June 2024

We started the month off in Sandusky, Ohio at Cedar Point. Brinley's team was playing in a tournament for the second year in a row and most of the team wanted to play at the park. We rode most of the roller coasters that the park had to offer before heading home. Jennifer spent the day working and found a little public library to keep cool in. 

I think besides softball these girls just really enjoy spending time together. We also went bowling as a team and ate at the local Mexican restaurant. 

Jennifer and I celebrated our 17th anniversary in Ohio during the tournament. It is hard to believe that we have been together now for over 23 years and married for 17 of them. 

The kids also decided to take a dip in the chilly waters of Lake Erie. A few of the adults, myself included decided to play a little beach volleyball. Only problem was that we didn't have a volleyball. Playing with a kickball proved to be very difficult at times. Kennedy and Reagan have become two of Brinley's best friends on the team.

Landon's rec ball tournament started and he received the game ball on one of the nights. You can also see him sporting his new cross necklace that his mother and I got him for getting baptized.  

Brinley's team had a one day tournament in Georgetown. They were excited to wear their new jerseys that they got. 

Landon's first travel ball tournament and we got to play against one of our friends and former teammates, Levi. These two are usually two of the smallest kids on the field, but have the biggest hearts and drive for the game. You get one of them on base and they will usually steal the rest of them. Always good to see the Green's.

I got so excited to find out that both kids would be playing in Georgetown tournaments. Unfortunately, the kids played at two different locations. It was also a mess because Landon's tournament was going on at the same time. Our schedule for the weekend was crazy. Brinley played at 8 in Georgetown, then Landon and I left to go to his rec ball game in Lexington at 1 pm. They won which meant he would play the next day. Then had two games in Georgetown at 6 pm and 8 pm. They won one and lost one which meant they were put in the silver bracket. On Sunday they came and won the silver bracket in the morning and then lost their rec ball game in the afternoon. 

Landon's minor league rec ball came to an end. Landon and I were both a little happy that we didn't win the last game because he would have to miss the next couple of games because of church camp. He didn't want to have to miss any games. This was a great group of kids and they definitely had a lot of fun together. 

After a weekend of games we celebrated with some ice cream!

I went to camp to spend time with all the younger patients and their siblings. A couple of the girls thought it would be funny to paint my face at Arts and Crafts time. I had no idea what I looked like until I got out my phone and snapped this picture of myself. 

Next up for the kids was heading to CIY Mix with our church. It is a church camp where Southland takes all middle school students. It is in southern Indiana. This is Brinley's second year and Landon's first. I believe that he was a little nervous about playing, but once he got inside he spotted a friend, Kirt which I think made things better. 

Jennifer and I didn't know what to do with ourselves with the kids gone. We however decided to take advantage of not having to have anyone watch the kids and we went on our alphabet dates. Jennifer chose a D date. We played disc golf and then went to dinner at Drake's. 

Next night was my pick and we went on a J date. We went to Joe Balogna's and then came home and did a jigsaw puzzle. Jennifer lost interest in the puzzle, but did come back to help me with the last piece. 

Church camp doesn't allow you to take any electronics with you to the camp. So, we only had to rely on pictures that popped up on the social media pages. I believe this is the only photo we saw of one of our children for the entire four days that they were gone. Looks like Landon was doing ok!

The A date was so nerve wrecking. We had appetizers and then we did art together. There is a viral trend going around where you try to paint your significant other. It was extremely hard to do in my opinion. I made Jennifer out to look like a cave woman and she made me to have an extremely tiny head. All in all we had a lot of fun.  

The last date night we had before the kids came home was a B night. We played board games (blokus, bites) with my baby brother and his baby. Taylor and McKinley said that they wanted to help in the fun and said they would provide the food. They understood the assignment and we had BBQ - brisket, baked beans, bread, banana pudding and even some of Taylor's homemade blueberry muffins. 

The kids came home and we were very excited to see them. They both said that they had a lot of fun and were excited about going back the next year. Landon's counselor for the week, Mcgee, came up and said how extremely proud of him that he was, and that he was a good young man. Brinley told us that her favorite part of the week was the worship. Made my heart extremely happy. We also found out a few days later that Brinley decided at camp that she wanted to take the next steps in her faith. I could not be more proud of her decision to follow Jesus. Now we just need to figure out when we can get her to be baptized. 

