Our Christmas Zoo Trip

We had a great time -- the day after Christmas, cool temps, zero crowds, and the animals were all out and about. We saw gorillas eating, lions roaring and giraffes scampering about.
> See the fun.

Catching up on posting pics

Here are some shots of the guys enjoying some playtime at home during their two-week Christmas break.
> The Guys

Hiking at Wild Basin

Last weekend we took advantage of the nice weather for a cool Saturday morning hike over at Wild Basin. Will wore the hand-me-down hiking boots from Julia for the first time and did great. Dave enjoyed the ride.
>See the fun.

Will at Four

With the birthday party planning hitting full speed for the Big Oh-4 birthday, it's time for the annual review of how Will has evolved over the last year.

Halloween!

I'll let the video cover it:

Another weekend, come and gone

Another busy weekend here at the Moran house. Saturday morning we were up early for Mary to go to the hospital for a few hours for a class she's teaching. Then she returned and we all headed over for Will's soccer game. Not his best game by far, for most of the game, Will seemed to be going the wrong way or watching the game from afar, or engaging in strange new behavior like running to the goal to play goalie. There are no goalies in his league.

After the game we headed back to watch Noah while his parents went to the UT game. It was fun to have a seven month-old in the house, but made us remember how we've come beyond things like bottles and random toppling over from a sitting position.

Today was all about pumpkins. After going back and forth about taking a trip out to Marble Falls to a farm with a pumpkin patch, ended up opting for the more simple route and hit a church patch for the yearly photos. As with last year, it was a frustrating experience to get two kids to look happy and normal at the same time in one photo.

Then tonight at home, we chopped up one of the pumpkins. Mary handled the bulk of the extraction of the innards, and I made the spooky face requested by Will for the last week. It was spooky enough that when we cut all the lights for the viewing, David seemed pretty concerned about getting close to it. My weird slow shutter and flash experiments help it look even more spooky.

See it all here!

Halloween is coming

It's quickly approaching. We've been asking Will for the last few weeks what he wants to be for Halloween, and he's gone through a variety of ideas (bat, lion, bear), but seems to have locked on being a T-Rex. We've done some web searching and seen the six different dino costumes that all places seem to have for sale. Clearly they are made for kids living north of the Arctic Circle, because they look to be very well insulated. I think we'll be making a costume again this year. We're considering both Will and David being dinos, so maybe we'll save a little by building in bulk. Should make for some late nights.

Friday Mary went with Will's class to a pumpkin patch. Looks like it was a good time among the squash. Click here for the pics.

Will's Second Soccer Game

Looks like the one practice in between games didn't do much for the Sharks. Saturday's effort against the Rockets was about the same as the previous game. The other team this time though was much more aggressive -- to the point that the ref cautioned them several times about pushing people, even other players on their team. Plus, they had enough kids to field two complete units -- the orange team and the purple team. Both had a supply of ringers.

Will was still emotional in the first half when he was scored on. Plus, he got kicked in the arm and rear, which he didn't like. He showed some more of that speed, with some good closing and defensive efforts, including a big block to a shot on the goal, which means a lot in a league without goalies.

See the Game two pics.