Trip to the Frozen Tundra

Over the weekend Susie and I made our first pilgrimage to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to see the Green Bay Packers take on the lowly Oakland Raiders. What a great trip. Neither one of us had ever been there before and it was number one on my list of things to do before I die. It was a real treat to be able to see Brett Favre play before he retires. It was especially great to see him still able to play at the high level he's been at all year.
Susie and I stayed in Green Bay for the whole weekend and we were able to participate in all the pregame festivities. The night before they had a tree lighting ceremony at the field. Santa and his reindeer were there, we got to decorate Christmas cookies, and we had dinner at Curly's Pub, inside the atrium.
Game time was pretty cold Sunday. Susie and I both wore a few pairs of pants and lots of layers. We were pretty comfortable, but we talked to a lot of people from Cali and Florida who couldn't feel their toes before noon.
We got to the game about two hours early so we could take pictures and really get the game day experience. Lambeau doesn't disappoint.
We had a blast watching the Packers destroy the Raiders and to make a great trip better, the next day Susie took me shopping for my Birthday/Christmas/Anniversary/Flag Day present.
She said I could get anything I wanted, and I had one thing on my mind since October, an autographed Brett Favre helmet. We found it in a collectibles shop across from the field. Man do I love it. It's something I've coveted since I was 14 years old.
Brayden stayed with his Grandparents in Wisconsin for the weekend and had almost as much fun as we did. He helped decorate his great grandparent's house for Christmas and helped grandpa and grandma Lange put up their tree. We brought him back some nice souvenirs, hopefully he'll be a fan like his dad (his mom's starting to come around too).

Trip to Lambeau

KFAN TOY DRIVE

Brayden and I went to the MOA yesterday to donate for Toys for Tots. KFAN was there doing their broadcasts from the rotunda so we got to sit and watch PA and Dubay for a while. As soon as Brayden put the toy into the donation box, a Vikings cheerleader came over to give him five, and he totally dissed her. That's my boy (sigh).
Anyway, here's the link to their photo gallery. If you scroll through them, you'll see some familiar faces.
http://www.kfan.com/cc-common/eyewitness/display.html?album_id=91897

What a week

Well, it's been a busy week around here. Last weekend we went with Russ, Katie, and family to get our Christmas trees. We really wanted to cut our own, so we drove quite a ways to a farm we thought was good for cutting. What a disappointment. We searched for over an hour to find the perfect tree. Then we looked for another hour for a suitable tree. Then we went to their pre-cut lot. What a racket. They cut all the nice trees to sell for double the cut your own price.
We did end up finding a nice tree there. We got it home and Brayden went nuts with the decorations. That kid has more Christmas spirit than I've ever seen. He loves decorating, helps wrap presents, and even helped Susie build a gingerbread house.
We got our first big snowfall of the year. We spent a lot of time outside as the snow fell. Susie, Brayden, and I all worked hard to get the driveway shoveled, then we spent the rest of our time sledding down our front hill.
We've had a great week, but I don't know if it'll top what's coming up. We are heading to Wisconsin on Saturday to let Brayden stay the weekend with his grandparents while Susie and I go to the Packers V. Raiders game on Sunday at Historic Lambeu Field. We'll post pics as soon as we get some.

Our busy week

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

This year we held the Thanksgiving feast at our house. We served potatoes and gravy, corn, stuffing, cranberries, poppyseed bread, and a 22 pound turkey. A little much for eight people. The meal was really good though. The first leftover turkey sandwich that night was great. The ninth sandwich I had for dinner tonight didn't really hit the spot. I think the rest of the leftovers may go in the trash tomorrow.
The best part of the day was the Packer v. Lions game. There is nothing better than overfilling your gut and watching football. Pecan pie and the 4th quarter go together like Black Friday Christmas shopping and A-holes in the parking lot (Aah, 'tis the season).
Anyway, just wanted to share some pictures of the feast and a few pictures of our Light Display. I'm kind of proud, it only took me seven hours to put up 1025 lights.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Baby Emily

We went to the hospital over the weekend to meet Russ and Katie's new daughter Emily. Brayden was really excited to see her, but was a little more happy to see Justin. He was asking about him all week and they played fairly quietly the whole time we visited.

Summertime

Dashing through the . . .

The leaves are falling, the skies are gray, and we put an extra quilt on the bed. The flakes are in the air and the plastic up on the windows. Winter is here. Sigh.
To take my mind off of it, I thought it would be nice to recap our summer with a new slide show. We were able to take a few trips in the last couple months. We went to Lake Mil lacs with Susie's parents for a week, and spent a weekend in Chicago with my parent's at the racetrack there. We were able to go to Sioux City in June to see everyone and we rode down to Kansas mid summer to see Brandon, Beth and Jameson. We also got to spend a lot of time visiting and going to Twins games with our friends here in the Cities.
Brayden really grew over the summer too. Looking back at the photos, he was a toddler in the spring and a kid in the fall. What a difference a summer can make.

At the play gym

Eagan Play Gym

Since I've started staying home with Brayden, we've tried many things to pass the time and give him a chance to interact with other kids his age. We initially went to a weekly play group with the At Home Dads in Apple Valley, but, unfortunately, they quit meeting regularly. We started then to drive to St. Paul to meet with another group, but that was quite a distance away. At the end of last winter, we found a preschool gym at the Eagan community center that holds open play twice a week. Brayden loves it, and it's only 10 minutes away. We just started going back since it's been to cold to play outside and he really looks forward to going now. They have giant tubes and slides in an area they call The Blast and a half gym with balls, mats, and a giant inflatable jumper (which was new today) that he couldn't get enough of. I started letting him climb up into the tubes by himself (mainly because it wears me out chasing him through that thing) and he does great on his own. He is also starting to play and run with other kids his age in the gym. It's really refreshing not to have to entertain him entirely on my own when we're out. The only problem is, when he takes off across the gym, and I'm standing there watching from afar, I'll get some strange looks from moms as they move in a little closer to their own kids.

October Fun

And so it begins. . .

It's been a very busy autumn. We just got through the birthday season and are gearing up for the holidays. Our biggest news of the fall is that Susie is pregnant. Brayden is very excited, he kisses mommy's tummy and is always asking about the baby. She's now about 8 weeks along and we aren't quite as petrified about this one as we were with Brayden. We are very happy about the timing, when the baby comes hopefully Brayden will be old enough to help out and (fingers crossed) out of diapers. Luckily we got him into his own room over the summer and freed up the nursery so we won't have to work on that in the spring.
This is our first posting and hopefully we'll get a lot of pictures on here for friends and family to see since I'm so bad at e-mailing anything. Hopefully we get a lot of visitors and everyone enjoys their time here.