We made a quick trip down South for Great-Grandma's birthday. She turned 100 years old! Way to go, Great-Grandma! As you can see she's doing pretty well. This was a great reason to get the family together, something that doesn't happen nearly often enough because we're all so spread apart. There were lots of opportunities for four-generation photos like this one: Nate and Sean sit with their dad, and his mom, and her mom.
We stayed at the home of dad's aunt and uncle, way out in the country. It's quite a change from our normal city life. One of the fun things about visiting here are the cousins! The four boys played together for hours. They ran through fields, rode bicycles up and down the long driveway, and of course, shared video game techniques.
The next day we visited a real ranch which was owned by one of the neighbors down the road. Part of the fun was feeding the cows. Nate noticed one cow with horns (in the background). Someone asked the farmer if it was a Longhorn, but the farmer said, no it was just a cow with horns. There was also a deep well with a windmill pump atop it, a pond, and lots of farm equipment for the kids to explore.
Everyone piled into a wagon drawn by a tractor. The first stop was a grove of live oak trees. The kids got to climb over all the branches, some of which bent all the way down to the ground for easy scaling. Later the farmer took the tractor into an empty field and let all of the kids take a turn driving, even Sean! There was nothing to hit so there were no problems even though they couldn't drive a straight line if they tried.
We wish we could have visited longer but unfortunately we could only be down there for a few days and we had to return home.
Nate and Sean got tickets to the "Monster Jam" monster truck show for Christmas. They've been very excited for weeks and the big day finally arrived yesterday. Mom was particularly thoughtful for purchasing the tickets that came with Pit Party passes. Those allowed people to arrive a couple of hours before the show and get down on the field to meet the drivers and see the trucks up close. Here the kids get an autograph from the driver of Grave Digger. That's the biggest name in monster trucks, or so Nate tells me. There were lots of other creatively named trucks like Superman, Thrasher, Medusa, Broker, Viper and Screamin' Demon.
Grave Digger definitely got the biggest crowd reaction and won the majority of the events. Here he soars high above a row of crushed cars during the wheelie event. Kudos to mom once again for scoring these awesome seats right in front of the ramp! And those trucks are unbelievably loud, too. Thankfully we brought earplugs along or our ears would probably have been ringing for days.
The show included filler between the monster truck competitions to keep the crowd going. Here a motorcycle jumped between two ramps while the rider performed aerial tricks and acrobatics. It was quite entertaining. During other breaks they raced what looked like souped-up go-carts they called Quads around tight turns and down short straightaways. There was always lots of noise and action to keep the kids thrilled throughout the show. If that didn't do it, there was plenty of merchandise.
The final event was a freestyle competition. Each truck performed its best moves in an attempt to get the most point from the judges. A truck called Superman was doing great but took a sharp turn at the end of the routine, spilling over onto its side. The crowd went wild, and fortunately nobody was hurt. The driver climbed out through a window and a crane plopped the truck back on four wheels, ready for the next show later that evening.
