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KIDS!!!!!

That is right.  The days are getting warmer and longer.  Those chores that you have been putting off until warm weather are beckoning (Ben has his big project on his blog here ).  Kids are saying, “Mommy and Daddy, can I go out and pwaaaay….pweeease?” 

Letting the little beasts out will rid the majority of the mess they make in the house and burn off some of that pent up energy that have acquired over the colder cabin fever months.  Sure there are dirtier children to deal with, but the results are worth it. 

So we welcome you Spring and Summer.  We hate cold days and continuous runny noses.  We want to go fishing, camping, and yes to start on that dreaded chore list.

One thing you will notice is…..drum roll please…..RaeLynne is walking.  Yay!!  Wait, stop, be right back gotta go catch her……

Well, now with the forthcoming arrival of our third child, it has become necessary to get another vehicle.  We need something with more room, third row seats, DVD player, and good gas mileage.  Anyone know of a muscle car that fits that description…how about a sports car?  Any body….please…..sigh.  So we went into town and bought a minivan.  Yes that is right we are that family now.  I will have to say that it turned out to be a better looking vehicle than I had feared.  I had already pictured us in a proverbial cracker box on wheels.  Instead we purchased a 2004 Pontiac Montana.

This is a stock photo as it was too dark to take a picture for this entry.  I will add a real picture later.

This thing is awesome in the way of creature comforts (compared to what I am used to).  It appears that all of the stuff works too (amazing).  It has an automatic sliding side door, sliding doors on both sides, 3 rows of seats, a DVD player built into the back, rear heating, folding down back two rows of seats, a backup assistant (Becky already found this one to work fine), and all kinds of other stuff that will take another year to find.  It is like a treasure hunt on wheels. 

Another thing that I do like about it is that you don’t see too many of these out there.  It seems that the roads are flooded with Dodge Grand Caravans and their brethren.  My sister in law also falls into this category.  I like those but it is good to be a little different.  I am also impressed with the sportiness of the van.  It has that “I am a soccer mom that will run your butt over anyway” look.  I attribute this mainly to the position of the fog lights which also work splendidly. 

All in all, I am not totally sold on it but I do not hate it either.  It definitely is what we are needing though.  Becky is happy and that is what matters.  It IS  her vehicle, and what she wanted.  As the saying goes “Happy wife, happy life”. 

My brother in law has posted some pix from this snow and all the fun that the kids (and adults) had.  HERE is a link to said post.  He really has a creative eye when it comes to his camera.  Hope you enjoy.

Well, we have gotten the largest snow in around a decade.  Schools closed, kids prayed, and Wal-Mart was flooded.  But true to the forecast we received at least 6 inches and more in other places.  Rory loved the entire event, as she went out and played in it and we made several journeys out to visit along the treacherous roadways.  Becky's Jeep did pretty well after being weighted down with two enormous spare tires from my Chevy truck being crammed into the back alongside two cinder blocks.  We only got stuck once and am pretty sure that if I had just taken the hill a little faster I would have made it with no problem.  There is something about having two daughters and wife in a vehicle that shudders the confidence and nerves of a guy.  I have made far more ominous journeys in a Camaro with less complication, but somehow this one hill stuck me.  Thanks to a friend with a Dodge truck, he pulled us the little bit of the hill that we had not quite conquered.

Traveling along the roads brought several things to my attention.

People are still idiots when the snow and ice are on the roads.  I saw several people traveling at speeds that far exceeded the safety range for driving on slick roads.  I had one truck to pass me while I was traveling around 30mph on a back road...idiot!

Four wheelers suddenly have free reign when these conditions become present.  There was one road in particular where the four wheelers had cut so many doughnuts that it caused a washboard effect when driving on it.

People suddenly dress with quite a bit less concern for fashion and more emphasis on WARM!  It is interesting to see how your usually "prim and proper" people suddenly get practical.

But all in all, the world did not come to an end, The kids loved the snow ... for a while and I have some cool pictures to post.

Well, my household is fixing to have an adjustment.  We (my wife and I) have found out that she is pregnant.  That will make our third child.  We are very excited about the entire journey.  It will be interesting to see how five people live in a three bedroom house.  Scary huh? 

Just to answer a few questions that keep coming up:

Yes, I do know how this occurs

No I do not know what it will be

I REALLY do not care what the gender of the baby will be.  I will love it either way.

I am excited and glad about this new addition.

NO...I am not selling my Camaro, truck, or motorcycle.

And yes three kids would be difficult to fit in the Jeep Cherokee, thus we are buying a 2004 Pontiac Montana minivan.  Becky gets the van she has been wanting afterall. 

