Late Spring and Space Shuttle Launch!!!

Just like the title says, here's the last month plus worth of updates and it's long but I have good reason for it.

Since it's spring, Dana grew tired of spring cleaning so she's trained Cade to take over some of her chores. Poor little guy.




Hard at work mopping the floor.



Don't feel too bad for him though. He's still young enough to enjoy it. In his downtime, Cade figured out how to use the camera and take self portraits. Imagine our delight when we turn the camera on to review our latest pictures and see pictures like this:

And this:

Last time, I had a photo of Cade exercising to Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Dana kept telling me how good of a workout it is and "suggested" I try it. How hard can it be, right? I get up early and exercise most days so I'm in decent shape. Well, after doing Level 1 (of 3) for a couple of weeks, I grew to be not very fond of ol 'Jillian. The only hand weights we have are 5 lbs. Doesn't seem like much, right? WRONG! They say they're 5 lbs, but I think they're more like 50. I wobbled through some of those exercises and thought my arms were going to fall off. I had to use both hands to pick my spoon full of oatmeal up when I ate breakfast. Once I was able to eat mostly normally again, I figured I'd step it up to Level 2. OMG! I'm now convinced Jillian is the Devil's spawn. That wicked little troll is trying to kill me and she does it with an evil sneer the entire time. I'm scared to death to ever try Level 3. Dana just laughs at me. I think housework is much more gnarly than I ever thought. Or perhaps Dana is one bad dude. Probably both.

Cameron celebrated his 9th birthday last month! Holy moly! Where has the time gone?

We made him work for his presents by giving him clues that eventually led him to them.

9 candles!

The birthday boy! Dana surprised him at school with those balloons and some cupcakes. I think my boy had a pretty special day.















Recently, the science museum had a free day. Kevin was at a birthday party so I took Cade and Cameron. We had a great time and I think the kids accidentally learned a couple of things. They liked this funhouse style mirror.

I have some mad skills with self portraits! I couldn't have framed that any better if I was looking through the camera.

Two weeks ago, I managed to snag a last minute causeway pass to see the launch of Atlantis on STS-132. (Did I ever mention I was on the flight deck of Atlantis? ☺ Ok, ok, ok. ) Since it came about so late, Dana had commitments so she stayed home with Cade. Kevin, Cameron and I made a fast trip down to FL to watch the launch. We drove down on Thursday, watched the launch Friday afternoon and started driving back that evening. It was a quick trip but well worth it.

The boys wanted to play in the ocean but settled for the hotel pool. What good is a pool without a cannonball? Or a Cameronball, in this case.

Kevin lounging by the pool. It was a gorgeous evening!

The next morning we fought through traffic to get to the Kennedy Space Center gate 4 hours before launch. Once on site, traffic was suddenly stopped and helicopters started hovering around. I had no idea what was going on until we saw the convoy drive right by us with the Astrovan right in the middle of it. The astronauts were on their way to the pad!

While we were stopped, this big ol' birds meandered through. I don't know if these are herons or what they are but they were neat to watch.

That's the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background. That's where they mate the orbiter to the external tank and boosters.

4 hour wait in the sun. The boys complained a little but not too bad considering.

While they're waiting I'll show you some pictures a coworker took. She had access to KSC the day before and got a good tour of the area. She also took much better pictures of the launch than I did so I'll use hers.

This is Pad 39-B. This is where Ares I would have launched from. There are some rumors/efforts that it may live on in one form or another but I'm not holding my breath. I think it'll be a while before the dust settles and we know what's going to happen.

This is the launch tower added to one of the mobile launch platforms for Ares I. It's huge!


Lisa (the photographer) also took these gorgeous shots the night before the launch. How cool are these? The shuttle looks SO neat lit up at night like that.

Postcard worthy, I tell you.

Ok, enough time has passed, the countdown has progressed very nicely, all systems are go and we're getting giddy because it looks like we'll actually get to see one launch!

Main engine start!!! I can't tell you how excited I was right about now.

Booster ignition and lift off!!! The view we had was different than this. We were further to the right looking directly at Atlantis. It disappeared from our view shortly after the main engines started but it looked so cool rising above that cloud.

