Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving we were both off from work so we decided to make a trip back to McLean County and celebrate with my family. We were sort of undecided if this adventure was truly going to happen because the day before we were going to leave the kids and I all got sick. None of us were feeling very good, but the morning we were scheduled to leave we all felt better so we all packed up in the car and headed out.

Right before you get to McLean County there is a little old country road that I always see when driving home. I decided that it would be a fun little picture to take with the kids, so we pulled over and got a picture with the Heflin Road sign.

Grandpa giving the kids a tour of his garden. There wasn't a lot of things in bloom at this time of year, so Grandpa just said that they needed to come back for a better tour in the spring.

Brinley was so confused when this thing ringed at Grandpa and Grandma's house. She had never seen a house phone before and was trying to see the person talking to her, but I had to tell her that there was no Facetime.

The kids watching some cartoons with their cousin Kyli Jo.

 We went over to Owensboro and had dinner with my mother's brothers and sisters. Afterwards we headed over to my cousin Tricia's house. It was here that the whole Thanksgiving experience took a new detour. Everything finally caught up to Jennifer and she started to feel sick. She was up most of the night and then decided that she was going to skip going to Thanksgiving at my Aunt Mary Ruth's house. So, we packed up the car and headed to Owensboro and left Jennifer at my parent's house in McLean County. I called to check on her often, but she spent most of her day sleeping.

The kids enjoying some chex-mix with their cousins.

The kids were already over pictures, but here they are with cousin Bernie.

Landon was worn out and even took a little nap with his cousin Kasey.

A couple of the girls teaching Brinley how to play LRC.

Brinley and her cousins Sarah and Abby.

Here was the whole crew that came to celebrate Thanksgiving at Mary Ruth's.

The Heflin's that attended.

Landon was showing Kyli Jo how to take a picture. Landon is going to be in Kyli's wedding next year.

Brinley and her cousin Tricia. 

Brinley and Bernie.

Brinley was turned into a human swing with Uncle McKinley and Kyli Jo.

Uncle McKinley and Landon.

Brinley and Kyli Jo. Next year Brinley is going to be the flower girl for Kyli's wedding.

Landon and Kasey.

Before heading home we decided to take a walk around Legion Park to see all the Christmas lights.

Brinley and Landon posing with the big rocking horse. The kids both wanted to ride on it, but it was stationary. 

They loved taking pictures with all the lights. They really had a good time running around at the park. I thought it was a good activity to get them to run off some excess energy before bedtime.

The kids and I with the Santa and his reindeer lights.

Next we headed home to see mommy. The kids were really happy to see her as was Jennifer. 

Although things didn't work out exactly as we had planned it still turned out to be a great couple of days back in our hometown and seeing family. The kids really had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house because they got to play piano and pretty much get away with whatever they wanted. We need to make it back home more often because there are some pretty awesome people in Western Kentucky. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Halloween 2015

This year we were able to do quite a few things with the kids because this was the first year that they both really understood what Halloween really was. They both were really excited about this grand idea of Trick-or-Treating. Brinley was able to speak for both of them, but Landon would occasionally get out a "treat!" We had originally thought about dressing up as a family, but time just got away from us so we opted for our back up option of having the kids dress up like minions.

Our first activity was going to a local park and participating in Little Goblins Galore. This was a nature walk at McConnell Springs where they have characters that you can meet and they give you candy too! This place was packed and it took a lot of time at each station to meet the characters. The kids had a lot of fun though!

Meeting some of the characters. We also brought along our cousin Elam and his parents. Elam dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. The kids enjoyed some of the characters, but were a little frightened of others.

After Jennifer and I got back from our little vacation, we knew that we needed to try and have some fun with the kids that we had been away from for a few days. We decided to take them to Evans Orchard in Georgetown because it was pretty good weather. Of course we had plenty of photo opportunities with all the decorations they had throughout the grounds. 

I had read online about trick-or-treating in downtown Georgetown. Since we were already in town we decided to check it out. It turned out to be awesome. All the local businesses were giving out candy and treats. Grandma and Grandpa helped the kids fill up their buckets. This is something that we will probably plan to do in future years. 

We also got together with some of our co-workers for a little Halloween party. It is always so much fun to see people outside of work. All the kids were so cute and we had a good time catching up with everyone.

We didn't get to carve any pumpkins this year, but we did get a chance to stop by Transylvania University campus to check out the huge amount of pumpkins that all the students carved. 

We headed over to our neighbor Lane's house to visit the big dragon that was a huge success in the neighborhood. The kids wanted to go out and look out at it almost every night during the month of October.

