First, I am sorry I have not written anything to you over the last few weeks. It has been a strange and crazy last month. I'll try to be more prompt with my letters in the future.
North Carolina!
As I had told you we were going to North Carolina for Father's Day to visit you.
The drive up was ok, we left around 9pm on Thursday night and drove through the night with Jackie and me swapping off as needed. The kids slept for most of it which was the plan. This allowed us to cover more ground. We stopped in the morning and had breakfast at a Waffle House I believe outside of Savannah. It was a good breakfast the kids weren't into it. After eating we were off to finish our journey. We arrived in Cherokee around 1030am and then had fun driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a stretch while we looked for the camp ground. We eventually found it a little before noon.
The campground was nice. It was deep in the mountains and there was no cell service for at least 10 miles. Which made the week all the more fun without cellphones! The sites were ok, however they had gravel on all the campgrounds which made for rough sleeping. Next year we will have air mattresses! The stream we were next was nice, it was fairly small but gave the grounds a nice ambiance. It is so peaceful hearing nothing but the sound of a mountain stream.
Jackie and I got our tents ready while we waited for everyone else to arrive. Laura was the first to arrive, then Steve, and finally Miriam. I met Miriam out in Cherokee and we went straight to a grocery store and bought some ice, meats, and other supplies for cooking dinner that night and breakfast the next morning.
Dinner that night was awesome. Laura had gotten the fire going and Steve set out to cook us up some really good hamburgers. By the way, hamburgers should only ever be cooked over an open flame.. omg! were they good. Once we were done we all slowly went to our tents. We all called it an early night as we were all exhausted from traveling all day. Plus, we all wanted to get plenty of sleep as Saturday was going to be a bust day.
I'll let you know about Saturday in a bit... Need to get back to work!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
North Carolina
It is time to tell you about the trip!
As you know we spread your ashes as you wished within Smokey Mountain National Park just outside Cherokee, NC. After doing so Jackie and myself made a commitment to visit every Father's Day. Everyone else said they would like to do it as well.
Well, Father's Day is next weekend and the plans are pretty much in place and finalized.
Jackie, myself, and our kids should be arriving in Cherokee on Friday, June 19th as well as Miriam, Bridget, and your brother Steve. I am not sure when Laura, Todd, and Gavin will be arriving.
We are doing things a bit different this year compared to last year.
This year we have reserved two campsites at Indian Creek Campground outside of Cherokee up in the mountains. The sites are alongside a creek and should provide us with a wonderful experience and chance to get close to nature.
While there we will be teaching the kids how to fish, hiking to waterfalls, maybe some rafting, checking out Unto these Hills. It is going to be so much fun for all of us.
So, we will see you next weekend!
Talk to you later.
As you know we spread your ashes as you wished within Smokey Mountain National Park just outside Cherokee, NC. After doing so Jackie and myself made a commitment to visit every Father's Day. Everyone else said they would like to do it as well.
Well, Father's Day is next weekend and the plans are pretty much in place and finalized.
Jackie, myself, and our kids should be arriving in Cherokee on Friday, June 19th as well as Miriam, Bridget, and your brother Steve. I am not sure when Laura, Todd, and Gavin will be arriving.
We are doing things a bit different this year compared to last year.
This year we have reserved two campsites at Indian Creek Campground outside of Cherokee up in the mountains. The sites are alongside a creek and should provide us with a wonderful experience and chance to get close to nature.
While there we will be teaching the kids how to fish, hiking to waterfalls, maybe some rafting, checking out Unto these Hills. It is going to be so much fun for all of us.
So, we will see you next weekend!
Talk to you later.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Emily strikes again!
Hey Pops,
Got another Emily update for you! Fresh off her resounding showing in passing third grade and the FCAT she walked home yesterday with some hardware. Yes, Emily the one who is weak in reading came home with a medal and certificate for meeting the Broward School Reading program goals. She earned for reading 55+ books over the school year. It is so nice to see her getting rewarded for all the effort she has put in to catch up to her grade level in everything.
