Are you ready for some FOOTBALL???

So, this past spring, Dan and I went to a trivia night for Jack's school. There is also an oral and silent auction held there. To make a long story short, Dan and I ended up winning Rams tickets...or should I say Giants tickets. Since Dan is originally from NJ and a HUGE Giants fan, he was thrilled that we were just four rows from the field. I cheered on the Rams, but to no avail as they were slaughtered by the Giants. Dan and I had a great time though! I absolutely LOVE my boys, but every once in a while it is nice to do something, just the two of us!

This picture SO reminds me of the good ole days when it was just Dan and I and we would ALWAYS snap a picture like this!
Here are the Rams warming up...they actually look like a well oiled machine, all doing the same thing...that unfortunately, didn't last too long!
Prior to the game, Ozzie Smith (that's him with his back faced to the camera in the gray sweatshirt!) was given a Rams jersey as he was the announcer for the Rams as they ran through the smoke into the very loud and very dark arena.
One of MANY Giants touchdowns...right in front of us...Dan was in heaven!!!
One last shot for good measure, just to remember how darn close we were. Unfortunately both of us agreed that we would rather be sitting at home drinking our (much cheaper!) beer and relaxing in front of the big screen watching the same thing!!!

A colorful sky...

We grabbed our seats on the ground right in front of the "do not cross line." We could feel the warmth of the flames when they lit them to fire up these awesome balloons! I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing and beautiful sights I have ever had the opportunity to see!

Here is Luke, enjoying his apple juice and watching the balloons prepare to launch. The "hare" balloon, the one that all the other balloons chase, is usually the Energizer bunny, but for some reason, it was only tethered and the Macy's balloon was the first to launch.
As you can see we definitely had front row seats to the Children's balloon. Here it is being inflated...
About to take flight...

And finally in the air....
We also had the opportunity to see this balloon inflate...when they had it all filled with air, it was ABOVE us - unbelievable!
Luke kept his finger in the air the entire evening looking at all the great balloons!
More pictures of us in front of the Children's balloon - Nana, Luke, Kristin, Maddie and Papa
And finally, around 7, our day was done...but we had to walk back to the car. Luckily we arrived so early that we had a great parking spot. We just had to get up a hill...good thing Uncle Gene was there to help push Dan up the hill! :)
We have all already talked about going back next year...unfortunately, next time obviously won't be as wonderful as it was this year....maybe we could always celebrate Luke's successful surgery and subsequent hearing at this amazing race!

Up, Up and Away...

So, when I started this blog I mentioned that this would be a great place to share information about how our little guy, Luke, is doing specifically with his cochlear implant. I also eluded to something very exciting that was going to happen with Luke and Children's Hospital and Saturday was the day!

It seems that Luke was Children's 500th cochlear implant and that was going to be celebrated in style at the Great Forest Park Balloon Race in St. Louis on Saturday! We had the opportunity to go into the VIP section and enjoy all that the Children's tent had to offer including fun entertainment, a wonderful catered lunch, and the absolute best seat in the house for the balloon launch! Luke's story was even a 2 page spread in the official program complete with a picture of the whole fam!!!

We arrived at 11:30 and signed in under "Team Buka" as the cochlear implant team has now dubbed us (I guess that started when we had a room full of family and friends all in specially made orange t-shirts for Luke's "turn on day" when his implant was activated and he could hear for the first time!) Luke had lots of family and friends on hand on Saturday too - Dan and I, his two big brothers, Jack and Nick, my mom and dad (Nana and Papa), my Aunt Joy and Uncle Gene, Aunt Jackie and Uncle Steve, and even Kristin and Maddie (Luke's babysitters...more like a second mom and sister though!)