We stopped by a few stores after Halloween to pick up some sales on outfits so the kids could play dress up. They enjoyed all the outfits and I thought they looked pretty cute in them too!

Halloween is such a fun holiday for the kids and they both really got into it more this year. They both really got into the candy consumption too! I actually had to cut them off from candy altogether after about three days of what seemed like continuous candy eating. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Kid Free Vacation

Earlier this year Jennifer was asking if we could go on a trip just the 2 of us. I was hesitant because I didn't know how the kids would do with us away from them and how I would do too! We initially planned a trip out west to coincide with some football games that I would like to see, but I didn't get the right week off from work. So, back to the drawing board on where to go. We tossed around the idea of going out of the country, but we couldn't decide on a destination that we both found interesting yet still have enough time to plan every thing that we wanted to do. So, about a week before our trip we finally settled on heading back down to Florida to visit Universal Studios again. Even though we went there earlier this year we decided that we might be able to fully take in all the stuff if we didn't have two kids attached to us for a few days.

Dinner with our little kiddos before we left on our adventure. I am not sure what they thought was going on, but after dinner at Cracker Barrel we loaded up in our car and Grandma and Grandpa left with the kids. It was the first time that we had ever started out a journey without an actual end destination  for our first day. We weren't sure how far we would make it on the road so we didn't know where to book a hotel. 

I don't know what got into me but I just got in the zone driving and didn't really get tired until about 5 am. We still had some driving to go until we made it to Miami so we just took a little nap in a rest stop before heading back out on the road. We booked a hotel on the drive, so next stop was Hollywood Beach which is right outside Miami.

At the ocean with my beautiful wife. Our hotel was right on the beach. The water was a little cold, but otherwise everything was great!

Some pictures from our beach adventures. Jennifer's iPhone case is waterproof so I took it out to try and get some pictures in the water. I was trying to get one of a wave cresting. We also saw quite a few jellyfish washed up on the beach. I also spotted the Goodyear blimp for the first time ever that I can remember.

Through my sister I have met a lot of great people that work for the NFL. I contacted one of these people who was able to hook us up with some tickets to watch the Miami Dolphins. The seats were great and the Dolphins actually put on quite a show against the Houston Texans. They scored 41 points in just the first half. We had two times when it began to down pour and we had to retreat under the bleachers. It was a really great atmosphere and we were so thankful for the experience.

If you have never had Giordano's stuffed pizza then you are truly missing out on some of the best pizza that I have ever tried. I knew that they had a couple of franchises in the Orlando area from when we were down there earlier this year so we headed out to get some pizza after checking into our hotel.

Our hotel was just about a mile from the gates of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure so the first of our three days at the park we skipped the shuttle and just walked right over to the park. Even though we had just been there in February we wanted to be at the gates when they opened and planned to rush straight back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter very first.

There was hardly any lines at all so we rode them all a couple of times and then it was time to get Jennifer her first Butterbeer of the trip. She absolutely loves the hot version so that is what she got.

Somehow we either missed this section of the Jurassic Park area or it hadn't been finished when we were there in February, but this was a pretty neat little exhibit. Behind us is a Velociraptor from the movie Jurassic World and they were somewhat tamed by the workers at the park. We had someone film it and we sent it to the kids so they could see it. Grandma told us that Landon was scared that it was going to bite mommy.

We decided that since a couple of the main attractions at Islands of Adventure were closed for repair that we would only spend one day at this park and the other 2 days would be spent at Universal Studios. So, before we ended our day we got one last glass of Butterbeer each and just sat down in Hogsmeade and enjoyed the views of Hogwarts. It the picture with the Hogwarts Express you can see my pair of long socks that I am sporting. I forgot to pack socks in my suitcase and tried to go without them, but my feet were already getting blisters on them so I broke down and bought this pair of Gryiffindor knee high socks. After we left the park we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some much more affordable socks for the rest of the trip.

The next day started at Universal Studios with back-to-back-to-back rides on this roller coaster, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. It is awesome! You get on and they secure you in the lap belt only and they you get to pick the song of your choice to enjoy during the ride. The coaster then goes up 17 stories before heading down the first big hill and many loops and twists ensue. They also record you during the entire ride so that you can check out your expressions and see how scared or excited you are during all the big drops.

We also met Bumblebee from the movie Transformers. He is unique from the other Transformers because he doesn't have a voice and he communicates with you by changing the radio to different songs. When we walked up to get a picture he started playing the Notorious B.I.G.'s I love it when you call me Big Poppa! It cracked me up. Again we had someone film the interaction and sent it to the kids. Grandma said that they watched it over and over.

