Great Grandma Beard Visit.

Thanks to Uncle Steve my grandmother was able to come and spend a couple days with us last weekend. I know the kids loved having her here and I am sure that the little break was good for her. She came down Friday night and left Sunday morning and there was a lot going on in between. Friday night was Maddux's end of the year baseball party so we got to just hang out with the kids and their families and enjoy the evening. I was a little upset because it was also suppose to be Maddux's last baseball game but we had rain earlier in the day and so they cancelled the game. I wish that she could have seen him play in person. Then on Saturday we took her downtown and went and walked around the pier down by the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It was a great day and perfect for just walking around. Then Brooklyn was dying to take her to the Backyard Preserve here in Strongsville and take her on all the trails. That was the first time that Jennie or I had been there and it was quite a fun little trail. Not too long and perfect to take the kids along. If you are even in Strongsville we will have to take you on it. We then finished the night off with some ice cream and went to bed. It was a very busy couple of days and we were happy that she could make it up and spend some time with us. I hope she enjoyed it just as much as we did. Here are some pictures from her visit and a couple of Maddux with his trophy.


Brooklyn, Maddux and Nolan in front of the Cleveland backdrop.


The kids standing on the pier with the lighthouse in the background.


This is how Payton spent the afternoon.


They have a little grass area where the kids can play and run and ours decided to have races to the top and back.


Maddux thought the race was a little too easy so he decided to add a little flare to it and added a somersault on his way back. It was totally hilarious because he did it on his own and just pulled it out.


Great grandma Beard with the Beard grandkids.


Brooklyn, Maddux and Nolan in front of a giant daisy flower at the Backyard Preserve.


Jennie, Great Grandma and the kids on a bench along the trail.


Ted, Great Grandma and the kids on the same bench.


Nolan hiking on the trail in the middle of the woods.


The kids hanging out on a bridge along the trail.


You have to love Payton's facial expression on this one. This was towards the end of the trip and I think she was getting a little restless from being in the stroller all day.


What a cute family.


The boys skipping some rocks. We need to work on Maddux's technique as he was throwing them like a Frisbee and it didn't work quite so well.


Payton's view of things. Poor little girl spent most of the day in her stroller.


The trails were right next to Safety Town where Maddux spent the previous week learning about safety. Since I couldn't make it during the day to take pictures we took some that night. They have all the kids attend this for a week before Kindergarten and teach them about safety. They get to go to the police and fire station and learn what goes on. It is really a cool little program and the kids love it.


Maddux and Nolan waiting for the girls to get back.

Once again I love the expression on Nolan's face. He makes some of the cutest and funniest faces I have ever seen.


Another good picture with Great grandma Beard.


One of the parents on the baseball team decided to buy all the kids trophies for the end of the season.


Maddux was very happy to have a trophy even though Jennie thinks they are overrated and shouldn't be given to kids just because. I say whatever makes them happy and there is no harm in rewarding a kid for development and progress through his first year of organized baseball.

Well this may be the last post for awhile as we are off to Florida tomorrow for ten days and will have limited access to blogging. I will make sure that I get some good pictures up when we get back. We are looking forward to having a lot of fun and spending time with Jennie's family. We did this trip three years ago and it was one of the best vacations that we have been on. We are very excited.

Happy 1st Birthday Payton Marie Beard!!

Well yesterday our little girl turned 1. It is amazing at how fast the time goes by. To celebrate the day we went over to Greg and Tacie's house and had a little BBQ followed by some cake and presents. Cannons birthday was Saturday so it was a double celebration with the grandparents and cousins. The kids love to spend time with their cousins. As you can see Payton is crawling and is all over the place. She is standing and walking around furniture and has become quite mobile over the last month or so. It is good that she is finally starting to get around on her own but at the same time she is also starting to get into things. She loves to open cabinet doors and bang them closed. I guess you have to take the bad with the good.


Here is all the kids with their Ohio cousins (minus Cambrie). We were also fortunate that Alyssa was in town and could stop by to see all the kids.


The aftermath of Payton having her own cake. This is about the time that she figured out that she wasn't a big fan of all the mess. It was ok while she was eating it but once she realized she had frosting all over her hands she wasn't as happy. I guess she takes after her dad.


If you are going to have your thumb in your mouth this is the way to do it. She is not a thumb sucker but if you put some frosting on it then that's a different story.


Just getting started.


Here are Cannon and Payton blowing out the candles with Jennie and Nolan's help. Payton wasn't quite sure what to do and actually tried to grab the flame with her hands. If you look close enough you will see that Jennie is just barely avoiding an accident. Her hair is awfully close to that flame.


Cannon shielding Nolan from blowing all the candles out. He loves to blow out the candles not matter whose they are.


Payton standing up with Uncle Greg.


Opening some presents with mommy. I love the expression on Nolan's face. He is more excited than anyone to open the presents and was very willing to help Payton.


Payton wasn't quite sure what to do with the presents but Nolan and Kenzie quickly showed her how it was done.


These pictures were from the night before and I love them because they show Payton's smile and all her teeth. She has eight teeth total right now; four on top and four on bottom.


She loves to be thrown up in the air and caught on the way down. She will get the biggest smile and giggle the whole time.

We thank you to all of those who helped us celebrate Payton's birthday and wish that you could have all been here to celebrate. We are grateful to have some family around us and just wish that you could all be here. Payton, we love you and are glad that you are a part of our family.

