The Denison Family

Counselor's Corner: This is For All the Mom’s Out There (Husband’s You...

2012-01-08T20:48:00.000-06:00

Counselor's Corner: This is For All the Mom’s Out There (Husband’s You...: Well, it’s a brand new year once again. Time for making those resolutions that may or may not last and yes, I am guilty of making a few myse...

The Most Recent Video from my Phone

2011-08-05T09:03:00.000-05:00

The Birth Announcement!

2011-08-05T08:59:00.000-05:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Conversation with Savannah

2010-03-19T21:45:00.001-05:00

So Savannah and I were drawing with sidewalk chalk the other day and she asked me to draw the family so I did. She said she was a big girl and I asked her what big girls do. She responded "I play". I asked her what Daddy does and she said "play". I then asked what do Mommy's do and she said "cook". Great. That's how she sees her mommy and daddy and life at the Denison house. At least she didn't say that Daddy fishes!!!! Here is to a GREAT spring of more playing outside and learning what goes on in the mind of our precious little three year old!!!!

Our little Picasa and All Star!

2010-03-09T20:51:00.010-06:00

Not a lot to update at the Denison house.....except that Savannah has taken quite a liking to some painting, tee ball and bike riding!! She LOVES to paint and is so serious about it! She probably asks to paint a few times per day and it is the perfect activity to get through the nice long and cold days!! But the weather did turn nice and she was able to get out and enjoy the weather, not to mention her new t-ball set that she got for her birthday! She is already quite the little pro. And, her feet touch all the pedals now on her big girl bike!!!! She got the bike as a gift last year on her birthday from her cousins and after a season of being pushed on it by mommy and daddy, her feet touch the pedals and she is learning how to ride the bike like a pro!! We are certainly excited for the much needed nice weather that is heading our way!!!!!

Just a few for now

2010-03-02T18:56:00.005-06:00

Well the Denison's have been slacking with the updates on here lately!! We have been keeping busy in the long winter months, but not a lot of picture taking! I was going to post Savannah's birthday pictures on the actual day, but they don't seem to appear on the computer right now, so I will need to get the hubby's expertise on that one when he is home! So enjoy a few pics from Savannah's Tinkerbell Birthday Party and I promise to update this again soon with more pics! Life is still moving along for us...Miss Savannah is all signed up to go to preschool next year! It is so hard to believe our baby is old enough for that already!! And the other BIG news of the winter is that BUFFETT is coming to town!!! News like that makes winter a little easier to deal with as we look forward to warm weather, playing outside and all the other stuff we have been missing out on while cooped up inside the last few months!!!!

Our Baby Turns Three!!!

2010-02-09T19:16:00.002-06:00

It seems like just yesterday we met Savannah for the first time!! We waited quite a while for her arrival as she took her own sweet time coming into this world! Cameron and I are so blessed to have such a sweet sweet girl to call our own. We have been through quite a lot in the past three years and wouldn't trade a minute of it! We have sure learned to stay on our toes each and every day as we watch our little girl grow before our eyes!! We can't wait to see where the next year takes us, hopefully we have a year full of only good things as Savannah continues to grow and amaze us everyday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Big Girl, WE LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!!

Our almost THREE year old!!

2010-01-18T08:23:00.006-06:00

So I gave Cameron the go ahead to try to take some picutres at home for our almost three year old. I am most impressed by the way they turned out, of course if helps to have such a cute girl to have to capture on film!! Thanks Cameron, great job and thanks Savannah for putting up with it all!!!!! Happy almost Birthday!!!!!!

SANTA CAME!!!!!

2009-12-28T10:24:00.008-06:00

Well, Santa did not disappoint at the Denison house this year!!! Savannah came downstairs and said "See, he came!" She was soooo excited to see what he brought her, the Barbie/dollhouse being the favorite! It took no time at all to get all the presents open and then it was time to open them up to be able to play with them all!! Had to check out the empty plate, guess Santa liked his cookies!! She was impressed that the reindeer left a little on the plate!TINKERBELL!!!!!! Doesn't get much better than that!

Candyland was sure a hit! One of her favorite games by far!!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-28T09:12:00.011-06:00

It's Christmas Eve!! Sadly, Savannah and Daddy had to miss out on the annual Huster Christmas on the 23rd due to a little stomach bug of Savannah's. Thankfully she is well and ready to go to Greg and Cindy's for Christmas Eve with the Wehmeyer family! All dressed up and ready to go!

Opening her present from Mommy and Daddy before heading out!

After dinner, Santa came to Greg and Cindy's!! Savannah was VERY excited to see him!

She was quite the little helper! All the great grandkids got a bag of goodies from the man in red! Santa is so very thoughtful!

Most of the great grandkids, missing a few due to the camera and size of the room, hard to fit 25+ kids in one picture!!!!

Grandma Wehmeyer enjoyed a pic with Santa!

The treats left for Santa and his reindeer!! Hope he comes and leaves lots of presents!!

The Week is Finally Here!!!

2009-12-27T09:13:00.003-06:00

It's finally Christmas week and we were ready!! On Tuesday, the 22nd, Savannah got to celebrate the big day with all her friends at Miss Jenny's. We didn't do too bad of a job of getting eight kids five years and younger to pose in front of the tree! Then there was a special visit from Santa!!! Savannah and Cole were about the only ones brave enough to sit on his lap, but it was a great time. And thanks to Jenny for letting the mom's and dad's come to join in the fun!

Checking out all the toys from Santa! He is sure good to everyone!!

Getting Ready for Christmas!!

2009-12-27T08:56:00.008-06:00

We sure did a lot to get ready for the big Holiday!! Savannah and Mommy went to the Parents as Teachers Christmas Party. Savannah had a lot of fun playing with her friends and also seeing the man in red! She had NO problems sitting on his lap and telling him exactly what she wants! On another day Savannah and I went to the Govero's to build a gingerbread house with Abby and Reagan! It started out as a pretty cute house, till we had a few problems and ending up decorating slabs of gingerbread! The girl's didn't seem to mind at all and had fun regardless!

Baking cookies at Miss Jenny's to get ready for the party at her house with all her day care friends!
And now decorating cookies at home to get ready for Santa's visit here on Christmas Eve! Savannah is becoming quite the little baker and she and mommy had a great time with this favorite Christmas tradition. We are so excited for Christmas to be here and watching the magic of the holiday season through the eyes of a two and a half year old!

2009-12-12T21:33:00.002-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIP!!!! Poor Chip, ever since Savannah came into our lives, he just doesn't get the recognition that he deserves!! He was born 8 years ago and we love having him as part of our family!!!I only wish I could get away with sleeping as much as he does each day!

More Fall and Daddy With the Camera

2009-11-30T14:05:00.008-06:00

This past month we have been pretty darn lucky to have some day of GREAT weather! Savannah and mommy spent one morning with the Govero kids playing in their yard and then going to the park. Savannah always loves to play with friends, especially at the park! The next day we spent working in our own yard raking leaves and Savannah LOVED jumping in the big pile she and Daddy raked up! Daddy or course loved taking a break and taking some pictures of his little girl! The last two pics are again Daddy playing with the camera with his favorite subject of all!

THE ZOO!!!

2009-11-30T13:54:00.007-06:00

We took advantage of the nice weather and took Savannah to the zoo a few weeks ago. She had so much fun seeing all the animals! Savannah really liked talking to the monkeys through the glass, and was a little sad when they didn't talk back to her! her favorite seemed to be the hippos, which sadly we didn't get any pictures but spent quite a while watching them! It was another great day for the Denison Family!!

Playing at the Park

2009-11-22T08:59:00.009-06:00

Matthew and Danny met Savannah and I up at the park yesterday. We had a pretty good time running around on the equipment, climbing the ladders and going down the slides. We took some pictures and wanted to share them with you. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2009-11-01T20:41:00.007-06:00

Well to say that Tinkerbell had a great Halloween would be an understatement! We started out the day going trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's. Savannah got to practice the routine and of course she did great and got plenty of treats! We then went to Great Grandma Wehmeyer's and Aunt Diane's for the same and now all Savannah can talk about is swimming this summer at Aunt Diane's! When it was time, we went to the neighbor's to pass out candy and trick or treat with the other neighbor kids. Savannah got lots of good loot and had fun once again! From there we headed to Matt and Jenny's for their Halloween party. It was complete with musical tombstones, pin the nose on the pumpkin, apple bobbing and of course the pinata! Savannah had so much fun she was sound asleep by the time we made it home from the party, which is only a few blocks away! It was another successful Halloween!

Carving Time!!!

2009-10-31T15:06:00.007-05:00

The pumpkins were all ready to be carved and decorated! Savannah was VERY excited to paint her own little pumpkin! She had fun doing that and then it was on to carving the big ones! This year she was a little hesitant to scoop out the insides, but did a great job! She then "supervised" as Daddy did the carving out of the faces. She enjoyed every bit of it and so did we!! Can't wait for Halloween to get here!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-31T14:57:00.008-05:00

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this year on one of the only days it didn't rain this month!! Savannah had a good time looking at the animals, checking things out, swinging and of course picking out her very own pumpkin!! She is sure getting excited about Halloween and everything that goes along with it!!!

2009-10-31T14:35:00.004-05:00

Here are just a few pictures of life around the Denison House. Savannah still loves to pose for the camera and really enjoyed a little dance party with Daddy!! Doesn't get much better than that!!

Savannah or Erin???????

2009-10-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

We just can't believe how much this picture of Savannah looks like her cousin Erin. Savannah and Daddy were playing around with a bandana that she got in the parade earlier on Saturday, I snapped this picture and we are shocked at how much they look alike!!!!

This and That

2009-09-21T19:24:00.006-05:00

Well it's the end of the summer for us! We celebrated Cameron's birthday with a dinner out and then home for cake, which of course Savannah loved!! Had to post a Shakespeare's picture from the Columbia trip, as Savannah calls it the best pizza in the world!! We have also just been hanging around the house, enjoying a potty trained girl and a girl who loves to wear a beer box!! She is surely our kid!! And the highlight of this month so far was the delivery of my scrapbooking desk! Dad and Cameron did a GREAT job!! I am one lucky girl to have such a great and talented family!!!!

We love Mizzou!!!!

2009-09-08T20:42:00.008-05:00

Well we took the annual trip to Columbia a few weeks ago to get geared up for the upcoming football season! Sadly the computer is not being so cooperative and I can't get to the pictures I really want (hopefully soon to be posted) but we had a great time around campus and got our new clothes for the 2009 football season! And then Mizzou kicked off the season with a MASSIVE win against Illinois. We had a get together at the house to watch the game and celebrate the first victory of the season! It was a great time, another fun pinata and lots of friends and good times!

More Summer Fun

2009-09-08T20:12:00.008-05:00

Time to play catch up again! We've been having a few computer issues again, but I think they are all worked out!! Our summer continued with a lot more fun stuff! We enjoyed another annual chicken fry at Great Grandma Huster's the middle of August. Just about the entire family was there and it was another good time. Savannah had a great time playing with all the other kids. Grandpa Huster had his own fun by giving all the kids tractor rides! Of course our child was not going near the tractor except for on Grandpa's lap...good thing he was the driver!!!! This was of course after Grandpa and Uncle Roger fried up some VERY YUMMY chicken!! If you went home hungry, that was your own fault! Great Grandma also had a piñata for all the kids to enjoy and it was a great time for all the kids. After tummies were full, a mean game of wiffle ball from the boys, a little talk started about reliving a childhood game of flag war. It was decided to play the in-laws versus the outlaws and it was just like we were ten again!! Although we did have to explain a few things to the married in kids and of course they bailed on the game early, but it was a very good time and we are looking for a rematch soon!!!! Maybe after the muscles have gotten back to normal for all us thirty somethings who acted like ten year olds for an evening!! The day after was spent relaxing on the sandbar with the Douglas family. Cole and Savannah had a great time being the little fish that they are. Mya was a little unsure of the water, but she had a good time playing in the sand. Our little fish Savannah spent so much time in both the sand and the water. She is sure getting braver and braver since the beginning of the summer and absolutely LOVES the water! Savannah sure makes her daddy proud being the little river rat that she is! And who knew that this little princess would also love rolling in the sand as much as she does! Well that sums up that weekend. Other than that, we have been busy doing the usual. We had quite an amazing last week when Savannah decided that diapers were not for her anymore and had been going on the big girl potty ever since! We are so proud of her and amazed at how much she has seemed to grow up over the past few months! Now we are heading into fall, hoping this one is not as eventful as the last. Savannah is already talking about Halloween and getting the candy from the neighbor's houses. Her little memory is another source of amazement everyday. We are so very lucky to have such an amazing little girl to keep us on our toes!!

Our Princess and the River Rat

2009-08-10T19:35:00.009-05:00

Savannah still never fails to make us laugh. She enjoyed getting dressed up in all her girly stuff on two different occassions! She just had to have all of it on at one time! This past weekend we were finally able to hit the river. Savannah amazed us once again and was a brave girl swimming in the water and playing in the sand! It was another great day and we are hoping to head out again a few more times before the summer ends!!

While the Cat is Away....

2009-08-05T19:44:00.003-05:00

The mice will play!!!!! I went out of town for a night to go to a training in Columbia (and enjoyed some Shakespeare's pizza of course) and Cameron and Savannah enjoyed their own special night. They too had some pizza and had a great time eating it at the coffee table while watching TV. Savannah loved her time with Daddy and thankfully she understood it was a one time event!!!

Clydesdales on Main Street

2009-07-21T21:04:00.007-05:00

Last Friday night we got to go see the famous Anheuser Busch Clydesdale's on Main Street in St. Charles. They made their trek down the historic Main Street and gave a case a beer to each bar that sells AB products. They are incredible animals to see up close, Savannah loved them and the night ended with some ice cream at Lyon's...what a perfect way to start the weekend!

