welcome to 8th grade

So Daulton is now one of the oldest kids at his school. He'll finish eighth grade at his middle school and move on to the intermediate school next year. The pic on the couch was actually the first day, the photo in the doorway was not long after. You'll notice his bookbag is HUGE. He actually doesn't have to carry as much as he did last year, because they now have lockers at school. But I guess he wasn't taking any chances when he picked this one out with Chris...

creating landscapes

So Daulton attended a 3-week-long day camp this summer, which is held at Allegheny College every year. This photo is of him tie-dying a shirt, the same one he's wearing in the photo on the stairs. He drove in with me each morning. I saw him several days during lunch time. After their afternoon sessions they got to swim, so I usually picked him up after swimming at the sports complex. At the end they had a great performance day, where all the kids did music, dance and theater performances. He took home a CD of music created by the campers, including two or three numbers he was the drummer for.

summer 08

So the rest of the summer went by very quickly! Here are some highlights...


Erie Jazz and Blues Festival


Celebrate Erie - the chalk walk


Daulton with his Tae Kwon Do master, Master Park. They had a promotional day at the beach, so I caught Master Park for a picture. Daulton actually told him that same day that he was going to be taking a break from TKD for a while, he's moved on to drum lessons now.


Daulton helped with our garage sale, we actually had a joint sale with my parents.


Erie Arts Festival


Daulton in our driveway, he bought this scooter with his own money. Our driveway is finally repaved, so it's smooth blacktop—much better!


Discover Presque Isle—our "glow" is from a giant bonfire. Every summer they let the park stay open late, bands perform all day, and a huge bonfire is built. This was the first time we were there in years.

happy father's day

Chris and I were on vacation again this year for Father's Day. Last year we were in Oregon for my sister's wedding. So this year I had Daulton record a father's day video message on my camera and played it for him that morning. They did talk that day on the phone, and Chris got a present when we returned.

1 year (for anyone who's counting)

Chris and I celebrated our one-year anniversary this past April. We had tickets to see Alicia Keys in concert, but it was cancelled the morning of. So we spent a few days hanging out in Erie and had a wonderful dinner at a local sushi restaurant. The week before (on our actual anniversary) we had dinner at another restaurant, complete with some local wine. That night we headed to the casino and made a little money on Blackjack. That might not be part of an official anniversary tradition, but it was fun!

clowning around

This is a catchup post, some random pics from the last few months...

the paintball party

Daulton chose Pentagon Paintball as the location for his birthday party this year. It's on the outskirts of Erie, just fifteen minutes or so from our place. He and three of his friends played with me, Chris, Chris's friend Daryl, and Michelle's roommate Koreen. Michelle seems to like thrills related to motorcycles and skydiving—I'm beginning to think she has the right idea! Most of us survived the whole day, but we all earned some bruises along the way.

Michelle got a great "paintball" cake and we grilled burgers and hot dogs in between dodging paintballs and running from bunker to bunker.

happy 13

So Daulton is now a teenager. He was with Michelle all day, so we just did presents and cake and then headed to our friends Mike and Jessi's place to watch fireworks. They live on the bay and have a great view. Daulton spent much of his time playing the video game Rock Band, but I think he saw some of the fireworks from the living room.

Saturday we spent the day at my parents' house. My sister Nicole and her boyfriend were in town, and some of her friends came by, along with a few neighbors, too. Daulton was, of course, one of the first and definitely the last in the pool. We finally made him put on a shirt because he had gotten so much sun. His freckles are out in full force.

relay on...

I participated in the Relay for Life again this year at my high school. The event, held all over the country every year, benefits the American Cancer Society and their fight to find a cure for cancer.

My best friend and I organized the entertainment as part of this year's committee. We had a great band, Mambo Jazz Band, singer Sean Benjamin, inflatable toys, crafts, temporary tattoos, track bingo, local team mascots, banner competitions, and more.