So in conclusion, a new baby is on the way.  Good times are ahead.  I will be posting about this new one as things develop.  Also anyone want a good 2000 Jeep Cherokee Classic with posi-loc Dana rearend?  Cmon, we need financial help here, lol.

P.S.  Yes Nathan there will be ultrasound pix later.

We went to the Shriner’s Circus again this year.  Once again, it has proven to be a journey worthy of the trip.  We actually had missed some of last years performances and got the opportunity to catch them this time around.  This was one thing that I did notice, most (if not all) of the show was an exact duplication of last year’s.  Maybe next time I will ask if they have a DVD so I can watch it at home.  Just kidding.  Like I said previously, to watch it in person is worth the loading up of the family and going to see it.  I have brought some pix back just to prove my point.

Rory got a coloring book that featured all of the clowns in the circus.  You could then wander around the ring area and get their autograph on their designated page. 

We began with the clearing of the ring area and had the usual parade of classic cars, tractors, mini cars, and various other vehicles.  Shortly after the parade was the “Clown Wars”.  The clowns tried to pep the audience up for the forthcoming show and played tricks on one another.

Rory and Rachel get ready for the show as the lights go down.  For proper “circus preparation”, Rory had some cotton candy on hand.  I had a blue one for myself, but tasted the pink just to be sure that they both tasted the same….they did…both yummy.

With the main lights off, a brilliant display of lights around the rings and above them is accompanied by the many types of wands, globes, scepters, and other items that could be bought at EVERY part of the show.  Vendors relentlessly walked the aisles screaming that their items were for sale.  For a mere $20, you too could own a butterfly wand that glowed various colors.

Then came the “Rage of the Cage”.  I am not making this up, that is his name.  This man effortlessly guided six tigers into several interesting acts.  The most flamboyant was the tigers going through the hoop of fire.  

No circus is complete without elephant acts.  Hey someone has to work for peanuts around here.  

These pictures and a little dark, but the lighting and the angle did not work well for my camera.  These air acrobats were great.  Not just because of the apparel either.  My personal favorite was the motorcycle act.  Two motorcycles lined up and raced along wires while dangling a girl under of their bikes.  

And to end the show was yet more elephant acts.  The grand finale…get out of the parking lot alive.  It was not as bad as I expected, but it almost rivaled a rock concert.  This just goes to show how good the turnout was for this event. 

Positively a great trip for the family.  Again I highly recommend it for yours. 

Ok for all of you out there that do not know what this is, you are thinking, “This sounds like a very redneck invention.”  You may be right, but it is a cotton-pickin good time.  Becky likes to go to see the many crafts stands, the girls like the adventure of it and the playground, I like the car and motorcycle show.  It was a magnificent turnout this year.  It looked even more packed than in previous years. 

Allardt, Tn is a small town.  This annual festival attracts crowds from long distances.  Various different states can be accounted for by walking through the parking areas and looking at the license plates.  These various vehicles are parked not in blacktop areas but in fields serving as temporary parking lots.  The large crowd spills out of the main district and seems to flow in amongst itself while walking mere inches from the Highway 52.  Crafts, music, a pumpkin (and various other gourd) weigh off, and a parade are some of the events that take place.  Not bad for a town that can be driven through in less than a minute (no joke).

This is a lineup of some of the biggest gourds to be weighed in.

One of the crafts was face painting.  This is something that Rory has been into lately.  She saw this booth and went running.  The artist was exceptional.  Thus, the wait line was very long.  Nothing that came out of her tent look shabby or blotched.  I was very impressed with her work.  Rory’s eyes watered a little throughout the process, but she troopered on and was quite pleased with the results.

There is an annual event in our county where multiple air planes come together to perform stunts, a small fair is produced, and various forms of music is performed.  Over 10,000 attendants were recorded for the previous two years but I seriously doubt that number was reached this year.  I blame a lot of this on the previous days of rain.  In fact, that made it the perfect time for us to go the event and not be overcrowded with people.  I almost regretted not attending the previous years after going this year.  It is more exciting than it sounds.  I figured I would be quickly bored with the aeronautics.  Actually I began to admire the skill that must be involved in order to make planes perform the way that these pilots do.  Loop to loops, spirals, flying upside down, and death bombs were only a small number of the stunts that were displayed.  There were also many activities for smaller children, such as my oldest child.  Voila, something for all.  The first day me and my family went and the next day Becky took both of our daughters along with our twin niece and nephew, Rachel and Toby.  I hear that they all had a blast.  I had to work during the day time but was able to rejoin them for the night show.  This sported a plane with lighting that would be the envy of many rock shows.  The plane then had fireworks spewing from its wings to add to the show.  Then for the finale, the plane swung in low for a fire explosion to match that of a medium sized bomb.  To end the show, a fantastic fireworks show that was as good or better than any fourth of July as I have ever seen.

