Thanksgiving
Justin:
For those of you who don't know already, we celebrated a family-reunion style Thanksgiving in Tampa, Florida where my mother, Sandi, and grandparents, Bob and Nancye, live.  We were joined by my brothers, Travis and Nicholas, who flew in from Colorado and my brother, Eric, who flew in from Germany.  My Aunt Karen and cousin, Rhiannon, flew in from Mississippi.  My brothers and cousin were all accompanied by their wonderful spouses and children.  Camden and Tristan had fun playing with their cousins: Isaiah, Michael, Matthew, Evan and Madeleine.  You can see some of the action in our Thanksgiving Fun video.  Seven of my grandmother's siblings and their families joined us for a huge Thanksgiving feast at the clubhouse in my mother's neighborhood.  While we were in Tampa we went to the beach at Honeymoon Island State Park, ate at a seafood restaurant, went fishing on Lake Ann and enjoyed lots of food and conversation.
Since our return home we have been busy unpacking, decorating the house and our Christmas tree, going to a TelWare Christmas party at Great Wolf Lodge, and celebrating Camden's birthday.  Great Wolf Lodge was a lot of fun.  We did not go to the indoor water park but we did enjoy doing the Magiquest, which required us, the Magi, to explore the lodge to find items with our magic wand in order to complete quests.  For Camden's birthday, Camden wanted a ninja theme so the kids all dressed up like ninjas and watched the movie, Kung Fu Panda.


















 





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Thanksgiving in Tampa, FL
Justin:
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A Day in the Park
Justin:
The weekend before last, we took the kids to Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury.  Their cousins, Will and Sam, were also there with Grandmother Norma.  The park has lots of things to do including: riding on a narrow gauge train, riding the carousel, playing on the many playground sets, playing in the spray grounds, hitting some balls on the putt-putt course, riding the paddle boats on the lake, and exploring a small zoo.  The zoo had a bear, red wolves, red foxes, and many different types of birds.  There is also a petting barn that has goats, sheep, and a pig.  Tristan and Sam really laughed it up every time the pig snorted.





 
Also, check out Troop 1088's Investiture Ceremony on their blog.  The girls rededicated themselves to girl scouting and received some awards.

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Halloween and Other Activities
Justin:
We've had a busy but fun couple of weekends since our last post (the weekdays are filled with work, so we'll pretend they don't happen).  We had a great lunch at the U.S. National Water Center with our friends and neighbors, Scott and Rhianne.  Scott and I serve on the Neighborhood Watch together and Rhianne was Camden's first  grade teacher.  We took a walk around the whitewater course and Tristan enjoyed a little rock climbing.  After Tristan took a short nap, we walked up the hill from our house to celebrate brother-in-law Scott's birthday with a little cookout.
We also went to the new house of our friends and former neighbors, Jose and Cecilia, whose daughter, Vanessa was celebrating her second birthday.  She is exactly four months younger than Tristan.  The kids had a great time chasing the goats around the huge back yard, playing with each other, having their faces painted by a clown, and eating cake and candy.
Camden had a girl scout campout in the back yard at her mother's house, where the girls cooked over an open fire, roasted marshmallows and played games.  The temperature was in the 40's overnight but everyone stayed warm enough in their sleeping bags.  There are more pictures of the campout on Troop 1088's blog.
Camden received great reviews at her parent-teacher conference for the first quarter.  She is doing well in all subjects, including math, which is her most challenging subject.  She also received the Do the Right Thing award for her class because her peers voted her Most Respectful.  We are very proud of her.
And, of course, there was Halloween.  The kids all looked so cute and had a wonderful time trick-or-treating.  Tristan's last words to me that night, when I tucked him into bed, was "trick-or-treat."















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