Chili Cook-Off 2011

This was a big weekend. Jenn and I had our Community Group on Friday evening, so the kids went to Grandpa and Grandma Gates' house. And with our 4th Annual Gates-Wingader Chili Cook-Off, the kids were going to be at their grandparents' house on Saturday evening, so Lincoln just stayed the night on Friday and woke up early with Grandpa for a Leesville Lake Day.

Grandma Gates said that in the morning, she wasn't sure who was more excited about the day, Grandpa Doug or Lincoln! After breakfast on Saturday, they went to Bierce's Hardware to get some gravel for the driveway. Lincoln got to watch the frontloader dump the gravel in Grandpa's truck! Then they went to the cabin, did odd jobs, spread the gravel, putzed, etc., etc. He came back pretty tired.

The Chili Cook-Off was another fun evening. Most of the folks who came this year were friends of the Wingaders, which was kind of cool, because while Jenn and I are friends with Patrick and Joy, our circles of friends don't cross much. This party is always a fun mix of people, and this year was no different. There were eight chili entries, along with some great corn bread and fantastic deserts. This year was also no different because Jenn won the Cook-Off for a second straight year. The choice this year was a White Chicken Chili, and it won with several points to spare. Patrick's chili, though it didn't place in the top three, was in my personal top 2, as it was with Jenn's. Sometime we'll have to have a chili party just between the two of us families because we each make some awesome chili!I haven't posted a swimming update in a while. Lincoln is doing well. Mr. Tyler is still his teacher, and he's becoming more comfortable in the water. Though he's not ready to swim on his own yet, we're very pleased with how he's doing with his lessons.Lydia has been putting more and more steps together. She still prefers to crawl when she needs to get from here to there, but the steps are coming better.

We're still waiting on U.S. Immigration for the next step in Henry's adoption. As we're butting up against Thanksgiving and Christmas in America and Chinese New Year in China, we'd really like to get this document so we can ship our information out to China. This is part of the waiting game.