in from Oregon.

Everyone you see here crammed into Erin and Rich's eight-seat Toyota minivan and traveled 600 miles from Minnesota to Indiana.

We left on a Thursday morning and spent that first night in Davenport, Iowa, after visiting the following places in Iowa: Northwood (Roger's birthplace), Carpenter (where many Gordon ancestors were laid to rest), Marble Rock (where Art, Mary Ellen and Roger lived for several years), and Waverly (where Rich attended Wartburg College, Noah's self-proclaimed future school).

We stayed that night at the AmericInn in Davenport, where Sarah took the first swim of her young life in the hotel pool. The next day, we got up and drove across Illinois to Indiana.

Art and Florence's clan

Here's Arthur and Florence's bunch at the reunion ... I think everyone is in the picture except for Joshua and Joey.

Who's the guy on the right? That's Amber's boyfriend Richard, who's a very personable guy and a pretty good bocce ball player. As you can see from their shirts, they both attend Purdue University, where Amber is studying psychology.

My apologies to Mary Ellen and Dick's clan ... I wasn't present when their group's photo was being taken.

Crystal and Sarah

Sarah got to meet lots of relatives at the 2006 Gordon reunion in Indiana. Here she's being held by Crystal, her third cousin ... at least we think that's the term, right Crystal? Or is "twice removed" supposed to be in there somewhere?

Crystal, who is finishing up her LPN nursing license in early August, never passed up a chance to hold Sarah.

David, Samantha and Sarah

We spent most of Saturday at Bill and Sandra's house, swimming in their pool and eating lots of snacks!

Here, Sarah enjoys a swing with cousin David and his youngest daughter, Samantha.

The boys get a new toy

Here are Lucas, Caleb and Noah with the new basketball hoop their great-grandma wanted them to have. We've been having fun with it, playing the game "H-O-R-S-E."

For the Fourth of July, the entire family drove down to Richfield for the parade. Sarah slept through most of her first parade, but the boys got to see some cool cars, floats, a band, got some free candy and even got to pet some corn snakes and boa constrictors that were in the parade with members of the Minnesota Renaissance Fair.

Happy 230th birthday, America!

Bikers invade Bowstring

Rich and Roger did the annual Jaunt with Jim Klobuchar bike ride this year. During the day off in Grand Rapids, we invited five fellow rider to the cabin for some lunch, bocce ball and relaxing.

Front row: John, Mary, Steve and Rhonda. Back row: Roger, Rich, Erin, Curt and Grandma Myrtle.

Four-generation photo

Sarah at the Bowstring Cabin with her mommy, Grandma Gloria and Great-Granny Myrtle.

Grandma and Grandpa Wynne

Sarah got to see her Grandma and Grandpa Wynne a couple of weekends ago. They brought Nanny over from Minot to visit Gary and Sue's cabin in Remer, then came to visit the Gordon cabin on Bowstring Lake.

As you can see, Sarah took it all in stride ... she loves everyone!

First taste of candy

When babies get their mitts on their first piece of candy...

... it's generally followed by the inevitable sugar crash.

Sarah "saw" her second movie today with Erin and I. We all went to "Mission: Impossible 3," and Sarah slept through nearly the whole thing, even the noisy explosion parts. A few weeks ago, her mom took her and her brothers to see "Over the Hedge."

Daddy daycare

Sarah and daddy got to spend a nice day together today. With the boys in Florida and mommy sleeping upstairs after working the night shift, we had some nice quiet time together. We worked on chatting together (Daddy: "Goo goo?" Sarah: "A-goooo ... gooo ... oooo.").

Here, Sarah is enjoying one of her favorite pastimes ... laying on top of the dining room table and watching her hermit crab toy (pictured) swing back and forth over her head.

Summer vacation begins!

Today was the last day of school for Noah, Lucas and Caleb. They rode home on the bus, then their dad picked them up for his first two-week stint with them this summer. Tomorrow they're all getting on an airliner and going to FLORIDA for about 10 days!

Caleb worried he would miss his mom, so he asked her to attach a picture of her to one of his stuffed animals so he could take it along. Erin will also be talking to the boys every night while they're away.

So it's suddenly QUIET around here! Erin is working her night shift at the hospital, and Sarah and Daddy are getting some quality time together. Tomorrow Daddy's going to start cleaning the house ... and this time, it might actually STAY clean for more than a day or two!