Happy Happy Birthday, Andy Bowman

So Dad's friend Andy lives in San Francisco and his girlfriend asked his close friends to send birthday wishes to him via a letter or a message in a bottle or something clever so she could read them to him on his birthday.

So Dad and I came up with this amazing idea to make up a song for him and send it to Erin (his GF) and she could play it for him as our birthday gift.

It took a few days but Mae and Dad and I got a bunch of words together that rhymed with Bowman - snowman, show man, toe man, grow man, etc. - and Dad got out the six string and next thing you know we had a masterpiece.

Then it came time to record it, so we got out the iPad and we were just going to do a first take to see how it sounded, but as you'll see, the first take was so entertaining we decided to keep it, even though Dad's head is partially cut off on screen... yes, it was that good.

Have a new video function here folks. Going to use YouTube links for videos instead, so when you see text highlighted in blue, just click on it and it will take you to the video on a separate page.

VIDEO ALERT
So without further ado, here we go with a birthday wish to the west coast, singing "Happy Happy Birthday, Andy Bowman."

Road Trip to KC

Well, it was off to Kansas City for the Thanksgiving holiday and it started out with a bang... well, it was either a bang or a really long car ride. Yah, that's probably more like it - it started out with a really long car ride... as in a nearly 12-hour car ride.

About 20 minutes out I got car sick in the back seat from reading while we were driving and two hours later, after two trips to the bathroom, a Costco run, a gas fill-up, Paxton's morning nap and a couple really deep breaths by mom and dad, we were on our way. But not for long, we probably stopped 40 minutes later for another bathroom break.

Needless to say, we arrived Tuesday night, settled in with some of Noni's signature spaghetti and felt right at home.

Lots to cover, so I'll keep the narrative short and this one will be all over the place:

First off, the poparrazzi were in full effect following Pax around.

My Aunt Jan was in from Taos. We don't get to see her very often but she made up for that with a game of shuffleboard and a 35-minute massage (she even brought her massage table).

One of the weekend themes was the dogs. Aunt Erica has four dogs and Mae and I cannot get enough of them so we went on plenty of walks and had some good snuggle time with them.

And then I found something new that rocked my world. Aunt Erica has a basketball court in her house (yes, you read that right - IN her house) and every year the grownups play volleyball. Well this year I wanted in on the action, but I needed a lesson first, so Aunt Erica took me into the gym and gave me a lesson...

And next thing you knew... it was go time!!

Meanwhile, Mae was busy playing some tunes and making noodles with Grandpa.

And after she heard about my volleyball adventures she thought she'd take a turn at it.

Not too shabby, Mae. The weather outside was not too frightful so we took a trip to the park and Pax took his first swing ride.

All in all, a great Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City.

And Grandpa capped it off with a piece of pie and 38 pounds of whip cream.

So So Thankful

So I'm a little late on the Thanksgiving post because we were traveling (more on that in the next post) but just wanted to pause a moment and say that I'm really thankful for this little man,

And this old cat, my photo editor,

And so thankful I have a mother and role model such as this beautiful bird. I'd be lost without her.

But if I had one thing to be most thankful for, it would be this little lassie. She never fails to make me realize there is nothing like a good laugh and with her around that good laugh is always just around the next corner. 

We fight like two polar bears after the same fish, but my world would be a much different one without her. My roommate, my band mate, my best friend/arch enemy, my buddy and seriously the love of my life - Mabel Jane.

The Forgotten Pumpkin Post

So October was busy, real busy, but that's no excuse for forgetting to show you our Halloween Pumpkins.

Things started out great. We finished our pumpkins and they were looking amazing.

That one's mine...

and that one's Mae's, smiling, of course,

So then the pumpkins had some camera time on their own...

And then we took them outside to light them and show them off in the dark...

And then things went a little sideways. I'm not sure exactly what happened but rays of light started shooting out of the pumpkins into the deep night sky and Mae got all possessed and well, I guess that's what happens when you're talking about a holiday called Devil's Night.

Skeletons in our Closets

Or in our rocking chairs, and this one just turned six months old last week!!

So here he was having a photo shoot...

Relaxing, just chilling all on his own when next thing you know...

He gets photo-bombed by Mabel.

And then he's like, "Well, you've come this far, you might as well get on in here."

And THEN, just when you thought that was fun... he sat up on his own...

And we celebrated.

The War on Food

Okay, so first off, I'm well aware of what that looks like and that is not what it looks like; see we're smiling.

Okay, so this is a game I made up a couple Saturdays ago where Mom and Dad had to pick a bunch of food from the fridge and cupboards and we had no idea what they picked. For the record we've got a little bit of ham, some raspberries and blueberries, some cheese, a marshmallow, some pirates booty.

Then we would get blindfolded and they would put the food in and we had to guess what it was.

Huge success, tons of fun, highly recommend it for a lazy winter Saturday.