family

This is my everything.

Veterans day parade

This year's parade was amazing.  I felt blessed to be there, and to celebrate our heroes with my little loves.  The kids were so excited to see the helicopters, the tanks, the fire trucks, and listen to the bands.  Everyone cheered and clapped as the soldiers marched by, and then a silence crept through the crowd as a float carrying the family of a fallen soldier slowly passed in front of us.  The float started with poster sized pictures of a beaming young man at graduation, then pictures of a cheerful soldier in uniform with his gun draped across his shoulders.  At the end, his mother sat holding a picture of her handsome son bordered with his birth and death date.  I wanted to clap... hug her... say thank you for their sacrifice for my family, somehow apologize for her loss, but I was silenced by the look on her face.  She wasn't grieving or angry or bitter.  Instead, her heartbroken eyes yielded to love and pride in honoring her son.  I turned and saw these young men behind me saluting to her and melted.  This veterans day, I really got it.  I got a tiny glimpse of the love and honor and sacrifice, of the worry and pain and loss, of the fear and hope and trust that is given every single day on my behalf, and I felt the admiration and gratitude that I should feel every moment of every day for them in recompense of their service.

left over pumpkin pickin'

Just found these and realized I didn't post them.   

Halloween was a little weird this year.  It rained all day and all night on Halloween, so we celebrated together at Tate Farms, Maddi went to a trunk or treat dressed as tinkerbell on Halloween Eve while Drew went to hockey practice, and then the kids dressed up and then passed out candy together for the few brave (and soggy) visitors that we had on Halloween while we watched Monsters University together.

The next day, we came home to this tradgedy... Sam was happy.... Maddi was devastated.

I guess that sums up our Halloween.  Better late than never right?

Roadtrip

Pulling out of our driveway at 6am.....
Maddi: "Are we there yet?"
Sean: "Not even close"
ten minutes later...
Maddi: "Are we there yet?"
Sean: "Nope"
seven minutes later:
Maddi: "Are we there yet?"
Sean: "Nope"
Fast forward a few hours....
Maddi: "Are we there yet?"
Sean: "No, but if you guys go to sleep, the time will go by faster"
Maddi: "Drew, you heard daddy; I'm watching my movie, but you go to sleep so we can all get there faster."
I love roadtrips and the way a four year old's brain works :)

Tate Farms

We went to Tate Farms again this year, and it was fun as always!