Odds 'n Ends

Lots of little happenings lately but not many pictures.



I'll start with something I meant to post 2 months ago. Kevin was baptized on June 7. I was waiting for the pictures to be available to post them and when I finally did get them I forgot about it. Anyway, better late than never.







The photographer caught a great shared moment between Kevin and me (Kevin is looking right at me in this picture). As the pastor was talking, Kevin kept thinking he was about to get dunked and would hold his breath and reach for his nose only to realize the preacher wasn't done talking. After about the 3rd time, Kevin and I giggled at all the false starts.

Eventually, the pastor finished talking and dunked my boy. And just to be clear, he isn't wearing "tighty orangeys" under his robe. Those are his old soccer shorts.

A couple of weeks ago our church had a family night at the water park in Decatur (about 20 minutes from here). We all had a great time. Here's Cade playing in the kiddie pool.



The first ride I went on was with Kevin and Cameron. It was a big slide that had several drops followed by short, somewhat level parts. Know what I mean? Kevin was getting nervous as we got near the top and I assured him it would be fun and nothing to be scared of. The boys went down together on their innertube and I was left alone on mine. All was fine with my world until I hit the very first drop, plummeted seemingly straight down only to hit the "level" part and bounce off the surface of the slide just in time to drop over the next dropoff. This continued a couple more times before I turned around backwards and hit the pool at the bottom at about Mach 3. I would have screamed like a little girl but I think every muscle in my body had gone absolutely rigid with fear. The psycho boys of mine made me do it again and this time the darn lifeguard held me with the edge of my tube dangling over the first drop for what must have been half an hour before letting me go. I know she wanted me to think long and hard about what was coming. I accused her of being some sadistic evil-doer who was trying to give me a heart attack but she laughed at me and mumbled something about waiting for the area below to clear. Give me a break! If anyone had been in the water below me for that long they would have looked like a big, pink raisin. It took that long, I tell you!



The 4 of us (not Cade) also rode the "Space Bowl" or toilet bowl as most people call it. And I believe each one of us fell out the bottom head first despite all the flapping, flopping and squawking we did while trying to right ourselves.








Cade playing in the rain with our new umbrella. I love the look on his face. Speaking of Cade, the other day he was talking back to Dana and got a quick swat without the normal warning. With a shocked look on his face he said, "I didn't see that coming." Just another one of those times where it's nearly impossible to keep a straight face while you're disciplining your children.



Speaking of Cade, part 2. Last weekend he finally got to ride his beloved "loud loud dirt bike."

As soon as he got out of the pickup he told us he changed his mind he wasn't going to ride after all. Poor little guy got nervous. After a little encouragement, he decided to give it a try. He picked it up right away but had a little trouble turning. He didn't have as good of an area to learn in as the other two boys did but he did alright. He did get a little whiskey throttle (gas it and can't let off) and crashed once. Surprisingly, he didn't really ride very much that day.

Getting ready for the big moment!

Dang, he looks cute!

Ready to rock-n-roll!

Like last time, Cameron was a riding machine but this time he did it on the big track. There weren't as many people (and almost everyone was fairly slow) so he never even bothered with the pee wee track. Kevin also took a liking to the big track and showed some improvement as the day wore on. And for all of you who are familiar with my normal choice of moto weapon (Mom & Dad), I left it at home and rode my ol' 2 stroke for the first time in 6 years! It was fun, but not as fun as I remembered (and more squirrely). I think I'll stick to the fo-fiddy.

Kevin and Cameron started school on the 10th. Kevin is in 6th (!) and Cam is in 3rd. Geez!

Friday night we went to the Kiddie Carnival. It's a little area here in downtown Athens that has several OLD carnival rides for little kids. Kevin was almost too old to enjoy it much but he found one ride he liked. Cade thought he died and had gone to Disneyland. Cameron was somewhere in between. It was a fun time and cost little money. The rides were $0.50, cotton candy was only $1 and drinks were $0.50. When was the last time you saw prices like that?

Yesterday, we went to the first annual "Fun Days" or something like that here in Athens. It was a hodge podge of crafts vendors and kiddie games. Not overwhelmingly fun but they did have free Bingo. Only a couple of games in, Kevin won! That dude wins everything! His prize was this beautiful... (see picture)

CURLING IRON!!!

Later, a gift certificate for a manicure came up and Dana was threatening us with our lives if we didn't win it for her. Well, she and I both won! Keep in mind, I never win anything at anything and when I finally won something it's a dang manicure. To be fair, since we both won, the Bingo ladies told me I could have another gift but I declined. We tried a few more times and on the last game before they were quitting I won again! This time I won a ladies' t-shirt! Needless to say, Dana made out like a bandit mostly at my expense.