I hope she continues over the summer. We are putting together acadenic plans for both Emily and Andrew for over the summer. So, hopefully we can get them to continue learning while away from school.
Talk to you again soon.
Got another Emily update for you! Fresh off her resounding showing in passing third grade and the FCAT she walked home yesterday with some hardware. Yes, Emily the one who is weak in reading came home with a medal and certificate for meeting the Broward School Reading program goals. She earned for reading 55+ books over the school year. It is so nice to see her getting rewarded for all the effort she has put in to catch up to her grade level in everything.
I hope she continues over the summer. We are putting together acadenic plans for both Emily and Andrew for over the summer. So, hopefully we can get them to continue learning while away from school.
Talk to you again soon.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Christopher Graduates! Huh?
You have to be thinking... I have not been dead that long! Christopher is graduating already???
Well, see they do this funny thing now in celebrating when a child moves on from Preschool to Kindergarten. Well, you guessed it he starts Kindergarten next year! So this past Tuesday he had his Preschool graduation. He seemed to really enjoy it so that is cool.
But, yes my youngest will be starting school in August. *sigh* The time flies way to fast!
Well, I will check in later... I hope your having fun wherever you are!
P.S. Diablo 3 out soon... You going to play it with Andrew?
Well, see they do this funny thing now in celebrating when a child moves on from Preschool to Kindergarten. Well, you guessed it he starts Kindergarten next year! So this past Tuesday he had his Preschool graduation. He seemed to really enjoy it so that is cool.
But, yes my youngest will be starting school in August. *sigh* The time flies way to fast!
Well, I will check in later... I hope your having fun wherever you are!
P.S. Diablo 3 out soon... You going to play it with Andrew?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Emily and Andrew Pass!
It has been a busy week around here!
But, after beginning on a bit of a sour note for Emily. It has ended on an extremely positive note!
We got word this afternoon that both Emily and Andrew have passed the Florida FCAT. You are required to pass this test in order to advance from 3rd grade to 4th grade.
For Emily, it was her second time taking this test as she had to repeat the 3rd grade after failing it last year. But, she did it! She passed the FCAT!!!
For Andrew, it was his first time taking it and he managed a 3 out of a possible 5. While it is average it shows his abilities. He did not pay attention all year, played around in class, and slacked doing homework. Wow, sounds like me huh? Hopefully I will be able to get him to focus more and have him understand the improtance of a good education.
I'll talk to you later! Hope your having fun!
But, after beginning on a bit of a sour note for Emily. It has ended on an extremely positive note!
We got word this afternoon that both Emily and Andrew have passed the Florida FCAT. You are required to pass this test in order to advance from 3rd grade to 4th grade.
For Emily, it was her second time taking this test as she had to repeat the 3rd grade after failing it last year. But, she did it! She passed the FCAT!!!
For Andrew, it was his first time taking it and he managed a 3 out of a possible 5. While it is average it shows his abilities. He did not pay attention all year, played around in class, and slacked doing homework. Wow, sounds like me huh? Hopefully I will be able to get him to focus more and have him understand the improtance of a good education.
I'll talk to you later! Hope your having fun!
Emily Update!
Hey Pops,
I just wanted to give you an update on your grand daughter. She is doing good however things have been a bit rocky. Last month the school psychologist diagnosed her with ADHD. Over the last month she has had a couple doctor visits and we have had a couple meeting with the school.
The school is going to be giving her additional 1 on 1 support educationally to help her succeed.
The doctor visits have us going down another road. The doctor believes she may be suffering from Absence Seizures. He has referred us to a pediatric neurologists and we have an appointment with them next month when we get back from North Carolina(I'll tell you about the trip in time). We will go from there in regards to everything. But, the doctor think it might explain the ADHD(which he says is just ADD).
I will keep you updated.
