Happy early Halloween

Here's Elissa in her very first Halloween outfit. She seems to be quite a night owl according to her parents. Every time we are over there, she is sleeping sweetly. As the night wears on, say around 1:00 a.m. or so, she wants to be awake. Nick and Heather hope to change her ways, but she's so cute sleeping, even if it is during the day, that it's hard to wake her.

They're home

Heather and Elissa made it home on Monday. Everyone is getting to used to the new situation. Enjoy the picture of the proud parents and grandpa Boyce.

Gasoline 10/19/05

 

Announcing Elissa Nicole Boyce!!

We are so excited that Elissa Nicole has finally arrived! She made her debut at 12:32 a.m., Friday, October 21, 2005. She weighed in at 7 pounds even, 18 3/4 inches. She has dark hair and looks just perfect according to everyone in the family. Here's a look or two.
She took her time getting here. Heather went in to be induced around 10:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and ended up delivering by C-section. We got to visit with Heather's mom and sisters for several hours, which was fun. Heather has been a trooper. She was moving around like nothing major had happened 36 hours later. Dad was beaming with pride as were all the assembled relatives hoping to get a closer look in the nursery.
We are now answering the phone, "Pastalaniec house, home of Aunt Barbara and Uncle Dave."

Denver, Part 2

We went back to Denver to visit with the Wheatleys and for a friend's wedding. We enjoyed great weather. The wedding was in the mountains which was beautiful. Our friends Amy and Jason from Dripping Springs joined us at the wedding with their two kids who entertained us all.



































Daniel has a second tooth coming in, although he's a little shy about letting anyone see it. He has become a big fan of drinking cold water out of a straw.

Longhorns, Corn Maze, Aggies, Astros, Italian Fest, Art Fest, and Astros again! Oh My!

The Pastas had a very busy weekend. Saturday started at noon watching the Texas-OU game. It turned out to be a great day for Horns fans as they won 45-12.

Next it was off to the Corn Maze in Brookshire outside of Houston. Dewberry Farms has a petting zoo, lots of animals, a pumpkin patch where you can hand pick your own pumpkin, lots of photo op shots, and even a duck race. We had a great time enjoying lots of the festivities. Next year we will have to return with some kids so people don't wonder why 4 adults are running through the corn maze without any munchkins.



















Next we were headed back to Houston for more sports. The Aggies vs. Colorado and the Astros vs. the Atlanta Braves in game 3 of the NLDS. Needless to say, the Aggies had a bad game. Hopefully they will figure out what the problem was before next week. For some reason, no one approached me for the last half of the game. Could it be the scowl on my face? Or perhaps the possibility of a primal scream coming out at any moment after another missed tackle or dropped pass? I'm not sure.

The Astros, on the other hand, were great. They won 7-3 and took a 2-1 lead in the division series.

Sunday we headed over to the Italian Festival in west Houston. We sampled artichoke casserole, eggplant parmigiana, Italian cream cake, and some sort of bread with garlic, spices and even some sardines. It wasn't bad. We washed it down with a glass of chianti. Like the beerfest, we decided the Italian fest would be better at night.

We stopped briefly by Nick and Heather's to check out the new floor in the baby's room. Very nice. Brenda and Diann were hard at work finishing up the last bit of painting. We saw a little of the Astros-Braves game watching the Astros go down 6-1 early in the game.

We then headed to the Bayou City Art Fest downtown. Lots of great art although nothing that caught our eye. We did keep seeing groups of people clustered together, but not looking at any art. Hmmm... It turned out someone had a radio and the Astros were coming back. We decided to head to the Flying Saucer to watch the end of the game. We were then headed to the gym and church. We didn't make it to the gym or church since the Astros and the Braves played the longest post season game in history. The Astros finally won it 7-6 in the bottom of the 18th inning. Yes, folks that's right, 2 full games in one. The place went crazy. I can't imagine what it was like at Minute Maid. Greg and Cory joined us for an early dinner and then we headed home. Whew!! We needed to get back to work to get some rest.
Next up, St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. Go 'Stros!!

Back from the Beerfest

Howdy everyone! We've made it back to Houston after a great weekend in Denver. We joined our friends the Wheatleys for great food, beer, and fun. We have decided that Daniel gets cuter every time we see him. I'm not sure we'll be able to handle it much longer.







At one point, Daniel thought enough wine had been consumed so he decided to take matters into his own hands or feet. A karate kick later with his cast and it was goodbye wine glass. Dave points out the lack of stem on the wine glass as Eric re-enacts the action with Daniel's green cast.






Saturday we tried the afternoon session at the beerfest, but decided that we will stick with the evening session from now on. It was a good experiment, but we came to the conclusion that we needed to save the great Colorado fall daylight hours for hikes and save the beer drinkin' for nighttime. It becomes a little disturbing when we are the youngest people anywhere which we were on this occasion. Also, when we were finished with the beer tasting, it was only 5 p.m. How would we pass the night time hours?




We couldn't have asked for better hosts or a better weekend. If this continues, we may have to look for work in Denver. Sunday we did the Race for the Cure in Denver with 65,000 of our closest friends. It is the largest Race for the Cure in the U.S. We can vouch for that. After finishing the race we headed back to the house to relax before our flight back.