Waiting for the boys...

To Hunter and Blake: Can't wait until you get here so we can pick out a Christmas tree.

Countdown to Florida

The shrine the boys are buiding on the mantel with the Florida Postcards they get every day is almost done. That must mean we are getting close!

Fly-In

Becky here. We spent Kim and Adam's last morning at the Venice Airport where a Fly-In was happening. A fly-in resembles a car show where visitors can examine sports planes close-up and consider buying one. There are raffles and air demonstrations and plenty of tarmac food. Serendipitously, Adam bumped into Eric, his old friend and flight instructor, and they had a chance to catch up. Eric now works for a flying service that taxis rich and famous people around central Florida. John Travolta was his first customer.

I tagged along with my camera not understanding much of what I was seeing, except for the colors...

Ultimate Challenge

The new school year brought many interesting new things for the Underwood boys.

During conferences we found out Blake is VERY social and a whiz with Math and Science. He has become the teachers helper in math. Mostly because he was getting bored and either talking to the other kids or drawing little tiny pictures on his papers. Mostly Pokemon characters. We have our own museum. Since his plan is to go to college to play baseball and be an architect we decided he is right on plan. Here is Santa.

When we visited Hunter's teacher the first thing she said was, "Hunter is such a sweet kid" we listened thinking, okay. Then we found out he is also a math whiz, but is on his own clock. We knew that. Never try to rush Hunter, it will not be worth it.

Back at the beginning of the school year they both came home excitedly waving sign up sheets for the school chess club. We signed them up and ever since a week hasn't gone by without a good chess match at our house.

So I guess it should not be a surprise that the utlimate object of their desire was the NEW! LEGO Castle Giant Chess Set. It has 2481 pieces and can actually be used to play chess.


Assembling the ulitmate chess set takes extra time, patience and orgnizational skills. First they had to assess the contents. Then they needed better working conditions (table and chairs)

Then they sorted the pieces into like piles. Then one page and one piece at a time they began to assemble. They are two days into it and they are about half way to game time.

Meanwhile it is freezing and snowy outside and they have no idea.

Thanks, Kim and Adam!

Wow, what a couple of fast-paced days we did! Kim and Adam treated us to a two-day extravaganza of entertainment in Orlando. I'm poring over my pictures to show you but I was unable to do the visual experiences justice.

Day One: Orlando's Museum of Art, a Christmas walk-about in downtown Winter Park that ended with an evening in The Wine Room where we tasted rare and not-so-rare wines, a flight of cheeses and charcuterie. Delightful! Kim happens to be a marvelous travel planner.

Day Two: Disney's Hollywood Park gave us glorious experiences borne of the movies--fires, storms, crashes, towers of terror, music and other sounds, shows, rides, Christmas lighting beyond all Christmas lighting, and an evening lighting fantasmagoria starring Mickey.

Please accept my humble display shots from a pretty poor collection...my digital camera just can't capture so much ACTION!

Where did November go?

November flew by and we only managed to take two pictures all month.

This is Blake handing out programs with his Best Friend (#20) Carl. They had their First Communion that day.

Hunter and Blake's First Communion.

Everything went well and no one had to drink the yucky wine, they had grape juice - Whew!

Our Thanksgiving was very traditional. We had turkey, ham, noodles, potatoes, beans, jello, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie. There was much more, but it is hard to recall it all.

The highlight was Hunter singing to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy all the of Presidents from Washington to Obama in less than 2 minutes with only 3 stops to take a breathe. Try it, I bet you can't do it.

Dave's dreams all came true last night as Hunter and Blake joined the pee wee Valley Tigers Wrestling Team. Not only does he now have two little wrestlers to nurture and grow, but one of them was singled out (of 120 kids) on the first night as an example to follow. They were all very proud after their first night. Photos in the future.

Three Stars

Becky here. Three stars--Jupiter, Venus, and a quarter moon--were our entertainment for dinner tonight. Kim and Adam took Allen and me to the Fish House on Bonita Bay where we could view this wonderful alignment of the heavens.