The Sackett Family

Super Bowl XLV

2011-03-22T20:19:00.006-05:00

We had a pre Super Bowl XLV party the night before with Gage.

BIG Cookie!

We went to my parent's house for the Super Bowl.

The food:

Green Cool Whip Salad

Cashews, green and gold candy, and another BIG cookie.

Deviled eggs, CHEESE (of course) and pretzels.

Packer plates, napkins, and sausage.

Cupcakes

We all took turns posing with the BIG cookie!

Mom

Randy and Katie

Dad

YUMMY!

And no Super Bowl Party would be complete without a football shaped green Jell-O mold!

SNOW!!!

2011-03-22T20:17:00.002-05:00

Just one of the MANY snowstorms we got this year in Minnesota!

Gage's gifts

2011-03-22T20:15:00.001-05:00

Christmas Night 2010

2011-03-22T20:13:00.002-05:00

Christmas Morning 2010

2011-03-22T20:09:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve 2010

2011-03-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-11T10:04:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!

For those of you that are paying attention, this is the third fire place being featured in our annual Christmas card. Keep in mind that we do not actually have a fire place in our home. We are running out of fire places so if you have one, we might be calling you next year!

Pets

2010-12-11T09:51:00.003-06:00

Zoe normally sits in the corner of our booth and looks out the window. However, for some reason Molly wanted to join her that day. Zoe wasn't pleased and left shortly thereafter.

Then Cooper wanted to see what all of the commotion was about.

Molly kicked Cooper out and made herself comfortable.

Molly howling at something in the yard. What can I say? Cheap Saturday afternoon entertainment!

Halloween 2010

2010-12-11T09:30:00.004-06:00

Molly really likes eating pumpkin innards. No matter how well you think you think you're doing by keeping them away from her she always manages to find her way into them.

The finished product

Gage was "Leatherface" this year.

Summer Vacation

2010-12-11T09:17:00.003-06:00

Gage and Randy's golf balls got stuck in the Eiffel Tower Gage playing Speed with Kathy

Gage helping Kathy

Gage got the Soccer ball that he really wanted.

You non smokers out there might not appreciate this, but it was a little bit of a treat for Randy and I to get to smoke in a restaurant.

4th of July

2010-12-11T09:13:00.004-06:00

Waffles!

Gage at the parade in Afton, MN

Cooper and Molly are patriotic, too!

Randy and I waiting for it to get dark for the fireworks.

Randy decided to take a nap before the fireworks-it was a long day!

Gage turns 13

2010-12-11T08:52:00.003-06:00

Gage turned 13 on May 13th. As you can see, he got a Cheesehead!

Easter 2010

2010-05-08T09:18:00.004-05:00

Annual Easter picture of the family.

Notice my well behaved dogs in the lower right corner?

Day after Christmas

2010-01-09T20:13:00.002-06:00

The day after Christmas we went to my parent's house to spend time with my extended family.Gage, Mark, Megan, and Wall-E

My cousin Aaron getting an Aaron Rodgers jersey.
My Dad, my Uncle Jim, my Mom, my cousin Aaron, and my Aunt Cindy holding Gordy and Ralphie.

Gage got boxing gloves to go with his new punching bag. I got a Green Bay Packers"comfy throw" (the NFL version of the "snuggie")

Katie and Wall-E

Christmas Day

2010-01-09T20:10:00.003-06:00

Christmas Day we were at Liz and Joe's.

Gage and Alexis

Gage and Stacy

Gage unwrapping gifts at our house.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-09T19:58:00.004-06:00

Randy and I spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house.

My Dad and Molly

My Mom, Megan, Mark, and Wall-E

My Dad caught the "swine flu" with his new Arkansas Razorback's nose.

It may be hard to tell, but these are green and red jell-O/cool whip "salads". (It's a Wisconsin thing!)

Christmas cookie baking mania!

2010-01-09T19:30:00.006-06:00

What do you get in December when you mix two sisters, a Sunday afternoon, and some wine? COOKIE BAKING MANIA!!!

The ingredients.

