This is the practice post! :-)

Since the girls have all gotten on the blog wagon, I decided to give this a try in lieu of the Family News emails I've been sending. This way people who don't want the periodic clogging of their inboxes can pass or visit on the web and not have the bother if they don't want it. How's that for a run-on sentence? ;-) There is much to catch up on since I last communicated before our trip and a bunch of photo backlog. I think I'll start by posting some of the pictures from September, etc. Robert and Rachel took the kids to the Puyallup Fair and their friend snapped this picture of Charlotte on one of the rides. I really liked this grayscale image the best (they had it in color also). Such a nice shot.

Some of the family have signed up for Skype and when we made connections with Diane at Disney World, she was showing off one of her then "new" acquisitions. There is a habit-forming store there for employees only where one can buy slightly damaged goods for much less than the normal cost. She's been frequenting that place and repairing Disney characters. She was especially pleased to find a Nala doll for herself. She's never gotten over her love for the Wonderful World of Disney. :-) Her blog is in the list to the right (Ichiban Victory) and if you like, you can click over and read of her experiences in Orlando.

This was the menagerie she'd accumulated as of last week... at least the ones she could make public. Some will be surprises later. Before our trip we attended a birthday party for Colette. We thought we'd be heading out for Idaho right after the party, but Ron's orders had not come through yet and we ended up biding our time until the following Thursday evening (October 16th). He had a trip come up to the site at Idaho Falls, which was unusual. There was a crane there with some issues and they called him in to analyze the problem. His sister and mother live in Idaho Falls so that afforded another visit to them on the government's dime, which was nice. (Especially after the expensive year it's been.) We drove Diane's car going down and dropped it off at Kristine and Alex's in Provo before flying home last Saturday evening. More on that later. (Why does this font keep changing to Georgia?!) The following are just a few pictures from the party at Michael and Amber's place. Robert and Rachel and little ones came over and Amber's family were in attendance also. Both Calvin and Edward have started walking. Calvin was sporting a bruise near one eye when they came. He'd tripped or fallen and caught it on something on the way down. I remember being really protective of the little ones at this stage and worrying they'd catch their upper teeth on a coffee table on their way to the floor. Diane knocked out a tooth in a similar fashion as a child... but she was old enough to know better and climbing onto the kitchen cupboard to find some candy that was stashed up there. Poor Michael was babysitting at the time (think I was gone for all of about 45 minutes!).

These were taken more recently of Edward. The last was snapped yesterday when Amber stopped by the house. She got a kick out of the contorted position he'd gotten into while sleeping in the car.

She found out just this week that he appears to have a peanut allergy. That's unfortunate... since they are so common and sometimes encountered when not expected. I hope his is not of lethal proportions. He got quite ill and broke out in a rash and had some swelling in his face... so that was pretty dramatic. He's doing okay now. Guess it's good they found out early, since he's just starting to really be ready for serious solid foods. Think I'll stop this and start another post after checking this one. Not sure if I like this since the flexibility is less and putting up pictures somewhat more time consuming... but I'll keep at it for the time being. :-)

This seems like a good place to stop for a breather. Hope this process gets faster with some practice!

Below is the one in the car yesterday.