JC Penney Portraits

David's Birthday

Our nephew, Christian, loves birthday cake!

He also loves to open presents. He's a pretty handy guy to have around at a birthday party.

How much love can one daddy handle?

Blogging from Disney

Yes, I am blogging from the hotel room in Orlando. Today is our second day at Disney World. We went to Animal Kingdom today and the Magic Kingdom yesterday. The weather is amazing and it's not too crowded. We are having a blast!

I will edit and post more pictures later, but wanted to put these pictures out there for our friends and family to see. These are some of the shots that make dragging that camera along worth it.

It's Here! It's Here! It's Finally Here!

Ok. Maybe the title will give you some idea of how excited I am to FINALLY have our painting. The pictures were made in March and I have been waiting patiently since then.

This piece is a watercolor with a glaze. The artist is Sam Gray and you can view a better picture on his website under the children's gallery. http://www.samgrayportraits.com

Rest Stop at.......CAROWINDS!

We left Greenville and told Davis and Rebecca we would make a rest stop in Charlotte. They had no idea Carowinds existed, so they suspected nothing. They were watching a DVD when we pulled into the parking lot, missing the big "Welcome to Carowinds" sign. We were winding through the parking lot when Rebecca looked up and said, "Hey, there's a roller coaster." We acknowledged her discovery and talked about the star spangled sky tower (It's 320 ft and painted red, white and blue.) David even went so far as to say, "That looks like a really fun place. Maybe we should go there sometime." The kids agreed, as we continued to get closer to the park. We were handing the attendant the cash for parking when they finally clued in they were going. It was great!

We entered the park and headed for Nickelodeon Central. Our first ride was the Fairly Odd Coaster (formerly the Scooby Doo.) Davis loved it, Rebecca did not. The Nick-O-Round was more her speed.

Davis was ready for one of the bigger coasters. He wanted to ride Thunder Road. I have ridden this ride numerous times and was not thrilled about the prospect of riding it again. I tried to talk David into riding with him, but no. I was the chosen one for this particular coaster. (David was holding out for the Cyclone.) After that first drop I laughed all the way back to the station. We got off the train and my little adrenaline junkie looks at me, with eyes the size of saucers, and exclaims "THAT WAS THE BEST RIDE EVER!" Then asked to ride again. So we walked around and got on the next train. After the second trip he wanted to ride AGAIN! I told him my 30-something-year old body was not ready for another trip right now. I suggested he ride alone, thinking he would balk. Nope. He agreed to ride alone. So I went up to the station, put him on a train and sent him on his way for his third consecutive trip on Thunder Road.

Next it was over to the Carolina Cyclone. He rode that two or three times in a row with David. All total I think he road Thunder Road and the Cyclone 5 times each. He rode the Hurler once (David described this as a 2 minute car wreck. Don't ya love those wooden coasters?) and the Carolina Goldrusher 3 or 4 times. David rode most of them with him.

By the end of the day, we were very thankful he was not tall enough for the BIG coasters. Btw, we will be taking applications for a thrill seeker to ride with him for our next visit.

For those of you who don't know, Carowinds is built over the NC/SC state line. Davis and Rebecca thought it was really neat to be able to stand in two states at once. Below is a picture of them demonstrating this and a picture of them sitting in two different states. Rebecca is in NC and Davis is in SC.

Davis' Top 10 Rides

1. Thunder Road

2. Rip Roarin' Rapids

3. Carolina Cyclone

4. Hurler

5. Wild Thornberry's River Adventure (Log Flume)

6. Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion

7. Rugrats Runaway Reptar

8. Carolina Goldrusher

9. Ricochet

10. Rocket Power Air Time

Rebecca's Top 10 Rides

1. Nick-O-Round

2. Rugrats Runaway Reptar

3. Danny Phantom's Phantom Flyers

4. Rip Roarin' Rapids

5. Wild Thornberry's River Adventure

6. Kaleidoscope

7. Carolina Goldrusher

8. Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion

9. Fairly Odd Coaster

10. Dodge 'Ems (bumper cars)

Technical Difficulties

Sorry to have taken so long between posts. I lost the USB cable for our small digital camera. After a week of so of looking, I bought an adaptor that didn't work. Then I ordered a cable from E-Bay that, you guessed it, didn't work. Finally I bought a multi-card reader yesterday and as you can see, it worked.

ITA Regional TaeKwonDo Tournament - Greenville, SC

Davis participated in his first TaeKwonDo Tournament this weekend. There were 5 kids in his age bracket. Three were Sr. Blue Belts and two (including Davis) were Blue Belts. They had to show their form and then spar. Davis won first place in the forms competition! We are so proud of him and all the hard work he put into learning and practicing his form.

After the tournament, we spent the evening with my brother and his family. We had a great time catching up and eating a WONDERFUL dinner. Sunday morning we got an early start back to NC. We told Davis and Rebecca we were stopping in Charlotte for a "rest stop". Stay tuned to hear about the trick we played on them.