Peppermint bark

Lemon cookies

Crushing candy canes for the peppermint bark.

Wall-E the wienie was under our feet all day long!

A Russian Tea Cake casualty.

LOTS of butter!

Making red poinsettia spritz cookies.

Cookie press!

The finished product.

Cut-out cookies.

Christmas cookies

2010-01-09T19:29:00.002-06:00

Gage's piano recital

2010-01-09T19:27:00.002-06:00

Christmas card photo 2009

2010-01-09T19:25:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-01-09T19:20:00.002-06:00

This was actually the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving-but this is when we did the whole turkey thing with my side of the family.You cannot have a Wisconsin Thanksgiving without guns!
Lots and LOTS of guns!!!

My Mom getting the turkey ready to eat.

Dad stepped in to help out.

My Dad's favorite kind of cranberry sauce. (and yes, it does need to be in the shape of the can when served)

Halloween 2009

2010-01-09T18:11:00.002-06:00

Randy showing off his pumpkin carving skills

Gizmo

Molly and Cooper

Alexis

Gage and Elle

Summer Vacation Part II

2009-10-18T12:32:00.003-05:00

When we were in Kansas City we also went to Oceans of Fun. I had a water camera along, but most of the pictures were fuzzy. Here are some of them anyway!

Vacation in Kansas City, MO

2009-10-06T18:25:00.008-05:00

Yes, I realize it's been over two months since we got BACK from vacation, but here are some of the things we did...Ready to go?
Gage is!

Burying Gage in the sand at the beach.

Surfs up!

Bowling

Nice ride!

Gage and me in front of the bamboo trees at Worlds of Fun.

The boys

The girls

Kathy's Birthday

My Birthday (sun burn-ouch!)

At an "old school" school house

Yes, that's a real cow!

This one is not.

Gage going to summer school.

Gage caught a fish!

And helped catch a squirrel

Clipping beans.

Assisting with the bean preserving process.

The Driving Range

2009-07-18T17:44:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we all went to the driving range. Here are a few pictures that I took of Randy and Gage after I got done.

The Park

2009-07-18T17:35:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went to a local park with Gage. He wanted to kick the Soccer ball around a little bit with Randy.

Randy blocks a shot by Gage.

Check out that form!

After they got done playing Soccer we wondered over to the playground.

Randy's a "little" too big for this slide!

Gage is WAY too big for this slide!!

This is just plain dangerous!!!

Just as we were leaving we walked by this sign. Notice: "This play structure is designed for kids ages 5-12." Oops!

4th of July

2009-07-13T21:20:00.004-05:00

The 4th of July has become quite the tradition for our family. We start with breakfast (yummy Belgium waffles) at Liz & Joe's house. Then we all go to the parade in Afton, MN and enjoy some ice cream from Selma's Ice Cream Parlor. Of course, we finish up with fireworks at Ojibaway park in Woodbury.

Randy is anxiously waiting for the parade to begin!

Gage and I eating our ice cream.

Fireworks!!!

Congratulations, Gage!

2009-06-04T16:08:00.004-05:00

Gage graduated from 6th grade today! He's officially ready to take on Jr. High.

Randy, Katie, Gage, Nicole (Gage's Mom), and Rich (Gage's Step Dad).

Gage and his teacher.

Awards

2009-06-04T15:53:00.003-05:00

This past weekend Gage's team took 2nd place in the Apple Valley Soccer Tournament. They lost the first game on Saturday morning, but then won their Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning games. Way to go!

He also received a ribbon and certificate for participating in the recital program for his piano lessons.

Boat tour

2009-05-24T10:04:00.002-05:00

On May 16th we went on an Army Corp of Engineers boat tour. It was a little chilly out, but we all had a fun time.

Gage is 12!

2009-05-24T09:59:00.003-05:00

Gage is officially less than a year away from being a teenager. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet! Here's Gage opening up his presents from Randy and I on May 12th.

My Mom and Dad gave him an iPod Shuffle that he can use with his new stereo.

On May 17th we all went out to Olive Garden to celebrate.

