Mom,Dad & Sister visit.
this year as it has been in the past few years. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and son came for a visit. Saturday while I was at work Christie & my mother-in-law cleaned up house. My parents got her around 1 pm on Sunday had a great visit. I wish that we could have more visits like that. No bickering or disagreeing just good ole story telling. Christie cooked ribs on the grill along with some of her famous corn on the cob & potato salad. All in all it was a great day. Here are some of the pics from the visit.
Dawson’s first time at the Rodeo.
Today was Dawson’s first time being in the rodeo. West Georgia Jr Rodeo in Franklin, Ga was where the event was held. I was nervous for him but he was nervous as well. Dawson only did one event which was shoot dogging. I was proud of him either way. I’m looking forward to future rodeos with Dawson, because I know that he will only get better.
Another weekend in Alabama
After a great day at Six Flags Yesterday.
We headed to Alabama for the Hyatt family reunion at the cabin in Heflin. When we first got there the kids headed straight down to the dock.
Tyler and I rode the 4 Wheelers on most of the trails on the property. We ate and went and rode the 4 wheelers again this time with Dawson after the ride with Dawson, Tyler & I took Jessica & Aubree-Anna on the trails. All in all another great day.
St. Baldrick’s 2011
Here is the video from St. Baldrick’s last year. Wanna see it in person check it out March 10 at Meehan’s Public House in Sandy Springs.
Map of Event.
Donate, Donate, Donate,
Here is Tyler, Sully, & Jon from St Baldrick’s last year. This year we are adding atleast 2 more people for this picture. Every little bit helps. So head on over to my St. Baldrick’s site and donate 1,2,10 dollars or what every spare change you have.
I’m Going Bald this year.
Make A Donation or Go Bald.
Meehan’s Public House
March 10, 2012
Start Time:12:30 pm
Address:227 Sandy Springs Place NE # 416
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa’s
I guess it goes to say that the visit was long overdue. We decided to go to North Augusta to visit my parents the day after Christmas. My sister was there and this was the first time that we have all been together in 4 or 5 years. All in all we had a great visit. Needless to say I really wasn’t sure how the visit was going to go. I hope that we have more visits like this in the future.
Thanksgiving Vacation
We don’t usually have your traditional Thanksgiving, my family has been doing Sugar Cane Grinds for decades at least 200 years. we went down to Brunswick on Wednesday I took Christie and the kids over to St. Simons Island, where we walked on the beach and enjoyed the view. We stayed on SSI for a good hour and then headed over the Sidney Lanier Bridge showing the kids the ocean and Brunswick. After giving them the tour we headed back to the hotel where the kids went swimming and we waited for the rest of my family to show up.
Around 6pm we got ready to go over to The Millhouse SteakHouse and have dinner with family a total of 19 people coming into have dinner was a riot. After dinner we headed over to The Strike Zone for our Annual Thanksgiving Eve Bowling Tournament. We end up usually closing the place down. If you don’t make it into town by dinner time you can always go to the bowling alley and meet up there. It’s always a competition on who is going to win between Noel and myself. 
This year we had a guest at the bowling alley that is part of the family but yet we had never met. Rick Wainright came down from S.C. and spent the weekend with us. It was great learning and hearing about family.
On Thursday morning we were told that the Cane Grind was going to start about 7:30am we got up and headed to Brantley County. Dawson, Tyler, & myself went straight to work as soon as we go there. We started feeding the mill with sugar cane and I was giving the history on when my dad was a kid and how they used a mule or horse to turn the sweep and didn’t use a tractor like we use today. 
Feeding the mill was a great time for me seeing the boys feeding the mill brought back memories of when I was a kid and it was great to share that history with them. Once we were done with getting the juice out of the cane we started to cook the juice to make syrup which takes about 4-5 hours. While we waited we went down to Knox Cemetery to go and visit my family that has passed away, This is the first time that I have been to the cemetery with the kids, I also enjoyed explaining the history of their relatives. When we got done visiting the cemetery Aubree-Anna wanted to drive back to the cane grind so she did. 
After we got back we had dinner and the syrup was just about done so getting the kids inside wasn’t a problem it was the wait. After getting the candy I learned that the kids were not to fond of the candy which I guess was good because that meant more for me. In all Thanksgiving day was great for me I love being able to share my family history with my family. After the syrup was done and bottled that’s when we sat around and told old stories about past cane grinds. I could sit all day and listen to that stuff.
We then headed back to Brunswick and went with my parents and Rick to have dinner at Denny’s 
and little to our surprise we were going to be right in the middle of “Occupy Denny’s” for some unknown reason they had someone that had been at the restaurant for the past 24 hours and enjoying the corner for resting up and sleeping. The part that I don’t understand is that when we asked the manager her reply was ” I’m not sure what to do” . So I’m paying $80 a night I have no WiFi in my room why don’t I just bring the family to Denny’s and get free room & board plus WiFi. Other than that we enjoyed our time talking and having a good time once again with family.
On Friday morning I learned that 5 comes twice in a day as Fred, Noel, & Robert Todd had invited Dawson, Tyler, and myself to go hunting with them. We met up at the Waffle house as any good hunter should do ate and headed out to the Hunting Club. I’ve never been hunting a day in my life so I wasn’t really sure what I was suppose to do, but I learned real quick. After getting everything set and finally getting the dogs out we got into place after about 2 hours of waiting for the dogs we got word that it was time to go so Robert & I moved to another location and Noel & Tyler were to our left and the dogs were going crazy about that time it sounded like WW3 Tyler & Noel had started shooting and they got the deer not just a deer an 8 point buck. 
Tyler I think was in shock because he didn’t believe what had just happened. We stayed out there all day and I had such a great time hunting although I didn’t get to shoot anything just being out there was the greatest. I’m already to go back to go hunting again.
All in all the past four days were very enjoyable. I love being able to spend time with family & friends with not a care in the world.
Happy Birthday Dawson!
12 years ago today my son Dawson came into the world. Happy Birthday Son, I Love You.
….And the Cane Grind Goes On
I’ve just got word on the good news for Thanksgiving this year. The tradition is still going thanks to Cecil who has said that we will have one boiling this year. The tradition has been going on for what I’ve been told over 200 years. It’s not your normal Thanksgiving but it is how we know Thanksgiving. This year Christie & I will have Dawson, Tyler, & Aubree-Anna with us for their first time ever seeing anything like this. I’m glad that I get to pass this onto another generation.
The cane juice is cooking
Feeding the mill with sugar cane
Christie is double dipping
Weekend away.
It never seems to fail us but for some reason we just don’t like to sit at home on the weekends. We work our 40+ hours a week and you would think that by Friday afternoon we would just want to sit and relax. Well that is very uncommon for us. This weekend we have headed off to Alabama to spend the weekend at the cabin and have a little birthday party for my mother in law who turned 29 again. So we packed up the kids and headed west. The kids enjoy coming to the cabin because they always seem to find the fishing or just going out on the boat. We always have a good laugh or two while we are out here. The best part for me is enjoying time with our family. I really enjoy weekends away like this.
