Nick's "Birthday" Party

Since the timing of Nick's birthday is not conducive to having a bunch of friends over for some fun, we said he could have a party at a place of his choosing in August. He chose NASCAR speed park in Pigeon Forge, TN. It was actually not that expensive for him to invite 10 friends and get unlimited rides, some game tokens and loads of pizza and drinks. I think the kids all had a really good time. We only had one casualty. One boy thought it was cool to ride the spinning ride time after time until he puked. I thought it was gross. He had so much fun doing it, he tried it again after eating pizza, with success.

The speed park had about 8 tracks of varying degrees of speed and difficulty. The most difficult required the drivers to be licensed. The others were fun and all of the boys rode as much as they wanted. They also played putt-putt golf, did some rides (the spinnng one) and goofed around.

Not quite wordless Thursday

For you photography fans out there, I tried my 300 2.8 with a 2x teleconverter on the 5dmkII tonight. With the great late afternoon lighting, it worked pretty well.

Busy week with Grandma Roey and Pops!

We had a busy, but wonderful 4 days with Grandma Roey and Pops. And surprisingly, not a lot of pictures were taken. We were just too busy to snap away. Really.

They arrived on Tuesday right on schedule and the heavy rains arrived shortly after they did. We spent Tuesday night teaching Nick how to play poker and he did really well and I know Gram would have been proud of the horseshoe he apparently has secreted away, if you know what I mean. I mean how many times have you won 5 card draw with 4 of a kind.

On Wednesday, we stayed home and played as the kids had basketball camps to attend to and Nick had football too. We cooked some steaks and fish on the barbie and celebrated Pop's retirement in high Halls style.

On Thursday, we went to Dollywood early to get the kids back to practice on time. Nick had a scrimmage and pretty much got beaten and bruised. He played really well, but his team stunk. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.

This was a ride I did not try. I just took the picture. Oh, look at the screaming people in the back row, right side.

We also played on new, "cool" ride called River Battle, which is essentially a water gun fight on small boats that ride around a small loop. After you finish the ride, you can commandeer a water gun on the side of the ride and soak the riders as they pass you by. Of course, they can, and will soak you too. Very fun on a hot day.

The kids enjoyed a few rides and everyone enjoyed some ice cream.


On Friday, we spent the day on Norris Lake. And despite one teensy incident with a small, harmless snake, we enjoyed a peaceful and quiet time on a relatively empty lake.

Well, it did get a bit noisier after we hit the lake.

The kids are suddenly into fishing. Time for a trolling motor.


The water was great way to keep cool in the hottest week of the year.


Oh, and anybody know what kind of duck these guys are?


Bye for now.

Some Lake Fun

Saturday, August 1st, was a typical hot and humid summer day. We heard the lake water was pleasant. We put some brats and cold drinks in the cooler and headed for Norris Lake to spend the day. And if you know us, we packed a lot of other stuff, including lots of snacks. We had enough provisions for the week, just in case. Like, in case our battery quit working or I decided to retire and join my dad in retirement. Just waiting on my co-worker to tell me our lotto numbers came in.

The brats were tasty, the water was warm and the cold drinks were, well, cold. Also, the weather cooperated and the heavy clouds did not roll in until later afternoon.

Sarah and her cousin, Allison, had a good time speeding around the lake on the jet ski. I parked in a cove and took some pix of them cruising around. After being goods sports for a bit and letting me get a "few" images, they took off. They came back a while later with big smiles on their faces. I have no idea of what they were up to, but it looks like they had lots of fun.

We also got a bit of tubing in. I towed the kids behind the pontoon boat, so it was a pretty lame trip for them. Nick did find a few ways to aggravage Sarah though. Below is the classic hand-drag technique to spray your partner with water. Nick used it with much success. Sarah took it all in with a smile. Well, mostly. And then she pushed Nick off the tube. See first picture above.

Published.

Well, not really my first time, or for that matter, Nick's. But we both are battling our big egos now.

Front Page (just a small image on top right).


But, check out the sports page.

You can go to the Shopper's online site and see the paper for yourself here: Shopper