Zoo & Car Show

On Friday afternoon we went to Wet n' Wild @ Emerald Pointe. It was great fun but unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures of the rides. We went from about noon until 4:30 p.m. and the weather cleared up and got sunny with temps. probably in the low 80s.

I had fun playing with all the animals. I can't tell which cat this is. Weezer was a lot of fun to play with because he is so young and has lots of energy.

Weezer trying to get the toy. I stayed up later than everyone else playing with the cats who never ran out of energy.

The Iverson's house where we stayed from Friday, July 13 through Sunday morning July 22. It is shaded nicely so it is hard to tell what the weather outside is really like. It also made it easier to sleep in. The week was a blast and went by way to fast.

Here is a rare picture of the whole family. This is at the Ashboro Zoo on Saturday afternoon. The weather was great for the adventure. It was low 80s for the high and low humidity. Notice Carrie's Red Sox shirt that she got earlier in the week. It is a jersey for Jason Varitek. Boston, New York, and Toronto have all won 3 straight games.

Two rhinos from up close.

Here is the long distance view of the rhinos and elephants. The zoo is very spread out with lots of animals to look at, and too many 2 see in 2 hours time.

I liked the 3-D pictures on the walls. There were lots of different ones.

A different pictures of polar bears.

In the shadows behind the rock stands a black bear. He was pacing nervously along the whole time and it was hard to get a good picture of him.

Here is the rock Grant climbed on and and others attempted!

After the Zoo on the way home we spotted a Car Show. It was my first one to see since August in Mt. Vernon last year. There were tons of nice cars. How is this for my dad's next station wagon?!

This was of special interest as the Iverson's used to have a car very similar to this but one year different.

Another classic car with nice whitewalls.

An American muscle car, just my personalized car on Need for Speed Carbon we played during the week at home! I'll be hopefully posting more pictures of the 2 week trip north earlier this summer later this week. Today I've spent a lot of time signing stuff for Hamilton County for Hardy Elementary.

Job Hunt Over

This week has flown by here at Carrie's parents in Winston-Salem, NC. I will still be here until Sunday morning when we drive back to Highland and I pick up my car and drive back to Collegedale. I accepted a job at a public elementary school in Hamilton County called Hardy Elementary. They have around 670 students and the school looks fairly new. I will be starting sometime next week. After the Interview at Orlando Junior Academy they offered me the job of Physical Education and After-School Sports Director, but I decided to stay closer to family and friends and move back to Collegedale. I am excited to be teaching at the elementary level. I did part of my student teaching at Wolftever Creeek Elementary which is also in Hamilton County and really enjoyed the age level and the enthusiasm the students have. Look for another post later with pictures of the school and gym. When you walk in the front door of the school, you see the gym right in front of you through glass doors. The trip from the Nashville Airport home last Thursday night to Interview on Friday morning was definitely worth the time.

Baseball Fun

Here are 3 cats on top of a bookshelf that is at least 8 or 9 feet off the ground. They can jump pretty high. The only name I know is Wheezer in the middle. There are 8 cats and 2 dogs here that have been a blast to play with.

I got to Carrie's parents on Friday, July 13, and here is some great entertainment with the PS2. Carrie and Grant are battling away on the Need for Speed.

Taco Bell before the game, where I only had a drink before and then 2 bean burritos after the game.

During the 1 1/2 hour rain delay at the game Carrie and Grant and I went down and saw how the teenagers who were playing the game entertained themselves during the delay. Probably the average age of the players was around 19. They fielded terrible and combined for 5 errors, 20 runs and 30 hits. Johnson City (Cardinals) played Burlington (Royals). The game was classified Rookie League, which is below Single A League.

Our seats at the beginning of the game, where we stayed for a total of about 2 innings. I caught a foul ball and so did Grant during the game down the foul territory on the right field line. Then we played catch with the baseballs we caught and one of the balls rolled right into the dugout! No one would get it for us so Grant yanked open the gate and went in and got the baseball back!

