"These two go to eleven"

Happy b-day, Carson!  Only in Lawrence does a Mexican restaraunt give you flan for your b-day dessert.  We now have two eleven year old boys.  Carson wants his b-day party in a cool new laser tag place in town, but they haven't opened yet!

So we went to KU's Traditions Night at the beginning of the school year, and Check Diallo sat down next to us!  He's only the Jayhawks prize recruit from Mali, Africa.  Our other big recruit is sitting in front of Conner.  They sat next to us!!  Carson's buddy Ben is with us.

Conner is going to be embarrassed that we posted this one.  Look at those abs! 

The boys had fun with Grandma a few weeks ago fishing at her little Angel Falls, and checking out a very cool car show.

These dudes continue to be puzzle ethusiasts.  And Lego enthusiasts, and car models, and origami, and...you get the point.  This is a puzzle of St Basil's in Moscow.

Well, one less than enjoyable activity during our late summer was a big water main break.  We had to get the front yard torn apart and new pipes put in.  Bulldozers are still really cool in our house, but we could have done without this one.

The circus came to town!  Well, actually 30 minutes south of town.  It was a cool family-run deal complete with a big top tent.  Lions, tigers, and the Wheel of Death!  Just imagine this thing spinning at 100 mph with two guys barely keeping up with it.  Fun!!

The boys chose to create their own garden fresh pasta dish for dinner, and we decided to take a picture of them doing it...

We are a little early for KU basketball, but KU football is upon us, and we love tailgating with our friends the Ermys.  We don't know whether there will be any wins this season, but basketball is only a month or two away!

Fishing, fishing, fishing.  Conner is hooked.  :-)  Carson enjoys it too, but Conner has even gone so far as to design his own fishing t-shirt (not shown here).  He goes this weekend to his first multi-evening scouting campout and will probably have to be pulled away from the fishing lake!

This summer we spent lots of time in the city pool, which is a block from our house.  Their end-of-season tradition is the Pooch Plunge.  It is a blast to watch the puppies run rampant in the pool that gets a major cleaning the following day.

So here we go on another school year!  Conner is now in middle school, but St Johns goes all the way to 8th grade, so we did not have a big school transition.  Conner does not approve of the increased homework in middle school, but both eleven year olds are doing well.