Thanksgiving 2009

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  This year, besides all the usual suspects, we were probably most thankful that we had all finally gotten over the Swine Flu.  It wiped us out pretty bad for about a week.

Our celebrations started on Wednesday when we got to see the Pruss family who was up from St. Louis.  Jake, Elle, and Zach all had fun playing together.  The adults enjoyed some takeout from, where else, East Side Mario's and then played a little bit of Little Big Planet on the PS3.  The visit came to and end much to soon, but we look forward to seeing them again around Christmas.

We spent Thursday at Grandma and Grandpa's house where there was plenty of food, and with DLCnM, there was also plenty of family to hang out with.  The weather was cooler, but still nice enough to let us throw the pigskin around for a while.  Dan and Colin then played hide and seek out in the yard and woods for about an hour even after they had to take a break to grab flashlights since it had gotten so dark!

On Friday, we headed over to Meme and Papa's house.  Jake got to hang out with them, and Alison, for a while by himself while Michele and I went to the movies with Nez to see New Moon.  While I didn't lose my breath every time a character took of his shirt like the two Twilight mom's next to me, I did enjoy the movie over-all, regardless of what Mark might think about me for even going.  After that, we spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house and playing board games.  Then, after Papa and I moved it up from the basement, we played some Wii Sports Resort.  Hopefully, getting the console up on the main level will get them playing it a bit more often.

Today, we got started on the Christmas decorations around our house.  Jake has been waiting patiently, and was very excited to get out Rudolph, Frosty, and Homer Santa!  He then decorated his fish tank with some window clings and hung the mini ornaments on the little tree in his room.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the last of the leaves taken care of and then get the outdoor decorations up.

You can find the updates to our photos starting here.

November? Already?

This post is coming in a bit late, but in case you were worried, we did celebrate Halloween in the Anderson household.  We started off by going to a function at Michele's school earlier in the week where Jake got to wear his costume and go to a few different rooms with different activities.  Then, with Halloween falling on a Saturday, it was actually busier than normal.  Jake had both sets of grandparents to help him celebrate.  He also had his buddy Jack with his parents, Melissa and Steve.  The boys had a fun evening of playing and then trick or treating followed by more playing!  Here are some of our shots from those days.

The day after Halloween, we added DLCnM to our overnight guests, GnGT, to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  We had a nice brunch and ended up spending a bit of time playing outside since it was so nice out.  You can see a few of those shots here.

Busy Fall

We've had quite a busy fall with something going on pretty much every weekend.  At a 1,000 foot level, here's what we've kept busy with.  As usual, there are more comments with the pictures, so you can get a better feel for everything.  You can find bigger versions of the pictures below along with a lot more here.

Jake got to see his first movie at a theater, and it was a double feature!  He sat very well through Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  He's even more excited for the third one now that a full trailer has been released.  We're OK for now since he knows it won't be out until he's four.  Once his birthday rolls around, however, it might get tougher to get him to wait until June!

The following weekend we finally made our way to a cider mill.  It also happened to be the weekend before my birthday, so the family came over and we had a great dinner at Claddagh, and then had a sundae bar back at our house.

Later that week, we had tickets for the Zoo Boo with the Herman family and Grandma and Grandpa Trosko.  The kids all seemed to have a good time even though it was more crowded than we expected.

  

The next few weekends found Michele going to MSU to tailgate with Tiffany and Jen, and then both of us heading back to tailgate with our usual crew.  Unfortunately, Mike and Dana had to miss out this year since they were both sick.  The rest of us battled through the rain with the help of Craig's canopy and kerosene heater.  Then, when BW's was too packed with the people that weren't tough enough to tailgate outside, we made our way over to Wild Wing Cafe where we enjoyed cheap beer, great food, and an amazing array of flat screen TVs.  Unfortunately, the excitement of the day ended as time expired in the game and Iowa scored a TD on their final play.

On Sunday, we made our way up to the Wilson Barn to let Jake pick out a pumpkin.  He's been wanting to go since they started setting up at the beginning of the month, so he was glad to finally get up there!  He got to pick a pumpkin, ride a pony, jump in a bounce house, and eat a donut with cider.  All in all, he had a pretty good afternoon!

Our Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. We spent Saturday hanging out around the house. In the morning, after playing some foosball, Jake and I built the biggest tower out of Tinkertoys that we've ever attempted. It went all the way from the floor to the ceiling! After his nap, Mommy took him to the park where he got to play until it started to rain on them. We then lit a fire in our outside fireplace and enjoyed some leftovers from East Side Marios in the cool fall evening. Jake liked the fire so much, he got Mommy to take him back out to read his book before bed!

On Sunday, we headed over to DLCnM's to help celebrate Colin's birthday. We had a great time with the Herman family, including Bill and Joanie. Grandma and Grandpa Trosko were also there, so Jake had fun spending time with both of them as well. And, possibly the best part of the day for at least the guys in the house, the Lions finally won a game. It was just too bad we had to experience their first win in 20 games on the radio and nfl.com instead of on TV. Maybe they should black out ALL their home games if it'll keep them winning! You can see some of our photos from the weekend here.

While playing foosball with Jake, I was really impressed at how much he's improved. I've helped him to understand which way he's supposed to shoot, and how to spin the guys to get them behind the ball, but that's about all I've taught him. Through watching me play with him, apparently, he picked up the proper way to perform a wrist shot (no wild spinning in this family) and actually got some pretty good speed behind it! I can imagine it's going to be even more fun when he doesn't have to step up onto a stool just to reach the game. Here's a quick video I shot of him taking a great shot from the 5 line and then performing our standard, post-goal celebration.

Labor Day Weekend '09

Jake is really enjoying his new classroom. A lot of his classmates "graduated" this past week, which means he won't be one of the smallest kids come next week. It also means that his friend, Lincoln, should be coming up to be with him again. I hope their teacher is ready!!!

We had a great Labor Day weekend (at least the first 2/3rds).

We spent Saturday hanging out with Meme and Alison. They met us in the morning at the Detroit Zoo. We wanted to make the trip so that we could see the dinosaur exhibit that was ending on Labor Day. While the rest of the animals seemed to be taking it easy in the heat, the robotic dinosaurs weren't bothered at all! We all really enjoyed the dino trail. Afterwards, they hung out at our house until dinner time, and played a few board games and games of Boggle before heading back.

On Sunday, we headed up to Fenton in the afternoon. We spent the early evening on the boat with Grandma and Grandpa and the Herman family. The lake was not as busy as I expected, and I thought the water felt great. Everyone else seemed to think it was too cold, but I don't think they remembered the temperature of Lake Michigan on our Shelby trip! After the boat, we went back to the Troskos for some dinner and desserts. When their bellies were full, the kids had a good time riding their bikes, scooters, and anything else with wheels up and down the driveway.

Tomorrow, we're hoping to just hang out at home and take it easy. I'm guessing we'll spend a good chunk of time on chores and yard work, but we'll make the most of it!

Here are a few photos from Jake's first day back to school. Our photos from this weekend can be found here.