Before the game Carrie showed some pictures to Ken, Jaclyn, Stephanie and Renee. It was a lot of fun to see the Fords all together. I hadn't seen Ken and Renee since last summer at Nosoca eating out. It felt almost like a family reunion! We went shopping before the game for a little bit at the outlets.

I went shopping with Carrie this afternoon in Winston-Salem. I found some nice jerseys, but I haven't bought them yet anyway. And Carrie finally has a Red Sox shirt now! To find out whose name is on the back, call her and ask! Look at the sky after we finished shopping.

This is right before the first pitch of the game. Ken noticed I wasn't wearing a shirt from Canada. Just for the record, I wore a Toronto shirt on Saturday, a Blue Jays shirt Sunday, and now another Toronto shirt today! Carrie says I probably have one Canada shirt for every day of the week.

Here are Jaclyn, Stephanie, Grant and Carrie down the right field line watching the game and waiting for a foul ball. The Royals ended up edging out the Cardinals 12-8. I was cheering for the home state Johnsin City Cardinals. Before the rain delay, they were behind 7-0 after only 2 innings. And they actually climbed back within 9-8 before falling behind. Since I've gotten here we have also gone to Stone Mountain sliding down the rocks and plenty more fun stuff I don't have pictures to show on the blog. I will be staying here until Sunday, July 22. I have been home in Collegedale a total of 1 night since Sunday, June 24. It has sure been a fun and relaxing summer. Look for a terrific blog update from my mom on Sunday, July 23, as they will be getting back from their cruise on that day.

2 Country Tour in Progress

Well, this time I don't have any pictures to post because I haven't been home since June 24 and I won't be back to Collegedale again until July 22 at the earliest. I also left my camera in my car at Highland!! I went to visit Carrie at Highland from Sunday, the 24th, through Thursday morning, June 28, when Carrie drove to the airport early to fly to Buffalo, NY. I met my parents there and we walked around Niagara Falls before driving up to Toronto, ON. We were in Toronto and Oshawa from Thursday evening until Monday afternoon when we left. We went to Centre Island in Toronto Friday and took tons of pics. of the Skydome and Air Canada Centre and CN Tower (which will be posted later). Then on Saturday we drove to Oshawa and hung out all day and went to a picnic on Lake Ontario Saturday night. Then Sunday, Canada Day, we went to Monica Strom's wedding and reception and then stayed at Curtis's that night.
Then on Monday afternoon we drove down to Plymouth, MI, in time for my dad's birthday on Tuesday, July 3. So we had over relatives and had a nice birthday lunch after dad, Grandpa and I went golfing 18 holes! We were ready for lunch after that. Yesterday we went shopping and to Aunt Anne's for a grilled lunch and today we are about to head to Comerica Park for an Indians vs. Tigers game. C.C. Sabbathia vs. Justin Verlander in a match-up of 2 potential starters for the A.L. All-Star team in the All-Star game on Tuesday in San Francisco. I'll put up pictures later after I get back from the tour. I will be going to Family Reunion in Kalamazoo, MI, for the weekend and then flying early Monday morning to Orlando to interview at Orlando Junior Academy until I fly back to Nashville on Thursday. Then Carrie and I are going to her parents place in Winston Salem for about a week. What a fun trip!

Six Flags & Turner Field

It has been awhile since I last posted and a lot has happened. I have finished the year at Mt. Vernon Academy and have been enjoying the summer in Collegedale and visiting Carrie so far. I will be heading up to Toronto tomorrow until Monday when we head back for Plymouth, MI, and then for the weekend head to Eagle Lake for Family Reunion.

Jaclyn looks at the giant Tiger Ryan won for her at Six Flags. It was a very hot day on Monday, June 18, but it was a lot of fun.














Jaclyn took this picture of the American Screeen Machine that Carrie and I were on. It was a pretty rough ride, as Carrie can tell you!













Everybody is anxiously waiting to jump onto the Classic Car race that Carrie and Jaclyn drove for. Standing in line throughout the day was a very hot experience as the humidity was very high and the temperature was somewhere in the low to mid 90s.





