Silver Dollar City!

A couple weekends ago, we went to Silver Dollar City with our family on my wife's side. It was a great time to be had by all...but was not quite as fun or the same without her dad. We all missed Jim but enjoyed the trip. The kids got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas but unfortunately I didn't get to tell him what I wanted..I didn't think his lap could take the pressure. Anyhoo here are some of the pics we took of our Branson trip.

The lights were beautiful! Here is a motion pic I took. I liked the motion effect.

Rae Just found out that her kiddy coaster ride broke down...as you can tell by Taylors face...I dont think the "kiddy" coaster breaking down was as much of a downer for him.

A good "Mom and daughter" pic of my wife's sister. Though an innocent smile on her grill is portrayed...I know the true thoughts that seep from deep within the dark corners that exist in her mind...Just takes a bit of beer and a late night drinking game to bring it out! But don't worry. What happens in Branson..stays in Branson...

Not quite sure who is more confused by the magical moving picture box thingy.

Such a hard life...a pappy..some warm milk...someone always cleaning up your poo...and every girl in a square mile taking turns fighting over you...must suck.

Here all the grand kids...yes you too Girdie!

Mary....after 3 shots of hard liquor washed down with a tall boy of Schlitz malty. Ok not really...but doesn't she look all cozy and comfy?

A pic of the girls. Someone has to tell "Chris-teen" to shave. The beard is no longer something she can hide.

The 2 pics above are pics taken inside theatre room during the play "A Christmas Carol". I love this show. I see it every time we are there for the holiday.

Here is some pics of us waiting for the train. Rae has some hot chocolate. Its the best darn hot chocolate you will ever have. Both of them had at least 2 full mugs a piece. I had 3.

I love this show as well. Different cast members than last year, but still a great show.

Ever wonder what a true gang of Opera house Gangstas look like? Now you don't.

Welcome to the Brady Quinn show!

I, along with the entire US of THE America, watched in awe and admiration and just straight up love as the best QB in the world...no...in the solar system...nay...the UNIVERSE played like no other QB has played the game on national television! We watched in complete silence and reverence as he passed for a mind boggling....gut staggering...non human unattainable numerical figure of 239 yds in the air and 2 TD passes to....eh...or wait....lose? But the way that the announcers were chewing and savoring the Brady Quinn burger was so palpable?!? There HAS to be a mistake! Whats that you say? You mean that Jay Cutler played? He what??!! He did good?!?! BETTER!? Well don't that just drop a stinky brown lump in my bowl of vanilla pudding!

HA! HA! HARDY HAR HAR!
That's right folks...you have to come to my blog to get the real story...the one that you may have watched...but didn't know was going on! Here is the breakdown..as it happened.
"Cutler passed for a career-high 447 yards, throwing three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter - the last an 11-yarder to Brandon Marshall with 1:14 remaining - to rally the broken Denver Broncos to a 34-30 win over the Cleveland Browns , spoiling Quinn's highly hyped debut as an NFL starter. The Broncos entered the fourth quarter trailing 23-13, but Cutler, borrowing a page out of John Elway's comeback playbook, brought Denver back. He recorded his fifth career fourth-quarter comeback victory despite losing two more running backs to injuries and only having his fullback to carry the ball." That is a quote taken directly from a post on SI.com.

If you were wanting to know what B. Marsh was pulling out from under his shirt before Stoke came up to stop him, it was a glove that he had painted half black and half white to signify the unity of black and white Americans during the presidential campaign. You have to admit...that is pretty cool, no matter how you voted. Stoke told him to put it away..cuz the game was too close and it may be interpreted as a celebration..causing a penalty we could not afford. Cool huh. Not some selfless act like Chad Ocho Cuervo Johnson or T.O. has done in the past...but a selfLESS act of true Red White and Blue. I love my team!

Needless to say...THE BRONCOS WIN! 34-30. And all due to our little man rookie wide receiver Eddie Royal and his 93 yd TD reception that pumped up our offense and our stud B. Marsh and ignited a fire under our defense and our 2nd 3d and 4th stringers! That's heart folks!
To add some salt and vodka to the Brownie's loss....it was their 8th straight loss to the Denver Bronx...including 3 times in AFC title games...including one "DRIVE" by a certain #7. Needless to say..they hate us. HA!

GO BRONOCS!

Back From De Islands Mon!

Well I have to say, this was by far the most beautiful islands and water I have ever seen! This was a first for the kids. They have never been on a plane and they have never been to the ocean. I have compiled some pics from a very VERY large amount of pics taken from both my and my wife's cameras. I may add more later as I need to go through all of them. Several hundred pics taken and I hope at least half are great. I have no doubt they are. So without further skadoosh!......

You can click on the pics below to get a better look at them. They blow up pretty nice.

Rae Found out that she loves the water

Here we are at Trunk chillin under the umbrella.

While driving to a beach, dad stops to feed the local wild animals.

Here was one of many jelly fish that we saw while swimming in the ocean. After one of the local life guards told us its a "moon jelly" and that it wouldn't hurt, I carefully lifted it out of the water so that we could all touch this beautiful creature. It felt a bit like soft stiff jelly.

The 2 pics above were taken at our pool in "Blue Beards Castle". There was a waterfall that we took full advantage of during the tropical noon day sun.

Taylor learned how to dive...Grandpa learned how to relax.

Not too many people can say they learned to swim in the Virgin Islands....Rae however, can.

These lizards were all over the place! In fact you can say they were the local "dogs" and they begged for food just as a dog would! See if you can count how many lizards are "begging" for food around the table of that family!

Rae and Taylor got to feed the stingrays in Coral World on St. Thomas.

One of many pics of my son under water. He loves to swim underwater more than he likes to swim over it... just like his daddy.

The pics above were taken at our favorite beach. It was named "Trunk Beach" on the island of St. John and was the most breath taking beach I have ever seen. I have to say, I have the most beautiful wife and children in the whole world. I'm one lucky man!

This picture was taken on an ancient sugar plantation on St. John.


My little camera man. He helped me carry around all my stuff all vacation.

Pop and my Taylor resting in the shade at the sugar plantation.

More pics of us at Trunk.

One morning Deidra and I woke up extra early...around 3...to be lucky enough to catch this pic out off our deck at Blue Beards.

This cove is where we were on live cam that day. If you look to the middle of the pic and then directly left you will see the tree line and beach area that we were standing on. You can even see the boat we were standing in front of and the dock itself.

Me with the most beautiful woman in the world standing above and in front of Trunk Beach.

Mom and Dad at

All of us in front of the ocean by the old sugar plantation.

I don't know what to say...give them a hat and let them go nuts.

They must take after their mom.

These are 2 of my favorite pics I took. It was late at night and as you can tell the clouds were rolling in. I pulled these pics off just before an island storm. They were taken from our pool overlook at Blue Beards Castle after a wonderful spaghetti dinner made by mom and dad at their room. We had many "Bushwhackers" that night dad. Good time.

The first day we got to the islands...I got this pic of my kids outside our room. They stayed out on that deck for many hours that first week.

For those of you who wonder where all the other people are....we didn't know! And we didn't care. We felt as though we had the whole place to ourselves..and most of the time...we did!

Here is a pic I took of Taylor looking out over the boats at our pool overlook. This is the place I set my camera up for those night pics of the cruise liner. If I cropped the pic a bit, I could send this into some photo place...could be a post card don't ya think?