Wednesday, December 24, 2008

First Winter Sledding Adventure!!!

SNOW ANGEL****
Leslie is home for the holidays. She was excited to get out into the snow and cold, she says she was in a short sleeve shirt in Switzerland when she left. NOT here!!!

Leslie made a snow angel and Ben wanted to hop in it:)!!!















Leslie says he is only as big as her torso



















Ben Loved his first sledding adventure!!!!
We made it down 4 times!!!

Even though he got snow in his face, courtesy of Scout, he had a blast, he was giggling and laughing as we sped down the hill.

He really loved the ride up the hill as well, He will get to ride for a number of years.






























Notice how Scout was on one side in one shutter shot and the other side on the next shutter shot!!! Crazy dog, he loves to go sledding as well!!!















Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Interfaith Outreach Sleepout

Well it is around 5°F out these days in Minnesota. The perfect time for a Fundraiser for homeless people in the Western Suburbs. Here is everyone who attended the sleep out and stayed out durring the night.











David and Ashley Modrow
Nick and Lovases cousin(JAY)
Stefan and Betsy (they did not stay out as Addie would not fare to well in the tent, yet)
Steve and Liz Smith and Captian
and the Knight's, minus Benjamin, but including Scout
We also had a number of visitors during the evening, My parents Sarah's parents, Cory, Derek Duchscherer, Anna Lovas, Jim and Kathy Walker, Tom and Debbie A.
We had a blast, a couple of roaring fires, plenty of hot chocolate and Adult mix ins:)!!, Chicken soup and Chili. We had tons of fun!!!
Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate the fun:)!!!









































Here is Benjamin and Addie -
Ben loves to give Addie kisses, I think he learns all about kissing from Galina and the little ladies at daycare:)!!!
Ben loves to see Addie though and here is a picture of the two of them.






Monday, October 27, 2008

Benjamin Reaches 1 yr. Old

Benjamin had a wonderful week and a half, his birthday pretty much lasted that long...

Benjamin started receiving gifts from all his loved ones before his birthday and after his birthday, he has loved each and every gift he has received.

To anyone who gave Benjamin a gift, THANK you very, very much, Sarah and I are so blessed to have so many people love our son.

Here are some pics of Benjamin during the past couple of weeks...



Benjamin received a plastic cube which has foot holes and a platform for him to climb on, he absolutely loves this gift!!!
































On Thursday Oct. 23 our Friends the Julien's had their first child, a wonderful baby girl. Her name is Adelyn Rae, she is adorable. As you can see Benjamin is beginning to court her already:)!!! Benjamin was very gentle with Adelyn, surprising because he has figured out how to slap/hit the rest of us, he thinks its funny the rest of us do not!!!

Isn't she wonderful?!!















Here is Benjamin's Birthday cake from his party, Mommy did a great job picking this little cake out. Benjamin thought it was so yumm!!
















Here is Benjamin, Mommy and Griffin, opening up gifts, they had so much fun!!!

Griffin was a big help, he will be such a great big brother!!!
Again Benjamin loves all the gifts he has received and he was so happy a lot of people could participate in his big day!!!
















This is Benjamin before meal times, he is just like his dad, super happy to eat!!!














Over the weekend we went to a Bonn fire at our friend's the Brandhorsts. Al has all sorts of fun toys, one of them being this FarmAll tractor. we usually go for a hay ride through the cemetery around Halloween to get everyone in the spooky spirit!!! Benjamin really enjoyed sitting on it and cranking the wheel!!!







Friday, October 17, 2008

Pictures of Ben growing up

Benjamin Update -

With all the posts being around Sarah and I, I figured we better get one update with Benjamin in the pictures:)!!

Here is Benjamin and Grandma Wendy opening Benjamin's first, First Birthday gift!!!

And it is a tee ball set, he will be a natural slugger, he already swings this bat at all the breakables in the house, like father like son i guess, at least with the breakables....

















Benjamin absolutely loves this car, Grandma Jeanne got him. He knows how to get in and shut the door and then looks at you like, I am ready push me around the yard.

Just wait til I can drive an actual car, oh yah baby!!!
















"I think I can help you lay these blocks out dad, trust me I know what I am doing, I play with rocks all day..."
















"Don't I look so good in my Gopher Beanie?"
















Okay sometimes it is more fun to hop in like Dukes of Hazard, I have not quite gotten the smoothness of it yet, but don't worry I will in no time!!!






























I absolutely love bath time. It has got to be my favorite activity. This is me not wanting to get out after getting all clean!!!















I started fishing already and I am not even 1 yet. Look out fishies.

Uncle Dave don't worry I will get old smokey, don't worry!!!


Mom do not ever use this picture in some Wedding Slide Show, it will not be that funny:)!!!
California Trip continued -

Muir Woods!!!

WOW!!! is all I have to say.

Amazing, how big these trees became. It would be totally cool to be the Swiss Family Robinson and live in the trees here...

The time it took for these trees to get this big is amazing.


















Here is the tourist group, Trevor Sarah, Linzee, and Andrew.
Man did we have a good time, we joked and poked fun at each other it was a blast:)!!!





















You get dizzy if you stand an look up too long....





















I really wanted to crawl up this trunk but Sarah said I would be a bad example for the young boys who were watching us take this picture, Man I never have any fun, Just kidding I have fun, but she is probably right, like usual:)!!
















Andrew and Linzee, see we were all having fun, what a big tree, a person could live inside these things.



























































Here is the Golden Gate Bridge, too bad the fog never moved out completely while we were down there so we never actually saw the entire thing, top to bottom. We mainly saw the bottom.






Looks like we have an excuse to go back.....

California trip continued

The next stop on our trip was to Paso Robles, a very small but very personable wine region of California. This place was so wonderful, very pretty and mediteranian like. The first stop was Pipestone Vinyards, we stoped and tasted some wine and had definately the best wine along our entire trip. The owner of this vinyard is actually from Minneapolis, he and his wife and two daughters moved there a few years ago from Minneapolis. Small world!!!!






































All these vinyards had the most amazing vines and beautiful flowers.

Sarah could not stop taking pictures of them.


















Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Travels of San Fransisco Continued

Hearst Castle - if anyone has ever seen this place you realize how amazing it is for someone to build something like this back during the depression era.

W. H. Hearst created his own Mediterranean mansion up in the hills of this beautiful area of California.
These are a couple of the amazing sites you see when you visit this place.

Front Terrace, overlooking the 2.5 mile driveway.
















looking up to the guest house from the terrace...
Guest house may I remind you....


















over looking the outdoor pool, resembling the Greek Columns with this massive out door pool.
I totally wanted to go for a swim that day....
















Before we made it down to Hearst Castle we drove through the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach golf club.

Day was pretty cloudy and windy but we had a good time checking out the surf and the neat flowers in abundance.


































Sarah and Linzee walking up the path which lead them to the surf, very patient women to deal with both Andrew and I on this trip, lots of engineering talk for the entire drive, ha ha ha!!






















lone fir tree on the rock, a symbol of solitude and perseverance, the tree grew right up through a rock, no other vegetation, what power and determination....



















Again many pretty flowers all over the place....