poke it with a stick. image gallery: 2010

last day bowling

all the kids lining up at the bowling alley for their shoes.

everybody is having a great time- and this year we only had one bowling ball related injury, which is down from most years...

after bowling and the pizza party, the kids got to play a strange game that the gym teacher made up. its kind of like dodgeball, but with little soft tribble-type furry beanbags. strange, but the kids loved it!

after playing the weird tribble game, they also got to go into the gym and wale on each other with dodgeballs, so everyone was happy.

shootin'

everyone had a great time shooting empty cans with the shotgun. then brains and rex had the great idea of shooting a full one! perfect! since i had brought cans of diet cola, i offered them one to have a go with. here is the video of the explosive results:

cabin time again

brains, a newcomer this year, was dressed to impress! this being the first time he has joined us at the cabin, he called on the powers of his two coyote shirt and his fantastic winter hat!

aaron always brings the fashion. this time it is in the form of a camo ranger hat!

i was hoping to impress with my fantastic headwear as well. looks perfectly normal, right?

more poco

that stinky dog of ours is at it again! here are a few more pictures of poco being cute!

i didnt want the dog getting cold, so i stuck him in my hoodie, which he didnt seem to mind too much!

this fall going for a walk with poco i was, as often happens, struck by just how little he really is!

taking advantage of an empty chair, poco swoops in to lay in the blankets!

one of poco's favorite things in the world, one of his greeny bones. i had captured it with my feet and he had no idea what to do! all he wants is his precious greeny bone!

barbara's back!

here's diana, barbara's boyfriend and barbara sitting around the table in the decorated basement of kat's house. we had a great time there and really loved the strange/cool decorations in the house! kat put in a lot of work making the party fun- and it worked!

house kids video 2

after aves got to do some dancing, tweets wanted to get her turn to show off all those dance classes!

house kids video 1

the kids took turns showing off. first up, its tweets singing and aves showing off her karate-like dance moves.

house kids 2

one of the kids favorite game is to play 'hide and seek'. they almost always hide in the same spots, but this time aves had a new idea: hide under papa's fleece! it took a surprisingly long time for tweets to find her!

papa and aves taking a little sunday afternoon nap!

as the adults were still sitting around the dinner table chatting, one of the kids walked up with a toy bag over her head. gee, i wonder who it could be?

surprise- it was our little aves!

house kids 1

tweets giving her little sister a horsey ride around the house!

mom had been doing some house cleaning and came across a box full of pictures from when we were kids! the embarrassing photos had diana and the kids laughing for hours!

aves snuggles up with her favorite papa!

no matter how many toys we buy him, bubba's favorite things to play with are my old transformers from when i was his age! aves likes to get in on the transforming action too!

game day

these are the four games we played over the weekend. 'phase 10' is one of my favorites, so i am always up for that! 'rack-o' is one of mom's favorites and diana had never played it before so we got to teach it to her. 'hit or miss' was a new one for all of us but it was really fun- even dad loved it! as for 'hit the deck'? well, the less said about that one the better...

at the hut

tweets talks with mom as she unwraps her silverware. she does love to chat!

whenever there is food involved, aves is all smiles! (same goes for her uncle and aunt...)

bubba got a lemonade, expecting to be given a children's size drink, but when the waitress brought him a full size glass he was shocked! he took it as a challenge to finish the whole thing- and he did!

brinksgiving

we sat down for an amazing meal that mom prepared for us- her cooking is always a treat!

papa enjoying his favorite: chocolate milk! mom passes out the mashed potatoes for everyone.

allen thanksgiving

uncle arnold talking with david at one of the many tables set up in the huge basement at their house.

diana's dad chatting it up with his big sister nancy, and his little sister becky!

gramma cant hear very well and has almost entirely lost her sight, but she was in high spirits to see everyone together for thanksgiving. diana said that gramma gripped tightly to her hand and kept telling her that she was so happy to have her there! a very special moment for diana.

chicago bub

bub and tim outside of niketown.

bub looks like a little man! just kickin in on the mean streets of chicago with his gigantic lego store bag...

on the way back home he examined his lego boxes, but realizing that he couldnt open them while in the car, he quickly reverted back to his nintendo ds.

lego bub

when we first walked into the lego store, bub was quite overwhelmed! i've got to admit, so was i...

he and his dad weighing their options- dont want to make too hasty of a decision, right?

in the store there were quite a few large lego sculptures, among them was this full size darth vader!

bub sleeps

bub even brought his own camo sleeping bag and john deere blanket- he was quite prepared!

the next morning the three of us got up early and headed out for breakfast. we made sure that we left early enough to not be a bother for diana as she needed to get ready for work. we went to sophias pancake house and filled our bellies for the big day ahead!

turkey day early

alanna and dianas mom taking care of tavish as the table gets set for the feast!

tavish had so much fun! he loves spending time with his grandma, grandpa, and aunts! he doesnt seem to have so much fun with me, every time i've tried to hold he he erupts in crying...

soup ball

these two figures dont really go together, but i liked the blue on white/white on blue contrast!

some of the bigger figures and basketballs were displayed on the bleachers. our school colors are blue, white, and orange, so the colors of the figures and balls worked really well in the gym.

turns out that the gym teacher really loved them and when they were taken down he had them laminated so he could use them again sometime. i guess they arent that bad then, huh?

hair wedding

in the morning the groom and all the bridesmaids came into diana's salon to get their hair done for the big day. it also happened to be the day before halloween, so thats why diana is sporting the mouse ears...

here's the happy couple as they entered the reception hall.

diana and her good friend at work julie. smile big for the camera, girls!

the hall itself was huge- diana said that the bride had 450 guests! wow, thats about 4 times bigger than our wedding was- pretty sure i wouldnt want to get their open bar bill...

tasty buca

diana and i getting ready for the feast that awaited us!

on the ceiling of the restaurant they had bottles and bottles of wine lining it, covered in fake ivy and christmas lights- what a mood!

here are the three things we ordered, which came to about 12 pounds of food! we left there with three huge containers of leftovers, and aching bellies...