Denison Family Vacation

2009-07-15T21:11:00.021-05:00

We survived the first ever Denison Family vacation!!!! We took Saturday through Wednesday to go explore Branson, MO. We stayed at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. We left Saturday morning and hit the road, first stop being the "Biggest Bass Pro in the World!!" Savannah loved saying this as we were checking out the store. It was nice to get out of the car and stretch the ol legs. From there we got to our final destination, got our bearings and got a little dinner. It was an early night for us all as we were tired from driving most of the day. Sunday we woke up and Daddy did a little fishing. After breakfast the whole family did some fishing and Savannah caught her FIRST FISH!! I don't know who was more excited, Savannah or Daddy, but it was pretty cool nonetheless! After the big catch of the day, Savannah and I enjoyed watching Daddy catch a nice bass and catfish on the Barbie pole as we were heading back to the dock. Sunday afternoon we met up with Matt and Brooke. Matt and Cameron went to SIUE together and he and his wife Brooke have a place down here. They showed us a GREAT time on their boat for the afternoon. Savannah was a little hesitant at fist of being in the deep water, but she had a wonderful time and made a new friend with Brooke, who played tea party with her on the lake! She took a great nap on the boat on the way back to the resort. On Monday we woke up to rain and weren't sure how to spend the day. Savannah and Daddy went to get ice before we headed out in search of something to do and Savannah fell and started screaming. Turned out she fell right on a wasp and got stung. Her thumb immediately swelled, her arm was incredibly hot to the touch and she started to run a fever. So yes, we were THOSE parents and took her to urgent care to make sure it wasn't an allergic reaction. And you guessed it, it wasn't and she was fine. Better to be safe than sorry! From there we got some lunch and then all three of us took a nap. After that fun filled morning, we checked out the kiddie pool and Savannah had some fun playing there. After getting cleaned up, we headed out to downtown Branson in search of dinner. Well, Savannah had some other plans for us and got sick on the way. A short stop to a grocery store to get crackers and Pedialite we headed back to the room and Savannah chilled out and mom and dad ordered room service. Quite the date night!!! We woke up on Tuesday to more rain, but decided to try out Silver Dollar City regardless. Thankfully by the time we got there, the rain was gone and it was a GREAT day. Sadly, Savannah was too short for the rides, but had fun shooting the big water guns, seeing the sights, playing in the water and of course the train ride! We got robbed but thankfully didn't have to give up our money! We then had lunch, saw a few more sights and headed back to the resort. We decided to take the boat out and do a little swimming. Savannah has not been in deep water as of this week and by today she was so brave and was swimming in between mommy and daddy like she had been doing it for years! Then we fished a little more and Savannah a champ and caught TWO more!!! One of them came off the hook in the boat and before we knew it, Savannah had picked up the fish and held it a little while before throwing it back. She was such a champ all weekend long! I even caught a few of my own and I had to remind Cameron a few times that he did marry a Huster and I know a little about fishing! We then got cleaned up and headed to dinner and put a close to a great vacation! The ride home was little long since Savannah decided a nap was not in the cards. But all in all, we are happy to be home, Chip is happy to be back to his own couch (although he was greatly cared for while we were gone thanks to Jen) and I am so grateful to have such a great family to vacation with!!!! But I think I can wait a little while before the next trip is planned!!!!!!!

Fourth of July!

2009-07-05T20:56:00.009-05:00

Happy Birthday America!!! That's what we taught Savannah to say this weekend, since every time we might do something out of the ordinary, she thinks it's a birthday party for someone! And she was right in her own little way! It was a GREAT weekend once again. We spent Thursday night with Savannah getting to play on her new swing set with her cousins, Emily, Erin and Ryan, who were spending the week with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Friday we took it easy and later in the evening we hit downtown St. Charles to check out the festivities with Matt, Theresa and Danny. We were going to stay for the fireworks, but decided to wait until the actual Fourth. Sadly, the parade was rained out Saturday morning and so we opted out of it. Then the annual Weaver BBQ got cancelled, but we are VERY grateful that Great Grandma Wehmeyer is doing much better and hopefully will have a full recovery at home this week. So instead we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ and Savannah had a ball with all her cousins, aunts and uncles. After that we went back to the riverfront to see the fireworks with Aunt Denise, Uncle Dave, Emily and Ryan. Savannah had a great time walking around, seeing the sights and enjoying the company, not to mention the funnel cake Aunt Denise got for everyone! Of course, it was clear skies up until five minutes before the fireworks started and then it started raining! Thank heavens we have an easy going child, who loved watching the show and told her Daddy, that it's just a little water! We left half way through the show and got back to the car and dried off and into PJ's. Savannah was asleep five minutes from leaving the parking lot and slept in till 9 then next morning!!! So it wasn't the typical Fourth of July for Denison family, but we enjoyed it and had a great time with family and friends. Next week we are off on our first ever family vacation to sunny Branson! Can't wait to see the sights and relax for a few days.

Our Child...

2009-07-02T21:03:00.004-05:00

Surely keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh everyday...enjoy a few pics of our little angel!!! -lmd

The Beloved Swingset!

2009-07-02T20:43:00.007-05:00

Summer fun at its best right here in the Denison's backyard! We have been talking about a swing set for a while now and since life has slowed down just a little we were able to get things started. Well, when I say we, I really mean Cameron getting it all ready to go! He ordered all the stuff, got some pointers from Tom, the stuff was delivered, the lumber bought and it was go time! I had to forfeit the parking in garage for a while, but that's okay, at least there was no bad weather! Cameron, Allan, Matt and Grandpa worked their tails off getting it all ready for big girl. Of course by the time we wanted to build it, St. Louis summer had hit and it was some fabulous hot and humid weather! During the preconstruction, Savannah was quite the little supervisor and even got her shovel to help level the ground. We just need to remember to make her wear shoes from now on when walking on boards....long story and no need to post all the gory details on here! From there, the experts worked to get the fort built and slide put in place. Savannah was SO excited and went up and down that slide countless times. From there it seemed like no time had passed and the swings were up and she has not stopped wanting to swing since that day. Sadly we have yet to get the camera out while she has been swinging to take some picks, but she is sure one happy camper. Now we just need to find a few more people to come over to push her on those swings! So here we are, with summer in full force, Savannah is one happy girl and has even had her cousins over to enjoy the playground masterpiece with her. We are very much looking forward to a great holiday weekend with friends and family and I have to say I am enjoying updating this thing on a more regular basis! Happy Forth to everyone....stay tuned, we will sure to have some more updates soon!!!!!!!!-lmd

A Conversation Before Bed

2009-07-02T20:04:00.002-05:00

Had to share a conversation I had with the little one this evening. This occured after I read her a story and was giving her a hug and kiss. She was actively picking her nose:
Daddy: Stop picking your nose. That's gross!
Savannah: You go downstairs, I pick my nose.
Well, at least she's honest. Not right, but honest!
-cld

Big Girl Room!!!

2009-06-30T21:02:00.004-05:00

The wall paper is down, the paint is up, the furniture is in and the sheets on the bed...and the verdict is..SHE LOVES IT!!! Mommy is a little sad that Savannah is growing up, but she absolutely adores the new room! It was an pretty easy transistion from the crib to the bed and for that we are SO grateful!!

Catching Up and Taking Charge!

2009-06-30T20:48:00.007-05:00

Once again, this a little long overdue. We have been some pretty busy people the last month and a half and just about done with all the projects around the house that we have been working on. But have no fear, Linda is here and learning this and taking charge, so updates SHOULD come a little quicker!!! So let's recap the end of May. Savannah and I spent the long weekend together as Daddy was out fishing again! (luckily this time he brought back some for us to eat!) Cameron had a GREAT time, caught a lot of fish and Savannah and I had a great time together! However, before the weekend started, we discovered that little miss was out growing her bed just a little. Good thing mommy spent a day shopping for everything needed for her big girl room and the big girl bed will be here soon! On the holiday weekend we were lucky enough to go to a party at the Douglas's house and Savannah had a GREAT time on her first swim of the season! She sure played hard with all the kids around! It was good food, good times and a piñata to end the party! On Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ. Savannah sure had a good time running around with her cousins and eating another excellent dinner made by her grandparents! Then on Monday, Mommy and Grandma spent the day peeling wallpaper from the computer room to get it all ready to move Savannah into it once her furniture arrives. It is hard to believe our little girl is growing up so fast and learning new things everyday!

The May Update...

2009-05-17T09:49:00.014-05:00

Another month has passed, and we haven't updated the blog. However, we really haven't done much in the past month. After Easter we have pretty much just worked around the house and Savannah has enjoyed playing outside. We went over to Tom & Amy's for their daughter's first birthday and then the following weekend we were in Bloomington for Erin's first communion. I went on a fishing trip the first weekend of May with the guys from the bowling team. We didn't catch much. It was just a trip up to Mark Twain for some crappie fishing. Last weekend we spent Mother's Day here at home. We went by Mom & Dad's marker's and put flowers on them for Mom. Even Savannah put a flower in for Grandma Denison. Then Les and I made dinner for Mary Ann, Linda and Great Grandma Wehmeyer. It was a pretty good meal, even if I say so myself. Funny story; the other night I was getting Savannah ready for bed and we were getting ready to brush her teeth and there was a loud clap of thunder. Savannah looked at me and said "Grandma Denison is bowling." It was very cute, and I thought she had come up with it on her own, but Linda may have had something to do with it as Savannah constantly asks "What's that?". In lieu of "That's the angels bowling", it got modified, but I thought it was very appropriate. This weekend is the St. Peter Parish Picnic. Yesterday morning Savannah, Alan and I did a little fishing on the river and then last night we got a baby sitter and Linda and I got to go up to the beer garden at church. It was fun getting to visit with everyone. Linda worked up there this morning making the dressing for dinner. After Savannah's nap this afternoon we'll go up as a family and ride the rides and have dinner with everyone. That's the update on the Denison house. Before I sign off, I have to send out a Congratulations to my cousin Amanda. This past week she graduated from the Missouri State University. CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA! We are all very proud of her. (the picture is courtesy of her Dad)

Easter Sunday, Go Cards!

2009-04-13T20:28:00.029-05:00

GO CARDINALS! The Denison family had no plans for Easter Sunday so in honor of my Mom we really wanted to go to the Cardinals game. It was an afternoon game and Savannah had not yet been to a game so it was perfect. However, we didn’t want to spend a hundred bucks on tickets and then leave in the fifth inning and I missed getting our work tickets so we had thrown in the towel and were looking for something else to do. But then Linda got the call from Keri. She had won some tickets through work and didn’t have anyone to go with her. Since Savannah is under 3, she didn’t need a ticket so we took two of Keri's and we were off to the ball park. Savannah was very excited about going. That’s all she was talking about. It was pretty cute. We started the morning with 8:00 mass and then back home for a family breakfast which worked out to be an early lunch for Savannah. This allowed for an early nap, but the little booger never fell asleep. A few nod-offs on the way to the ball park was all we got out of her so we were expecting it to be an early day. Since it was Easter Sunday, there were not a lot of people at the game which made parking and getting in the gates really easy. Another plus for us taking Savannah. Once in the gates, the questions started. “Daddy, what’s that?” was the most popular one. Oh, and “Daddy, I want a snack.” We found our seats and she (and her Mother) began the people watching. They both tend to do this everywhere we go. It’s good for Linda and I because it seems to keep her occupied most of the time and keeps her pretty well behaved in public. We really lucked out with the afternoon. Not only was the weather nice (not hot, not cold, not too sunny, just perfect) but the fans around us were awesome. Savannah was talking with the group of fans in the row behind us. They must have been a group of friends that share a row of season tickets. They were super nice, high-fiving Savannah and getting her to yell “Go Cheddar!” “Go Wicker!” “Cubs Suck!”, you know, the things you yell at a ball park. We also told Savannah that what happens at the ball park stays at the ball park, so we should be good. Savannah had so much fun that we actually saw the entire game. We definitely have a Cardinal’s Fan on our hands. She has added “Cubs are Stinky” to her list of Stinky teams. A short walk back to the car and we were on our way back home. We expected Savannah to sleep on the way home, but I think she was too excited about the game. Grandma Denison would have been in heaven… if she wasn’t in heaven. Since it was only about 4:30, we decided to finish the perfect day off with a dinner at our favorite watering hole. We stopped at Culpepper’s and had dinner. Savannah was actually asking for her buddy Boggs by name, but he wasn’t working. After dinner we came home and snuggled together on Mommy & Daddy’s bed to watch a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Movie that Savannah got for Easter. (The bulb burnt out in our big TV so we had to watch it in the bedroom.) It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. We are excited to do this all over again. Enjoy the pictures, and we hope you all had a very Happy Easter.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T11:45:00.019-05:00

Happy Easter! Linda, Savannah and I have had a wonderful Easter so far. We started our festivities on Friday evening. We colored several eggs at the kitchen table. Linda has been sick most of the week leading up to the holiday weekend so we were not able to color eggs earlier in the week. For the last few weeks she had clogged sinuses and just felt miserable. When she finally went to the doctor, they did a chest x-ray and found that she had pneumonia. A small case of pneumonia, but pneumonia nonetheless. Luckily she is feeling better and she got to color eggs with Savannah. I think Savannah was amazed more by dropping the little tablets in the water and watching the water change color than actually coloring the eggs. Saturday morning was cinnamon rolls and an Easter Egg Hunt at Great-Grandma Huster’s house. This is a yearly tradition and only the families with little kids are invited. It was a lot of fun. Savannah was running all over looking for eggs with all of her cousins. I don’t know how many eggs Great-Grandma had at her house, but every kid had a basket full. Savannah had a good time. Then Saturday afternoon was spent over at Grandma & Grandpa Huster’s house with all of Savannah’s Cousins and Linda’s siblings. It’s always nice to hang out with the Husters, Schusters and Grandma & Grandpa. There was another Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma & Grandpa’s house followed by playtime in the backyard. What a beautiful day we had for being outside. Savannah and Erin played hard and wore each other out. The men cooked pork steaks (or we watched Les cook pork steaks) on the deck and took care of a few cold ones while we were at it. It was a very relaxing afternoon. When we finally got home it took Savannah about 10 seconds to fall asleep. Easter Sunday came early and we went to 8:00 mass with Grandma & Grandpa. When we got home from church the Easter Bunny had been to the Denison house. Savannah had to go out and Hunt Easter Eggs for the third time this weekend. She made short time of this Easter Egg Hunt. Then it was inside to count her loot and eat some Candy! She had a very cute Easter Dress on and, surprisingly she was willing to show it off for the camera. Now the rest of the family is taking naps (or at least laying down and talking to her “guys”) in preparation for the big Cardinals game this afternoon. Yup, it’s only fitting that Savannah go to her first Cardinals game on Easter Sunday. Mom is definitely on our minds and we know she would be beaming with pride taking Savannah to her first game. We’ll be taking the camera, so hopefully we’ll get to share this experience with you too. Enjoy the pictures, and we’ll be back soon.