My stepmom made our team banner this year, it was wonderful! Daulton came with me for most of the Friday portion. He was a huge help with temporary tattoos, making signs, and more. He got six or seven temporary tattoos himself, and Chris got his own when he came after work that evening. They went home that night and my friend and I stuck out the night through the next morning.

Our team raised about $600 this year, and the nighttime luminary was beautiful. They line the track with white paper bags and light candles inside. Each bag has the name of a person either in honor of their survival or in memory of the fight they lost to cancer. The names are read at dark in a beautiful, reflective ceremony.

life on a beach

Well it's been WAY too long since my last post! I'm happy to say that Chris and I went on our honeymoon last month. I got an amazing massage just before we left, which I think was the perfect start to a vacation! We had no computers and no cell phones. Lots of time outside, LOTS of sunscreen! My photo captions would suggest that we also had a lots to drink, but it wasn't as bad as it seems. But hey, who can resist a rum punch while lazily browsing stores on the streets of a Caribbean island?

Here's a link to my photo album:

St Thomas

florida or bust 2008

Our annual trip to Florida was delayed last year, so we headed down in March this Spring. The weather, to say the least, was much more favorable in March than it has been in August past years. The photos are samplings of all we did there this year.

One photo is of the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park, right in Tallahassee. It was a beautiful place we hadn't visited on previous trips. Seems like a hidden treasure of Tallahassee.

Chris and I also saw the Art & Science Center for the first time this year. Definitely a Daulton event, but we didn't realize until after we arrived.

A wonderful trip!

it snowed a LOT today

the snowball fight of 2008

Daulton has been grounded from video games for a while, so he's also been coming up with some great activity ideas. We finally had the time and snow to head outside and pummel each other with the cold white stuff. These photos are of the boys, but I will proudly say I took a lot of snow shoved in my face, thanks to Daulton, and I lived to tell about it.

don't fall in

we headed downtown to the art museum last Sunday. because we were so close we drove to the dock to see the frozen bay and ice fishermen. Daulton asked if we could drive to the opposite side on the peninsula, so we headed west. there is a new roller coaster going in down by the peninsula opening, and it actually crosses a bridge over the road, so it was neat to see the progress they had made. we got so far on the peninsula and I remembered how I had always wanted to walk on the bay, so we parked and followed some other non-icefishing people out onto the ice. Daulton and I walked out pretty far, Chris stayed back and took these photos.

After the bay we drove a little further and got out on the beach/lake side of the peninsula. We climbed on the ice dunes and Chris walked out pretty far into where the water would normally be. It looked like a whole different world! I couldn't believe the ice dunes, I've never seen them after all the years I've lived here. (We also realized after five or ten minutes that it probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but I managed to get some good photos while we were there.)

music in the evening

Chris's Christmas present this year was a keyboard, per his request. He and Daulton finally got it out the other night. We had talked about taking the apartment-size piano from my parents, but it has been sitting idle for a long time and no doubt needs a lot of tuning and attention. The keyboard also has an added bonus of working with headphones, so someone could play his/her heart out at 2 am if necessary.

Daulton has been increasingly disinterested in Tae Kwon Do, something that might be due to the fact that he's been doing it for many years and that it seems to be taking more of a 'serious' tone. Not being so competitive, he probably would be more into something that he didn't have to take so seriously.

He does have an A in Music right now, which I think says something considering his grade in Art is not the same. I've asked him before what instrument he would like to play if given the opportunity. He has said drums in the past but seems to be considering keyboard now that Chris has one. Michelle's roommate, Koreen, also got a keyboard not too long ago I think. But drums still seems to be the answer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure those can come with headphones!

that's one big kitty

Michelle took this photo of Daulton with her mancoon cat, Bailey. As you can tell, the cat is huge. I think it's funny because her other cat, Lacey, is so tiny she still looks like a kitten. I refer to them as 'extra-large' and 'extra-small'. Not really clever, but very fitting.