Storytime

On our weekly trip to the library, Sarabeth and I stumbled into a Halloween themed story time that we didn't plan on attending. There were only about 10 other kids and their moms. It was a little uncomfortable being the only dad there. The librarians read a couple of Halloween books, interspersed with several songs and activities. At the end, they took the kids around the library to several different stations to trick-or-treat. On the way out, we even saw our favorite librarian, Rebecca, the wife of Big Andrew. A great morning at the public library.

Birthday

Happy __rd birthday to my beautiful, funny, smart, forgiving, loving, greatest-mom-in-the-world wife of 11 years.

Meghan McCain

With this years presidential election cycle winding down, Colorado has found itself in the national spotlight as a "swing state." This has generated numerous visits from both parties candidates since September. We had tickets to see Gov. Palin last Monday, but were unable to attend. What a bummer. On Tuesday, Senator Biden was in Greeley and we had zero interest in seeing that knucklehead. So on Thursday, I loaded up "the littles," that would be Sarabeth and Nathanael, and headed to the world famous Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. The kids and I would be attending a book signing with the oldest daughter of John and Cindy McCain, Meghan. She has written a book about her dad, appropriately entitled, "My Dad, John McCain." This was also the first book signing the littles had ever attended. Thankful we arrived early, and only waited about 45 minutes to meet Meghan. The kids were both excited as we approached the table, and both got a signed copy of the book and a photo with Meghan. I also treated to a cookie and pop after the signing. You can follow Meghan's blog here: http://mccainblogette.com/

Sarabeth

What a crazy, fun, happy little 4 year-old she is.

Pumpkin Patch

Isn't fall fun? It seems to be a never-ending stream of great photos and blog posts. Sarabeth's preschool class took their yearly trip to a pumpkin patch north of town today. Noah was playing hooky from school, so he got to go too! It was a little chilly this morning, so they had a fire going when the class arrived at 9:30. Noah helped his sister pick out a pumpkin. They climbed to the top of the hay bale stack. Finally a class photo and the end of a really fun morning.

Andrew #8

Andrew returned from California just in time to open presents and have his special birthday dinner on Saturday night. He had a great time in SoCal, visiting Disneyland, Sea World, and several places around Palm Springs. Note the new necklace in the dinner photo. It is a mood necklace in the shape of a turtle. The color has stayed dark green the entire time he has had it. I think it stands for "pessimism," or having the same outlook on life that Eeyore does in "Winnie-the-Pooh." For his special birthday dinner, Andrew selected sausage pizza from Little Caesars.

Disneyland

It is a small world after all. For his 8th birthday, Grandma Janet and Grandpa Jim have taken Little Andrew to California for a week. The trip included two days at Disneyland, and trip to Sea World, the beach, and Palm Springs. Here is the birthday boy at his favorite ride. By the way, my birthday is in February grandma and grandpa....

Jars

After all the fun at the corn maze, Wes and I took off for Denver and the "Music Builds Tour." It was an amazing night of music featuring some of my favorite bands: Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, and Third Day. I have been listening to Jars of Clay since they burst onto the Christian music scene in 1995. I finally got to meet them on Sunday night, and have them sign a t-shirt from their first tour through Colorado in 1996 with Three Crosses and Michael W. Smith. Yes, that is me with Dan, the lead singer of Jars.

Corn Maze

Couldn't fit all the pictures on the post last night. Here are a few more. These include Uncle Bubba getting buried in corn, in "The Beast," and Sarabeth finding a pony!

Corn Cannon

This is a large cannon that shoots corn cobs. Pretty fun!

Fall Fun

While I was working on Sunday, Jennifer, Wes, Noah, Nathanael, and Sarabeth made the trip to the world famous Fritzler Corn Maze. Little Andrew did not make the trip because he is currently in California with Grandma and Grandpa Gonzales at DISNEYLAND! More on that in a later post. Here are some crazy pics from the maze, the bikes and corn cannon.

Cards

It has been great having mom at home more. Here is Nathanael honing his card playing ability in a heated game of War.

Sleep

Like her dad, Sarabeth is able to fall asleep almost anywhere. I guess she got "tired" of waiting for me to tuck her in.

Return

Sorry to the faithful readers of Campingdad for my absence these last two weeks. With Jen not working I was able to work my two days off last week for a total of 12 straight days at Frito-Lay. Wow. With the drive time included, I punched the clock for close to 70 hours last week. It was awful. Sort of like the movie "Groundhog Day." Anyways, it was a crazy busy weekend with Uncle Bubba in town. It looks like we all had fun as you will see from the following posts. Thanks as always for checking back often for the latest news from Campingdad!

Frontier

Busy week last week for our family. Kids had a fundraiser for school at CiCi's Pizza on Tuesday, AWANA on Wednesday, Watch D.O.G.S. day for Campingdad at Frontier all day Wednesday, Jennifer's continued job hunt after leaving Sylvan, chips to stock at Frito-Lay, and MLB Playoff's starting. Campingdad needs to carrty digital camera with him at ALL times so as not to relay on camera phone pics. Here is the pizza night fundraiser: Andrew enjoying his favorite pizza, our table, and the principal helping serve.