Weekend Top 5 Written by Gregory Gorilla

Hi, my name is Gregory Gorilla. I go home with a different first grader every weekend and am required to go everywhere with my weekend owner for the entire weekend. This was a crazy weekend to have picked to come home with Noah, but I did. So I decided that since Noah's mom was required to take pictures of me doing all the fun activities this weekend anyway, I might as well write her top five for her.


Well, first I must say that Noah's family sure is a busy one. They kept me running pretty much all day on Saturday. I wonder if they're this busy every weekend. Here are the top five things I noticed in his house this weekend.

1. Weekend Visitor

I came home with Noah on Friday and played with him all day. Noah has to write a report about what we did all wekeend.



















While they were eating dinner, their kitten Pumpkin even curled up in my lap for a nap.













2. Pumpkin Patch

This was the one time this weekend that I saw Noah's mom get really upset. She took a cute picture of me with Noah when we got out of the car headed for the pumpkin patch and when we got there to start the fun, the tab on her camera (actually her dad's camera) was gone, making the camera virtually useless. Apparently, for a mommy who is addicted to taking pictures, and a trip that requires pictures of a certain gorilla having fun, this can be very upsetting. Thankfully, the other members came through and took a lot of pictures of me. I think most of the 20 people that attended the orchard this year on our annual trip held me at some point.



They wouldn't let me be in the annual photo of all the cousins at Post Family Farm...what a crew. The only one missing was Cousin Sara who was in a band competition all day.









Here are Noah and Aaron with their Daddy and Grandpa on the hayride














Here I am in the pumpkin patch with Aaron and his Daddy.


















I even had a chance to give Kristi a hug











3. New Camera

After the pumpkin Patch, where Noah's grandpa's camera got broken, Kristi knew that the evening activtivities (see below) were going to REQUIRE a reliable camera, being the main photographer for the event, I was left in the car while the whole family RUSHED into the mall to get a new camera at Sears. From the amount of pictures that Kristi has taken since the purchase, I can only assume that she absolutely LOVES it. She took 95 pictures at the party, and only had to throw away three from blurriness.

4. Party Time

I didn't get to go to this one...so I'll let Kristi take over for this one event.

My dad and step mom celebrated 25 years of marriage this week. About two months ago, several of our siblings/step siblings wondered if we could pull off a surprise anniversary party for them. I never dreamed that we would actually have it remain a surprise. But we did it. Two of my stepbrothers have opened a restaurant, a sports bar in an old renovated building in downtown Muskegon Michigan. (Shameless plug...if you live in the West Michigan area, check out Muskegon Athletic Club "The MAC" for their signature gourmet mac and cheese...it was awesome!)

We sent out invitations about six weeks ago to our family and their closest friends. About two weeks ago, when we were talking about our annual pumpkin patch trip (see above) Nancy suggested that maybe we could go to the MAC for dinner afterward since we hadn't seen it yet since it opened. She even went so far as to say she was going to make reservations for us (snicker snicker). I will spare any more details and show you some pictures of the highlights.




Nancy making the discovery














Dad making the discovery (holding Cousin Annabelle)










None of else ever knew (until last night) that they had never had a wedding cake. they got married kind of as an elopement when on a trip with their friends (who played a key role in pulling this party off). So when they were so excited about cutting the cake together, we were so happy that we had gone with the traditional wedding cake style.












The toasts were really neat. My brother Matt was the only one who actually spoke for us kids. He actually respoke the toast that Dad gave at his and Jenny's wedding 6 years ago. It was kind of neat to see it come full circle. What was the neatest one (and the second time everyone was crying that night) was when Nancy stood up and said "We have been so worried watching the stock market lately and I am just here to say I was wrong. We're the richest people in the world!" Of course, not a dry eye in the entire room.


There were a lot of other fun moments, but this entry just got really long, so here are just a few quick pictures that showed the merriment.



Uncle Andy teaching Noah how to play bowling on the HUGE Wii they have on one wall.












Aaron being silly













I couldn't get done with this point without Gregory taking back over...so here he is:



When they all got back into the car after the party, they were very tired. Noah used me as a pillow to fall asleep in the way home. It feels so good to be useful.














5. Playworld

Noah and Aaron were quite wild on Sunday morning from the crazy day on Saturday, so Kristi decided that I wasn't going to church that day. As a matter of fact, she left all of us home and went by herself. By the time she got home, we were all REALLY ready to burn some energy so we headed to Playworld. I had so much fun.

Noah pushed me around in the little cars


















I even had a piece of Steve's pizza











I am so sad that I have to go back to school with Noah, but I know I will have more adventures at someone else's house next week. Now here's a word from Kristi...


I hope you enjoyed my guest writer this week. If you actually made it all the way through this post, congrats. I hope you consider posting weekend top five. If you do, please add to Mr. Linky so I can visit soon.

Have a great week.