South Africa - Getting There...

Now that we've gotten past the recaps of December and January we can get to the visit to South Africa. The first week down here was really good once I got past the inevitable jet lag. As everyone has told me twenty hours on an airplane is wayyyyyy too long. Anyway, one cool thing did happen on the way down here. My flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town was on South African Airlines. For some reason they decided I should get an upgrade to business class for that flight. So, that was a nice change. Just too bad Delta didn't feel the same way for the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg.

Mark, one of the guys I work with, picked me up at the airport and then got me settled in at the hotel. I pretty much crashed once I got checked in. More to come...

2008 Starts Off Right

Well, Lisa and I kicked off 2008 with a really fun trip out to New Orleans to watch UGA "play" Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Ben stayed back home and got to spend a few days with his Grandpa and Grandma Heinz. We did miss Ben but it was good to get away together for a few days.

Shortly after we got back from New Orleans it was birthday time again. Like Christmas we ended up celebrating three times this year. Craig, Shannon and family were over on my birthday. Then we went out to Pampas for some great steaks and time with family as George & Olive and Leo & Mavis were all in town and able to join us. Finally we celebrated Micah and I's joint birthday later in the weekend. Very fun time all around.

The other big event of January for us was we had some minor accumulation of snow. Ben had a really good time playing in it though. We were even able to get a few snowballs together!

December, where did you go?

Okay. So, basically, we are really bad bloggers. For those handful of you who might actually notice we updated the site here is some info from December and January. Both months really seemed to just disappear in to thin air. I think we left off last time shortly after UGA beat the Jackets (had to throw that in).

Anyway, the first part of December is pretty much a blur at this point. One of the really cool things we were able to do with our small group this year was visit Children's Medical Center in Atlanta. It was good to expose Ben to giving at Christmas time and kind of really helped kick off our holiday season. At least it did for me. We also had a very good time attending a Christmas party for some of Lisa's former students. It was a lot of fun and Ben seemed to really enjoy his time there too.

My parents arrived on about the 14th of December. Then, before we knew it, Christmas was on top of us. We had three very different celebrations this year. The first was a more casual affair at Lisa's parents with just her family (minus K&B, unfortunately). Then we did our Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and finally headed to Cartersville for Christmas Day with just Lisa's parents and grandmother.

No, my mom isn't quite that short. :) In the course of taking pictures for Christmas we completely messed up and this the only shot of my parents together on Christmas Eve that we have. Funny stuff though.

The biggest news was the Ben finally got to play with Grandpa's tractor.

November Gone?

Wow. So, November is pretty much gone already. It feels to me like we were just in France a few weeks ago. It has been a busy month for us. There's been the utterly fantastic UGA v. Auburn "blackout" game (apologies to Craig & Shannon). This was by far the best college football game Lisa and I have ever been to. It was just so much fun. Even Ben got in on it.

I've made my annual hunting trip to North Dakota. As usual, it was a lot of fun to out there on the ranch. Short trip this year as I had my deer in a little more than an hour. We stayed out on the ranch through Saturday morning then returned to Bismarck.

Ben also turned two this month. That's even more crazy as it feels like he was a baby just a short time ago. He's really a kid now. We had a good birthday party here at the house on the 13th. Thanks to everyone for braving the water main break and subsequent bad traffic to be here.

Thanksgiving with Lisa's parents and family was great. Everyone except her brother George's family was able to make it to Cartersville. We ended up going up there Thursday and Friday to spend the days. On Saturday Lisa's parents were kind enough to keep Ben for us while Lisa and I went down to watch the Bulldogs take on Tech. So, back to work for a few weeks then Christmas. Hopefully, we'll update things a few more times between now and then.

Halloween Chili Cookoff

Tonight was the Halloween Chili Cookoff at the Petty's. We cheated a bit and didn't bring any chili. Just appetizers and ice. At least we won that category (or I assume we did...). Anyway, had a good time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and seeing everyone.

Pumpkin Patch

A couple weekends ago we stopped by a pumpkin patch down the road from our place and really had a good time. It was Ben's first experience and also turned out to be he first pony ride. He had fun but was very serious about it.

UGA and Vanderbilt

A few weeks ago we travelled up to Mufreesboro, TN to visit Lisa's brother's family. While there we took in the UGA and Vanderbilt game. It was a lot of fun and was Mallory's first chance to attend a Georgia game. Being down in Nashville was much fun and Brendon and Rachel were kind enough to give us a fun restaurant recommendation too. Here are a couple pictures from the trip.