Links of the day

Taking a quick break from studying tonight for my test on Thursday to browse the internet (I know, productive). Actually, it hasn't been much studying because I've been playing with Landon and talking with Christi most of the night. We also watched Planet of the Apes on HBO, which is apparently free this week.

Check out the cool pictures of a "stone forest" in Madagascar (1st link) and pictures of the earth from far, far, far away with some interesting perspective on the planet.

1 день осени - #...madagaskar stone forest


Pale Blue Dot � a simple prop

USA! USA! USA!

In case you haven't heard, the US soccer team advanced to the knockout round (like the Sweet 16) of the World Cup today with a dramatic 1-0 win over Algeria. It was a must win game to get to the next round. The US had Slovenia beat, but the go-ahead goal was mysteriously and incorrectly overturned by a ref you won't see the rest of the Cup. My friends from work and I went to Applebees close to work to catch the second half of the game. It was an intense half with many close chances for the US, including one shot by Clint Dempsey that hit the post, only to come back to him with a wide open net, but he hit the 2nd chance shot OVER the goal! The game was almost over. Stoppage time had just been added and England was up 1-0 on Slovenia. If the US tied Algeria, which looked like a near certainty, the US was going home empty handed and extremely disappointed. This was supposed to be the year that we made some noise at the World Cup and built on the respect we earned after beating Spain and playing Brazil well at the Confederations Cup. Then, 1 minute into stoppage time, this happened.

Goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The place went nuts. We definitely weren't the only US soccer fans there. It was amazing. I especially like the celebration and the player in the purple warm-up jersey celebrating by himself. Classic.

The emotions were crazy. It went from wow, Algeria had a great chance on goal to a beautiful outlet pass by Tim Howard. Landon Donovan played a great ball outside and it was crossed into the box a little ahead of Dempsey (should've scored) and there is a big collision in the box. You think the play is dead and our chances are done, and then you see the ball come away from the keep and it sits there for what feels like forever. Then out of nowhere Donovan follows the play and buries the shot in the corner. Great play by a great player. It was pure euphoria. It was a great day.

So the US won the group and play Ghana this Saturday. Make sure you watch!

1st Father's Day

Yesterday was my 1st Father's Day. It was both exciting and surreal. The last few months have flown by and it's surprising that we are already halfway through June and Father's Day has passed. It is also surprising that is was my first Father's Day. I mean that not in the sense I'm surprised I had a child, but that Father's Day is one of those things you think about celebrating with your father or grandfather, not for you. It was a little weird to have everyone tell me Happy Father's Day when we were at church and out to eat lunch. It is going to take a few years to get used to that. It was great to see Landon that morning and to get my gifts from Christi and Landon, which were a custom picture frame with Landon's picture and a GT shirt that is one of the new coaches' style shirts for this upcoming year. It is a shirt I always say I want but never buy.

We were able to spend time with both of our dad's and my granddad during the day and had a good time with everyone. We ended up traveling around more than we wanted too, but it was necessary to see everyone we wanted to see. We are thinking next year have people come by our house because it will be easier on Landon traveling everywhere and easier on us to get him everywhere. The problem is that my parent's are divorced (if you didn't know that already) so getting them together at the same time isn't possible. We are thinking of either having someone over or going to someone's place to cut down on travel in 1 day and to make it easier to see everyone we want to see. We feel bad only getting to stay for about 1-2 hours and then having to go to the next place. We will have to try that on the next upcoming holiday or birthday. Despite all of the travel, I was able to spend time with Christi and Landon, my 2 favorite people in the world, and it was exactly what I wanted for Father's Day.

I hope everyone else had a good Father's Day and it if was your first day Father's Day, I hope you had as good of a day as I did.

Atlantic Station Vacation

Here are some long overdue pictures from our trip to Atlantic Station. The majority of pictures are from the aquarium because we didn't really take our camera around town like we should have. We have our phones, but I never get around to upload those pictures to the computer. I need to do that one day.

Here are a few pictures of the hotel room

Kitchen in the hotel

Other side of the kitchen. Nothing got used except for the sink and coffee pot. Christi hated their coffee.

