Hockey begins anew

Caleb started hockey practices about a month ago, and this evening he had his team photo taken!


Ready for a face-off.


Awwww!

More fall fun

With mommy at work all day today, Sarah spent nearly four hours in the backyard with Daddy, helping rake leaves and trim evergreen trees.


Look at that focus ... she's such a good little helper.


Sarah has a rather unorthodox method of smooshing down the leaves in the bag ... the FACE PLANT!


She laid down in a leaf pile and said this to me: "Look at the clouds, daddy!"


"Hello, everybody! I love you! MWAH!"

Halloween 2008

Well, Lucas and Caleb took off to go trick-or-treating before Erin could get pictures of them, so once again, Sarah is in the spotlight. Daddy had to work, so Sarah and mommy went to the houses in our cul-de-sac, then came back home to give out candy to the little monsters who came to our door. Sarah got a new kitty-cat outfit for this Halloween!


MEOOWW!!


Don't step on my tail!


TWICK OHW TWEAT!!!


You want some of my candy, Daddy?

It could happen

Don't let this be YOU!!!

Halloween's a-comin'!

With Halloween only five days away, the time came to carve pumpkins! Here's Sarah hamming it up while "Michelle Myers" wields her knife. "Don't you dare take my picture!" Michelle said.


Caleb and Lucas dig into the guts with gusto.



"These my friends!" Sarah said. That's Lukie's pumpkin on the left, and Sarah's on the right. She wanted it scary, and Daddy did his worst.


New winter outfit? Check! Grapes in hand? Check! Sarah's ready to go shopping.

SNL favorites

An absolute classic from Saturday Night Live in the 1990s ... The Schweddy Balls skit:

Unbelievable! This very same thing happened to me at work today!

Kristen Wiig portrays Minnesota's own "Crazy Lady" on SNL

Fall has ... fallen

Sarah needed to get out of the house today, and she absolutely LOVES to play with leaves!


Leaf-mover.


Caleb and Lucas with their neighborhood friend, Kelsey.


Sarah had to get in on the action, too!

Sarah's room is finished!

Sarah's new full-size bed arrived at the furniture store today, so we went and picked it up, along with her new bedside dresser. After a family appointment and supper at Old Chicago, mommy and daddy put the bed together tonight.



Sarah absolutely LOVES her new bed! She and mommy are going to sleep in it tonight. Here you can see the bed and dresser, along with a bunny rabbit quilt Sarah's great-aunt Mary Ellen made for her when she was born. Two of the bunnies on the quilt (bunnies six and seven) are even made of material from Sarah's great-grandma Ella Gordon!


Mommy did a nice green and purple paint job on Sarah's room, along with a white stripe at the top.


Sarah even has removable flowers and butterflies in her room. She's pointing to her favorite flower. Good night!

The Challenge

No pix today. Instead, I issue a challenge to all (five?) readers of this blog. Here it is:

THE CHALLENGE
1. Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else reading has done. Keep it clean.
2. If anybody responds with "I've done that," you must add another thing.
3. Encourage your friends to paste this into their own journal to list the unique things they've done.

Rich's list:
1. Ridden a bicycle at 52.5 mph down a hill. (I didn't have a wife or kids then. ;-))
2. Shaken the hand of presidential candidate (then vice president) George H.W. Bush (ick).
3. Intentionally spun an airplane from 10,500 feet down to 9,000 feet. (It was a training requirement to become a flight instructor, mom. I promise.)

Stranger than fiction

You know, I was looking at this picture today, and it reminded me of another famous photo ...


Yes, I believe Sarah is a descendant of the infamous BIGFOOT!










(Photo: alleged image of Bigfoot, from the Patterson-Gimlin film)

Last day of summer

The air is getting crisper in the mornings, leading to ... a frenzied search of the outdoors for Moby the cat, who escaped this evening. While Caleb, Lucas and their friend Noah got down and dirty underneath our deck to look for our wayward cat, Moby snuck back in the house, leaving them to become ever filthier. Look at those knees!


Sarah enjoyed a late-season sandbox session.


While Harley stole the spotlight from Max, who's chewing on something in the background.


"You can't catch me, Daddy! You can't catch me!"


Gettin' ready to swing...

Look at that concentration!


Now it's time to jump on the trampoline.


"Like a diamond in the sky..."


Sarah wouldn't hold still for a group shot. Instead, she ran circles around them!


Daddy picked up a "Dora the Explorer" educational computer game for Sarah, who was mesmerized for a couple of hours at the computer this evening. She's learning to use the computer mouse to color pictures online, and she can also count to 10 in Spanish! "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro..."

Minneapolis Bike Tour

Rich met up with six bicycling friends today to ride in the second annual Minneapolis Bike Tour with some 8,000 other bike riders. Suzanne is taking the picture, so here are (from left), Laura, Steve, Rich, Bob, John and Curt. We had temperatures in the 50s all day, and the rain held off until after we were finished! We did the short 14-mile loop first, then followed up with the long 37-mile route around the beautiful Minneapolis parkways (which were blocked off to traffic).


Suz loads up on bananas.


Here we are at a rest stop near Minnehaha Falls, doing what we do best: EAT! Curt and Steve always say, "We're an eating group with a bicycling disorder."


Hmmm. I don't know ... I think Laura only claimed to be cold so the guys would gather around her.


Near the University of Minnesota, we rode past the spot where most of the steel beams from the collapsed I-35W bridge were moved. I figure this is where the NTSB is doing much of its examination of the beams.

Another view of the bridge remains. The University of Minnesota is in the background there, across the Mississippi River.


We also rode beneath the NEW I-35W bridge, which is supposed to open to traffic this coming Tuesday, only 13 months after the old bridge collapsed. Looks like they only have a bit more painting to do.


A view of the new Guthrie Theater, which was completed two or three years ago. Check out that "floating bridge" that extends across the road. There's nothing supporting it on the right side of the road ... it's completely supported by the theater building on the left side of the road.


We also rode across the Stone Arch Bridge, one of my favorite spots in Minneapolis. That's downtown Minneapolis in the background. Soon after this photo was taken, I got the first of three flat tires he suffered during the ride. No harm done, however, and Bob and Curt were there to assist.

We're baaaack!

After a month-long hiatus, our blog is back in action. (We lost the camera, and it turned up in the minivan's glove box!) Here's a shot from last month when Sarah and mommy went nuts with the Reddi-Whip.


"Greendale is a bodaciously small town, Lane. A fly speck on the map - a rest stop on the way to the ski slope. I can't even get real drugs here!" (Ellaina ... name that movie.)


On the way to the store? To pick up her brothers? Only Sarah knows...


"Cheeeeese!"


Erin finished painting Sarah's room (purple and green!) last month, and we're trying to get Sarah to start sleeping over there. Her new bed is on order, and for now she's got a mattress on the floor.