Michael and Jeff went camping with Uncle Andres and Lukas over the weekend for Lukas' birthday. Here, Michael is eating toast his dad made for him Sunday morning.

They spent one night at Carter's Lake, about an hour north of us. The kids had a great time.

They had intended to camp at Red Top Mountain, but because it is October, all of the campsites were booked. Jeff is glad that we have found a new place to camp, though. Carter's Lake was beautiful.

It was also cold. They had a huge pile of blankets in the tent, and as you can see, everyone was bundled up.

Sunday morning, they went fishing, but the fish weren't biting. The boys enjoyed it, anyway.

The birthday boy and his dad fished for an hour.

Michael, however, became bored with fishing. He was polite enough to move 100 feet down the shoreline before he started throwing rocks into the water.

Jeff and Michael have another camping trip planned for November, this time with the Cub Scouts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Meanwhile. . .

Jim has worked out how to crawl forward, and he will take steps if we hold his hands.

Jim pulled up yesterday for the first time. He was sitting in his play pen one minute, then the next time I looked he was standing there holding onto the side. As usual, as soon as he figured it out, he did it a couple more times in rapid succession.

Here's a picture of Jim standing holding onto one of his toys, also from yesterday.

Our dog, Gremlin, is in big trouble. His sedentary life will soon be over. Jim thinks he's the coolest thing ever, and as soon as Jim is 100% mobile, we may have to cage Grem for his own safety. He's ok for now; Jim can still only crawl in reverse.

Jim is changing every day! He's trying very hard to crawl, and yesterday he made it from lying down to a sitting position. Of course, once he figured that out, he did it several times.



He can stand up while holding something, but he can't pull up from a sitting position yet. He's very close. He can balance for a few seconds without holding anything at all, but he's not likely to walk any time real soon. I think he'll be crawling in a day or two, anyway.










We drove over to the 9/11 memorial at Kennesaw Mountain earlier this month. Jeff purchased one of the flags for our Cub Scout troop.

Jeff and Michael were in the Pioneer Days Parade in our hometown this morning. Michael is in Cub Scouts (he's a Wolf Cub) and Jeff is his Den Leader. They had to walk all the way through downtown, which is about a mile.



Will, Becca, Jim and I waited at the end of the route. Becca was very cute in her flag-themed outfit, and Will was very helpful with his little sister and his baby cousin. We had to wait here by the side of the road for about forty-five minutes before the parade finally got to us.





After half an hour of walking, Michael was still excited. This was a big change from last year, when Michael was exhausted by the parade even though last year he endured it from the back of a truck! What a difference one year can make!

Jeff, however, was not skipping, and at home later that afternoon dozed off on the sofa.

There was a marching band from a local highschool just behind Michael's Cub Scout troop, and Michael really enjoyed their music. So did Jim, who was unfazed by the loud drums and trumpets. Will said that Jim should be in marching band when he grows up, since he enjoyed it so much.




After Michael and Jeff made it to where we were standing, they stopped and watched the rest of the parade with us. We stayed until the Shriners' little cars arrived at the end of the route. They were very loud, and Michael called them the "Popper-ma-Doppers" because of all of the backfiring.

This photo was taken last month of Michael (7 years) and Jim (7 months).




















Here are the boys with Jerry and Bob on August 27th.





Jim will be nine months old on September 10th. He's begun to cruise a little, but he's not pulling up on his own yet. Here, he's cruising around Becca's old exersaucer.