Here is the crew before many balloons or people arrived...
We managed to grab a few pictures of our favorite cochlear implant team members...here is Jamie and Jericha, the two CI audiologists who work with Luke to make sure he is hearing to the fullest...we ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM....
And here is who we called Santa Claus on Saturday. Standing there in the blue shirt is Luke's surgeon Dr. Hullar who has taken such awesome care of Luke and actually completed his CI surgery on March 28th! You should have seen the sight though, when Dr. Hullar arrived all the moms and dads and little ones ran up to him. At one point he sat down and parents were seriously putting their kids on his knee for pictures. To us, he is definitely better than Santa though, as he gave Luke and us the best present ever...the gift of sound!!! Just after this picture was taken, Luke totally reached out for Dr. Hullar and went right too him...I wonder if Luke knows what Dr. Hullar did for him!!! :)
As many of you know, Luke had the chance to ride in the Children's sponsored hot air balloon, but Dan and I kind of nixed that idea...neither of us are too fond of heights and after seeing how high the balloons went, we definitely made the right decision! But, we did manage to stand in this hot air balloon basket and get our picture taken...thanks Walgreens! :)
Unfortunately this very exciting day was right smack dab in the middle of our Luka Buka's nap time. Luckily, Kristin was there for Luke to rest on and he was able to grab a few minutes of sleep before the balloons launched! Notice the monkey has a little CI on his right ear....thanks to Advanced Bionics, the maker of Luke's implant, for making stuffed animals just like him (the monkey is SO fitting as he thinks he can walk and climb anywhere that his two big brothers do!)
Okay, so as not to make this post SUPER long and bore you all...I'll stop for now, and include all the great balloon pictures next time (hopefully that is sooner rather than later!)

Lions and Tigers and Dinosaurs...oh my!

So, in my attempt to update everyone on the Morra travelings (a bit late) here is the next installment of our trip to the zoo a few Sundays back! We made sure to get there early as the weather was PHENOMENAL! Aunt Jackie and Uncle Steve even got to go along to enjoy the day! And it was just no normal trip to the zoo as we managed to get into the Dinoroarus exhibit. (We went earlier this summer, but that was the day that Luke ended up having his febrile seizure on the way home so we wanted to make it there one more time for some good memories!)

Here is the boys' favorite dino...the T-Rex!
Here is one of the few decent pictures of our family, of course in front of a dino and the sun (too bad Jack, Nick and Luke all have blue, blue eyes...the sun always gets them!)
And here are the boys with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Steve...with all the pictures we have of the 5 of them, you'd think they were their parents (and a good set of parents they will be...one day...I'll wait patiently!)Okay, so this last picture isn't exactly in the dinosaur exhibit, but I love the picture! The boys always get a kick out of the hippos...Luke loved them even more though, as here he is kissing the glass enclosure that houses them! At least his kisses are closed mouth puckers! :)

It's Greek to me!

Okay, so I was doing SO good when I first started this blog and then...all 3 of our computers have little glitches and suddenly I was out of the blogging mode! But, thanks to Dan and some sweat and tears, we are back! I'm going to try to blog about things that I have wanted to over the past few days/weeks that I have been MIA.

A few Saturdays ago ( I honestly can't remember how long now!) we went with my Aunt Margie, her daughter Sandy and Sandy's husband Duane to a local church's Greek fest! Hello gyros and baklava...oh yeah, and the bouncers!!! We sat under the big tent and enjoyed A LOT of Greek food and some cool Greek music and dancing! After we filled our bellies the boys pointed out the huge bouncers they had there. Needless to say, I spent the remainder of the time there listening to Jack and Nick say, "Just one more time, mom!" I'm such a sucker, but they were having such a great time and the weather was perfect. After all of their bouncing, we decided to get some delish Greek pastries and we headed over to Sandy and Duane's house to meet their superdog Lexie....seriously, she knew like 20 tricks!!! The boys loved her! What a great relaxing evening!

The bouncers were pretty cool...
This was Jack and Nick's favorite inflatable! It was an obstacle course that they raced. Funny thing is that I went on there too as the boys were at first a bit nervous! Nothing like a 32 year old mom flopping around on an inflatable! I'll never admit this to the boys, but I would SO do it again!
Luke even liked the Greek food (which really isn't that surprising as he is, by far, our best eater!!!)
Duane, Aunt Margie, and Sandy...thanks for inviting us out for such a fun night...

Snapfish:Album:Shared

Snapfish:Album:Shared

Happy 60th Birthday, Papa!

Today is the BIG day....my dad turns 60! Since he is a die hard golfer all he wanted for his birthday was to go down to Memphis to visit my brother (the golf pro), and my sister-in-law and niece for a major golfing, BBQing, hanging with his granddaughter weekend!!! We did manage to have a bit of a birthday party for Papa, as the boys call him, last Sunday, complete with his favorite - coconut cream pie!!!

We love you, dad!!!! We all know you would do ANYTHING for us, always with a smile on your face!!! Have a great day!

Here he is doing his favorite things...holding Luke (or any one of his grand kids!)
...playing golf (of course, this picture should have been first!!!)
...and he may not like doing this too much, but he is the best darn BBQer I know! Here we are at a fun little park in a Memphis suburb!!!