Walking around Diagon Alley proved to be very entertaining. We even found things that we had missed on our previous trip. While here I got obsessed with trying to get Jennifer a wand of her own. Problem was that she kept telling me that she didn't want one. We kept going to Ollivander's wand shop where they have a little presentation where someone gets picked from the crowd to have their own experience of the wand choosing them, just like in the books. It is pretty neat because the wands cause different things to happen in the shop. I think we tried at least 7 times, but for some reason the shop owner never picked Jennifer. So, that means that we never got a wand either!

We met the cast of Despicable Me and some of the minions too. Seeing all of them just made me miss the kids even more. That is because as soon as we got home it was going to be Halloween and the kids were dressing up as minions.

When planning our trip I noticed something about Halloween Horror Nights. I had never heard of this before and I did some research into it and found out that it was a huge Halloween party with 9 haunted houses. Some of these haunted houses were themed after popular movies or TV shows. I decided that it sounded pretty cool so I talked Jennifer into buying the extra tickets for the event. Let me just tell you that this was by far my favorite part of the trip. It had been about 15 years since Jennifer and I had gone to a haunted house. They all had some pretty great decorations and lots of people jumping out trying to scare you. They were pretty effective at scaring Jennifer. I had to walk in front of her and she held onto my hands. If I noticed something on either the right or left coming up then I would squeeze that hand to prepare her. It didn't help because they still made her jump and scream. I think I laughed for the majority of the houses because I was just amused.

Here we are with a statue of Jack the psycho clown. We actually were there for the 25th annual Halloween Horror Night. Jack the Clown was a character that Universal Studios created just for Horror Nights. He has been so popular that they continue to bring him back for some of the haunted houses. One of the rooms of a haunted house had about 20-25 of these and you couldn't tell which ones were real and which were just statues until they jumped out at you. It was pretty creepy! Overall, I would highly recommend going to Halloween Horror Nights if you ever get a chance. I would love to go again, but Jennifer says never again. She was brave enough to make it through all nine houses, but she told me later on that she kept her eyes completely closed during one whole house.

After being away from the kids for about 5 days I was ready to get back to see the kids. We left early and made it back just before it was time for bed. I missed them so much, but it was so nice to have some time with my beautiful wife without having to entertain the kids too. Thanks for reading and God bless!

UK game with my Little Wildcat

I got a chance to take Brinley to a UK basketball game again this year. Brinley and I had both been sick the night before and I actually put my tickets online earlier in the day for sale, but nobody seemed interested so I just decided to go ahead and head on down to RUPP.  It turned out to be a pretty awesome night. It was a late game so we got there pretty early in order to experience all the pre-game festivities.

Jennifer dressed her in the cheerleader outfit and even got Brinley to agree to wearing a bow in her hair. We went down to the lower level to get a picture closer of Brinley with the guys warming up.

We headed back out to listen to the pep band. We didn't get close enough so Brinley got up on my shoulders so that she could see everything going on.

We even stopped by to see the cheerleaders before heading up to our seats. They all thought she was cute and I couldn't have agreed more. My little girl is growing up so quick. Maybe one day she can be on of the real cheerleaders!

We couldn't make the long walk up to our seats without first getting a box of popcorn. Brinley couldn't have been any happier. 

Picture of my little girl and I with the game going on in the background.

Near the end of the game I decided to see if we could score some seats a little closer. We headed down and found some seats really close where the people had already headed home.

I noticed at an earlier game how they do a post game interview with the announcers. I thought this would be a great chance to get Brinley on national television. She was reluctant to participate at first and said that the lights shinning in our direction were too bright. I told her if she did it that I would get her a ice cream on the way home. That really got her excited and she said she would do it. I told her to hold up a 1 and she did!

They I told her to put up her 3 goggles. I purposely taught her how to do the number 3 like this so that I could teach her how to make these goggles. This picture was taken off my computer screen from the ESPN website.

Selfie of Brinley doing her 3 goggles.

Brinley and Alex Poythress.

The security guard was nice and said that we could go ahead and step on the court to take our picture. Brinley and I both decided to throw up our 3 goggles.

I made good on my promise of picking up ice cream on the way home. Too bad Brinley didn't even make it home or finish her cone before falling asleep. 

I hope that we make it a yearly tradition of going to a game just the two of us. I can't wait to see my baby girl grow up, but I also cherish all these moments that we get to spend together. Thanks for reading and God bless!