Fishing Buddies

One of Graham's good friends at school is James. We hear about about all the crazy stuff that they would like to do all the time. Graham mentioned fishing so a few weeks ago we loaded up the canoe, picked up James and went fishing at Ft. Gordon.

The boys love to cast their line into the water (which probably attributed to the fact they did not have a single bite), they took the canoe out on the lake, and adventured onto an island. There was even a moment of panic, when Erik as the kids spotted eggs! Luckily, they were not alligator eggs! While the boys were floating out in the boat, Tess and I played around on land for a while.

When fishing was done, we visited the turtle pond, where we fed leftover rolls to the turtles.




By chance, as the boys were feeding the turtles, Tess spotted her friend Aurora about to participate in a Navy egg hunt over on the playground. So of course Tess joined in on the hunt too!

Spring Break, or was it Master's Week?

Nothing says that you are no longer cool like going to your parents house for spring break. Don't get me wrong, the trip was great and we loved seeing everyone. It is just that spring break had a little more pop to it when I could stay up past 10:30. With this personal problem in mind, I will take a page from the US Goverment and redefine the issue, and give it a new name. The power plant did not make a two headed fish...we found an endangered species. See how this works.

Master's Week in Augusta lines up with a week that the kids have off school. This is a great idea and allows the families of the area to get out of town as the world of golf comes to crush the city. Tess played only child at home, while Graham flew up on Sunday and a few days later, the rest of us drove to Liberty, IN for Easter.

During the trip up I was driving up I-75 in Kentucky and without knowing it took another interstate half way to Louisville. This set me back over an hour, and we did not get in until very late.*

*Erik has stalled out in his writing of this blog, so I (Angie)am going to get it finished so we can post. Note: Erik has driven that route a million times...okay well at least 10-15 times. He did know that it split, but must have forgotten. It wasn't that big of a deal that he was within 30 minutes of Louisville before he noticed, we were going to get in late anyway.

Once we arrived, there was much excitement surrounding the Frozen Four College Hockey Championship. Suzanne and Dennis have season tickets to the Miami Redhawk Hockey Games. Graham is naturally a fan. So during the visit we watched two very exciting games.

Graham loved his "alone time" in Indiana. He had Nerf gun battles, enjoyed Pizza from Pizza King, played Wii, worked and played on the farm, and checked out new equipment.

As some of you might remember we still have an old house in Liberty. We spent one day trying to get measurements and order garage doors. This is a project that we are going to finish before the big move this summer. We'll post some before and after pics, once we get the new doors.

Miss Tess especially enjoyed getting to drive her tractor, seeing her cousin Gwen and planning her "alone time" trip to Indiana at the end of May. She is already plannign to help with the baby chicks and pick strawberries.

On Easter Morning we enjoyed Mass at St. Bridget's in Liberty. It is really great to see people in the church again. The Easter Bunny did bring the hat in this picture, but he did not actually wear it to church!



The children were treated to 2 wonderful egg hunts, the weather was great for both. It was really nice to spend time with family. Auntie Kate thought it was the Springtime Christmas and showered the kids with toys. Thank you to everyone that made Easter so special.



I know this ending is not as entertaining as the beginning, perhaps when E gets some free time he'll "spruce" it up and repost?

Blogging Back-log

I am behind on blogging, I even have several started but cannot seem to finish. I'll definitely get to those in the next few days, but I really want to share a few videos that I can't seem to stop watching. You have to click on the names to follow the links.

Susan Boyle.
Of course the very popular Susan Boyle. I saw it on one of the first days it hit the internet! The first time I just watched in amazement, as cold chills ran up my arms, the second time it brought tears to my eyes, the third time, Graham told me I was weird and to stop watching it. So I waited until he went to bed and then turned it on again.

The Sound of Music
My mother sent me this one a few weeks ago. Tess really liked it too. It's so fun to watch and I love The Sound of Music! When I was younger, my Grandma Rosenberger took my cousins and I to see Miami University students perform the play. Just a warm and fuzzy memory.


David After Dentist
This is just funny! The first grade teacher at my school sent it to me. You really have to watch, to appreciate it. It wouldn't do any good for me to try to explain.

Medieval Times

After the marathon, we ventured north east of Atlanta to Medieval Times. Our friend Pete Meno met us there. We had never been, but were very excited to go. We had great seats (front row), and the kids took their own costumes!

Sir Graham the Knight and Princess Tess cheered on the Blue Knight, while we enjoyed the performance with drama and battles. Tess especially liked the six real horses that the knights rode. Graham liked the jousting battles!

All of our food had to be eaten with our hands, and was served on metal dishes. It was pretty tasty and a good time!

Erik Ran a Marathon

A few weeks ago, Erik ran his first full marathon!