Soccer

2009-05-24T09:52:00.003-05:00

Gage is on a traveling Soccer team this year. Their first game was on May 7th against St. Croix Valley at home. Here are a couple of pictures of him in action.

Here's Gage warming up before his most recent game against Hudson on May 19th.

Spring Piano Recital

2009-05-24T09:45:00.003-05:00

Gage had his third piano recital on Sunday May 3rd. He really did a great job!

Haircut!!!

2009-05-01T20:22:00.003-05:00

Tonight Gage got a MUCH NEEDED haircut.

Before

After

It will be a lot more convenient for his Summer filled with soccer and swimming : )

Happy (Belated) Easter!

2009-04-24T22:53:00.004-05:00

Easter Basket!

Third annual Sackett/Stehura Easter picture.

Easter Eggs

2009-04-05T16:23:00.006-05:00

On Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs.

Randy got patriotic with one of his eggs.

The finished product.

Spring Band Concert

2009-03-29T13:15:00.004-05:00

Gage had his last Band concert of the year on March 24th. The concert had a movie theme and the 6th grade band played "Raiders March" (from the Indiana Jones movies), "Do-Re-Mi" (from The Sound of Music), "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Summer Nights" (from Grease), and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (from Mary Poppins). He did a great job! I can't wait to go to the Jr. High Band concerts next year.

Academic Triathlon

2009-03-29T13:09:00.002-05:00

Gage had his last Academic Triathlon meet on March 20th. Here he is proudly showing off his 2nd place blue ribbon.

Happy Birthday, Randy!!!

2009-02-19T10:35:00.004-06:00

On February 18th Randy turned 31. To celebrate we had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. We then had cake and opened presents up at our house.

Liz and Nikki made him this yummy (and beautiful) double layer cake.

Make a wish!

You might think, "what could possibly be better than getting a 4 pack of Spam?". Well, I'll tell you what is better than that....

Getting TWO 4 packs of Spam. That's right, we are now the proud owners of 8 cans of Spam. Anyone want to come over for dinner??

Gage and Alexis had a good time at Randy's Birthday party : )

6th Grade Band Blast

2009-02-19T10:23:00.002-06:00

On February 17th Gage had his 6th Grade Band Blast. It's like a normal band concert, but it has 6th graders from four (I think) other elementary schools in the district. It's a lot of fun for the kids and it was really nice for us to get to see the progress they have made in the past year.

Brrrr....it's cold outside!!!

2009-01-23T23:00:00.005-06:00

January has been a frigid one here in Minnesota. Lots of below zero temperatures and -20 wind chills. It's been an "inside" kind of month for us so far, but here are some pictures that we took.

Here's our kitty Zoe. She loves to look out our dining room window at the birds (and squirrels) that come to the bird feeder on our deck.

When it gets cold outside our pets keep us warm!

Last weekend Elle came to hang out for a few hours. We settled in to watch Alice in Wonderland and she cuddled right up to Gage.

Last weekend we also had to take both dogs and the cat to the vet for a check up. Here's a picture of an angry kitty in her carrier.

The Day After Christmas

2008-12-27T12:17:00.005-06:00

The night after Christmas we went back over to my parent's house because my Aunt and Uncle (Cindy and Jim), my two cousins (Sam and Aaron), and my other Uncle (Greg) were in town.

Here's Aaron looking on as Gage opens a present. Yes, Gage got MORE presents that night. What a LUCKY kid!

Megan and Ralphie (Cindy and Jim's dog).

Gage got Uno Attack and Sorry.

Here's my cousin Sam reading the new book he got.

Gage got a Rip Stick from my parents this year. I've found that the best way to describe it is "roller skate is to roller blade as skate board is to Rip Stick". It has two wheels instead of four basically. He's very excited to try it out this Spring. Don't worry, he already has a helmet and a complete set of pads!

Here's Megan with Cindy and Jim.

Here's my Dad opening up his gifts.

My Uncle Greg, my Mom, and Sam.

