Good time at Court of Honor

I enjoyed going to the troop's Court of Honor/Christmas party with the boys tonight.  Kevin earned his Backpacking merit badge and Stephen earned his Emergency Preparedness merit badge.  Both are pursuing their Eagle rank. 

New addition to the family

We have been thinking about getting a dog for a while but wasn't sure what we wanted.  Earlier this year we dog-sat Mickey for some friends and really enjoyed him.  Our friends have 3 small children and a couple of bigger dogs and decided to reduce their workload by getting rid of Mickey so they offered him to us!

Sue is very excited,  as is Kevin.  Stephen and I are OK and Mickey is growing on us.  He's a lot of fun but also very chill.  Welcome,  Mickey!

Having fun this season

We're looking forward to an action-packed holiday season, with the kids coming home for Thanksgiving and doing some fun stuff leading up to Christmas.  Hope you're doing well and celebrating the birth of our Savior in a big way! 

Happy birthday, Megan!

We had a good time celebrating Megan's birthday with her.  We drove up to Dalton and stayed near her place the night before, then got up and surprised her at her church with cupcakes for her and her Sunday school class of teenagers!  It was fun hanging out with her after church, then she had to buckle down and get more homework done.  She's doing well in school and is looking forward to graduating in May.  Good job, Megan! 

Had a good time at Six Flags

We try to go each year, and this time we squeezed it in on the day before I go back to work.  We had a blast riding the coasters and water rides at Six Flags with Kevin, Stephen, Elijah, and Nicole.  One word of caution: The new Blue Hawk coaster is just the Ninja repainted and not very smoothed out.  Still gave me a neck ache! Otherwise we had a great time!

David and the boys made it back!

Stephen, Kevin, and David went on a Philmont hiking trek with David's brother Michael and his boys and a couple of other scouts.  It was an awesome experience for them, though a lot of hard work.  They hiked over 60 miles in the back country of northern New Mexico! Everyone made it back safe and healthy, which is good.  Be sure and ask them about their experience when you get a chance!

Happy birthday, Jacob!

Our first-born son is 24 today - woohoo!  He is doing well up in the city, working hard and making things happen.  We're proud of you, Jacob! Hope you have a great celebration today!

May Madness in full swing!

We're navigating our way through birthdays, end-of-school-year events, work, play, and summer prep with style and effort.  Things are going well, though the boys keep coming up with interesting surprises that seem custom-made to throw us off track.  So far we've stayed the course and are almost ready for an exciting summer!

Sad day at our house

We had our dog JoJo put down today.  He has been having a lot of trouble breathing and getting any food past some growth around his esophagus for more than a month.  The veterinarian suggested that it may be allergies at first, but the claritin and benadryl we gave him didn't really seem to help what was happening.  We took him in again today and they talked about x-rays, cancer surgery, and other things and we decided that instead of prolonging his poor quality of life we'd have him put down.  Not a fun decision, and not a fun time.  Please pray for Sue and the boys as they grieve our loss. 

Winter break in GA

The boys are out of school so we've been doing some fun stuff this week.  We went to the Georgia Aquarium on Monday (holiday + winter break = too many people), which was nice - I always smile when I go there, and I don't know why!  Stephen and Kevin went up to see Megan in Dalton, which was a big adventure for them.  And I've got a few days off from work over the weekend, which makes it nice.  Ahhhh, life is good!

Happy birthday, Sue!

My lovely wife celebrates another birthday today!  We're going to do our best to celebrate her a little more than we usually do :-)

Happy 2016!

We had a good 2015, but I believe that 2016 is going to be even better! Hope that you are geared up and ready for an exciting 2016!