Love,
Robert
I just wanted to give you an update on your grand daughter. She is doing good however things have been a bit rocky. Last month the school psychologist diagnosed her with ADHD. Over the last month she has had a couple doctor visits and we have had a couple meeting with the school.
The school is going to be giving her additional 1 on 1 support educationally to help her succeed.
The doctor visits have us going down another road. The doctor believes she may be suffering from Absence Seizures. He has referred us to a pediatric neurologists and we have an appointment with them next month when we get back from North Carolina(I'll tell you about the trip in time). We will go from there in regards to everything. But, the doctor think it might explain the ADHD(which he says is just ADD).
I will keep you updated.
Love,
Robert
Once in a lifetime evening
Dear Pops,
As we go through our lives we have moments that stay with you forever. Tonight, I had one of those moments with Andrew.
Tonight Andrew and me went to see the Florida Marlins play. This is our first father/son baseball game so I was already expecting it to be special. However, with a rain out Monday night the night turned into a double header so it was made a little bit more special. Now, originally I was going to have us leave around 5th inning of the second game... However, some one intervened and changed the night forever.
Here is what happened...
We arrived at the stadium about 7pm, the first game was in the 5th inning. We made our way to the seats in section 127 (lower level, if you did not know). This is an excellent spot for catching home run balls so Andrew and myself were excited we might get one. Once we got to our seats it was obvious no one was going to the game. The entire section was basically empty. The first few rows had people in it and then people were scattered. We were in the 22nd row so we found our seats and sat there. The feeling of emptiness reminded me a lot when you used to take us to baseball games.
We watched the rest of the first game and the Marlins win. We then grabbed a couple hot dogs and drinks between games (Thanks Todd!) while we waited the 25 minutes for the second game to start. Everything is going good Andrew is getting into it and I started scoping the lower rows to see where we can move up for a better shot at a ball. Around the 3rd inning I figured we would move when it ended.
However... Fate had something else in store.
As we are sitting there cheering on the Marlins someone walks over. They asked me I want their tickets, they said they are leaving and they are mine if I want them... He goes on to say they are Batter's Box tickets(I had no clue what this meant). I said sure and he gave me the tickets... As we are getting up to leave I look at the tickets to see where to go, the section reads 46... Yeah, try to find that section on the diagram of the stadium. It will be hard since it does not exist for the most part... I figure find section 146 and go down a level. We get there and I can't find anything that says Section 46 or Batter's Box. So, I ask an attendant where to go. Well.... from that point forward we have a personal escort as we are taken through the underneath of the stadium, and to a small restaurant where our tickets are checked for a 3rd time. Someone then leads us through the restaurant and when we appear.... We are staring at the back of the home plate umpire no more then 20 feet in front of us!!! We then get escorted directly to our seats...
At this point Andrew and me are just amazed, we are sitting on the field behind home plate... You know the netting behind home plate to stop foul balls? Well, we could literally grab and hold on to that net. We were maybe 15 feet from the Marlins dugout... To top it off I recognized the person sitting between us and the dugout.... It was none other then David Samson the Marlins team president! He was there with a couple other higher level members of the Marlins.
At this point we are have such a good time... But, it gets better!
Andrew really wanted a baseball and was getting upset because we were basically to close to get a foul ball. Well, one of the people with David Samson solved that issue. He went over to the bat boy and got a baseball just for Andrew and gave it to him. Andrew never asked him and sat patiently hoping we would get one. The guy took it upon himself to get one and give it to Andrew.
You are probably saying this can not get any better right? Well... The game lasted 13 innings! So we sat there for 4 hours cheering on the Marlins alongside the team president until almost 2am... Andrew cheered right along the whole time having a blast.
I didn't say anything to David Samson during the game because he is there to watch the game and not have people come up to him... But, once the game ended he came over and started talking to Andrew and me about how impressed he was Andrew stayed up and how this day would go down in our lives as one we will never forget and the memories will be worth a lifetime.