Here's Randy and Gage trying out the new Snowball Launchers that Gage got from Stacy and Tim the day before.

My Mom took this picture of us before we left. I think it turned out really nice!

Christmas Day (afternoon)

2008-12-27T11:44:00.004-06:00

Here is Gage with our Christmas tree before he opened his presents from Randy and me.

The "big" gift this year was that we re-did his bedroom. As some of you may recall it used to be "crayola crayon red".

When he opened his door he saw the new bedding that we got for him with his new video game chair. He already saw the gray paint since we had painted it two weeks earlier but he didn't know about the new bedding or the chair.

For Christmas we gave Gage two lava lamps (one green and one blue) to go in his new room.

He also got a new WWE (wrestling) calandar to put up in his room.

We gave him a new wrestling ring.

Here are two pictures of Gage's "finished" new room with his new posters hung up on the wall.

Last, but not least, we let Gage open his last gift which was a wrestling game for Wii that he really wanted.

Christmas Day (morning)

2008-12-27T11:15:00.004-06:00

Randy started out Christmas Day this year with the traditional "Christmas" breakfast-chips/salsa and carrots/dill dip. He is a silly man, but I love him!

Then it was off to Liz and Joe's house for presents and meat pie.

Gage got a 7 ft monkey balloon in his stocking this year.

Alexis got a big blue balloon in her stocking that she seemed to like a lot.

Gage and Alexis getting ready to open some presents.

Joe really got in to the Christmas spirit this year.

Gage got lots of great gifts!

This is what a 2 year old looks like after a few hours of Christmas morning!!

Liz and Joe's Christmas tree.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-27T10:32:00.004-06:00

Randy and I went over to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. It was nice to get to see Megan, Mark, and their dachshund (Wall-E) again.

My parent's Christmas tree

Mark and Randy both wanted Family Guy this year and they both got it.

My Mom, Megan, and me. Molly and Wall-E also are pictured.My Dad did Randy's Christmas shopping this year-and he did a great job. Randy was very surprised and happy with his gifts!

Christmas piano recital

2008-12-14T23:10:00.003-06:00

Gage had his second piano recital this evening. It had a Christmas theme. He played "A Holly, Jolly Christmas" and did a wonderful job!

Christmas cookies!

2008-12-14T00:15:00.004-06:00

Saturday night we decorated Christmas cookies. It's something that we've done every year for the past four years. Gage and I typically decorate them on a Sunday afternoon when Randy is at work, but since he no longer has overtime on Sundays he was able to join in on the fun.

It was just as much fun to decorate them as it will be to eat them!

Family pictures

2008-12-12T12:04:00.003-06:00

Before Greg and Kathy left town, we went out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory for Nikki's (Randy's sister) birthday. Here are some pictures that I took before we left for the restaurant.

This is Miss Alexis in her new cute outfit. Molly must have thought it tasted good, because she is licking it.

Here is Gage showing off his tuxedo shirt that he loves so much.

Randy, Nikki, and Stacy.

Greg, Randy, Nikki, and Stacy.

Grandpa Greg with Gage and Alexis.

Swimming in December

2008-12-12T11:51:00.005-06:00

Randy's Dad (Greg) and Step-Mom (Kathy) were in town for Alexis's 2nd birthday. They stayed at a hotel that had a swimming pool so we had a pool party on Sunday.

Cousins

This is Gage jumping into the pool. You can see in the background that there is snow on the ground outside.

Here is Randy flipping Gage...

again...
and again...

and again...

Oh, here's one of him pushing Gage into the water. They sure do have fun together!

Here is Gage "running" across the water.

Cannon ball!!!

"The World is Yours"

(for all of you Scarface lovers)

Playing in the shallow end with Grandpa Greg.

A group shot of everyone in the hot tub.

Alexis turns 2!

2008-12-12T11:46:00.002-06:00

Our niece/goddaughter turned two this past weekend and there was a big party. Here's a picture of the cake before it was cut.

This is the birthday girl taking her first bite of cake.

Gage and Alexis.

