This is a picture that Rockwell CREATED.. He received a graphics tablet as a Christmas present from Hannah. I’m pretty sure this is the first thing he created with it.
Larry Hicks and I went running in the cold rain at FATS.. did 7 miles, (bigrock/tower) and enjoyed a beer in the dark afterward. It’s funny how little things like this are awesome in the moment.
Running in the rain Selfie.
On the way to dropping Hannah off in columbia so she can meet up with a friend and drop some things off at Winthrop before the school year starts. She made personalized chainmail gifts for her close friends.
Rockwell in the North Augusta Chrstmas parade! They are freezing here.. lol. He said his lips were numb.
Football Friday night.
My Phone background for 2017. Sweet Gigi.
Posted on 19 December '17 by admin, under Activities, Holidays, Running. No Comments.
I have a feeling he is really going to miss Switzerland.. I also have a feeling he might come back a slightly different child. Eyes a little wider open. 🙂 Thank you Aunt Teri and Uncle Juerg!
A fun day on the river! (although worn out I am guessing).
Asked Teri what this location is.
Lunch Break with Rockwell and Lars I guess. 
I’m dying to know what this place was about.
Looks like serious fun though.
With Cousin Liv at the transportation museum I am pretty sure.
The “Cross on the hill” as Aunt Teri called it.. You can barely see the Swill alps in the clouds.
They visited again later on with some friends. Teri said:
Ed we went up to the cross hill last night roasted marshmallows and let the kids run around until 11:00 at night..we were with my friend who has 4 kids younger than 9 and ours were really great with them..it was one of those perfect summer evenings!
Does that sound perfectly memorable or what??
Posted on 25 July '16 by admin, under Holidays, kids, Switzerland. 1 Comment.
We (Rockwell, Hannah and I.. Melinda did not want to go for some reason) went skiing this weekend to Maggie Valley and the cataloochee ski area Actually.. snowboarding. We all learned to snowboard. It was AWESOME. I can say that I actually got it down enough to go down one of the black diamonds. I’m not good, but I clearly was not the worst. Hannah made it down once without ever falling… even if 25% of it was braking. (what I call the board being perpendicular to the slope.. I don’t know the lingo’..) We really had fun. We went with youth from Holy Trinity Lutheran to “Lake Junaluska”. 13 of us total, 11 kids and two chaperons. The kids were.. different. More on that later.
I think Rockwell had the most fun of anyone. He did not want to leave. He was the first on the slopes, wouldn’t take a break, and was the very last person to leave of all the kids. And even then he was not happy that he had to stop. He said “I think I want to do this professionally!” and that is before he even really knows how to rock it. We will clearly be back to do it again. This time with Melinda. 🙂
I would have more pictures and even video… if I had not lost my phone. 🙁 That was the only bummer of the trip.
I have two observations:
1.
Ok, so about these kids.
“When I was young…” Social status was primary. I remember getting into a group like this, and all the kids wanted to know was who was boss, and what the pecking order was. Really, when I look back on it, our lives were ruled by this dynamic. Even as you got older.. jobs were available because you knew someone… or not available because you did not.
These kids? They really could not care less. The older ones hung out with the younger ones, Some of them just hung out or didn’t, depending on a mood. It was really pretty amazing. On the trip there, during the trip, and on the trip home, I feel like they were LESS of a burden than 13 Adults would have been, and I’m not kidding about that. They were nothing but prompt, polite, and self sufficient. (as long as there was food available.. lol) They said, we would like to walk to the church” when it was church time, and they were back in the meeting place when the skiing was over. (OK, they were worn out and there before they were even supposed to be.. 🙂 ) Get this.. It was a 250 mile trip there, and a 250 mile trip home… 13 people in the van. You know how many times we stopped? twice. And when I say twice… I mean once each way. I was driving. You know who asked to stop? No one.. I had to stop to pee.
Were their noses in their phones? Of course. And I don’t care.
These kids are going to make SOOO MUCH better adults than we EVER were its not even funny.
Good on you kids. The future is going to be awesome. and you are going to make it that way.
2.
People are SO MUCH more honest these days, so much more, that its making commerce easier, and cheaper for all of us.
Do you remember back 30 years ago going skiing? The paperwork you had to fill out to rent skis, then when you returned them they had to cross check and make sure you were returning the right ones and they loved charging you late fees and such? Those days are LONG GONE. We rented skis, and they simply wanted your liability form. they handed you the skis, (or board) and boots, adjusted them slightly, and you were on your way. When you returned them? “Put them in the stack over there and have a good day.” No accounting whatsoever. I think they realized that 99% of people return them, and the cost of saving a percent did not make it worth the time lost to account for it, or the customers lost to hassle. same thing with the rental trailer we used for bags, the guy did not even open it up to see if it was clean. he met me at the gate in the van, had a handheld, punched in the code on the trailer, and said, “any problems?” I said no, he as 60$ you want to put it on the card on record? I said yes, he handed me a receipt, and I was out of there in 5 minutes. Astounding really. 30 years ago they would have had to have had a checklist of damage and inspected the inside and it just would not have gone that smooth. people are better people today than they were before. simple as that.
Posted on 18 January '16 by admin, under Events, Holidays. No Comments.
After COMPLETELY disappointing the girls, and missing a chance to see a intimate live performance of Rocky Horror Picture show Thursday. (We were 6,7,8 in line, and there were only 5 tickets left.. grrr.)
