SEWE 2010

We went to the Southeastern Wildlife Expo again this year. Saturday morning we woke up with snow on the ground in Charleston. Luckily the roads were clear. There are tents full of exhibits, artwork and lots of animals.

These stuff bears were huge!

Lions and Tigers and BEARS.. Oh my!

Some people were selling dogs. Jordan loved this soft lab.

Jordan

Jack Hanna spoke in the afternoon. He brought a lot of cool animals with him... owls, hawks, and even a cheetah. Everyone was instructed to stay seated when the cheetah was on the stage unless they would run 70 miles per hour.

Hunter, Chris and Jordan waiting on Jack Hanna to start

Several tents had animals in them. Hunter, Jordan and Chris touched a snake in the reptile tent. I passed. We all touch a baby alligator. It was neat see the animals close up.

Note the snow of the ground

One of my favorite things about SEWE is meeting the artist. Most artist are there. So you can talk to them about their work. I'm trying to teach the boys they can do anything they want. This average looking person created this wonderful artwork. You can do the same if you want.


We meet the illustrator of Mr Gator, Mr Gator's Up the Creek and Mr Gator Hits the Beach. She was a retired English teacher and her friend, Julie McLaughlin, who wrote the books asked her to illustrate them. She was telling us about the process of getting a book published.

Ann Marie McKay and the boys

One of our favorite events at SEWE is Dock Dogs. The dogs retrieve a thing while jumping into the water. Some of the competition the dogs the jump the farthest wins. I feel sorry for the dogs jump in the cold water. (Remember it snowed the night before)

There was a junior handler there with his dog. He was 12 years old. His dog placed 4th in the competition.

The pictures above of from the vertical competition. The dogs competed to see who could jump the highest. The thing was placed at a certain height and the dogs ran and jumped up the grab it and then they splashed into the water.

The world champion dog was there. He, of course, won the competition. Then he tried to break the world record of 8 feet 2 inches. He had set this record so he was trying to break his record. Even though he missed it was fun watching him jump.

Snow in Charleston, SC

We went down to Charleston for the Wildlife Expo. On our way down, it started to snow. But as we got closer to Charleston, it turned to rain. After we ate supper that night in Charleston, it started snowing!!! It snowed about 3 inches and it was the heaviest snowfall in Charleston in 20 years. Sure we missed the 8 inches of snow that Chapin received. But it is pretty cool to have a picture of snow in Charleston.

SNOW

The best part of the snow was that the roads were clear in the morning. And all the snow was basically melted by the afternoon.

Snowball Fight

Second Place Winner in the Science Fair

We are so proud of Hunter. He won second place in Physic in the school wide science fair.

Hunter and his winning project

Second Place Ribbon

Way to go, Hunter!!!

Chris' Old Glasses

Hunter's frames on his glasses broke. He has no backup pair so he was having trouble seeing. Luckily, Chris had saved all his old glasses. Chris and Hunter have close to the same prescription. So Hunter wore his dad's old glasses while his were being fixed. He looked so much like his dad especially with those old 70s glasses.

Hunter 2010

Chris 1983

Circus

Mom and Dad took the boys to the circus Saturday when I was at work.

****Guest Blogger Jordan*****

I had a lot of fun at the circus. The magic words of the night were zig, zang, and zoom. There was a man there called Mr Gravity. He brought everybody down. I mean down to the floor. My favorite performance were the high wires. The high wires were on our side of the auditorium.

Hands

Chris took this picture of Jordan and I. We were asleep holding hands. I just love it!

Jordan and Kim

Jordan's Birthday Party

After the pinewood derby race, Jordan had his birthday party. He wanted a small birthday party and only invited 5 boys. We had 3 boys that were able to come to the party. It was so nice have a small party.
We went to Crooked Creek park in Chapin. After eating cake and snacks, we played Frisbee golf. Crooked Creek has 2 Frisbee Golf courses. Both courses have 18 "holes." There are tees to stand on. (In the above picture, the kids are standing on a tee.) You throw your frisbee from the tee and aim at the basket. In the picture below, Jordan is at a basket.

Jordan at the 4th basket

It was my first time playing frisbee golf. It is a lot of fun!

The boys teeing off

Our family

Jordan opening presents

No party is complete without a crazy picture!!!

Happy Birthday, Jordan!!!

Pinewood Derby Races!

Welcome race fans.

I think the pinewood derby races is one of Hunter and Jordan's favorite parts of cub scouts. Since Hunter is moving to Boy Scouts, this is Hunter's last pinewood derby race.

Hunter and his car

Every year we enjoy looking at everyone's car. To think, they all started out as a block of wood.

The Competition
Hunter's car is the black one with the tiger paw on the first row.
Jordan's car is the blue car on the fifth row.

Below are two very SHORT videos (about 5 seconds each) of the boys racing their cars.

One of Hunter's Derby Races
Hunter is on the right wearing the white cap.


One of Jordan's Derby Race
Jordan is on the left with the blue car.
Both of the boys did a great job creating their cars and racing them. Hunter came in 4th place unofficially in his den. Jordan came in 2nd place in his den.

Jordan getting his 2nd place metal

Happy Birthday, Jordan!!!!

Jordan turned 9! On his birthday, I went to school and ate lunch with him. He wanted me to go to science class with him where we learned about crayfish. We all (including me) got to hold a crayfish and write down observations about them.

Jordan wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. And that is what he got. Like his mom, he loves chocolate!

Hunter's Strings Performance

Hunter's elementary school along with 4 other area elementary schools preformed at a local middle school. The performance was in the gym and it was packed. The 5th grades did an incredible job playing their instruments. The strings teachers did an excellent job teaching all the students how to play their instrument.

Hunter in concert ready position

Hunter's string teacher is in the background of this video. She is the blond wearing black a black dress. She comes in the background about half way through the video. Her identical twin is also in the background. She is wearing purple. At first, Hunter could not tell which one was his teacher. They look exactly alike and even have the same haircut.

In the video below, you can see the full scope of the number of students performing. There must have been 250 kids.




Hunter was lucky enough to have all 4 of his grandparents attend his concert. And his grandparents lucked out that the middle school they performed at was so close to their houses.

Hunter, his grandparents, Jordan and me

Hunter and Grandmom