Thanksgiving pictures continued

Dad took Andy down to the river to shoot a gun, a .22 calibre pump action, for the first time. Andy did fine, but he isn't quite ready. He took it seriously enough, but his arm strength wasn't quite enough to hold it on his own and he lost interest in it (and the ear protection pretty quickly). I'm glad we did it though.

Mark, on the other hand...Does this city kid from suburban Washington, D.C., look comfortable in the country with a gun or what?

Grandmother and her baby bundle.

I stole Elizabeth's sunglasses. Meg stole them from me.

Megan and Andy down by the river. All four kids had a blast throwing rocks, finding freshwater shells, building dams and collecting wood at the river. It was awesome.

Elizabeth rocking the four-wheeler.

The requisite picture of all four kids in the bathtub. Elizabeth and I intend to document Andy and Megan in the bath together until they're 18. What, is that weird?

Pictures

I liked this picture -- Mary and Andy with Kieran followed by my dad with Megan on his shoulders.

Meg catching a ride with Bjorn as we walked to the take-out spot on the Colorado River.

Mary and Emma sitting in the boat. Yes, it's broken and yes, it's out of the water, but it's a nice place to rest down by the take-in spot on the river.

A self-portrait of Mark with the fire and the sunset in the background.

Margaret and Megan really hit it off at the end. Here they are on the chair in Mom's living room.

Here are all four grandchildren -- Megan, Andy, Emma and Margaret in their matching pajamas.

Another picture we tried to get of all four kids in matching Christmas pajamas. Emma, however, wished to have nothing to be done with it.

Phew

We are back. I, for one, am exhausted. I have a feeling my mother as uber hostess for many is beat as well.

It was so fantastic seeing my parents, my sisters and my adorable five and 2 1/2-year-old nieces. Andy and Margaret had the times of their lives. I loved watching that. It all made me wistful that we don't live closer. It is always hard traveling for the holidays and then trying to be a good house guest when my kids insist on smearing yogurt on the kitchen floor and then while I'm trying to triage that situation, the other one starts eating her yogurt with a knife. Oh, and let's not forget Meg forgot how to sleep while we were there. No fool, she sensed our weakness and inability to let her cry and ended up in bed with us probably every night at least for a bit before waking up before six FOR THE DAY. Of course, today -- our last morning -- Mom had to wake her up in order to leave for the airport to catch a flight that was then delayed nearly three hours. Fortunately both kids were angels on the plane, once Andy got down throwing a 30 minute fit that his new favorite cat Meowey was in our checked luggage. This after I asked the kid before I checked it if he was okay with that. Poor kid is practically luggage himself after so much excitement the past week. I, too, and worn out.

I also look forward to the years to come with the kids are easier to travel with and easier to send out of the room to play games with each other while we catch up and play bridge.

There are lots of great pictures to share, but right now I'm just too damn tired. I am planning to watch a little Tivo BY MYSELF IN MY OWN ROOM and then go to bed. I am crazy like that.

Thanksgiving

We have just gotten back from a weekend trip to the ranch down near Brownwood and it was great! The kids had a truly marvelous time. I think they could have happily thrown rocks, built fires and collected fresh water shells for another week. Andy shot his first gun, Dad's little pump action 22-caliber rifle. Andy was excited, but I don't think he is quite ready for it. Next year. Meg loved playing with 2 1/2 year old Emma and Andy and five-year-old Megan were truly inseparable. It was nice that they each had a buddy. Except for the close quarters and the fact that Meg woke up before six for the DAY both mornings, it was really great. I need to figure out how to get back there again. I'm thinking my birthday 2010.

It was a full house -- five Egans, two Miller babies, the four of us plus Mark Bennett (Jennifer stayed home this trip) and my Uncle Bobby. Pretty close quarters for a four bedroom, but we managed and didn't fight over the bathroom. Too much anyway. At night, I got both my sisters to drive around with me with the big spotlight looking for animals. The first night we took the big kids, but they quickly got bored. I loved it though. We even managed to get in a few bridge games before we all sacked out. No stars, sadly. It was cloudy both evenings. At least the weather was fantastic -- mostly sunny and highs in the 60s. It was a good trade.

