Florida Fun

We headed down to Florida at the end of October for Brian to play at the Ultimate Frisbee national tournament. It was Evan's first flight and he did great. It was too hectic to have the camera on the plane, so we only starting shooting away once we got to the fields. The first day was, unfortunately, all rain. But the second day started to clear up, which meant lots of fun outside at the frisbee fields and the beach. Thankfully for us, we missed the October snow storm in the north east when we went away.

As I've mentioned before, Evan is a complete daddy's boy. He wants to do whatever his father does, which includes playing "brisbee" (as he calls it): Brian is able to throw the frisbee way up in the air and have it come back to him (like a boomerang) - Evan loved this game:Carrying his frisbee proudly:And while we were at the fields, he almost never stopped running. However, his run mostly looks like a power walk, which had friends and strangers laughing at his strange run:Eventually he got too tired to run . . . for about 2 seconds:Family photo at the fields:Team photo. Unfortunately, the team didn't do so well (finished 16th out of 16 teams):On Saturday night, our friends organized a trick-or-treating at the condos we were staying at with a bunch of frisbee players. It was 2 days before Halloween but the kids were happy to dress up. We didn't bring Evan's full costume, but a Halloween themed outfit instead:The trip allowed for plenty of beach time too. Evan loves anything that involves him being outside:Pausing for a 2 second photo with his mother:Hard to tell here, but someone came by with a boom box and Evan started dancing up a storm. He even had a few other kids join him. These are his rockin' moves:And we couldn't have done this trip without the help of Nana & Papa, who helped me enormously on the plane and at the fields. Watching Evan is a 3-person job these days:The obligatory "throwing Evan in the air" picture:Wild man on the beach:

Thank you, thank you, thank you Nana & Papa!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Elmo! Who would believe that this kid cried hysterically when we first tried the costume on a month ago? And refused to put it on again before today. He was reluctant for the school parade today. But tonight, he must have been in the Halloween spirit!Ready for trick-or-treating:

Ready to go with the neighbors:

With one of his many future girlfriends:
First bite of candy ever - a Kit Kat. And he LOVED it!

Evan didn't make it too far in the trick-or-treating. Once he saw an older kid in a scary mask, he was done. But he enjoyed going around with the neighbors for a half hour or so. Happy Halloween!

Fall Fun

Based on my infrequency of posts, you can tell I've been a bit busy lately . . . mostly with work, unfortunately. This post is a few weeks overdue but continues where I left off last time with a visit from my entire family for the weekend in early October.

On Sunday morning, we headed to Marlborough Valley Corn Maze (www.pamaze.com) in Kennett Square. It was a perfect place for the boys to play for a few hours.

First stop were the piles of hay, which the boys could climb and run on as well as jump off of into a pit of hay:
Evan running on the hay:

Evan couldn't get enough, though he wasn't old enough to jump. Maybe next year!

Next we headed to the "sandbox", which was filled with corn kernels. Evan getting tickled by his dad in the corn:Matthew joining in on the fun:

More fun in the corn for Matthew:

Next onto the enormous corn maze. Evan loved running through the corn maze :Evan wanting to take a break from his running. His favorite phrase is currently "Up Please" (while also making the sign for "please"). It works every time because it's just too cute for me to resist when he does it.

Evan decided the already-cut path of the maze was too easy so he just ducked straight into the corn stalks. It was a lot easier for him being short but we were forced to follow:

Next it was onto the hayride to the pumpkin patch. Two attempts at a family photo . . . unfortunately for us, our photogenic ready-to-smile little guy is no longer ready for a photo shoot at any time:

And one of the Schaller family:

We will definitely be going back next year and I would higly recommend it.

Dutch Wonderland

My family came to visit for the weekend and we had an action-packed weekend. On Saturday morning, we headed to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster. It was Evan's first amusement park visit, and while he was still a bit young to fully enjoy the park, his cousin Matthew had a blast. Evan would not ride any rides alone (even with Matthew) but he was happy to ride as long as Brian or I joined him. One of the rides he loved was the Fun Slide. He and Brian are on the right here and my dad and Matthew are on the left:Following the slide, everyone but my mother and I decided to ride the log flume. It started out innocently enough:

And here they go down the big drop at the end. Shouldn't Brian have both hands on Evan at this point?

Just after the complete soaking of the riders. Keep in mind that I watched 20 people go down this before them and no one got wet. But I guess the total weight and distribution of the log was not working in their favor:

The soaking wet survivors of the log flume:

Claire's first "ride" - a scenic boat tour:

Matthew, Brian and Evan driving the monster trucks:

More pics to come from the weekend as we went to a pumpkin patch on Sunday.

They just don't make 'em like this anymore . . .

I consider myself a fortunate person to come from a large family because families like this aren't too common anymore. My father is the oldest of 8 children and I'm the 2nd oldest of 21 grandchildren. We recently gathered together to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. All but 1 aunt and 2 cousins are in the photo. It's not too often that we all get together like this. What is more shocking is that everyone in the family lives in northern NJ with the exception of the black-sheep of the family here that lives in Pennsylvania! It was a great day to celebrate and get to catch up with everyone:
My dad and his brothers & sisters and their mom:

Why this photo? These little girls are 5 months apart in age. Amy, in the front, is my youngest first cousin. Grace, in the back, is my oldest first cousin's daughter. Happy 90th Birthday Nanny!

We will all get to celebrate together again at our cousin Elizabeth's wedding in November.