The night the kids got back from church camp was also the night of the Luau for Life. We had an awesome event out at Talon Winery and we raised about $14,000 for our Survivor Picnic that we will have later this year.

Nora came to her first Luau for Life and the Heflin girls enjoyed getting to spend some time with her. Brinley has been terrified of Nora and is slowly working on getting more comfortable with her. 

I was sad that neither kid had a tournament on Father's Day. I would rather be at the field than sitting at the house. So I made the kids go out and get a little bit of work in with me as my gift for the day. 

I happened to arrive at McKinley's house at the same time they were about to take Taylor to work one morning. I got to ride along and sit next to my little buddy Nora. 

It had been an extremely long time since we had been to the movies. We finally had a night with no sports so we headed out to the movies to watch the new Inside Out 2. It was a great movie and it reminded me so much of Brinley. If only I could hear all the different voices in her head to let me know when to push her and when to give her space. 

Landon's team got gifted an opportunity to play in Elizabethtown at the Cal Ripken Experience. This is a tournament that usually cost almost $2,000. Grandma and Grandpa made the trip up to watch him play in two games on Friday night. They went 1-1 on the night. The next day we came back and the Slam finished pool play with a total record of 2-2. On Saturday it was so hot and the kids were playing on turf which makes it even hotter. They had to play 3 games in a row because tournament play started immediately after pool play ended. Our kids were gassed and it showed in the tournament game. A team that we beat in pool play took advantage of us being exhausted and whooped us 20-1. It was a really fun experience getting to play some tough competition. It really showed us that we have a pretty good team. 

Brinley's team had their end of year party just a little early. It was a combined end of year party and baby shower for the coaches Anna and Drew. The kids had a blast on the slip and slide and in the pool. The biggest hit was trying to get on and survive on the watermelon float. It was a good time with the Rampage family. 

Our financial advisor had an event to thank all of the people that use his services. It was at Kroger Field and they had a guest speaker Bush Hamdan, the new UK Offensive Coordinator. Jennifer and the kids had something else that they wanted to do, but I really wanted to hear what he had to say about the upcoming season. It was fun to hear and it got me even more excited about the upcoming season. 

We started the month on a softball tournament with amusement park fun. We ended the month doing the exact same thing in a different state. Brinley's team had a tournament near Santa Claus, IN. Her team went to Holiday World the day before the tournament started. We spent most of the time in the water park riding all the water slides with the Kerr's. 

Brinley's team wanted to send some love to Ellie's mom who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. They girls wore special jerseys in her honor. The girls started off pool play great and went 2-1 on the day.

These three boys were in charge of keeping the scoreboard. They enjoyed it most because the booth they were in was air conditioned. They also had one little incident that the boys had no idea what to do about. A young female umpire came up into the booth and apparently needed to change. Instead of asking the boys to leave so she could change she just told them not to look around at her. The boys were so upset by the event. Thankfully they told Brantley's grandma who then went and talked with the umpire about how she should have handled the situation with the boys.

Tournament day and the girls showed up big in the first game. We had a wait in between games so we again hung out with the Kerr's. The kids played so card games and tried to stay cool. The girls made a good run but lost in the semifinal game. 

May 2024

Brinley's birthday is always what I will think of instead of Star Wars day (May the Fourth be with you). This year she wanted to have some friends spend the night, but one wasn't able to come over due to Derby plans. We had a lot of fun with Reagan. We went and did our first Countdown Games and successfully broke out. Brinley also enjoyed her favorite food, Chick-fil-a. They attempted a painting tutorial but Brinley got upset about her painting and quit half way through it. 

We also made a little trip out to Five Below and Brinley picked out some squishmallows and even got a squishmallow puzzle. She wanted to do it all by herself. I helped by trying to group the different colors and designs for her. Very proud of my little puzzler. We also enjoyed dinner at Chuy's and came home to watch her favorite Disney movie, Lilo & Stitch.

Jennifer was in charge of the next alphabet date and she chose the letter C. We went to Cookout and a comedy show, Nate Bargatze. It was a really funny show. We both had a good time.

Seeing Brinley do her puzzle got me wanting to get back to doing one myself. This was a really fun and quick puzzle to do. I would just pick out all the similar colors and then I put the individual donuts together. I also waited and did the border last because I knew that it would be difficult with just the pink dots. I got started on it and just kept saying to myself that I will just do one more donut before bed. Then next thing I know I finished the puzzle and I looked at the clock and it was 2 am. It turned into my fastest 1000 piece puzzle that I have ever done, which was right about five hours. 