Another Month Gone... March

2009-04-11T12:50:00.013-05:00

March was a pretty busy month, but with the weather the way it's been we didn't get to go outside too much. We started the month off with a visit to my cousins in Rolla. Thanks to Tammy, JD, Sherry, Mary and Simon for a great visit. We spent the afternoon with them and had a great dinner. It was nice to catch up with what they have been doing and we got to congratulate Mary and Simon on their new home. Unfortunately we didn't bring our camera, so we don't have any pictures to share. That same weekend we had my other cousins out (Rae, Charlene, Carla, Barbara and my Aunt Betty) to my Mom's house to go through it one last time before we turned it over to the auction company. Father Time Auctions did a great job setting up and taking care of everything related to the auction. But more on that later. My crazy cousins were wanting to surprise Savannah with a new bicycle, but Savannah wasn't with us at my Mom's that day, so we had to surprise her with their gift when we got home. She absolutely loved it! Later that week we had a whole lot of fun making Pizza! Savannah loves pizza, so, as a family, we rolled out the crust and put all the toppings on ourselves. Savannah, Mommy and Daddy all had a really good time putting it all together. Savannah was very proud with the final product and had no problem eating a whole bunch of it for dinner. The following weekend we had the Schneider’s over for dinner. They came out mid afternoon and we lucked out, it was a fairly nice day. Since they moved out to no-man’s-land Illinois, we don’t get to see them very much except when the Rolla crowd gets together and Linda and I missed a couple of those gatherings this year, so it was a lot of fun hanging out and catching up. Savannah and Cayden played really well together and pretty much wore each other out. Their youngest, Delanie, is just cute as a button, but for some reason, I didn’t get any pictures of her. Sorry about that Jay & Jen, I don’t know what happened. The next weekend was the big auction at my Mom’s house. I didn’t go. It was just a little too weird for me. But my lovely wife went to represent the Denison’s and to make sure everything went well, and it did. Father Time Auctions did a tremendous job. They came in and set everything up. From taking things out of the drawers and closets, cleaning them up to be shown, setting them on tables and then conducting the auction and cleaning up. They were a one-stop shop and 100% professional. If anyone is ever in need of these types of services, I highly recommend them. The week after the auction was a very exciting week here at the Denison House. See, the Denison’s were going to purchase a piece of ground with the money from my Mother’s estate (a small piece as there wasn’t much there). But as we discussed it, with Savannah growing up, and as she starts getting into sports and other activities, we probably wouldn’t get any use out of ground. So, we decided to save the majority of it and take a small portion and get Daddy that fishing boat he has always wanted. I cannot be more happy about this decision. We got a 2009 Skeeter ZX190 which is a 19’ (18’-5”) bass boat. Complete with electronics and a Yamaha 175. We haven’t had a chance to get it out very much as the weather hasn’t been very good, but we have gotten out a few times. Matt Maher and I took Savannah out last weekend. She LOVED it. When we first took off she started to scream and cry, but once we planed off, she was cool. Then she played with her toys and had a snack while we fished a bit. After we made the 65 MPH run back to the harbor, she was laughing. She had a grin ear-to-ear and kept saying “Go Fast Daddy, Go Fast”. It was awesome. That was the near the end of March. The following weekend I fished my first tournament at the Lake of the Ozarks with Steve Moore. We caught fish where some people didn’t. It was just a work tournament so the there wasn’t a lot of pressure and we had a really good time. That was March in a nutshell. Hopefully we will do a better job in the coming future keeping this Blog up-to-date. My work laptop quit working and we have been without for quite sometime. Without having a laptop, it’s not as convenient to update this thing. However, we hope to have another laptop for our use soon, thus more updates!

And There Went February

2009-03-02T20:21:00.017-06:00

We must apologize once again. No excuses, we just haven’t updated the blog in over a month. We’ve been snapping pictures, just haven’t been doing anything with them. At the beginning of February, Savannah had her Second Birthday! We were all very excited, but not nearly as excited as the big Birthday Girl. The week leading to her Birthday we would ask her “What is going to be on your birthday cake?” She would always reply “Cupcakes! Cupcakes Mommy!” because she knew she was going to be getting cupcakes at Miss Jenny’s house. She had a Nemo cake. Actually it was a Clown Fish cake, because Disney/Pixar has copy righted Nemo. On the Saturday before her Birthday we had the immediate family over. Linda’s Brother and Sister came over with their families and Linda’s parents were over as well as Grandma Huster. We had BBQ and Nemo Birthday Cake. Savannah had a lot of fun playing with all of her cousins. Then on Monday she got to open her gifts from Mommy and Daddy and have more Cake! She was really into tearing into her presents this year and would get really excited every time she opened one. Her eyes would get big and she would pull the gift out of the wrapper and say “Oooooh” then take the gift to Mommy and look for the next one. For the week or two following her Birthday she would say “Present Mommy? Present?” Thinking she was going to get more presents. Luckily that finally stopped. This year she got a lot of stuff for her baby doll. She loves playing with her baby doll and has become quite the Mother Hen. She got a stroller from Miss Jenny and a high chair from Mommy and Daddy. I think Pup gets to use them more than her baby doll. She just loves to take Pup for a walk or feed her baby doll. And of course you can’t have a Birthday without balloons. I don’t know why we buy her toys. All she needs is a box, some balloons and a flashlight. She was running around the house letting her balloons fly behind her for nearly an hour. She was absolutely crazy. Then, naturally, she got tired of all the running and laid down on the couch. Did she let go of those balloons? Heavens no. She just hung on to them. One of her newest favorites is to play with the Play Dough she got on Christmas. The first time we got it out she was very excited and there were lots of Ooohs and Aaahs. She made starts and shapes and rolled it into balls. Then we got the little machine out that pushes the Play Dough through the little stencils making long strands of Play Dough. That was fine until we made the spaghetti. She thought it looked like snakes and she wanted nothing to do with it. She would back up in her chair and act as though she was scared. It was quite amusing. But now she just thinks it’s spaghetti and makes meatballs to go with it. We have been having lots of fun here at the Denison house. We’ve also been working really hard. We’ve gotten Mom’s house cleaned out for the most part. At least we have it organized into “sell” and “keep”. We have scheduled the auction of the contents of the house for March 21, 2009. I don’t know what time it will start yet, but it will be in the morning. We have also worked out a deal on the house, so we think we have it sold. Actually we know we do, but we don’t have the paperwork all completed so we can’t count it as sold just yet. Other than that we’ve just been hanging out with friends and playing with the coolest little girl on the planet. We’ll try to get this updated sooner next time, but we make no promises.

What Happened to January?

2009-02-06T22:40:00.008-06:00

WOW! It’s been nearly a month since we updated the blog. We must apologize for that. No real excuses, just plum tuckered out when we get the opportunity to update the blog and usually choose to close our eyes instead. So, what have the Denison’s been up to in the last month? We have continued to work on Mom’s house. Working to get it cleaned out and preparing to sell. But more importantly, we have been preparing for someone’s second birthday. She is very excited to get her cupcakes at Miss Jen’s house on Monday. A little more excited than getting her own Nemo cake with Mommy and Daddy. Oh well! With the cold weather this past month, we have been playing inside a lot. Savannah loves to play Dress Up. Here she is wearing Mommy’s shoes and her tiara sporting a magic wand as an accessory. Be careful, she will turn you into a frog! And what makes a better toy than Mommy’s laundry basket. It’s just about the right size for the little one to crawl inside and cover up. What a nut. She MUST get this from her Mother. I know this couldn’t come from me! Of course you cannot play inside without having a Tea Party. She’ll get her blanket out and set up each “guy” just right then pour everyone a glass. “That’s a bit too hot” so she’ll blow on each cup to cool it off. It’s amazing how that little imagination works. Her other new thing is to have you (or in this case, Care Bear) to be the Airplane while she holds you up in the air. Then she will “drop” you like Daddy drops here when she is the Airplane. What fun we have when we have to play inside. Then there is the fun of playing in the snow. When we got our 6-1/4” of the wonderful white powder, we all went out in the backyard for Savannah’s first sled ride. In preparation for this big adventure, we had to make sure Savannah had plenty of clothes on. Yeah, like the kind on A Christmas Story, she couldn’t get herself up when she fell over, but she was warm! We had to pull Mommy’s sled from the rafters, but it worked just right. We got to make about 3 trips down the little hill in the backyard before we had to move on to make snow angles. You cannot play outside in the snow without making snow angles! But, after all the excitement of playing outside, someone started to get a bit cold and we moved back inside to warm up. I think she takes after her Mommy in that regard. Neither one of them enjoys anything that has anything to do with being the least bit cold. I’ll sign off here for now. I know we’ll have some more pics after her birthday, so stay tuned!

Jamaica

2009-01-10T14:10:00.018-06:00

Linda and I have just gotten home from a much needed tropical vacation. Based on advice from friends and our travel agent, we decided to try Jamaica this time. We stayed at the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton, an all-inclusive resort and spa between Montego Bay and Negrill outside of Lucea, Jamaica. We left St. Louis before the sun came up on Saturday so we had to have everything (and everyone) ready to go on Friday. Savannah got to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa while Chip became best friends with Brooklyn, Jen’s Rottweiler. We lucked out as we had no hassles in our travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had a 3 hour layover in Miami, but that airport is so big, it takes you an hour to get off the plane, figure out where the next flight is and then walk to that gate. Plus we had time to eat lunch before the short flight to Jamaica. For those of you that have been to Negrill before, they have fixed the road between Montego Bay and Negrill, but not the busses! Actually, it was not that bad. They packed us on the bus and I ended up sitting shotgun to the driver. He asked me to move 2 bags on the passenger seat. One was warm, and I guessed it to be his lunch. When I suggested that they were both lunch he looked at me and said “uhh, nah mahn, that’s for lata”. When we arrived at the Grand Palladium we were promptly greeted with an orange drink in a tall glass that was full of Rum. It was a good start to the vacation. We got checked in and the bellhop took us to our Villa. Our travel agent must have gotten us upgraded. We had a Honeymoon Suite which was unbelievable. There were only 4 villas per building, two on top and two on the ground level. We were on top. Each had it’s own outdoor entrance and sat directly on the beach looking at the Caribbean Sea. It was a simple room, but truly amazing. It was just one big room with a ¾ high wall in the middle. On the front side, a king size bed extended from the wall towards the sliding glass doors which lead to the balcony overlooking the beach. There was also a couch and table looking out towards the balcony. On the opposite side of the wall was a jacuzzi tub that was about the size of our kitchen table. Sinks on both sides of the room and another glass door that lead to the outdoor shower. Sounds weird, I know, but hear me out. Off the back of this room they constructed 3 walls with no ceiling. There was a shower basin made out of tile with a cats head that water poured out of as your shower nozzle. It’s so warm there year round that they can get away with the outdoor shower. With a room like this, we really didn’t have any reason to leave, oh yeah, they didn’t have room service. Lucky for us, we were right across the pathway from the adults only pool, bar and beach. We had a beach that our Villa sat on and then behind us we had the adults pool and bar and then just beyond that was the adults beach. We were on a peninsula. The place was so big that we would leave our room, stop and get a “walking” drink so that we could have a cocktail while we walked to the main resort area which is where the food, swim-up bar, lounge chairs, shops, everything else was. Because of the low number of people staying at the resort, many of the things were shut down, or would shut down early. The adult bar was supposed to be open until midnight, but was closed by 7:00. There was only one place to get breakfast, but it was a breakfast bar and was pretty good. After breakfast we would come back and change to hit the pool/lounge chairs. We would either go to the adult beach where I would go snorkeling while Linda worshiped the Sun Gods, or we would go to the main pool and have a few cocktails and relax in beach chairs under palm tree huts. Once the drinks were flowing, around mid-afternoon, we would head back to the room for a nap to prepare us for the evening. Dinner was not that good. The food at the all-inclusive leaves a lot to be desired, nothing like the cruise ships. But, we would typically find something worth eating and then back out to one of the many forms of entertainment. The first couple of nights we went to their version of the sports bar where we met many people including a surgeon from Barnes/Washington University. He and his wife had taken their two kids on a beach excursion that day. Their was a heavy smell of ganga in the air so his kids asked him “Daddy, what’s that smell?” his reply was classic “That’s a skunk, Son.” On the return bus ride home his son looked at him and said “Daddy, they have lot’s of skunks in Jamaica.” We also met a lot of Canadians, most from Montreal. They were a little different. One couple was straight up odd. She had done everything, always knew someone, and been through much more tragic events than anyone. It was kind of funny. After that evening, Linda and I spent our evenings at the outdoor bar that overlooked the main pool and Sea. It was very nice and relaxing to just sit after dinner, have a normal discussion with my wife and enjoy each other’s company. We didn’t do anything exciting on the trip, the idea was to relax. On our last full day there, while we were getting ready to take a nap, the workers were preparing for a wedding right outside our room on the beach. We had to watch, of course. All the guests arrived and the bride was walking down the isle when the older lady in a two-piece walked up in the back of the ceremony and started taking pictures with her phone. I had to take a picture of that. It was too funny. We did however, have some complaints about the resort. The second to last night we were without water or air conditioning. Seems they had a water main break on our end of the resort. They worked on it until about 3:00 in the morning and I didn’t fall asleep until about 4:30. I got just under 4 hours of sleep that night. Then the next day the air conditioning started to work around 4:00, but wasn’t taking the humidity out of the air so I didn’t sleep well that night either. What they say about Jamaicans being relaxed and on island time is true. They worked on that water main for 3 days. When we left, they still weren’t done. On Thursday we were told our bags would be picked up between 11:30 and 12:00. At 12:00 we called and they had no clue what was going on. Our bus was supposed to leave at 12:30. Well, the bus turned out to be a taxi. He showed up to pick us and another couple up, however, there was a third couple they forgot to pick up an hour earlier so we were all crammed into the taxi for the 30 minute ride to Montego Bay. The one couple that we were crunched in the cab with were super friendly and were on the same flight we were on going back to Miami. We had lunch with them at the Margaretville in the Montego Bay airport while we waited for our flight. No hitches coming through Miami and we were back in St. Louis by 10:30 and home by 11:00 Thursday night. It was a truly enjoyable and relaxing trip. It’ll probably be a long time before we get to go on another one like that.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T10:14:00.014-06:00

Merry Christmas from the Denison family! What a busy and amazing few days for us! Our Christmas always starts on December 23 with Christmas with the extended Huster family. It was an enjoyable evening with the traditional sausage dinner and then on to reading a letter from Santa, who unfortunately couldn’t make it in person this year. Maybe next year? Anyway, Savannah sat with all her cousins and anxiously awaited the presents from Santa and Great Grandma. Savannah scored big with new jammies and the highlight of a tea set! She wore herself out playing tea party all day on Christmas Eve with mommy while Daddy had to work. Then Christmas Eve night we headed to the extended Wehmeyer family Christmas at Great Grandma Wehmeyer’s. Savannah had another GREAT time and we always look forward to the best meal of the year, topped off with the amazing dish pan cookies. Then again it was on to present time and Savannah enjoyed her first candy cane. It ended up being a sticky mess, but it’s Christmas, so she didn’t care too much. Surprisingly she had no problem sitting on her cousin Kyle’s lap to enjoy the treat and didn’t get too much on him either! Then it was time to go to sleep to prepare for the big mans arrival. Christmas morning Savannah actually slept in a little bit, but woke up and was surprised to find that Santa brought her all kinds of GREAT stuff. The highlight was most definitely the new kitchen set and the goodies that came with it. She played and played and was not happy when we had to eat breakfast to make it to church. Needless to say, church was a bit of a stretch this year in that Savannah was quite the tired girl and couldn’t understand why we had to sit there for that length of time. But she did get the hang of the reason why were there and said “Happy Birthday Jesus” a few times! Then we went home and relaxed. Savannah took a short nap and then Rae and Charlene came over and Savannah got to show off her kitchen set and enjoyed opening some more great gifts. She is quite the pro and it and makes her mommy so proud! Then another visitor, Allan came over and Savannah got to open some more books and a Care Bear, which she absolutely loves! It was an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon after the business of the days prior. After dinner, Savannah’s friend Elliot came over with his parent’s Sean and Jen. The two of them are only about four months apart in age and they had a ball! We even got to capture a kiss by the tree! Jen arrived and then it was time for the traditional viewing of Charlie Brown Christmas and we all enjoyed dancing along with the characters. Savannah stayed up pretty late once again, but she had soo much fun with all that went on the past few days. Now we have one more Christmas to go to this afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Huster’s with the cousins and aunts and uncles. We are looking forward to another enjoyable time with family. We sincerely hope that everyone else had a great holiday and will have an amazing 2009!

