Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

We enjoyed a really wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, full of fun, festivities & tradition - and got to spend it with some of our closest friends!

On Thursday, we woke up bright and early for a hearty breakfast, the Macy's Thanksgiving parade (a tradition since I was a little girl), and to look over the ads for Black Friday. We headed to the Lupcho's for Thanksgiving dinner at about 3ish, after spending the rest of the morning preparing the stuffed mushrooms and mashed potatoes that we were in charge of bringing. While Al and Chad watched the football game, Stacy and I... and Tylar finished up the last minute details for the dinner. The dinner and deserts were awesome, and we all had a great time visiting while we were there! After letting dinner settle for a little bit we headed over to see Kimberly & Mike, and Janell and John to enjoy more desert!! It was great to see so many of our very best friends on this Thanksgiving day!

On Friday (at MIDNIGHT), Stacy and I headed to the St. Augustine outlet mall to begin our Black Friday shopping!! We found some really fantastic deals, and after a 4am breakfast at Denny's headed back out for more shopping until about 7am!! I know it is crazy, but I LOVE IT!! And I am not the only one - I got a call from my sis-in-law Marisa at about 7ish my time, she, mom and Vycci were just starting their shopping!!

On Saturday, we headed out to get the martin family Christmas tree. Last year was the first year in a long time that we got a live tree, and fell in love with that fresh tree smell... so we did it again this year. While we didn't have to hike to a tree farm like last year for this one, Tylar ended up picking out the perfect tree at the Home Depot lot! We got it up and decorated Saturday night while sipping on hot coco and listening to Christmas music.

And on Sunday... I got to enjoy a tradition that I came to love very much living in Jacksonville - the annual Christmas Made in the South craft fair. Stacy and Addison Lupcho and Caitlynn and I went this year, and once again enjoyed seeing all the creative gifts and tasting all the yummy food that was a part of this year's event.

Now the weekend is almost over, and while I am sad that there are only a few short hours left in the day, I am so happy that the holiday season has started - it is MY MOST FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR!!

Check out more snapshots from this weekend... http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqyul5jc.3ygo6n70&x=0&y=9tr2fg&localeid=en_US

Brandon's Hunting Adventure

Brandon wins Battleship

Papa and Brandon on a mountian in Colorado

What a beautiful view... see any deer Brandon?

Freezing in the tent perhaps??

Brandon had his first hunting trip with papa and uncle Mike at the end of October, and dad sent along a few great pictures from their time in the mountians of Colorado... and Brandon sent me a short story of thier time together! Enjoy -

From Brandon...

"Well we set up camp on Friday, October 31st. The first day was just relax and kick back before waking up early in the morning for the first day of hunting. Me and my uncle Mike played football to help pass time. One day we played football for about an hour and wouldn't stop till one of us got a behind the back catch, I was the first to do it of course. Battleship was another thing I had to upset Mike and Papa in. I tried not to make 'em cry. Our house (i.e. tent) was pretty warm and comfortable until the third night in. It started to rain but it didn't bother me at first, but where I was sleeping the rain would bother me. I was sleeping under the stove vent which happened to be a little open. I was woken up by a splash of water right on my face, it was the rain pouring in through the vent. So me and papa had to shift my cot to the middle of the tent, then move a bucket under the dripping water and I was suppose to sleep next to that. But all in all I had fun and already ready for next year."

Election 2008 - a Family Event

What a memorable and historic time we've just experienced! While I can appreciate the impact of this election, I have to be honest in saying that Chad and refrained from talking politics in the home. However, the kids really got into the election this year - and we had a blast supporting their curiosity and excitement around the event!

It was very cool to see what Kenny and Ty were being exposed to at school and how their teachers were taking advantage of getting the kids to learn about American government using the election as a real example.

• Tylar is in student council this year, and as a part of his duties for his class he helped with the school-wide mock election. At first Ty was a McCain supporter, but switched a few weeks before the election to support Obama. I think the boy goes with the popular vote :)!