Ryan survived the wild ride and so did the giant Tiger! I narrowly avoided getting thrown off the car that Carrie was driving! Carrie's car was faster than Jaclyn's so we waited so I could take pictures of Ryan and Jaclyn when they came roaring up behind us.





Our last ride of the day at Six Flags over Georgia was the Georgia Scorcher where you can, "Put your Feet to the Fire." This is the view just before we boarded the ride. It was such a short line we couldn't resist going on it on the way out of the park. Probably everyone's favorite ride of the day was the newest ride, Goliath, which went up to 70 MPH and really expanded over a lot of the park.







Here is everyone finishing the Ninja, which was pretty rough and they told me wasn't worth the ride because of how hard it shook your head around. I rode this a couple years ago and decided to pass it up this time. We should have taken a hint from the fact that there was about 8 people in line when we got there at around 1:30 p.m.

After the day from 10 a.m. til 4 p.m. at Six Flags, we drove to a suspect part of town to eat at Subway, which sure felt great to get inside in the A.C. and get something to drink. We got to Turner Field about 2 hours early to witness B.P. and make sure we got tickets. They raised the price of all their seats to rip us off. So we paid $16 to sit in the upper deck.





Carrie and Jaclyn waiting for a home run ball during BP. Even by the end of the game the temperature was still 28 C.














I moved closer to the infield during the later part of batting practice. The cage they use around the batter looks pretty nice and the sure did take it down in a hurry before the game. You can definitely tell they have had plenty of practice doing that before.

It got a little cooler after dark, but it rained some during the game and so it stayed very humid. Atlanta won 9-4 vs. Boston. I couldn't decide who I should cheer for so I just cheered for every good play for both teams. If only the Jays had been there there would have been no question. Last June Toronto swept the Braves in Atlanta. Just ask John Locke, he went to one of the games and the Jays won that game 3-2. It was a fun day and both the day and weekend were over too fast. Look for the next blog post somewhere around July 9 or 10 when I get back from the trip I'm on, unless I make a surprise trip home.

Biking Fun

Carrie came up from Wednesday evening through Sunday afternoon. Here she is helping me get my attendance sheets straightened out. Who would have known how closely examined one of those attendance sheets would be today. Carrie also helped clean up my office, just in time for me to start packing it up tomorrow.

This is at the end of our bike trip on the Kokosing Gap Trail on Saturday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and it was a lot of fun. Carrie is riding infront of the Kenyon College Athletic Center. It is pretty impressive as the college has the 2nd highest tuition in the U.S.

Here is one of the many self portraits we took. It was really a fun weekend even though it was pretty busy with school activities. On Friday evening we had Campus Family Vespers and Carrie helped out by doing the majority of the cooking with pizza and vegetables and chips and drinks. We also watched the NBA All-Star game from this February Carrie brought up this trip. Then after supper and worhip we played Bible Baseball. On Saturday night the Acro-Nics had their Gymnastics Homeshow. Then on Sunday about 1 hour after Carrie left I was at the Junior/ Senior Banquet from 4-11:35 p.m.

This was during the Bible Baseball game toward the end of the Vespers. The team Carrie and I were on won despite some tough competition from the other student team!

Saturday afternoon after church, we attempted to record the Raps. vs. New Jersey first game @ 12:30 p.m. but unfortunately the VCR would not work still. Mom and dad recorded the game for me! My prediction: Toronto in 7. I figured I would not be seeing Carrie's car in front of the gym any time soon!

While Carrie was changing before our bikeride, I walked around campus taking pictures. Here is Kevin next to Chelsea's campaign slogan. Notice the nice Canadian flag. She's got my vote.

Carrie, our 2 bikes and Kenyon's Athletic Center after the ride. Boy were we ready to get back to some water! I was going to go riding tonight, but some heavy storms with small hail are here tonight and I got soaked putting the car in the garage. I've sure been glad for that with snow here from early October through early April this year. What a year this has been all around.

Another self portrait from our bike ride. Look at how pretty and blue the sky was. Out of the next 10 days, 7 are predicted to be rainy. That has been the norm here this year except for 5 1/2 weeks during late January til early March.

