packing in

the rest of the night was a great one, up at the cabin.  unfortunately i am not at liberty to share much about it.  you know, 'loose lips sink ships' and all that...  but the next morning, after a bunch of sleeping, we were back to having a great time!  usually when we are up at the cabin there is a deadline for when we have to leave by.  often one of us will have some sort of plans that day that we need to get back home for, which forces the rest of us to pack it in a bit earlier than we might like.  well, this year there was no such time frame- so we took our sweet old time packing up!  finally, around three or four in the afternoon, we had finished lounging around, packed up all our stuff, cleaned the place nice and good, and were ready to leave.  another cabin year successfully completed!  on the way home we were already talking about next year!  (this picture is very funny, but its one of those things that cannot really be explained...)
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sports night

after all the gun fun, it was time to eat up!  we headed up to baldwin for a little bit of grub at our usual watering hole: sporties.  we had a good time remembering all the zany antics we have had in years past up there, including the old shuffleboard game as well as adam's karaoke tribute.  the great thing about this place is that every time we go there is a strange assortment of locals to just sit back and watch.  whether its the waitress serving us who always seems to get flustered and mess up our order, the creeper cook behind the window, or the local drunks who always have something to say.  this year was no exception!  the thing is though, the food is always really good, so we keep going back!  now, with our bellies full, we head back to the cabin for a night of games and goofing around.
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cabin dance!

while most of the guys were busy shootin' stuff, aaron and adam hung out in the cabin.  when the two of them decided to go see what there was to see out by the shooting range, they did a little impromptu dance!  adam was shuffling his feet to a rhythm, doing a little tap dance out on the boards, and aaron decided to tap along.  with a little bit of coaching, the two of them were toe tapping with the best of them!  i think there may have been a little song sung about the cabin as well, but the most impressive part was the spontaneous tap dancing duet! 

guns!

every year we have gone up to the cabin we have brought guns along.  this is, in fact, what the cabin is actually intended for: hunting.  this is right up keith's alley, he loves guns!  so he brought a couple big ones: a shotgun, and a really huge rifle (i don't actually know what that one was called, but it was super loud and had a wicked recoil!).  after getting the cabin wood stove going so that the place could get cold, we headed out with the guns.  jeffry lee set up some of the toys he got on the way up, and we proceeded to blast them to smithereens!  i took a turn as well with the shotgun, not so much because i wanted to shoot at the targets, but mostly so that i could reload it one-handed style like in terminator 2!
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lunch en route

   a little over half way to the cabin is the town of big rapids.  we always plan to stop there for lunch at burger king before we make the second leg of the trip to the cabin.  partly this is out of tradition, and partly its because we love to see the crazies that always seem to be there!  this year was no exception, although to be honest, we always seem to be the crazies...
before we hopped back on the highway, jeffry lee convinced us to stop at big lots so he could find some fun things to shoot at while we are up at the cabin.  he found a few cheap toys, including a set of cheap plastic bowling pins!  that aught to be fun!  other things of note on that trip: i decided what my son's middle name is going to be, and adam made plans for us to recreate the battle of antietam while we were in baldwin.  time permitting, of course...

off to the cabin

its that time once again, boys and girls: its time for our annual cabin trip!  hurrah!  all the guys got together, as is our tradition, to head up to good ol' baldwin michigan for some time together.  we were very excited because it seemed like everyone was going to be able to make it this time, which hasnt happened in a couple years.
i drove up to grand rapids the night before and went out for a movie and dinner with rex, jeffry lee, and brains.  it was then that brains dropped the unfortunate announcement:  he wasnt going to be able to go after all.  suck!  he was really excited to come along and had been planning on it for months, even getting new boots and a hat, but the day before we were to leave he was informed that he couldnt have the days off and needed to appear in court during our trip (he's a lawyer, but the way).  we were obviously frustrated, no one more than he, but knew we needed to press on in spite of the loss.
tuesday morning the rest of us gathered together, dusty, jeffry lee, aaron, keith, rex, adam, and myself, at aaron's place.  we packed up the two cars and were off to a couple days of crazy fun!
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under the tree with care

now it was time to get down to business: opening gifts!  we did a name exchange this year and had a lot of fun passing the gifts around and enjoying what the family had gotten.  diana and barbara got a few extra gifts too, which is only fair, its their family!  as the evening wound down, we all sat around the living room and watched an old classic: a muppet christmas carol!  it is one of barbara's favorites, so she brought it for us all to enjoy.  i think she said that this was her third time watching it just this year!
as night time drew near, we realized that this was a really full house!  with denny and gayle taking the guest bedroom, diana and i dragged an extra mattress into the living room to sleep.  we even talked barbara in to spending the night so we could have more fun in the morning!
the next day we had a great time of doing a whole lot of not much.  we just enjoyed the day off and milled about, talking, laughing, and having a great time!  by late afternoon, diana and i packed it in with our stinky dog, and headed home.  the car was filled with gifts received to replace the gifts given and we were filled with great times and lovely memories!
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christmas, part 2

it was christmas morning, and time for diana, our stinky dog, and i to hit the road!  we were on our way to her family for the rest of the weekend, and we were expected there for christmas dinner.  the trip went well and we arrived to a warm, full house with delicious smells in the air!  mom and david welcomed us in and were soon greeted by barbara, aunt gayle, uncle denny, grandma, bill, barbara, and diana's dad.  we got to sit back and enjoy the time with family.  but first, it was dinner time! david cooked up a feast, as usual, and we had a great time talking and laughing around the table.

