Avery's Visit to Ohio!

As promised, I am trying to play catch up with my postings! This is from the fun visit we had with Avery!

Avery flew to Ohio right after Christmas to visit us for a few days. We kept it a secret from Tyler and Jackson...drove to the airport and Heidi went in to pick her up. The kids were screaming when they saw her! As you might know, winters in Ohio are just not the same as say...a winter in Georgia. However, I think they were able to have lots of fun. Dance Dance Revolution was a big hit with some serious dance moves being cut in the basement by all three of them.

Tyler and Avery worked on ... well ... not sure exactly what you call it...something girlie...they cut out some type of fashion clothes (see the picture below!)

Daily rootbeer floats were instituted while Avery visited. We wanted to make sure everyone kept their sugar content maxed out.

And....we even had snow for their playing pleasure!

We were treated to a very robust magic show one evening. Everyone had a chance to show off their magical abilities. The curtain (aka: sheet) was hung between the doors so the magicians could prepare for their next illusion privately.

Another crowd favorite was our frequent visit to Krispy Kreme.

We spent ALOT of time at the ice skating rink. It was fun to watch the kids do their thing on the ice. We had a speed skater and 2 ice skaters doing their twirls....I bet you can't guess which ones did what....

We loved having Avery come and visit and spending so much time with us! We hope she had as much fun as we did!

Christmas 2007

Yeah, I know it's May and I am posting pictures from Christmas. Better late than never! Wanted to try and play some catch up so hopefully you will enjoy. We spent Christmas in Ohio again. We really enjoyed the time we had together. My dad and Darlene were able to come and visit for a couple of days before Christmas. It was great having them here again. The kids always LOVE playing with Grandpa Ed!



Poor kids and my camera. I hope they don't look back and think...jeez....we had to ALWAYS take so many pictures! I hope they look at it as keeping a memory! I mean come on...it is Christmas...they have only been up since 6am waiting!



Yes, more pictures in front of the Christmas tree!



Christmas Eve dinner.



Grandpa Ed.

Halloween 2007

We are really behind in our postings. I am going to do what I can to play catchup over the next few weeks. Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Jackson was an army guy. His helmet and jacket were mine growing up. Tyler was Hermine from Harry Potter. Paris was her favorite "Helmo."

We ran into the Helmers (close friends in the neigborhood and at Church) and walked with them some.

Also, Paris decided to flirt with little Jackson Bastian for a few minutes at his house.

A successful night with TONS of candy!

Stephen's 80's Birthday Party

Heidi truly out-did herself this time. To celebrate my 40th birthday last weekend, she threw an awesome 80's birthday party. 10 couples were invited from Church and dressed up in their best 80's gear including mullets, bangle bracelets, super tight Izods with collars flipped, scrunchies, catheads, laced gloves, teased hair, and more! Fake mullets simply don't look as good as the real ones. Take these two below for example! My buddy Pat wears that mullet oh too well!

We asked to bring at least one picture to the party. The kitchen table was covered with annuals, prom pictures, senior pictures (you will see in the pictures below). Heidi did a fantastic job decorating - finding old albums, disco balls, lava lamps and making a ton of food.

My close friend Adam was in charge of music and games which turned out to be a great hit! Take a look below and you can see me doing best to "moon walk."

And, to top off the night, we had Karaoke with songs from the 80's. You really find out how bad of a singer you are with karaoke, but hey, you have to at least try it, especially among friends.

Heidi and Juliet singing something from Madonna.

Erin and Greg singing to eachother. Greg is doing his ritual mating dance.

Adam and me singing "Ebony and Ivory." Not sure which one was which.

People absolutely loved it! They were all talking about it at Church on Sunday - so many people came up to us and said, "we heard about that 80's party you had on Friday night!" Heidi has gotten several calls from people saying, "I just can't stop thinking about the 80's party...we had so much fun!" The party brought back so many great memories for everyone! To top it off, Adam surprised us all by creating a DVD with a bunch of pictures of me over the past 40 years that Heidi smuggled to him. It was a great gift! In addition, my mom and Heidi collected a bunch of t-shirts and made him a blanket with the t-shirts that included pieces spanning most of his life. It is truly a work of art.

Group shots of the guys and girls!

Mark Church's Visit To "The Ohio"

Yes, I am WAY behind on keeping this blog updated. The following photos are from a visit by Mark, Alex and Christopher on their way back to Connecticut from a family renunion back in July. They were able to stay with us a couple of days. It has a been a LONG time since we have seen them, so it was great to reconnect.

Here are some random shots of our visit to the pool. Please notice all the mermaids I was able to catch!

Some other random shots of from their visit.

NYC Trip - August 15

I had a business trip to NYC last week and decided to grab my camera on the way out the door to take a few pictures while there. I also had the opportunity to visit with Rick and his friend Adolfo. They met me at my hotel and we walked to dinner. Along the way, he showed us the East River walk where you could see across the river into Manhattan. Beautiful!

It was great seeing Rick again. It has been a year since he came out to "The Ohio" to visit with us. We were joking around at dinner and I told him that he was a true "New Yorker." He said the rule of thumb is 10 years in New York to be considered a true New Yorker. He has been there 7 - I think that is close enough!

After dinner, Rick and Adolfo picked up their subway trains and I headed out to take a few night shots along the river and also of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The next morning, I woke up early and decided to walk to my meeting in Manhattan. I wanted the chance to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and see NYC in the early morning. It was only 2.5 miles to my meeting, but my dogs were barking from all the walking the night before. It was worth it though - it's not everyday you have the chance to walk over to Manhattan from Brooklyn...so I did. During lunch, I had some downtime so I headed back out and explored a little more and tried to find some fun shots to take.

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