More Holiday Fun

2008-12-14T19:37:00.006-06:00

The start of new tradition in the Denison household! Tonight we went to dinner at Applebee’s and almost got kicked out (not really, but we are fans of Talladega nights :0) and then went home to start a new holiday tradition. We popped some popcorn, got some jammies on and turned on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, old school. Savannah loved the “corn” and enjoyed sharing with Chip and Mommy. Cameron and I enjoyed returning to our own childhood and watching a holiday favorite. I can’t say it enough, but the holidays with a little one makes it so much better than in years past. This weekend we enjoyed driving around and looking at Christmas lights and now ending with some movie fun. We sure can’t wait to see what the rest of the holiday season brings for us and hope everyone else is enjoying it as well! Let’s just see how much holiday weather we get tonight!

Ho, ho, ho

2008-12-08T19:48:00.006-06:00

Savannah got to meet the man in red today! We met Daddy at the mall on his lunch break to avoid the crowds so Savannah would have plenty of time to tell Santa everything she wants! However, since it's been a year since the last visit, she was a little nervous. She didn't cry, but didn't really have much to say either. The second the picture was taken, she was ready for Daddy to pick her up again! Guess she will just have to send him a letter to tell him everything she wants!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like ...

2008-12-04T20:56:00.009-06:00

Christmas at the Denison house!!!!! Wow, the holidays sure crept up on us fast this year! Tonight we finally got around to putting up the tree. The other décor has been out since the weekend, but since Savannah got an ear infection on Saturday, we were busy with other things the rest of the weekend and Cameron taking a short trip to Phoenix early this week, the tree didn’t get up till tonight. At first the little one was confused and waited at the kitchen table anticipating a pumpkin carving again. Sorry kid, wrong holiday! Once we got into the ornaments, she was all over it. Thankfully we first opened the box of ornaments that wouldn’t break and don’t have a lot of sentimental value and let her go to town. Savannah did great and really enjoyed decorating the tree. Then sadly it was bedtime and once she was safely in bed, we had to do a little rearranging. Regardless, it makes all the difference in the world to enjoy the holiday season with a little one around and watching her enjoy the magic of the season. Since Daddy was out of town earlier this week, Savannah and mommy did a little Christmas shopping. We are just about done and very pleased about that! Although, I told Savannah we were going shopping and when I buckled her into the car seat, she asked “Target Mommy?” Now if that is not a chip off the old block I don’t know what is!!! Sadly, I explained to her that there are other places in this world to shop besides Target! We are glad Daddy is home and ready to enjoy the holiday season to the fullest! We have a pretty low key weekend planned this weekend, but ready to cheer on the Mizzou Tigers to victory in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday. We are sure hoping for a big win of course. Hopefully now that life has settled down for a bit we will try to update this thing a little more than usual. But then again, I make no promises, as life just keeps happening!!!!! Happy Holidays everyone!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T10:37:00.012-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Linda, Savannah and I had a really nice Thanksgiving over at my cousin Bob & Barbara’s home. Or as Savannah says it “Bobby home, this Bobby home Daddy”. The triplets are cute as buttons. Max is doing really well after his surgery. They each have their own little personalities. Claire has the cutest little round face. She reminds Linda and I of Addison (another friend’s little girl). Max is strong and likes being vertical. Charlie is the trouble maker. Well, not really, but he wants to be mobile. He scoots and rocks and tries to get to where he wants. Of course I don’t want to forget about Bobby. He and Savannah played together and he was kind enough to share his toys with Savannah. While they were playing the Vogels were busy cooking and preparing a huge Thanksgiving feast for all of us. Barbra and Bob made 2 turkeys that were just perfect. Then there was all the trimmings. Green bean casserole, corn, carrots, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, cranberries, corn casserole, rolls and I’m sure I’m missing something. I really didn’t need a second plate, but it’s Thanksgiving and you are supposed to be miserable after dinner. After dinner we played “Apples to Apples” which sounded a bit strange, but turned out to be a lot of fun. Then it was time for pie. Mmmmmmmmmmmm… pie. Linda made 3 pies for our dessert. One chocolate, one apple and you can’t leave out an old fashioned pumpkin pie. Cindy also brought over an organic pumpkin pie. I had to have one piece of each, and then I was miserable again. Linda and I wanted to send a thank you out to Bob and Barbara for hosting the Thanksgiving Day feast and having us all over. We truly enjoyed it. The only family members missing were Chuck and Shelli’s gang. Hopefully we can get together with them soon too! Tonight we’re going over to the Stille’s for Great-Grandma Wehmeyer’s 89th birthday.

Denison-Vogel Photo Archive Blog

2008-11-08T09:55:00.004-06:00

Hey Gang, I wanted to let you know that we started up a new blog to post all the old photographs that my mom and dad have collected over their lifetimes. There are two purposes for posting these photos. The first, of course, is to share the photographs with everyon (espicially the family). The second is to find out what the photos are. That is, who is in the photo, where it was taken, when it was taken, the event, etc. So please check it out and bookmark The Denison-Vogel Photo Archive and let us know what you think.

We Are Sad To Report...

2008-11-05T06:49:00.006-06:00

After battling the complications from several surgeries associated with colon cancer, my mom was overwhelmed with infection and passed away yesterday morning. It was a long 6 weeks going back and forth with doctors, in and out of the hospital and three surgerys to correct problems. In the end she was trying to fight off three life threatening infections but her weakend body just couldn't handle any more. Linda and I were at the hospital with all of her nieces and nephews when she did pass. We will all miss her and remember all the great times we had together. We have arrangements scheduled for Thursday, November 6, 2008 from 5:00 - 9:00 at the Baue Funeral Home at Cave Springs. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the St. Charles Humane Society, 1099 Pralle Lane, St. Charles, MO 63303. Mom always loved her animals and this is what she asked that we do.
Her Obituary on Baue's website

The Big Day is Here!

2008-10-31T20:34:00.005-05:00

BOO! Happy Halloween everyone! What a great night for some trick or treating! Thankfully there is no snow or rain out tonight! Really, can I use any more exclamation points?!?!? Anyway, Savannah had a great day today. Earlier in the week it dawned on me to try on her costume to make sure it fit. Oh what a mistake that was, or really good preparation. Savannah was NOT happy about the monkey costume and let me know! Sooo, we did have a back up plan and she has a cute little Mizzou cheerleader outfit to wear just in case, as I am sure the other costumes in the store were slim pickins by this week. For most of the afternoon today we asked her if she wanted to be a monkey and we received a big NO! So I got the costume out and she bolted to daddy and was determined to not be a monkey this year! Well we had to try and it was a bit of a struggle, but in the end, she really enjoyed being the cutest monkey in the world. And it helped that we told her she had to wear it if she wanted to be outside, and since she LOVES to be outside, it was a no brainer for her at that point. She was very intrigued by the “Scary Pumpkin” and we were able to snap a few pics before heading out to gather the loot. Savannah and Daddy had a great time going to the neighbors for some candy and Halloween fun. She actually did say “trick or treat” to the neighbors and seemed to really have a good time, as she held onto the candy bag the entire time they were out. Once home, it was time to inspect the loot and like every other kid in the world tonight, she ate a good portion of her treats already. She then enjoyed saying boo to the trick or treaters we had after she was done. We are looking forward to the years to come, as Cameron discovered that the husband and wives in the neighborhood take turns taking the kids out and next year is the husband/daddy year. And of course, the parents don’t go out without treats of their own!! Brings back such memories for the both of us! So now we are just heading into another weekend of who knows what and will continue to take things day to day. Happy Halloween everyone!

Getting ready for Halloween!

2008-10-31T20:23:00.015-05:00

It’s definitely fall for the Denison family! Savannah is in heaven with the warmer weather and being able to spend lots of time outside! We were able to sneak out for a while to enjoy the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin to carve. Savannah enjoyed playing on the hay stack and then heading to the patch to find the great pumpkin to carve up for the big day! She tried so hard to pick up the pumpkins to carry to the car, but she needs to build a little more muscle before that happens! She was okay with letting mommy and daddy doing the lifting them into the car! A few days prior to Halloween, Savannah let Daddy know when he got home from work that it was time to carve the pumpkins. She was pretty curious about it all and a little hesitant to help mommy scoop out the insides, but had a great time regardless. She was definitely ready for the big day to get here that’s for sure. Life has been up and down for us as it has been for the last month, so it’s nice to enjoy a little “normal” here and there. Cameron’s mom came home from the hospital and was able to spend some time at our house. Savannah loved showing off all her new tricks for Grandma. Our newest favorite is asking her what we think of Kansas and she holds her nose and says “stinky”. Nothing like a little more brainwashing for the world’s smallest Mizzou fan! We had tickets to yet another game and were planning on going this past weekend, however, the little one decided that it wasn’t in the cards for mommy to return for Homecoming and got sick over the weekend. Nothing serious and she is doing fine, but it was enough for us to stay close to home for the evening. Thanks to Grandma Huster for watching Savannah so we could sneak out to watch the game at none other than Culpepper’s. We missed seeing the big win in person, but that’s the way it goes! It was just nice to get out and enjoy a much needed and deserved date night! We are ready to see a nice big win in person over K-State on 11/8! So from here we are just taking things day by day, Savannah is learning to say Trick or Treat and will hopefully be ready to scour the neighborhood for some tasty treats on Halloween! Again, we will try not to take so long for the next update!

Been a While, But Life Will Do That To You…

2008-10-17T20:01:00.006-05:00

Wow, can’t believe it’s been a month and a half since our last update! Where to begin? Well, Savannah stays quite busy day-to-day and is learning new things everyday! We call her our little parrot, as she repeats EVERYTHING and honestly has a memory like a steel trap! For instance, this past weekend we were celebrating Jack’s birthday at Tom and Amy’s and Savannah headed straight for the sandbox and she said “river”? Really kid, you haven’t been on the boat in two months and you are now associating sand with the river? WOW!!! So I am done bragging on my kid and will bring us all up to date. Savannah loves to help me cook, so she just had to help me make pumpkin bread. On one of mommy’s days off we went to the park to enjoy the great weather. Savannah had a ball of course and loves more than anything to be outside. We are certainly not looking forward to cold weather that’s for sure! We’ve been out of touch so much lately due to an expected stay at the hospital for Cameron’s mom. She was there for the better part of three weeks and is thankfully home now and getting better everyday. We appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers through it all, we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. Sadly it takes times like these to really realize that! Although life is still up in the air for us, we are trudging along day by day. In the midst of Grandma Denison’s hospital stay, we were fortunate enough to take Savannah to the ER at 1 AM for a double ear infection!! Thankfully she is better and mommy and daddy are still trying to catch up on the sleep! In the past weeks Savannah has enjoyed going to the Octoberfest parade in St. Charles and LOVED catching all the candy and beads. She has helped mommy do some shopping for fall clothes and let me tell you, if you want to spend a lot of money and build up the self esteem, take her shopping. She told me everything I tried on was “pretty mommy”, so of course I had to buy it! Thankfully she learned to keep secrets from daddy on the final bill! And now we are to today, and she learned the gentle art of playing her mommy and daddy. Daddy put her to bed and she started crying and asking for mommy. I went up there, rocked her for a bit and she was just fine! It truly amazes us how much that kid learns everyday!!! Oh and in the midst of it all, we want to end with a big CONGRATULATIONS to Matt and Theresa on welcoming their little boy to the world! Hopefully it won’t be so long till next time!

Our Poor Deprived Child

2008-09-07T19:11:00.009-05:00

So it’s almost the end of summer, the days are getting much cooler and Savannah finally had her own pudding pop. Sure, she has had her share of ice cream and other fun summer treats, but never her own. Not that we are the over protective parents, it’s just that it just hasn’t happened yet, but true to form, Savannah LOVED every second of this delicious cool treat. Not to mention that Chip enjoyed the drips and mommy and daddy enjoyed watching all the fun. It was another busy weekend for the Denison family, even though we had no solid plans and no where to be at any certain time and that was a nice change from the past several weekends. Friday night Mommy had to bowl and Savannah and Daddy came to watch for the first game. Savannah was the BEST cheerleader for the team, clapping and giving high fives to our team and also the other team. And of course she also loved the French fries, but then again, this kid never passes up food! Then Saturday we hung out at the house and did some yard work, as the silly rain is making the weeds grow fast! After nap time, we headed to the mall for Daddy to get some new clothes that were GREATLY needed. Mommy made him clean out the closet and get rid of everything that was around before our wedding day! Savannah is quite the shopper and for all her hard work got to enjoy a pretzel form Auntie Anne’s. So is seems that all we do is feed our kid junk by reading this blog, but that’s not the case. We went out this week with Grandma Denison for Daddy’s birthday, and Savannah ate all her green beans before she even touched her chicken fingers. She truly does love her fruits and veggies! And of course now we are ready for another week. Savannah is excited to go to Target tomorrow to get some fall shoes, as they are on sale. Hopefully it won’t stay hot too much longer, as her little toes are poking out of her sandals, but she agreed to not grow too much more before fall hits, so we don’t have to buy more summer shoes! But really, can a girl have too many shoes??? I don’t think so!

Playing Mommy & Mizzou's Victory

2008-09-03T21:06:00.005-05:00

It is time for a little catch up. We have been lazy getting around to updating the blog. Back in August Linda was doing some laundry and Savannah was playing in the family room talking to her “baby”. When Linda came out of the laundry room she found that Savannah had put her baby in her own booster seat, was getting a bib for her baby and was preparing to give baby a bottle. It was pretty cute so Linda helped Savannah into one of the adult chairs where she then proceeded to give baby a bottle, clean her up, wipe up the table and flip through a magazine (which just so happen to have cabbage patch dolls in it). It was pretty cute and Linda had to get a few pictures of it. The following week was the opening day of College Football. Mizzou played Illinois in the Braggin’ Rights Game at the Dome in St. Louis. Tickets were hard to come by but lucky for us a very, very nice lady that I work with buys season tickets for the Mizzou games and her family was unable to go to the Braggin’ Rights Game so she hooked us up by allowing us to buy her tickets. Denise and Dave joined us, although they cheered on Illinois. We went by Grandma and Grandpa Huster’s house to pick up the Schuster’s and got a few family shots before the game. Savannah was dressed up in her Mizzou cheerleading outfit and Linda and I were set to go to the game. It took us forever to find a place to park so we didn’t have much time to walk around and enjoy all the entertainment going on around the dome. The number of people outside the dome before the game was pretty incredible. And a lot of those people were not even going to go to the game. Our seats were pretty high up, but not too bad. The only complaint we had was that we were in one of the only sections that stood through the entire game. That did not stop us from cheering Mizzou on to a 52/42 victory over Illinois. It did get a bit touchy in the fourth quarter, but the Illini ran out of time before they could catch the Mizzou offence. We are now looking forward to taking Savannah to her first Mizzou game at Faurot Field in Columbia. We have tickets for the 3 conference games in October and November and are very excited about the season.

