Summer Vacation - We spent the 4th of July in Williamsburg and DC this year. Andrew's favorite place was Busch Gardens. He got to meet some of his favorite Sesame Street characters, ride alot of rides (his first roller coaster that he insisted on riding at least 10 times) and his favorite part which was petting the Clydesdales.
Graduation Day! - Chris said it best - seeing a graduation ceremony with all of those caps and gowns is very emotional. But when they are pre-school graduates - it's just plain adorable. Andrew was very excited (although a bit nervous at first) to go through the ceremony. He had practiced his songs for weeks. And when they asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, of course he said "A dolphin trainer". That's our boy!
5th Birthday - Hard to believe that Andrew's already 5. Also hard to believe that we had to wait until his 5th birthday to have a Horse Themed party. Andrew got to celebrate his actual birthday at Chick-Fil-A (which Andrew refers to as "The Cow Place"). Then we had his big birthday party in our new home in Kokomo with all his friends and family.
Christmas 08 - Andrew enjoyed a full week of celebrating Christmas, with our first celebration at MawMaw's, celebrating with Ryan & Samantha. He and Ryan enjoyed teasing everyone that night. Then another celebration at MaMa Jean's with Em & TJ. Christmas Eve was a fun night with Grandpa and Nana coming by the house. By the time Santa made his visit, we were convinced there was nothing else Andrew could need. But Santa's visit filled the room with many surprises. Andrew enjoyed being the center of attention and took his sweet old time opening each present. When all the wrapping cleared, he was very happy to catch some rest in his new horse sleeping bag.
November & December - Andrew had fun at Mama Jean's surprise 70th birthday party in November, especially because he got a chance to spend time with Emily & TJ. He and Em enjoyed cooking up a mess in the kitchen. But he was anxious for December to come along. He was very excited about Christmas this year, and had a great time at the Children's Museum when we went to visit Santa.
Halloween - Andrew had a great time trick-or-treating this year up at MawMaw's. He was our little horse, of course. It was wonderful weather this year, and he enjoyed spending a great fall weekend up there playing with Sassy (or at least he thought he was playing - I think Sassy was feeling a bit "trapped". We came back home and Andrew got to go trick-or-treating at both Jean's and Dick's. We made Halloween a whole weekend event.
October - Only a few more soccer games left. Andrew seems to be getting more into the games, and he really enjoys having people come and watch him play. Just a few pictures from our visit to the zoo (again where he loves to play on the playground) and at soccer.
September - Andrew was very excited to be able to go to the circus with one of his friends from school. He even did a little "clowing around" himself. As the summer turns to autumn, Andrew is continuing with soccer. He seems to enjoy more playing on the playground after the games than he does actually playing soccer. Another sign that maybe soccer just isn't his "game".
Summer - July & August were filled with lots to do. We spent time with our Russian friends at the FTIA reunion picnic, visited with family in southern Illinois, and got a chance to spend a day with his cousins TJ & Hugo. Andrew wanted to play soccer this year, so Deb got a taste of being a "soccer mom". We've both determined soccer may not be for us.
Vacation - Over the 4th of July, we took our vacation out to California and drug MawMaw along with us. We started in San Diego and were able to visit with Chris' Uncle Alan's family. Andrew loved Sea World, not only being able to touch so many of the sea animals and seeing Shamu, but especially the Sesame Street play area. Even Daddy wanted his picture taken with the Cookie Monster. At the San Diego Zoo, Andrew had the most fun riding the Skyfari air tram. No fear of heights with him.
We then took off for San Francisco, traveling up the coastline. Andrew really wanted to stop whenever we could and "throw rocks into the ocean". We also were able to see the Elephant Seals just outside of Cambria. Of course, Andrew enjoyed feeding the ground squirrels almost as much as seeing the seals. We couldn't fully enjoy the coast, as the fires made us turn back and take another route. But we were still able to enjoy the highlight of the trip - a whale watching tour we took in Monterey. It was spectacular. Our captain said we saw 8 humpback whales, 4 different kinds of dolphins including 1200 Pacific White-sided dolphins and over 6000 Northern Right Whale dolphins. Unbelievable - dolphins were everywhere. One humpback came right up close to the boat.
Spring - Andrew's had a few opportunities to be able to go to the zoo and the Children's Museum this spring, and he hasn't lost his love of the carousel. We also had a wonderful time playing in the dinosaur exhibit.
A Dino-four Birthday Celebration - We had a small birthday cake on Andrew's official birthday but waited until after Easter to celebrate with all of Andrew's friends and family. We had a big Dino-celebration at the Himsel house, starting with an exciting dinosaur egg excavation. All of the kids had a great time taking turns trying to take down the tough dinosaur pinata - Andrew actually looks like he may one day be quite the baseball batter - and a left handed one at that. After some cake, Andrew showed no shyness in getting around to opening his presents this year- although he didn't seem to go nearly fast enough for some of his friends likings. Even though they all tried to help him speed things up, he was very excited to have his friends with him on his special day.
Easter 2008 - Andrew had an exciting Easter from decorating eggs with Mama and Aunt Nay to hunting eggs. Andrew was especially excited to find out that the Easter Bunny hid eggs both inside and out, even though it was quite a chilly outside egg hunt, finding eggs among the frost.
A New Year - 2008 - We all agreed that 2008 needs to be better than 2007 - we started the year with a late Christmas celebration with the Himsel family and alot of trips to MawMaw's house. In March Andrew got to travel with Mommy on a business trip to Dallas. We brought Aunt Nay along for company, and the two of them had a great time clowning around and of course swimming at the hotel.
