October = No Pictures

I know, I know. We've been slacking off this month. Not that we haven't been busy or had things to share. It's just that either the batteries were dead in the digital camera or we used the 35mm and haven't developed the film.

Such was the case for Cade's birthday. He turned 2 on October 12th, but we had his birthday party the weekend before. My parents and Dana's dad were here to help us celebrate. I'll post those photos probably late next year when I get the film developed.

Cameron's team finally unofficially won a game 2 weeks ago while Kevin's team finally lost a game yesterday. Kevin's team's schedule was changed due to a big mismatch so they played a team that is at a higher level. It was actually a very exciting game and they only lost by 2 goals. After the other team scored 3 times in about 10 minutes the coach pulled the goalie and put Kevin in. He played great in that position despite very little practice.

Last week, I went with Cameron on his field trip the local corn maze. I only took a few pictures but all the kids had a blast.



Cam is the one with the Yankees hat.


Cam the Cow


Cam the Cowboy


Cameron's OTHER pumpkin (I think we're up to 8 pumpkins now)


These next few pictures aren't anything special. I took these for the kids while on travel to San Antonio last week. One picture I wished I had taken was on the approach to the airport in SA. I was looking out the window as the plane started to bank and saw the shadow of the plane on the clouds below with a bright circular rainbow around the shadow. Unfortunately, my camera was in my checked luggage so I can only tell the kids about it, not show them.



You don't see trucks like this on the road every day. That's a Mercedes with about 2 feet of ground clearance. And don't worry. I wasn't looking at the camera when I took this. I just pointed the camera at the rear view mirror.


The view from my hotel room on the Riverwalk. My reservations were at the Howard Johnson Plaza but I couldn't find the place to save my life. Turns out the hotel is now called the Riverwalk Plaza. You think they'd update their dang advertisements!


This is at 10,000 feet just west of San Antonio.


I think we're about 200 miles out of El Paso here. Not quite as green.


I wanted to take a picture of the clouds for Kevin but there wasn't one single cloud in the sky on my entire trip back.

Soccer and Employee Party

It's been a busy week so we have a lot of pictures.


Here's Cameron racing a HUGE girl to the ball. Is she 7 or under!?!


Action shot of Cam from the front.


Cade doesn't play soccer - yet.


Kevin is the one between the girls. His team clobbered this poor team.


Kevin had this awesome (unintentional) sliding shot from the far right side of the field for a goal.


Our company had an employee party at a place with a corn maze and a lot of activities for kids (and young at heart adults). We all had a great time until the mosquitoes ran us out. Here's Cam with his yearly growth shot.


Cade's first shot with the growth chart.

Big dude Kevin.


Cade loved the slides.


You can tell by the look on his face he didn't really care for the tricycle track.


Fire this thing up and let's go!


We all took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and got to pick out a free pumpkin. Here's Cam's pumpkin.


Cade's first pumpkin!


Kevin couldn't fine one big enough in this field so he had to settle for this one.

Weekend at the Lake

Last weekend was rather busy for us. Kevin had his first soccer game with his new team. His team won 8-2. My boy had 2 assists, 4 shots on goal and scored twice! That was a nice change of pace from the team he was on last year when they lost every game but one and tied the other. Sorry, no pictures.

After the game we headed off to the lake for the night. We didn't take the boat this time. We just let the boys play in the water and sand.

Sunday evening, we hosted a "Watch the Cowboys Whoop Up on the Giants" party with our life group and 2 more families that are considering joining the group. In all we had 13 adults and 18 kids! Needless to say it was a bit noisy at times.


Cade and me playing in the sand.


Kevin and Cade taking a break.


All the boys playing. Notice Cades' mouth is wide open. We call that his Calvin pose - as in Calvin and Hobbes.


Jumping the waves.


Sunrise on Sunday morning.

I saved my best pictures for last...


My new powder coater works GREAT! Dana better watch out because anything metal that fits in the oven is a potential project.


And even better than the powder coater - my Camaro now has a disc brake! Give me another 7 or 8 months and it will have 2.

Labor Day

We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Labor Day to take the boys to Dripping Springs.

Originally, the buildings were a hotel and resort but later became a sanitorium for TB patients. It's about a 1.5 mile hike from the visitor's center which is plenty of time to wear the kids out.

This was taken on the way back. Cameron ran ahead and decided to take a break in the shade.

Cade was too little to walk the entire distance and too heavy to carry for very long so we made use of the ol' backpack one last time. He's too heavy for that too. My shoulders will never be the same.

Taking a break.

All the boys.

We scheduled pictures of the 3 boys at Sears on Saturday. Cade decided he hated that place and cried almost the entire time. These are 2 shots that came out alright but he still wasn't very happy in this picture.

He's much happier here because he's getting to beat up on his brother.

If you're interested, searsportrait.com has the other pictures taken from that session. The Online ID is 42527A106266244 and the password is XGM2HFFWD.

This series of pictures obviously isn't from Labor Day. These were taken in January. Kevin really likes these and asked me to post them. From the top, Kevin and I are sliding down this treacherous hill at Mach 3. We jumped out of the trail and were headed for a tree so I put the brakes on. Kevin disappears in a cloud of snow. You can't tell, but in the last picture he's falling off the sled. I survived but just barely.

Look closely. We have two little birds living on our back porch. Every night for several weeks they've been huddling together on top of this pillar. Unfortunately, they also "mark their territory" on our patio table and chairs. We also have a bird nest on the front of our house. The baby birds and their mom just recently left the nest for good.


Caught in the act while playing on the intercom.


Cade's newest trick on his 4wheeler. A full up Superman air! Yes, he is moving in this photo.


Backwards hat, no pants, one shoe... No comment.


Believe it or not, this is the best picture we took of Kevin and Cameron on their first day of school. Cam is in 1st grade and Kevin is in 4th.

Cade update

It's becoming obvious that we take more pictures of Cade than we do with the other boys. Of course, several of these pictures were taken while Kevin and Cameron were up in Chama riding the train (with Pa and Tootie) without us.

Without further ado, here are the latest pictures. Sorry about the lousy quality of the indoor shots.



Cade helped Dana plant some bushes in our back yard.



Cade must be daydreaming about that delicious PB&J sandwich.




Our grass is looking great! (Just ignore that deadspot in the lower left corner where the grubs killed it.





Cade was enjoying pushing Cameron around the house with his 4-wheeler. Cameron was enjoying the free ride.



Cade learned how to shrug (and get some laughs) and soon had his brothers joining him.



Solo shrug



Cade wouldn't let me move the wheelbarrow unless he helped.