We did get out to the river again, but we’ll save that for another blog.

Moores and the River

2008-08-17T20:04:00.013-05:00

We have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and getting out on the river as much as possible. Saturday morning I went out with Uncle Steve and Matthew to do a little cat fishing. We did good and caught 7 cats. Then today we went out with the Moores and had a great time. Savannah is getting more use to the river and really starting to have some fun in the water. In fact she did not want to get out of the water today. We went up to the sandbar on Enterprise Island again. The popular sandbar is Iowa, but the people are either really young or Wallies. A Wallie is a boater that doesn’t really have a clue as to what they are doing. So we have been going to Enterprise. The people have been great and there are kids everywhere. Sorry, got sidetracked there, back to the day’s events. The Moores brought their oldest daughter and left the really little one with family. Erin and Linda sat on the sandbar like princesses while Jeff and I played with the girls in the water. Savannah and I were splashing around and jumping up and down almost getting her head in the water, but not quite. The Jeff’s daughter would run down the sandbar and splash the both of us causing Savannah to laugh like crazy. Then the little Moore got into the action and the three of us were jumping up as high as I could with one kid in each arm. They were both laughing harder and harder. It was a lot of fun. There were some other girls that walked by absolutely covered in mud. So Jeff had to take his daughter to find the “mud hole”, and the did. They were both covered. The little one head to toe and Jeff to his knees. But after a full day on the sandbar we headed for home. Of course, I needed a little help making sure we were going the right way so the oldest Moore daughter was more than happy to lend a hand. It was a great day on the river. We are hoping to do it again next weekend when we meet up with the Haislips.

More Fun on the River

2008-08-10T18:15:00.011-05:00

The Denisons had another fun day on the river. This time we brought some friends with us. The Husters (the Melanie/Alan branch) joined us in our fun. Of course this was almost the trip that wasn’t. Unfortunately on Thursday night Grandma Denison was admitted into the hospital with severe anemia. The condition was found during a blood test for a routine checkup. The doctor called and told her to go to the emergency room. The following day they performed an esophagogastroduodenoscopy procedure and found that the loss of blood was from an ulcer. This was VERY good news (not that ulcers are good, but they are treatable with medication). Grandma was then released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. She and Jan went to Tony’s for dinner Saturday night since that was where they were headed on Thursday when she ended up in the hospital. So, back to the river. We headed out a bit late, around 2:00 and stopped at the first spot we could find (Enterprise Island). The temperature was perfect, the sand was nice and the water was refreshing. Nikole and I played in the water, the Husters and Linda sat on the sandbar and watched Savannah and Josh completely cover themselves in sand. As you can see from the pictures, Savannah had sand from head to toe, but she was having a great time. She also had a lot of fun “jumping” up and down in the water. She was not happy about getting in the boat and riding out to the sandbar this time. She was clinging to Mom the entire time. A good time was had by all. What are Melanie and Linda doing in that picture? The ride home was quiet for Savannah, she was nearly asleep. Both Nikole and Josh took turns driving the boat as we left the sandbar. I don’t think Savannah moved after she was put into her bed last night. We think part of her problem with getting in the boat and the whole thing is that her life jacket doesn’t seem very comfortable. So Daddy went out today and got her a new one. This one is neoprene which fits her a little better, is a little more stream lined and gives her greater movement with her arms and neck. We tried it on tonight after we got home from being gone for the open house and she would not take it off. Each time we went to take it off she would say “No” and run away from us, so I guess she likes it. We were actually supposed to go out again today and meet up with the Haislips, but with the open house, going out yesterday, and just being worn down in general, we decided we would be better off to skip today and relax a bit. Hopefully we can meet up with the Haislips again another day.

Little River Rat

2008-07-19T19:59:00.009-05:00

Finally… after a year and a half we got to introduce our little one to the river, and she LOVED it. Our original plan was to go out this morning, before it got hot, but with the clouds hanging out this morning and the time it took me to fix the horn and replace one of the batteries, we waited until after nap time. We made a small cooler, lathered her up with sun block and headed down to the river. At first, Savannah wasn’t sure what was going on. She was in that stuffy life jacket and sitting in the middle of the back seat of the boat with mom. But once we got moving, and hit a couple of waves, she was having a good time. Each wave we hit she would say WEEE. Then we got to the sandbar. Again, she wasn’t sure what was up with this place at first. Very stiff legged when we first put her on the sand. But it didn’t take long and she was up to her elbows in sand. Because of the high water, the sandbar was more like a small cliff, which didn’t leave Savannah much room to play in. But she made do. We were talking with the people from the boat next to us, standing in the water, and here comes Savannah, walking out into the river like she had been doing it for years. She really had a good time. Before we knew it, it was past her dinner time. Luckily Mommy thought ahead and brought food for this occurrence. Savannah got to eat dinner in the boat while Daddy picked everything up and got ready to head for home. Of course, no kid can go out on the river without driving the boat. So, in true Denison fashion, Savannah climbed up on Daddy’s lap and took control. She was very serious about her driving. It was a great family day on the river. The first of thousands of trips I’m sure. Now, if we can just get a really small wakeboard…

A Day with Daddy

2008-07-16T16:09:00.004-05:00

Our sitter is off this week so Linda and I have had to find an alternative way to keep the little one busy during the day. Actually we were fortunate enough to have her old sitter offer to watch her for the majority of the week. However, since I had to work on Sunday, I took today off to spend some quality time with my daughter, who is right now tearing her room apart and bringing me each item from her room one piece at a time… So far we have had quite a nice day. Mommy let me sleep in just a little bit, since it is my day off. After Mommy went to work, Savannah, Chip and I took a ride down to see the Ray and Cathy at Riverside Harbor, where we keep our boat. I’ll tell you more about that later, but if you know of anyone with “heavy equipment” that could clean up a lot of piled up corn stalks, please let me know. So after visiting, we went and got Chip some new toys to play with in the yard and came home. After lunch and a nap, we got to go swimming. I took a lot of pictures, but thought these were kind of cool. Anyway, that’s where we are now. Hopefully the rest of the day goes a well as it has so far.

MIZ…ZOU!!!!!!

2008-07-13T19:32:00.004-05:00

Savannah is getting to be quite the tiger fan! Or maybe a little too much brain washing is going on in the Denison household! Regardless, we took another day trip to Columbia for some pizza and fun. As we were getting ready this morning to leave, mommy and daddy were chanting the MIZ..ZOU, that is done at all football games and believe it or not, with NO coaching on our part, Savannah went right upstairs to her bookshelf and grabbed her“Hello Truman” book. So, we should be working on learning letter and numbers, but she is a true tiger fan through and through! She is even able to say the ZOU part of the chant about half the time! So we first stopped at Shakespeare’s for some yummy pizza. We had brought some extra food for the little one in case she decided pizza was not for her, but lo and behold, she is her mother’s daughter and LOVED the pizza. She ate every bite given to her and made the sign for more! Then it was on to play by the columns. Mommy told Savannah all about going to school there and Daddy loved playing with the camera. It was a gorgeous day with great weather and the perfect family day! We can’t wait to take Savannah to her first football game this year to cheer on the Tigers! (Well, actually it will be her third, but the first two, she was safely inside mommy’s belly and didn’t get to wear a cute little Mizzou dress!) Now we are FINALLY all up to date! We are really hoping and praying the news people are right and the river will be below flood stage and we can get the boat out and let Savannah experience the fun of the river like mommy and daddy always have! Till next time………

While Daddy was Gone……

2008-07-13T19:22:00.008-05:00

So Savannah and Mommy survived the ten days while Daddy was fishing in Canada. We were sure busy! The first weekend we went to a BBQ at the Davis house and mommy was not on top of things to bring the camera, but we had a great time! Savannah had fun playing with Alexis and eating all the good food! Then we got to eat dinner at Great Grandma Wehmeyer’s with Grandma Huster, Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary. Bill was most impressed with Savannah’s ability to eat TWO bowls of ice cream! You certainly can’t leave Great Grandma’s without a belly ache! The week continued on, with dinner out with Grandma Denison and mommy going to work. HOWEVER, Miss Savannah decided she wanted to spend the whole rest of the week with mommy and got pink eye…in BOTH eyes! So needless to say, mommy didn’t get to go to work and stayed home. A HUGE THANK YOU to Jen, Grandma Huster, Aunt Diane and Monica for helping to put drops in her eyes to make them all better. It certainly is not a feat that can be done by one person! Fourth of July came and we went to see the parade with Grandma Huster and then on to the annual Weaver party. Savannah LOVED the parade and had a good time. Then at the Weaver’s, she got to swim in a big pool and loved every minute of it! Her cousins Brad, Scott, Hilary and Gwen made sure she would have a good time in the pool! All of the sudden it was time for Daddy to return and Savannah and mommy were sure happy to have Daddy back home again! We will be hearing fish stories for quite a while, but that’s okay by us!

Finally, a Savannah Update!

2008-07-11T19:46:00.008-05:00

So the Denison family is slacking AGAIN! Our laptop that was on “loan” from Cameron’s work quit on us and with Cameron being gone, this silly blog just hasn’t been updated like it should! Never fear, we are back, or shall we say, still here and having a great summer with Savannah! We enjoyed our sixth anniversary together and also celebrated Father’s Day with Mom and Dad and Tom and family. It was a great day and the kids had a GREAT time playing. Savannah wanted to be like the “big kids” and play just like them. In the picture here, her and Jack and playing in the rocks and deciding just what to do, or where to throw them! Evening time is still a favorite time of the day when we get to kick back and enjoy some family time. Savannah sure loves to play with her daddy at the end of the day! Towards the middle of June we went to Tom and Amy’s for Claire’s baptism. They recently got a trampoline and to say Savannah had a great time in it would be an understatement. She just giggled the whole time, not being able to stand up, but being bounced around on her hands and knees! Her cousins were VERY careful around her and it was another GREAT Day! And of course her time at Miss Jenny’s is still so much fun while mommy and daddy go to work. Miss Jenny is an EXPERT at doing kid’s hair and loves to put pig tails in Savannah’s hair. She looks so darn cute and loves having them in! And now we are almost up to date, as Savannah and mommy had a great time while daddy was gone, but those pictures will have to come next time. We just gotta catch up on the rest of June first!

Canada 2008

2008-07-05T16:58:00.008-05:00

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Les and I fished East Bay. We were going to fish the NW side of the little island straight across the bay from where you enter but the wind was too strong and we couldn't hold a spot. We pulled up next to Roger and Alan on the SE side, out of the wind, but didn't do very well there. We didn't stay there very long and ran up to Pindor Creek. We anchored next to Gary and Jeff, in the wind on the SE side of the opening about 30 yds off the shoreline and did really well.

Sunday, June 29, 2008
Les and I headed back to East Bay but went up to the cut just past Abalard Creek. James and Steve had a lot of luck there the night before. However, today was not good. We were anchored on the NW side of the cut and then drifted along that same side back into the cut and the decided to replicate the same conditions as the night before and fished the SE point of that cut. We were once again anchored in the wind about 30 yds off the shoreline and we caught a lot of fish. We did notice that the fish finder showed a structure every time we blew a certain direction and when it showed up we would catch fish. The Les brought up a log (the structure) and the fish stopped. So from there we went up to Abalard Creek where James and Steve were. They had caught some 22" and 23" walleye in the same general location we had been having luck with so we pulled in there and each caught nice fish. Then we tried the NE side of the little island but only caught dinks. Next we stopped in a little cove just outside of East Bay. Les caught 2 fish and we got prepared to troll the Post Narrows. We trolled the Narrows from the NE to the SW and decided to jig fish on the SW side of the little beach on the N side of the Narrows and I caught a 23" walleye.

Monday, June 30, 2008
Alan and I headed back to Pindor Creek with Les and Gary. We didn't do to well so we went to the next cut to the SW. We got setup to fish from the inside to the center of the mouth because we found a hump with a large drop but it turned out that they were on the other side where Alan could catch them. I couldn't catch a thing. So we went out and found the hump near the entrance to East Bay. We had to anchor 3 times, but we caught a lot of fish. In fact, earlier that day we decided that we were going to finish out our stringers before noon which gave us 15 minutes after we found the hump, but we did it with time to spare. After Alan caught a 34" northern and lunch we were getting tired of catching walleye we headed to the Post Narrows. Steve and Jeff were doing great trolling so we decided to do the same. After 3 passes and one lost lure we finished the day jigging the NE side of the beach. I didn't catch any.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Steve and I decided to go exploring to the E side of Martin Bay. We knew there were 2 humps out there and we found both, but no fish. Then we trolled around the islands just S of there. I caught one 22" walleye, but nothing else. From there we went to McNealy Bay and drifted from one point to another. Steve caught a few fish, but it was slow. Then we trolled around but had no luck and decided to head to the Post Narrows. We jigged the NE side of the beach for 20 minutes or so and decided to troll. We didn't troll but maybe 10 minutes and a storm was blowing in so we high tailed it for camp instead of beaching on an island. We almost pulled over twice but kept going and made it just in time. Between the lightning and hail we were glad to be back. Once it passed we went back out but stayed close to camp. We drifted the wall at the mouth of Martin Bay where Steve caught a few nice fish and one 23" walleye but again, it was slow. We went up into the bay but didn't have any luck. We made a quick run back to camp to find out what time we were eating and learned that James and Les weren't back from East Bay. It was late for them, but still early so Steve and I went back to Martin Bay and I finally caught my second fish of the day. By 7:00 we were back at camp. Gary, Alan and Jeff had left to go look for Les and James. By 8:00 or so they returned with boat-in-tow. Les and James had boat trouble, but weren't too pissed because they had a great day fishing.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Gary and I finally got to fish together. This is our second trip together, but our first day to fish together. After the day Steve and I had, I was ready to catch fish, and Gary didn't let me down. We made the trek to East Bay again and fished Pindor "Gary's" Creek. After getting there we made one small adjustment, moving from the middle to the west point, and caught good fish the rest of the day. I had two personal bests. I caught a 26" Walleye and a 32" and a 33" Northern. We spent the rest of the day right there catching one fish after another. Eventually I ran out of minnows and started throwing a crank bait, and still caught fish.

Wednesday Evening
I had never been to Parker Falls, and since James didn't want to go fishing, Jeff, Alan and I went up to Parker Falls. We nosed right up in the falls and started throwing spoons and crank baits. I only caught one 24" walleye, between Jeff and Alan they caught 11 walleye, smallest was 24" and largest was 28-1/2". It was AWESOME.

