Bicoastal Thanksgiving

Some members of the family spent Thanksgiving in the midsection of the United States while others enjoyed the holiday on the West Coast as well as the East Coast. Erin and Jeannie were able to spend time together on Nantucket Island. The girls reported that the weather was very chilly, but clear. The first picture is taken in front of Brandt Point Lighthouse. It looks like Erin is serving up a beautiful turkey with all the trimmings for their dinner. The girls enjoyed a real New England feast with several other friends from the Whaling Museum. Meanwhile at Morro Bay, the weather was warm and sunny as we enjoyed a Thanksgiving breakfast in the backyard. The smoked turkey for dinner was delicious, as always. Not only was it Stephanie and John's first Thanksgiving dinner, but we also enjoyed the company of two exchange students from Munich, friends of Allison's from Cal Poly. The last picture is taken with Mom and Dad and the grandchildren on Cuesta Ridge, along a fire road at the top of Cuesta Grade, outside of San Luis Obispo. We took a picnic supper there and enjoyed breathtaking views as the sun was setting over the ocean. As dusk settled in, it did get chilly and breezy. All across the country, where ever we were, it was wonderful being together as a family for Thanksgiving.

Utah Thanksgiving

The weather has been perfect here for Thanksgiving. We hiked to the Y on the mountain above BYU in the morning and then had a delicious dinner at the Christensen's in South Jordan. The Christensen rolls and desserts are always unparalleled. Last night, we all went to Temple Square to see the hundreds of thousands of lights lit for the Christmas season. It was cold but really made it seem like the holiday season was in full swing. Today, is carpet cleaning at the townhouse and watching the bitter rivalry BYU vs. University of Utah football game. It's been a great way to spend the long weekend, despite not being with the whole family.

Silver Bells

For reasons not known to us Lansing has its kick off to the Christmas season over a week before Thanksgiving. So we went out to enjoy the party streets near the Capitol with some neighbor friends of ours (Joyce, Deb and Paiton) to enjoy fireworks and an electrical light parade. Roots stayed bundled up in her mom's coat to stay warm.



This picture has been altered a little to drown out the effects of having a flash. I would have trashed this picture, Root's face really shows how much she was enjoying being out and about with friends.



This is us in front of the tree that was lit up in by the capitol building.



Here is a cute pic of Roots helping make the bed. Where does she get those faces???

Poverty and Wealth in Lousiana

The final day of the trip was spent going into the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. Even though it is over two years since the Katrina hurricane, it looked like only about 10 to 20 % of the houses were being lived in. There is still so much to be done there. The final picture is of Alana at Oak Alley Plantation along the River Road.

New Orleans Nights and Days

The annual Congress of Cities was held in New Orleans this year, with over 4000 elected officials in attendance. Margaret had the NLC Board meeting and dinner at Antoine's and spoke to a group of other councilmembers on the City/School partnerships in Duarte. Alana took a few days off and flew to New Orleans to meet with attorneys that are involved in city government. One of the things that we did was to help rebuild New Orleans in some of the devastated parts of the city. The three pictures are of a one- day operation to put together a playground for a badly deteriorated neighborhood. The first picture is about 11:30 a.m. and the final picture is of part of the play equipment about 4 p.m. There were about 200 people to help make the playground a reality. We have learned a lot of lessons from this trip about being prepared for disasters in the city.

Playing Dressup

I don't really understand what Halloween is. Mom borrowed some funny clothes and kept getting me dressed and laughing at me. (You can tell by looking at my face in the pictures that I didn't think it was funny at all). Daddy kept giving me brightly colored wrappers to chew on while he ate the boring brown stuff that was inside the wrappers. So, I'm pretty sure I got the good end of the deal on that one.
Mom said I was too young to go trick-or-treating, but maybe next year.

More North Shore

The first picture is taken from the balcony of the condo. It had just rained 3 inches overnight and as you can see, there is a lake where there is usually no lake on the first fairway of the golf course. This was Grammie and Grampie's 67th Anniversary so we celebrated with breakfast out on the deck. The next picture was taken in front of the huge banyan tree that is about a mile walk from the condo in the jungle. Finally, Meg and Gavin are pictured in front of Turtle Bay with the Turtle Bay Resort and the golf course in the background. Aloha!

Hang Loose, Gavin

Yesterday was a nice day for the beach so we headed down to Sunset Beach, where they are starting a surf championship today. Fortunately during the night a big storm came through and today there are big waves. Gavin liked the warm sand and even liked getting the bottom part of his body wet in the ocean. Looks like we have a future surfer here.

Ghosts, Goblins and Whales on Nantucket!

Erin reports from Nantucket Island that there were many fun activities for the local residents on Halloween. All of the docents at the Nantucket Whaling Museum dressed up in a variety of different costumes. Erin decided to play Jane Austen for the day, dressing up as one of the characters from Pride and Prejudice. Leading the parade down Main Street was Clara the Whale, escorted by her bodyguard, the harpooner. The local children followed Clara throughout the downtown, trick or treating along the way. The museum uses the whale costume for special occasions. If I were Clara the Whale, I'd try to keep a few steps ahead of the harpooner. That harpoon looks pretty sharp!

Hawaiian Halloween

Gavin arrived in Hawaii to "help" redecorate the condo with his Mom, Grandma and Great Grandparents. He dressed up in his giraffe costume and we all went up to the resort to watch the sunset over the ocean while we had Happy Hour. Gavin met a friend up there, Avery, who was dressed as a Hawaiian girl. . .but Gavin won the best costume award.

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.