Pack 193 Blue and Gold 2012

The Blue and Gold banquet for Pack 193 was last Wednesday.  We were even late for hockey practice to make sure that we stayed for the whole thing.  This is the third year running that there was a taco bar for dinner.  

My how things are different at Scouts.  He is a picture of Isaac and Paul sharing tricks on iPod video games.

Here is a picture of a welcoming ceremony for a new Cub.  This picture looks a bit demonic to me, but it was nice.

Isaac got a fist full of pins and belt loops.  Thanks Mike for helping him earn them all...!!!

Here is the young man with his bag of goodies.

Shoot

We finally took some time to go shooting this last weekend.  We had a BLAST...!!  Isaac is into full cammo mode now.  The Air Soft thing is spilling over in to how he dresses.  (I'm ok with that)  Isaac and I when on Friday evening while Lexy was at a birthday party. (Happy Bday, Jamie)  Then we all went again on Saturday.  It was super busy on Saturday afternoon.  We stayed for about 2 hours.  Isaac got compliments from the people on either side of us and different times on how well she shot.  Yes, he is a better shot that me... :D

I don't have nearly the pictures that I would like to.  But here we go...

Isaac cammo'ed out...

 Isaac lighting it up with a Ruger 10-22 and the 30 round clip.

 Look at that smile... And yes, that is a 45 in his hands.

 He didn't want to shoot the 45 on Friday, I made him squeeze one off.  Then on Saturday he was all about it.  "Dad, can I shoot a whole clip with the pistol?"

Got this picture just after the shot.  You can see the smoke rolling off the gun.

For some reason I don't have pictures of Lexy shooting.  But she did shoot about 150 rounds out of the 22's and one out of the 45.  Yep, that's my girl.  She shot the 45.  She asked to, so I helped and held her.  She didn't like it as much as the 22's.  But GO GIRL...!!

Before we left Lexy wanted a picture of her doing a spiral on the posts by the parking.  Even at the rifle range after blasting the targets, she has skating on the mind.

Halftime Show

The Alum Creek CUBS (2nd and 3rd Grade) got invited to play at the halftime of the Lady Yellow Jackets game on Saturday.  If'n ya don't know, that is the West Virginia State University Yellow Jackets.  They were able to do better that the big girls.  The Cubs won the 2 minute exhibition game 4-0.

Here is Coach Paul and the girls preping for the game and watching the big girls play.

There is Lexy (#20) in the middle, mixing it up with the Bees, fighting for the ball.

They also won their regular game on Saturday.  It was close in the first half, but they pulled it off.  That makes them 3.5-0.  The half is for the exhibition game.  Ha.

Misc Hockey 2012

Feel like the blog has missed some hockey this season.  I don't seem to take as many pictures as I used to at the games.  I ran through and picked a few to post today.

Here Isaac is in the warm up drill they do before each game.

 Not sure how I got him facing the camera, but this is a blurry shot from the front.

 There he is ready at the face off ready to get the pass and take it in...

 Isaac is playing right wing in this face off.  This is a good offensive line up.  The other two boys love to pass the puck and work together.

 Here he is in the defensive zone looking for the puck to be dropped out where he and take off with it.

 Now it's time to head to the locker room...

The West Virginia Wild (PeeWee's) have finished the regular season 22-0.  There were a few games that they almost didn't pull off.  But they enter the tournaments undefeated.  We'll see how they do.

What a Car...

So, last week on the way home from hockey practice we were driving along Corridor G and I saw some of those new LED headlights coming up behind me.  I figured it was an Audi or a Volvo.  I HEARD it accelerate, and around us it came.  As I glance at it, it had the profile of a Corvette...  I thought, "Weird headlights for a Corvette..??"  Then I was the fender badge just behind the front wheel.

Yep, a Ferrari California. Of course Isaac was bouncing is his seat.  We followed it for a minute and into a parking lot to get some pictures.  Nice pics Isaac.

 Isaac rolled down his window and told the guy, "I love your car."  He got a polite "Thanks" back.  We got a pretty good laugh when the guy walked into Little Caesar's to get a Hot 'n Ready.

So this little car has 453 Hp and a price tag of $193,000.  But hey, it's a hardtop convertible too...

 Don't know the story behind this picture that Isaac drew, but I thought it was pretty cool, so I figured I'd share.

More Cookies

Guess who made this cookie...

 If you guessed Elder Wielderholt, you are right..!!  It goes really well with the one made around Christmas time.

That isn't a peace sign... He's number 2... 

These poor missionaries, I lure them to my house with the promise of feeding them.  Then, after we eat, I breakout the frosting and put them to work.  I think that it helps that I tell them our rule is you have the eat the first one you frost.  Check out this plate of ART...

  That plate was decorated by Elder Dumke.

 Here are both Elders, showing off their wares...

Gettysburg, PA

On our way home from Lexy's Synchro Competition in Hershey, PA we stopped by Gettysburg, PA.  (Thanks for the suggestion Bob.)  I didn't realize that Gettysburg was in Pennsylvania, I guess I figured it was in Virginia.  With Isaac being such an Abe Lincoln fan and 5th Grade currently studying the Civil War, how perfect was this stop on our trip?  He loved it, I loved it, and BONUS, Lexy loved it.

Here is Lexy in her Abe Lincoln hat with leftover makeup from the Synchro competition.  I for one think she is super cute.

