Free Hugs

Caught these guys walking down South Temple. I asked to take their photo for this project... got the photo plus three free hugs. Nice!

Chick-fil-a Bliss

We were four very happy former Southerners when Dan brought us back Chick-Fil-A sandwiches from his LA trip! Not having a chick-fil-a has been a hard WA adjustment. I know it may sound strange but food memories are strong for me! We spent many Thursday evenings together at Chick family nights with $1 kids meals, a clown who knew our kids by name and did awesome face painting. Many of our friends would meet us there for good food and adult conversation. While our kids took over a section of the restaurant, we adults solved(or at least vented about) life's trickiest problems, schools, neighbors, car problems, kid problems and lots of other stuff. In the first part of this pregnancy, I couldn't hold down much but every couple days the world's best chicken sandwich would call to me and I (or Dan) would go on a run. So needless to say, we didn't care this night that we had already made dinner, we had squished sandwiches instead and loved every buttery delicious crumb! Thanks Danny!

Trials and Travels in Fort Lauderdale

US Paralympic academy

Matthew was invited to attend this today. They let the kids try out some of the events they did at the Olympics. He got to try rugby, javelin, disces, shot put. If you ever have the chance to see someone play rugby or basket ball in a wheelchair you should watch it. It is unbelievable how hard and how fast they play. The also had some of the members of the 2008 Paralympic team there one of them Jim Bob Bizzel http://usparalympics.org/athlete/athlete/2192 had a his gold and silver metals with him he let us hold them they are very cool, larger and heavier than I thought. Matthew is hoping to start working out with the local team St Luke's when they start swimming again.

Happy Birthday Katie!!

 

Katie had her first double birthday this year.  It is hard to believe that she is 11 years old!  Katie has a wonderful sense of humor and we are happy she is part of our family.  Katie has been a real trooper about moving and we are glad that she didn't decide to stay behind in GA when we left.  Katie requested chocolate raspberry cake which was very yummy!

This year we had the added bonus of having Mom and Dad and Kristie with us on the birthday.  We carved pumpkins (it was great to have a couple of extra helpers) and played a couple of hands of Mexican train.  Katie won a hand and so did Dad of course!

 

6 wet pigs

The day we went to the rain forest appropriately enough it rained and rained and rained and rained.  David's warning about not wearing cotton was very appropriate!  It was a very gloomy day but the hiking pigs had fun.  (Mom and the sisters in law were smart and dry at the beach house)  It was a great hike that took us through the beautiful forest.  The trees were unbelievably tall and there were lots of pockets of fall colors amongst the evergreens.  The rain gave the whole place an otherworldly feel the day we were there.

After our hike we were told by the lady at the visitors center that some of the biggest trees in the world were nearby.  We drove out and saw a couple.  The coolest one was the cedar tree.  It was almost completely hollow inside.  We were all able to stand it it quite comfortably.

On the way home Dad offered to buy  us all a drink.  We all got our drinks then dad remember he didn't have his wallet.  (He did pay back though!)  It was a great first day of the reunion.

FUN FUN FUN!!

 

It was a great few days at the Beach.  David and Lana did a great job putting this together and having lots of fun activities.  We missed having Deb there though!  I thought the funnest thing we did was dig clams on the beach.  Kristie and I saw this sign on the day we left and thought it was funny.  She reluctantly agreed to pose for the picture.  You know how shy she can be...

I hope people take time to post their pictures and their thoughts.  I will do more later!

Trick or Treat

Every year we put out candy at Amcor for trick or treaters, but we buy the .02 per piece kind. There is one business in town that is a little more generous......Me and the 8 kids are planning on stopping by there, we might even change our costumes a few times like the good old days!!

Homecoming 2008

Here's Clay and his lovely girlfriend Anastasia at her home before homecoming dinner. They went to the Bugaboo Steakhouse for dinner and then went to the dance at Watkins Mill High School. Clay, Anastasia, and some of their friends came back to the house to watch a movie and hang out.

