You know Dasher and Dancer . . .

Friday night we spent the night in Branson, Missouri.  Rebecca's grandpa has a timeshare there that he let us, Rebecca's parents, and her brother's family stay in.  For those unfamiliar with Branson, click here (you'll get a pretty good idea of what the town is like).  We had a ton of fun Friday night.  Friday night we went to Silver Dollar City where we walked around and looked at Christmas lights, watched a live nativity, and watched a variation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

On our way out of town, we stopped by the parking lot of the Titanic.  The Titanic as an attraction on the main strip that looks like--you guessed it--the front half of the Titanic (complete with the iceberg).  There in the parking lot was a small pen with two live reindeer.  We decided not to fork over 10 dollars to have the kids' picture taken on the sleigh next to the pen, instead opting to snap a photo next to the reindeer.  If these two were at all representative of the species, they are indeed tiny.  I think you get some idea of their size from the photos.  (I'm having technical difficulties posting the pics of the reindeer.  I'll post them later.)

Deer Success

About twenty minutes into the Missouri deer season I was done hunting after shooting this little fella.  Gotta start somewhere.  I'm working on cleaning his skull for a european mount.  I'll post pics when I get it done. 

Potty Time

Rebecca found a cool kid's toilet at a garage sale that makes a bunch of sounds when you raise the seat, sit down, flush, or spin the toilet paper.  We thought such a fun toilet would kickstart Avery's potty training.  Boy were we wrong.  She loves to strip down naked and sit on the thing, but nothing happens once she sits down.  Tyler likes to play with the thing while he's doing his business on the other toilet, but really, the Fisher-Price toilet is more ornamental than anything.  This is what Avery usually looks like on the can.

Big News

Well as this picture shows



Rebecca is pregnant again. Number four is on its way. We just found out today. I happened to be home for lunch and Rebecca snuck into the bathroom without me knowing what was going on. She hollered for me and showed me the pregnancy test. According to the online due date calculator, the baby should be born around July 18. We'll keep you posted as things progress.

Bowling

We all went bowling with Dan and Kerri, their kids, and Uncle Spencer. The kids loved it (even if there were giant divots where they slammed the ball into the lane. Tyler started off a little slow, as in he threw the ball so slowly it actually stopped, but he picked up on it quick and was soon throwing strikes.

The opportunity to bowl a perfect game was over as soon as everyone threw their first ball, but we all had a great time.

p.s. Jake, Adam, and Steve--any time you want to relive the glory days of bowling class at Ricks and challenge me to a game, I'm ready.

Adam posted a comment wanting to know what I bowled that night.  I don't remember the exact score, but I trailed most of the game.  I had to bowl two strikes and a 9 in the final frame to take the final lead and win.  I think I finished at about 120.  I must admit that part of the problem was the fear in the back of my mind that while I was throwing the ball, one of my children was cramming their hand down the ball return.

Half-marathon day

Rebecca and several of her friends from church decided to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) on November 8. It was a bitterly cold morning, but Rebecca amazed us all by finishing the run in a great time. She had a lot of fun and the kids had a lot of fun cheering her on (except for Avery who must not have understood why mommy ran away for so long (she was pretty sad the whole time Rebecca was gone). Daddy and the kids went home after we saw Rebecca off and sipped hot chocolate to help thaw out. But we made it in plenty of time to watch Rebecca finished. Here are some photos from the race.