MERRY CHRISTMAS

We put in a good word with Santa for all of our friends and family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! (...and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PUMPKIN CARVING

It's the night before Halloween and around here, that means it's pumpkin carving time. Here are the end results of tonights efforts.

You'll never guess who did this one!

Okay...I guess he just confessed!

...and here's Anne's pumpkin...

...and Steve's pumpkin.

Rebecca wasn't able to be here this time, but she wasn't forgotten during the festivities!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

BOO!

Catching Up - Erik's Extended Birthday

With the business of September as back to school time, we can't forget Erik's birthday. This year Erik turned 15 and seeing how he's grown and listening to his voice get lower and lower, it's easy to believe that he's 15. Here Erik's is blowing out the candles on his cake. (We had to go to instant replay to determine whether or not he got the last candle with the first breath. Upon further review, we'll give it to him!) The horses on Erik's cake represented our horseback riding adventure on vacation, the first time that Anne, Rebecca and Erik had ever been on a real horseback ride. (Not counting supervised pony rides as kids!)

One of Erik's gifts was a metal detector. Now all he needs is a pair of bermuda shorts and a bucket hat and he'd fit right in at any beach!

Then a couple of weeks after his actual birthday, Erik and a couple of friends celebrated by visiting the Davis Mega Maze in Sterling, MA. This enormous maze is made up almost entirely of a carved out corn field, with some wooden platforms added in for fun. It's an incredible engineering feat to put this thing together.

Erik and his friends wandered the maze for two hours, playing games inside for clues to where they needed to go. After those two hours, they came out smiling.

So for one last time...HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY ERIK!

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Tuesday, September 7, was the first day of school for North Reading schools, which means that it was also the first day of Erik's Freshman year in high school. Erik has a full load of honors level courses, so he's going to be kept busy, but we're confident that he's going to do a good job. In case you can't tell from the picture, Erik has been doing a lot of growing lately. He's up to 5'6" in height, so he's blown by his Mom and Rebecca. He's excited about high school and among other things, plans to get involved in the school's drama program. (We always knew he was a ham!)

After moving in to her new dorm on Thursday, September 2, Rebecca finally started classes on Wednesday, September 8. She was very ready for classes to begin by the time they actually did start. To celebrate the first day of school, Rebecca and a number of other Northeastern students attended the Red Sox game that night, where they got to see the Red Sox beat up on the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 11-5, including 5 homers for the Red Sox.

Don't forget to keep those cards, letters, etc. coming to Rebecca. Her address is:

Rebecca Hansen

#8382

1155 Tremont St.

Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120

NICE DAY FOR A HIKE!

It was a beautiful late-summer New England day, so we decided to get out for a hike. The three of us, minus our college student, ventured out to Mt. Wachusett, where Steve & Erik had gone on a school-related hike last fall.

We watched our trail map closely and managed to avoid getting lost on our way to the summit. The trails were also well marked.

Once at the top, Steve & Erik pointed out the way to Boston, which was visible in the distance.

Then, before departing the summit, we took a moment to call Rebecca and say "Hi!" She was with us the whole day though, because Steve was wearing his Northeastern Huskies hat.

If anyone would like to send Rebecca a little mail, here's her school address. (Make sure you address it exactly as you see here, as their mail service can be a little odd, so we're told.)

Rebecca Hansen

#8382

1155 Tremont St.

Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY MOVING IN DAY

Today was the big day...moving in day at Northeastern University. Our daughter is now officially a college freshman. Gulp!

Rebecca did a nice job of shopping and keep her essentials to a respectable amount. We easily fit everything into the minivan in one trip.

We arrived, parked in the designated area and were loaned this big yellow hopper. It really came in handy and we were able to get most of Rebecca's stuff into it, leaving only a little extra to carry. The four of us got it all in one trip!

After going through the time-consuming process of registering, signing in and all, we finally made our way to Rebecca's new dorm room.

The room isn't huge, but there's enough room for her and her new roommate (Marissa) to fit their things in and have some space. The chests of drawers under the beds are a nice touch. Each of them also has a desk and a closet.

Rebecca and Marissa also have their own sink in their room, but they share a bathroom (toilet and shower) with the two girls in the next room. The bathroom is between their two rooms, accessible from within their room. Four girls and one bathroom? We'll see how this goes! The sink in each room will certainly help.

In a fairly short time, Anne and Rebecca had everything unloaded and put away. Marissa showed up a little after us and she and her family also got her squared away very quickly.

After we got Rebecca all squared away in her room, we walked to the campus bookstore to pick up a couple of little things that Rebecca wanted/needed for the room. After that, we said our goodbyes and headed out into Boston rush hour traffic.

Today is a big day and a big first step for Rebecca, but we already miss her! We're thankful that Northeastern is only about 30-45 minutes from home (depending on traffic) so that she won't be too far away to visit...OFTEN! We're very proud!