Old photos

Alondra just started college!

 Emily is now in middle school.

And Jorge is a high school football player.

Happy Birthday, Juniper!

Juniper is 8!

My mother showed up to Juniper's first birthday with this 8 candle (don't ask). We stuck the candle in our kitchen drawer, moved it from one house to another, and were delighted to finally use it. (The photo above was from breakfast, not her birthday party with the cake and special candle. Apparently, after holding on to it for 7 years, we failed to record photographic evidence of its use. Typical.)

It is a good thing to have a sister who knows how much you will love a plastic pegasus with purple sparkle wings.

Notice Tiglenda the tiger also enjoying the festivities.

Apparently 8 is not quite big enough to pick up your older cousin, but it's still fun to try.

Happy birthday, Junebug!

River rapids

We celebrated Jorge's 14th birthday with a family white water rafting trip on the Nantahala River.

The younger children and their mothers were in the designated calm boat.

Everyone else was in the "wild" boat. The river guides did a terrific job of customizing each boat's ride to what the people on board requested.

After the first rapids, Juniper proclaimed that she loved it. The second, bigger rapids splashed us with 52 degree water and began the permanent cold foot puddle at the bottom of the raft. Juniper was in tears and proclaiming that she wanted to get off the boat. But a few minutes later, when she was asked which fork of the river to take, she enthusiastically replied, "The longer one!"

The grand finale of the ride was the Class III Nantahala Falls, where all of these pictures were taken. Our guide gave us a heads up and a safety reminder before we approached the falls Juniper was nervous about the possibility of falling out of the boat and said that she was "all scared," definitely not a mix of scared and excited. She started to perk up when she saw a sign that advised: "Danger! Falls ahead. Screaming advised."

Approaching the falls...

Going over!

Even the calm boat got a big splash here. After we were done, Juniper said that she was "all excited, not at all scared!" Once she got over that initial cold water shock, she really loved the rest of the ride and can't wait to do it again.

Mark kept getting in trouble from their guide for paddling too hard. She told him he'd make a great river guide, but that as a passenger, he needed to turn it down to about 25% because he kept turning the boat around.

Nice to see the birthday boy having so much fun...

...and his grandmother too. Let the record state that my mom is an awesome good sport.

Can you tell which member of a party has done this enough to know where to look and how to ham it up for the camera?

Dragon Parade

Labor Day weekend is the annual Dragon*Con parade. Juniper was giddily excited the morning of the parade. She woke up at 5:30 to use the bathroom and hopefully asked me, "Is it time to go to Dragon*Con?" This year, she decided to dress up as a dragon for the parade.



Just an ordinary crosswalk in downtown Atlanta on Labor Day weekend. Juniper loved it.



Hazel, on the other hand, was hot and tired and bored and desperately wanted to go home and have a nap.



We met several friends for the parade, including Juniper's buddy Thomas. His favorite thing about the parade was the "Busterghosts" or "Ghostbustards." Juniper's favorite was Captain Planet. The morning of the parade, she expectantly asked whether we would see Captain Planet. I tried to lower her expectations, since this isn't exactly a popular modern comic franchise. I needn't have worried. In addition to Captain Planet himself, there were scads of Planeteers and even a couple of ecovillains. I wonder how many people at the parade recognized, by name, both Hoggish Greedly and his sidekick Rigger. Thanks to the $0.50 bin at the comics shop, we did.



After the parade, we went to Centennial Park to eat a picnic lunch and splash in the fountains.



Juniper and her cousins all had fun splashing and playing.



Hazel thought that the park was much more fun than the parade.



Till next year, kiddo. Your dad and I are officially and publicly promising that next year we will get our lazy act together to come up with some sort of family costume. Probably not Klingons, but we'll do something.

Happy Thanksgiving

Juniper and her cousins (Emily, Jorge, and Alondra) eat their Thanksgiving dinner at the kids' table. Juniper was pretty good about trying the different foods, but quickly settled on her favorite items: turkey, cranberry sauce, and rolls.




Post-dinner walk with DeeDee (and a giant bubble wand).




Three silly, happy girls.

Birthday party pt. 2 (backyard fun)

Spring has been late coming to Atlanta this year, but we had beautiful weather for Juniper's party. We ate on the back porch, and the kids had a blast running around the yard. We're looking forward to warmer weather and more good times outside!

Savannah

The Honeycutt family took a weekend trip to Savannah. Here are a few highlights from the trip. For more photos, check out our picasa site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/HoneycuttDill/Savannah#