Christmas in Corpus, Christi 2006 with Gail, Grandpa Billy, and Aunt Claire was lots of fun! This was the first Christmas in Gail and Grandpa Billy's new house. The had a beautiful 9 ft tree. While we were in Corpus, we went to the new addition of the art museum which was very beautiful and designed by an architect from Mexico. We also went to lunch at Water Street Oyster Bar - one of the Huie's famous haunts for oysters on the half shell. Ethan and I passed on the oysters, but still had lots of fun doing the word search on the kids menu. Ethan is really into world records these days, and during lunch he imagined a world record word seach that would cover the entire world and people would have one year to complete it. Here are some pictures of the museum (Ethan is using his new digital camera) and our lunch at Water Street. After lunch we all headed for a walk on the bay and to visit the replica of the Columbus ship the Nina on the T-Heads. Here is the gang by the ship and another picture of Ethan and me outside of the museum. While we were in Corpus we had the opportunity to go to the beach with Ginger and Holly one morning. We found a strech of beach with no one else around and let the dogs run loose. Ginger loves to run in the water and so does Holly. We all had a great time at the beach. This time Holly did not drink the salt water!! Ethan got to practice real golf (as opposed to mini golf) on the course behind G&G Billy's house. Ethan has a putter at the house and went out with mom and dad for some practice shots. Ethan did a great job, but mom was the real suprise - a perfect hole in one! We also took some time out to feed the ducks in the golf course pond. I am going to finish up the story of Christmas in Corpus 2006 in Part II - stay tuned.

Christmas trees and air guitar ... We went to get our Christmas tree last week. We picked out a 6 ft frasier fur tree. At the christmas tree tent, Ethan challenged one of the men to stand on the Christmas tree shaker after they strapped the tree on the car. The man happily accepted the challenge - it was quite a sight. After getting the tree, we went home and had a small tree decorating party with appetizers and champagne (lemonade for Ethan). Ethan topped the tree off with the gold star. We will actually be spending Christmas in Corpus this year, but we like to decorate a tree at home as well. Here are some pictures from the evening. Oh - air guitar ... Last night Ethan was supposed to be brushing his teeth after his bath. I walked into the bathroom to find a boy in underwear only with wet hair sticking up atop his head and strumming an imaginary guitar as if he were some sort of a rock star. I asked him if he knew what that was called and he replied "air guitar." I asked him "how do you you know what air guitar is?" His response was "I play it in theater arts class."

This Thanksgiving 2006 we went to Phoenix to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bond and Great Grandma and Grandpa Bond. The weather was perfect and we had lots of fun. We spent our days taking walks in the foothills surrounding Grandpa Bond's and playing a miniature pool set. We also set out to hike up Silly Mountain here are some pictures of us on our hike. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast prepared by Grandma Leanna complete with vegetarian stuffing - yummy! On Saturday we headed for Canyon Lake and rented a pontoon boat. Canyon lake is beautiful and by boat is definitely the best way to admire the beauty of the stunning canyon walls. Here are a few more pictures of the group from our trip - a picture of Ethan and Grandma Leanna on the boat and a picture of Ethan with his Great Grandparents on the boat.

I recently came across some digital pictures from when Ethan was first born and shortly thereafter when we were living in Maryland. He sure has grown a lot. It is really amazing how time passes. He was about 5 months in the picture where he is sitting up with the blocks. This morning he was asking me how old he had to be "to have a girlfriend" - and he's only five. He was also making a very cute pitch at dinner last night for a Nintendo DS - what happened to Winnie the Pooh?

Ethan had his first trip to NYC this year - November 2006. Ethan went to cheer mom on as she ran the New York City Marathon. We met grandma Sharon from Florida, Gail and Grandpa Billy, and Aunt Claire in NYC. Ethan had a lot of firsts on this trip. After arriving at the airport, Ethan had his first Taxi ride! Ethan visited Central Park - during the marathon. The photo at the top was taken just after mom finished running right outside of Central Park. Ethan visited the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. We also went ice skating in Rockefellar Center! Ethan seems to have perfected the art of ice running. He zoomed around the rink somehow running on his skates - everyone had a great time - especially grandma! After skating, mom, Grandma, and Ethan took a bicycle taxi back to the hotel to dry off -that was a real treat!
We also visited the top of the Empire State Building. As we were looking at the skyline point out the sights - statue of liberty - chrysler Building - Roosevelt Island - etc.. Ethan yells "look I see McDonalds!" Here he is pointing out "the Golden Arches." Ethan also took several subway rides on this trip. It was a great experience for everyone.

Halloween 2006 - This year Ethan was a Ninja. I think he wanted to be a Ninja just to have an excuse to carry a big plastic sword around. He has also been going around the house asking me to hold various objects such as either end of a popsicle stick or a twisted piece of paper and "karate chopping" it. Here is a picture of Ethan in his costume with his friend Zane. Ethan went trick-or-treating with William and me and Zane's dad - later in the evening we were joined by a friend from Ethan's class and her mom. Two of Ethan's older friends also went with us. Before we went out trick-or-treating I coached the kids about saying "trick-or-treat" once the door was opened and "thank you, happy halloween" after they received their candy. As the night went on this turned into the kids running up to each door and saying "trick-or-treat, happy halloween, and thank you!" before the person had even grabbed the candy bowl. It was actually quite funny and usually got a big laugh from the candy giver. Here is a picture of Ethan and Dad playing Ninja...