Thursday, July 3, 2008
While we were at Parker Falls on Wednesday evening, Gary and Steve caught a whole bunch of walleye just around the corner from Sunset Lodge so that's where Jeff and I headed. We caught about 8 walleye in a couple hours, all over 20" with a couple topping 25". After they slowed a bit we had to go find smaller fish so we headed to the Post Narrows. The first few fish we caught were still too big to keep for dinner so we moved off the east side of the south sandbar to the "rock" on the north side. We basically stayed here the rest of the afternoon. Jeff had a run-in with a Northern. It took his crank bait and then, later, we heard it come to the surface after something and you could hear the lure rattle. We did eventually get our dinner fish and headed in.

Thursday Evening
Since we had such good luck Wednesday evening at Parker, we headed back, this time Jeff and Alan in one boat; Les, James and I in the other. We each caught 2 fish. Les had a 24" walleye and James had one about the same size.

Friday, July 4, 2008
James and I started the same place Jeff and I started on Thursday, next to the floating propane tank near "Jack's Island" at the entrance to Sunset Bay. Nothing was going on there so we headed out. Jeff and Alan were headed back to Parker Falls to jig fish instead of throwing crank baits. As we left, Steve and Gary asked if we were going to Parker but we were headed to East Bay. Halfway across the main lake I almost turned around and went to Parker, but we didn't, and we went to East Bay. We started in Alabador Creek but it was slow and the male walleye (small ones) were moving in. Next stop was the "Hump". We caught a lot of fish here, but again they were mostly males. This time we moved looking for dinner fish. Back to Pindor Creek to the spot Gary and I fished. Ah, we found our dinner fish and decided to troll the Narrows. We saw Les and Roger in East Bay and let them know of our plan. We figured if the guys that went to Parker didn't catch fish they would be in the Narrows. When they weren't there I was almost sick. At that point I knew we had missed out on the best fishing of the week. After trolling down one side and back the other we saw Les and Roger coming into the Narrows and let them know we were headed around the back side of McKenzie Island to Parker Falls. We got there as Steve and Gary were leaving. No one had minnows left, they had all caught 50+ fish, it was nothing for them to have 24" and 25" walleye and Steve had caught a 30-1/2" walleye! Yup, James and I screwed up by not going to Parker that morning. James did land a 28" walleye and a 32" Northern before we left Parker and it was a good day of fishing, just not as good as it could have been.

Summary
Everyone agreed that this was the best fishing has ever been. Not only did we catch a LOT of fish, but they were huge. Typically, a good year is consistently catching fish and being able to put 3 walleye on a stringer that are 15" to 17-1/2" (dinner/freezer fish). If one person in the group catches one walleye over 20", that's icing on the cake. This year we seriously had to look for smaller fish. We cannot count the number of 24" and 25" walleye caught. Everyone caught at least one 24" walleye or bigger. We may never get to see this kind of fishing again, but we'll keep going back in the hopes that we do.

SO MUCH FUN!!!

2008-06-07T22:02:00.003-05:00

So the summer heat has begun! Gotta love that St. Louis summer weather! This week Savannah got to experience “swimming” on Thursday after she got home from the sitter’s. We filled up the pool, put on her suit and she enjoyed some summertime fun! At first she was not sure what mommy was doing to her with the swimming suit and gathering some toys to bring outside, but no worries, she got the hang of it real soon and HAD A BALL!!!! Of course the sunglasses stayed on the whole time and she just splashed and splashed and splashed. When all was said and done and it was time to go back inside, mommy was as wet as she was! We can’t wait for many more days in the “pool” and if it would EVER stop raining and the river would go down, well then Miss Savannah can experience the joy of the river and we hope that happens much sooner than later! It’s been a busy weekend so far; we took a day trip to Bloomington today for Ryan’s birthday and had a great time. Savannah loved playing with Erin’s babies and she learned how to give those babies of her own even more TLC! (That was before bath #2 for the day from playing in the dirt, those pics to come soon when we get them!) And we certainly lucked out with this easy going child, who didn’t seem to mind the 6 hours in the car today, but then again, she had to keep Grandma entertained the whole way there! And on a side note, not that we want summer to end anytime soon, but we did purchase tickets for Savannah’s first Mizzou game this fall! She is sure excited about all the great things to come her way in the coming weeks and months!

Baby Girl is Growing UP!!!!!

2008-05-25T21:22:00.002-05:00

Well, it’s been another week! Last weekend, we held true to our word. On Saturday we worked hard around the house, but then found some time to take Savannah to Lyon’s for the first time and then also some time at the park. As much as she loved the swings, she loved playing in the rocks a whole lot more! We are not sure who had more fun, Savannah or the dog, but it was a good day all in all. Prior to going to on her little field trip, Savannah decided that a nap wasn’t really in the cards and ended up helping mommy plant some flowers. Although we didn’t get any pictures, take our word for it, she was covered head to toe in dirt, but loved every single second of it! Then on Sunday we went to the church picnic and Savannah had a BLAST!!! There was no carousel and she was too short to ride the other rides, but did that deter our little one from having fun?? NO way!!!!! The German in her was strong that day and she had a BLAST dancing to the polka band playing outside the parish center. She had a great time and enjoyed the sucker from Mary the most! As Tom and Amy joined us for the fun and left Claire in the hands of Aunt Linda and the grandparent’s while they went to ride rides with Will and Jack, Savannah did not enjoy mommy’s attention to Miss Claire as she promptly pointed to the stroller when mommy was holding Claire, as if to say, I am your child mommy, not her!! Oh well, a good time was has by all. This week was about the same all in all. Miss Savannah gave up the high chair and is now in her big girl chair at the table with mommy and daddy. It really is surprising how much she grows everyday before our eyes! And now it is Memorial Day weekend. We really want to get the boat out, but sadly the river is too high still, but there will be plenty of time for that in the months to come! Last night Savannah got to spend the night with grandma and grandpa while mommy and daddy went to a wedding. Cameron’s friend Matt form SIUE got married and it was a great day! Although it was an outside wedding, the bad weather held off during the ceremony. We had a blast to say the least and those pictures will not be posted anytime soon! Then today we went to a BBQ at Alan and Melanie’s and had a good time. Savannah had a ball begging people for food and mommy and daddy enjoyed another night out. Daddy and Alan are getting ready for Canada and would leave today if given the chance. Mommy and Melanie are getting ready to be a single mom for ten days! All in all, life is good. Not much else to report, but we hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and we do thank all those who are, or who have served our country, you deserve MUCH more than just a one day holiday! Here’s to a great start of the summer and can’t wait to see what the next few months bring our way!

Outside Fun

2008-05-16T19:52:00.005-05:00

Well, it’s been a while since the last update. Once again, we have no excuses for why we don’t update this more, life just takes up more time than we realize! Or maybe a better excuse would be to say we are STILL recovering from the Buffett concert! Regardless, Savannah has been the busy little girl as always. It really does amaze us everyday how much she learns and grows and how much she makes us laugh. One of her favorite things is to play outside and she sure keeps herself very busy! The slide is always a hit, but really for her it is more exciting to play in the rocks and pull the grass. Last weekend we spent our time celebrating Mother’s Day. Saturday we had dinner at Tom and Amy’s with mom and dad and the grandmas. Savannah got to meet Miss Claire, but seemed to have more fun with Will and Jack. Just give it a few months and Savannah will be teaching Claire all kinds of tricks, if there are any tricks that her brothers have not already taught her. Then Sunday we went to church and took some very nice naps, both mommy and Savannah that is. And Miss Savannah and Daddy surprised mommy with a day at the spa in addition to the rest of the day to myself!!! It was quite a gift and I can’t wait to cash that one in! This weekend we are going to enjoy the much needed nice weather and maybe take Savannah on her first of many trips to Lyon’s Frozen Custard, the best summer treat in the state! Then on Sunday, Savannah will get to go to the Parish Picnic and ride a few rides and enjoy the very talented German band prior to having a chicken dinner. Should prove to be a big day and Savannah is excited to eat the chicken dinner, as she hears that the stuffing is the BEST in town!

Jimmy is Back!

2008-04-26T08:24:00.010-05:00

It’s been 8 years since we were last sitting at what was then Riverport Amphitheater, the rain coming down, the tornado sirens going off, and we didn’t have a clue because we were watching the man, the legend, the only person (besides me) that my beautiful bride wants to marry, Jimmy Buffett. This past Thursday he finally returned to grace us with his music. The concert sold out in 15 minutes, but we were lucky enough to get tickets. Laura and Ashley got theirs from other sources, but they did get them, and that’s all that matters. Linda and Laura spent the preceding days preparing their hats and outfits for the big day and as you can see from the photos, they did a great job. As we drove to the concert we go lucky and were able to park the row behind Ashley, Laura, Jim and Ann. Then the tailgating began. We didn’t realize that they opened Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for tailgating at 3:00, or we may have gone out there earlier. Then it was time to head into the concert. We got a pretty good spot center lawn about two-thirds of the way up the hill. We couldn’t really see Jimmy very well, but we could see the big screens. The lines for beer and pretzels were ridiculous, but worth it since we were at the Jimmy concert. Jimmy came on stage around 8:15/8:30. He played some of songs we didn’t know, but played a lot of his main stream ones too. One of the great things about a Jimmy concert is that he doesn’t tour with anyone else. No openers. Just Jimmy and the Coral Refer Band. The concert was great. Everyone was singing along and happy to see Buffett back in St. Louis. Of course my favorite part of the show is Fins. And this year didn’t disappoint. In preparation for the concert, Linda and I taught Savannah “Fins Up!” and she will put her hands together and up in the air, it’s pretty darn cute. Everyone in the crowd stayed until the very last song was played, thus everyone left at the same time. It is quite a sight to see a sold out crowd try to exit all at once. Jimmy finished around 10:30. We walked back to our car and continued to tailgate as we were not going anywhere. It took nearly 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. We didn’t get home until nearly 1:00. Linda and Jen slept the majority of the time. I don’t even know if they knew how long we were in the parking lot. All in all it was a great evening. We sure hope he comes back again soon!

Spring Has Begun

2008-04-20T19:58:00.004-05:00

WOW, it’s been a little while again since the last update! Or it’s just that we are staying pretty darn busy these days! First off, we have to congratulate Tom and Amy on their newest addition to the family, Miss Claire Olivia was born Thursday night and Savannah is sure excited to have another cousin to play with! Things are sure changing for Savannah, as we had to say a sad good-bye to her sitter June, who has watched her since she was three months old. We wish June the best in her new endeavors and Savannah is getting adjusted quite nicely to Miss Jenny and the other kids she sees every day! As far at the pictures go, the first is the little one exploring a box of Kleenex that we left out while mom had to leave the room to change the laundry. How exciting for Savannah to grab one and another comes popping out right behind it!! She sure had fun and at least she had the good sense to also try to wipe the table clean with each new Kleenex. Savannah also enjoyed watching Opening Day for the Cardinal’s, wearing her new duds that Grandma Denison brought back from Spring Training. She is hoping to go and see a game in person this year and spend all of Daddy’s money on new Cardinal gear! We spent another Saturday afternoon with Savannah’s future Mizzou roommate, Addison Butler at Queeney Park, while their daddy’s were at a bachelor party. They are sure making lots of plans to cheer in a winning team, eat lots of pizza and of course, get a little studying done! And now we are just enjoying the nice weather that is coming our way, hoping that the earth stops moving enough for the Jimmy Buffett concert this week! Savannah is looking VERY forward to spending the night at her grandparent’s, so mommy and daddy can enjoy the concert. It’s been a VERY long eight years since we last saw him live and we couldn’t be more EXCITED!! We may post come pics from the night, but on the other hand, those might have to stay under wraps!!

Daddy's Glasses

2008-04-20T15:19:00.001-05:00

Another one from my phone. Savannah just had to wear daddy's glasses. She insisted!

Playing Outside

2008-04-20T15:07:00.001-05:00

Savannah and I were just taking a little break from playing outside on the deck furniture. We got some great pictures of her playing on her slide which will be posted later. This was taken and sent from my phone.

Easter and the End of March

2008-04-06T21:05:00.011-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa Huster came by the house sometime before Easter for some reason that I don’t recall. Savannah and Grandpa were entertaining each other by sticking their tongues out at each other. I’m not sure who was entertaining who. They were both laughing and neither would stop. It was pretty darn funny. Before the record rain started we did have a few nice days where we got to spend some time outside. Linda and I got Savannah a little plastic slide for Easter so while we had the nice weather Savannah tried her new slide out. Of course I grabbed the camera because that’s what I do. Turns out we ended up with some really great shots. The black and white shot of her looking down was total luck, but one of my favorites to date. I say it was a luck shot because she was walking at me on grass. When she walks on grass she looks down. I happen to crop around her face and flip it to black and white and voila, perfection! She did enjoy playing on her slide, although she could not figure out to sit down to slide down the slide. She just tried to walk down the slide or go down head first. Either way, she was having a great time. Easter was a lot of fun. Granted, I had to work the Saturday before Easter and missed the big Easter Egg hunt at Great Grandma Huster’s house, Savannah had a great time hunting Eater Eggs. Linda said that she knew just what to do. She grabbed her basket and went to town, grabbing egg after egg. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Huster’s house for dinner. I got off work just in time to sit down and eat dinner with everyone. On Easter Sunday, Savannah enjoyed church. She enjoyed talking during the sermon, throwing her puppy in the pew in front of us and trying to climb on the kneeler. Truthfully, she was pretty good. When we got back home she got to hunt Easter Eggs again since the Easter Bunny came to the house while we were at church. Luckily Chip was asleep; otherwise we may have come home to a real mess.

A Chip Off the Old Block

2008-03-19T20:34:00.014-05:00

How can you tell Savannah is our kid? Well, it’s not from her vast knowledge of dinosaurs or her uncanny vocabulary. No, you can tell Savannah is a Denison because of her need to put something over her head and walk around until she runs into something. Sounds like fun to me, let’s try it while driving! She actually started doing this on her own. She grabbed her pajamas and covered her head and BOOM walked into the wall. Did she cry? Nope, just stood up and started laughing. Then she did it again. Linda and I couldn’t keep from laughing. But she really isn’t THAT dumb. She is learning new words everyday and we’ve been trying to get her to start to use utensils. As you can see, she is quite proud of herself and gets what she wants on the fork..although it takes a little longer to eat, but that's okay for her!

