Thanksgiving

 We held Thanksgiving at our house this year. Above is a picture of Ashlynn's decorations of the banister and the pool noodle marble track the boys set up.

 a little door jewelry.

 Uncle Denny carving the turkey.

 Aunt Jacie and Papa checking out a camera

 Wes and Ty.

 Gehrig with the snap circuit board

 Uncle Kurt

 Annessa is always so photogenic!

 The traditional picture of Nana and Papa with all of the grandkids.

 And Wes with all of the cousins.

I finally have a mantle to decorate.

Amanda Got Married!

 We were so excited to go to Logan, Utah last month to be with Amanda and Kevin as they got married! It was beautiful there and the two of them seemed so happy!

 Mr. Briggs picked up a little bug at Disneyland and threw up every 10 minutes during the drive to Utah, starting in St. George. He slept well that night so we thought he might be over it, but the morning of the wedding came and he was still getting sick. He was such a good little patient, though. He never complained once. He just took care of business.  Brian was going to have to skip the ceremony in the temple in order to stay with him, but at the last minute Briggs perked up, kept some food down him and was fine. Brian was able to slip in right before the ceremony!

 Natalee, Aunt Leith and Cousin Autumn

 All smiles as they come out of the temple.

 Rober boys taking a break during pictures.

 These are all of the nieces and nephews. Well, mostly nephews. Thank heaven for Natalee and Ashlynn. Kevin only has nephews!

Ashlynn made friends with Autumn and Elizabeth, cousins she had never met before. They had such a good time and didn't want to leave. Autumn is my cousin Steve's daughter and Elizabeth is my cousin Gail's daughter. These two ladies watched the kids while we were in the temple.

Disneyland October

 In between the ALS walk and Amanda's wedding we took a little trip to Disneyland. These pictures only show some of the classic tame rides, but the kids were actually very adventurous and hit alot of the faster rides. They all tried out rides they had never been on before. We were having too much fun to take pictures of those rides!

 ...even though they don't really look like they are enjoying themselves here...

 Pretty sure the Small World boats are new.

Ashlynn's cute Mad Hatter/Tinker Bell hat. She had to stow this thing every time we got on a ride! Aaghh!

Can you see the blond lady in the left of this shot holding the little boy. That's the mom from the Disney Channel Show "Good Luck, Charlie"! The kids were pretty excited to see someone famous! Me. I was pretty embarrassed taking her picture.

Jewel Tree

 This is one of the jewel trees that Grandma Caroline made using some her grandma's and mom's jewelry. There is some of her jewelry on it, as well. Eventually, this tree will be passed onto Brian.

 My mom has recently come into possession of a lot of her mom's old jewelry. She was going to get rid of it until I suggested we make a jewel tree out of it. Hopefully it turns out as nice as this one!

ALS Walk

These balloons were better than shirts to identify Team Sweet Caroline.

Ash walking up with all of the balloons to hand out to the team.




We always have a cute crowd of grandkids in this family!



To start the walk, each individual team was called out, indicating it was their turn to start the walk. I think they did this to avoid a huge crowd surging towards the starting line. We waited and waited patiently for them to call out Team Sweet Caroline. Finally when it was clear that they were done calling out the teams and we still hadn't been recognized, someone from the team went up to the announcers and pointed out the oversight. It was just an oversight, but to make up for it, they made a big deal about announcing Team Sweet Caroline! We all hooted and hollered, then they played "Sweet Caroline" for all of the walkers to enjoy!



Following the walk, we were able to attend a celebration for the Orange Family History Center where they dedicated a new learning center in honor of Mom. They had a ribbon cutting ceremony and everything! The pictures I got stink because my camera stinks! I could start an entirely separate blog dedicated to all of the stinky pictures I take with my little Canon Powershot.



Dad cutting the ribbon



Then we took a family trip out to the cemetery.

From one generation to the next...

If anybody is familiar with our family, Ashlynn inherited many traits of Grandma Caroline. Never mind that she is the only granddaughter, she loves to go big - just like her grandma. She took those traits, confidence and compassion and decided to put on a bake sale last year benefiting ALS. Many of you contributed to that effort for which we were grateful.

The ALS association in Irvine was so touched with her donation and the work she put on, that she was invited down to Irvine this evening to honor her Grandma at their awards banquet. True to form, following in her Grandma's heritage, she made the family proud this evening.

Ashlynn ALS Banquet from Kate Rober on Vimeo.

Sorry for tablecloth in 1/2 the shot. My hands were shaking so bad, I had to balance the camera on the table for stability. It was an honor to associate with many ALS members and all the staff from the Irvine ALS chapter. May the world find a cure for this disease and long live the memory of Grandma Caroline.

Cupid

yes. It's November. But Ty decided he needed to dress up like "The naked baby who wears a diaper and shoots people with an arrow so they fall in love."

That's cupid.

Sometimes I don't ask questions, I just take pictures.