Right about this point, it became so bright it was like looking at the sun. As Darth Vader would say, "Impressive." Actually, I was so giddy I think I was hopping around and squealing like a 2nd grade girl doing the pee pee dance.

Rolling over and heading NE.

Honestly, words can't describe how impressive it is to see that thing rocket away like that. After the solid rocket motors separated, we were able to see the main engines for about 4 more minutes before they disappeared behind a light cloud. So in all, we saw about 6 minutes of the 8 minute ride to orbit. Had it been at night, we would have been able to see them the whole time.

I took this photo of the aftermath. The breezes were dissipating the plume pretty quickly.

So after waiting 29 years and suffering through 2 aborts last summer, I FINALLY got to see a launch and it was even better than I expected it to be. Both boys really enjoyed it and excitedly proclaimed it was worth the wait and the long drive.

I know, this is a looooong post. But thanks for reading this far.

Our soccer season ended today. Cade's team didn't fare so well but they all had fun. After every game, they would ask if they won and I would answer with either, "I think so," or "I'm not sure but it was close." (I lied) They were happy with that.

Frenzy - 5 & 6 year olds (and one 4 yr old Cade)

Kevin and Cameron's team turned out to be a pretty darn good team. They finished 4-1-1 and outscored their opponents 25-7 in 6 games with Kevin accounting for 16 of those goals and Cameron (who wanted to stay in his age bracket and not move up) scored 1. If I may brag briefly, my favorite goal of the year was when Kevin took a penalty kick from about 20 yards out. The opposing team lined up in front of the goal to block his kick. Kevin kicked it over the team and goalie and hit the net in the upper right corner! That just doesn't happen at this level! Both boys played great this season and Cameron became fearless playing against kids considerably bigger than him. I couldn't be more proud.

And lastly, since our house in NM still hasn't sold, Dana has rejoined the working world. She got a job at the hospital here in Athens working Friday and Saturday nights. She starts in June. The hours stink but it's what she wanted because it's what works best for our family. Darn it.

Easterish

I'd start out by wishing everyone a happy Easter but I'm so ridiculously late posting our pictures I won't bother. I'll just say that I hope everyone had a nice Easter.

The weekend before Easter, our Sunday school class had a big egg hunt/get-together at a couple's house. They have a BEAUTIFUL place! It's an older house on a few acres but it has a pond in their backyard (rumor has it fish were in there but as usual the Reynolds boys didn't see or catch squat)! We all had a great time.

Kevin was initially too cool to hunt for eggs but once they got underway he couldn't resist. The lack of a basket didn't bother him one bit. His coolness went out the window as he carried the eggs he found in his shirt.

This shot of Cameron is blurry not for lack of focus but because he was a blur running around the yard looking for eggs. That and maybe the camera was a little bit out of focus but mostly because he's fast.

Cade must be pokey because he's in good focus. But he still managed to get a lot of eggs.

The day after the egg hunt, we drove to Kansas to attend Dana's grandmother's funeral. Hopefully, the next time we go that way it'll be for happier reasons. With that said, it was nice to see everyone again.

Ok, so we left Kansas on Monday afternoon and drove 1/2 way home (6 hours) and finished the drive on Tuesday. The reason for the rush wasn't that I was anxious to get back to work but because Larry and Galena were driving in the opposite direction to NM and had a head start on us. Make sense? It will when I explain that they had an early morning flight out of Albuquerque on Tuesday morning to fly to AL to visit us. We had to hurry to get back so they wouldn't beat us to our house. We beat 'em but only by about 3 hours. They got into Albuquerque at something like 2 a.m. and had ~4 hours of sleep before they had to get to the airport. I didn't dare complain about being tired in front of them.

So Dana and her master planning and entertaining skills had the week all planned out to show them around our new stomping grounds. She was even kind enough to schedule a mostly-do-nothing day to give them a chance to rest. Nice girl, that Dana.

One of the things they did was go to the zoo in Nashville. I can't tell for sure in this picture, but it looks to me like Cade is trying to stretch his neck like the giraffe.