In fact, this trip made me love Texas again. I'd never really not loved it per se, but I have lots of fantastic memories of summers down at my dad's place in Kerrville and at the Y.O. Ranch Adventure Camp and it was really great to get out of the city. We weren't roughing it by any stretch, but I did enjoy it. I am sure my parents are exhausted from hosting, but it really has been a marvelous time.

Picture above is Meg with her Pop. The rest of the pictures will come later from my camera. This I managed to upload from my iPhone to Mom's Macintosh. Cool!

Happy Thanksgiving

Andy's school celebrated Thanksgiving this week. They invited parents so Bjorn went. Andy was thrilled to show off his school and his daddy.

Edited to add his headband says Andy is "Chief Danger Ranger," in honor of one of his favorite DVDs.

Thanksgiving

We started the day at the home of old friends. I hope someday to have good friends we see every year that we've known for nearly 50 years. The thought of getting to see our friends' kids and their familes someday is a really cool thought.
As always, there was lots of football watching. Fortunately (finally!), the Cowboys looked pretty convincing. Texas also looked pretty good against Texas A&M.

My grand idea for the day -- a craft activity. I hit A.C. Moore on Wednesday before picking up the kids. I was initially looking for a great deal on some Thomas crap for Andy for Christmas and instead settled on Christmas ornaments and painting supplies. Nicole and Ryan were very good sports helping Andy with his (note the bib he's using as a make-shift smock). The bigger kids even made ornaments before the evening was out.

Beautiful art. If you're family, ignore this picture as you'll be getting these for Christmas. I personally love this kind of stuff.

Meg is fascinated with hanging upside down. Tor was holding her at the Young's and all she wanted to do was throw her head backwards in delight. Too bad she polished off a day of being a beautiful, good-sported, angel baby without a good nap by having a croupy cough last night.

A gorgeous turkey and the master co-chef. Margareta and Bjorn shared cooking duties to the culinary delights of the rest of us. I think they are even still speaking to each other after being forced to share an oven and stove for hours.

Playing together

Everyone said it would happen, that eventually, my kids would start to play with each other and I am proud to report that it's finally true. Granted, them playing together isn't the same as them gently walking off together into a bedroom to quietly do a puzzle together. Rather, it's more he decides to crawl on the floor with her or present a toy to her that he thinks she'll find interesting. I will caveat this by saying it's far from the norm. More often than not, he is stealing whatever toy she is playing with or complaining loudly that she's trying to "get" his puzzle. The signs of progress are there, however, and I'll take what I can get.

Meg is truly crawling everywhere now. I spent a large chunk of the weekend, it seemed, redirecting her from whatever it was that she insisted on getting into the middle of, like Andy's puzzle or the cat food container. She's also figured out how to open one of the kitchen drawers (fortunately, the one with Andy's cups and bowls in it) and she loves pulling everything out. With all this wigglyness though, it's becoming a huge struggle to get her dressed and undressed. Diaper changes are also becoming more of a struggle.

Andy continues to make great strides in his language, both verbal and written. My mother sent a note for a Andy to fill in with his requests for Santa. We wrote some words and he practiced tracing them. He's slowly getting the hang of sounding out some letters, but for the most part, when he knows a word know it's because he's memorized it in context. Like he knows Target and Home Depot because of their logos. Damn those branding people know what they're doing.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and I, for one, plan to celebrate by eating and drinking too much.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a nice day and we have lots to be thankful for, like good health, family, friends, jobs and a seemingly healthy baby girl wiggling inside my belly. Then the extras, like the Cowboys going 10-1. Granted, it was the New York Jets, but I'll take it.

We went to the house of old family friends of Bjorn's for omelettes and Bloody Mary's before coming back to get ready for dinner here. We had a thin crowd, just the three kids, my brother-in-law and us, but it was nice, friendly and low key with some amazing food.

Andy picked today to be too hyped up to nap. He's so exhausted now he can't sleep. He wore his blue blazer today as did his father and they looked quite darling. I also got all three kids to pose for some Christmas card possibilities. I like the idea of getting the whole family in the picture, not just the kids, but with my ever-expanding waistline that causes bitchy women to ask if I'm having twins, I opted out of that this year. Next year...

I'm still getting used to the new camera. I only took 70 pictures today and blew through two more batteries (at least they're AA). It's so much more powerful it requires me to actually think. What's up with that?