Halloween

 This is the Jack-o-lantern Lauren carved - she didn't cut it out hoping that when a light was lit it would shine through.  But the walls of the pumpkin were way too thick to see a tiny tea light.  She carved a measure of music.

 Our traditional Halloween dinner!

 Pizza with a jack-o-lantern face on it. 

The kind of pizza can vary from year to year, but the face is always there.

 Every kid's favorite - Jello Jigglers!

 Heck, we even threw in a salad for a little bit of nutrition!

 And we ALWAYS have sugar cookies shaped like pumpkins, bats, and ghosts!

 

 Here's what my jack-o-lantern looked like.  Why the HUGE nose you ask.  Well it's because I carved the pumpkin that Lauren had used for an activity with her church group on Tuesday night.  They played pin the nose on the pumpkin and she had drawn a bulls eye with rings around it with points.  So when I carved the pumpkin I just followed the face she'd already drawn on it with Sharpie the Tuesday before.

 

Here's what Lauren's looked like all lit up!

Unfortunately it was rainy and cold here for Halloween so we didn't end up having many trick-or-treaters.  Now we have a lot of left-over candy.  Darn!

Hand Bell Concert at Maplewood Nursing Home

The Scotia Reformed Church Hand Bell Choir performed at the Maplewood Nursing Home.  After the performance we took a picture of Sally Radz.  She is a member of my church congregation who lives in the nursing home.  Nancy Crapo, Julie Andrew, Camille Mairs and I gathered around her.  We were all in the Glenville Ward when Sally was in her own home.  It was good to see her!

First Concert of the School Year

We went to our first concert of the new school year.  Lauren is first chair flute (way to go Lauren) in the Concert Band and 2nd chair saxophone in the Symphonic Band (not bad considering she just started playing the sax this summer).  We also heard the Mixed Choir, the Concert Choir, and the Orchestra.  I love seeing the kids play and sing and hearing all that hard work come together!  What a talented bunch of kids!

Some of Lauren's Senior Pictures

My Crazy Family

I ran across this picture while looking for photos that Lauren could submit to the yearbook along with her senior photo. I just couldn't help posting this. It's from August 28, 2006.  What a crazy bunch!

If you look closely you'll see that they've all stuffed their lips with grapes!

The Piano Guys

 Saturday night we went to see The Piano Guys.  It was fantastic!  We bought our tickets from a friend who ended up not being able to go - and she had great tickets!

 When the concert started I asked Lauren if she thought Jon Schmidt would play "All of Me".  It is a song that Erin mastered in high school.  Lauren said no, because it was a solo thing that Jon did before he was part of The Piano Guys.  But she was WRONG!  He did play it.  It was fun to hear it again after hearing it non-stop all those years ago.

What amazing musicians.  The videos that they showed were awesome too.  I'm so glad that Lauren and I were able to go.

Sleeping Beauty at Proctor's

On Thursday I had tickets to see Sleeping Beauty at Proctor's.  It was an absolutely beautiful ballet.  It was interesting to see how they took the story and made it work for the stage. 

The dancing and costumes were so beautiful.  They were very creative.  They had a baby Aurora that was a puppet manipulated by dancers in black so you couldn't see them.  It made the baby seem really life-like.

I had a great time!

NYC

My friend Sharon had her friend Jen visiting from from Indiana so we all went on Megabus to NYC to see a Broadway show.  After waiting in line at TKTS and finding out that the least expensive Broadway show was still $67 we decided we'd walk to the Cinderella box office and see what they had.

As you can see, we were able to get tickets for $45.  Yes, it was in the nosebleed section, but the theater is small, and we could see just fine!

It was Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella and it was wonderful.  The costume changes were amazing!  Not your "Disney" version of Cinderella, but fantastic none the less!

We walked all over the place.  The M&M store, the Hershey store, FAO Schwarz, the HUGE Apple store (Sharon's Mother Ship), 5th Avenue, and some souvenir stores.  I think we walked Jen's feet off!

Our meals were a mixed bag.  Our lunch at BenAsh Delicatessen wasn't good.  My burger was OK, but Jen and Sharon's turkey sandwiches were really disappointing.  And for the price we paid everything should have been fantastic! Oh the other hand our dinner at Bill's Bar and Burger was great!  But in NYC with so many good places to eat it's too bad we had bad food at all!

We took Amtrak home since we weren't sure we'd be out of a matinee in time to go home on the Megabus.  And besides, we wanted more time in the city.  It worked out well.  We ended up getting back to the Rensselaer train station about 11:20pm, which put us home around midnight.

What a fun day!  Thanks for taking me with you Sharon and Jen!

19,615 Days

That’s 53 years, 8 months and 12 days. That’s how long I’ve lived now. And that’s as long as my father ever lived. I’m now older than I ever knew my father being. It’s a strange feeling. When he passed away in 1984 that age seemed so much older than it does now. My mother was 48 years old at the time and they had been married for almost 28 years. Michelle and I have been married for almost 29 years. From now on I consider every day I live with my wife and children a blessing my Dad did not have.

The photos below are our GE pictures taken at roughly the same age for both of us.

Merrill W. Brooksby (1984)

Glen W. Brooksby (2013)

Vroman's Nose - Schoharie County New York

Today is Columbus Day.  Since Lauren had the day off school Glen took the day off as well so we could go do something.  We decided we'd hike up Vroman's Nose.  It is in Middleburgh, NY.  We drive on I-88 which has some of the most beautiful views and color in the Fall.

The hike isn't really hard or long, which makes it a great thing to do.  You can tell just how high you are from this picture looking down.

We found this carved in stone at the top.  It was from August of this year.  So someone had a surprise at the end of their hike.  I hope Ashley said "yes"!

This is a picture looking down the valley.  It was a wonderful day for mid-fall.  It was a little hazy, so the colors don't show up as beautifully as they really looked.

After climbing down we went into the village of Middleburgh and ate lunch at Mrs. K's Kitchen.  When we first went in there every table was filled.  It was a hopping place to have lunch and it had really good food!

What a fun day! And what a beautiful part of the country we live in.  

At this time of year it can't be beat!