This Birthday Is Brought To You By The Color Blue

Whenever we would ask Nathanael what he wanted for his birthday he kept saying that he wanted a 'Blue Birthday'. From the pics below you'll see that the theme of this year's birthday was the color blue. From the blueberry pancakes for breakfast, to the blue chips at dinner (and everything in between) the color of the day was blue.

Chris

10 Years Ago and Today

I recently celebrated my 10 year anniversary as an employee at Renaissance Learning. This got me thinking about how life has changed over that last 10 years. Take a stroll down memory lane with me.

-10 years ago Cari and I had been married for less than a year. This December we will celebrate our 11th anniversary.

-10 years ago we moved to a place where we didn't know a single person. Today we have many people that we are able to call our friends.

-10 years ago we didn't have any kids. Today we have four boys between the ages of 9 and 3.

-10 years ago we lived in a house that was about the size of a large garage. Today we live in a house that is bigger than a garage, but it's still a small house.

-10 years ago we had one nephew. Today we have 4 nephews (with another on the way)and 2 nieces.

-10 years ago we had a two-door Ford Tempo. Today we have a four-door minivan that seats 7.

-10 years ago I had never heard of a blog. Today I use a blog to keep our friends and family updated on what's going on in our lives.

Chris

Washington and Apples (but not Washington apples)

Last week I spent three days in Vancouver, Washington on a business trip. It was a good trip, and I learned a few things. Did you know that you can't pump your own gas in the state of Oregon? I flew into Portland, Oregon and the rental car guy informed me that all gas stations are full service in Oregon. I guess it's a state law. I also learned that first class is really nice. My brother-in-law Jonah was able to get me an upgrade to first class from Minneapolis to Portland. Here are some things I learned in first class.
-The seats are really big, and there's a lot of leg room. There's no way you can even come close to touching the person next to you.
-You can drink the bottled water, and they don't charge you. I wasn't sure if it was like in a hotel room where they charge you $5 for the bottled water in your room.
-The hot towels they give you are really very hot. I had to watch others to see what you're supposed to do with them.
-Delta makes a great chocolate cheesecake.

On Friday, Cari took three of the kids to an apple orchard (Josiah was sick so I stayed home with him). They had a really good time and they were able to get a lot of apples for a great price. Pics below.

Chris

Worker Guys

One of Josiah's favorite things to do is watch 'Worker Guys' do their work. A Worker Guy is anyone that does construction, road work, etc. Today the boys spent time drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. With Josiah wearing his new boots, he definitely looks like a Worker Guy that's been painting, or doing some kind of building.

Chris

Josiah's Birthday Weekend

As you may know, birthdays in the Payne house are never a one day event. We turn them into birthday weekends and sometimes into birthday weeks. This weekend we celebrated Josiah's 5th birthday. Due to losing power all around the city on Saturday, we decided to make our pizzas on the grill. They turned out really good. (pics included) Losing power can be fun, but not when you had just done two weeks worth of shopping. Fortunately, the power was only out for a little over an hour.

This weekend we also took our annual football picture. In addition to the traditional picture that we always take, we added a few action shots to this year's photo shoot.

On Monday (Josiah's actual birthday) he started the morning out right by opening presents. Present opening continued after I got home from work, and then we enjoyed a relaxing meal at the McDonald's playland. (When you see relaxing and playland in the same sentence you should be laughing. :) The evening ended with a motorcycle birthday cake and playing with his new presents.

Chris

Lambeau Field and Henry Vilas Zoo

Last week was a tour of eastern and southern Wisconsin. On Thursday I went to my first game at Lambeau field. I had a great time. It was hard to believe that it was 78 degrees at kickoff at the Frozen Tundra. On Friday we went to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. It was a nice day to go to the zoo. Pics are below.

Chris

Annual Family Tree Pic

It's that time of year again. Time to take our picture in front of the tree. Below are pics from this year and previous years. It's neat to watch the kids, and the tree, grow.

Chris