Ryland's Spring Hockey Championship

The Spiring Hockey Season is over and Ryland's team won the championship.

The boys were pleased with the victory.

Ryland and his friend Griffin.

The Team Photo.

Retro Back to May 2005

I was going through some archived photos and come upon some that I really enjoyed taking during our time in Tucson for Ian's wedding and afterward at Deborah's house in May 2005.

One of owl family living outside Mary's & Jack's bedroom.

Ian got married.. Happy 3rd Anniversary Ian and Noelle.Chris and Kathy are happy at the wedding.

Our final event in Tucson after Ian's wedding was a lunch at the Taqueria Pico de Gallo.

I got some Black & Whites inside the restaurant. Kool place with good light in the afternoon to get B&Ws.

This one of Jessica is one of my favorites..

Back at Deborah's house later in the same week. I got a few that I like of Aiden.

Mary and Jack looking happy together at Deborah's house.


Emma waiting for someone to play with at Deborah's house.

Tsali, NC

TJ and I took a trip to the Tsali Trails in the Smoky Mountains, NC. Our plan was to be there Tuesday, Wednesday, and return home Thursday. There are 4 trails at Tsali. We wanted to bike one on Tuesday when we arrived, two on Wednesday, and the last on Thursday before the ride home.

We arrived a later than we planned. TJ got the tent st up.
Pretty nice camping area. All four trails are right outside the Tsali Campground. Nice setup. Ride right out of camp.
TJ is all set to go. Even got a smile out of him for this picture..
The first trail, Branch Loop, is about 8 miles. Not too much effort overall. Some tricky climbs and steep, narrow, and wet/slippery down hills - it rained before we arrived. We left the main trail and took a side track called Overlook Loop. Took us a few extra miles but worth the effort when we took in the view.
We found out that the first overlook we hit was not the trail namesake. The view overlooks Fontana Lake - a dammed lake on the Nantahala River.

When we arrived back on the Branch Loop Trail, we ended back tracked about 1.5 miles. TJ was very happy to find out we had to ride an uphill part of the trail twice.
We arrived back in camp after 2 hours of riding. The last 2 miles were all single track in the forest in the lower elevations. Very wet and slippery. We each took a few spills and got pretty dirty.
Back at the camp we had a shower and ate a kings meal of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Beans, and Scrambled Eggs.

A little relaxing by the fire and then we hit the sack.

Unfortunately for us, we got some serious rain all night. It kept us awake all night. It really rained heavy most of the night.

Wednesday morning it was still raining - hard at times. We ate some breakfast and waited around the fire to see if the rain would stop. No luck. It just got worse. We checked the weather and the forecast called for rain all day and more on Thursday. We left for home at 11:00am.
We rode Blankets Creek Trail on the way home. It is a about 30 minutes from home. At least we got tow rides in two days. We are going back to Tsali to finish the other three trails.

Lake Weiss, Alabama

We took a few days at Lake Weiss, Alabama over Memorial Day Weekend. We were invited by our friends - Roger and Tammy - to stay at their lake house. We had a great time. The boys played some water sports - including some "Noodling" - kool way to catch some big catfish.

Nice and relaxing for Moms and Dads. Jody and I got a nice boat tour of part of the lake and river. Beautiful lake. Only about 1.5 hours from home.

Enjoy the pictures..

TJ and I went on a short off road bike ride today. We went on an in-town trail along the Chattahoochee. As you can see below, TJ is highly motivated and enthusiastic about the ride.


It didn't take long for him to get into the "groove"...


A little relaxing after the ride... Enjoying the view.

Mother's Day

We didn't have much of a Mother's Day in Atlanta. Jody had to get some work done. She did get to sleep in. That was her favorite part of the day.

TJ, Sam, and I work on some uphill conditioning on our bikes. We took the dogs for a walk and pretty much stayed out of Jody's space for the day.

Late in the afternoon we did some down time on the deck as the steaks were cooking on the grill. I took a couple Black and Whites...


After dinner we squeezed in a little Tennis..

Falling Trees

This week end we cut down a 5 0 to 60 foot tree in the back yard. I was dead and needed to come down before the ants nested in it . They hollow out the trunk and the trees can easily fall in the highs winds that accompany thunder storms. Ryland is standing at the bottom of this stand of Sweet Gums. This is a little perspective on the height of the tree we cut down. Here is a view from the bottom of the trunk looking up. Seems to go to the sky.. I put a ladder on the tree and cut it at 20 feet from the ground and let 40 feet of it fall away from the house. I used a bow saw. I was afraid to use the chain saw 20 feet off the ground on a ladder. No where to go if something goes wrong. What a workout...
Ryland standing proudly at the stump.
Ryland took this one of me standing beside my conquest.
Now I have 60 feet of logs in the back yard to dispose of. This will have to wait for another weekend. I am done with work this week end...