The Champion Family

Yes Toys-R-Us Exploded in our living room...the kids got lots of fun stuff. Riley got a Nintendo DSi, a new Razor scooter, lots of Lego's and clothes. Kacie got a Barbie Falls, a radio controlled car that she can color on

As always we celebrate Christmas Eve at my Moms house, along with Bill, Billy, Deb and Will. We all ate too much good food, and laughed a little too much also. Riley and Kacie got iPod Nanos from grandma along with asssorted other toys, but that was their favorite!! Kacie gave all of us comfy pajama bottoms which was kinda funny and sweet.

Riley's Flag football team finished up the season last night, and went undefeated 6-0. Riley did an excellent job all season. He ran for a couple of touchdowns, ran the reverse, made several tackles on defense, but still needs to work on pass catching.

Well we had our Annual Neighborhood Halloween Party, that seemed to be a big success this year. Riley went as Snake Eyes from GI Joe, and Kacie went as Ariel. They both made it through the neighborhood and had a great time playing with friends.



And Introducing Hallie Sweethart, Sandie surprised me with the addition of a kitten that was born at Kacie's preschool playground.

Kacie wanted to have her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese Pizza.... It was total chaos, 3 other party's going on kids running everywhere, but the most important thing Kacie had fun, she even gave Chuck E a big hug (she wouldn't even go near Big Al at her preschool)

For Riley's Birthday he wanted to have his party on the UA Quad during The Homecoming Bonfire & Pep Ralley. We had good food and good times. The kids got to bust open an almost LIFESIZE Pinata that Grandma Velma got and painted to look like Riley in his Jaguar football uniform.

July 5, the kids and I headed to the Tennessee mountains to spend time with a dear friend of many years, Edith Trost Kirkland and her family (12 kids and 11 adults). We arrived to a old cabin that has been in the family for over 100 years. No TV, no computers, just running around in the fresh outdoors using their imagination. The kids and I shared a king size bed...they slept and I enjoyed being poked with little feet and rolled on all night. But they were cute sleeping! In the morning we had a family breakfast with the whole Trost clan and played some more. In the afternoon we would load up and go on adventures. We hiked to a waterfall, the mini library, "pottery"- where we watched a man throw on the wheel, a 2 mile hike where we got to see a real rattle snake...by accident! Kacie did the 2 mile hike with no carrying! Riley just kept up with the other kids. he was a real trooper. I got a book read and a lot of visiting. The food was great, the weather was super, the company was fun!The kids still talk about it and look forward to visiting again.

To explain a few of the pictures...

Kacie with her head back: Kacie fell at the pool on July 4 and got 5 stitches in her chin. I was nervous that she would hit it and split it open... she never did and it never slowed her down!

Riley and friends: Riley and Turner played a lot during this trip!

Kacie pushing a stroller: Kacie liked to push Gus in the stroller (Gus is a year older than Kacie...she is such a momma.)

Riley near a metal box: Riley was facinated by an old well

Group picture: Riley and Kacie with Edith's 3- Millie, Turner and Gus

Large group picture: The whole clan

I went to Vegas for an IPI (Independent Photo Imagers) Convention and show. IPI is a group of people like me who own independent photo labs, and provide us all with more buying power. It was my first time to attend this show since we just joined this group 8 months ago. I had a great trip, the convention was at a great resort, Green Valley Ranch (http://www.greenvalleyranchresort.com/), that is located way off the strip, but it was an extremely nice resort. They even had their own
little vineyard, which my free upgrade to a suite, overlooked. Probably one of the finest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in... too bad I was bymyself. The pool was really cool (temperture wise it was darn right cold.. I thought Vegas in July the water would be warm) too, it had a sandy beach entrance.

The convention and show was great, I meet several new people and got lots of new and fun ideas for the store.

OK so we decided to buy tickets and go see a space shuttle launch on Febuarary 13. For this trip it was Me, Dad, Riley and My Uncle Glen (Dad's baby brother). The Shuttle was scheduled to take off early on Saturday Morning, we had to be on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) base by 12:30 am. So we left early friday morning and drove down to Sandie's dad's house in Cocoa Beach Florida, we arrived around 6:00pm. We all tried to grab a few hours sleep before heading over to the KSC base around midnight. We arrived at the gaurd house for the base and were told that the launch had been scrubbed and would launch at a later time. So we head back over to Sandie's dads house and crash for the rest of the morning. Saturday we can't check in to the hotel till after 3:00 pm so we pretty much hang out at Sandie's dad's house and try to rest, since we pretty much didn't sleep much the night before. So we found out that the reason the launch was scrubbed was a problem in the system that vents excess Hydrogen from the external fuel tank. Wouldn't be good to have extra hydrogen aroound the launch pad when the engines fire off. We finnaly get checked in to the hotel and get a good nights sleep. Sunday, June 15th we hang out at the Hotel and beach, Riley body surfs in the Atlantic Ocean. For dinner we go to Jack Bakers Lobster Shanty, a great spot to eat dinner and watch the sunset. We ate outside on their deck that over looks the Banana River. You can feed some type of catfish that live in the river and hundreds of them come up to the surface when you start feeding them, kinda neat and gross at the same time. After dinner we played a round of Put-Put golf, then headed to the Cocoa Beach pier to hang out for a little while and a stop by the Dairy Queen for ice cream on our way back to the hotel. Monday back to the pool and beach .. no shuttle launch today either. Tuesday we head into Orlando to go to Sea World, Shuttle supposed to launch early Wednesday morning. So we spend the day at Sea World, Riley and Poppy ride a BIG log flume ride, we see shows with dolphins, whales, birds, you know, you've been. Dad and Uncle Glen finish the day with a ride on the New MANTA RAY roller coaster, looked like fun!! Tuesday night we pack up the truck, head over to the KSC for what we hoped would be the launch..we had to be on base around 2:30 am this time. Once we get there Uncle Glen and Dad get in the bus line, they catch a little sleep in their chairs while me and Riley head off to play around the KSC, we have hope they open the bus lines to actually get us on the buses then.... launch gets scrubbed, next oppuortunity for launch is in July. So disappointed, we get in the truck and head back home to Tuscaloosa, we all have stayed longer than we planned but had a great trip. I believe Uncle Glen took more pictured than I did.