This year we went to three Halloween Carnivals. One at Ethan's school, one at the YMCA, and one at Ethan's friend Henry's school. At Ethan's school carnival, he got his hair spray painted green, red, and silver. He also got to climb the climbing wall which was a little scary for him ...

Ethan read his first book this week (9/19/06)! The book is 32 pages long and is a beginning reader called "Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill." Here he is at home with the book. We are very proud of him!

This summer Ethan and I went to Magic Kingdom with grandma for a few days. We stayed at the All Star Movie Resort and had a wonderful time. It was extremely hot, and we all agreed that going in the fall would be much better in the future. However, grandma came prepared with some water misting fans that helped with the heat. Ethan's favorite rides were the race cars, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority elevated train, and buzz lightyear. He also really liked Stich's Great Escape. Here is a picture of Ethan on the race car ride - notice he is driving! Ethan is also pictured on a car outside of our hotel room. The first evening of our trip we had a great buffet dinner at the Crystal Palace where Ethan got to personally meet each of the characters from Winnie the Pooh. Here is a picture of the gang - After dinner and more rides, we found our places for the 10:00 pm light parade. The parade was a sight to see. One of the suprises about Disney was the entertainment before the parade. The Disney staff entertained the kids with old fashioned games such as jump rope. Ethan played with several other kids for more than an hour throwing a football into an inflatable net. It was really a nice site. He had a great time. The second evening we took a boat to the Disney Campground (Fort Wilderness) on a island in Lake Buena Vista. Here we prepared for a barbecue and country sing along show with all of the Disney characters. Ethan and grandma hit the dance floor! Here is a picture of grandma teaching Ethan a few moves. It was amazing all of the different types of experiences you could have a Disney from rides to hiking on Tom Sawyer Island to taking a boat to a campground for a barbecue.

Here is the picture of the boat we took to the barbecue. We got seats near the front! Here is a picture of grandma and Ethan - tired after a long and exciting day at Disney.
After we arrived back in Clearwater from our trip to Disney, Grandpa Ed and Ethan went out for a bike ride in the neighborhood. Ethan also got invited to explore a fire truck that was in the neighborhood. He got to honk the horn and listen to the firemen talk through the headphones. We had a great trip and look forward to our next visit!!

It has been quite a while since I have posted, so it is time to catch up. Ethan turned five this summer. We had the birthday party at our house and the theme was hotwheels. Mr. Smarty Pants the balloon magician and comedy artist did a show for Ethan and his friends. The big surprise was that Mr. Smarty pants brought Ethan a kid sized race car made of balloons. The other treat was that Grandma Leanna and Grandpa Bond were in town to help celebrate Ethan's birthday!


A few months after Ethan's birthday, he lost his first tooth (May 06). In June, Ethan graduated from montessori school. Here is a picture of Ethan with his diploma and "graduation hat" as he calls it. In August Ethan started kindergarten at a local elementary school. He is enjoying being in a big kid school. He also loves the cafeteria where he usually eats pizza every day. (Hopefully he will grow out of this soon).



We made several trips to corpus this summer and one trip to Disney World in Orlando with Grandma. I will do a separate post for the trip to Disney. Here are some pictures of Ethan and dad having fun on the beach and on the slip and slide at Gail and Grandpa Billy's house in Corpus.

Christmas in Corpus Christi 2005 with Gail, Grandpa Billy, and Aunt Claire was lots of fun. We also had the four dogs Ginger and Holly and Gail and Grandpa Billy's two dogs Pico and Honey. Gail and Granpa Billy are getting ready to move into their new house in a few weeks, so we made a number of trips to check the progress on the renovations. The new house has a big playscape in the backyard
and some kids next door, so it should be lots of fun for Ethan. Even though we were not in Corpus on Christmas day, we planned our own Christmas morning celebration. This year Gail decorated the house with a great blinking snowman display. Ethan gots lots of neat toys for Christmas. One of the toys was a giant castle complete with horses, knights, a drawbridge, and a catapult. He also got a remote control Hummer and a hot wheel track from his great grandma and grandpa Baevich in San Antonio. Aunt Claire got Ethan a bug catching and collecting kit. We are looking forward to our next trip to Corpus to see the new house and to go to the beach of course!

Thanksgiving 2005 was a great one! We had the opportunity to spend an evening with my grandparents and Ethan's great grandparents in San Antonio. Ethan loved eating tangerines off grandma Baevich's tree and playing ball with them (that got a little messy). Ethan also got to visit with his Cousin Joseph while we were in San Antonio and that was a real treat. After our visit in San Antonio we headed for Phoenix for a Bond family reunion of sorts. It was really great. We definitely do not see the Bond family enough. Here is a picture of the group.
The real highlight of our trip to Phoenix was Ethan getting to meet and play with his cousin Torrey. We had lots of fun going on hikes on the "mountains" behind Grandpa Bond's house. The boys also had a great time at the Christmas festival where their favorite attraction was the super slide! Here are some pictures of Torrey and Ethan going down the Super Slide. The boys also enjoyed making crafts that Grandma Leanna provided for them. Ethan and Torrey decorated the bread basket with turkey feathers and later in the week Ethan, Mom, and Grandma Leanna made sock puppets and put on a production of the Tortise and the Hare during a car ride.
After Thanksgiving, we went to see the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. The whole zoo was lit up and it looked beautiful. We really had a great time going to Zoo Lights. One picture of the Zoo lights is below. We are definitely looking forward to our next visit!