The bedroom. Yes, that is a concrete wall. It was a cool aesthetic touch. The ceilings were the same way.

The bathroom was very nice. You can see the shower in the mirror reflection.

Landon and I getting ready to go to explore Atlantic Station

Landon playing on the bed

Aquarium color wall

Christi and Landon at the aquarium. Landon is filled with excitement right there.

Whale sharks getting fed over us

Huge grouper

Christi and Landon at the end of the moving walkway

Whale sharks still getting fed. This shows you how big they are. It's amazing to see them swimming overhead

Landon is a rock climber

Whale shark

Lots of fish at the massive viewing window

Very large manta ray. He liked to do backflips over and over again.


Landon playing with Christi. Horrible flash but loved his face in this picture

Landon looking at all the fish




Landon and I sitting and enjoying the fish


Landon trying to catch the fish

So many fish!


Landon and I taking a break to pose for a picture

Piranhas!



I really liked the jelly fish. The way they move is fascinating


Landon catching up on some reading in the stroller



Landon and I watching the seals

Penguins

As you can see we had a great time at the aquarium. I almost posted this in 2 segments, but I decided to do all of them. It was hard choosing just a few pictures because we took a lot while we were there. If you're thinking about going, I highly recommend it! It was a lot of fun. We are hoping to go back when the dolphins get there, but I'm sure it will be extremely crowded then.

Busy Busy

What do I do after promising to post more often? I wait over a week to post again! We have been very busy lately, more so that normal. So what have we been up to that has taken up all of our time?

Well, first off you might have noticed the new blog colors. I have been thinking for a while the blog was in need of a change, but I haven't decided on a theme yet. This is it for now. I'm not sure if it's too much blue or not, though. I personally like white text on black, but after looking at my last few posts it didn't look that good and was harder to read that I had hoped.

Landon turned 6 months old on June 2! I can't believe that he is already 6 months old. It's something you always here, especially once you have a child, but time flies by and he is growing up so fast right before my eyes. Landon had his 6 months Dr. appointment and got check out along with some more shots. He was not a happy camper at all. He weighed 16lbs 11.5oz and was 27" long. A day or so earlier he got his first cold. He wasn't very sick, but he had a slight fever and a cough. He also wasn't eating like he normally does, so that bothered us. I had planned on posting something that night, but we ended up almost taking him to the after hours pediatric care. We didn't end up taking him to the doctor after talking with the nurse on the phone. He took some medicine for a few days and he was ok generally, but he was extremely fussy for several days. We thought it was teething plus the cold, but we haven't found any teeth yet. He has to be close, but so far nothing we can see.

He is also getting close to crawling and walking. Ok, so maybe walking is still a little while away, but he loves to walk all over the place with you holding his hands. His balance isn't there yet, but if you let him go he can stand by himself for a few seconds. He can also hold onto the couch or another object and hold himself up for a short period of time. He usually gets excited and throws himself off-balance. He is going to be all over the place once he starts going on his own. We have no idea what is about to hit us.

Our house got a little more messy than would want it too and having the time to clean everything we want never seemed to come around. Christi enlisted her mom to tackle the cleaning and I have to say they did an outstanding job. They basically cleaned the whole house and it looks amazing. The amount of work they did in a week is amazing. I was very lucky they did all of the work and I didn't have to do anything except take out the trash and move a few things. Christi added some new stuff in our bathroom and other rooms throughout the house. She went through a lot of our things and we have a lot of things to go to Goodwill. I would tell you how many shoes she gave to Goodwill, but I think she would want everyone to know that. Let me just stay it was a lot.

During the cleaning Landon's cold popped up. Also during the cleaning Christi got sick, but hers thankfully was only a 24-36 hour stomach bug. So far I haven't caught anything. I have been busy playing and watching soccer. I had 2 games last week and one the week before. I ended up getting bruised ribs in one game so I'll be taking some time off for sure. They are feeling much better than they were a few days ago. The World Cup started this week and I'm pumped. Christi can attest that I have been spending a lot of time in front of the TV and I plan to do that whenever I get the chance to watch all the games I can. My online course has also started and that has caused me to spend some time doing work. It hasn't been too much so far, but it is beginning to pick up. I have 2 homework assignments this week, but it isn't anything overbearing.