• Kenny didn't have too much going on structurally at school with the election, but had no problem engaging in conversation with Ty about who he was supporting. Kenny was Obama all the way - and if you ask him why, he'll tell you it was because "He told me to vote for him in his commercial". Kenny has always been good at following specific directions! Another funny story about Kenny... as you'll see from the pictures, the kids all had a blank map of the US that they used to fill in with the red and blue states as the election results came in. They weren't up late enough to see all the results come in, so when Kenny woke up this morning his map was about 1/2 way filled in. He asked me right away "WHO WON MOM??"... and I shared the news that Obama was going to be our next president. He was quite confused because he then brought me his half filled in map and insisted they were "tied"... OH KENNY???!!!


• Caitlynn followed her big brothers lead in all these events, and if nothing else really enjoyed saying BARACK OBAMA :). She also enjoyed the coloring in of the states, although after a few red and blue states, she decided to switch to pink. Oh well!

In any event, it was a fun thing to experience with the kids at the age they are now... these are times I am sure that they will also remember - or at least I hope!

Take a look at all the pics...http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqyul5jc.7jl3cfb0&x=0&y=-q85d8t&localeid=en_US

Halloween 2008

Ty the rockstar, Caitlynn the fairy, Kenny the doc

Caitlynn and her funny face pumpkin

Ty getting his hands dirty with pumpkin guts

Picking the perfect pumpkins

We had a pretty drizzly Halloween this year, but in place of snow... we'll take it!! We started our Halloween festivities this year by going to a local pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins for carving! Each of the kids picked out their own pumpkin, knowing they were going to have to be an "active" part of the carving process... none of the kids too much like the digging out of the insides! They did great though, especially Ty who really got into it! He did his whole pumpkin including a really cool carving of wolves howling at the moon. Caitlynn chose to do a funny face, and Kenny chose to do a spider with a web, which Chad ended up finishing because it was so intricate. He did a great job with it though, all three turned out great and were all very different!

For trick-or-treating festivities we headed to the Schmidt neighborhood. Kenny was a cardiology doctor, Ty was a rock star and Caitlynn was a fairy ("because Monica LOVES fairies")!! They collected a ton of candy and had a blast going door to door.

Check out the link for some more pics...http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqyul5jc.2np8eymk&x=0&y=5oy5bj&localeid=en_US

The only thing missing this year was not having our Brando here to come along! He is spending his Halloween with Papa and Mike hunting for the first time in the mountains of Colorado. I am sure he is having a good time... and hopefully I'll get some pictures and a story to post in the near future about that new adventure!

Orlando Trip with the Sandovals!

Caitylnn & Marina as minnie brides

Kenny, Issac, Tylar with Buzz Lightyear

All the kiddos at lunch

Last weekend we loaded the family into the van and headed to Orlando to spend time with Danny, Vycci, Issac and Marina before they started their Disney week vacation. We had such a great time with each other, and the kids had a blast getting to know and play with their Colorado cousins!

On our first day, Saturday, we met up at Bahama Breeze for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and we got to eat lunch on the outside patio. Then we all headed to the hotel to check in and get settled before going to the movie theater to see High School Musical III. The kiddos LOVED it, and the adults (for the most part... CHAD) enjoyed it also. That evening we took the kids to the pool and ordered pizza for dinner.

Sunday morning we all got up and had a yummy Village Inn breakfast, and spent the rest of the day in Downtown Disney. I had no idea that there were so many things to do, so many shops, so many restaurants!! The highlights, for me, were the Once Upon a Toy toy store and the prehistoric times themed restaurant where we had lunch. The toy store was set up so that the kids could assemble some of the most popular toys; light sabers, Mr. Potato Head, princess jewelry boxes, and so on. Lunch was very fun - the restaurant was set up to have sections that were themed around prehistoric times... including a huge ice glacier in the middle of the restraint. A suprise for us was that they did a meteor shower show about every 20 minutes... and if you know our Kenny - he doesn't do too well with flashing lights and darkness. When the first show happened he shot over to my lap so quick, and Caitlynn hid under the table! Once they both realized it was all just a show, they were fine for the rest of the time.

After our late lunch we had to get on the road to head back to Jacksonville, and Danny, Vycci and the kids had to head to their Disney hotel to meet up with Danny's folks. We had such a wonderful time with them, and only wish we could have spent more time together!

Check out the link to more pictures...http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqyul5jc.9qvmghwk&x=0&y=-quosz0&localeid=en_US