get the phone

in the midst of all the gift giving and opening, we got a phone call.  mom almost flew out of her seat as soon as she heard that ringer!  it was chad, my brother in the military who wasn't able to join us for the festivities.  he had, though, sent gifts for all of us that we were able to open that night.  we put a stop to all the prizes for a while so that we could chat with him and help him feel included on all the christmas fun.  the phone was passed around so that we all got to say hi and thank you and hear what he was up to.  the best part is seeing the kids talking on the phone to him- its just so cute!  we were so thankful to hear from him and hear that everything is going well over there.  mom and papa were thrilled, as always, to talk to him and mom was especially pleased that he was able to call when all of us were there.  we all certainly missed him this year and hope he will be able to join us next year!

prizes!

after dinner was all cleaned up, we were ready for the main event: prizes!  (just so you know, in my family we dont call them gifts, we go with my dad's strange tendency to call them prizes instead.  just go with my on this one...)  we picked our spots and got rollin!  the kids were very excited, to say the least, and all the rest of us were pretty geared up for it too!  we did a pretty good job of spacing it out so that the excitement could last for a couple hours, allowing the kids to stop and play with some of their new toys, and give us adults enough time to saunter back over to the kitchen and grab another snack or two...  we got some pretty nice stuff, and everyone enjoyed the prizes we got for them.  bubba was all about the legos this year (as usual!), tweets was loving all the pink girly stuff she got, and aves was rockin out with her girlyish stuff too (she likes the girly pink stuff too, but i'm guessing its partly because her big sister likes it...).  diana and i got a bunch of fun baby stuff to fill the nursery drawers with, which made diana very pleased.
as usual, the family went overboard and got everyone too much stuff!  afterward we always say that we shouldn't have had so much, but we all secretly love it...
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wings and eggs

by late afternoon jill, tim, and the kids came by for the christmas fun!  bubba and i hung out in the living room, he showed me some of the games and stuff he got already for christmas, and the girls headed up with diana into the toy room.  they always seem to have so much fun up there making up games and laughing!  last time we were in town diana came across these cute butterfly wings for the girls, we didnt get a chance to give them to the girls then, so we pulled them out for them to play with while they waited for the gifts. (i recognize the ridiculousness of giving the girls gifts as they wait for more gifts, but choose to ignore it).  in no time at all we were being called over to the dinning room for dinner.  i know mom made a great meal, but i cant remember any of it, mostly because there was a plate of deviled eggs- and with my single-mindedness, all the rest of the food faded into a forgotten haze...

wrap it up!

everyone planned on coming over on christmas eve for the gift giving fun, so diana and i made sure we had everything (we did not, but fortunately mom came through with some help!), and got about preparing for the fun!  diana and i feverishly wrapped all the gifts that we had brought, taking advantage of mom's always plentiful supply of gift wrap, and put them around the tree for the big night.  this is always one of my favorite parts of giving gifts at christmas!  i'm not a very good wrapper (well, i'm quite a bit better than my brother, but i think he does it poorly on purpose...), but i always love looking over the gifts i get to give and excitedly anticipate how they will react to the different prizes picked out especially for them!  as a general rule, i always try to avoid gift cards.  partly because its not as fun to wrap, but mostly because i like to challenge myself with thinking of interesting gifts.  i always like to get someone something they didnt even realize they wanted!  i rarely ask people what they want, i usually try to figure out an idea for myself.  granted, that may sometimes turn out with them not actually getting what they want, but thats the price they pay...

beltline family

with christmas break coming up, diana and i made plans for visiting everyone we could in the small amount of time we had.  friday afternoon the two of us, and one stinky dog, packed up and headed up to grand rapids for the first leg of our christmas tour!  we got there just in time too, the whole family was planning on going out for dinner and diana and i got to join them at beltline for some mexican food.  it felt like forever since we had last seen them, so it was really nice to enjoy some time with everyone! the kids were in fine form, as always, being extra silly and excited about their aunt and uncle coming in to town!  bubba and i got a chance to catch up and i got to hear all about his new hobbies and stuff.  diana sat down by aves and she got an earful of hilarious conversation from that little one!  after dinner we headed back to the house and got ready for the rest of the night.  our plans to hang out with the guys and see a concert fell through, so mom pulled out the games and the three of us had a great time playing games for a couple hours!

