Birthday Boy

December 13th was Eric's birthday. I'm a few days late with his birthday tribute....sorry Eric! December babies have to compete with Christmas preparations...not an easy thing. On to Eric.

Eric is celebrating his 50th birthday this year, that can be a tough one. He is handling it gracefully, like he handles everything that is thrown his way. Eric was born on a Sunday afternoon at 3:35 pm. The Packers just lost to the Bears. He was born at a time where dad's weren't allowed in the delivery room, so Bill was watching football while Barb labored. I'm glad that times have changed that idea! This picture is of Eric at 3 months old. So cute.

Eric was the first grandchild on his mom's side. You can feel the love from his aunts in this picture. Eric's mom and dad, Barb and Bill are the two with the glasses, aunt Dorothy is holding Eric's arm while aunt Peg smiles in the background.

I've heard that Eric was a happy, easy going baby. His personality hasn't changed. How cute is he taking a dish tub bath?

I don't have the dates of his portraits handy...but I think he was about 2 years old in this picture.

Playing in the snow in Bloomington with his baby brother Chris.

This old picture is sort of blurred, but it's one of my favorites. Eric on a sled...push me daddy!

Eric was 4 when his little sister Amy was born. I can't imagine anyone being a better big brother than Eric was.

Cute little freckled red head....

...the only thing that shines through stronger than those freckles is the twinkle and kindness in his eyes. It's still there.

A Vikings fan from the start.

Opie, is that you?

Christmas in Taylors Falls....a hockey goal! It wouldn't be nice of me to mention the unusual clothing color combination that only a 13 year old boy would come up with, would it. :-)

Happy 18th birthday...blowing out candles with Dan on the left and Tim on the right.

Ice fishing up north somewhere. Is that your catch or your bait?

An usher at his cousins wedding in the late 70's. Weren't tuxedos in the late 70's amazing??

High school graduation photo in 1978. Handsome, even with the big collar and the velour suit.

Eric played soccer at Hamline University for all 4 years that he was there. Pretty amazing feat considering that High School soccer didn't' exist in our little home town so he hadn't played on a school team before.

In the late 1970's and early 80's he organized a soccer league for the neighboring small towns in the area. I think it was called the Tri-County soccer league. Here he is with his foster brother Dan after winning the league trophy.

Eric and I were engaged in 1980 and married in 1982.

In 1986 we went to Klamath Falls, Oregon for his brother Chris' wedding. It's been hard for Eric to have his brother and sister living so far away.

In 1992 Brian was born and Eric entered the new role of father. Loving, patient, kind...the boys are lucky to call him dad. This picture was taken on Eric's 33rd birthday.

In 1995 Billy was born, another son to love.

Eric's 36th birthday in 1995. Our parents have traditionally come to visit us for Eric's birthday.

Eric has been by my side for all of our important family events. How lucky am I? This was at my niece Stephanie's wedding in 2004. He keeps getting more handsome.

Through the years Eric has coached the boys in soccer and baseball and basketball. When he isn't their coach he's always on the sidelines supporting them.

There are many more pictures that could be shared, and there isn't enough blog space to say all of the wonderful things that I could and should say...but I will say this. I am more grateful each and every day for the man that I married.

He is kind, gentle, strong, patient, handsome, a great dad, funny, reliable, smart, competitive, athletic, and even with all of that he's humble. Happy Birthday Eric....and don't worry about getting older dear, you just keep getting better.

Vegas by Day

It's that most wonderful time of the year....where I get so behind in everything that I can't think straight. We were in Vegas recently, must have been last weekend. Is this December?

Anyway, back to Vegas. The city is pretty different from day to night....unless you are in a casino, then you can't tell what time it is, or what day it is, or ding ding ding.....slot machines....you know. There were hints of the season here and there. Cameras are frowned upon in the casinos, but I took a quick picture of this sparkly tree in one of them. It was placed there to remind me that I should have been doing Christmas preparations instead of relaxing in Vegas.

There was a glassed in display of lions at the MGM casino. They keep them at a large facility somewhere most of the time and just bring in a couple every day to put on display. The area isn't very big, I'm glad that they aren't there all of the time. These two look bored. Must be all the ding, ding, dinging of the slot machines. Maybe she's thinking about her Christmas list.

The sights outside were more interesting. It was only in the low 50's our first day. It felt colder. We visited the statue of Liberty in New York in Las Vegas. Confused? The casinos all have a theme...this one's theme was "New York".

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe on the strip. You know the old idea of food being really cheap there in Las Vegas...not so much. We spent $50.00 on lunch our first day...burgers, fries and a beer. You need the beer to swallow the prices.

There are strange things on the streets in Vegas. Sometimes I felt like I was on a different planet.

How did that motorcycle crash threw that wall?

There were a lot of cowboys wandering around because the National Finals Rodeo was in town. It was fun to see all of the cowboy hats. Here's a cowboy watching the dancing water in front of the Bellagio. They don't have dancing water like that out on the range! Well, if they do then maybe the cowboy needs to lay off the fire water.

Then we saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris in Las Vegas.

It gets pretty confusing, I didn't know where I was....except I knew that I wasn't in Minnesota anymore!

Hark the Herold Angels were singing on top of Caesers Palace.

Angels reminding me that I should have been at home working on my Christmas stuff. It's hard for this mom to relax in December. I should be cleaning and decorating and baking and buying and wrapping and....

...oh look, a blooming flower. A real live beautiful blooming outside flower in December. Life is so good.

What was it that I was talking about again? Sigh. 'Tis the season.

We Flew Away

I've been away from my blog because I've been away from home. Again. My second flight in less than a month, that is pretty much unheard of for me...but I'm not complaining! In honor of Eric's up coming important birthday, he and I took a little trip. We packed a suitcase and headed to the airport on Saturday morning.

Airports are an interesting place. They seem to be a place of tears. Tears of joy for reunions, tears of sadness for goodbyes. And a place of ambivalence for the bored business travelers. I like flying, I like sitting by the window. I love seeing the world from the sky. Simple things...like this bridge...isn't it cool?

We left this brown frozen tundra and flew west....

....west over open spaces, west over big hills....

...west over mountains. I always wish that I had looked at an atlas before my flight to see where we might be....I always forget.

I think it would be cool to have a GPS with to see exactly where we are. My phone has one, but I had to shut off my phone. So many rules. Aren't the colors wonderful from up above?

The window in the airplane was yucky dirty on the flight out. I had wished that I had a wet wipe or something with the clean it off. I made a mental note to remember to do that for the flight home...think I remembered? Nope. Oh well. I liked how the sun reflected off of these red cliffs.

A lot of brown...but not nearly as frozen looking as at home. Where oh where could we be?

Maybe this big lake will give you a hint. This big lake that seems to be really low on water.

There isn't much for vegetation here either. Sort of dry and deserty. Not a word, but you know what I mean.

Oh look...it's a city....any guesses yet?

This clue won't help...it's just that I spotted some horses as we were getting close to landing. It's got to be a good place if there are horses there doesn't it??

We landed and were treated to the view of the city right there from the tarmac. Do you recognize it yet? The big lake was Lake Mead.

Welcome to Las Vegas baby! Where else do people go to celebrate a rather important birthday??