Merry Meatball TEN!

The fun hasn't stopped and Karie and Marcie prepared a slide show for this years festivities (I'll be working on getting it up here). Trish and Eric seemed to be having a good time.

Karie and I have been hosting Merry Meatball Madness for 10 years!! That is hard to believe! It's been so long that Tara, one of my former dance students, is all grown up now!

Uh - we've even inspired a Meat Madness board game and Kevin brought it for us to play! It's actually really fun.

UFC strategy meeting

Love my Karie!!

Baby Shower!

Karie threw us a baby shower with a make-your-own-waffle bar.

Everything was so cute!

Stan the Afghan was there, of course!

And we got some really nice things!

ASU Football 2009

We didn't do as well as the Strauss' in game attendance this season. It was hot and being pregnant can make a girl tired!


This is what you call a portable grill... I was a doubter but my perfectly grilled hot dog convinced me otherwise.


Happy Halloween, Sun Devil style!

Coyotes Rookie Camp '09

Travis was asked to officiate the Coyotes Rookie camp again which is pretty cool - no pun intended... sorry.

Lewis Family Reunion!

Mom's branch of the Lewis family tree - this thing is huge and very cool.

The beginning of the auction - we had a real live auctioneer this year!

Oh! This bird... my mom was not convinced that this bird was okay. He was fine. Just trying to get some shut eye. This was at Uncle John and Aunt Wanda's house. They have a great place in West Des Moines. Quite a few of us had homemade ice cream and cake at their house.

Nebraska

This is my Gramma Anna Belle and her little house in Arapahoe. Hi Gramma!






Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha!! I would love to go again sometime when my Devils are playing here... maybe in 2010? It was pretty cool to see in person.











Come on! Look at these faces! Gunnar's Uncle and Cousin: Angus and Hannah. Uncle Norman had some new puppies and some that were about 4 months old, but they were too cute for me to think about taking their pictures.

Happy Anniversary!

To celebrate our anniversary we went to San Diego and Sea World.

The camera wasn't charged and we forgot the charger in Mexico in May, so this was one of the three shots I took of Travis 'petting' a sting-ray.

The weather was great and we had a good time.

Holy Cow

Welp... this is it. The shocked and excited faces of a couple who just found out they're going to have a baby.

The next few months were pretty uneventful. A lot of sleeping and staying indoors. It was a long summer.

Paramore and No Doubt!!

So excited, were Leigha and I, to find out that one of our favorite bands, Paramore, was coming in concert! Then to find out they were coming with No Doubt?!! We were stoked! I was also excited that Sonji decided to come along on the Memorial Day adventure...

Unfortunately, my taxi planning was off and we missed the beginning of Paramore's set.

But we did enjoy the rest of the concert and managed to make it home safe and sound. Little did we know it would be my last adult beverage evening for awhile. A great way to go into a hiatus! Thanks, ladies!

MEXICO!

We finally took our Honey Moon trip to Cabo San Lucas in May


Self photo on the plane - we were really excited


Land... from the plane... I thought it was cool at the time.


WHOA! Is that kid flipped on his head? This is the Pacific Ocean side of the water. Very strong tides apparently - we watched some kids surfing it, or trying to, for a little bit.





Los Arcos! All I could think of was Goonies.


One of the pools... very nice views. Our resort had guacamole available all the time that was soooo good. Too much American food was in the buffet, but we had a great steak dinner one night. Travis got to eat a lot of seafood while we were there which made him happy.


Lobsters! - Travis was excited, but he didn't get any.




We did leave our resort for one night and went into town. Lots of walking, lots of offers from local 'vendors' and a little bit of beer. Not bad. Oh yeah - some Stanley Cup Hockey too.


View from our room - Trish gave me some tips and we asked if there were any better rooms available when we checked in. It worked and we got a bit of an upgrade.







Time to go home. Our trip was well worth the wait, but we missed Gunnar and everyone else back at home.

Baby Avery celebration!

We had a celebration for Mrs. Karie and the upcoming arrival of her second daughter, Avery.

Just a casual get together, but it's always great to see my girls and Karie's family.

The Graduate

Is that a Senior portrait, or what?

Gunnar graduated from Puppy Training Class on April 1, 2009!!

More Spring Training

The Last Game of the Pre-Season
Surprise Stadium

Travis' Papa Ward is a huge baseball fan and keeps stats during the game diligently. It's pretty cool how he can keep his focus.

The Luck 'O the Irish

St. Patrick's Day and Spring Training! SWEET!

Mr. Eric, Karie, Trish, a friend of Trish's and Me

We enjoyed some pizza at Oregano's and then some baseball in Scottsdale

That is one big green beer, Trish!

St. Patty's is one of Trish's favorite Holidays

Where in the World is T...

Travis worked the Under 18 Championship in North Dakota in March 2009

For the past three years he's been invited to travel internationally for tournaments which has been really cool. It was nice, for once, not to have to remember a time change in the double digits, or try to figure out an international country code to dial to talk to him. It was also cool because he got to work and spend time with some good friends he doesn't get to see often enough.

Who could have a bad time with this guy?

The one and only Paul Carnathan

Laying the law down

Look who else was there - Uncle Reverend Motown!!

No doubt that meal and those beverages were properly 'graced'.

Gunnar update

Here's what Gunnar's been up to lately...

He's gone to work with me a couple of times and he's such a good dog.  We'll go say 'hi' to everyone and then he hangs out in his crate and sleeps while I'm working.  

As long as the blanket is there, there's a good chance he'll be a happy guy...

He got a new bed, and he's not sure if he likes it... just kidding, he loves it.  Again, the blanket is a key ingredient.  

He acquired a ball on Valentine's Day from Jake and he likes it a lot - tug 'o war is one of his favorite games.  

He's been riding in the car a lot and he's getting very good at it... 

Gunnar also goes to school every Wednesday, and he's one of the popular kids.  We're concerned that his social life may be affecting his grades though, and we might take away his cell phone.  If you hit up his cellie and doesn't get back to you quickly, it may have been confiscated.