Thanksgiving

I had to work on Thanksgiving. Mike went to his sister's house and had dinner with his family. He sent me a picture message half way through the day of Chris sitting on Grandma Garman's lap. Chris and Grandma Garman both looked quite happy. My dad and Grandmother Johnson came over to my house on Friday. It was really special to me for Grandma to cover over to our house. She hadn't been over before because its not very easy for her to get around these days. I think she enjoyed herself, the company, and the meal. I just cooked a turkey breast, some stuffing, green bean casserole, some candied yams, and set out some cranberry sauce and rolls. Chris was busy checking out Grandma's scooter and the table (which we moved into the living room so Grandma wouldn't have to climb out stairs).

Still table surfing...but this video is much better.

Halloween (yeah...it was a month ago, I know!)

We flew down to Jeffersonville on Halloween. We had lunch with Charissa and Jovie and then went to Falls of the Ohio State Park. Its a really neat little park. There are lots of fossill beds out in the river that you can walk down onto and look at all the fossills. Jovie and Chris played in the dirt a little bit while the grown-ups looked at the fossills and tried to keep the kiddos from getting into mud puddles. After the park, we went back to Charissa and Doug's house. We hung out, dressed the kids up in costumes (Chris borrowed Jovie's pumpkin outfit from last year), and then went for a walk in the nieghborhood. After our two baby costume parade, we went out to dinner and then flew home. It was a really great day! I really enjoyed getting to see Charissa, Doug, and Jovie again. The weather was perfect as well! It was great for flying. We'll have to do it again soon!

Surfer Dude

Christopher has discovered that's its much more fun to use his table as a simulated surfing machine than an activity table... See**...









**no matter what I do, I can't make the video post with the correct orientation...turn your head sideways :)

and just look how pleased he is with himself...

Mountain Climber

Christopher has discovered this...






...and has made his mother and father quite nervous!


The "perimeter defenses" (as Mike refers to the baby gates) have become Christopher's Everest, and he is determined to conquer them!!

NO NO!

Chris was really talking up a storm yesterday (11/17/08). He chattered ALL day. Even Aunt Pam, Uncle Doug, and my grandparents commented on how much he was talking. Chris was trying to pull papers off of an end table. I kept telling him "no no," and moving him away from the table. The third time, he crawled over to the table, pulled up, put his hand on the stack of papers, looked at Grandma Dawson, and said, "Nah, Nah!" and then pulled them on the floor anyway! So it begins...

Zoo Boo

Stefanie and Oscar invited Christopher and I to go to the zoo the week before Halloween. The zoo was having "zoo boo," which means the kids are encouraged to wear their costumes. The zoo also hands out candy, but Chris didn't trick or treat--I decided to wait until he could talk for that...

Stefanie asked what Christopher was going to be for Halloween, and I told her "nothing" because I wasn't going to spend money for a costume. She had a costume left over from last year that Oscar wore, and said that Christopher could wear it, so he was a "little devil" for zoo boo.

Chris seemed to enjoy watching the animals (the ones that were close enough for him to see). He yelled "DAH!" at the ones that looked remotely like a dog, and "AHHHAHaaaahhh!" at all the other ones.

We went to the dolphin show. Chris and Oscar both discovered that the bleachers made great drums while we were waiting for the show to start. Chris was completely quiet, and very serious watching the dolphins swim and jump out of the water. When the audience would clap, Chris would turn around and look to see what all the noise was about.

After the zoo, we had dinner at the little pizza parlor in Westfield. Mike and Matt joined us for dinner. It was nice to get everybody together for a change :)

Chris and I with some zoo decorations

Stefanie and Oscar with zoo decorations. Oscar was dressed as yoda and he got quite a lot of compliments on his "cool costume!"

Chris trying to eat the glass and Oscar watching me take pictures. It was so hot in the desert exhibit that we had to take the boys' costumes off. They were getting cranky!

Oscar and Chris in front of the giraffes

Family Vacation

We took a family vacation/camping trip the first week of October. We had a really nice time! Chris had been camping before, but this is the longest we'd been out. We hadn't really used our DNR season pass, so we decided to visit several state parks over our vacation to "get our money" out of it.

We started out at Summitt Lake State Park near New Castle. We'd never been there before, and we got a little lost on the way, but only ended up going 10-15 minutes out of our way. Aunt Pam, Uncle Doug, Aunt Paula, and Uncle Ron were all camping at Summitt Lake as well. We did a lot of fishing. Not much catching, but a lot of fishing!! Aunt Pam and Aunt Paula cooked bluegill for dinner on my birthday. Couldn't have asked for anything better!

