Cheering on The Next Generation

I can't begin to count how many hours Don and I have spent on the sidelines, cheering for kids - basketball, track, football, cheerleading, pompoming (is that a word?), and one soccer game - played by our oldest, Sarah. She was all of 9 years old, and you can see the nervousness on her face as she's biting her lip. Two notable points here - she remembers this day as having chopped off ugly hair and I'm feeling redeemed that she has a pretty braid with a pink bow to make up for the yellow uniform,

and that man in the foreground is her Daddy, sitting on the sidelines, cheering. I'm not sure if that was before or after she scored a goal for the other team. I think Sarah's kids will enjoy seeing their mama in her soccer days.

So about a thousand games later, with our kids grown up, we're starting a new tradition - cheering for grandkids.

Can I tell you how cute I think it is that Grayson's little legs don't even show with the shorts and the knee pads and soccer socks.

Caiden, waiting for his game to start, squeezing in a few more pages of his book. BTW, look at that book! He's 8 years old and reads like a whiz!

Sitting on the sidelines together, this time both of us with grandkids in lap. Indescribable sweetness.

Hugs for the opponent - how cute is that? Or maybe he was pinching him - they are boys after all. And where are that boy's socks - probably still in the dryer if their house is anything like ours was on game day.

Addie helped as line judge from atop her Daddy's shoulders.

Caiden is a bit more exuberant about playing soccer than his little brother. He ran til his face matched his uniform.

Drat that kid's arm in this photo because I could love it off the charts. I still love it quite a bit anyway.

Pep talk from the coach before Caiden takes his turn as goalie.

Good for him - he stopped one!

Last time through the tunnel, after the last game of the first season of soccer. As soon as the game was over Grayson asked me, "Grammy, will you come to more of my games?"You bet we will. We can't wait.

Riveting photos of The Alamo and River Walk

Here are our photos of the Alamo and the Riverwalk, in San Antonio, Texas.

Anybody want to volunteer to break the news to my husband? When you mess with the settings on the digital camera, and you see 'no image', they mean it.

A Last Blast of Color

Half a mile from our little condo. I'm thinking the Canadian Geese aren't going anywhere. The leaves however, they're definitely on the way out, but can you even stand how gorgeous fall can be?

The Circus Comes to Town

It's been a long, long time since I've been to the circus. I'm not completely crazy about them, after having seen someone fall to their death during one of the trapeze acts years ago, but Don loves them enough for the both of us. So when he heard Ringling Brothers was coming to Pittsburgh he used our 3 year old grandson as an excuse to go.

Let me tell you, the circus has changed! It's all high-tech, with light shows, and semi-go-go dancers and revved up motorcycles, and fireworks, etc. but it's still the circus.

The cotton candy is a bit more expensive and they sell it in a funky, funny hat, so nobody sitting in the stands can see over the funky, funny hats on the heads of all the kids who talked their parents / grandparents into buying them bags of spun sugar.

There are still elephants and tigers and clowns and trapeze acts and jugglers and a ringmaster with a long coat and top hat, so overall it was a pretty great circus.

Interesting - the 8 tigers had one trainer; the elephants each had their own....

I loved this lady's pink legs - very cool.

The boys definitely would go back again.

When we returned Landon to his parents, their first words were 'spoiled rotten'... (they said it with a smile on their face.) I can't imagine what they're talking about. We may only get to take him once, and if he absolutely cannot live without a light up sword, then what was I supposed to do?

Is there anything as sweet as a brand new puppy and a little boy?

I agree.

Sweet Trick or Treaters

This is a few days late, but relatives south and west will still enjoy seeing the photos:

Dressed and ready to go - Landon's and Z's mommas have been best friends since sixth grade, so it's especially sweet to see their little ones together. (Z's name is Zion but everyone calls her Z and Landon claims she's his best friend.)

They tried the wagon for transportation, but the riders were less than enthusiastic.

Much more fun to run through the leaves down dark streets!

And of course they came home and poured all their loot out on the living room floor, for the adults to rifle through and claim, because they've been raised right!

Winner of Book and Change of Plans

So Jill, of Find Us Faithful won the book on knitting toys - sounds like she's already a knitter and ready to jump into making gifts for little ones - congrats Jill.

Well, we bailed on the Mexico trip. Thank goodness we had the cash back insurance so we rebooked it for early March, and are instead headed to our house in Texas for a week on the lake. That should be super fun - the lake is full, there are no boxes to unpack, Don has yet to drown a worm in the lake and I imagine he'll enjoy that. I think he's planning to fish with our son Dan right after we land in Texas, stop for a quick shopping trip at Bass Pro and then drive to the lake. You know, men never, ever seem to have enough rubber worms!

I'm planning to pack some yarn and needles to while away hours while he's on the lake fishing and maybe, just maybe trim the front hedges that have been bugging me for a solid year. We've got steaks in the freezer just waiting to grill, there are a couple bottles of good wine in the kitchen, what else do we need?

We're talking about running down to San Antonio and seeing the Alamo for ourselves, and I think we also get to watch our two grandsons play their last soccer game of the season, and squeeze in a family dinner too - so there you go.

Being together - that's what really matters, not where we're at. It's all good! I'll be back in a week with some show and tell photos. xoxo