Here's Eliott and his lovely girlfriend Maira at our home after he made her, with my help, a tuna salad sandwhich waiting for her brother-in-law to pick them up to take them to the high school. After the dance they went to her cousin's son's birthday party until they went home that evening.

Happy 4....th birthday Deborah

I am not sure this is the last of your October birthdays, but its the one that you should not have to do any work for other then opening presents.

I have had a lot of fun over the years being your little brother, it was great having a older sister that would protect me and to take care of me and help me along the way of life.

I Love these next two pictures, it reminded me a lot of you and David as kids most of the time you were great palls, but sometimes one of you needed to make sure that the other one knew that you were in charge.

There is still some debate if David is helping you to stay in your chair or helping you to get out of your chair. It looks to me like he was concerned that his little sister was going to fall.

Here you are reading a book, I am sure that you read a lot to me and Charlie, I can remember you doing it. This picture makes me miss my frog pillow, how about you?


Rather funny looking back on this, but this was about the time of one of our few fights, you with Jayson causing problems and me being a moody teenager....looking back I am not sure how none of you killed me. I would guess you would not have had a hard time convincing a jury that it was justifiable homicide when your brother tells his 8 month pregnant sister to walk to Skidmores. We really always got along very well, and considering that we were so close in age we really got along very very well!!!!









I love this picture of you and Mom, the two happy little girls laying in bed.

I really appreciate having you for a big sister and look forward to many years of you watching out for me!!

Bring your sweaters (and your rain gear)

It is going to be a cold weekend at the beach! If you don't have any gear for the rain let me know. I have a couple of jackets that are windproof and should hold out the water pretty well. It is going to get cold at night as well! It will almost feel like winter up here.

I can't wait to see everyone!

Christmas time

Lana sent this out this morning, she suggested that it was posted, so here it is.

Yeah, it's early but David asked me about Sibling Christmas Exchange, so I decided to email all. Dan may want to post it because I don't know if my emails are current. 2008 (it is that strange year that the person giving also receives)

David gives to Charlie

Deborah gives to Dan

Michael gives to Kristi

Charlies gives to David

Dan gives to Deborah

Kristi gives to Michael ( a thoughtful gift would be all expense guided trip to Chile)

I have anything wrong let me know. I am going by the card I keep in the recipe box.

Mt Rainier in the backyard

I wish Mt Rainier was visible from my yard but it is a short drive or walk away to where we can see it. I came home from a business trip on friday night and Rainier was being lit up by the sunset. It was an incredible sight to drive home with. I had the idea of going out to take pictures saturday night. Katie went out with me and had her own camera to take pictures. Alas the sunset wasn't nearly as cooperative on saturday as it was on Friday and the pictures weren't nearly as dramatic. Katie and I had fun watching the mountain and then watching airplanes land at the small airport by our house.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday and/or thursday! Be prepared for some cool weather!

Happy Birthday Jaqui

Jaqui had two parties (what is it about Libras ... we can't have just ONE party?!) On her actual birthday (Oct 9th) we took her dancing in Bethesda where we had a blast until waaaay too late on a work night. And then the next night her family came to the MV house for cake, potato soup (of course!) and present opening. We didn't know it was a Peruvian tradition to smear the birthday person with cake, but we found out when Jaqui's extremely polite and sweet grandma grabbed a fingerful of frosting and smeared it all over Jaqui. You can see how much fun her grandma had (below). Jaqui had less fun with the tradition, especially when the frosting got under her contacts. Ouch!

Jaqui, Jaylin, Jaqui's cousin Milu and her baby Talia eating potato soup. Grandpa Oscar and Jocie are in the background. Jaylin (who might be made out of potatoes her mommy and daddy love them so much) likes potato soup too.



Jon, Jaqui and Jayson at Sacos in Bethesda


Cathy (Jaqui's sister), Milu, Jaqui and Deb at Sacos ... one of my favorite things about Jaqui is that she teaches me to dance ... what do you think Jaqui, it's only been what 5 or 6 years of lessons. Am i getting any closer :-)

Jaylin is ONE!

