Traditions

For the third year now, our pumpkin-carving skills have been put to the test while our little family celebrates one of our favorite traditions. It's AUTUMN, when we all get into the mood of college football (the big schools are MICHIGAN, GEORGIA and USC!), carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds and eating Amy's delicacies. All in that order!

It all starts in Amy's garage. Well, it actually starts with all of us buying our own pumpkins to carve and then congregating in her garage to begin the annual tradition.
(And oh, see the boombox in the way-way back? An old Peter, Paul and Mary soundtrack entertained us, as it did when Amy and Mark were Nicholas' age!)

Donica and Nicholas always get paired up together, for some reason, and because they were done first with his pumpkin, they decided to carve Donica's as well...which she had bought mainly for the seeds.

Even G'ma carved a pumpkin this year AND took the pictures, too
(except for this one, of course!).

From left to right: Nicholas/Donica, Mark, G'ma, Amy, Nicholas/Donica.
BOO.

We're not sure which we like most...the carving or roasting (read that as EATING) the seeds. Do we have to pick?

This year Amy tried this corn chowder recipe that we all LOVED!
You have to understand that she LOVES to cook and enjoys using us as guinea pigs whenever possible. Need I say that we enjoy it just as much, if not more!

I've been thinking about how there comes a point in time...as parents get old enough!...when the kids start taking over the traditions on which we hang our years. Amy says this may be her most favorite of them all, next to Thanksgiving. Well, it's HER tradition, so I can understand why it's so important to her...just as it's becoming important to us.

It's not a big album but here are the rest of the photos, to commemorate a wonderful memory for Autumn 2008! Enjoy!

The Kid in Us

October is not only Major League Baseball month (playoffs and the World Series) but THE FAIR! Can you believe that this October was the 7th year in a row that we took 8-year-old Nicholas to our local fair! It's true.

A week ago this past Sunday was a spectacularly beautiful, fall day. Actually, it ended up being so sunny that it was downright too hot...more like a summer day!
But that didn't keep us from enjoying every minute of it.

I learned this year that the Seattle Wheel ferris wheel is one of a kind in the world because of it's wishbone spokes. It was part of the World's Fair in Seattle, WA, in 1962.



See the difference? This Gondola Wheel (ferris wheel) has the straight spokes. We rode both of them. The Seattle wheel is taller; the Gondola Wheel is faster.

Because Nicholas is older and taller, he gets to ride faster rides that Donica and I can't always ride with him. But this was one Donica could stomach, and did.

And of course, there's always the fairway that gobbles up Donica's money, always with a smile on her face, while I take the pictures and document it all...year after year.

Don't get me wrong, G'ma DOES sometimes let Donica take the pictures!

You really can't have a Fair without some animals and 4-H goodies. After Uncle Don's quail at the farm on Farm Day (August), Nicholas was a pro at putting this peeper to sleep.





This was the first year we visited the Cherokee Indian Village.



But NOT the first year Nicholas and G'ma shared a turkey leg! It's one of our favorite things about the Fair. Just ask Nicholas!



There are still some rides Nicholas knows he does NOT want to ride yet...and not only because he's not the prerequisite 52" tall. But I wonder what year he WILL want to!

His last ride of the day SHOULD have been one of those...which he didn't know till after he got off it. Last year he rode it with Uncle Mark and was lying down the entire time. Okay, so he was brave enough to try it this year of his own free volition.
Will he try it again next year, I wonder??

What is it about Fairs! It somehow reaches to the Kid in all of us and gives us a chance to let it all hang out, I guess.

Thank God for that.

OH! And here's the photo album! I almost forgot.