old friends... old school

We're are back from our mad dash to Birmingham. On Wednesday we stopped over in Auburn, Alabama (recent victors over a mean Gator team) to see our friend Diego who is getting his masters in poultry science. We had a great time visiting Diego and seeing the campus. I also got quite a kick out of seeing Diego at the frat house. Diego is vice-president of his pledge class. We are so proud of him.

Once in B'ham we went out with friends Chris and Susan Blazer. Johnny Ray's is always a treat. I had the Wednesday night special, barbecue chicken. And then on the way out we stopped off at Milo's. Two classic B'ham restaurants.

digital newsletter

Our periodic newsletter is online for your perusal. You can also find the back issues, but be sure to check out September.

BikeFest

This week was BikeFest for Bainbridge, GA, so we spent Saturday at the park feeling the biker vibe. Braden counted some 300+ motorcycles. Here's a picture of Simon in front of what we called the I Spy Bike.

green hair and ham

Wednesday night was crazy hair night at Awana. After we got done painting the boys' hair green, Lucy repeatedly pointed to her head saying, heya... heya (hair... hair). So Lucy went with green hair to the nursery.

Lucy's 2nd

Tomorrow is Lucy's second birthday. We celebrated on Saturday with a few friends and family. Lucy had a big time and ate lots of sweets. I thought it was funny how "unsurprised" she was. She acted as if she knew exactly what was going on the whole time and everything came off just as she planned it. Also towards the end of the party after opening a stuffed animal pony from her Grandpa, when no one was looking she sat on top of it and started saying, neigh, neigh. Classic. Here are a few pictures from the party.

Go Bearcats!

The boys and I went to the ballgame on Friday night with Poppy to see the Bearcats' opener. After leading 6-0 at the half we went home. It was raining some and I think we were too far away for the boys to see enough to be interested. But it was getting late. After we left there was quite a downpour and the Bearcats went down with it, losing 20-13.

back and forth

Amy and I got back yesterday from our second honeymoon of sorts at Mexico Beach. My aunt offered her beach house to us this week so we took her up on it, leaving the little ones with my mom (my dad openly confessed he wasn't much help). We had so much fun we are going back tomorrow for the holiday with the kids.

One oddity from the trip... we were never quite sure what time zone we were in. We stayed in a beach house at St. Joe Beach or something like that right next to Mexico Beach. I think we crossed the division of central and eastern time zones everyday.

ladybug's

We spent last weekend with Ladybug (Amy's mom) and Amy's grandmother in Warner Robins. One of the highlights of the trip for me was watching the Warner Robins team in the Little League World Series. We didn't get to watch the final game until returning to Bainbridge but it was fun watching them win... especially when they consoled the Japan team after the game. That showed a lot of heart and character.

Amy's sister, Laura, and her son Trey were also there. He and Lucy got into a few messes in the kitchen over the weekend.

Amy's family loves games, so Braden crawled up in Ladybug's lazyboy and worked some Sudoku puzzles, giving the play-by-play as he went. Amy whooped all of us in Boggle, which was no fun. There will be revenge.

grass and gnats

I asked Braden the other day what the difference was between soccer in the US and Brazil. He said the grass and the gnats. The boys are playing in a league through the local YMCA. Braden was taking classes in Brazil but it was futsal on a hard cement court.

settled-ing

Here's a picture of the back of our house where we'll be living for the next several months. We are sleeping and eating here but still have boxes laying around and need a table here and there. The home is like 80-something years old. Not quite sure. Which is unique and all but does cause some problems. Hopefully by week's end we'll have it livable.