Last month while all the various family members were visiting, we decided to go to the Rebsamen Park soccer fields and fly a kite. It turned out to be a beautiful day - clear and windy - perfect for our objective. It was also quite COLD!!! We had a veritable crowd for the expedition ... left to right, Audrey (Nick's Mom), Art, Mark and my Mom [aka Mamo]. My Dad [aka Papa] & Brandon are in the background building the kite. Papa set up shop on the perimeter wall and began the kite assembly process.

While Papa was working on the kite, Nick and Laedyn were out on the soccer fields running off some pre-kite flight steam. Laedyn was pretty pleased with herself for having gained possession of the "moon & star" ball.This shot was just too cute to pass up (in my humble & unbiased opinion...)Mamo settled into a bagchair with her Nikon and a warm jacket to observe. It was pretty darn chilly down by the river that afternoon & the wind, although great for our planned activities, made it extra shivery.Brandon waited impatiently as the grown up male folk decided the best method of getting the kite aloft. Laedyn wasn't quite sure what everyone was doing, but was interested none the less. She always wants to be in the middle of everything. Nick made the first attempt at flying the kite. Not bad! Everybody stepped back to give Brandon some room to fly solo. Much higher than Daddy!
Brandon quickly figured it all out and made it look easy! The kite made two escape attempts. The first time the string broke, Nick chased it to it's landing area at the far end of the soccer fields. Dad & I reeled the string back in, unknotted some the tangled mess it had become, and tied some hefty knots in it before reattaching it to the kite. Alas - our knotting was to no avail. The minute the kite got some good altitude going the string snapped again. This time, the kite had some serious escape plans. Nick had to go on the other side of a tall chain link fence and trek through dense underbrush to make a recovery.

In the end Nick saved the kite ... yeah Nick! Brandon was disappointed he couldn't join Nick on the other side of the fence, but was happy to get his kite back.

Our obsession with Mariocart Wii has seriously cut into any spare time I might have otherwise devoted to updating this blog... So - here's a little evidence of our addiction!

While Nick was playing, Brandon helped me put out Christmas decorations. This is the ONLY picture I took of any decorating we did. I'll take some completed pictures later, but otherwise - that's it.