Greg's Penn State Profile! September 29, 2011

Greg was selected as a super-cool alumni to profile on Penn State's World Campus blog.  You may recognize this photo from December 12, 2009, but you'll see it again on the Penn State World Campus blog.

Hersheypark- September 24, 2011

For Sarah's birthday, instead of a party, we went to Hersheypark with the Marusaks for a day of fun.  We figured we would stay as long as Daniel could handle it, and that ended up being a solid 12 hours!  The park opened at 10:00 AM, and we closed the park down at 10:00 PM.  It was a fabulous day of fun!

Emily was a Jolly Rancher 

Sarah was a Jolly Rancher, but somewhere someone (perhaps Sarah herself) decided she was not a Jolly Rancher, but  a Twizzler.  This seems to indicate she is a Jolly Rancher, however.

Daniel was a Hershey Kiss.  Yum.

Daniel said, "No, thank you" to riding on a horse.

Daniel & Puppy

Sarah, Aunt Debbie, Emily & TJ

Daniel's first roller coaster!

The whole gang!  Scott, Kristen, Daniel, Greg, Sarah, Debbie, TJ, Emily & Julia

Aunt Debbie & Daniel

Julia & Emily

Scott & Kristen

Daniel & Aunt Debbie

I will take any opportunity to embarrass my beloved nephew TJ!

Debbie & Kristen

TJ & Sarah

College GameDay- September 23, 2011

Daniel's favorite thing to watch . . . ESPN's College GameDay from October 9, 2010 in Columbia, SC.  He watches it almost every day.    

Walking Home- September 22, 2011

Sarah, Daniel & Emily walking home from school

Navy vs. USC- September 17, 2011

I headed down for a quick 48 hour trip to go see the Gamecocks play Navy with Dad, Bernadette, Jeff & Kathe. While I took the awesome easy cheese picture and the cell phone picture, the rest are from Dad. Thankfully, his camera was not "professional-looking" enough to keep them from letting us in this time.

During our walk-about before the game, I was tickled to see Mrs. Preston (her daughter is a cheerleader for the Gamecocks) and Tommy Fechhelm and his son Ian. We even managed to see the team coming off of the buses, which I have never seen before. We were right in front of the Defense bus, and I am telling you it is hard to tell who's who without the uniform!

Of course, the Gamecocks were victorious, as they always are when I am present. It was touch and go for a bit, but I knew my team would pull through. Go Gamecocks!

After careful list-making and packing for our shrimp & grits tail-gate festivites, it was noted that the cheese was left behind.  Jeff and I were sent on a mission to find cheese.  FYI . . . Subway will not sell you just cheese.  After two gas station searches, we came back with Easy Cheese, and it worked just fine.

Before the game, Kathe, Jeff and I hung out by Dad and Bernadette's seats.  Everyone was on their phone, so I whipped out Pete to take a picture of them!  By the time I took out my phone, Jeff was done doing whatever he was doing, but I made him pretend.

Richard (a.k.a. Bubba) was at the game with Howard.  Dad snapped this photo while I was talking to him on the cell phone.  Howard is waving while Richard is standing next to him on the phone.

Jeff, Kathe and I were sitting further up around the 40 yard line.  While you may have heard rumors that I knocked the little boy next to me down, I can not confirm or deny the said rumor.  I don't think I did, but I can't be sure.  He was as excited as I was, so it could go either way.  He was fine, by the way.  You can't see the boy in the photo, just his dad.

Go Gamecocks!

Run, Latti, run!

We had lots of fireworks during the night.

It's no secret that I am Stephen Garcia's #3 fan, after Mr. & Mrs. Garcia, of course.  I like to think Dad took this picture just for me, as he does not share the Garcia love.

Go Gamecocks! September 10, 2011

Penn State was on the big TV, so Daniel and I were sent to the sun porch to cheer for our Gamecocks on the Bowden Bowl Bash TV.  Go Gamecocks!

Crabs- September 4, 2011

We decided to have crabs at the house since we didn't think Daniel would hold up for the length of time it takes to pick crabs (about three hours this particular evening).  Since some people were having shrimp & grits, the girls decided to decorate the paper with a North & South theme.  The crabs and crab-eaters were on the North side, and the shrimp and shrimp-eaters were on the South side.  Now, please spare me the Mason-Dixon line speech.  Virginia is the buffer, people.  This is the North.  Note that I had placed plates on the North side.  These were discarded quickly.

The North side of the table

The South side of the table

Daniel sat on the North side, but he had chicken

We had three dozen crabs, so we had plenty of leftovers for Debbie's delicious crab dip

Emily started on the South side, but moved over to the North side after her shrimp & grits

Chess- September 4, 2011

Zoo fun with Granny Gayle & Grandpa Charles- September 3, 2011

Emily, Sarah, Granny Gayle & Grandpa Charles on the tram

Grandpa Charles, Granny Gayle, Greg, Emily & Sarah look at a yellow and black striped snake

Emily & Daniel on a turtle

Sarah, Emily, Daniel, Greg & Grandpa Charles enjoy the animals

Everyone enjoys the play area

Sarah & Emily were happy to get in the turtle shells for a cute picture, but Daniel was not!

After the turtle picture, the girls were ready to be all done with the pictures!  Daniel was much happier with this one.

The petting zoo had lots of goats

Everyone needed a little rest because it was pretty warm outside.  This was Greg, Sarah & Daniel's second zoo trip.  The last time they went, they had to close down because of the heat!  Thankfully, it was not that hot during our visit.

Emily rides a camel, waving to her subjects

Sarah enjoys the camel ride

School Starts, Finally! August 31, 2011

Getting ready to walk up the hill . . . 

Hurricane Irene knocked out power to many of the city's schools, including ours.  School was cancelled Monday, and then Tuesday.  Sometime Tuesday power was restored to the school (many schools were not so lucky), so we were all set for a Wednesday start.  We had friends on the other side of the neighborhood who didn't get power back until Thursday night!  We were never without power, thankfully.  

Dance Trophies- August 29, 2011

Thank you for sending the girls their trophies, Planet Dance!