And he is right... I do not think Andrew or myself with ever forget this evening.
Oh yeah.... I forgot... We couldn't leave right away because we had to wait for the players to leave the dugout and go to the locker room... Which is right across from the restaurant we had to go through to get to our seats.... And yes we were escorted all the way back out!
Very tired.... But happy... talk to you later!
As we go through our lives we have moments that stay with you forever. Tonight, I had one of those moments with Andrew.
Tonight Andrew and me went to see the Florida Marlins play. This is our first father/son baseball game so I was already expecting it to be special. However, with a rain out Monday night the night turned into a double header so it was made a little bit more special. Now, originally I was going to have us leave around 5th inning of the second game... However, some one intervened and changed the night forever.
Here is what happened...
We arrived at the stadium about 7pm, the first game was in the 5th inning. We made our way to the seats in section 127 (lower level, if you did not know). This is an excellent spot for catching home run balls so Andrew and myself were excited we might get one. Once we got to our seats it was obvious no one was going to the game. The entire section was basically empty. The first few rows had people in it and then people were scattered. We were in the 22nd row so we found our seats and sat there. The feeling of emptiness reminded me a lot when you used to take us to baseball games.
We watched the rest of the first game and the Marlins win. We then grabbed a couple hot dogs and drinks between games (Thanks Todd!) while we waited the 25 minutes for the second game to start. Everything is going good Andrew is getting into it and I started scoping the lower rows to see where we can move up for a better shot at a ball. Around the 3rd inning I figured we would move when it ended.
However... Fate had something else in store.
As we are sitting there cheering on the Marlins someone walks over. They asked me I want their tickets, they said they are leaving and they are mine if I want them... He goes on to say they are Batter's Box tickets(I had no clue what this meant). I said sure and he gave me the tickets... As we are getting up to leave I look at the tickets to see where to go, the section reads 46... Yeah, try to find that section on the diagram of the stadium. It will be hard since it does not exist for the most part... I figure find section 146 and go down a level. We get there and I can't find anything that says Section 46 or Batter's Box. So, I ask an attendant where to go. Well.... from that point forward we have a personal escort as we are taken through the underneath of the stadium, and to a small restaurant where our tickets are checked for a 3rd time. Someone then leads us through the restaurant and when we appear.... We are staring at the back of the home plate umpire no more then 20 feet in front of us!!! We then get escorted directly to our seats...
At this point Andrew and me are just amazed, we are sitting on the field behind home plate... You know the netting behind home plate to stop foul balls? Well, we could literally grab and hold on to that net. We were maybe 15 feet from the Marlins dugout... To top it off I recognized the person sitting between us and the dugout.... It was none other then David Samson the Marlins team president! He was there with a couple other higher level members of the Marlins.
At this point we are have such a good time... But, it gets better!
Andrew really wanted a baseball and was getting upset because we were basically to close to get a foul ball. Well, one of the people with David Samson solved that issue. He went over to the bat boy and got a baseball just for Andrew and gave it to him. Andrew never asked him and sat patiently hoping we would get one. The guy took it upon himself to get one and give it to Andrew.
You are probably saying this can not get any better right? Well... The game lasted 13 innings! So we sat there for 4 hours cheering on the Marlins alongside the team president until almost 2am... Andrew cheered right along the whole time having a blast.
I didn't say anything to David Samson during the game because he is there to watch the game and not have people come up to him... But, once the game ended he came over and started talking to Andrew and me about how impressed he was Andrew stayed up and how this day would go down in our lives as one we will never forget and the memories will be worth a lifetime.
And he is right... I do not think Andrew or myself with ever forget this evening.
Oh yeah.... I forgot... We couldn't leave right away because we had to wait for the players to leave the dugout and go to the locker room... Which is right across from the restaurant we had to go through to get to our seats.... And yes we were escorted all the way back out!
Very tired.... But happy... talk to you later!
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