Niagra Falls...or Does It

Andy took Bre on a work trip to Buffalo where he had to give a presentation! Brenna was so excited and packed herself for the trip.  She took 6 outfits for 3 days!  Andy's presentation was in the same hotel where they stayed and Andy originally was going to leave her in the room while he did his presentation.  But the night before they left, she said, "But Daddy, I'll be scared." So  he told her not to worry, he would find a way for her to be in the room during the presentation.

Brenna loves to be Andy's secretary. She will often go into his office and say, "Daddy, how is your work today?  And how is CL doing?  Do you think today will be a good numbers day?"  I thought she would continue this while they were in Buffalo, but she seemed to have forgotten anything about it.  While Andy was giving his presentation, Brenna sat in the back of the room and either watched him or played on his ipad.  I absolutely thought she would take this opportunity to critique him on his tone, eye contact and so on....as his boss of course.  I think she knew a good gig when she saw one and knew that she better not say anything if she ever hoped to come back on a "business" trip with him again.

After the presentation, they had the day free to go to the Canadian side of Niagra Falls.  Brenna was so tickled that she would get a country stamp that I might not have on our passports!!  She loved Niagra Falls.  She saw so many rainbows no matter where she looked.  She had never seen that before.  She loved Pop and Lolly's the candy shop at the falls.  And they ate lunch at the Niagra Falls restaurant.

They ate dinner that night in Tornto at the Canada Tower (Space Needle) restaurant.  Brenna loved that the restaurant rotated in a circle.  She took delight in small things and in being small to her Daddy.  She wrapped Daddy around her little finger.

They had a great trip!

40th Birthday

We played like kids!

On our actual birthday we played hard, together, just the three of us!  It worked out to be one of the greatest times with Tierc and Todd that I will treasure for a long time to come.  We played in a playground in the trees.  There were ziplines, tunnels, bridges, tarzan swings and ladders to climb.  We laughed, and we smiled.  It turned out to be the perfect day.  To be swinging in the trees with the changing colors of fall was awesome and vibrant and made you feel alive.  It was warm enough that your own exertion was your sweater, but cool enough when a breeze came through to lift  up your hair.  And helping each other with the pulleys, latches, and carabeaners made us laugh and move forward.  Forward to the next 40 years.

There is one swing, at the end, that almost did me in.  I have to admit I was tired, we had been doing this for almost 3 hours.  It was about 40 feet in the air.  It wasn't the swinging that had me worried (although stepping off into 40 feet of air wasn't without it's hesitation either); it was what came after that made me want to cry.  I would land in a rope ladder and have to climb my way up to the platform.  I was out of shape and I knew it, being tired didn't help.  But Todd pushed me off the platform and off I went!

The excitement of flying through the air was like none other.  Fun. Exhilerating. Freedom.  And then kerplunk, into the ladder and those thoughts flew away.  I had trouble climbing up.  Todd and Tierc could see from the platform that I was using my arms way more than my legs and that I needed to change it around.  If it weren't for them, I would have given up and called for help.  But I didn't want to disappoint them...and I knew I would be mad later on.  They gave me so much encouragement.  And finally I did it.  I don't really remember except for one last ditch effort that worked!  It wasn't pretty nor was it graceful.  I just have to content myself that I did it and I showed Tierc and Todd the version of what not to do.

It was the perfect way to spend our day together.  I know that when we were little we used to get Todd into our nightgowns and his nails painted.  But I knew that he was old enough to care and wouldn't let us take him to the spa! This was a great place to be, to celebrate our ascent to the next middle years of our lives.

On Saturday, we had a family dinner at our house.  We had a really good time.  My mom is so funny.  She brought each of the three of us our own cake!  She is too funny.  We really wouldn't have minded sharing one, but it was something she used to do when we were little, some thing special she could do for each of us, to show that we were individuals to her.  We embraced it and had fun having a sampler of all the cakes.  It was fun to have everyone (all 5 of the siblings together).

