Caleb - Class of 2016

It's hard to believe, but we now have our third high school graduate in the family.  Caleb opted out of a ceremony, but Central Baptist in Bearden (where Caleb has been attending for a while), has a big celebration each year for their graduates.  This was the closest he got to a ceremony.  He borrowed his sister's cap and gown, so the sleeves were a bit small.

I have not been that sad about this milestone as in many ways Caleb has seemed independent for a long time.  But I teared up as he was walking in.  He's still my little boy.

I'm very proud of Caleb.  He's got more initiative in his little finger than most have in their whole body.  And whether it's hiking the AT, painting artwork for his room, designing furniture, cooking on the grill or whatever, he's ALL IN.  

Caleb will be finishing up his associate's degree at Pellissippi State Community college and then headed to UT to study Business Analytics.  He could have started out at UT, but he made a wise money decision to let the state of Tennesssee pay instead of us - I call it "taking one for the team" as it won't be long before we have three boys in college.  

Camping & Flat Tires 2016

It's so hard to fit a camping trip in these days with everybody's differing schedules, but there was a week in May that worked for 5 of 6 of us, so we went for it.  Terry, Rebecca and I were the "advance party," and Noah and Nathan were going to be joining us later when Nathan finished his last final exam.

There are so many places that I would like to camp, but when we can often only fit in one trip per year, it has to be to Little Oak Campground on South Holston Lake.  When we lived in Johnson City, it took us about an hour and a half to get there.  Now that we live in Knoxville, it takes 2.5 hours.

This time it took FOREVER.  We had a flat on the interstate when we were barely out of town.  Not just any flat but a flat that damaged the boat trailer.  We almost turned back and cancelled the whole trip.  Fortunately, we found an underpass with some shade and a sharing redneck with every tool imagineable right on his front porch, so Terry got us fixed up.

While Rebecca and I drove the trailer to the campsite, barely making it there before the gate closed for the night, Terry was launching the boat in the dark by himself.  He ended up falling in the water at the ramp and soaking his phone.  Fortunately, he wasn't hurt but he was much later arriving, and he had no way to reach us.    Rebecca and I managed to park and pop-up the trailer by ourselves using our iphones as flashlights.  We finally got to bed around midnight.   

The rest of our trip was much more restful.  The water was brisk, but we skiied anyway.  

We had several Tri-Cities friends that came out during the week to hang out with us during the day:

 Night time was for camp fire food (such as these campfire cones which were delicious):

And playing games:

And keeping up with tradition (see end of this post), we had another flat tire on the way home.

  

Smoky Mountain Air Show

On a sunny Saturday in April, we went to the air show at McGhee-Tyson Field.  I was the only one in the family who had been to an air show before.  The traffic was awful for almost everyone (two-three hour waits to park), but we took a different route (totally by accident), and avoided the worst of it.

My favorite performance was the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team.

We were really sad when one of the Blue Angel pilots we saw at the show crashed just a month later. Here is the photo of the Blue Angels over Knoxville.

Noah Finds a Sport!

Noah has never been passionate about any sport - either as a player or a spectator.  Probably his favorite so far has been swimming, but his working as a camp counselor prevented him from swimming on the summer swim team.

Enter Ultimate Frisbee.  The local homeschool team - the Hornets - has traditionally been one of the best in the city.  Noah started playing with them this past fall, and he also played again this spring. He has finally found a sport he can get excited about playing.

These photos aren't the greatest.  Rebecca hasn't purchased a telephoto lens for her new camera yet.
Fortunately, Noah plans to play again next year.  He is number 16.  He is also 16.

Rebecca and Lisa Celebrate

Since Lisa's birthday and Rebecca's birthday are just one month apart, they chose to meet in the middle and celebrate together.  Lisa drove down here and went on a winter hike with Rebecca's FX group:

Then we had some cake by a cozy fire.  I made this wonderful gluten free cake for Lisa last year, so we decided to give it a re-run.

Leftover birthday cake makes a great breakfast, but this one only lasted through one breakfast.

Bridal Show

In February, Rebecca was part of the Bridal and Beyond show, featuring her photography business, Thousand Word Photography.

Here's her booth:

Rebecca did a great job with the event!  Terry and I were very proud of her.  She was the youngest vendor in the show.  One attendee won a $1000 door prize to spend with the vendor of her choice. Rebecca was chosen!

I know I took some more photos of this event, including some of Rebecca outside the venue with the sunsphere in the background, but I can't find them!  So sad.  If I find them, I'll add them to the post later.

Winter Wedding

The O'Bryans have been some of our best friends for years.  This January, Josh O'Bryan got married in Greenville, South Carolina, and we drove down to join the festivities.  It was lots of fun!

Here the bride and groom had to answer questions about each other, holding up shoes to indicate their answers.  It was very entertaining!

Longevity dance - Terry and I have been married 25 years

Line dancing - this one cracks me up!

Laura dances with her grandson

Nathan and his college roommate, Kevin O'Bryan

Photo credits to Rebecca of Thousand Word Photography.