Sammy's 3rd Birthday Party - More Pics

Later in the day, we had cake and started to open Sammy's presents. Much later, an old family friend named Yukon Jack stopped by, but that's another story.

Sammy admiring his cake...

He then asks for assistance...

Sammy blowing out his candles with help from cowgirls Avery, Kendara, and Michele...

Benton amazed us with his track laying abilities...
...in mere moments he had a complex layout that we could never create...

Demure Diane forsook Gaucho Grant for Cletus the 3-headed cactus...

Jilted by Diane the Demure...
...a sad Gaucho Grant faded away into the sunset...

A New Years Wedding...

We started off 2009 with a New Years day wedding of Paul's nephew Brian and Vanessa.

The night before the wedding (New Years Eve), we stayed overnight at the hotel where the wedding was. Paul managed to get Diane a teeny-bit-tipsy on Yukon Jack (a family tradition of sorts).

We are very happy to welcome Vanessa into the family. She is a very nice young lady and she certainly makes Brian happy.

Here are some of the photos we took at the wedding...

Grant helps Brian get ready...

Vanessa and Ashlynn sharing a moment together before the wedding...

Diane, Grant, and the Minneapolis skyline...

Paul's nephew Chris and Molly...

Sammy bits a big bagel...

Brian and Vanessa during the ceremony...

Mr. and Mrs. Brian S...

Kitchen Remodel: How To Cope

We're a few weeks now into our kitchen remodel. So our current "kitchen" consists of a utility tub we had installed in our basement and a 20+ year old Kenmore microwave Paul bought back in college. Surprisingly, we get by pretty well...eating a lot of hot dogs, microwavable mac-and-cheese, and Pizza Hut.

When we were emptying out our old cabinets before the tear out, we found that Paul has more than a few bottles of Yukon Jack in there. It would be interesting to figure out how we ended up with so many bottles of it. Maybe we should just say we use the Yukon Jack as paint thinner.

All the bottles we found in the kitchen cabinets...

Paulie's Wedding: The Reception...

We didn't take many pictures at the reception, and of those we took a lot came out not so great (Paul needs to read the manual...it was a large room, not brightly lit, so the flash did not work as well as we would have liked). Here are the better photos that we took...

Paulie and Kaila...

Paulie, Shirley, and the wedding cake...

Michele's sisters Sharon and Stephanie...
(taken by Aunt Sue)

Yet another Paul (YAP)...
...Paul Jones (best man) and his wife...

Not Yukon Jack...