Let's Get Everyone Caught Up

2008-03-13T20:38:00.006-05:00

We’ve been a little lazy when it comes to updating the blog. I apologize for that. No excuses, just haven’t taken time to sit down and do a little updating. Since I’ve been back from Colorado we haven’t done too much. We did get to finally celebrate Savannah’s birthday with my cousins. The first weekend had to be cancelled because Linda got the flu and then I was in Colorado. Granted, we did miss quite a few, there was still a good crowd. Bob and Barbara brought Bobby II as well as Aunt Betty. It was fun to see Bobby and Savannah playing together. Savannah got many nice things. Rae and Charlene brought out an outside, fold up, plastic table complete with umbrella. Savannah and her friends will get a lot of use out of that this summer when we barbeque on the deck. Then last weekend we didn’t really do anything. As for Savannah, she has started going down the stairs now. So all she wants to do is play on the stairs. Otherwise, she just keeps getting bigger and better at communicating what she needs (or wants). The big news for Linda and I is that Jimmy Buffett is coming in concert! We were so excited to hear this. Tickets went on sale Monday at 10:00 and we got our tickets. We were lucky to get them too. It was my understanding that Verizon Amphitheater (Riverport) sold out in 40 minutes. Our good friend Laura had to get tickets through alternate means because they sold out. But we are all going and we cannot wait. It has been 8 years since he has been here in concert. We’ve had 3 friends have 3 kinds in the last 3 weeks. It’s kind of amazing. Lots of new friends for Savannah to play with! We got to take advantage of the weather the last few days. Savannah loves to walk up and down the driveway. Well, mainly down the drive way. She loves it outside. She loves the wind blowing in her face. She just looks into the wind, squints her eyes and smiles while the wind blows her hair around. I think she is going to love going on the boat this summer. Linda and I are looking forward to getting her out there.

Copper Mountain

2008-02-22T23:20:00.000-06:00

I'm up here in Colorado, Copper Mountain to be exact. Took snowboarding lessons on Thursday and went started on blue runs today. Actually went down one black, but it was more like I worked my way down sideways to keep from killing myself. So this was a photo of me about a third of the way down one of the blue runs. We stopped to let everyone catch up and Kevin snapped this for me. Maybe get some more tomorrow. It'll be our last day and I am hoping I can make it through the whole day.

Quick Update, The Birthday

2008-02-10T10:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had the Husters, Schusters and Grandma Denison over for Savannah’s birthday. It was a great time. Savannah loves all of her gifts and wanted me to tell everyone thank you for thinking of her and celebrating her birthday with her. She enjoyed her birthday cake quite a bit. It took her a few minutes to figure out that she could eat it, but once she realized that, it was on! We also had the new Denison Family Portrait taken. We think it’s really good and are going to have it blown up to hang over the fireplace. OK, well maybe not. It does capture the essence of the family. Now we are looking forward to next weekend’s festivities.

Happy Birthday Savannah!

2008-02-09T08:45:00.001-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH! It's finally here, she is ONE! So this morning she got to open her gifts from Mom and Dad. It took her a minute to get started, but she tore into the gifts, pulling the paper off like she knew what she was doing. It's going to be a busy afternoon. We are all excited for the big girl crossing another milestone.

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

2008-02-08T18:45:00.000-06:00

It’s hard to believe that a year ago tonight we went out to dinner with friends and had our last night together as a childless couple. At 0300 tomorrow morning Linda was waking me up to tell me it was time. Of course I had no idea what was going on at first, yet I jumped up and off we went to the hospital. It was some 19 hours later that Little Miss Savannah was born. One year later we are fixing dinner and getting ready to put the (almost) One Year Old to bed. A lot has changed in this past year. Obviously the Little One had grown a bit, but I think Linda and I have changed too. It’s funny how your focus can change overnight. I do have this funny feeling that both Linda and I will probably get a little more sleep this year, than we did a year ago tonight. Thank you everyone for making Miss Savannah’s first year a great one to remember.

The Princess Helping Daddy

2008-01-25T19:41:00.000-06:00

Well, it’s been another week at the Denison house. Miss Savannah is still not real sure about the walking thing and that is just fine with mommy and daddy! As with anything else, she will do it when she is good and ready! (Don’t know who she gets that from!) Savannah discovered how much she loves playing with and wearing beads while at Grandma and Grandpa’s last weekend, so mommy found some here at home and she has been wearing them ever since! She just looked too darn cute in the white beads and sunglasses, we had to take a picture. Look out Hollywood! As we were trying to stay warm this week, we also got to juggle some childcare as well. Savannah’s sitter June came down with the nasty flu that was going around, so mommy gave her the week off from Savannah to get better. Savannah had fun shopping with mom, (where unbeknownst to her, a few birthday presents were purchased for someone’s big day coming up! ) playing with grandma Denison and then she got to spend the WHOLE day with daddy on Friday. It was the biggest treat of all to bring mommy lunch at work. Of course, everyone told her how cute she was and Savannah hammed it up for everyone as usual. It was such a treat to be able to have lunch with her and show her off a little more! We are in the process of getting that playroom all set up for Savannah to put all her toys and earlier today Savannah helped dad put together some shelves/cubby holes. Before bedtime Savannah then helped daddy put together a little table for the room. She loved playing with the pieces and handing daddy what he needed. When it was all done, Savannah got right on the table and sat down like she has been doing it for years! We think the table is a bit of a hit for her. And now we are looking into the weekend with not a lot planned and wondering what she will surprise us with next!

It's Official...

2008-01-20T14:51:00.000-06:00

It's official. Someone has taken her first steps, and I'm sure our world is about to be turned upside down. Matt and I got back from rabbit hunting and Savannah wanted to show him how she could stand, but showed us all that she could do more than that. Take a look. More to come later.

Overalls, the Fireplace, Friends and Peek a Boo!

2008-01-18T20:06:00.000-06:00

What a week it’s been, AGAIN!! Savannah has been quite the busy little girl! The first weekend of January Daddy and Grandma Huster were very busy painting the downstairs room to make into a play room for the little princess. While Grandma was here, she brought over some overalls that were Grandpa Huster’s from when he was a baby….that’s at LEAST thirty some years ago! Savannah loved wearing them and having her picture taken in them. Savannah is soo excited to have that play room all ready for all her toys and mommy can’t wait until she is old enough to play by herself down there! She has also decided to become a little daredevil even more so than usual. She likes to climb up on her toys onto the fireplace. It was cute the first time, so we took a picture, now we are waiting for the stitches to happen! And then on to last weekend, when Sean, Jen, Elliot and the other Jen came for a visit. Savannah had a GREAT time playing with her friend, who is only a few months older than she is. They stopped for a few seconds to pose for a picture on Cameron’s lap in between getting into everything. Savannah is thinking about walking like her friend and is getting braver by the minute, but still a little nervous about standing on her own. Then this past Monday, Savannah’s friend Maddy came over to spend the day with mommy and Savannah. The two girls had a great time playing together and taking some long naps! Of course, the picture we have here is the two of them watching some Baby Einstein and they were both enthralled, until the camera came out and then Savannah had to flash her big smile before turning back to the TV to become sucked into the video. And lastly, Savannah’s new game seems to be taking the towels off the oven and playing peek a boo, whether with herself or others. She is always one to amuse herself somehow! Now we are into another weekend, we had dinner at Culpepper’s tonight and the bartender’s can’t wait to fill in for a night in twenty years to serve Savannah her first beer. (because it would be just sad if they were still working there at that time!) Although, she might want to tackle the whole walking thing before she starts drinking! Hope everyone stays extra warm this weekend! It is going to be the coldest weekend of the year so far!!

Playing with the Dog

2008-01-06T10:07:00.000-06:00

Chip got a few new toys for Christmas which Savannah likes to play with as well. He won't snatch them out of her hand and isn't real sure if he is allowed to play with her yet, but the other night they were testing the waters and it was pretty cute.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T19:59:00.000-06:00

Holy cow!!! First, the Denison’s wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!! We are so lucky to have had a GREAT holiday with the little one! So I have to get a little sappy here, but Christmas is a million times more meaningful with Savannah here and getting her involved in all we know and love about the holidays! We kicked off the festivities with Christmas at Linda’s parent’s on Saturday with Denise and Tom and their families. Savannah is her mother’s daughter and got right into opening that first gift! She loved playing with her cousins and even though she had no second nap, she was trooper right up to the end! Then Sunday we spent the evening with the Huster extended family. It was another good time, Cameron and Alan wore their Caribbean shirts and Melanie and Linda drank from the light up cups from the cruise, to pretend we were in 90 degree weather again! Savannah LOVED the visit from Santa and sat on his lap to get those last minute wishes in! And on to Monday, when we then headed to Grandma Whemeyer’s for Christmas Eve. It was another great night, with a GREAT meal and Savannah had her first taste of a dishpan cookie, and like the rest of the family, she is hooked!!!! For those of you who have never tasted one of these cookie sensations, sorry about that, cause nobody makes them like Grandma! We aren’t joking Grandma, we don’t need gifts, just give cookies!!!!! And then Christmas day came and Savannah woke up to a pile of toys from Santa, which she dove right in to! We went to church, where Savannah tried out the acoustics that Grandpa commented he could hear in the back of the church with the other ushers! Then Grandma Denison came over with her sleigh full of toys to spoil her only grandchild and Savannah was in heaven with all the new toys to play with! Then Rae and Char, Allan and Don stopped by to share some holiday cheer and here we are now, the little one in bed, Cameron watching Caddyshack to figure out what the line he should be quoting really is and Linda updating the blog. All in all, it was a GREAT Christmas and again, we hope all our friends and family had as great of holiday as us!

Mariner of the Seas = Vacation

2007-12-20T19:16:00.001-06:00

Vacation was AWESOME. We had a great time with Alan and Melanie. We set sail from Port Canaveral on Sunday with clear skies and 80+ degree weather. We enjoyed a few beers and some fruity drinks on the top deck as we sailed out of harbor and watched land disappear over the horizon. The first night was smooth sailing as we headed to Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. That evening we explored the ship and enjoyed our first dinner where we quickly learned that Jeetu would need to order for Melanie, since she obviously didn’t know what to order. The next day we woke up at Coco Cay and took a tender to the island. The ladies enjoyed basking in the sun while Alan and I went snorkeling off the beach. We were joined by a crazy chicken at lunch time and picked up a few token trinkets before heading back to the ship. That evening things began to get interesting. By dinner, we could start to feel the boat rocking as we were in 10 to 15 foot swells. The captain addressed the ship at dinner and informed us that Tropical Storm Olga was going through the Virgin Islands so we could expect some weather due to this depression and it would continue to get worse throughout the day on Tuesday. He wasn’t kidding. By Tuesday morning the waves were 15 to 20 foot and were still getting bigger. There were a lot of sick people on the boat, including the staff. Melanie had to lay down, but we all kept our sea legs and did not get sick. Alan, Linda and I stayed inside checking out the ship, as the 65 mile per hour wind screaming across the deck had the outside closed. Melanie didn’t stay down long and we ended up playing spades at one of the bars on the ship. After dinner we ended up back at the Wig and Gavel (our favorite little bar) where we watched Jimmy sing and strum on his guitar. Wednesday morning we were pulled into St. Thomas as we woke up. Luckily our first excursion was later in the day, so we didn’t have to rush. After breakfast we headed over to St. John to explore the underwater world at Trunk Bay. On the way back Alan and I picked up some tacky island wear we could show off at the deck party later that evening. We hit the buffet early and went to the ship party in lieu of dinner. It was an early night as we had to get moving the next morning as we took a jeep tour of St. Maarten. We highly recommend the jeep tours. We really enjoyed seeing so much of the island. The locals are very aggressive with their driving. Lucky for us, so is Alan. He had no problem keeping up with the group and managed to hit every mud puddle on the island of St. Maarten. We went to a topless beach for dinner and got to swim in the surf of the South Atlantic. We then got to do some more shopping through their local “straw” market and then back to the pier for additional shopping for the tacky trinkets to take home. Friday and Saturday were spent at sea. The two days seem to be blurred together. Friday afternoon, as the ladies worshiped the sun gods, Alan and I came up with the best plan to date. There were 19 bars on the ship. Our goal? To get a drink from each of them. We got started immediately, but quickly realized that we were going to need the ladies help, as we didn’t start fresh in the day and had only knocked 3 off the list. By the end of the night, we had only missed two bars and that was because the closed before we got to them. We ended up in the night club (it was the only bar opened past 1:00AM). We all owe Linda props for this one. We were in the back corner discussing how great our day has been and I commented that I just saw the captain. No one believed me until the waitress confirmed it. Then we were all to shy to go up and say anything, except for Linda. Thanks to her, we all got our picture taken with the captain of the ship. That brought our crazy day to a close. There was late start to our last day, which was similar to our Friday, with less of the fruity drinks. Sunday morning we at an early breakfast, as we had to be out of the stateroom by 8:00 and would be departing between 9:00 and 10:00. Our driver was to pick us up at 10:00, so we knew we would be cutting it close. Turns out we wouldn’t get off the ship until 10:30, and not to the driver until 10:45, which cost us extra for every 15 minutes. The nice thing was that they upgraded our car from a town car to a stretched limo. On to the airport where we spent 8 hours watching our flight get delayed in 10 minute increments from 7:35 until 8:30. By 11:00 we were back home and ready for bed. Vacation was over, and so is the story. Talk to you all soon!

Packing

2007-12-08T14:40:00.000-06:00

As most everyone knows, we are going on vacation TOMORROW. We cannot wait. The timing is perfect. We get our first winter weather of the season and we are off to the Bahamas and Virgin Islands. About 24 hours left until the ship pushes away from the harbor and we are off on our cruise. As we were getting all of our stuff together today, someone, I won’t say who, seemed to want to go with us. So, we thought we would see if we could smuggler her in one of our bags. Turns out, we don’t think she would stay quiet enough to get through customs. Instead she is just going to go to Grandma & Grandpa’s for the week. I’m sure we will have lots of pictures to post when we get back. See you all next week!

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T20:38:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving, and a happy Thanksgiving it was. Linda, Savannah, my Mom and I went over to Barbara, Bobby and Bob’s home for our family Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good. Barbara made so much food, and everyone brought so many sides, it just never stopped. We did one turkey in the oven, the traditional way and then we deep fried one. And yes, I was a little stupid and did not get enough oil. So, if you are ever in the need of cooking oil, Convenient Food Mart sells little bottles of cooking oil. All of it was super good. Even Savannah couldn’t quit eating. She was almost eating as much as my cousin Steve. Eddie and Brian spent the evening pushing Bobby and/or Savannah around on a little front end loader. They make great motors. I think all were worn out by the end of the evening. Savannah didn’t make it far on the way home before she was out. It was a great Thanksgiving. Thanks to Bob and Barbara for having all of us over and good luck to John in tomorrow’s game. He plays for Mehlville and is in the Missouri State Championship game tomorrow night (FSN at 6:30).

A Quick Photo

2007-11-22T20:36:00.000-06:00

Just a quick photo of Savannah. She loves taking a bath!

