Royal Rumble, Baby!

So, Bub LOVES the WWE.  Like, LOVES it.  Don and I, well, you know... well, how do I put this?  Well...  we could do without it.  How was that?  But because Bub loves it, we've been forced to at least acknowledge the presence of the WWE in our lives.

The last 2 years' Halloween costumes have been WWE "fighters."

Hulk Hogan last year

And here's the post from the year before.  (here)

So, for Christmas this year, Don and I got Bub tickets (2, for Don and Bub only...  not me... no sirree) to the Royal Rumble which was held in St Louis.  Needless to say, he was EXCITED!

A few weeks ago, the boys took the MetroLink to downtown for the big show (haha.  big show is the name of a wrestler... just a little WWE humor for ya).

Don took the camera and got some GREAT shots of the night.  Just thought I'd share some of them with you.

A cage match.  Apparently one of these big dudes is Big Show (see previous "joke")

John Cena.  I know him because he was in a movie I've seen.  And he's the dad in that annoying Fred movie on Nickelodeon.

Crazy fire.  And crazy HOW. MANY. PEOPLE. ARE. THERE.

Bub was into the event

This is one of the funniest pictures I think I've ever seen.

This final picture actually got me all teary-eyed when I saw it...  the raw, pure expression of excitement and joy on Bub's face was unbelievable to me.  He poses for photos with a "cool" look... which I also like, but this?  This captures how excited he really was.

EXCITEMENT

Celebrate Good Times

So, I don't know if you're aware, but our little hometown team JUST WON THE WORLD SERIES!  I think that as fun as being FROM St. Louis, and having our team win, it's been even MORE fun to have a son who appreciates being from St. Louis and having HIS hometown team win.

Yesterday, there was a celebration parade and ceremony in downtown.  So Bub, Bub's best friend & mom, and Don went down to celebrate with 1,000,000 of their closest friends (Sis had no desire to go, and I was running a low-grade fever, so we stayed home).

What great memories for Bub and E (his best friend)!  They were in baseball heaven.

"Pitching"

Bub and E

Don and Bub

Touching the actual dirt that the actual Cardinals play on!

2011 World Series Champions!

I see David Freese!

Confetti everywhere!

Goofy Bub and Don

Mysterious Mysterio

So, hehe.  Remember a few months ago, when it was October?  Do ya?  And it was, um, Halloween?  Yeah, I barely do, too.

But funny thing... I was just downloading photos from my camera today to get it ready for the kids' Christmas program tonight, and guess what I found?

HALLOWEEN PHOTOS!

Well, of Bub anyway.  Did I mention that Sis decided she was too old to dress up this year?  Oh, the sadness!  (From me, not from her!)  Although, when she heard me tell someone else she was finished dressing up, she informed me that she just wasn't dressing up for THIS year... and it wasn't so much that she was too old as she didn't like what I was going to have her dress up as.  Ah well.

But my GOOD child (just kidding...) (REALLY!) did want to dress up.  As a character I'm not familiar with.  And he LOVES!

His name is Rey Mysterio, and he's a wrestler with the WWE.  THIS is what he look like.

Image from Lightinthebox.com

This is EXACTLY how I hoped my son would dress for Halloween... as a masked, shirtless dude with tattoos all over him.

So, guess what he dressed up instead?

Haha!  I TRICKED you!  He really did dress up as Rey Mysterio.

Except his mean mom wouldn't let him go in the cold temperature with no shirt on (say, WHAT?).

So, Don, Sis and I created Bub's costume... on Halloween Day.  Bub wanted to wear green pants (which I guess Mr. Mysterio sometimes wears), so the only pair I could find were in the Women's department at the Walmarts.  So I bought those, and pinned them up in the waist.  Then I did the fancy lettering down both legs of the pants, just as Bub requested.

We bought a long-sleeved white t-shirt that we drew "tattoos" all over to try to replicate Mr. M's tattoos. And then Bub wore his mask that he got at the State Fair a few years ago (yes, he's loved Mr. M that long!).

Here are the finished results.  Please don't be frightened of his intimidating tattoos.  He really IS a softy on the inside.

Happy Halloween, y'all!  And a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Vacation Rocks (seriously, this is almost all about rocks)

As our vacation continued, Bub got more and more interested in skipping rocks, finding cool rocks, and climbing up rocks and other terrain (just like vacation last year!).

One day in the National Park, we went hiking again...  because I love to!  :)

(Do you think the kids were tired of posing the directions yet?)

