To start the year off...

I feel like I should write a Christmas post, but nothing too earth shattering happened. We ate. We drank. We brought home a metric ton of presents for Ben. One exciting thing: In May 2012 Ben will be getting a new aunt! Heath's brother Todd proposed to his girlfriend Sarah (and she accepted). Sarah is really sweet and she'll be a wonderful addition to our family. Plus, she's studying to be a nurse, so from now on I'll have someone to show any strange warts or boils that crop up! Sweet!

Happy 2011!

Family resemblance

Heath has had a beard for years and Ben's never seen him without one. So lately whenever he sees a picture of Heath pre-beard he points and says, "Todd!" (Heath's brother)

The more things change, the more they stay the same

When I was a kid we went up to Minnesota and Wisconsin a lot, to visit family. One of the things my brothers and I dreaded was driving through Madison, WI. My parents went to the university there, so every time we visited we were treated to a narrated tour featuring all their Significant Spots. This was where they worked, that was where they lived after they got married. Oh! That pizza shop used to be a bar! As my parents re-lived their youth we kids whined from the backseat, "This is boooooooooring."

Yesterday, on our way home from Kansas City we stopped in Columbia, MO to visit Ben's Uncle Todd and his girlfriend Jessie. As we drove through town to their apartment I heard from the backseat, "Ben, there's Engineering West! Daddy spent a lot of time there in college. And there's where we saw Lighting Man*!" I had to laugh, because it was an exact replica of my own childhood. Ben's not yet old enough to protest in words, but I'm sure his fussing meant, "This is boooooooooring."


*A mythic figure in Heath and his roommates' college lives.