A Thanksgiving to Remember

Once again, I've lagged greatly behind on these postings. This time, though, it was because we didn't have internet connection for the month of December between Thanksgiving and Christmas. SO, to start at the beginning...

Thanksgiving 2008 (AKA The Plague!): We set out on our first 8-hour road trip with a toddler and headed up to Sacramento to spend T-day with Val's family. 30 minutes down the road Luke alerted us that he had just come down with the stomach flu. (And by alerted, I mean he threw up all over the car). The next 8 hours passed in a blur of 6 outfit changes, at least as many stops to clean up the car and car seat, plastic bags, and air fresheners. When we finally made it to the Burson house, we all fell into bed. Luckily it was a 24-hour bug and we were still able to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving day with the Burson/Richert/Johnson clan. We are so blessed to have such amazing family that we truly enjoy spending time with. Not so luckily, Tom and I and my dad all caught the bug late Thanksgiving night (I may never be able to eat pumpkin pie again) and we spent the next day quarentined in the house while super-immune Grandma somehow managed to take care of us and entertain Luke at the same time. Fortunately, no one else got sick and we drove home uneventfully (Thank God!)
Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving to Remember:

Luke with cousin Micah on his lap sitting next to 2nd cousins (or is it 3rd?) Nola and Rockwell:

Luke with Grandma:
Luke rockclimbing in front of Aunt Alyssa and Uncle Jon's new house:

Scaling the rocks with Aunt Sandra (Uncle Josh's beautiful new bride):The family together:

Note: Christmas pictures soon to come! :)

Meeting Cousin Micah

Last weekend, we got to meet my sister Alyssa and Jon's new baby boy. He is 5 weeks old and Luke's first cousin on my side of the family. All weekend, Luke was yelling "Meet Cousin Micah, Meet Cousin Micah". When he finally saw him, he couldn't stop laughing, and smiling, and petting him. The first time we attempted to take a picture of the two of them, Micah proceeded to spit up... Luke jumped away from him with this horrified look on his face as though he'd committed some unspeakable act. Luckily, he liked him enough to get close to him again!

Halloween

Since Luke has an obsession with tractors and tools, we decided to let him be Bob the Builder for Halloween. Actually, we just gave him a yellow vest, tool belt, and boots and he yelled out "Bob da bil-er". It's hard to believe that this is his 3rd Halloween. He's over 2 years old now and talking like crazy... of course, you need a translator to understand him! We took him to the harvest festival at our old church and he had a blast. It was pretty funny to watch him... he doesn't eat candy, so at every game booth, they would hand him some candy and he would take it from them and put it right back in the bucket they got it from! He could care less about the candy, he just wanted to throw the ball again!

This is Luke's best friend, Emily. He spends 2 days a week with her at Kerry's house and follows her everywhere.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Well, I certainly haven't done my part in keeping this site updated. But as luck would have it, the holidays are almost here, so I should have plenty of excuses to post new pictures! Here was our first experience taking Luke to a pumpkin patch... the SoCal version, that is, which looks more like a carnival on a street corner with a few pumpkins and hay bales thrown in to remind us that it's fall! Whatever the case, Luke was in heaven, with live horses, a train ride, and a petting zoo.

Trip to the Mountains

Yesterday we took Luke up to the mountains at Big Bear Lake for part of the first City Lights camping trip. We've had friends staying with us from Seattle, so we didn't end up staying the night. (And let's be honest- that was a good excuse, because we really weren't looking forward to sleeping in a tent with a 2-year-old!) But we left early in the morning and stayed up for the whole day. Luke had a blast, playing in the lake and swimming in the dirt and following after his friends. There were 14 other kids up there, all over the age of 4 except for Luke and Lizzie, but he loved it. Here's a few pictures we took on our venture into nature:

Little Boys and dogs... they're drawn to each other:

Luke splashing in the river surrounded by his minyon:
Luke with his new best friend Khalil:
Luke's "Model by the Lake" pose: Eating watermelon after a long day in the dirt:

The Big 2

SO Luke turned 2 on August 11th (or, as Luke says when asked how old he is: "moo", while holding up 4 fingers and trying with all his might to keep 2 of them down!). We invited Luke's best friends (Stephen, Emily, and Lizzie- Kerry and Thien's 3 kids that Luke considers his adopted brother and sisters) and a few other friends over for a barbeque and let the kids have water/sprinkler fun in the backyard. Luke loved opening his presents and received his first Thomas the Train, which has openned up a whole new world to him! As usual, he refused his birthday cake. We put a car on it to get him excited, which he was... he tried to blow out the candle, grabbed the car, and pushed the cake away to get back to the more exciting business of his new toys. Who am I to push sweets on a child who won't eat them? (And whose child Is this anyway?!!)

As usual, we hardly took any pictures on his birthday, but here is one of him attempting to blow out the candles on his cake:

Fun with Family

On our vacation in Washington last month, Luke discovered the joy of the great outdoors. He was enthralled with tromping through the woods and the abundance of trees and wildlife (which we don't get too much of down here in LA!)
Luke also discovered the joy of cousins. He fell in love with his cousins: Tyler, 6, and Jessica, 8. These are a few pictures of Luke with his cousins:






And here is Luke discovering the great outdoors with Grandma Demorest:

Demorest Family Online At Last!

We've finally joined the online world! After 2 years of family and friends wanting to see updated pictures of our family (namely, Luke!), we are finally online! Believe it or not, Luke turns 2 in August and he is an active little boy! He is an energetic, happy kid who loves animals, anything with wheels, balls, and running or skipping at top speed anywhere he goes. He's all boy! Tom and I get our excercise just trying to keep up with him! I (Val) went back to work this past year teaching kindergarten, but am enjoying the summer home with Luke. Tom went down to parttime at our churchplant, City Lights Church in downtown Long Beach. He works 2 days a week and stays home with Luke the rest of the time. Right now, we're both home for most of the summer travelling, going to the zoo, the park, having fun with Luke. We've already spent a week in San Luis Obispo with Val's family for Josh's wedding and a week in Bellingham, WA with Tom's family. Luke is soaking up all the time with Grandma and Grandpa and is always pretending to talk on the phone with "Baba" and "Mma".
Here are some recent pictures from Uncle Josh's wedding:



Here are some recent pictures of Luke with several of his favorite things: