vacation journal, page two

We are spending a lot of time catching up with the family here in Arkansas. On Friday morning, after breakfast at Hardee's, we drove over to the Good Faith Cemetery, a private family cemetery where Cindy's dad, Joel Layton Baggett, Jr., is buried. Many other family members are laid to rest here also, so we visited the graves and talked about family history. Cindy's grandmother's mother (Josie), brother (Uncle Jesse "Bo" Franks) and sister (Josephine Stahl) are also buried here. His wife, Deloris, and Aunt Robbie joined us to pay our respects. With temps approaching 102 degrees today, we will be staying inside as much as possible.

vacation journal, page one

We left for a hot summer vacation to Arkansas on Wednesday. We thought it was hot in "Hotlanta" but the temps in Pine Bluff are going to be 102 today thro Sunday! We will be staying inside with the AC as much as possible. My mom and dad decided to join us as they needed a vacation too! So mom traveled in the van with Cindy and Winnie, and dad traveled in the car with me. Cindy's brother, Carl and his wife Sharon drove up from Texas to vacation with us. Yesterday, we all visited the Mike Huckabee Nature Center.

signs along the journey

Cute sign at the Terrell's lake home in Florida.

signs along the journey

All these years I have been traveling back and forth from Cowpens and I never noticed this auto/truck plaza at the SC 221 exit. We were looking for peaches and I just had to take this picture of HOMER'S AUTO/TRUCK PLAZA.

signs along the journey

We have been traveling the roads quite often this summer, so I thought I would post some of the "signs along the journey" from our trips. The first one is a sign for "Hard to Find Dr" which is a side road just off of "Old Toxaway Rd" - the road which leads up to the top of the mountain where the entrance to the Wilds Christian Camp is located. (Another road in the same area was called "Lost Panther Ln". )

family photo Sunday

We enjoyed spending the week with Brielle this July. Our son brought his youth group down to this Christian camp in NC for the week. They did not have room to bring Layton too, maybe next time :) This picture was taken when we took her back to the Wilds to go back home with Josh and Janelle on Saturday morning.

Click to view more photos of Brielle

for a rainy day

My employer recently made me aware of this link - we are a major paper distributor and a lot of our paper comes from Wisconsin. So if you are having a rainy day or the weather too hot like here in HOTLANTA to go outside, check out the link below and "learn" something while having fun!

Did you know that Wisconsin is the #1 papermaking state in the U.S.? This is just one fascinating fact about this important industry

. Click to view this link to Paper in Wisconsin Fun Facts

early Christmas

Thank you, Thank you! To our good friend Paula! (from Jax). She had the opportunity to bid on three or four bears after the Quick Saw conpetition on Saturday, but she ended up winning the bid for this eagle instead - for our early Christmas present. It was amazing to watch these guys carve bears, dogs, eagles, alligators, even a hummingbird from a tree stump using a chain saw (and in just one hour). I posted more pics on facebook.

family photo Sunday

Cindy enjoyed a visit with Brother John Economidis and his wife Sophie this past week in Chattanooga. They were on staff at Tennessee Temple during our four years of college.

Video - Ed Thomas ESPY Tribute

This video is worth watching if you missed the ESPY awards, Coach Ed Thomas received the Arthur Ashe Award 2010

His family is presented the award by Brett Favre in the video below

Slideshow - 4th of July in Snellville

Slideshow - Mighty Moo Parade photos

family photo Sunday

Brielle with her uncle Carl at the Yellow River Game Ranch

bird watching

We enjoyed watching the birds take turns feeding their "babies" the last few weeks. The nest is in the dogwood tree just at the end of our front porch. The baby birds flew away this week. Hope the stray cat does not get them!

things that make you go 'Hmmm'

From the category of Things that make you go "hmmm" - seems to be more and more of this type of "news" lately....

• The Transportation Security Administration announced it's employees would be blocked from viewing any controversial website, etc. CLICK to read more

• The Federal Government is suing the state of Arizona for passing a law to enforce a federal law! Click to read more

• Forty percent (40 %) of evangelical leaders say they "socially drink alcohol." Can this be accurate? Makes me wonder who they really polled for this one. Click to read more

Slideshow - Day Trips to Tallulah Falls and Dillard, GA

Cindy, Winnie, and Paula visited Tallulah Falls Gorge one day and then went looking for bears in Dillard, GA the next day. Both places are less than two hours from our home. I have added the photo slide show to my family & photos sidebar - or CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW

a little humor helps...

family photo Sunday

Memories are made of this.... we ended our summer vacation with a photoshoot on the Atlantic Beach (at Fort Clinch)

Slideshow - July Family Birthdays