Cade, Larry and Galena

Cade appears to be brushing the goat's chin. Goats like that, you know, I guess.

They also went to the Rainforest Cafe while they were in Nashville. Everytime we go somewhere new, we look to see if they have one of these restaurants. Someday we'll make it to all of them. Oh, and I have no idea what Cade's doing here but he's in the Rainforest so the picture works.

And then it was Easter! Well, first it was the day before Easter. That's when we dyed our eggs.

Most of our pictures were backlit too bad to bother sharing. I took this picture of Cade on Easter morning putting the finishing touches (stickers) on our eggs. Look at the concentration on that cute little face!

And then it was really Easter!

The Easter Bunny must have been feeling a little violent this year as he brought Kevin and Cameron Airsoft guns - basically BB guns that shoot plastic bbs. You'd think a bunny of all things would stay away from those things! Cade got a new game for his handheld video game. Of course chocolate and sugary things filled the empty spaces in their baskets.

Target practice for Boy 1 and Boy 2 .

Our own Easter Egg hunt was fun. Dana and hid eggs all over the place. When this was taken they had found all the easy ones and were walking around together trying to find the rest.

And between the camouflage eggs and weeds in the yard, it was no surprise they had a hard time finding some of them. Can you spot the egg in this picture?

What good is an Easter Sunday without a family picture while everyone looks presentable? Too bad the backyard was hadn't greened up yet.

With Easter over, it meant our Saturdays will now be consumed by soccer. Kevin and Cameron are on the same team while Cade is playing with the 5-6 year olds.

Kevin and Cameron's team name is "Predators". Cade's team's name is "Frenzy".

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here. Cade appears to be trying to boss his teammate around and she appears to be having none of that. You'd never guess he's a year younger than most of his teammates, would you? He's a big little dude! Actually, at 4-1/2 he's the same height as Kevin was at 5 and Kevin wasn't lacking in height at that age either. We won't mention Cameron's height here.

If you couldn't find the egg, here it is.

Still behind on pictures so this post will almost get us caught up.


I'll start with one picture I meant to include last time. The intermission at the Supercross race consisted of a freestyle show. If you've never seen people backflipping a motorcycle in person, it's pretty neat. This guy is doing a nac-nac (kicks one leg over to the other side of the motorcycle) backflip.

On to slightly more current news. The boys decided at nearly the last minute to participate in our church's AWANA Grand Prix (pinewood derby). They designed their cars and I helped with the power tools. Then I showed them how to sand the wheels and polish the axles and let them have at it.

Before the race.





Kevin built a tank and named it, appropriately enough, "Tank". I refused to be one of those pee wee dads and let/made him do almost all the work himself. Um, the only problem is that Tank didn't quite look the same come race time but more on that in a minute.





Cameron named his car "Kar". Geez, my boys are original.







Kevin got 3rd place in his age group! Cameron's car was quick out of the gate but didn't quite make the top 3. I think he would have done better if we had brought his car up in weight. See that bandage on my hand? Funny story on that. I'll start with a disclaimer. The following images are graphic so proceed at your own queasiness if that's even a word.



Here's my re-enactment of the incident leading up to the bandaged hand. Kevin's car was overweight so we needed to drill some holes in it. I was in a bit of a hurry and complained to Kevin that I couldn't put the car down because I'd either screw up the wheels or break the barrel. So I drilled it like any good ol' Alabamian would do and held it in my hand. See where this is going?

"See boys, this is not the way you'd normally do this but since I'm aware of how stupid this is I couldn't possibly drill a hole in my hand. It's all about awareness and I have it in spades."

At the precise moment I decided not to go any deeper because I was afraid I'd poke a 3/8" hole in the top of Tank, I poked a 3/8" hole in the top of Tank. And in my hand. I show it going all the way through my hand in this reenactment because it's more dramatic and makes for better ratings.



This actually happened in the parking lot at church. So we drove home to get Dana and with one hand, I popped the turret off Tank and sent the boys back to church with Dana while I went to the ER. The people at the race helped Kevin ADD weight to Tank since it was now underweight. How insulting. The nurse in the ER made it hurt a million times worse when she scrubbed it and darn near made me pass out. I'm tough like that. She told me she can't stitch hamburger meat so she wrapped it up and sent me on my way with a warning not to be stupid anymore like the guy that was in a day before with a nail stuck in his thigh.


