Thanksgiving with Family in Atlanta!

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We were very THANKFUL to have Tracy’s family together at our place for Thanksgiving week. Kristen’s Nana lives close to us and celebrated her 90th birthday in Georgia, which was the perfect excuse for Rob, Kristen & the kids to come visit from California! It was great to meet our niece Abby (7 months) for the first time and to watch the boy cousins play together. Collin was excited to have Owen come stay with him and Owen and Carson played much better together than they did in March when we were in Lake Tahoe together.


Mom & dad drove in from Texas so it was a full house (6 adults and 4 kids). We went to the Georgia World Aquarium together, hiked in our nearby woods/creek, did a little shopping, went out to dinner, but mostly just stayed around the house and enjoyed being together. It’s hard to be so far apart and not know when we next are together again, especially when the kids are growing up so fast, but we appreciated the time together!

Nashville Trip with the Voegtle Family

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Since we hadn’t seen Mike’s side of the family since June and the kids are getting big fast, we decided to meet up for a mini vacation in Nashville, which is almost half way between St. Louis and Atlanta. We rented a house that slept over 20, but it’s always crazy to have 14 people sleeping under the same roof, especially when five of them are three and under and on varying nap schedules.


We stayed in the house most of the time, but Sunday we out to the Opryland and then to lunch at Rainforest Café. After lunch we went to the Bass Pro shop, where Collin saw Santa for the first time. On the drive home we stopped at The Chattamunga battlefield (http://www.nps.gov/chch/index.htm) outside Chattanooga, the first and largest national Military Park - even larger than Gettysburg. This will be a nice stop again in the future when the boys are older and can pay attention and we have more time.

Halloween

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This year I finished the qualification for my first Mary Kay free car on Halloween. It was quite a crazy month building up to it - adding 6 new teammates and making my highest production month yet. I am so thankful for my new teammates and it is so great to be able to share this opportunity with others!





We had a Halloween party at church the week before Halloween that both boys wore their costumes to thankfully, since I wasn’t able to locate Carson’s giraffe costume on Halloween day. Collin was Optimus Prime, a Transformer, and Carson wore Collin’s monkey costume (from when he was two) to our neighborhood parade and Trick-Or-Treating. It was pouring rain most of the day, but the rain let up just in time for the parade to begin, then started again right after pizza and the costume party at our pool. We waited out the rain under the clubhouse awning for 10 minutes and then began our Trick-Or-Treating.


This was the first year that Collin was able to run up to the houses himself, so we enjoyed walking with our friends and watching the kids Trick-Or-Treat rather than going up to each house. Carson had a blast running up each driveway and didn’t even know about getting candy – he just thought it was fun to chase his brother and friends. He learned pretty soon after Halloween where we kept the candy and asked for it frequently (‘please’ and ‘more’ in sign language and “ahh” “ahh”).

Hellen & Pumpkin Patch

The leaves in Atlanta are beautiful (except on the ground in our backyard) but even prettier in the Blue Ridge Georgia Mountains, which are only 60-90 minutes away. On a nice (but chilly) Sunday in October we decided to drive up to the town of Helen and also to a pumpkin patch.

Helen is a cute little town in North Georgia along the Chattahoochee River, with a somewhat cheesy attempt at recreating a Bavarian alpine village complete with cobblestone alleys and old-world towers. We went in just a few shops and spent some time at the local park before driving on to find the pumpkin patch Mike had heard about. At the pumpkin patch we ran around in a corn maze and Mike & Collin attempted to hit the target with Apples from a slingshot. There was a fun slide, and of course a Farmers Market where we bought our pumpkin. On the way home we stopped at a restaurant and snapped a few photos of Larry the Leopard for Collin’s class book.

Soccer & Cameron's Party

This year Collin played soccer again at Johnson Ferry (Upward Sports) again as he did last fall, but he was spoiled by last spring’s experience of having several of his best friends (Cameron & Riley) on his team along with his dad and Mr. Rustin as coaches. There’s still hope for Collin to be a soccer player as he’s still young, but I think we need to take a break from soccer for a bit. Another wet Saturday Soccer game... The drought in North Georgia is officially over! We got in one of Collin’s last soccer games of the fall and not only was it wet, but cold too!

That afternoon was one of Collin’s best friend’s Cameron’s birthday party at a local bowling alley, so Collin got to bowl for the first time. Carson also liked the bowling balls, but he was a little young to join in the fun.

September 2009

We survived the first month of Kindergarten! For the first few weeks all we heard about was Boosterthon.com – a fundraiser where they ran laps at school. Collin seems to be adjusting well and enjoys his new friends. Carson loves getting Collin from the bus stop, but occasionally he is still asleep from his nap. The boys are enjoying their time together in the afternoons. It’s fun to watch the kids together, but it’s been nice to have the time to focus on Carson while Collin learns at school. One of Carson’s favorite things to do is to give kisses and hugs. He will often pucker up to give kisses spontaneously or on command – adorable!

In September we enjoyed the nice weather and our new backyard and swingset, marched in the annual East Cobber parade with Mike’s Rotary club, attended soccer games on Saturdays (& practice on Wed) and went to the Tellus Science Center.

Dragoncon Parade

We decided to venture downtown to observe the Dragoncon parade spectacle that occurs in Atlanta each Labor Day weekend. It is quite a scary site to see adults living in a fantasy world, but Collin (& Mike) enjoy seeing the Star Wars characters. The best viewing spot is on the steps outside of Mike's office building on Peachtree St. Collin & Carson both found opponents to fight with their light sabers in Mike's lobby.