Great Grandma Elaine

We were sad to see Great Grandma Elaine go back home to California this past week and hope that everything works out for the best. We loved having her around for that last 15 months and feel lucky to have had her so close. I know that she loved spending time with the great grandkids, especially Payton and Cambrie, and I am sure the kids liked having her around as well. We will miss her and wish her well in her new environment. Here are a couple pictures from her last night her with the kids.


Great Grandma Elaine with Payton and Cambrie. If you look at these pictures you will notice that the biggest smile on her face is with the babies. She loved to spend time with them and you could see it on her face. She was always wanting to hold them or watch after them. She just wanted to be around them.


Here she is with Jennie and Payton.


Great Grandma with Jennie and all the Beard great grandkids. I still remember her coming over and helping the kids write all their Valentine Day cards to their friends. She probably sat at the table for an hour and wrote out all of Maddux's.


Great Grandma with all the Beard grandkids. Notice that in most of the pictures she is the one holding Payton. Once she got a hold of her she did not want to give her up.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Great Grandma Elaine as she adapts to her new settings and her new home in California.

Up, Up, and Away; Finally!!

By popular demand here are the pictures from our hot air balloon ride. We had the picture evening with some sun and just enough wind to carry us around. I have to admit that I was a little pissed when they showed up and there were 2 other couples waiting to go as well. I was expecting it to just be us and the pilot but after the flight was over I realized that with just the two of us we wouldn't have had enough weight in the balloon and it would have made things a little more difficult. The basket really wasn't that big which made for a nice cozy ride. It was a great time and I would recommend that everyone do it at least once. It was a lot smoother than I had anticipated and it is a great way to take in the scenery.

We took off from a park in the middle of town and you should have seen all the kids and people watching. I am sure to a little kid that would probably be one of the coolest things to see, heck it probably was for the adults as well. One of the other guys and myself got to help set the balloon up which is quite a process. The balloon itself is probably 50 to 60 feet long when all stretched out and they use two huge fans to blow it up. Me and another guy had to hold the edges of the balloon up so the wind could blow into the balloon and inflate it. It wasn't too bad at first but as more and more air got in the balloon and it started to rise we really had to put some muscle and weight into it to keep it from whipping around. There were a couple of times that I didn't think I would be able to hold it. Once the balloon was inflated we held the balloon down while the other four hopped in and then it was our turn. As soon as I got in they unclip the balloon from the trailer and we were off.

The ride lasted about an hour and a half and we went a little under 10 miles. It was a lot smoother than I had anticipated and really was a great time. It is amazing to see the various towns and countryside from that angle. It is kind of funny because you really don't steer the balloon but instead just ride with the wind current. You can go up and down at will but had no control over the direction. Then you just try to find an open field and land where ever you can. We actually landed in some guys back yard which he didn't mind at all. I would say that there were probably 30 people around the balloon within 3 minutes of us landing just wanting to check it out. It is funny to watch all the people on the ground watching the balloon fly over. Cars would stop on the road and just watch. We had people all over waving and taking pictures as we passed. I would definitely recommend that you at least try it once. It was really a great way to spend an evening.


Here is the very beginning of the balloon starting to blow up.


At this point it still wasn't too bad. You can see the big fans that blew the air inside to inflate the balloon.


This is when things started to get a little tougher. As the balloon inflated and started to lift into the breeze it was all we could do to hold on. The actually had the balloon tied to the suburban and trailer to help keep it down while we got in.


This is from inside the basket looking up into the balloon. I guess you can design your balloon however you want it. They send you a sketch of the balloon, you color it how you want it, and then create it to your style. The guy was saying these balloons cost about $45,000 a piece and only last about 3 years on average.


Look at that mug. Almost takes up the whole picture.


Just one word, BEAUTIFUL!!


Awe, look at that cute couple.


The shadow of the balloon.


This is the park that we took off from. All the kids were so excited and everyone was waving. This is probably the highest that we got as we climbed to about 1200 feet right away. The rest of the time we probably stayed between 600 - 700 feet.


There were some amazing views from up above.


There were a couple other balloons up with us down south. This was the first time that our pilot had seen another balloon up at the same time. This is about as close as we got to them.


This is the chase car following us to pick us up once landed. It was amazing because no more than 2 minutes after we landed they were right there to pick us up. We traveled about 9.6 miles in the balloon and they traveled about 15 following us. They did a really good job at keeping up.


This is the field that Jennie played on during an All-Star game in high school. Kind of cool to see that and good memory for her to remember. I am sure that she dominated, or that is at least what she will tell you.


Here is a big buck just hiding from all the commotion. Every other animal we came across took off running but this guy just stayed in his spot and tried to hide.


The balloons reflection in the river below. Kind of a cool picture.


Here is a hawk that was flying below us.


Here is the first place that we were going to try and land but we spotted these two huge bulls and decided to go elsewhere. They won't land the balloon anywhere near animals as the sound tends to scare them off.


Back safely on the ground. The land was a little bumpy but surprising not too bad. There are a couple of jumps and skips and then you are down. The very end was pretty neat as they just pull the middle of the balloon in and the whole thing just collapses. It only took a minute or so and it was done.


Happy to have landed safely. It was amazing at how quickly they got everything put away. I bet everything was wrapped and loaded in under 5 minutes. I guess it also helps to have 6 passengers helping.


This is how they but the balloon away. Stuff it in a huge bag and have everyone sit on it to get all the air out. I think it is just an excuse to sit down on the job.

So the ride was a blast and definitely worth the wait. It would have been much better had my plan gone accordingly but we will take it. If you ever get the chance take a ride and enjoy the view. Next we are going to have to bungee jump or maybe even sky dive. I think I may be able to talk Jennie into it. Always wanted to try it. Should be a lot of fun.