Ranch trip

Jennifer and her baby. She's a regular Angelina Jolie.

Bjorn and Andy on the four wheeler. It was so. much. fun.

The Super Moon. On the clear night out in the country near Brownwood, it was pretty magnificent.

Dad and Andy after climbing the cliffs not far from the house. Andy absolutely loved climbing. Dad and I were cringing and giving him all sorts of advice and he just did it his way and it worked out.

Dad helping Andy shoot the .22. Andy declared that shooting guns with Pop was more fun than playing Wii. That's some seriously high praise from the six year old.

Bjorn mowed around the house and fence line, killing the stickers that are a real nemesis down there.

It was a little dusty down there. It was very dry, the river was low and there was a burn ban in effect so no outdoor fires or s'mores. This time.

Dad and Andy walking through the take out spot on the Colorado River. Normally, there's a river there and not a dry bed. We still had fun skipping rocks in parts that had water and chasing frogs.

Like I said, the four-wheeler was a ton of fun. The roads are still hard to find and in some cases, hogs have torn then up, so I couldn't go too fast, but it was still good fun to tool around on them. I usually had one kid with me which meant I was even more alert than usual.

We also found time to kayak upriver, spotlight animals (we saw seven deer the first night and two armadillos; five deer the second night), cruise around in the jeep, chase wild turkeys (we counted at least 10) and watch college basketball. It was a fun trip. Looking at the pictures, I'm reminded how much we did. No wonder I'm tired!

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.