That is mostly what we have been doing and why I haven't posted. The main thing I have been doing is playing with Landon. When I come home, I love to talk with Christi about our days and play with Landon. I could do it all day. It doesn't get any better than spending time with the family. We end up hanging out most nights enjoying each other's company and laughing ate all the crazy stuff Landon does. I have more time this week to get some blogging done, so check back for some updates. Also, let me know what you think about the new layout.

Memorial Day Vacation

We are back from our Memorial Day vacation. This was my mystery anniversary gift I alluded to in May. Christi gave me a trip to Atlanta for the long weekend and we had a great time. We stayed at Twelve Hotel in Atlantic Station, which was extremely nice. The package she bought was especially nice because it included valet parking for the duration of our stay and 2 tickets to the Georgia Aquarium.

After we checked in we spent most of Saturday exploring Atlantic Station. I had been there a few times while at Tech, but never done much more than eat. We went into most of the shops and bought a few things as well as people watched. There was definitely ample opportunity to see some interesting people. We went down to eat dinner at Gordon-Biersch and it was delicious. It was Christi's first time eating there and she was very impressed. The crab and artichoke dip was extremely good as well as the pecan crusted chicken she ordered. I had a pint of Karzen and the Steak Frites, which was basically steak with fries, but it had a very tasty sauce that came with it. We also had a great waiter who was at least 6'7 and reminded me of Andre the Giant.

We were able to make the short drive up to Kennesaw to meet some of our friends that we used to hang out with while we were up there. Specifically, we met a lady that Christi used to teach with at Baker in Acworth and that was a lot of fun. She is probably the funniest lady I have ever met. It was her first time seeing Landon and she enjoyed that. After lunch with her we went to Towne Center Mall with her to get a few things and also met another teacher Christi used to work with. It made us really miss being up there with our friends from Kennesaw/Woodstock area. We wish our current jobs were in that area, but we also like where we are now because being close to family has been really great for us on many levels.

When we came back from our lunch excursion, we intended to go the aquarium. We got there to discover that the line was ridiculously long, so we decided to put it off for the next day. Instead, we relaxed at the hotel after feeding Landon and went to Cafe Nineteen for dinner. It was quite possibly the best meal we had while we were there, which was saying a lot. The atmosphere was also really cool and we were able to secure a spot on the patio outside while we ate and relaxed. We really enjoyed Cafe Nineteen. The food wasn't expensive at all and despite the small menu it all sounded good. They also have a different menu after 10pm which included some additional choices.

We did end up going to the aquarium the next morning and it was a lot of fun. They have added a lot of fish since we had last been there, which wasn't long after it opened. They had 4 whale sharks and 2 manta rays, which were awesome. We got lucky with our timing because they were feeding the whale sharks right when we went into that portion of the aquarium. We ended up staying there for many hours and had a great time. Landon particularly enjoyed the penguins and all the fish he could see in the tanks. He had a blast trying to grab all of the fish and did very well despite how crowded it got after lunch. The aquarium was a great time and highly recommended, even if you have been there before. They are also getting dolphins in November, so that too will be another reason to go back!

Before we went home we stopped at a store called Kilwin's in Atlantic Station. It is an ice cream and treats store that had candy apples, chocolate covered pretzels, rice krispies, etc. We ended up buying some candy apples, 3 kinds of fudge, and I bought a waffle cone with blue berry waffle cone ice cream that was the BEST ice cream I ever had. I'm not kidding. It was incredible. They let me sample some of their other flavors and it was insanely good. I would go back just for the ice cream. If you are in the area, we highly recommend stopping by Kilwin's and picking up some treats.

That's the main jist of what we did. I have plenty of pictures I need to upload and will do that as soon as I get the chance. My class starts this week and I am unsure how involved it will be. Hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures by the end of the week. I apologize for the lack of content lately. I can tell by the lack of comments that interest in the blog has dropped and that is my fault. I am striving to increase my time to write, but it has been difficult. Check back soon for the pictures. Have a good week.