Little Jaylin is getting very big. She knows how to walk and can say some words ... "go" "mama" "da!" .... she's also very talented at getting what she needs - not that it's hard when you have 12 aunts and uncles, two parents, four grandparents and seven great grandparents and great great grandma all at your disposal!

Jaqui's sisters threw a wonderful first birthday party for little Jaylin (this was the BIG birthday party - Jaylin also had one in South Carolina with her friends - and their parents and one at Chuck E Cheese. Here are some pictures of Jaylin on her big day(s).

E gives Jaylin a big kiss ...... Jon and the boys clean up at Chuck E. Cheese ...



Jaylin with her pretty mommy .. all dressed up for the birthday party.

With uncle Joe in the moon bounce

The cake the Ward-Anderson family (and several of the kids friends) made for Jaylin. The first cake is Peru, the second is Dora (the theme of the party was Dora the explorer) skiing in Utah, the next cake is Maryland and the Chesapeake where Dora is sunning on the beach and the last cake is the Carolina's all dressed up in camouflage like daddy wears to work. Dora has on her red, white and blue.

Jaylin says, "please drive me in my new car uncle Clay ..." they drive around the yard then back to grammy Deb for another bite of fish. Life is good when you are Jaylin.

Nate and Jaylin catchin' some rays.

Jaylin and Tia Jocie on the slide at Chuck E. Cheese. If you could only hear the laugh ....

Snuggle up with uncle clay ..

A pretzel is ....

A pretzel is ..... "knot bread!"

If you say this aloud to your children they will argue with you until the cows come home with the rationale that pretzels definitely are (as you have pointed out) bread.

:-)
Thanks for the warm welcome home. I'm very glad to be here!

Why the black background?

Dear Blog administrator please loose the black background.
Thanks,
Sore Eyes

Hey now.

Hi Y'all ..
I'm back from MS and almost human again. I found my camera yesterday in one of the boxes, but only AFTER Jaylin's 1st birthday party. No worries - her daddy and mommy took 1,382 pictures so we'll get some up soon.


In the meantime - i have a question:

What is a pretzel?

I'll post the answer in a day or two .. but i wanna see your guesses in the comment section.

Fun at the Science Center on Stacey's blog

Here is a link to Stacey's family & Dan's family at the science center together: http://ihavenogreaterjoy.blogspot.com/2008/10/fun-at-science-center.html

Hard to believe..........

He has been fighting it for years, he even stayed 50 for 10 or so years, but some how dad has made it to 70 years old today.

During all those years, he has had a lot of adventures and has enjoyed most of them with the people pictured above. He is a proud parent of 6 kids, 20.8 grand children and one (hard to believe someone so young) great grand child.

Some times those kids and grand kids have pulled a face or two, but he is has put up with us and kept taking us along on his adventurous life.

Dad has climbed mountains with us (a few times even paid someone to make sure we were being safe). Taught most of us to fish, ride a bike, drive a car (some of us did not wait for our first lesson, that was a lesson for those younger to wait).

It is hard to beleive that you are 70, but based on the number on last years cake, you must be 70 this year.

Dad and mom are on to the big adventure that retirement will bring, and that they are really enjoying. I am very grateful to have a dad like you!!!

What a cute picture to end this post on.... Happy birthday dad, I Love you and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Michael

Happy Birthday Chas!!!

Chas turned 7 October 2nd. Chas lives his life with great enthusiasm. He is almost always the first one up in our family and we love him so much.

We made Chas wait until his birthday to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa so he was up nice and early on October 2nd.

Some facts about Chas.

He has more muscles than teeth right now.

He is named after Dad. This year Dad turned 70 and Chas turned 7. (as a side note, Dad is twice as old as me) Dad wanted Chas to wait until his birthday but like usual Chas wasn't going to wait for anyone.

Chas is an excellent reader and loves to sound words out.