Happy Mother's Day to Jennifer. Some people may take their moms to a fancy restaurant. Not our lady. We took her to Long John Silver's. She loves this place and all of the locations in Lexington closed. We found the closest one to us in Paris, Ky. This woman looks extremely happy to me!

For Mother's Day we also took Jennifer to a little zoo in Cynthiana, Ky. I had heard about it and thought it would be something fun for the kids. They both got cups of carrots to feed to the animals. They have goats, camels, turtles, sloths, kangaroos, lamas, emu, zebras, cattle, capybaras, and lots of birds.

The parakeet house did not disappoint. We got little feeding sticks for the birds. Well these birds were crazy. They would land on you and walk all over your body. I had multiple ones that tried to walk up the bottom of my shorts. Brinley was terrified of them and was so jumpy the whole time we were in there. I absolutely love the top left picture of her. It just cracks me up because she is always talking about how much she loves animals and then freaked out when they landed on her. Landon let them walk all over him. Then they would nibble on his skin and he would freak out a bit. 

UK Baseball has had an amazing season and we have never gotten out to see them. I really wanted to but Landon says that he doesn't like watching other people play ball. We finally decided to go one night after his baseball practice. He got some nachos and a drink and we sat and talked strategy and what he would do in the certain situations. It was honestly one of my favorite sporting events I have had with him because we got to talk sports. No video games or distractions. He never even asked for my phone. UK came through with the win too so it was a great night. 

One of the previous owners of our house decided to paint the tile in the entry way and kitchen. Jennifer got an idea to scape all the paint off. She started and I decided to help with some of the manual labor. It was not a fun experience, but I am glad that we did it. It looks so much better. 

On one of my days off in May I decided to have lunch with Landon at school . Middle school doesn't allow parents to come eat with their kids. I'm not sure that many kids would enjoy a parent visiting. On this day though Landon really enjoyed the Little Ceasars pizza and cheese sticks that I brought him. 

After we got the backyard cleared out we now had a great place to hang up the hammock. I enjoyed one afternoon relaxing and I actually fell asleep listening to the birds. Also check out that tan line on my feet. You can tell that I wear my sandals everyday. 

The kids had a day off from school for primary election day. I was off as well so we packed up the car and headed to King's Island. This is the first time that Landon was tall enough for all the coasters without having to put rolled up socks in his shoes. He was so happy!

My roller coaster riding buddies. They really need to stop growing up on me. They of course also wanted to get some blue ice cream.

Landon has been playing pick up baseball with a team out of Lexington called the Warriors. They are a great group of kids and wonderful parents and coaches. They have truly accepted Landon into the group. One little guy, Luke (pictured) has become one of Landon's good friends. They had a tournament that we played with them in Harrodsburg. They won the first game and were getting ready to play in the championship when the tornado sirens started going off. People went absolutely crazy. The players and families all ran into the bathrooms to get into some cover. The sirens stopped and they decided to cancel the rest of the tournament and gave rings out based on the seeding from the day before. They got a runner up ring, his first with the team. 

Landon graduated from 5th grade. He is a really bright student and I can't wait to see what the future holds for this young man. We are proud to be his parents.

After the graduation they had cupcakes and we took pictures with some friends and his teacher. Jennifer went out and bought shoes for him to wear with his outfit, but Landon really wanted to wear his crocs. He had worn crocs every single day of school and he said it was his calling card. I told him to wear the crocs. 

Just like Brinley did after her graduation we went to Boone Creek Outdoors to play on the obstacle course. He had the course to himself. He got really upset a couple of times because his device got stuck a few times and the guy had to come up and get it released. By the end of it he was flying on the course. 

The day after graduation was actually the last day of school. Both kids were ready for the school year to be over. After school we went to get shaved ice. 

The kids had their first summer youth night at church. Jennifer and I used this time to get one of our alphabet dates in. I picked Freddy's and then we went to pick out flowers for the front of our house. 

April 2024

This is one of my favorite magic shots. Remy's ride is fun, but sometimes the line is way too long for a non thrill ride. This was a great picture of us.

I told the kids and Jennifer that we were going to all be given a budget of $50 to spend on what ever food items that they wanted in the parks. Brinley and Jennifer went through and did research at all the parks to see what they wanted. She even talked mom into sharing some of her treats and food options. 

