All I Want For Christmas...

Even though he had a hard time asking Santa in person....

K-Man has a special wish for Christmas this year.

Santa can do anything, right?

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Go Blue!

We flew from St. Louis to Detroit on Black Friday because we got tickets to the Michigan vs. Ohio State game that Saturday.  We were so excited to take K-Man to the Big House and get some pictures.

Michigan Alumnus, Michigan Wife, and future Wolverine?

He definitely looks like he could be happy here :)

Friday night we got to hang out with our friends, Jeff and Anne, at a UM hockey game.  We have missed them so much and were glad to be able to catch up with them.

Yost Arena

Yes, indeed, that is a wolverine right behind us

The Big House!!!  Which is even bigger than it was when we had our season tickets.  Pretty impressive.

UM's marching band.  I love watching them!

Here come our boys!!!  Fired up and ready to "Beat Ohio"

A cool pic of the winged helmets

That's right, we won!  It had been a 7-year drought so it was a sweet, sweet victory!  See the crowd rushing the field?  That's where we were headed next!

Like salmon swimming upstream, but we were determined to get down there.  Apparently, rushing the field is a pretty big no-no at Michigan, but they made an exception this time.

Hail to the Victors!

Sitting on the "A" in the end zone

Amy also got to catch up with her old coworkers, which was really fun for her.  They hadn't met K-Man, but had been good friends while we were going through all of our fertility treatments, so they couldn't wait to meet him!  

Christmas Village at the Bass Pro Shop in St. Louis

So, backing up a few hours... While we were waiting for the turkey to cook, we headed over to the Bass Pro-Shop because they had free pictures with Santa and they were open on Thanksgiving day.  Little did we know that they had much, MUCH more than just pictures with Santa!  It was so awesome!  And there was nobody there because of the holiday, so we got to play and play.  And the extra cool thing is that EVERYTHING was free!  Can't beat that!

Carousel ride #2 (see the post about the St. Louis Zoo) went much smoother!

Look!  No tears!

A cute one of Uncle Parker and Cousins Emily and Abby

The fam

K-Man enjoying his candy cane from Santa, and me enjoying two of my favorite kids in the world

Who knew they made a pink Red Ryder BB Gun?

Daddy showing K-Man how to shoot

A fun racetrack.  Emily was pretty good at this one.

K-Man checking out the trains

Emily and K-Man writing letters to Santa

Hard at work

Group picture.  Do we look hungry?  We are about to go home and eat our Thanksgiving feast!

Parker teaching Emily some bow-hunting skills a la Napoleon Dynamite

Camper Emily

The Big Dinner: Thanksgiving

The big day finally arrived and Sarah and I were excited to start cooking!  We started the rainbow jello a couple of days early, so we just had everything else to cook.  So, first thing in the morning (as you can tell from our tired morning faces) we got to work on the bird...

Sarah's family always layers bacon on top, which is going to be one of my traditions from now on!  Yum!

Sarah did the honors of placing the bird in the oven

Crunch time: Sarah's mashing the potatoes, Parker's carving the turkey, and apparently I'm supervising?  Maybe trying to get a few tastes in?

The kids were ready to eat!  By the way, that Sierra Mist with the cranberry in it is outstanding, I would recommend that you give it a try if you haven't already!

Time to load up the plates!  Mike has his just about full, and Sarah is close behind.

Rainbow jello: A family tradition for as long as we can remember

Yep, just a plate of salad and some jello for me, thanks.  Yeah right!! That was just the beginning!

I believe this was round two for Parker?

All in all, it was a delicious meal with some of our favorite people.  Hope you had a great one, too!

The Arch!

I was SUPER excited to go to the arch.  I don't know why, I just was.  And it didn't disappoint.  Parker and Sarah drove us there and dropped  us off right at the stairs, so we didn't have to park far away, and then we went in and got in line.  Oh, but before we got in line, I didn't really expect it, but we had to go through a bunch of security, similar to what you go through at the airport!  I hadn't been nervous until then, and it got me thinking of all the horrible things people could try to do while we were helpless at 630 feet in a little metal arch!  But I pushed those thoughts out of my head and was excited to get to it!  We already had a reservation, so we didn't have to wait too long, which was nice.  But they have a bunch of neat information and interactive displays to learn about the construction of the arch, which you can wander around and look at while you wait your turn.  So we kept ourselves occupied and learned a lot about it.  

We were in Tram 6 on the way to the top

K-Man helping Mike learn about the arch construction

K-Man taking a turn.  He thought these phones were pretty cool!

Waiting for the doors to open

We made it to the top!  Here is K-Man looking out over St. Louis.  He was SO impressed.  He just stared and stared out the little windows at the top of the arch.

K-Man getting an aerial view of Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play (and where they won the World Series this year!).  You can tell K-Man is saying "Wowww!"

Daddy giving K-Man the lowdown on what he's looking at

The family at 630 feet up, at the very tip top of the arch

A cute one of K-Man and Daddy

Having a fun time waiting for the tram ride down

Inside the tram.  Those things are TINY!

This is where we went to catch the tram

A cool shot of us with the arch

Emily and Aunt Amy posing at the base of the arch

It was not easy getting a picture of us with the entire arch, but it was worth a try! :)

The mighty Mississippi, which is right by the arch, and happened to be right by where Parker and Sarah ended up parking