Joe got a package yesterday, so we tore into it. It was a Christmas gift from Aunt Shelly on the West Coast.

It’s perfect – he loves to jump and it matches his room, which is already dominated by the tent and tunnel Aunt Shelly sent in the past.

Thanks!

By Joe, with some help from his teacher:

… or a walker, or braces, or even shoes!

Joe is getting around on foot more and more these days. When he gets lazy and tries to crawl, we make him get back up again.

He’s a lot steadier with his braces on, but look how well he’s doing even with naked feet.

That’s our boy!

Joe’s Grandma and Grandpa traveled a long way to spend a couple of days with us. Lia as always was a wonderful hostess, and dinner as always was terrific. Happy Thanksgiving everyonel!

Grandpa hamming it up with Joe.

Grandma and Lia working on dinner. Typical picture of my beautiful but camera-shy mom.

The lot of us about to destroy some food. (Lola photo copyright 2012. All rights reserved.)

Lola’s been a daily nuisance for more than seven years. But other than getting in the way constantly and random, pointless barking, she’s really a good girl.

As she likes to say, “Has our house been broken into since I’ve been around? No? You’re welcome.”

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All we got from that storm was about two days of constant rain, and an occasional gust of wind. Even Lola was unimpressed, and she’s been known to shiver all night from weatherphobia.

But Joe’s school was closed Monday and Tuesday, so while Patrick was at work we came up with all kinds of ways to entertain ourselves here.

And a little music:

A few weeks ago, we went to New York to visit Patrick’s folks. We were just in time to see the leaves changing for fall — what a beautiful sight!

On the way up, we made stops in Pennsylvania to see Hershey Park and Gettysburg. A nice little family trip!

Patrick was out of town last week for work, so once we got him back home and had a sunny, not-too-hot Sunday to kick around, we decided to go to Busch Gardens for a family fun day.