Landon had no rhyme or reason to his decisions. Just whatever he saw other people running around with or a cart vendor selling something. 

How can anyone take this kid serious. He literally has cotton candy coming out of his pocket. Difference between myself as a child and Landon isn't that I didn't eat cotton candy. It is that I would have never had the self control to stop and save some for later. 

I spent some of my money on my favorite treat, the Dole Whip! Of course I shared with Landon because I didn't think he could finish one on his own. 

They can't get along most of the time, but sometimes they seem like they love each other. They have also been trained over the years that if they just smile quickly that they get done much quicker. 

Landon is the only person in the family that enjoys water rides. He really wanted to ride Kali River Rapids, but none of the girls would get on with him. So, I bit the bullet and rode with him. We got soaked, but had a good time. 

We are not super Star Wars fans, but more like causal fans. That doesn't mean that we don't like to go on the amazingly designed rides in Star Wars land. If you are a big fan then you could spend probably a whole day walking around and looking at all the details in this place. 

I think the kids have been spoiled because we have seen fireworks their whole lives. I still really enjoy a good fireworks display, but sometimes it is hard to get the kids to stop and watch. However, the fireworks show is a great time to get short lines in the park. One night we rode the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train twice during the fireworks. 

I was able to get back up to the max score in the Buzz Lightyear ride. Landon was so upset because I told him all the things to hit, but he just couldn't get up to the max. He still has quite a way to go. 

In Animal Kingdom we rode the train over to Rafiki's Planet where they have a petting zoo and also an event where they teach you how to draw certain characters. This day they were teaching how to draw Simba. This was mine and Brinley's drawings of Simba. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of Jennifer's, but Landon was distraught and wadded his up into a big ball a few minutes into the demonstrative talk.

We were in Epcot for the day and Landon randomly asked if I wanted to drink around the world with him. I thought it would be a while before our son was peer pressuring me into trying to drink. I asked him for a little clarification and he said we wanted to drink all the sodas at Club Cool from different places around the world. 

We all enjoy the Kilimanjaro Safari and seeing which animals are out and about. I of course am partial to the elephants. 

Landon and I took a little side trip by ourselves one day. After we started at Epcot because we got virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy. Then Landon and I decided to ride the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to see if we could sneak into the afternoon virtual queue for Tron. We decided to stop for a couple of pictures along the way. Landon is determined to try and pull the sword from the stone. He tries every time we get near it. 

I think I just might have gotten Brinley back to enjoying The Tower of Terror. This trip we got her to ride it with us twice. It is one of my favorites. 

We did it! Both virtual queues in one day!

I feel like one of the classic rides that is a must is the Haunted Mansion. We got a couple of magic shots and I also love the picture they take of you and one of the ghosts near the end of the ride. 

A couple more pictures from some of our rides. My favorite is the top right picture. The kids and I love Expedition Everest and we always ride in the single rider line. That means that we get split up and don't get to ride together. Well the family that I got paired up with said that on the picture they were going to pretend to be asleep. I joined in to make their picture complete. They were so surprised when they got off and saw the ride photo. You would have thought that I had given them a hundred dollars. They were all so happy! 

Tell me their your kid in just a picture. Landon and I both all out hands up. Brinley and Jennifer both holding on for dear life!

I have wanted to do this ever since we got the season passes. We hit all four parks in one day! Jennifer chose to stay in the car because she didn't want to ride Tower of Terror so she hasn't gotten to do it yet. We took a picture just to commemorate the experience. 

We came back from spring break a few days early because my workplace was having their enormous event, the DanceBlue Marathon. This is where college students raise money all year and it culminates with a 24 hour dance marathon where they are not allowed to sleep or sit down for the entire event. It is an awesome event and a lot of my patients come out and interact with all the students dancing. My kids personally love it and this year they both got to participate in mini marathons at their own schools. This was the first time that Landon's school participated in the event. Their mini marathon raised over $8,000. Landon and two of his classmates, one of which is my patient, got to present the check to the students. 

After being shy about it the kids finally made their way out to the dance floor. Brinley really had a great time and asked if sometime we could do the entire 24 hours. I said we could try it. She also was so excited to get a hoodie from the merchandise stand. In fact she wore it everyday for the next week of school. 

The big reveal at the end of the 24 hour dance marathon and the students raised over 2.1 million dollars. Amazing what these young people are able to accomplish for the children of central and eastern Kentucky that have been diagnosed with cancer. This was a record breaking amount for the organization. 

