long time no post.

Forgot to update the blog readers... Mercer took 2nd in the Inhabitot Halloween costume contest! He won his (future) little sister some swag (2nd place was an alpaca hat & booties set)... and he also gets a t-shirt for himself. Thanks for voting if you were able to. It was actually kind of fun to do / to hit up people I haven't talked to in awhile and to get to catch up with folks. In fact, I'm having lunch with someone next week who I haven't seen in 3 years because of emailing her about / asking for her vote for his costume. It was a way to reconnect with some people. Cool!

Mercer got to go to his first high school football game. Our friends, Scott & Shelli, have 2 sons who play - but one of them was out because of a knee injury. Supposedly, this was "THE" game to be at. ESPN was there... skydivers (there's a shot of the last skydiver pulling a "Ya'll VS Us" sign behind him)... the chick-fil-a cow was there... and therefree mini-footballs for the folks in the stands... and fireworks - lots of fireworks. (every time the football team scored a touch-down, the crowd would boom (which frightened Mercer) and fireworks would go off (which he was a little leary about as well). This happened 5 times - as they beat the opposing team 35-0!

Mercer stayed up WAY later than his bedtime, but did really well because of all of the activity going on. He enjoyed the band that was playing in the bleachers just a short distance from us. He kept calling it "noise." He danced a little bit too - which cracked up some of the people in the stand. (Luckily, the band members were focused and weren't distracted from his dance moves.) He had a blast running up and down the ramp at the side of the bleachers. His heavy footsteps were so loud on the metal ramp -- he thought that was hilarious. The ramp is probably where he spent most of his time. Up and down. Down and up. He enjoyed hitting these white noise-sticks that were also given away as well as chewing on / throwing the mini plastic football that he got at the game. Honestly, I didn't see much of the game, but had a good time none-the-less. (This is "aunt" Shelli).

The next day, we went to an art festival. Mercer didn't do so well there. Guess we found out that if you keep him up several hours past his bedtime - that the following day - he's not much in the mood to do anything!

Here's a shot of Mercer playing ball with Scott. (You can't really see either, but it's included because of the beautiful scenery!). Also, here's a shot of the whole gang (Shelli, Tucker, Scott, and Hayden) in front of their house. The two teenage boys are huge now -- towering over their parents. (Shelli said that this will happen to us, too, with Mercer much more quickly than we will expect.) We met them all about 10 years ago when the boys were 5 & 7. Times have changed, for sure!


Also to add -- Mercer just started doing something funny. Yesterday, Todd went to work and Mercer said "daddy," then put both of his hands in the air and turned his palms up, saying "gone?" He did something similar this morning doing the same thing with his hands saying "where?" I do think that we do this sometimes when asking a question and he's picked it up. It's pretty cute.

Another thing that was funny... we turned on the t.v. onto animal planet last night. There was a herd of elephants on the screen and Mercer kept saying in a low voice: "wow," "wow," "wow," "wow," "wow," it went on and on. He was pretty excited! We cracked up. Simple things. Good times. : - )