Christmas card photo

2008-12-12T11:34:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again-taking the annual Christmas card photo. I've included the picture that made it onto the card as well as some outtakes.I snapped this before we left to go to my parents house. For some reason, I thought it was silly and funny. It's two of Gage's wrestling action figures.
Little did I know that the wrestling action figures would come to life later on in the forms of Randy and Gage while I was taking a few test shots to check how the lighting was.

I was really tempted to put this on a card to send out to some people who would get the joke but resisted the urge in the end.

This is the shot that made it onto the card this year.
Another idea was to have only Gage and the dogs in the picture, but we found very quickly that the dogs did not want to cooperate for this pose.

We also took a few pictures outside at my parent's house. They didn't make the cut, but may be part of my parent's Christmas card this year.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-12T11:29:00.003-06:00

For some reason, I did not take pictures at Thanksgiving. I did however take a few pictures of Randy giving the dogs some turkey when we got home. They had been cooped up for 1/2 the day, and deserved a little treat!

Molly and Cooper jumping to get closer to the meat.

Here they are enjoying their turkey while the cat stopped by to check out the action. We gave her some turkey too.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-12T11:01:00.003-06:00

For the past four years, it has been tradition for Randy and I to set up our Christmas tree on the weekend before Thanksgiving-this year was no exception.
I also put out my Charlie Brown Christmas figurines again this year. Zoe decided she did not like them and started knocking them over. After she was finished and I set them back up, she decided to take a nap on the table.
This was the first year that we put up Christmas lights at our new house. Randy volunteered to go up on the roof (no snow yet at this point) so he could hang the icicle lights we had from our old town home.

He doesn't look nervous, but I sure was!

First Piano Recital

2008-11-10T23:47:00.004-06:00

On November 9th Gage had his first Piano recital. He played "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of OZ. He did a great job and we look forward to many more recitals.

He looked so professional playing on the grand piano!

November 1, 2008

2008-11-10T23:40:00.004-06:00

Randy told Gage to rake some more leaves in the backyard. This time he got creative and made a message for us. It says, "I Love you" with a HUGE heart. What a sweet kid : )

Gage decided he was ready for his first scary movie this year. Randy and I thought Halloween would be alright for him to watch if it was the edited for TV version and we watched it with him. He made it the entire way through and said "it wasn't even that scary!" when it was over. Since Randy and I have such a passion for movies, it meant a lot to us to share this milestone with him. I took this picture so we'd never forget. He's growing up so fast!

Halloween

2008-11-10T23:35:00.004-06:00

Here's Alexis on Halloween. She stopped by to Trick or Treat. As you can see, she was Tinkerbell this year.Randy dressed up in his Michael Myers costume to pose for this picture with Gage who was also Michael Myers for Halloween. Like Father, like Son!

Getting ready for Halloween!

2008-10-29T01:23:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday Randy and I went to a Halloween party. Randy went as Michael Myers and I went as a Green Bay Packer fan.

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday night. Randy did an awesome job! He's more artistic than he gives himself credit for.
The finished product. Randy did the Freddy Krueger and Scream pumpkins and I carved the Jason hockey mask pumpkin. Spooky!

October 19th

2008-10-29T01:16:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures that I took over at Liz's (Randy's mom) house. She just returned from Louisiana, and we are happy to have her back!

Randy and Gage wearing their Led Zeppelin t-shirts.
Gage and Alexis

Enjoying the outdoors while we still can

2008-10-29T00:35:00.003-05:00

We went to the apple orchard this year. We hadn't gone last year because we were too busy, so we made time to go this year.

Here we are in front of the big apple at the entrance of Pine Tree Apple Orchard.The last three times we have gone to the apple orchard Randy has "thrown" Gage into the corn maze. I have a feeling that it won't be long until Gage can return the favor.
We have five maple trees in our yard so we always have lots of leaves to rake.
Randy is demonstrating how well the new leaf blower works.

Here is Gage after he jumped into his pile of leaves.

This is how far Gage got with his pile of leaves before it was too dark to continue-almost as tall as he is!