Preparations for the marathon took about 2 months. Erik had a training schedule where he ran many miles each week, my preparation was to book a hotel, and make sure his packet was delivered. I selected the Hilton Garden Inn, which overlooked Olympic Park where the Start and Finish lines were located. I was excited that we would be able to walk to and from the race, there would be an indoor pool for Graham & Tess, and complimentary internet for me. On top of all this check-out was noon so Erik would have plenty of time to shower after the race!

When we got to the hotel around 8 p.m. we were disappointed to find that they overbooked and were sending us several blocks away to the Hilton. To compensate, they assured us that they would cover our stay and parking, and refund us what they had been paid. With no other option we accecpted, however things continued to decline. We pulled up to our new hotel, where we saw a sign that said they could not valet park any vehicle over 6'. Our car is slightly taller, so Erik ended up parking near some "Ladies Club" and then giving some random guy money for finding the spot for him (and not to break into our car). As I tried to enter the hotel with the kids, I wove through a maze of construction to find the front desk. When we finally got to the front desk, we realized there was a fraternity full of people also staying there. This meant all of the elevators were packed and there was random noisy throughout. Erik finally got to sleep around 11:30 p.m.

The next morning we were up bright and early, to hike to our car and then drive to a parking garage closer to the starting point. It was a chilly morning, but that was probably ideal for the runners. They took off at 7:04 AM. We were too far for the kids and I to hike back so we decided to have breakfast at the CNN Center and then play in Olympic Park. Erik crossed the finish line a little after 11:00. He said the first seven miles were pretty crowded until the half-marathon runners split off. He also said he ran a really great 22 mile race. Then he realized when he reached Peidmont Park (because we had visited a week earlier)that he still had about 4 miles to go and it would all be rolling hills.

He finished in about 4 hours and 10 minutes. We were all really proud of him. He did a great job, and was still good to go for the rest of the day!

The hotel drama was not quite over though! By the time we got back to our hotel we were not going to be checking out until 12:30, so I stopped by the front desk where they informed me that check-out was actually 11:00 (ugh!) I explained what had happened and we checked out at 12:30.

Shea-Sheppard Visit in Atlanta

Last summer, some of our closest friends The Shea-Sheppard Family moved from Augusta to West Point, NY. During their Spring Break they returned to Georgia to visit with the Sheppard side of the family in Americus. Since they were flying out on Saturday, we went to Atlanta to spend some time with them.

We drove to Atlanta and spent the day at the Georgia Aquarium where the kids enjoyed the ocean life and Graham was amazed by the whale shark. It was very crowded but still a lot of fun.


That evening we met up with the Sheppards and spent some quality time where we got to meet their newest addition Maggie! She is beautiful! Graham and Tess were both very excited to play with Michaela. It is amazing to me how much the three of them have grown up since they saw each other (last June) yet it is as though they just picked up where they left off! They really are just little people.
The next morning after breakfast, the Sheppards left for the airport and we joined Meghan at a Piedmont Park in the midtown area of Atlanta. We had never been there, but Meghan had. It was a great! Graham found a walking stick, we kicked the soccer ball around, looked for fish in the water, saw an interesting (somewhat inappropriate) photo shoot, took a walk and had a lovely afternoon in the park.

Before we headed back to Augusta, we stopped just a few blocks away to a restaurant Erik has been anxious to try. We heard about it on one of our favorite shows “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” We enjoyed some of the specials from the world’s largest (and very chaotic) Drive-in called VARSITY.

Erik's Award

Sorry for the lag in blogging. I have several entries that I will be posting (playing catch-up) this week.

On St. Patrick's Day, Graham Tess and I all went to the Fort Gordon Courtroom to attend an awards ceremony for Erik! We were very happy to see him during the day, and it was even more special that he was being recognized. He was awarded an ARCOM (Army Commendation Metal) by Col. Baker for his work with the 35th Signal Brigade. In addition and as a total surprise, he was also awarded the Bronze Order of Mercury award. The Order of Mercury awards are unique to the Signal Corps (the Army’s Communication and IT Force), and we think that he may be one of the only JAG’s to have been given one. Erik was very grateful to COL Baker for taking the time to make such a wonderful gesture; he is one of the most impressive people that we have met in the Army. There is little doubt that he is in line to become a general.
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It was a very nice presentation and of course I loved seeing Erik being recognized. There is no secret that I am his biggest fan and even without the awards I know he does good work.



To celebrate the holiday I took Graham and Tess to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. As we prepare to leave Augusta we are trying to make sure we see and take part in as much of the local culture as possible. We headed downtown to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was a nice celebration with both Graham’s (St. Mary on the Hill) and My (Immaculate Conception) schools having floats. There was a lot of candy throwing and visiting with people (we did and didn’t know). We had a very full and exciting St. Patrick’s Day!