We found a river a little bit up the path where Bub skipped rocks to his heart's content.  And we all took turns taking photos of each other.

(My sweet girl is almost as tall as me!!!  *sob*)

Then Sis asked to shoot some pictures.  She pointed the camera at Don and me, and we kissed the entire time she was shooting.  I love that this already embarrasses her (no one besides our family was even around).  There's PLENTY more photos where this one came from!  :)

At another hiking path later in the day, Bub got to work on his climbing skills (in
Crocs, no less!  We knew we were headed to the Falls, and he wanted to play in the water there).

Finally, we made it to the top to where the gorgeous waterfall was...  Don and Hudson had a great time in the REALLY cold water, while Madison sat and people-watched and I took lots of gorgeous shots.

Alas, vacation has been over for a few weeks, but I loved appreciating time with my family.  And I loved spending time together in God's beautiful creation.

A story in pictures: Game Night

So, I had a game night last Friday night with my mom and my grandma (my mom's mom). All I can do is chuckle when I think back to knowing FOR SURE where I get my game-playing competitiveness! I may not be able to play sports, but I'll go down fighting in a good game of Rummikub!


I, of course, didn't bring my camera (I seem to forget I own one these days!), but I was going through my photos and I found photos from another game night that Don and I had at home with the kids. And even there, where my camera LIVES, I was apparently too lazy to go get my camera... I chose instead to stay on my bum and take blurry photos with my phone.

So, kids... let's play Jenga! You want to? No, it's boring!!! I'm tired of that game!!!

Well, why don't we just build a skyscraper with the blocks instead? OK!

Yo, Mom! Check out our building so far... and my gang sign!

Oooooo... it's getting taller!!!

I bet I can get my forehead thisclose to it without knocking it down!

And hey, does anyone want to play football around a skyscraper barely standing?

Whoa, dad! I don't know if we can get it any taller!

See our creation? We're taking a bow! (subtitle: let's see if we can swing our heads around without knocking it down!)

I don't know Bub... you might actually knock it down! Be careful!

OH NO!!!

Oh well... it was fun while it lasted.

THE END

Wild Thing

Today is Wild Hair Day at Bub's School

*Facial Expressions are bonus!*

It's kinda like a treasure hunt!

So, since I am the primary photographer of the family (or "pitcher-taker," as I like to say), it's pretty rare for me to find photos on the camera to be downloaded that I didn't take.

But as I was downloading pictures from last weekend's state fair (more to follow on that another day!), I ran across some photos that Don took while he and Bub were at the Army Nationals Wrestling Tournament a while back.

This is the weekend that they camped out in a pup-tent, and then wrestled all day (and watched some of the bigger boys on the team wrestle as well)... a good old-fashioned testosterone-fest! Sis and I shopped, ate out at the Ol!ve Garden, and just acted really girly. Which wasn't really an act.

Here are some shots of boys being boys:

Race Day!

So, for those of you who knew Don had been training for a big mountain bike race, the day finally arrived. On the 4th of July. On vacation. Which is really how we chose our vacation location this year...

So, the race started the town's annual 4th of July parade. Here's a shot of a lot of the bikers before they began (although not Don specifically, because we spent the whole time beforehand trying to find each other. It was a bit of a comedy of errors, except there was no comedy or anything funny involved... I was really pretty devastated when I couldn't find him beforehand, but it turned out fine.... WHEW! I feel better getting all of that out in the open!).

The cool part of the race for the kids watching AND for the bikers is that the racers gave the kids high fives as they began the race. Really cute.

So after the start, we stayed for a while for the rest of the parade (pics maybe coming tomorrow), then went back to the condo to rest for a bit. THEN we went back to the finish line/1st lap point to watch for Don to arrive (this is at the 25-mile point... this was no sissy mountain bike race! ha). THEN WE SAW HIM!

It was pouring rain at this point (you can see Sis's wet hair to the left of the above pic), but he stayed focused on the race. But he WAS glad to see us (made up for the earlier debacle!). So, I snapped shots as he rode through the 25-mile mark all the way to the aid station (where they stop to get drinks, etc).

We then hopped in the car and followed the street portion of the race and caught up with him on the road.

We then drove on ahead to a rest area (for us, not him) to wait for him to complete a few more miles (you should have heard us yelling for him as he rounded the corner!).

I am so proud of my racer! He worked so hard training AND racing! Good show, babe!