Then I discovered the joys of living in a small town. Despite my telling Dana to keep it on the DL, almost everyone at church already knew what happened by the time she arrived. Part of the reason was that someone in the ER overheard me talking about it and called someone at the race and that person blabbed and so on. My ego hurt a lot worse than my hand. For the record, I stuck my hand right between my index and middle finger. No damage to anything but skin and fat.



Moving on.

Dana has taken up an exercise routine led by some hottie in a little black outfit. Now that I noticed her on the TV, I think I might start this routine too. It's no wonder why Cade likes to do it too. I think he's running in place here. Dana says he's actually pretty good at doing several of the exercises without stopping.

Soccer season is upon us. This was right before Cade's first practice. He's wearing the cleats Cameron wore when he started at 6 yrs. old. I'm proud to report that Cade is NOT the worst player on the team even though he is the youngest. We thought the minimum age was 4 so he got excited about getting to play. On signup day, we found out the minimum age is 5. When they saw how sad he was, they said he can play if we just acknowledge he's underage and we think it's ok. So we signed him up and now I'm "coaching" a pack of 5 and 6 year olds in addition to the 9-12 year olds. That's what you call a glutton for punishment.

I'll post some pictures of the boys with their uniforms when I get around to getting them downloaded. Cade's team got whooped in their first game but Kevin and Cameron's team cruised to a 7-0 win in theirs. Kevin scored 4 and 3 of those were BEAUTIFUL shots from fairly far back. Boy, they were pretty. We celebrated the boys' efforts by overdosing on sugar and ruining our lunch with a cookie/ice cream sandwich at Nestle Toll House after the games.

Late Winter/Early Spring

Life never seems to slow down around here, not that I'm complaining but I'll use that as my excuse for taking so long to update our blog.

Let's see, since our last adventure was published we took a mini-vacation and headed over to Atlanta to see a Supercross race in the Georgia Dome! We splurged and bought pit passes so the kids could see the bikes and riders. Unfortunately, as the sport has become more popular the pits have become much more crowded making it nearly impossible to get see the riders up close and personal, let alone get any autographs. We still managed to catch a couple of riders though.



Just by chance, we caught Ryan Villopoto. After we watched him crash in Atlanta, he dropped to second place in the 450 class (top dogs) and is unarguably one of the very fastest riders in the world.








All 3 boys got tattoos! Kevin and Cade got a dirt bike and Cam got a helmet. Cade got his and said he wanted to save it to show Mr. Mike (his favorite Sunday school teacher) so we were careful not to wash it off ALL week. Come Sunday, he wore long sleeves and forgot all about it.








Self-portrait with my littlest buddy.








Self-portrait with my honey.








Introducing the 2020 Supercross Champion, Cameron Reynolds!








And on my right is the 2017 Supercross Champ, Kevin! I can't wait until they're rich and can support me! And I'll get to go to all the races for free!




The company I work for had our annual bowling day a few weeks ago. Free bowling and lunch for the family! Cameron was getting frustrated because Cade kept beating him but at least he has good form!



How can you not love this shot?

I played hooky on a beautiful Friday recently and took Kevin and Cameron riding down by Birmingham. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. Perfect! We had a great time and closed the place down. Of course, the boys sacked out on the drive home leaving me to entertain myself for 2 hours.

I don't know the entire story here, but Cameron said he looked up and saw me taking this picture. When he looked back at the track, he realized he was in trouble. I also realized the moment that I took it he was going over the berm. He quickly disappeared from sight. When I jogged over there, I found him crawling up the backside of the berm with goggles in hand. His motorcycle was upside down, literally on the handlebars, and tangled in a mess of thorny vines. Cameron said he was fine and told me, "It even knocked my goggles off!" After I wrestled the bike back up on the track I realized I still had the camera in my hand and missed a great photo opportunity. Darn it.

Artistic shot of Kevin. This was on "creative mode". It's kind of cool.