Our Daredevil

2007-11-05T19:27:00.001-06:00

Last Thursday Grandma D got Savannah a new walker that looks like a car. She absolutely loves it. She hasn’t really figured out how to make it “GO” yet, but she knows how to push all the buttons, pull the knobs and turn the steering wheel to make it sing and talk. She does try to use it as a ladder to get on the coffee table, but we keep trying to stop her from doing that. Speaking of climbing, she figured out how to scale the stairs today. Linda called me at work to tell me that she was really trying to get up the stairs, and as I picked up the phone to say “hello” Linda was startled, Savannah had just made it up the first stair. It was downhill (or uphill) from there. She has made it halfway up the stairs. She is becoming our little daredevil. She is definitely keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

It’s been a busy weekend for the little one (and her parents). I guess it started yesterday when we went over to trick-or-treating at Grandma and Grandpa Huster’s house. After eating some treats and showing off her costume it was on to see her friend Darren and our friends Chad and Joy. They were having a Halloween party and Savannah wanted to show Darren her costume. This morning we went over to Grandma Denison’s house to trick-or-treat and show Grandma Savannah’s costume. Chip chased the cats, Savannah chased Chip and we laughed at all of them. After trick-or-treating, Daddy winterized the boat before we get any freezing weather had have to replace another motor. The it was on to pumpkin carving. The actual carving didn’t thrill the little on at all, but the Jack-O-Lantern was a little more exciting for her. And then she got to eat her first cupcake. On Friday, Savannah helped June and the other kids make cupcakes which were sent home with Savannah. Since she got to help make them, it’s only right that she get to eat one. So she did, and she LOVED it. Now she is running around on a sugar rush. Well, I guess I should go catch her. Happy Halloween!

Fall is Here

2007-10-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

Life continues on for the Denison family. Miss Savannah continues to grow and learn everyday. She grew her fourth tooth finally and is a happier little girl. She is also now pulling herself up on EVERYTHING and loving every minute of it. She smiles when she does it like she is so proud of herself. Last weekend we took our first trip to the pumpkin patch to get ready for Halloween. Savannah had a great time sitting on the giant pumpkin and playing on the giant haystack. Maybe next year she will be ready to join daddy in the corn maize! We picked up some pumpkins and will be ready to carve them up for Halloween this coming weekend. After the pumpkin patch we went to Linda’s parents for some fresh fish, as Les went fishing with his brothers and caught a bunch. Before going home, Savannah took a quick bath in grandma’s kitchen sink and made a MESS! She had a great time just kicking away and splashing everywhere. It’s amazing what the grandkids can get away with at grandma and grandpas! Daddy went fishing this past weekend and Savannah and mommy hung out all weekend. Savannah took her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s for Madelyn’s first birthday party. Madelyn is the daughter of a girl that Linda used to baby-sit, which made Linda feel a little old, but it was good time regardless. Savannah really enjoyed watching all that was going on around her, especially Madelyn diving in to her cake, but we had to make it an early out, as it was nap time and mommy had to watch Mizzou beat up Texas Tech on Homecoming! Savannah is looking very forward to a bowl game this winter! Other than that the weekend was pretty low key, went to Target to stock up on the usual and Savannah loved shopping with mom once again. She is sure glad that daddy is back home. Unfortunately he didn’t bring back any fresh fish to share as he didn’t have the same luck as his father in law, but seemed to have a good time regardless. This coming weekend we have a full schedule planned, going to a Halloween party, carving some pumpkins and then trick or treating at the grandparents. It’s not looking like the little one will make it trick or treating too far on Halloween, as she still enjoys her early bedtime. And of course, so do this mommy and daddy, but life is pretty good and we hope you enjoy the pictures and update and we should have a bunch more to share from the upcoming weekend!

The End of September

2007-10-06T09:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we haven’t been updating the blog as often as promised. We are busy people! Actually we aren’t. But we have the laptop working downstairs again and our shows have started back up, so we will have plenty of couch time to update the blog. Little Miss continues to grow and surprise us at every corner. She is crawling everywhere and trying to pull herself up on the table. She is now waving “hello” and “goodbye” which is kind of cool. She is so curious. We swear she is going to get whiplash trying to see everything going on around her, especially Chip. He runs by, and she stops everything to watch him go. He could care less about her, except for a face lick or two here and there. She has most recently gotten her first upper tooth which makes a total of three. She has the facial expressions of her mother. Everything she does has a different look to it. But she has the attitude of her daddy. She gets very frustrated when she can’t reach something, or if she is trying to pull herself up, but can’t do it. She’ll let you know she isn’t happy about it. She’s a pretty good kid, we’ll keep here for a little while longer.

To Hold You Over

2007-09-16T09:01:00.001-05:00

Do you know hot to tell our kid from the rest of them? She'll be the one holding the beer! No, not really. The beer was closed but felt good on those pesky teeth that keep trying to come through. I haven't been taking pictures much lately, and our downstairs computer is not connecting to the net. The combination of these things makes it less convenient to post on this blog. We did have a party the first weekend in September to watch the Mizzou/Ole Miss football game. Turned out it wasn't on TV. Savannah got dressed up in her Mizzou outfit to help cheer them on to the 38-25 win over the Rebels. Laura, Abby and Ashley were here to root on Ole Miss. We tried to get a picture of Abby in her Ole Miss cheerleader uniform, but none of my pictures turned out. Oh well, another missed opportunity.

My Birthday/Savannah Goes to Mizzou

2007-08-26T20:25:00.001-05:00

My Birthday was GREAT. Savannah greeted me in bed with my birthday card and then we played while we got ready for the big road trip. Today was Savannah’s first visit to Mizzou. We started out at the best pizza joint this side of the Atlantic Ocean, Shakespeare’s. Of course I burnt my mouth on the pizza, but Savannah seemed to have enjoyed it as much as we did. Then it was off to the bookstore for some new Mizzou duds. Linda got a few tees, Savannah got a little onesie, and I got a new polo. We are now ready for kickoff on Saturday. That’s right folks, this Saturday is the first game of the season and Linda and I will be there! After the bookstore it was picture time. This worked well for everyone. Linda got pictures of Savannah’s first trip to Mizzou, Savannah got to get out of her stroller, and daddy got to play with his camera and lenses. First we hit Memorial Union and then the Columns. The sun was on the wrong side of the Columns to get Jesse Hall behind them, but the pictures turned out well regardless. After that we hit one more Mizzou store and headed home. The trip was a success and Savannah was very well behaved. No fussiness until we were almost home and she got hungry. After we got back Grandma D came over and we went to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner. It was very good and Savannah was making eyes at a younger boy at the other table. I am now very full and very happy with my birthday.

August is Almost Over

2007-08-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

August is almost over and we didn't take many pictures of Savannah. I take that back. We didn't take many GOOD pictures of Savannah. Last weekend we went camping and floating down at the Rucker's river home. Thanks to them for being great hosts and having us all down there. It was a lot of fun. It is always good to see the Rolla crowd. I don't think we can get together and NOT have a good time. Chupka flew in and stayed with us Friday night, and John drove up from Memphis. This weekend we have the Huster Chicken Fry tonight and then we are headed to Columbia tomorrow. We are looking forward to Savannah's first trip to her future college. Going to eat some Shakespeare’s Pizza and purchase new Mizzou paraphernalia at the bookstore. I am sure there will be some pictures from this trip. Savannah has to visit the places that her Mommy hung out when she was a student.

Party at the Ks and 6 Month Pictures

2007-08-06T19:51:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we went out to the Kneopflien’s home in Montgomery City for our annual Party at the K’s. It was a really good time and it’s always so much fun to see Jack and Sherry and all of our Rolla friends. We also got to meet Darren for the first time. Darren is Chad and Joy’s 3 week old son. They were breaking him in right, and early. There is nothing like a Rolla party to break the kids in. Savannah got to get in the lake with her Mommy. She really LOVES the water. She just laughed and kicked her feet. She really didn’t like her life jacket all that much, but she put up with it so she could stay in the water. On Sunday Savannah got her 6 month pictures taken. Of course she wanted to get some practice in before we went so we took a few shots of her as she rolled herself up in her blanket. Her photo shoot went really well. She loves hamming it up for the camera. It was hard to make the selection of which photo to use which is better than the 3 month pictures which there were 2 to choose from. When we got back from the photographer Linda was putting clothes away and Savannah just wouldn’t leave the laundry basket alone, so she got tossed in it. Strange, she had a really good time playing in the basket.

Matt & Theresa Tie the Knot

2007-07-30T07:17:00.000-05:00

What a weekend. The wedding festivities were 3 nights long and one day of recovery. Thursday we started with the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. We had a good time at dinner. Everyone was getting geared up for the wedding and for the baseball game the following day. Friday we went to watch the Brewer’s beat up on our beloved Cardinals. It wasn’t pretty. We met up a Kilroy’s, ducked inside to get out of the rain and then went on in to the stadium. It poured for about an hour between the third and fourth inning. That made the game that much longer. Linda and I had to give up before the end of the game. We wanted to save some energy for Saturday. So Saturday finally got here. Theresa was beautiful. The ceremony went flawlessly and we now have Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Maher. From the wedding to the reception, pictures at Glen Eco, beer and finger sandwiches while we passed the afternoon into early evening. After Timmy gave the best man speech (good job Tim) and Marry shared a few words (equally as well Marry), I got the chance to show off my beautiful wife on the dance floor. I’m sure we looked like fools, but that’s what you are supposed to do at a wedding. The reception flew by, dancing and drinking, having a great time. Next we knew everyone was gone and we were once again the last ones at the place. We caught a cab with Marry, Tim, Brooke, Adam, Brandi and John Henry back to the Marriot. Most everyone went directly to bed but the Maher’s and I wandered around the hotel looking for the after party. We couldn’t find one nor could we get one going so we ended up in the hotel bar. Mr. Grate bought a round of beer and then they kicked us out. That’s when I called it quits. The next morning was rough. Neither Linda nor I wanted to move. But we had to. We had a little one waiting for us to pick her up from Grandma’s. As we got ready to go we realized I didn’t have my tux coat nor our camera. Back to Glen Eco we went but it wasn’t there. After we got home Timmy called and let us know he had the coat and camera. SWEET! We had already chalked them up to being left in the cab and figured they were gone. Sunday was spent laying on the couch and being pretty lethargic. Linda and I had a great time. It was a beautiful wedding and we thank Matt and Theresa for letting us be a part of their day.

Happy Birthday Bobby II

2007-07-22T18:45:00.000-05:00

Bobby II turned one today. His parents had all the families over to their house for a huge meal and cake and ice cream. They had a really neat cake made in the shape of a “1”. Bobby had a good time digging his face and hands into his own birthday cake. He had so many gifts that he could probably play with a different one each day of the year and never play with the same one twice. It was fun to see a lot of the O’Keefes again. We haven’t seen them since Bob & Barbara’s wedding. I cannot get a good picture of Bobby and Savannah together. One of these days I am going to just pose them, but it seems like one of them is always getting pulled away to go do something. These kids are all so busy. After we got home Grandma Denison gave Savannah a little surprise puppy dog that sings to here and teaches her the ABCs. Thanks Grandma!

2007-07-22T07:36:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday Kristin, Addison and Nathan came out to St. Charles to see Miss Savannah and have some dinner. We grilled some pork steaks and the girls played together and continued their discussion of the future plans to attend Mizzou. Over the past week we didn’t do all that much. I went skiing with some friends on Wednesday night, after work. Savannah went to see the doctor just to get her toofers and a funny cough checked out. She is fine, but is up to 18 POUNDS! She is our little fatty. Last night we went up to Craig and Sarah’s for Beau and Luke’s 3rd and 1st birthday party. They had a bouncy inflatable for the kids to play in and a huge spread of food. We got to visit with Sarah, Rob, Olivia and Isabella. We haven’t seen them for a while so it was nice to catch up with them. Brad, Marcie, Cole and Lilly were also there. Lilly is just cute as a button and Cole, well if he can drive it, ride it or push it down a hill, that’s what he is going to do. He is your typical boy, and is getting into everything. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Today we are going out to Bob and Barbra’s for Bobby’s first birthday. We’ll have pictures from that later today or tomorrow so be sure to check back!

Savannah's BFFN, Jen

2007-07-15T07:46:00.001-05:00

Last night we went over to Sean & Jen's to celebrate Jen's 30th birthday. Of course Savannah's BFFN (Best Friend For Now), Jen, was there and wanted to get a couple pictures with the cutest girl in the country. Whenever Jen is around, we never get the camera out, so this is just a quick shot for Jen. Thanks Jen!

Beans, Beans They're Good for the Heart

2007-07-13T18:47:00.000-05:00

She just keeps growing. It is truly amazing. I know, those of you that have kids older than Savannah (which is most of you), smile (or laugh) that we are just realizing all of this, but it is one of those things that you just don’t understand until you watch it happen everyday. So this week we have started holding our own bottle. She hasn’t quite figured out that she has to hold it up to get stuff out, but she does hold it in place if you position it for her. Tonight she got to try green beans for the first time. This was her first taste of anything with flavor. I don’t know if she really liked it, but she didn’t spit it out. Watch the video for yourself. Oh, she is also trying to get up on all fours. She rolls over and gets her knees up, but hasn’t figured out how to push herself up yet. It wouldn’t hurt our feelings if she held that one off for just a little while.

Fourth of July

2007-07-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

Savannah got to experience her first Fourth of July holiday this past week (as though it could be during a different week). We didn’t do all that much. Neither Linda nor I were off except on the fourth, so we didn’t have any big trips or anything. We were supposed to go over to Alan & Melanie’s Third of July party, but someone was completely fussy because she had been getting up at 3:30 in the morning. Instead we hung out here at the house and made it an early night. Then on the actual Fourth of July we went down on Kingshighway here in St. Charles and watched the St. Charles Fourth of July parade. Grandma and Grandpa Huster were down there as well so they sat with us. That afternoon we went over to Linda’s Aunt and Uncle’s for barbeque and visiting with her other cousins, nieces, nephew, aunts and uncles. Then on Thursday night Linda went out with Jen and Grandma Denison brought dinner over for us and we watched the baseball game in HD. That new place at Lady Di’s makes some good pizza. Nothing is going on this weekend. I worked on the boat earlier today and Savannah played in her activity center. The boat is getting to that stage where there is always something I could fix on it. The VHF antennae, the trim gage, the horns, all the wiring, the radio, you name it, it could be better. Not that it doesn’t work right now, you may just have to push here, or turn it off and back on, to get it going. However, we can start it with the key now. I replaced the starter solenoid today. Well, we are getting ready to go get daddy a new pair of shoes, and on to Target. Big day, big day. If we have time we may swing by Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Time Marches On

2007-06-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

Savannah is now starting to eat from a spoon in lieu of the bottle. It’s a slow transition, and she isn’t real sure about this new technique. Mom and she have been working on it and Dad just laughs because she ends up with more on her than in her. On Father’s Day my sweet baby girl and beautiful wife took me out for breakfast and were thoughtful enough to get me some really nice gifts. We were going to take Savannah out on the boat for the first time, but it was just too hot too early in the day. So that one will have to take place at a later date when the weather is a little nicer, like in September. Bath time is always a fun time for Mom and Savannah. Savannah actually enjoys taking a bath which makes it much easier on Mom. Of course after bath time she loves to show off her new bathrobe.Savannah is also preparing for football season so she got all dressed up in her black and gold today. Being a future Mizzou grad, she is very anxious for this year’s football season.