It was the first time I had seen Buff since the surgery to remove his kidney.  I think it was harder than I thought it was going to be.  There is a lot of emotions surrounding Buff's health right now with the kidney cancer and what will happen next.  I wasn't prepared for it.  I wasn't also prepared for Buff's subdued presence.  I was so glad to see him back "to his old self" later in the evening, dancing, and singing, and rapping.  (I really don't feel like it will ever be the same again).  However, I felt like things would be fine then.

I have lived an amazing 40 years and feel like I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have the love of a wonderful husband, three children who make me smile and proud everyday, and a family who knows and loves me for who and what I am.  I hope the next 40 are even better!

Noah's Play off Football

Watch this amazing play by a Oscar worthy Quarterback.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/191540/nbc-today-show-middle-school-qb-becomes-web-star-after-sneaky-play

Noah's game pics.  And we won!!  We stay in the playoffs to live another day.  We are the underdogs for sure, but everybody loves and underdog story.  Noah had a great game and is punting for extra points!!

What I don't have are pictures of Noah kicking the extra points!  I will post those soon.  Go Wolverines.

The Orchard-A day made for us

     I had it all arranged. Brenna had never been to Butler's Orchard that she could remember and what better way to go than with a group of friends. The soccer game was on Sunday, so our Saturday was actually wide open during the day(a rarity these days). So, we would go on Saturday to the pumpkin patch in the late morning and then go to lunch. And then our soccer game was moved to Saturday morning at 10:30 because Sunday was Halloween and nobody wanted to play on Sunday. So, fine we'll go with the flow and just do the game, lunch, and then the pumpkin patch! It would be fine. And then...the email came that due to expected frost our game was going to be moved to 11:20! What are you kidding me?! My go with the flow attitude flowed away for a few minutes! Alright, fine, we would do later game, later lunch, and later pumpkin patch. It would still work.

     So, Saturday morning was really crisp and beautiful, but a little chilly. We arrived at our game excited to play hard and play furiously and then go to the pumpkin patch. But then we waited...and waited...and waited...for a referee. Darn the luck-we really weren't supposed to go! That's ok, relax, go with the flow was back. It would either happen or not! Our coach stepped in to referee and we were off. After the game we ran home, changed, and met at Noodles for lunch! And then the pumpkin patch. The girls had smiles on their faces the whole time and hardly knew where to go first.

We:
1. played on the slides

2. ran through the corn maze    Quote of the day: "We could get lost in here!"

3. romped in the hay

4. played with the toys

5. picked pumpkins

      For some reason, I can't upload more pictures right now.  But I must continue the story with Arthur.  (The little boy in the picture up above is Arthur)  In the hay barn, there was hay everywhere.  Although it was itchy, it's softness and utility far outweighed its pitfalls.  The girls had so much fun jumping from bale to bale and falling into the piles on the ground.  And because (I'm guessing) there was a huge group of them and they were rather loud, they attracted the attention of Arthur.  Arthur must have been about 3 years old and an only child so far in his life.  He was adorable and he thought our girls were adorable!  At one point, Brenna was up on the bale of hay and Arthur was right next to her looking up at her, watching Brenna as she plans her jump.  She jumped...and then he jumped.  The next time he was ready.   As he was climbing the bale of hay, he was saying, "hey, wait for me.  I coming."  And if you look at the picture below, wait for him they did.  You can see Arthur (maybe more of his hat) jumping beside the girls.  He was over the moon excited.  He was so sad when we finally had to leave there.  It was the cutest thing!

A short video of the girls jumping off of the hay!  So cute.

Katie, Diane, Kristine, Me, and Christy.  We had a great time on the playdate as well.

Finally, the pumpkins.  It was really hard to find just the right one.

Brenna had such a good time. I do hope she remembers this for a long time to come!!  I'm sure the pictures will help with that.  Happy Halloween.