When it's too rainy for miniature golf...

...Go bowling with dad instead!

Photo 123 of 365, taken May 3rd:

Last night, Alyssa was supposed to go miniature golfing with the youth at church, but it was a rainy, cold afternoon and the trip was cancelled. So Dave took her out bowling instead. She wore the new pants {super cool!} he brought her home from New York. She was so excited and had a great night, even though her plans changed :-)

New York, New York

Dave is working in New York this week and he took a few pics for me to add to our year of photos:

Photo 120 of 365, taken May 1st. He went to a Yankee game.


Photo 121 of 365, taken May 2nd. He also had some training in New Jersey and took some photos of New York from across the river.


Photo 122 of 365, also taken May 2nd. Such a beautiful city. We'll sure be glad to have him home, too!

Blood

Photo 20 of 365, taken January 19th:

Dave donates blood every so often and our church had a blood drive earlier today, so he signed up for an appointment. Alyssa needs to have her blood drawn as part of her annual check up and we've been putting it off because she doesn't like the idea of a blood draw very much. The night before the blood drive, a group of her friends slept over at the church and we figured since she was there anyway she should watch Dave donate blood. So she could hopefully see that it's not too bad and definitely not something she should worry too much about.

Photo 21 of 365, also taken January 19th:

Looking at the pictures Dave took as he was donating, I couldn't tell whether she was curious, scared, happy, concerned, grossed out...maybe all of the above? I'm not sure that the experience did anything to ease her concern over having her blood drawn, but at least she knows what to expect and knows Dave gave way more blood than what they are going to take from her, and he did just fine!

Happy 35th Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE!!

Photo 4 of 365, taken January 4th. This is my 2013 attempt at baking Dave a nice custard pie for his birthday.

Dave's favorite dessert is custard pie, or chess pie, depending upon your geographic location. I don't know of any bakeries in our area that make good custard pie, so every January 4th, I give it my best effort. I am not much of a pie person myself, and I am terrible at making a good pie crust, but I am getting so much better at the custard part, if I must say so myself. Dave ate it without complaint :-)

In honor of his birthday, I thought I would post some pics of him and the girls showing off the handsome beard he grew this past November and December for Movember.



Emma sporting a smudgy moustache of her own.

And cleanly shaven ~ Now, here's a guy who loves to have his picture taken! He might get a little mad at me for posting this one, but I hope not too mad...I thought his mom and grandmother would like to see the photo :-)

Montreal

Last week, Dave spent the week in Montreal for work. I knew his family would like to see some of the pictures he took. As I looked at them, I was wishing I could travel with him more often when his work takes him to neat places.

This photo and the next several are The Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Dave said it was beautiful. The indoor ones are a little grainy, they're just cell phone photos that I had to add a little fill light to...





Dave said the city had a very European feeling, which I don't think he was expecting. He liked it a lot, everything from the cobblestone streets and cool architure, to the shopping he knew his mom would love. We just might have to plan a family vacation :-)

Dave really enjoyed seeing all the Olympic facilities that had been set up when Montreal hosted in 1976.


This photo is for our little world record lover, Alyssa. Daddy was standing in the tallest, leaning man made tower in the world. It was a great place to view all the special buildings put up for Montreal's turn to host the Olympics.








A blurry picture a French-speaking person offered to take for him.

Although this isn't the greatest pic, I knew Dave's mom would like to see some of the shopping that he encountered everywhere. Many of their malls are either built underground or serve as a connection from building to building because of the harsh winters, everywhere he went there were plenty of shopping opportunities. While this looks like a department store, it's the airport. You have to pass through a shopping area {not just the typical souvenirs/postcards/magazine type of shopping, but real shopping, shopping} to get to your gate. Dave was worried his mom would likely miss her flight in this airport :-)

From Earlier this Month

I haven't posted in a while so I have lots of pictures I'd like to put up and not a great idea of where to start, but this seemed as good a place as any :-)
Dave was out of town for the first week of May. He was in Chicago the first half of the week, then Seattle later in the week. Sunday evening we dropped him off at the train so he could get to Chicago, and as soon as we got back to our house I heard the toilet running unexpectedly. After further inspection I realized it was a rather simple repair of attaching a fallen chain in the back of the toilet to the little bar part that it needs to be secured to in order for the toilet to flush. The only complication was that we have an awkward counter top that extends all the way back across the lid of the toilet, so even once I took the lid off, I had only about 2 inches of open space to fix it. I also determined that the chain part that needed to be re-attached had been sucked up into the suction part of the toilet, so it was stuck. I knew I was getting a good start to the week as I stood fishing in the back of the toilet with a bent coat hanger. Dave rarely travels for work, and it struck me as funny how exactly one half of the toilets in our house decided to stop flushing during the first hour of his absence.
Overall the week went very well {once I fixed the toilet}, we were busy as usual, but everything went well. The girls are so good and helpful, I am a very blessed mama!!
Alyssa had her first track meet. She took second place in her heat, but due to some confusion/mistakes with timing in one of the heats we have no idea how she placed overall.

This is a terrible picture from my cell phone but too cute to skip sharing. Last summer our gym moved into a new facility and the coaches have been encouraging the girls to really take pride in this cool new place we have. The girls have a job to do at the end of each practice, and the jobs rotate so they aren't always doing the same job. I looked out into the hallway the other night and Emma looked so tiny trying to vacuum. I don't think she's ever done this chore at home, although I know she would if I asked her to.

The Friday night that Dave was gone, Alyssa was at a Newsboys concert with some friends and Emma was at practice, so I took Rebekah on a "date" to Target and Chipotle. We had so much fun!
She was enjoying her dinner when this young couple came in with their baby. The baby was sleeping in her bucket car seat carrier and the dad was carefully situating the baby at their table while Rebekah looked on in fascination. She kept watching intently so I mentioned that the baby's dad was taking good care of her, wasn't he? She agreed then with a serious nod she asked, "Did he bring that baby here for us? Can we have her?" I explained that those are not usually the kind of transactions that go down at Chipotle, and no, we would not be leaving with a new addition to the family.

This is the face she said the baby was making. Maybe it was just Rebekah's interest in their baby, but the young couple seemed to like Rebekah a lot too.

Dave had a chance to visit Pike's Market before he caught his flight out of Seattle on Saturday. He said this whole wall was tulips as far down the row as he could see, and that they looked so nice and colorful.

Knowing tulips are my absolute favorite flower, he brought me home a bouquet and we enjoyed their beautiful brightness all week after he returned. I felt sad when some of the larger petals started falling off and wilting.

I have always wanted to go see the guys throw the fish at the market. Maybe the next time Dave goes to Seattle for work I can go with him?! And visit some friends ~ Hi Michelle :-)!

Movember : Year 2

Around this time last year, I posted a few photos of Dave and some of the guys he works with who all participated in a "no shave November" to bring greater awareness to men's health issues.

It's becoming a fun Mercer tradition. I think between four Mercer offices they earned $7,000 to donate to the Movember Foundation which supports prostate cancer research. Dave had a few conversations with people who recognized his growing facial hair and assumed he was preparing to keep his face warmer on a hunting trip, so beyond any dollar amount they were able to donate, just the opportunity to explain what they were doing was hopefully in some small way beneficial and brought awareness to the cause.

Instead of just growing a mustache this year, Dave let his "full beard" grow out as well. He's never had that much facial hair as long as we've been married, probably ever, as he prefers to be clean shaven. I thought it looked pretty good! It was surprising, and even the girls (except Emma) liked it too :-)

Admiring Dad's facial hair, just minutes before it disappeared for good...or at least until next November...