Happy Birthday Colin!!

Colin is 10 years old.  Can you believe that?!

Of course he wanted a mochi cake.

He invited his best friends over to celebrate.  David, Colin, Adam, Shamith, Cameron, and Justin (from left to right).  Derek showed up later.

They did slingshots.  

Justin got laser tag at the Elwell Christmas gift exchange so all the boys played that in the dark.  They had a blast.

Colin got a chess board for his birthday.  I took this picture right after Jamie beat Colin in their first game.  I predicted it would be the last time she beat him.  I think that has been true so far.

In other news, Justin had his first wrestling tournament a couple weeks ago.  

He won first place.  He pinned all three of his opponents in the first round.  Great job, Justin.

Colin had his first swim meet not long ago.  He placed in three different races.  Congratulations, Colin.  

I've been doing some steelhead fishing this year.  My first time out I got nothing.  The second time I landed one but could not get it to shore.  The third time I landed this fish.  It's 23" and almost 5 lbs.

I cleaned and filleted it.  Then the boys and I ate it.  It was delicious.

Justin created this one day.  It's a suit of armor.

In critter news, a hawk hit our big window again.  If you look close you can see the mark it left.

It flew away and sat in this tree for a while.

See you soon.

Happy Turkey Day

We started the Thanksgiving festivities the Sunday before by meeting Matt, Danny and Ana in Amherst to watch the Browns game.  We all had a great time and Matt even won the 50/50 raffle.  

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, everyone met at Grandma's house.  Jamie soon realized that the twins and Riley are all taller than her.  The twins weren't even born when we started dating.  OMG!

Thanksgiving morning we all met for the traditional Bourbon and Eggs breakfast at Ed and Mai's house.  Somewhere out there is a really good picture of all of us (check Mai's facebook page) but the only picture I took was of Ed's new car.  

Maybe Ed got a new job.  Haha.  Thanks for hosting.  Everything was great.

Thursday afternoon we all went to Nick and Tami's house for Dinner.  Nick made turkey and ham and everyone brought sides and desserts.  A good time was had by all (but I didn't take any pictures - sorry).  Friday morning we all went hiking in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  

The kids had a blast climbing rocks.

We even managed to find the rock carvings.  Supposedly they are from the 1700's.

The weather was perfect.

And the scenery was great.

Can't wait to go back someday.

Afterwards we went to The Winking Lizard in Macedonia for food and drinks and some much needed relaxation.

Our Thanksgiving weekend festivities ended with the Ohio State game on Saturday.  We all met at the Hoolie House in Old Brooklyn.  

It was a great game and Ohio State won.  

Ben slept through most of it though.  Haha.

See you soon.