Goin' Jeep'n

This video is from our vacation in Branson a few weeks ago. We were at a pizza place that had electric go carts and arcade games. Zach was having some cheap fun. There was no money in the machine. He had started doing this shaking thing before I got the video camera out. I think he would have kept doing it for a while longer if I had let him.

Will's Art

I added another slideshow. This time it's some of Will's art or crafts that he's done over the last year or so. Is 3 slideshow's too many?

Additional Photos

These are additional photos taken after Amy and Todd's wedding last weekend.

Old Photos of Family

Check out my new slideshow of "Old Photos of Family" on the right sidebar. The picture's include my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Say a Prayer

Please take a moment to say a prayer for my cousin Sean who has recently been diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. Here is a brief description.

(From Wikipedia.org: Aplastic anemia is a condition where bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells.

The term 'aplastic' means the marrow suffers from an aplasia that renders it unable to function properly. Anemia is the condition of having reduced hemoglobin or red cell concentration in the blood. Typically, anemia refers to low red blood cell counts, but aplastic anemia patients have lower counts of all three blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.)

Anyways...it is treated similar to cancer. He is currently at M.D. Anderson in Houston taking chemo treatments. He is in need of a bone marrow transplant. The doctors have possibly found a donor that will match. Please pray that they will find a donor and that the transplant will be effective. Please also remember his wife Elena as she deals with the uncertainty of the situation and for my aunt and uncle (his parents) and his sister Lauren.

If you're not registered as a bone marrow donor please consider being a hero and saving someone's life. You may not be able to help Sean but you might be able to help someone else. Go to marrow.org for more information on being a donor.

Thanks!

Wedding Day

Saturday evening we went to the wedding of Becky's cousin Amy. Once we got there we realized that Todd's (Amy's husband to be) family was staying at the same hotel as us. We had seen them at the hotel but hadn't realized who they were.

The wedding was simple but very nice. The way I think weddings should be.

The ceremony was held at a fairly small rural wedding chapel. There were only two bridesmaids and two groomsmen. I only saw a small part of the ceremony because I was outside with Zach. His momma thought he was making too much noise.

Bittersweet. Amy's dad Fred suddenly and unexpectedly passed away about a year and a half ago. She had his wedding ring tied to her bridal bouquet. If you click on the picture of the wedding cake you will see the ring in the bouquet. Once back to our hotel we found out that it had gone missing. We are hoping someone is holding it for Amy until they get back from their honeymoon.

Trip to the Memphis Zoo

Friday morning we headed off to Memphis for a Saturday evening wedding. Saturday we spent the early part of the day at the Memphis Zoo. Will's favorite part was the Bonobo's (Chimps). They would come close to him by the glass and kinda interact with him. I had my camera up close to the glass on one of them and he smiled at me like he knew what I was doing. I'm sure he did. I wasn't able to get the picture because I was too close to him for my autofocus to allow me to snap the shot. We were fortunate to walk up on the sea lion show as it was just starting. It's amazing how smart they are. As you can tell by the picture with the elephants there was a little bit of an odor in the air. We saw the Panda's in what I thought was a very nice exhibit. I didn't know this but I was told that there are only 3 zoo's in the US that have Panda's. I've been to 2 of them now. Becky and I saw them at the World Famous San Diego Zoo on our 3rd anniversary. We had a good time at the Memphis Zoo and I thought it was very nice. If you're ever in the area and have time to go, I recommend it.

Vacation, etc...

I'm trying to recover at work and at home from our small vacation to Branson last weekend. We actually spent Friday through Tuesday in Branson and then traveled to my parents house in Billings on Tuesday evening. Wednesday we went into Springfield and then traveled home that afternoon.

We stayed at Treasure Lake RV Resort which is kinda like a campground. We stayed in a little "duplex". It was like a small cabin. It wasn't toddler friendly but we made it work. The resort has a fairly nice swimming pool which we took advantage of on Saturday. Will and I played a round of miniature golf at the resort on Sunday.

Saturday afternoon we went to Noah the Musical with my parents and some folks from their church. We didn't take Will or Zach. From the very beginning they tell you that "this is a fictional account of a factual event." I guess that's like saying a movie is based on actual events. I have to be honest that I have a problem when this is being done with a factual religious event. How are the people that aren't familiar with the true story supposed to know what is true and what isn't? This place was filled with small children, what are they going to believe? Who is going to explain the truth to them? Did some hoodlums really throw Noah in the Ark and set it on fire?

I won't go back to see Noah the Musical and I won't recommend it to anyone. If you go, you might have a different viewpoint. That's fine. I've heard from some other's that have been and they enjoyed it. You might be one of them. I'm just glad that my parents were able to buy the tickets at a discounted local price. I'm glad we went to see it to know what it was like. I will say this... the stage set, animals (live and animated) were nice.

We went to White Water, Celebration City and Silver Dollar City with White Water being the most fun and relaxing for me. Will had a good time at all and Zach even got to play in the water and ride some rides. We didn't go to SDC until Tuesday because it rained on Monday. By then my calf muscles were tight as a set of guitar strings from all the walking I had been doing. I heard one SDC employee say it was the busiest day she had worked so far. We were hoping it would be slower during the week but that wasn't the case and the traffic getting in to the park was as bad as I have seen in a long time. They are doing some road construction around the park which made it a major hassle getting to a parking lot. Once the construction is done things should be much smoother.

Wednesday we made a trip into Springfield to go to the Discovery Center which is kinda like a science museum. We've been there before and Will and Becky really enjoy it. I like it but I get bored pretty quick.

Overall we had a pretty good trip...but it's always nice to be back home.

College Baseball

Well the mighty SEC only has 2 of 9 teams lefts in the NCAA tournament while the sub-mighty MVC has 1 of 1 teams left. Go Wichita State!

Busy Week

Last week was a busy one for me so I didn't have much time to sit down and write anything. Here are a few things from the week.

Will said he didn't know anyone older than me (40), just Jesus and God. We told him who all the really old people are in his life: Papa, Grammy, Papa, Nana, Uncle George, Aunt Darla, Uncle Alan, Aunt Jan, etc, etc... There are many other people older than me and you know who you are.

Zach is completely over his allergic reaction to penicillin.

Arkansas (34-22) lost both of their games this week in the NCAA baseball regionals. I'm still upset that Missouri State (40-16) didn't make it into the tournament and the SEC got 9 teams in. Ridiculous. MSU finished second in both their conference and the conference tournament to Wichita State (44-15). Wichita State was given a #2 seed in their regional but MSU with a similar record doesn't get in. Again, ridiculous!