We stopped by the town square and ended up in the Wills house where Lincoln stayed the one night that he was in town.  This is the area where the room was he slept in.  The bed in the back ground, to include the linen,  was the bed he slept on when he was there.

What an awesome way to learn about this bit of history.  I had no idea the the Gettysburg Address was a short blip in a long dedication ceremony for a Union soldier cemetery.  The speech didn't become famous until well after it was given.

This is a copy of the only photo that was taken of Lincoln at the ceremony.  The photographer thought that he would take much longer in his speech and didn't get up to take a picture until Lincoln was done and people were gathered around.

You can't see if well in this photo, but this building is adjacent and attached to the Wills House.  Just above the Malt Shop sign there is a small flag at the base of the second story window.  Directly under that flag is a cannon ball from the Battle of Gettysburg that has been stuck in the wall since 1863.  Pretty stinkin' cool.

Several of the old buildings in town had these plaques commemorating that they survived the battle.

Here is Isaac checking out the cannon at the cemetery.  He might be a RedLeg after all.

Here is one of the areas where unknown soldiers are buried.  There were a total of some 50,000 people died in the Battle of Gettysburg.  I equated that to a football stadium full of people for the kids to get a scale of how many people died in that one battle over three days.

Rows and rows of tombstones.

I highly recommend a trip to Gettysburg, PA.  We were only there for a few hours on a cool winters day.  I would bet you could spend 2 or 3 days to see all that you wanted there.  For the Charleston crowd, it's about 4.5 to 5 hours drive.

More Synchro Trip

Wow, these few pictures are a long time coming.  They are from the Synchro Trip that we made last month to Hershey, PA.  We lucked out when we left Charleston and ended up convoying with Katie and Olivia's families.  We followed with them for a while and when they stopped we teamed up with them.  They gave us a radio to chat back and forth with.  AND... the girls painted up the windows of our car.

 It is so nice to have these girls that are a little older than Lexy accept her like they do.  She was on top of the world.  They even painted her side window.

 She ended up riding some with me and some with them.  The radios made it all really fun.

Here is a group of the girls at Chocolate World on the first day of skating.  In there are Katie, Katie's sister in the pink coat, Olivia, Emily, Lexy, Carly, and Maddy.  There were a lot more of the team there, but this is the group that got together for this picture.

West Virginia Synchro ROCKS...!!!

Alum Creek CUBS Girls Basketball (2nd - 3rd)

Lexy had her first basketball game this last weekend.  She was so excited.  She got her uniform, #20 as requested.  She looked great out there.

Here is the team on the bench at half time while the coach was checking with the score keeper.

Here is a little video of Lexy mixing it up on the court with the Bees.

The CUBS beat the BEES 21 to 9.  The first half was close but in the second they pulled away.

Great Job Girls...!!!

West Virginia Syncho at Eastern's

Here is the video from Eastern Sectional Synchronized Skating Competition in Hershey, PA. Lexy is the team alternate. She is the first one on the ice, but as the group comes back to the center she skates off the ice. Ms. Vicky, the coach, told me what a huge help to the team Lexy as been because any time there was a skater missing Lexy would fill in. We are super proud of you Lexy...!!!

Chocolate World

While on our trip to Hershey, PA from Lexy to skate with the Synchro Team we got to spend some time at Hershey's Chocolate World.  It was fun, for sure.

Here we are at the front of the building.  Lexy still had makeup on from the skating competition.

One of the things that the kids loved the most (well all of us) was the ride through the chocolate making process.  It was very Disney style, in a good way. Here are the cows singing about how important the milk is in the chocolate. 

 Here is Isaac looking at the one of the mixing tanks full of chocolate.

 The Hershey Kiss machines.

Here is Lexy in amazement in the wrapping and filling area.  Those are bottles of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup in the background.

Lexy LOVES KitKat bars.  We didn't realize that they are a Hershey's product.  There is the machine making KitKats.

 And there is Lexy in the store portion of Chocolate World with ALL of the KitKats a girl could want.

 Isaac liked the stuffed Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

 They had a whole pallet of 5 lb chocolate bars ($40).  I don't have the picture, but they had 1 lb Reese's Peanut Butter Cups too.  I wanted one... but not $15 bad.

We paid a little extra and the kids got to go behind closed doors and design their own candy bars.  They had so much fun in there.  It was a design section, and then they watched the production machine put together their bar, scan it with their name through out the process and label in the the back end.

 The Lexy Bar, in the wrapper.

 The Isaac Bar, in the wrapper.  If you look close he has a picture of hockey skates and sticks on his label.

 Here is the Lexy Bar out of the package.  Milk chocolate, with chocolate chips, and sprinkles.

 The Isaac bar was milk chocolate with almond bits.

 Both of them attended the Hershey University Chocolate Tasting Experience.  Nope of the other WV kids did this.  Both of them LOVED it.  It was a class room style environment.  They talked about the coco trees, more about the process of making chocolate, then tasted several kinds.  Isaac even brought me some samples out.  If you look in his left had he has a small bag of chocolate bits for his dad.

 Fun place to go... Highly recommended.  The bonus from this is that Isaac was pretty indifferent about chocolate, but now he loves it.  Kind of funny what an experience will do to your preferences.  We have looked at all kinds of candy since to see who makes them.