We continued our alphabet dating and Jennifer chose for us to go eat dinner at Palmers and Painting with a Twist. We had a good time painting our cliff side sunsets. Jennifer was so frustrated the whole time we were painting because she said she didn't like the way hers was looking. I think we both did a good job. I enjoyed spending time with my wife. 

 

With Coach Cal leaving town for Arkansas we had to get a new basketball coach. At first I was upset at the hire of Coach Mark Pope, but a few days after I was all in. I packed the family up in the car to go to the introductory press conference which was being held at Rupp Arena. The place was a mad house. We got there right before hand and the only seats available in the lower arena were right behind the screen. If you look in the bottom right picture you can see Landon, Jennifer and I right above the screen. The place was so electric and I even got emotional at one point because I love this program and state so much. I am all in on Coach Pope and I can't wait to see where he leads this program!

Jennifer and I have been working on a project to clear out the backyard of all the brush and small trees. We have gotten so much work done on it and I really like the way it looks. Now we are concerned about the large trees that are leaning towards our house. 

Landon's regular season baseball pictures. I really enjoy serious sports photos for some reason. 

On the way into work one morning I was riding along and everything was great until I hit a little patch of gravel and I flew over the handlebars. I was so embarrassed that it happened right in front of the main employee drop off. I quickly got up and picked up the piece of my scooter that I saw and walked the rest of the way into work. It wasn't until I was inside that I noticed my hands were both scraped and bleeding. I tried turning my scooter back on and it did not work. It was really sad to know that I would never get to ride into work on it again. 

Baby Nora came to watch Landon play baseball. Hopefully one day we will get to see her play ball. 

Landon's 5th grade field trip was to the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati. They had a picnic lunch on the levee before heading to the museum. I volunteered to be a chaperone for this trip and he got paired up with one of his best friends, Landon and his twin Liam. We also had Silas and Levi in our group. After the museum they went to the food court and were given $10 to spend on whatever they wanted. Landon didn't want anything. He just wanted to keep the money and asked if we could leave to go home. He fell asleep on the car ride home. 

Between school and practice this girl is very busy. She took herself a little cat nap on the way to practice one night. 

Landon and I went over to McKinley's house to play a game that we have been working on for a while. Well, Taylor had some errands to run so it ended up being 3 guys and a baby. We played a couple of rounds in between keeping Nora entertained. 

One day while I was off Jennifer and I had a lunch date. We ate Walt's Waffles (nutella, strawberries, and bananas) and watched While You Were Sleeping. Jennifer and Brinley had these at Disney World hence the name that I gave them Walt's Waffles. Also While You Were Sleeping is one of Jennifer's favorite movies. 

Brinley's team had a tournament in Bowling Green and they won! Pretty impressed with how she has developed into a great young ball player. They have been making her sit the bench on occasion and I think it is a huge mistake. In my opinion I believe that she is the best defender on her team. She still needs to improve and cut down on a few little errors that she has on occasion, but she is a good little ball player. 

Landon was asked by the music teacher to try out for the school play. He said he didn't want to but I talked him into it. I was really surprised because he had to sing in auditions. I had never personally heard him sing before. He went to auditions and was given the part of Prince Abdullah. This was a very small part and only two words for him to say. He was really upset because he thought that he did well in auditions. Then when practice for the play started multiple kids started dropping out. After a few weeks he had become the Sultan - Jasmine's father. After about three weeks of practice it was finally time for the play. We went and watched him both nights and he did a wonderful job. I actually couldn't believe it was my son up in front of people talking and singing and even dancing a little. Really proud of him and even though he didn't get what he wanted that he didn't just quit like a bunch of his friends. 

Grandma was in town to watch Landon's play and the kids play some sports. She had just had a birthday so we celebrated with a cake and ice cream. 

Nora's first softball game. She even wore a jersey to support her big cousin Brinley!

Landon made the best decision of his life by deciding to follow Jesus. He confessed his faith in God to his mother and I and told us that he was ready to be baptized. Church said that anyone who had been baptized themselves was eligible to baptize someone. Landon asked if I could be the one that did it. It was a huge honor to be the one that actually baptized my son. However, getting up in front of the entire church and the lights shined on me I got extremely nervous and forgot some of the things that I was going to say. I am extremely proud of Landon and so glad that I will get to spend all of eternity with him.