More at Colby & Kathy's

(Continued from the post below - Celebrating Christmas with Kathy & Colby) We have Colby modeling his new shirt, and Kathy showing her new blouse. Kip looks happy with the lantern he got from Grandad. It collapses, so it'll be handy to pack for camp. Ayden, Kip and AJ wait patiently at the table for dinner. They were all well-behaved ... probably because no uncle was making them laugh by showing them a mouth full of food! Some of you know who I'm talking about... And Colby and Lon were not allowed to sit next to each other at the table, ha ha. For those of you unfamiliar with their antics, imagine surprises added to your milk, like peas, salt, olives... some boys never grow up. But they provide a source of amusement to us all!

Pre-Christmas with Colby & Kathy

Two days before Christmas we drove up to Colby & Kathy's and spent the afternoon and evening with them and Allan. We had a delicious ham dinner and opened presents. Kip received several camping-type gifts: an all-purpose tool, a lantern and several flashlights. Lon got a couple very nice-looking shirts and ties. I was ecstatic to receive a generous gift card to Barnes & Noble! Everyone knows by now that I could spend the rest of my life in a bookstore or library and be perfectly content. Here's AJ putting a bow on Colby's head; Ayden and AJ watching Kip play his Game Boy; Kathy reading to Ayden before bedtime. It was good spending time with them for the first time in about 6 months.

Trimming the Tree

Kip picks our tree every year, and each year he picks a really nice one. This year he is tall enough to put the angel on the top without a stepstool or chair! (We measured ourselves yesterday, and he is now 1/4 inch taller than me!) Kip was taking pictures of Blizzard in front of the tree, and I was fooling around, but this turned out to be Lon's favorite picture, ha ha. See the dog's expression, I startled the heck out of him!

Blizzard the Pink-Nosed Rein-Dog

We got the Christmas decorations out, and were waiting for Lon to come home so we could trim the tree. Of course we had to torture the dog, ha ha! Blizzard bore it well, to Kip's delight. Looks like we'll be working on next year's Christmas card picture, eh?

Winter Concert

Kip chose Chorus this year as his elective, and they had their Winter Concert last week. The 7th graders are required to wear a necktie with their white shirt and black pants, and boys always look so nice all dressed up, don't they? Kip surprised us that evening with a certificate showing that he had made the Honor Roll for the first quarter! You can see from our expressions that this is not a regular occurrence, but we hope it becomes one. I tried to post a 20-second video of the concert, but with dial-up, it never finished loading...sigh...

More Thanksgiving weekend

Hadn't seen Norma's sister Natalie in a couple of years, so it was nice to have her and her girlfriend come by while we were at Norma's. Spent a couple of hours laughing about old times. Here's the twins together; Nat with me; and Nat & me with her girlfriend Ann Marie. Is she tall or what?!

Thanksgiving in Connecticut

The Prathers spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with my best friend, Norma. She and I have been friends since 2nd grade! We left Tuesday night after work, driving into the wee hours and arriving about 3 or 4 in the morning. That was cool though, since that's when Norma gets up for work! (Ugh!) Her son Dean taught Kip a couple riffs on his guitar, and we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to the skillful carving of the expert, Lon.

Every weekend, we try to take Blizzard to the dog park for an hour or more of fun and socialization. It seems to consist mostly of sniffing the other dogs' butts, but there is some chasing involved as well. Once in awhile a minor skirmish will break out, but we've never seen anything serious. The park is an acre or two of fenced-in land in a rural area, nice for the dogs, and a great way for dog owners to get together, too. We've seen all kinds of dogs here, from the common Retrievers, Labs, and assorted mongrels, to Greyhounds, Dobermans (Dobermen? ha ha) huge Sheepdogs, Standard Poodles (not the little ones, but full-size)... Blizzard always sleeps good after a day at the dog park!

Halloween '07

First Kip decided he wasn't going trick-or-treating this year. Then he changed his mind and dressed all in black with a skeleton mask on. At the last minute he decided he didn't like how it looked, and asked Lon and me what he should do. How's this for a last-minute costume? I like how my pumpkins turned out, too. I got the ideas from the Internet, but drew them freehand.