Gage's Last Soccer Game for the Fall 2008 Season

2008-10-13T21:27:00.002-05:00

Gage scored two goals in his last Soccer game. We finally caught it on film, too. Unfortunately, we don't have a USB cord for our video camera so I can't upload the video. You'll just have to take my word for it!

Gage attacking the ball.

Here is a picture I managed to snap just before he scored one of his two goals.

Here's a shot of the whole team after receiving their trophies.

Gage with his trophy

October 4th-5th

2008-10-13T21:21:00.003-05:00

I don't have many pictures from this weekend, but it was a good one. My sister was in town from Arizona, so it was fun to get to hang out with her. Here's a shot from Gage's Soccer game.
Randy at the Soccer game.
My sister took this shot of Gage and me on the Log Chute at Nickelodeon Universe (formerly Camp Snoopy and Park at MOA) at the Mall of America.
Gage with the Dale Earnhardt #3 car at the Mall of America.

Last weekend in September

2008-10-13T21:05:00.003-05:00

More Soccer pictures!Going for the goal...almost, but the goalie blocked it.
Corner kick, I think. I think I'm getting better at my Soccer lingo!
The St. Paul Park team that they played this week was co-ed, so it was funny to see Gage's all boy team start out gentle with the girls. After a little bit they realized if they kept that up they were going to lose because the girls were SERIOUS about winning the game.

Here's a funny one. I don't remember what he was doing in this picture, but he was really into the game.

2nd to Last Weekend in September

2008-10-13T20:56:00.004-05:00

I got a little behind with my blogging, so I'll catch up now.

Here's Gage after he scored a goal in his Soccer game.
Being silly with some joke glasses that Aunt Stacy gave him.
Randy, Gage, Molly, and Cooper making hot dogs over the bon fire in our backyard.
Gage wearing his "ketchup" shirt with a hot dog smothered in ketchup...
S'mores!!!

After a game of one on one.

Gage's 2nd Soccer game

2008-09-14T16:11:00.003-05:00

Gage had his 2nd Soccer game on Saturday. He scored two goals, so it was a great game for him and a really fun one to watch!

He got to be the goalie for part of the game and didn't let any goals go by him. This is one of the goals he was able to stop.
Here he is getting ready to score the first goal for his team that day...
And here is the actual goal!
Here's Gage at his second run at a goal...
And the actual goal. Maybe next game I'll work at getting the picture of him shooting the goal since I seem to be missing that each time!

Good game!

Go Leprechauns!! 3-1 victory : )

Gage's 1st Soccer Game of the year

2008-09-08T23:35:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday Gage had his first Soccer game of the season. He scored the first and only goal for his team. He was very excited.

Here he is cheering on his teammates from the sidelines.
This is right before he scored the goal.
Here's a great shot of him really getting into the game.
This was a close one. We thought he was going to get another goal!
Half-time

Gage passing the ball to his teammate.

RNC in St. Paul!

2008-09-08T23:13:00.003-05:00

As some of you may know, I work downtown St. Paul. I brought my camera before and during the RNC. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

This is at the side entrance of the River Centre before the convention started.
This is the welcome sign for the Texas delegates at the Crown Plaza.
I love that the city put out all of these flags on on of the bridges coming into St. Paul.
They closed down Kellogg BLVD in St. Paul, which is right outside the front of my building. Here is a picture of the fence that they put up to block off the road from the sidewalks.
I snapped this one from the 12th floor of the Qwest building where I work. It is a shot of the protesters. This is another shot that I took from a 12th floor window, it is of the same side entrance to the River Centre that is shown above.

This is a really neat shot that I got from the 12th floor of my building. It is the Cathedral downtown with the Minneapolis skyline in the background. In the lower part of the picture is the Xcel Center where the RNC was held. If you look closely towards the center of the Xcel Center roof, you can see the tent over two snipers sitting on the roof.

Another busy weekend!

2008-08-25T22:27:00.004-05:00

We have had the busiest summer. This weekend was no different. Saturday morning, Gage had his first Soccer practice at 9am.