After Summitt Lake, we went to the little town of Metamora, IN. We stayed at a bed and breakfast because it was raining, and we didn't want to set-up the pop-up in the rain. The B&B was haunted... I'm not kidding! The dishes rattled in the sink all night, the light inside kept going on and off by itself, and then the light outside started doing the same thing. There was no one else staying in the B&B... it was freaky.

After staying with the ghosts for a night, we moved down to Madison, IN at Clifty Falls State Park. We camped there for two nights. We did a lot of hiking the trails and seeing the waterfalls at the park. In the town of Madison, we toured the Lanier Mansion and looked around at some of the historic sites. It was a really cool little town!

We attempted to find the highest point in Indiana... we couldn't... this is probably why... "At an elevation of 1,257 feet about sea level, it is hidden in a woods, a short rise above Elliot Road, northwest of Bethel in Wayne County. "

There were no more signs after that one...

I thought this little house in Metamora was really neat. No significance.

This is the grist mill at Metamora.

On the way from Metamora to Madison we stopped and had lunch in a little town called Napoleon. The restaurant we ate at was called "Bonaparte's Cafe." The menu explained the history of the restaurant, and that the owner's had a figure of Napoleon carved into a tree stump in their yard. We had nothing better to do than to go find it!

At Clifty Falls State Park, we did a lot of hiking (only way to see the waterfalls). Here, we hiked up to the top of an observation tower to look out over the Ohio River. Chris loved riding in the backpack. He just smiled and squealed the whole time.

This guy was using some kind of tracking equipment below the observation tower. I had to ask...I wish I hadn't. He was tracking copperhead snakes. This one's "right here," he said. Glad it was underground!

This was a hike to the overlook of Big Clifty Falls.

This is a fountain in the little town of Madison

View from the master bedroom of the Lanier Mansion.

Once we got home, Chris was very interested in helping me unpack the cooler...

Here's a little clip of Chris playing in the cooler

Kellog-Garman wedding

Brian and Kristie (Brian is Mike's brother) got married on Saturday, Sept, 27th. It was a really nice ceremony and reception! They had a beautiful day of weather! Here are some pictures...

Here, Kristie is getting Makenzie ready to be the flower girl. Makenzie said, "Ms. Kiki, I'm so happy that you're going to be my second mom." How Sweet!




Avery, Sandy, and McKenzie help Kristie finish getting dressed.


Here is the back of Kristie's dress. Very pretty!



Kristie and Brian exchanging vows


Mike and his mother


Mike, Brian, and Sue goofing off before the ceremony

On to the reception! Here's one of the tables. They used mums as centerpieces

Here are their napkins

Beautiful cake! The cake was made by Judy Stevens.

Kristie and Brian cutting their yummy cake

Brian going for Kristie's garter

Uncle Bob (Sue's brother) holding Chris


Grandpa Garman with Makenzie and Chris

Nedra and Laurie with Chris (Bill's sisters)

Brian and Kristie with the quilt that Sue made for them

Congratulations Brian and Kristie!

I don't have any pictures of Liam and Galan--our new nephews, or of myself at the wedding! Will have to get some of those from the professional photographer or from Sue's and Nedra's cameras.

Trip to Nashville

Time warp back to August:

I'm going back in time a little here, but I wanted to share these photos:

We took a weekend getaway trip to Nashville, TN. The weather was great the whole time. It was unseasonably cool for August in TN (yea!). We took a backstage tour of the Grand Ol' Opry, went to a showing of the Grand Ol' Opry, and took a "discover Nashville" tour. The tour took us downtown, music row, the Ryman auditorium, centinneal park, bicentennial park, the state capital, and Vanderbilt U. It was a really nice weekend out!

Chris on stage at the Grand Ol' Opry

Music Row
Centinneal Park--The Parthenon: Nashville has always been called "the Athens of the south" because of the multiple institutions of higher learning; hence, the Parthenon.
BiCentinneal Park: This was a REALLY nice area. It has a natural amphitheater, bells that represent all of TN counties (they can be programmed to play any of more than 2,000 songs) and is a popular area for weddings, a great view of the state capital, time capsules from all fo TN's counties, a granite and marble map of the state, and more...

Country Music Hall of Fame