This our the reality here most of the time, this was taken last Saturday, April 14. It was snowing and raining off and on and a high of around 36. Great weather...

This was a pretty sundown, I think the night before Carrie came. My car has survived so far despite almost having a large tree limb fall on it and dodging several deer, raccoons, canadian geese, etc.

I've got to head to bed, so this is the last self portrait. I had a great time with Carrie and I really wish she was still here. This year is nearly over and I am looking forward to a possible move closer next year. Seven hours away is no good. I sure look forward to next Wednesday when I can head south for Highland and a great weekend with Carrie.

Ski Trip

With snow in the forecast for the next 3 days in Mt. Vernon, I think it is a good time to post some nice pics. of the Colorado Ski Trip this year. In case you haven't been keeping track, Copper closes for the season tomorrow despite getting 3 feet of fresh powder in the last 6 days.

My camera froze up before I could take any pics. on the slopes, but for everyone who got there Friday or Saturday, here is all the great snow and road conditions and powder we had Thursday and Friday. But don't forget the high was in the upper single digits with 30 MPH winds.

The sky turned blue for the first time while I was there on Friday afternoon right after we got off the slopes. I have never been any colder or more miserable riding than Friday with my goggles freezing over so I couldn't see much at all. But if I took them off my eyes started to freeze because they were watering with all the wind and snow hitting my face. This is the stables at Keystone where John works.

It looked pretty when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. There were no dry roads until Saturday with all the snow they had gotten earlier during the week.

The trail that goes up the side of the Wildernest road was snow covered. I hiked all the way up to Carrie's condo once, which took about maybe 30+ min. each way. It was good exercise and a beautiful sunset in the mountains I got to see as I was coming down. Too bad my camera was already frozen by then.

Faith started to warm up to me this trip somewhat, but she is still pretty shy. I attempted to take her for a walk one day, but we didn't get too far before she ran back home. She is a great dog and never barks. Here she is sitting by the heater to warm up!

This is one of the last pictures my Samsung camera ever took. This is the high school in Frisco. They have a competive touring Ski Team as well as a ice hockey varsity team and many more sports. The high school is less than 10 years old and we met there Saturday for Winterfest SS & Church and eating festival afterward, for which we waited in line for more than 1 hour 20 min. By seeing all these nice blue-sky pictures you will never imagine what the conditions were like on Thursday and Friday. It was by far the best powder riding I have ever had and also by far the coldest and dangerous weather conditions. But like Warren Miller says, if you can't get out in the worst weather you will never get the best powder.

Easter in Collegedale

The weekend was very cold surpisingly. When we went through SonRise it was in the low 30s. I felt really bad for all the actors in the Pageant. All the soldiers were heading for Wright Hall here.

Can you guess who this is? She has been at SonRise for a few years in a row at least.

The new Kelly's Prayer Garden looks really nice. I guess I haven't been on the Promenade for a long time.

To stay warm the sheep were running around their pen. There was livestock all over. Eric had

to take a detour to get to Wal-Mart!!

Don't they look warm? This picture was taken just before Amy & Jeremy headed back to the church for round 2. Once through was enough for me with the cold temps. It was great to see Amy this weekend.

On Sabbath afternoon we went for a hike at Harrison Bay. Here is Jeremy and

his parents and his aunt and 2 cousins. It was nice and sunny even though slightly breezy Sabbath afternoon.

Mom and dad pose by the water that we can't wait to start riding on in 2 short months or less for anyone lucky enough to live in the south still! The water level was pretty low this weekend. I hear they are around 10 inches low on average rain fall in Collegedale to this point in the year.

I was back and even unpacked before it was dark tonight! Unbelievable. I left at 11 a.m. this morning and got back to Mt. Vernon around 7:20 p.m. It was sure cold and there is a little snow left on the ground in patches from the weekend I guess. I had to wear a lot of layers to stay warm unloading.

My face mask from Colorado during Ski Trip sure came in handy tonight unloading. Hopefully none of the neighbors were too worried at seeing a masked man walking through the neighborhood. The Spring Break went by really quick. Before I realize it, the school year will be gone too. Good times.