Wanderlust

If you're watching the FL/TN basketball game on ESPN, keep an eye out for Brett and Abbey. They are on the goal end opposite of the student section 6 rows up.

Another Saturday, another aimless journey. We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies, a tank full of gas and nothing on our agenda. So we headed West on SR-70, wandered through 6 counties (I'm freaking thankful for $1.60 gas!), and ended up going to Frozen Head State Park. Trevor had a great time and wants to go camping there late this spring. (Left click on the pictures for a better view. Click here for more pretty pics at my school blog, I'm only posting family pics here.)
Snapshot of Trevor and me at the visitors center.
Trevor snapped this one of us.
On the hike up to DeBord Falls. I loved this shot because Trevor was looking up and around, taking it all in.
Trevor ran ahead and climbed up on this rock.
I loved the backlighting effect in this shot of Alexis on the way to the falls.
Nutcracker Rock (not the real name but seemed appropriate)
Part of this trip was supposed to include haircuts for both Trev and me.....that didn't happen as you can tell:)
Getting close....
Bridge at the falls.
Self timed picture at the falls.
Why does he look so proud? Look at the next picture to see where he is.
This wasn't as bad as it looks. There is a nice flat ledge and he was a good 3 feet from the edge.
We had a fantastic day. Trevor had so much fun, that I don't think he would had any more fun if we had gone to a theme park and spent $200.

Weekend Photo Safari

We woke up this morning and drove to a older part of Knoxville so I could take some photographs for the photography course I am taking at UT. Trevor brought his camera that John and Donna gave him last year (thanks again:) ). I was so busy with my assignment, that I didn't pay too much attention to what he and Alexis were doing. I checked out his SD card and found that little rascal got some great shots of his own! It was neat seeing what he thought was worthy of capturing.

Me looking for some architectural shots.
A picture of the renovated store fronts.

A distant shot of St John's Lutheran Church, established in 1888.

The confederate soldier guarding Old Gray Cemetery. This is Knoxville's oldest cemetery and over 1,600 confederates are interred here.
Two memorials at the cemetery.

An up close shot of the church.
Here's one that I took of Trevor reading one of the inscriptions in the cemetery.
I also took this one because the words caught my eye. I had never heard of the Immortal Six Hundred before. This particular person was used as a "human shield" as a POW by the Federal troops in Charleston, putting him in the line of fire should the Confederate artillery at Ft Sumter fire on the Federal position.
As we left the cemetery, Trevor said that he didn't want to be buried, instead he wanted to be constipated.

Here's a shot I took of Alexis yesterday. John, I tried what you mentioned about dropping one full f-stop after I had a neutral meter on some other shots but will have to use a tripod next time. (yes, you said use a tripod, but it was down in the trunk of my car!)

Quick Hits

• Ron and Ruth have headed back to Florida (or they were supposed to).
• John and Donna are heading back to Florida this week.
• Mom - the jambalaya turned out great in the dutch oven, thanks!
• Jeff - I see you don't have a literary agent. I'll do it for 50% :)
• Brett is thrilled that Abbey got back from Costa Rica tonight. I haven't seen him since. Probably buying marshmallows.
• Rhonda - how's the boxing going?
  
• Richard - What's with the black eye? ha ha : x

Snow Day

We finally got some "snow" here in Knoxville today, on a school holiday, so it didn't even have to count as a snow day.

We came home from work to find the boys (Brett, Trevor, Eric & David) in the middle of a snowball fight. I think if there was any less snow on the ground, it would have been a mudball fight instead.

Trevor running home for a set of waterproof gloves after soaking several pairs.

Trevor winging a snowball at Eric.

No, Brett wouldn't throw a snowball at his dad, would he?

Trevor chasing after the big boys as they head to the horsefarm, hoping for bigger accumulations of snow.

When they finally came in, they were soaking wet and cold. As he shedded his duds, Trevor announced, "You know those ShamWows? I bet if I stuck one in my butt [back of his pants], I could wring water out of it!"

This past weekend, Trevor announced he wanted to be an engineer so he could design roller coasters. He was drawing them on paper. Later I found him in his room making his first one using books, tape, lego's for guard rails and a lego cart.

Design & construction phase

Testing phase

His reason for wanting to be an engineer? He told me that they would probably let the guy who made the roller coaster ride it for free as much as he wants!

Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am

Tonight while we were cooking dinner, I kept hearing Brett and Abbey grunting and groaning downstairs. I went down there to make sure that they were wearing protection.

Yep! They had all their protective equipment on.What? What were YOU thinking?

Overheard

I was passing by Trevor's room, saw him looking at a yearbook and heard him say, "Huh......I had the longest tongue in kindergarten too!"

I don't even want to know.

How Did I Make It Out Of High School?

Jon M. got in touch with me through Facebook last week and today he sent me some hilarious pictures from "back in the day". I was cracking up when I saw these once again. I thought you guys would enjoy a few of them.

Rhonda and Jeff, remember those church orchestra trips? About half way through, when we got bored with performing in town after town each night, we decided to do something completely unnecessary to break up the monotony. We wore the requisite tuxedos but with black shorts instead. We didn't actually wear them in the concert, we just showed up like that.
I can't remember who we were messing with, I think it was probably Camp Kirkland, since you know how he loved a practical joke or any joke for that matter. I can still remember how he would stop orchestra practice and have you listening to a story that you think was going to relate back to the piece you were working on or a composer. Then he'd give that deadpan look and hit you with some punch line like "Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?" (Chattanooga Choo Choo.....yes, sadly that was an actual punch line he used once in rehearsal.)

There Goes The Neighborhood

Well I guess the big news is that our next door neighbor's house was burglarized yesterday afternoon. The wild thing is that Alexis saw the guy walking down the street (didn't know where he came from) and greeted him, then saw him get into a creme colored late model VW bug waiting for him at the bottom of our road. She mentioned it to me, because she thought it was odd.

A few hours later, the cops are next door. Jill left the house just for a few minutes and left her house unlocked. The guy walked in through her front door and got $4,500 worth of heirloom jewelry. The detectives spoke with Alexis today and hopefully her description might catch these two guys later down the road. But we are definitely going to have to tighten up on locking up and setting the alarm each and every time. A little too close to home.

Here's Abbey and a blurry Brett goofing off this afternoon.

Hobbes Patiently Waiting For Calvin

Trevor dressed as Tigger looking to see if Emma was home. I had picked up his camera that Grandma Harris got him last year to see what pictures he had taken lately when I saw this.

New Years Day 2009

It's official, I am old. So old that we stayed at home and I fell asleep before the ball drop....again.

We had a good night anyway. We made finger foods, such as; ABT's and moink balls. Moink balls were something new that everyone has been going on and on about on the BBQ forum. They are simply frozen meat balls, wrapped in bacon, seasoned with rub and brushed with bbq sauce. Then you smoke them for about 90 minutes to two hours. Too salty for my taste, next time I'd leave out the rub altogether.

Trevor was thrilled to have friends back in the neighborhood after they had all been out of town since Christmas.

But of course, the main attraction was fireworks. We went light this year, forgoing the bigger mortars that we normally do for July 4th and Labor Day (Boomsday).Brett spent the evening with Abbey and her family. He came home and went straight to David's, which is immediately behind our house. Unfortunately, he forgot to TELL anyone he was home so Alexis woke up worried as hell at 4:30 thinking he'd never come home. Nice. Glad I never did anything like that. What? Is that my parents I hear snickering?