Halloween '06

Happy Halloween!
We had 11 kids this year. WooHooo!!!

Monkey Laynie!!

Zoey didn't do too bad with her bat wings on, cute little thing!

Channel 4 News Team
(Champ Kind, Veronica Corningstone, Ron Burgandy and Brick Tamland)

Pete and Anne (Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox)

Eric (Turbo-American Gladiator) Liz (Mary Catherine Gallaghar)

Mel as the Mystic Mummy...we almost used her as toliet paper!!

Vahn-pire. That's Eric's boxer, Vahn. He was so good the night of the party.

Trautman Cousins

I can't leave these guys out too. They were here from California in August. We had a great time. We went to the Science Museum of Minnesota and saw the BodyWorlds exhibit. We went to the Mall of America for school clothes. WoW, clothes are expensive and have very little fabric to them these days. I guess I like my good old Gander Mountain gear, target tees and Walmart jeans (haa haa).

Alicia and Heather at the Mall of America. It was pretty exciting for them. They got to tell all their jealous friends back home in CA that they went shopping.

If you look close, you will see my Aunt Rozy screaming. She's the one in white between the two girls. The funny thing is, the ride hadn't started yet.

We also went on some rides at Camp Snoopy. We rode the Log water flume, the RipSaw Rollercoaster and they went on the Mighty Axe. Next time we'll have to do 2 days and see more of it.

Trying on some crazy hats with their mom, my aunt Rozy.

Here's Alicia deciding between the $90 pair of jeans and the $120 pair that were ON SALE!!! That's right, on sale!

The girls got a ride on Jason's Harley. Here's Roz, about to embark on her ride around the block at mock speed. She loved it!!

Nordmeyer Cousins

I will catch you up with the story of my Nordmeyer side of my family. My dad had one brother named Don. He passed away in April of 91. He was 11 years older than my dad and had always lived in the southeast (Tenn, West Virginia, Virginia, Arkansas-being the last place) He was married to my Aunt Carol (who is from Tennesee) and they had 4 kids; Penny, Patrick, Pamela and Paul. The last time I saw my cousins, the younger 2 (Pam and Paul) I was probably ~10 yrs old. Paul and I are the same age, he's ~4 months older. Pam is 3 yrs older then Jason. I met my 2 older cousins (Penny and Pat) but I was maybe a year old, so I don't remember them. I only remember them through pictures and stories. They are all that we have left of my dad's immediate family. My Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Don all passed away in a 4 year time span. Man that was damn hard. So you can only imagine the overwhelming excitment,happiness, sadness,anxiety that we were all feeling about this much needed trip to see them after all these years.
It wasn't but maybe 3 years ago that my dad got a christmas card from my cousin Penny. She is one tough Mama, taking names and kicking ass....LOVE IT!! She looks and reminds me of my Grandma, so does Pam. They are both so beautiful. Anywho, her card really woke us up to the fact that it had been way too damn long and there was no more excuses not to get together. So there began the planning for our Arkansas trip. It was way too short (as all trips are), but we loved every minute of the time we had together. It was the hardest thing to leave that house and wave goodbye, I already miss them so much. I wanted to spend more time, but we'll have to see about a Minnesota trip for them, maybe next year!! Here's hoping!! Enjoy some pictures.


My cousin Penny and her two kids, Timothy and Tabitha.


My cousin Pat and his wife Kim. They have Briana (with boyfriend Wes) and Jenny (with her boyfriend/fiance Dale and their little girl, Aliya)

My cousin Pam and her son Devin. He is such a little gentleman, he's quite the sports fan.

And here's Paul with his little son, Michael. He is a spitting image of his daddy.

Here are the 6 cousins; Jason, Aimee, Pat, Paul, Pam and Penny. So good lookin'!!

Here is my Aunt Carol with the kids.


This is Carol's sister Anna, her husband, David and their little grandson, Ryan.

Hey Y'all

Yee haw!! We are finishing up a wonderful time on our family vacation (as you may or may not be keeping tabs on over at Mikey B's blog, if you haven't-what's wrong with you?)
Anywho, I'm going to do my own version, the long version of our trip (as us women always like to write novels). Hope you enjoy! I'll break it up a bit.


Here we are having lunch on the road in Funks Grove, IL. Thanks Mom for the samwitches, they were yummy. This is where we saw all the weird animals that were being walked (see Mikey's blog)


Eating delicious Nibs in the truck waiting for the damn train that was about 8 years long. Jason got stuck on the other side of the tracks, we didn't want to lose him getting to the arch.




Yeah! Pictures at the Arch. We waiting in line to go underground to the giftshop/museum area. We went through metal detectors and our bags/cameras/phones did as well too. I had to take my belt off and show them my lower legs...yep, the found the grenade launcher...poo!


Cotton fields of Arkansas. It was pretty interesting, atleast to those of us who have never before seen cotton fields. It's the fabric of our lives! It lined the roadsides like snow in some areas.

My question to mother time: why is it that it always takes longer to get to your vacation destination and shorter to get back to reality??