Santa flies in for a visit!

We had a very special start to the holiday season in the Eggelston family. Early this morning we headed out to the local farmer's market to see Santa -- who was arriving via helicopter!! He was just a minute or two early so we JUST missed seeing him land...which was a little disappointing but kids were still excited (well Sydney was at least!) so we hurried over to say hi to Santa.



Sydney wormed her way through the crowd to talk with Santa.


She apparently told Santa that "Daddy needs a new phone." and then proceeded talk and talk and talk. We think that if Daddy hadn't of pulled her away she would still be talking his ear off now! What a wonderful change from her being scared of Santa last year!

She was SOOOOO happy!



After Santa got in a horse-drawn wagon (Riker loved seeing the horse) he headed off to the market. We did the same and had a great time playing in the toy store area. Then Grandpa Egg (who gave us the heads up on Santa arriving) suggested we go check to see if we could watch the helicopter take off. Well, we did even better than that! Daddy, Sydney and Riker got to go for a helicopter ride (for only $20 total!)!! Wow! Not something you get to do everyday! The first helicopter ride for all three of them!




After all the excitement we headed back inside to warm-up and to show Daddy the market (he hadn't been there yet!). The kids were in such good spirits that they even held hands as we toured around the market.


They were sooooo cute -- they got lots of attention doing this too!

When we worked our way up to the floor Santa was on we decided to say hi and get some pictures with Santa. Sydney was excited again and this time asked for what she wanted for Christmas (a dollhouse and Tinkerbell) and tried to tell Santa about the blanket we have at home with his picture on it. She cracks us up. Riker was...less enthusiastic...


All in all it was an awesome morning! We can't wait for Christmas!

Team Eggstreme - New UFO World Champions!!!

This past weekend Danny and Guinan headed down to Houston, TX to compete in the UFO Disc Dog World Championships. Before we go into details of the weekend I need to give a bit of background of how UFO figures out the World Champion. They calculate the world champion based on points accumulated throughout the year at their events, plus the points you get at their World Final. Headed into the finals weekend Danny was running in second place which made ME nervous, last year the finals were super close and he ended up in second (of course I want him to be in first!) Ok now that we have that covered.

The UFO world final was in Houston, TX. It was a 3 day ordeal (plus 3 days driving time). Friday was a last chance to earn some more points before the world final and then Saturday and Sunday were the world finals. It was a debate on if Danny was going to head down or not - with time-off work and everything considered (he HATED leaving the kids for that long -- we managed to video chat almost every day though and that helped). After working out the details it was decided he would go down. Part of the way down he picked up his Dad (just North of Memphis - returning from North Carolina, and then his Mom had to drive home to Indiana all alone - thanks Mimi! ), Danny and his Dad traveled on together on Thursday. Thursday night just after arriving at the hotel the heavens opened up and it RAINED and RAINED and RAINED and then it (you guessed it) RAINED some more. This is important information for the rest of their weekend.

For Friday's competition he needed 1st or 2nd place to get the points to help him for the world championship. Thinking it would be a good day at the fields Danny was excited. BUT when they arrived at the fields they found standing water as high as 2 inches in places. That does not make for good field conditions for competing. But as the say in show business "The show must go on" And so it did. And the competitors seemed to have a muddy blast! They did their first round of freestyle and came off the field a bit wet and really dirty - at least his shirt was already black! He said this picture does NOT do it justice.




The day continued. They said it was cool to see the dogs jump, make a great catch and then land in water to see the water go higher than their original jump. I would love to say that when the dust settled on Friday Danny was the winner, but I just can't say that. Instead I can say, when the clothes dried Friday, Danny was the winner! Helping the wife at home breath easier -- he was still in the game!


The other 2 people in this pic are from Holland and Germany, which is really cool! It really is a "World" finals!

At this point Danny was in 2nd place, but only 3 points behind first. That meant to become the world champion all he had to do was beat the guy in first over the weekend. Sounds easy right?...well that guy (Matt) had been the world champ for 3 years running! So the stage was set and the sun was out so they were ready for a great competition. Here are all the competitors for the weekend.



Well Guinan REALLY came to play this weekend. Danny said she was catching everything he put in front of her. They had to do 3 rounds of freestyle and 2 rounds of distance. They were the model of consistency in freestyle (36.6, 36.6, and 36.4). For those who don't know that is out of a possible 40 and that is a very good score but not a great score. But the scores that put them over the top were their distance scores (18.5 and 19). They were the highest 2 scores of any of the teams competing for the title. And Danny and Guinan's best in a long time. So in the end Danny and Guinan became the 2009 UFO World Cup Champions!

Danny had someone holding a cell phone so I could listen to the award ceremony -- I was so proud!! And that trophy is a Solid Aluminum Disc and it is AWESOME (and heavy!!).

The following are some compilation videos of the weekend put together by Julia Zimmerman (one of the other competitors). She did such a great job! The song used in the 2nd video is the song that Danny and Guinan performed to in their freestyle routines this year, I love it and hope they keep it -- the energy and positivity in it really suits them!







Coming out on top made their LONG drive back much easier (1300 miles one way). Danny did his part of the driving, but scary enough he passed the time while driving looking at the scores and going over different scenarios of what could have happened. To say he is obsessed with disc-dogging would be...well...correct! He really loves the sport even when he doesn't win. But world champion looks good on my guy and my border collie :-)


He's a DORK! But he's my dork....

Congratulations to Guinan and Danny! Our Team Eggstreme!