Riley and Kacie attendied an art camp put on by one of our neighbors that teaches art. As was the case from last year, the kids came home with some great artwork. They also got to connect with a freind that had moved to Texas, that came back for the art camp.

We didn't have anything better to do this past weekend, so we decided to head over to Gordo for the Annual Mule Day and Chicken Fest. We took the kids and both Grandma's. Got to see the Tractor and Mule parade, really didn't see any chickens so kind of wandering where they were.

Exciting exciting exciting... I got to go up in a hot air balloon, but not just any hot air balloon the Energizer Bunny Hot Hare Balloon. The Pilot's name was Glo Kehoe and her Crew Cheif was Kimberly Whiteman, they are the only all female corporate special shapes balloon team in the country. And it's just the 2 of them touring the country with this huge balloon! It takes about 20 people to get the balloon off the ground, all of which are volunters. Here's some stats about the balloon: Total Height - 166 feet, that's 15 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, the ears alone are 60 feet tall (thats the average size of a hot air balloon), His Sunglasses are 32 feet wide, the drum has a diameter of 45 feet, the sandals are 60 feet long, 12 feet wide and 4 feet deep. The volume of the balloon is 180,000 cubic feet or the equivalent of 550 million AA batteries.

The day started early, around 6am I arrived at the airport and met Glo and Kimberly.
they had a pilot and crew meeting after which the work began, we had to unroll the balloon, and seal all the vents, there are 93 on this balloon, hook the basket up and start filling with air from a fan. All which took around an hour and a half, then the fun begins heating the air inside the balloon which did not take too long and we were up and gone. Kacie was not happy at this point she didn't want her daddy going with the fire!! And everyone said I was looking a little green. The ride lasted about 45 minutes, we crossed over the river and almost directly over the Hunt Oil facility here in town. We stayed just below 1000 feet or so. The ride was extremely smooth and quiet (unless the burners were on then it was loud and hot on the noggin(if you have the chance to ride wear a hat of somesort, I was told too but forgot)). As we got close to the landing area, Glo looked over to me and said "I'm going to brush up against some of these trees to slow us down". And I said to myself WHAT!! BRUSH UP AGAINST TREES!! NO WAY!!. Luckily we didn't have to do that. We dropped a line to some of the other ballooners that had already landed, and down we went smooth as silk. Then there was more work, we had to put the balloon back in the trailer, and get back to the airport which took about another hour and half.

Now the reason I got to go on this ride was for the Tuscaloosa News, they were not going to send a photographer on a ride, so I volunteered to go and they made it happen. So I had 4 photos published in the Sunday edition of the Tuscaloosa News, 2 on the FRONT page and 2 more on page 8.

We went back for the afternoon launch and I got take a few more photos of the other balloons, the weather and lighting was a little better.

Once again he did a great job!! Scored 5 Goals !

A tarp, dishwashing soap and FUN !!!

The first game of the season. Riley is on the Cougars, team colors Orange and black. He is number 5. Riley had a blast playing, he also scored 9 goals!

Shorts and Ice Cream This week !

Tuscaloosa County received 2-4 inches of snowfall Sunday morning between 2 and 11 a.m. The National Weather Service in Birmingham, said the last time Tuscaloosa County had snowfall totals of 2 inches was in 1997. Despite nearly every inch of the county being blanketed in the icy fluff, the winter wonderland didn’t last long. By 3 p.m., there was hardly an undissolved snowflake left in town as temperatures rose from the low 30s to the upper 30s and the sun replaced cloudy skies.

Not much to say skied, ate, slept :) Great weather, NO SNOW, started snowing the morning we left.

Well it's been a little while, the crazy Christmas season is over and it's on to boredom for the next couple of months.

So I'll catch ya'll up on what's happened.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we got to tour Bryant Denny Stadium, both kids belong to Big Al's Kids club and they have special events throughout the year. Sandie was a little suprised at how "short" 10 yards really was. We meet up with our neighbors Johnny and Kim with their 2 kids John James and Kelly, we had a great time.