Messy Days

Roots got to help carve her first pumpkin yesterday. This was one time when procrastination really paid off, we got all of our pumpkins half-off at the garden since it was so close to Halloween. We got two big ones and a Rooter size one as well.



Here is Roots with her pumpkin. Her dad helped her with it. She liked to play with the seeds and pulp in the bottom of the pumpkin. I guess she liked the feel of it in her fingers. We had to make sure that she kept it out of her mouth though.



Here are the finished products. Although when I got home today I noticed that some squirrel or rabbit took apart part of the pumpkin that says "Root". Grrrrrr. Megan and Brielle have been enjoying the cool Fall days, but only Megster knows the winter that is about to come upon us.



Roots ate her first solid foods about 2 weeks ago. Here she is with her food pacifier (you put soft food in a little mesh thing and she gums it out little by little) and looking a little messy.



How can you not love that face. That is a little bit of sweet potato. It is her first solid food and she likes it. She attacks her spoon when it is in front of her face, but then again she does that with her stuffed penguin's beak as well.

Discovery

Gavin has finally discovered the family cat. Several weeks ago I noticed him watching the cat as she walked by, but now it is full contact. She doesn't mind now, but it won't be long before she runs when she sees him coming.

Fall Goodness

We went to the Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse show this past weekend. It was really a lot of fun. We got to get up close and personal with horses that weigh as much as 2500 lbs! They are really amazing creatures to see. There were competitions of weight pulling and wagon riding (yeah I don't know the real terms). Good mid-west fun!





Below are a few videos from the MBLI show. The movie below is of a draft horse team hauling a truck. They alter the "weight" of the truck (called a dynamometer) by increasing the resistance to the wheels. This video shows them pulling 3200 pounds, but they went well over 4500 pounds by the end of the night.



The next video is of an 8 hitch team of draft horses. It was impressive to see the drivers handle the horses. Each horse has two reigns for a total of 16 reigns per wagon. The driver steers each horse individually. Talk about getting your lines crossed!



Here is a quick video of Roots out in front of the house. She loves the leaves. Too bad she is not old enough to actually do anything to help clean them up!

Fall Time In Michigan

Mom says it is called fall because the leaves fall off the tree. This is a picture of when I was helping mom rake them all up. There are still lots on the tree though, so we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Baseball is Everywhere

Although this is a few weeks late, these pictures are still worthy of the blog. The first two are from a weekend trip that Brooke made out here to DC. It just so happened that she surprised me a week later by showing up for my birthday (we won't really talk about why though). We walked to all of the monuments and memorials on the mall and ate at Zorba's, a great little Greek place. The first picture is from Mormon night at RFK Stadium and number two is taken from the Lincoln Memorial.
The last picture is from a National's game (a group of us got tickets to this game the day before from a friend) and we were sitting three rows behind the National's dugout. You may be asking me who the couple is in the picture. This is Charlie and Sada Brotman. You may be asking me who are Charlie and Sada Brotman. He was the stadium announcer for the old Washington Senators Baseball team and is quite well-known throughout the sports community. I had a lovely conversation with Sada throughout the game and she told me all about the team.
Its good to be in DC.

Michigan's Indian Summer

We've been enjoying the last few days of warm weather. The first two pictures are of me in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. I loved putting my feet in the water and playing in the sand. The 3rd and 4th pictures are at the Splash Pad at our favorite park-Hawk Island. It was close to bedtime, so I was not happy to be out playing and was not a fan of getting splashed by the water. Maybe next summer I'll like it better.

Gavin's Exercise

Gavin has been spending quite a bit of his time figuring out what his body can do. Just about everything he gets his hands on ends up in his mouth. He just had his four month check up getting another round of shots and weighing in at 15 lbs. and 14 oz. He only enjoys being on his tummy for about 2 minutes and then is happy to be on his back again practicing rolling.

Biking in Germany Along the Mosel and Saar Rivers

Here are several shots of our trip to Germany for the bike trip. Most nights we were docked in small towns with castles on the hills surrounding the towns. One of the pictures is where we are all preparing for our ride that day in the lounge, discussing what routes we were going to take. Another picture is of Helen, Dad, Mom and Margaret taking a break from cycling and relaxing along the Mosel River with a bowl of suppe lunch. The path that Mom and Jim are riding on was the start of a long hill that took us into the town of Mettlach (home of the German porcelain, Villeroy and Boch). The barge that we were on had 22 guests, with 3 couples being German. We enjoyed getting to know everyone and learning to speak a modicum of German.

Ellie's Tricks

Brielle is 5 months old today, and growing like...well like the "root" that she is. So, here are some of her new tricks...
Eating anything and everything she can get her mouth on. (I haven't given her solid foods yet, but she loves blankets, toothbrushes, spoons, etc.)

Sitting (only briefly unassisted) while jabbering unintelligibly--at least I can't understand her.

And her latest...standing!


Also, since she loves to travel with Mom and Dad, here are a couple more pictures from our trip this last weekend. This is at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie. This boat was 1015 feet long and 104 feet wide!