No story. Just a cute picture.

Karen came to visit us for a long weekend so we took her to Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. It's a really neat site of a Civil War battle. Unfortunately, our camera batteries died and we forgot to get copies of Karen's pictures so you'll have to use your imagination. So picture a big hill with cannons perched on ledges at the top. Now picture a bunch of other cool, civil war-y stuff and you get the idea.

This place is a museum in Chattanooga. We didn't go in but like the looks of the outside. I don't remember any details of the place except that it's old.

We walked across the Tennessee River on a bridge built in the late 1800s. It's interesting to see how they built things like that back then as opposed to more modern bridges.

Still lots of pictures to go. I'll post more soon.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Not a whole lot going on in the Southern division of the Reynolds family lately. We're in the last few weeks of our soccer off-season lull. It's been cold so the boys have been mostly cooped up in the house driving Dana and me nuts.

Lately, Kevin and a couple friends of his started making a "clubhouse" near here. They're still in the early stages where they're clearing out the brush and making plans for how cool it's going to be. Eventually, they'll have a 20 foot high wall surrounding the place, with turrets every 20 feet and a moat on the outside. Well, they didn't say that exactly, but you know that's what they're thinking. In reality, it's in a neat place behind the golf course with a creek running through it. It's going to be pretty this summer! I don't want to intrude when they're over there but I'll have to get some pictures of it to share with everyone.

Speaking of pictures, here's our monthly-or-so dose:




I have no idea what Cade's doing but I like how happy he looks.



I also have no idea why Dana was taking self portraits while talking on the phone but I like this picture too.




A couple of weeks ago, it snowed out of the blue. It started after I left for work and the kids went to school. Cade had the whole yard to himself. Then, just like in Las Cruces, the sun came out and it was gone about 2 hours later. I might have accused Dana of telling a fib if I hadn't seen these pictures (we got nuthin' at work).




Since Dana keeps the house at a bone-chilling 42 degrees or whatever it is, I often curl up on the couch with my heated blanket. (If they ever come out with an electric Snuggie, I'm all over it!) Cade is often my little snuggle buddy. Bad days at work are no match for this.




Cameron's school had a 50s day recently. Cam was decked out and ready to go. All he was lacking was a pack of cigarette candy to roll up in his sleeve.




Dana took this during their sock hop, party event. The girl next to Cameron apparently has a crush on him and jumped at the chance to sit next to him for a picture. I just love the look on his face. "Why won't these women just leave me alone so I can eat my ice cream in peace?"


We finally got to go riding again this weekend! The clouds disappeared and we had an incredible stretch of about 3 days with nothing but sunshine, believe it or not. And it was beautiful weather!


Kevin's feet finally got too big to cram in his boots so he suckered us into buying new ones. And, let me tell you, those boots are Fly! Seriously, they're Fly. I mean, they're cool and all, but that's the brand name. Fly. Obviously, I'm not hip enough to talk like that. Let's see how long they stay white.




Cameron catching some air on his KTM.


Who says white men can't jump?

Cameron meant to do this. The girl next to him thought he fell out of the swing. Silly girls. Danger is for boys. :)

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Dana and I had a date night on Valentine's Day Eve. It's our first one since we moved here over a year ago so it was long overdue. We wimped out and went a day early so we wouldn't have to fight the rush at the restaurants. Don't tell anyone, but we left Kevin in charge here at home while Dana and I went to dinner a whole 2 miles away. Hey, it wasn't much of a date, but it was a date nonetheless. And the dinner was good. For V-day, I bought her (and myself) a new TV for our bedroom. We're finding ourselves retreating to our room to watch TV more and more often since the boys are taking over the TV in the living room (it has the DVR). So, I thought we should have something nicer than her old 1985 12" screen that we were using. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't much better. Then, as if that wasn't enough, she claimed her old vacuum cleaner died (and made sounds like RURRR-Rurrr-rrrr like it's dying - and that's a quote from her e-mail!) so we had to get a new one. I think I'm the only man who bought a vacuum cleaner for his wife the day before Valentine's Day and stayed married! Yay me!