Off to the Races

Saturday October 13th Lon, Kip and I went to the Maryland Million horse races at Laurel, Md. We've gone every year with Charlie and Ruth, for at least 10 years. Some years we do really well, and the big winner will buy dinner for everyone. This time I just wasn't feeling it, and couldn't pick a winner to save my life. I finally started winning with a few longshots I picked to show, but never recouped what I had lost. I must have been too busy studying the program to take any pictures of the horses! They were all so beautiful. Maybe next year it will be my lucky day...

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

For Kip's birthday, Lon had given him 4 tickets to an O's game. His friend Suzanne had never been to a pro baseball game, and she quickly got into the spirit of things! The Red Sox started the game with a 2-run homer, which deflated us. We came back with a run. Boston got two more quickly, and we were sad. But all it takes is a couple of home runs, and a grand slam by a rookie, and suddenly it was 8-4 in our favor, and then 11-4, and we were so excited! Boston scored another run late in the game, but it was too little, too late. Baltimore broke its losing streak, and we were witnesses. YAY!

Back to School

School started for Kip September 4th. He has a very good attitude this year. On a 1st day survey, his Science teacher asked, "What does school mean to you?" and Kip's answer was "Discovery". I like that. I told him if he did well the first marking period, he could have his choice of guitar lessons or tennis lessons. Let's see if that motivates him enough.

Labor Day

Charlie & Ruth invited us to their place on the South Fork of the Potomac in WV for Labor Day weekend. We swam in the river and fished. At night we hung out at the campfire and ate s'mores. Charlie made a delicious concoction of bananas, chocolate chips, and marshmallows, wrapped in foil and baked. Yummy! Blizzard swam for the first time. He didn't want to, but Kip and I had swum across the river. After howling and whining for a couple minutes, Blizzard jumped in and came up paddling. Very funny to watch!

Still on vacation!

Coming back from Topsail, we took a 3 hour tour (... a 3 hour tour...) on the S.S. Minnow and ended up on Killian's Island - or was that Gilligan's Island? It seemed strangely familiar... Was it a flashback of some kind?

Of course Lon and Justin had to have their obligatory game of Risk, and Kip proved a worthy opponent.

This last picture was an unremarkable one of Kip playing in the ocean, so I used the "spotlight" effect on it. Looks kinda cool, eh?














All vacations must end sometime, and as we drove home, we ran into the heaviest rain I've ever driven in. I told the boys I thought I made a wrong turn and was driving in the ocean! At least I didn't have to wash the salt and sand off my car by hand; it was like going through 100 car washes at once!

Topsail Beach

Marla took us up to Topsail Beach one day, and we found lots of shark teeth. She and I were examining the sand at the water's edge when a big wave came up and hit us in the butt! Kip and Bailey did some boogie boarding, and played Frisbee with Lon. I also picked up lots of pretty shells, which I am now saving to frame a mirror when we get a "real" house! Got the idea from Susan, whose house we stayed at next to Marla's. She has a huge one over her mantle. I don't know why these pictures look so terrible...is it just my computer? If you click on them, the larger pictures look better.

Go-Carts!

Gentlemen... Start your engines!!

After many years of riding with Lon or me at Jungle Rapids (or Jungle Rabbits, as Kip has called it since he was like 5), Kip is finally old enough to drive the go-cart by himself! Last year he was tall enough, but you have to be 12 years old. He was so excited, but didn't heed the ride operator's warning, and got banned for the day after the first ride, for bumping other cars on purpose. (It was an accident, Mom, I swear!) And can you believe Lon actually got in a car with Jeff Gordon's number?! ha ha

Meeting Jordan

We met Lon's great-niece, Jordan, while at Marla's. Justin and Lori came down Friday night and stayed until Sunday, leaving just minutes before we did. With Kip, she wanted to watch TV. With Lon, she closed her eyes. But she posed nicely for me, almost smiling. She's a beautiful baby, and I'm not just saying that because her parents may read this!

Summer Vacation

Finally, it's that time of year again! We cram half our house into the back of the car, and drive for 6 or 7 hours (depending on whether Lon lets us stop to pee!) to visit Marla in N.C. We brought along Kip's best friend, Bailey, for the second year (but not in a row). The first thing we always want to do is hit the beach. There's Bailey and Kip in the waves, then you see Lon parked our stuff a bit too close to the high tide mark, and finally, he got a shot of a mermaid. ha ha. It was awfully hot and humid this year, even with the ocean breezes, but a bad day at the beach is better than a good day at work! And we didn't get any rain until the drive home, then it dumped a week's worth on us...