Some of the kid based activities

The night show was awesome

So today was the second and final day of Becky’s birthday present to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  To sum up the whole trip:

We all had a blast, we spent too much money (but I think that is a requirement of such a trip), and it was worth it all.

We started the day off rough.  RaeLynne decided to break her usual ritual of sleeping all night and woke us up at 5:00 this morning.  After coming to, we fed her and all went back to sleep.  Thus everyone slept soundly until after 8:00.  We lounged around a little and decided that a trip to the pool was in order due to Rory’s persistant “I wanna go to the pool”’s. 

We then gathered our stuff and checked out.  We traveled down the main drag looking to see just what we wanted to do.  Along the way, we came across The Track.  Not only is this a go-cart track, but also a small fair.  They had a small collection of kiddie rides which we took advantage of.

She loved the planes that go around and up and down.  Some call these Rocko Planes.  We call them “the planes that go around and up and down”.

So we move on to the Ferris Wheel.  Everything looked fine and Rory seemed fine.  Then as the second picture alludes to, she began to cry out that she wanted off.

RaeLynne knew that this would not go well.

Next on the list was a nice comfy Carousel.  This was safe and she enjoyed it.

We then moved off to the go-carts.  First Rory got to drive HER own go-cart.  She started out a little slow.  This really surprised me since she flies around in her Power Wheels Jeep.  Besides, she is my daughter, driving fast is in the family.  Then after seeing that she was not pushing the pedal hard enough, we informed her of her mistake and she took off like “greased lightning”.

Finally we moved on to the fast carts.  Here Rory and I got to ride together.  We both had a blast. 

The rest of the day consisted of a visit to Mr. Gatti’s and a ton of shopping.  I had my morning of fun and Becky had her’s.  I did manage to get Rory hopped up on M&M’s before we left the Knoxville area.  The girls slept for around an hour before we got home. 

EXCELLENT TRIP!  Had a ball.  Would love to do it again.  First we need to recoup from this one. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKY, hope you enjoyed it.

Becky’s birthday is very soon.  She has been absolutely dyeing to go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge for a visit.  This, of course, cannot be just a one day event but must at the least be two days and one night.  Thus, when we woke up this morning, I asked her how long it would take her to get ready for a trip of this nature.  She smiled and promptly went into action.  Less than an hour later, we are heading down the road as Becky calls her family members to gloat that she is getting a trip to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge for her birthday.  I pretty much have given her free reign of the day’s events and thus far we have:

Checked into the River Side Towers Hotel.  If you have never been to this hotel, I would highly recommend it.  King Size bed, in room jacuzzi, indoor swimming pool, personal fireplace, and several kitchen items are on the list of accommodations.  It is a little pricey, but worth it.

After checking in at the hotel, we decide to go to the Ripley's Aquarium.  This is a place that we have often wanted to visit, but just would not part with the money to go.  We decided that Rory was old enough to enjoy the visit now, so thus the price was justified.

The aquarium was spectacular.  It is well worth the price.  I loved it.  Rory liked it pretty good.  I could have gone through it twice, but the lack of patience of the yungun’ thwarted any attempt at doing just that. 

I was actually amazed at how “hands on” this place was.  You could pet the Horseshoe Crabs and the Manta Rays.  There was a kids zone to let them blow off some energy.  The tunnel which you went in was awe inspiring.

From there we did a little shopping and bought what every little girl dreams of – Chocolate cone of Chocolate ice cream with sprinkles.  Yuuumm! 

Cost list:

Ice Cream – $5.45

Napkins to clean up mess - $0 to us

Dress - $12

1 Chocolate covered smile – Priceless

We then became hungry for “real food”.  We made a quick trip to the Golden Coral.  RaeLynne had a bottle of formula, Becky had several different items, Rory had some food … and ice cream.  I had a chicken leg and 3 large steaks.  Now that is good eating.

Now we retire to our room, to await for the next day’s adventure.  Shopping is most definitely on the agenda.  Shoe stores will be raided.  I am making sure to charge my Archos to fight my boredom during the shoe shopping extravaganza.  All in all, if tomorrow is as good as today, the trip will be great.  I hate to admit it, but I am having as much fun as the wife that I am gifting.