We tried to do some fun stuff anyway. Friday night, I took the older girls to a couple of abandoned houses. One was formerly a house of a wealthy local individual that died a year or so ago.. the family has not emptied it out yet, and its becoming decrepit.. paint peeling and wood rotting.. yet not a single window is broken. It is still a house. And therefore we were hesitant to go in. But we did anyway,,, just to check out the library! We took nothing and did no damage,, just looked around. We did not want to use much light, as to notify the person in the garden (guard) house that we were there…. So we did not get to see much. But it was still fun!
A little reconnaissance.. here is the library during the daytime though a window.
Then we decided to go to an old confederate cemetery in the woods in Beech Island. It is the private plot of the people that used to own the Redcliff Plantation.. sorta’ spooky!
Then we came back to North Augusta and went into the house down the street at 813 Georgia.. It’s been abandoned and gutted all the time we have lived here.. But you can’t tell from the outside! (Otherwise all the neighbors would have complained by now, right?)
Ghost call, it’s for you!
Then, Saturday night, after we all went to the biggest Jack-o-lantern Jubilee EVER! (38 special played.. what a crowd. First year they sold alcohol helped I am sure.) Melinda went to a Halloween party at a friends house. When I went to pick her up, a friend of ours, Chris Flecheck, was picking his daughter Raven up too. He decided we all should climb the huge dirt hill that is across the street from the party. I think he might have been drinking.. lol. But I am glad we did! It was fun!
Melinda was the first to the very top..
Friends join in.
All the girls gather, (or should I say stumble, because I don’t know if they ever got to a full standing position..) on the smaller hill. They were cracking up the whole time.
Posted on 1 November '15 by admin, under Holidays, kids, seasons. No Comments.
The kids say hello to 2015!
Something I found on the table today.. Rockwell has a little holiday homework he was working on. I thought it was neat that he does his homework in cursive.
Christmas morning!
Christmas morning…#2. I suppose I should take a picture of the Tree before I take it down next week.
🙂
This was from the solstice party at the Flecheks.
Check out the spread! They know how to cook.
Posted on 2 January '15 by admin, under Events, Holidays. No Comments.
So we had a little friendly competition today. The kids made Gingerbread houses, and I was to blindly judge which one was the best. (I could not watch to see who was making what).
Well… While they were all creative…
I had to go with the picturesque ones. Melinda won.
And since all my racers finished the fall season BMX series, They got personalized shirts and Number plates. Here are next seasons racers personalized plates! (I don’t know what their numbers will be yet.)
Posted on 20 December '14 by admin, under Activities, BMX, Holidays. No Comments.
We all went to The Herndon’s house last weekend.. Wes is a man after my own heart.. he owns 4 dirtbikes and 3 ATV’s… they where all given to him broken! Well, we all had a blast riding them all over his property. 🙂
Rockwell started working on his science project! He designed a bridge (from scratch!) that he will 3D print out of various materials, and test how strong they are. Pretty neat!
Here is the first test print.
Melinda has been going to the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art on Saturday mornings recently. The class was called “trees”. This is a picture of some of the students work.. Hers is the second from the left. The pink one.
We also had the North Augusta Christmas parade again this last Sunday! It’s always fun.
I guess Rockwell wanted to bring his Baritone out and participate!
And the Herndon’s joined us again this time.
We started out the 4th Holiday weekend with seeing Hannah and Sterling off on an adventure to RTX, (Rooster Teeth Convention) Hannah has really been working on improving her Cosplay of Yang. (Check out the chain mail)
Oh, the day before Hannah left for RTX, she was interviewed as the “Fox 54 Kid of the week”!
The kids love Swimming over at the banks.. This picture is almost in the dark, sorry for the poor quality.
The SnoCap drive in had a car show on the 4th. Check out this crazy custom!
Had to get my picture with it..
End of one of the pool parties at the Banks.
So today I recruited the Girls and Rockwell to help Build a “Little Library” for the park out in front of the house! They really got into it! More Young Makers!
Gluing as Nailing. The nailgun does really help.
I think they were enjoying the nailgun a tad too much. That little library is built like a tank now!
THe only thing I did was cut the wood.. the kids put the whole thing together.. For real, it was all on them.
And they did a great Job too!
Painting is next!
It’s going to look great! The door and the roof goes on tomorrow, and then we will mount it in the park!
Melinda got to ride the Motorcycle for the first time this week. She is a natural.
I kid you not, she did not even stall it once. She asked to go to Arthur’s to ride in the woods.
Last weekend was the Pride Parade in Augusta. Wow, I was impressed with the size, and also the participants. Lots of Businesses where represented.
Big Parade! And there was a party in the park across the street afterward. Fun!
Hannah went to the VI with some family friends last week, while I had to work masters. It would appear they had a lot of fun. I, on the other hand, lost Hannah’s snake, Kinty, and was worried sick most of the week. 
Hannah got a chance to dive at cane bay also.
Melinda getting a chance to play on the horses up in the hills.
Who gets to do stuff like this? Rockwell getting launched off the back of a horse into the carrabea ocean.
(little)Hannah and Melinda hanging out with some Moco Jumbies. I assume this is monday night.. They have parties on monday nights for some reason.
While they where away, I did one fun thing.. I went to a fancy corporate CBS Party.
You know its fancy when they hire a Cuban to make cigars for you. That is one way to get around the law I suppose…
Posted on 14 April '14 by admin, under Friends, Holidays, St Croix. No Comments.
Happy PI day today.
Its so hard to get one. single. picture.
Really People? How hard is it to take a picture? I think Dale is dreaming of pi.
Lets eat!
🙂
Posted on 14 March '14 by admin, under Holidays. No Comments.
