One of my fond memories of being a child was having a Big Wheel. I think everyone who was a child during the 70's had one. I know all my friends did. Being bigger than most kids, I tended to wear them out quicker than most. (Maybe that explains why my dad says I was always "hard on cars" when i first began driving ;o) The problem with big wheels was that they were made with hollow tires and the only way to top them was to lock the pedals, causing the front wheel to slide. In no time they would wear through. As a grew out of Big Wheels, they came out with a hand brake on the rear wheel, to prevent this problem. I thought this was cool, but was disappointed that they didn't have them when I was riding. Let's fast forward to 2008. I was talking with my next door neighboor (and Hunter's grandmother) Beckey Stonecipher about the Big Wheel. She remembers her son having one, and we both remark we haven't seen them in a long time, and how it would be neat if both the kids had one. Of course I shared my history of the Big Wheel with her. :o) Well, a couple of days later, the doorbell rings and it's Beckey and her husband Tom, and sitting there are two boxes of Big Wheels! I couldn't believe it. Beckey said she saw them at Target, and couldn't just get Hunter one, so she bought one for Christian as well. I told her that was so nice, and how much did I owe her for it. She said, don't worry about it, you just have to put Hunter's together along with Christian's. I said I could afford that! When Christian saw it, he couldn't wait! As I was putting it together, he looked at me with a smile and said "Daddy, thank you for putting this together for me." How thoughtful was that! I got a tear in my eye and told Christian it was no problem and thanked him for saying that. While putting it together, I realized that it no longer had a hand brake! I thought the handbrake was so cool! Then again, the ads back then showed kids using the brake and spinning everywhere like it was fun. I'm sure many broken bones and lacerations later Big Wheel decided that it was a safety problem, eliminated the hand brake, and made the tires thicker. At least that was the only logical solution I could come up with. Oh well, Christian didn't know any better and was so happy when I had put both together and him and Hunter could go riding. As soon as they started riding, I had flashbacks to my childhood riding with friends such as David Renker and Frankie Dimario. In this day and age of technology, 100+ television stations and video games, it's great that Big Wheel is still around to keep kids active.
Now to Reagan. Our neighbors have a cat and kitten that loves to hang out at the top of our yard near the street. Every time Reagan goes outside and sees them, she points to them and goes straight over to pet them. She just loves them! She even gives them kisses. She loves the dogs as well, but they don't sit still long enough for her to pet them. I just hope she doesn't want a cat when she gets older. I'm allergic and neither Rhian nor I particularly care for cats. (Sorry cat lovers!)
to see the pictures
We made our 2nd annual journey to the pumpkin patch down in McDonough. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day as we had sunny and cool temperatures; perfect for a hayride and pumpkin picking. During the hayride, we visited a little petting zoo, even though no petting was allowed. We then watched a video on how pumpkins are grown and let Christian pick out 2 small pumpkins. The kids had lots of fun. This is a warm up for Pap Pap's turn to take them to the pumpkin patch. 
