Kite Flying with TJ

I took my mentee (TJ) out to willow springs park the other day to let him try out my kite. He was a natural. He could make it spin all around, dive it to the ground and lift it back up. Now he only weighs probably 60 pounds so when a good gust came he was gone. It pulled him about 100 yards one time but he held on.

St. Pat's in Savannah, GA

Me (Randy) and our friend Sam headed on down to Savannah, GA to visit our friends the Teihlet's. Little did we know that in Savannah they have the second largest St. Pat's celebration in the US. We went to the parade Friday morning, it lasted about 4 hours but we only stayed for a portion of the parade. We then headed down to River Street to take in the sites and eat some seafood. The sites mainly consisted of a bunch of people who were drunk by noon. So we ate lunch and headed back to the house. We spent most of our weekend flying our new kites. Who knew kite flying could be so much fun. Our kites are 8' and 9' wide. We tried out some kite boarding by using a mountain board, which is basically an off road skateboard, and letting our kites pull us down the beach. It was a ton of fun to try out and we fielded a lot of questions from people walking down the beach. Like, "What do you call this?", well we have a kite and a board, let's call it "Kiteboarding". We had a lot of fun with our friends. They have a 15 month old girl who was a lot of fun to see again. The best was watching her eat cereal, well I use the word eat very loosely. You can see in the pictures below how much actually made it into her mouth. We also experienced a blackout in Savannah. There was a huge storm that came through with 70 mile winds which made kite flying a lot of fun.
On the trip down Sam and I took in some local cuisine in a small town. We spotted a local BBQ place and decided to try it out. We went in and it was packed. It was an all you can eat buffet and a seat yourself kind of place. We grabbed our food and made some friends. There were no empty tables so we found an older couple with two extra chairs and had a seat. We met a lot of folks who all ask how we found this place and where were we heading or coming from. I think Sam is going to run for Mayor. Well enjoying the pictures and a video will come soon of us flying the kites.

Disney 08

Lauren and I were greatly blessed this year when some friends of ours called us and said that they wanted to give us a free week at their time share in Orlando. So we booked really cheap flights on this new airline up here and headed down. The great part about it was that some friends of ours were running in the Disney Marathon so we were able watch them run. We were blessed again when we found out that my cousin was able to get us free hopper passes to all the Disney parks for a day. We had a great trip that included eating tons of junk food, slurpees everyday, being exposed to Disney pin trading and getting to hang out with good friends. We also ate at a Irish Pub one night and tried a traditional dish. Two sausage logs of mashed potatoes, covered with beef stew; it wasn't half bad. Lauren and I got motivated to run in the Disney Marathon next year. When we saw these 70 year old men and women finishing and people that had to be 220+ running we figured we had no excuse. We had a ton of fun and are so thankful for the Lord blessing us with the people in our lives who are so giving of what they have and so eager to bless others.

Hilton Head 07

This was Laurens first year of being able to go to Hilton Head. We headed out late from Johnson City and stayed Saturday night with Grant and Meghan Parker. Then Sunday morning we headed down to the beach. This year it was only my parents, Malia, Bryon and Kayleigh and Lauren and I. We had a great time. Bryon and I played golf, though I had to play with a rented set (because I forgot mine) that is why I lost to Bryon. At least that is the story that I am telling. We flew a 9' kite that you could make dance all over the sky. We enjoyed so great seafood and just hanging out and enjoying time with each other. The ladies did lots of Christmas shopping, I repeat LOTS of Christmas shopping. We went to the Fresh Market one night to grab dinner, Lauren was like a kid in a toy store. She was going nuts with all of the things that she wanted to buy, like a $13 dollar small block of cheese that was stamped "aged for 2 years", Mmmmmm I love old cheese. We also found out that Bryon (my brother in-law) does like any thing different to eat. We got all of this fancy pasta and stuff from the market and he just ate Kayleighs spaghetti-o's. Well we had lot's of fun and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Some Sidewalk Surfing

Halloween with the Nieces

Our Nieces, Kayleigh dressed as Snow White and Blake and Mia dressed as Poodles, had a great time getting candy and enjoying the Halloween festivities. Kayleigh enjoyed the neighborhood hay ride with her friends. Blake and Mia went to their church's Western Party and played games and Trunk or Treated. We loved getting to see them all dressed up and excited about all the candy, though Mia ate all of hers as she recieved it.

Kayleigh Plays Soccer

Kayleigh is now 3 and played her first year of soccer. Well I use the word played loosely. She enjoyed chasing Carter (her buddy in another picture) the most. She never kicked the ball until the last game. Again I use the word game loosely. There wasn't a kept score and it was the usuall but very entertaining pod of kids running around a ball, swinging legs and some how it goes between the cones every now and then. It was a lot of fun to watch and the kids all seemed to have a great time. Mia Hamm watch out because once Kayleigh starts kicking the ball in the game she will be an unstoppable force.