Our Salukitown Trip, Part 1

Angie and I got to spend Halloween weekend in Carbondale, visiting with Noble and Lynnette. It was such a fun, jam-packed weekend, so I'm going to divide the pictures into more than one blog. On Friday night, Halloween, we arrived in time to see Noble and Lynnette's girls at the big Halloween party at Vine Community Church, where Noble is now on staff. You should have seen this party. You have this large church, and then the whole thing is decorated to look like a giant spaceship. Here are the pictures:

First, here are the pictures of the main sanctuary, which was converted to a space theme, and had six bounce houses. That's right, people, I said six bounce houses. Try to top that one, Sherry White.

The junior high room features a climbing wall, and you can see a zipline in the upper left corner.

The class also includes an old bus which was converted to a stage. Here, it was made into a spaceship.

Here's their youngest daughter, Anna, in a ball pit.

And finally, here are all three girls (L to R): Anna, Kate, and Emma. Emma and Kate were dressed as pink robots.

The evening was quite a production, and we really enjoyed it. Stay tuned this week for the remaining pictures of the weekend.

Thanksgiving Video

My Aunt Renee shot some video of Thanksgiving dinner with my family. There were 18 of us total. It was quite a time. You can see just about everybody in this video, including the girls. However, the most you see of me is the back of my head. That's how I would have wanted it, though. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujxWnK7eVEk

TurBaconDucken

My father-in-law sent me this link, where some people have taken Turducken and wrapped it in bacon. What an amazing concept.

http://bacontoday.com/turbaconducken-turducken-wrapped-in-bacon/

After reading this, I was even more amazed to find out that this is part of a website called Bacon Today. It's a website about all things bacon. Wow! I've surfed the internet for about ten years now, and never saw such a thing. I'm just amazed that it took so long for me to find a website about bacon. Check it out: http://www.bacontoday.com/

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

My Brother's on the YouTube!

If you'd like 3 solid mintues of entertainment, check out my brother Aaron's video on YouTube. He's part of the New Acoustic Metal Experiment, a tuba quartet that plays heavy metal music (yes, you read that right). Here's their first video, where they play Thunderhorse by Dethklok from the animated series "Metalocalypse."

That said, here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qiz6n7Dlpk

Let me know what you think.

Another Big Birthday

Angie's grandma celebrated her 90th birthday on November 13. We had a celebration over at Sherry's, and we all had a great time. It sure is fun to have her around. Here are some assorted pictures with her daughter, granddaughters, and great grandchildren.

Linda's 60th Birthday

Back in October, we all celebrated the 60th birthday of my dear mother-in-law, Linda Austin. Here are some pictures from the festivities.

Here, Linda is having a moment with Brianna and Jonathan. Such a good grandma.

Speaking of grandmas, here's the mother of the birthday lady, Grandma B. She celebrated a big birthday herself recently. Look for more pictures in a future blog.

Angie was five months pregnant in this picture, but Bill was even more pregnant.

The ladies, plus Chase.

The Wii was a big hit. Here, Bill is playing Mario Kart with the grandchildren.

This made the adults jealous, so they played some Wii of their own. You can't tell, but Jeremy is using his home-field advantage to blatently whip us at Mario Kart.

More adults joined in. Jenny is clearly giving it her all. Most of the kids have left the room by this point, and we're starting to lose Zach. I don't think the kids are supposed to lose interest before the parents.

It seems funny that the guest of honor is only in one of the pictures, but that's Linda for you. A fun evening was had by all. And this is just the beginning; watch for many holiday gathering pictures in the coming months.

It's Been Awhile

Sorry that I haven't put anything new on this site for the past two weeks. I guess life just gets in the way. I hope to have some new stuff up soon, though.

Cheers,
Andy