3rd and 4th of July Festivities

Happy Birthday America! Nothing quite like a good 4th of July parade and follow-up fireworks. We had a great time this year celebrating the 4th in Madison. We went to the Florham Park parade, had a couple BBQs with friends, played wiffle ball, participated in the first annual "Jan Dawson Home-Run Derby", and ended the night with a bang at the Junior High firework show. Good times were had by all.

Annual Father and Son camp out June 2009!

Nothing like the great outdoors. Mike loves to take the boys camping and show them all of his skills (I believe numchuck skills is one of them). They had a great camp this year with good weather. The boys look forward to all the night games that are played, especially "capture the flag". Hudson was excited to report that he had caught over 30 little frogs and had the pictures to prove it. He was devastated that Dad didn't let him bring a few of them home.

I can't believe we have a 10 year old!!

Braxton is a big 10 year old now. Time does fly when you are doing what Braxton has been doing. This young boy sure has the life. He bounces from one activity to the next. When he is not playing baseball, soccer or basketball, he is playing with friends, hanging with the fam, going to movies, rollerblading, playing the Wii, and his favorite - practicing the violin and doing homework:) The "B" is great to have around - full of energy and fun.

Could you be mad at this face?

Today Hudson decided that drawing on the walls was a good idea. When I firmly said that was not okay his eyes welled up with tears and that too cute for words bottom lip came out. Hudson doesn't cry very often but when he does he pulls this face and every time it kills me. I love it. I never have my camera near by but today was my lucky day, finally I got it. This picture doesn't do it justice but you get the idea.

Brooklyn Half Marathon

We did it! We finished a half marathon. Mike and I went and ran the Brooklyn, NY half marathon on May 30, 2009. It was a lot of fun - I guess if you call running 13 miles "fun". The race started in Prospect park and ended at Coney Island. The weather was perfect that day - not too hot and not too cold. There were 12,000 runners in the race. Once the horn blew at the start of the race, it took us 15 minutes just to get to the starting line. Mike ran with me for the first 6 miles, at which point I demanded he go ahead of me as I did not want him to feel like I was holding him back. Mike felt like he had run a pretty fast race, so much so, that he thought he could finish the race, go to the car, get the camera and a gatorade and then get back to the finish line to catch me coming over the finish line. Well, as is nearly always the case, he was wrong and 1 hour later he came back to the car to find me there locked out of the car, without a gatorade and wondering if my husband had lost his mind. I was a little upset about this situation, but the worst was the fact that he actually thought I would be that far behind him - has he not learned anything in 12 years. Well anyway, I guess I should forgive him, since I did force him to run 1/4 mile maybe (or if you ask Mike a mile) before the race began to go back to the car to get some money for the train ride, only to find out that it was a free ride (just as Mike had told me it would be). Aside from these minor mishaps, the race was a lot of fun and it was great to be able to finish.

Memorial Day/ Hudson's B-Day Party

Summer time is here again?? at least we think. With the wet and colder weather in the last month, we have been wondering whether we are just heading into another spring. We love summer and look forward to another good one. We always get to start summer out with the celebration of two major holidays - Memorial and Hudson's B-day. If you asked Hudson, I think he would only think there was one holiday and it isn't memorial day. His birthday is all-consuming. I think we celebrated his birthday for at least 4 or 5 days. He thought that everything we did for Memorial day weekend and later his birthday was all in celebration of his 4th b-day. It was too cute to tell him otherwise, so we let him go on celebrating. We had a great time, including a family/friend BBQ, pinata, baseball, presents and a lot of food and drink. Happy B-day Huds! He already wants to start celebrating his 5th - it could be a long year:)

Giants for a day!

On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we were invited by some friends to join them in a day of football and festivities in the old Giant Stadium in the Meadowlands. Bart Oates, former NY Giant football player and currently in our Ward was in-charge of the day and did a great job ensuring that all the families in attendance had a great day. They are currently constructing a new field for the NY Giants, which is looking like it will be amazing. Although old, the old Giant stadium was amazing. Mike was thrilled to be playing a pick-up game of touch football, while the kids were enjoying the pylons, football and other festivities. After a great time in the stadium, we joined a couple other families and went into NYC for lunch and a little gelato in SoHo. It was good times for all.










Hudson loved running and knocking these Pylons down


Waiting for their Lunch From Amy's in Soho


Mike & Braxton enjoying their Gelato- YUM!!!