Here he is getting really into the practice drill. (pictured in blue)

Later that evening, we had a bonfire in our backyard.

We were burning one of the trees that we cut down from our front yard.

Sunday, we went to Raceway to Fun. It's a cute little place about a mile away from our house that's been there forever. We decided to check it out, and will probably go back there again this year. Here is Gage test driving a go-cart.

Afterwards, we went mini golfing. It was a lot of fun!

By the way, I kicked both of their butts!

Sunday evening, Randy had his Fantasy Football draft. As you can see, he took his dinner at the computer, and was busy studying the stats in between his turns.

Green Bay Packers

2008-08-10T17:18:00.001-05:00

Randy, Gage, and I went to Green Bay, WI on Saturday to take the stadium tour, visit the Hall of Fame, and check out Packer's Training camp. Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is Randy and Gage in front of the "Curly" Lambeau statue in front of the entrance to Lambeau Field.

This is Gage and me in front of the Vince Lombardi statue in front of the entrace to Lambeau Field.

This is us in down on the field. On the staudium tour, you get to come out of the Packer's tunnel onto the field.

This is a picture that I took of Gage up in the stands with Lambeau Field in the background.

Gage modeling a cheeshead hat in the Packer Pro Shop.

This was taken inside the Packers Hall of Fame. Randy and Gage wanted to get in on the action, so I snapped a picture of them "riding" bikes with the Packers. This is a time honored tradition that the Packers have during training camp, that not many people are aware of. On their way from the locker room to the training camp field across the street, the Packers players ride smaller fan's bikes to the field. The young fan either runs along side the bike or rides on the bike with the player if the bike has pegs on the back. I took pictures of this actually occuring later on in the day, and the pictures are lower.

I am sitting in a replica of Coach Vince Lombardi's office.

It's good!

Here is Gage trying to do the "Lambeau Leap" as many of the players do after touchdowns at home.

Here we are standing in front of the three Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophies that the Packers have won over the years.

We took a short side trip to the Titletown Brewery to visit the old Packer "receiver" statue that used to be in front of the old Packer Hall of Fame (before it was moved into the newly remodeled stadium). At one time this was the largest football on Earth. I'm not sure if it still is.

Gage went through some of the inflatable mock "drills" in the Tundra Tailgate Zone.

Here he is again, trying to run as far as he can while harnessed into a huge elastic band. As you can see, he really gave it his all.

Unfortuantely, this Packer player didn't have his numbered jersey on, so I'm not 100% on who he is, but you can see the young fan riding on the pegs on the bike with him.

It's a little hard to tell, but this is Donald Driver riding a kids bike to the training field.

Here is a shot of the Packers running a drill at the beginning of training.

This is the Packer's punter, Jon Ryan, in between practicing some punts. Gage got his autograph during the autograph session that we took him to after training.

He also got Ryan Grant's autograph (Running Back) pictured above, as well as Conrad Bolston and Alfred Malone (both defensive tackles).

Visitors from Kansas City, MO!

2008-08-06T09:37:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Greg and Kathy came up from Kansas City to visit. Here are some pictures of the festivities.Say Cheese! Randy grilled for us on Friday night.

***Greg and Alexis traded hats for awhile.

On Saturday, we went to the beach. Here is Alexis playing in the sand.

On Sunday, Gage spent his afternoon catching frogs and bees as seen above and below.
***

On Sunday evening, we celebrated Kathy's birthday and my birthday.

Drive In

2008-07-26T02:25:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to the Drive In. We saw Batman (The Dark Knight) and Hancock. It was a lot of fun.

Here is Gage relaxing in the back window.

Gage and Randy before the movie started. Randy has the band aids on his head due to a recent "disagreement" with our deck. He's ok now, just has quite the battle wound to show for it.
Gage thought it was really funny when his pop got fizzy after shaking it up. I think he may have been at the peak of a sugar high at this point.

Up and running

2008-07-18T20:43:00.000-05:00

It's official, we have a blog. Here are some pictures from our recent vacation to Kansas City, MO to visit Randy's dad and step-mom.