pregnancy: week 25

as the second trimester draws to a close, diana has been feeling really great!  she's having a blast feeling our little guy kick and wiggle around- he gets most excited and active when mom is eating (looks like he's going to be taking after his mom and dad in that regard...).  i still havent been able to feel him, but i'm not too worried, it will come.  diana has been doing really well with the pregnancy, but the thing that annoys her the most is how hard it is to bend down to put on her shoes!  i think that will get much worse before it gets better...

finishing touches

diana has been keeping her eyes peeled for the past month or two for decorations for the nursery.  she's really good at finding cool objects and artwork that goes with her nautical theme for the nursery.  well, she finally decided that she had enough pieces to put on the wall, so i pulled out the hammer and nails and put them up how she wanted them.  and boy, does it look good!  we lucked out with the paint color in the nursery- last time i painted that room i used a beautiful sky blue which works perfect for the nautical theme and for the fact that we are having a boy!  diana is very pleased with the results, and so am i.  i'm sure we will find more things to put in the room, but for now, its finished!  now we just have to wait for the baby that goes with it!
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wrestling?!?

i love teaching and i love my students!  earlier this year i had a couple students come and visit me who had graduated the year before.  this is a common occurrence, i often get visits from former students sharing what they are up to these days.  well, one in particular, who i had nicknamed chuck, came and chatted with me for a while.  he said that he is on the wrestling team at illiana.  this was such a shock to me- he was such a quite, mild mannered boy!  the thought of seeing him in combat with another person was so strange to me!  so told him to let me know when he would be having a tournament and i would try to go and cheer him on!  well, he let me know that one was going to be coming up, so i made sure to stop by the high school and watch.  it was quite a strange thing, wrestling.  we did not have wrestling at my high school so i had never witnessed it for myself before.  it was quite a shock when the guys got out on the mat- they really go at it!  i was able to watch and cheer for a couple other former students who were on the team as well.  unfortunately chuck did not get to wrestle that time, the other team didnt have an opponent in his weight class, so i did not get to see him wrestle, but the experience was really something else!

ultrasound 2

its finally time for our ultrasound to see how our little munchkin in doing!  i tell ya what, i am so glad that we went and had one already to find out its gender- there's no way we could have waited until now to find out if we were having a boy or girl!  we just aren't that patient!  we got there and went to the ultrasound room.  the nurse put that clear goop on diana's belly and then the wand.  suddenly there he was in black and white for us to see!  he's gotten much bigger since our last ultrasound.  its much easier to see the different parts of him.  last time we could make out bits and pieces, but we mostly just took the nurse's word for it!  now, it was very obvious when we saw his arm or leg or face!  for about an hour we got to watch him squirm around in there as the nurse took pictures and made measurements of him.  she said that he was looking healthy and active in there, which is a huge answer to prayer!  it was awesome to see him again- diana and i couldn't wipe the smiles from our faces!  we are going to have to work on that patience of ours, we've still got 15 weeks yet till we get to see him for real!
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pregnancy: week 24

the belly is getting bigger and bigger!  diana has been feeling great this past week, she is enjoying this second trimester of her pregnancy.  she is trying to make the most of it because everything we read about pregnancy shows that the third trimester is even worse than the first one.  i dont envy her that!  the little man has been making a habit of waking her up bright and early, kicking around eager for something to eat!  its been kind of nice for me too, the past couple days diana has been getting up with me for work- now i've got someone to chat with while i get ready!

new phone!

for the past year diana has had an iphone.  she totally loves it.  so do i.  all the fun apps and games you can get are great to play with.  this usually resulted in my stealing of her phone almost every night!  diana was starting to get annoyed by this, so i knew it was time for me to get one for myself.  i had to wait until the contract expired on my old phone before i could get a new one.  in anticipation of a check that i knew would be coming for me, i declared a couple months ago that when it arrived i was going to get myself my own iphone for christmas.  diana didnt bat an eye, in fact she was thankful that i wouldnt be confiscating hers each night anymore!  when that check finally came, we went directly to the phone place and got me my very own iphone!  and i have been loving it ever since!

bowl me over

diana's work had a christmas party this year and we were both very eager to go.  it was at the local bowling alley.  we were both looking forward to it because she works with some really great women, and fortunately i really like their husbands too!  one thing that was kind of fun was that the bowling alley is pretty old school: there were no computers to keep score for us!  if you have ever tried to keep score in bowling you will understand that it can be a bit tricky!  at first someone asked if we should look for an app that would keep score for us, but fortunately, thanks to all the time i spent going with my dad to his bowling league back in the late 80's, i actually know how to keep score!  we were having a great time, and then came all the food (which is what diana was really there for anyway...), tons of greasy bowling alley food!  it was a virtual fried feast!
we had a great time hanging out with everyone and doing a little bowling.  we were there for almost three hours and only got in one game- we were too busy having fun and talking!
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