apple picking

We all went Apple picking on Saturday with the Hawkins. We had a good time.



Here Nate is riding in a wagon.



Riding in the wagon with friend Logan.


Here's the fam in front of an apple tree.



Here Nate is picking an apple.




Here is Nate enjoying riding the Golden Eagle Ferry.


And of course, this is the Golden Eagle ferry. We were "stuck" on it with about 30 motorcycles. Nate loved watching them all depart, we were parked in the middle of them.



Here are Nate and I riding on the Grafton Ferry on the way back to Missouri.

Later,

Not much going on

Not much new going on.

Saturday we had a good day with Lynn's family, they came down for Nate's third, and final, birthday party. They helped me install shelving units in Nate's room and the nursery. We got them from Home Depot. Got them virtually for free since we got $200 in gift cards from the credit card points ( essentially, they cost $24,000 ). After the new brakes in the car and Lynn's hospital stay, we are almost ready to purchase some more....

One of the gifts Nate got from Aunt Amy and Mister Dave (any my brother Adrian helped also) was a tent. Nate has been ga ga over tents lately. Here's some pics of the weekend and all:











Later,

Happy Talk like a Pirate Day!

Ahoy!! Aye, today be "Talk like a Pirate Day".

Hope you all were able t' celebrate it in a proper manner.

Just wanted t' wish you a happy Talk Like a Pirate Day. Bye

Birthday Weekend!

Well, this weekend started out with Nate's Birthday on Friday. I took the day off work so that I could spend it with him.

He got up at about 8:30 or so. We had his brand new scooter laying out for him. Of course he was a little freaked out by all becaseu he was just too tired. After he work up a bit, he got to liking it and finally opened his other presents. He got a couple of Disney's cars, a game on ABC's, an Alphabet Leap frog set and a play carpet for his cars. We took Nate to his 3rd birthday checkup. He was checked out okay.

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings so that Nate would have his Chicken fingers. He had a great time.

We later got invited by my sister and Mister Dave to go to the Lake of the Ozarks this weekend. So we accepted.

WE got up early on Saturday and headed over to Jeff City to pick up my niece and her boyfriend (that was the whole purpose of the trip actually). We got down to Lake of the Ozarks around noon.

We stopped off at the old strip. And Nate got to play some skee ball....


And got to ride a car:


And another car:


And ANOTHER Car:


Oh, and video game jet ski:


And my sister taught him all about the one arm bandit:


I got to "milk a cow":


It was a good time for all of us. On the way back to St. Louis, we found a "tractor parade" in Union Missouri, and Nate just loved to watch about 40+ tractors go by. Apparently it was the Knights of Columbus doing a "Journey for Charity". Pretty cool to watch...

Pretty Cool.....

Later,

Where were you???

Found this on NIchole's blog and Thought I would fill it out also...

Where were you???

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster - January 28, 1986

I was in 6th Grade, I remember that Mr. Sparks came into the classroom and said that the Space shuttle blew up, and when somebody asked him again, he just said "It blew up!".

The Oklahoma City Bombing - April 19, 1995

I don't remember this one as much. I remember being at the BSU and Dot Parrott told me about it. Kind of worried me a little, since OK City was in close proximity to Rolla and they really didn't know who did it.

Princess Diana’s Death - August 31, 1997

I remember that we were heading back from a wedding in Rolla, I can't remember the guy's name, but he was the older guy that married the Comp Sci gal. they live in Denver know. His Dad owns the Sears in town. I remember that we were on I-44 coming back, and when I got back to my apartment, I remember signing on my terminal for work and checking out the news feeds (I guess I didn't want to check news.yahoo.com). I also remember the following week, Kate and I were in Rolla again, and she insisted on getting a hotel room so that we could watch the funeral. I remember the lady at the desk asking us if we wanted a wake up call, and I said that we don't intend to sleep, and they gave us that "we know what you're going to do" glance. It was embarrasing....

Attack on the Twin Towers - September 11, 2001

I remember getting up that day, I was running a little late to work (much like I sometimes did when I was single). Roommate Rich told me that a plane had run into the WTC, and we watched the footage on FoxNews for a while. When I saw the second plane, I thought I had better get into work. ON my way in, I was turning off Dorsett, I heard that the first tower had fallen. when I got to work, everyone was standing around the monitors. The NYSE and all exchanges were knocked out for a week. My sister and I were going to make a week's journey out east that week to discover our genealogical routes. I was still going to go afterwards, but my parent's finally discouraged me and talked some sense into me. I realize now it would have been a logistical nightmare. And probably the mood wouldn't have been that great. I was sent back home that day so that I could cover a late shift. I tried to get gas as I went in that night and everyone was making runs on the gas stations. I was able to fill up that night though.

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster - February 1, 2003
Heard about this while driving to EFree on that Saturday morning to hang out with Vince Allred. He didn't believe me when I told him....

I'll add another....
July 16, 1999 John F. Kennedy Jr. Dies in Plane Crash,

This was another Saturday Morning. Met my sister at a bar that she was doing Karaoking at. I was going to meet Paul Haag later in the day.

Later

A Starbuck's Birthday!

Nate was quite excited at Grandma and Grandpa's this weekend. So, now we'll start viewing the pics from this weekend....

My dad hooked up an old car hood behind the 4 wheeler and dragged Nate behind it. He didn't really think much of it, but he did seem to be having some fun with it...




He then got to ride the tractor with his Uncle Adrian. He really likes the tractor. Grandpa was taking him on the tractor to do some bush hogging and apparently got the bush hog stuck in the fence about a 1/2 mile down the road, so they both had to walk back to the house to get help.

Mr. Dave came to the rescue and drove the other tractor out pull the other out of the ditch. Mr. Dave almost got ran over by my dad as he was returning the chains to the cab. The tractor got pulled out okay, and Nate cheered when it started moving again. He got to ride with his Grandpa again, but Dad told me he wanted to go back to the house soon after riding again (I think it was because he thought he would get the tractor stuck again).

Here's Nate riding with my brother:


We celebrated Nate's birthday up there also this weekend. I made him Funfetti Cupcakes with Disney's Cars. We also celebrated my niece Ashton's birthday also...




Nate also got brave in riding the tricycle down the hill, "all by himself". He hasn't quite got the hang of pedaling yet, but he would go to the edge of the hill and push himself off and coast down the hill. I had to stop him a couple of times cause he was almost going to run into Mr. Dave's car.



And Lastly, this is a picture of "Nate's Corn". Back in May, when we were up, Nate got to ride with Grandpa as he planted corn. When he finished up, Grandpa let Nate "drive" the tractor back to the house. SOmewhere along the line, a lever was released that caused the corn to drop out of the planter. Lynn and I noticed it as we drove back up to the house following them.

Below is the results of this effort. This isn't the greatest picture, there was a row of corn that was a lot clearer over by the pond, but I didn't want to head over there cause Jackson likes to jump in the pond. My Dad planted soybeans in this field, but you can still see Nate's corn popping up there...



One last thing, Cousin Matthew is taking up Golf and we let Nate take a wack at a few balls:





Later,

Little Irreverant.. but funny

Had to respond to John's Blog.

Thought this Commercial was hillarious...