Hooter's Girls in Training

As part of the fun, Jeff agreed to take them down to Dothan to visit Hooters in their costumes. They got a standing ovation when they walked in and the Hooter's girls loved them. Of course, these two jokers ate it up! They loved the attention.

Halloween

Riley and Michael

This is Taylor and Aaron's girlfriends.....they dressed up like boys and

the boys dressed up like girls.

Taylor, Jarrod and Aaron as their favorite Hooter's girls.

This was the only picture I caught of Dylan. He took off with about 10 boys from the neighborhood and we didn't see him again till it was all over.

Homecoming

The boys (Taylor and Aaron) went to their first homecoming as a high schooler. They went down to Olive Garden first for dinner with some friends. Then headed over to Aviator's Landing on Ft Rucker for some fun. They had such a blast and promised they would never miss another dance as long as they were in high school.

Taylor and Stephanie

It's not just football.......It's Wildcat football!!!

Just a few snapshots of the Wildcats.....Taylor is #46 (right in the middle)....see if you can find him...

We celebrated the boys birthday's by renting a 19ft tall inflatable waterslide. We had Riley's party from 10am until noon and then took and hour break and had Dylan's party from 1pm until 3pm. It was a great way to have both parties in the same day, yet let the boys each have their own individual parties. The neighborhood kids got the advantage of having the water slide there all day and the benefit of being at both parties. The kids had an absolute blast!!!!

Dylan and his best friend Jake.

The weather was beautiful for Riley's party.

We had to move Dylan's cake inside due to a quick rainstorm passing over. By the time we finished the cake and presents the rain passed and they were back out the door.

The man on the left is the coach for the Brazilian soccer team, Igor is in the middle and the other guy is another player on the Brazilian team. Igor was the only one who spoke any kind of English and his was very limited. That made it interesting!!!!

During July we had the priviledge of being host to a Brazilian soccer player named Igor. Igor is 19 y/0 and plays soccer professionally for the country of Brazil. During the summer he works at the Tetrabrazil soccer camps held throughout the United States. During the week long camp here in Alabama, we hosted Igor in our home. Dylan thought it was great having a professional soccer player in the house and learned a lot from the camp. The camp paid off for Dylan as he went on to try out for the Enterprise All-Stars which is a traveling soccer team and made the team. This is a big accomplishment. We traveled throughout the southeast and played teams from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. We ended up in third place so we were pleased.

Igor and Dylan

Dylan ended up being goalie for the team and performed quite well.

During our stay in Denison, we stayed in a real haunted hotel. It was an experience we will never forget. The hotel is owned by Jeff's Uncle Don and is one of the oldest buildings in the city of Denison.

The lobby

A view from the roof of the hotel!

Rooftop again

This is the main desk in the lobby!

HOTEL DENISON

There is a hotel in Denison that everyone knows about; it's the tallest building in Denison and you can see from about anywhere in Denison.
Howard Murray Smith built it in 1884. By the 1920's, the hotel was booming. On the first floor there was the lobby, a lounge and the dinning room. The front desk was also there. It was the finest hotel in the area; none could be compared to it. The elevator landing (added in 1910) was behind the front desk. A great staircase came through the dinning room. The rooms were located ten floors above. A penthouse (ha, ha) was located on the roof over looking the city. A smoking room was on the second floor, along with a small library.
In the fall of 1927, the Young family had come to Texas from New York on the MKT Railroad train. The couple had two children, Anderson, age 14 and Emily, age 18. They were to stay at the Hotel Denison for 3 weeks.
On the evening of September 23, the Young's were in their bedroom, getting ready for dinner when a fire broke out in the room above. The ceiling collapsed, killing all of them and a maid that was helping Mrs. Young. The fire got out of control and went through the floors, killing most of the residents of the Hotel. The dinning room was full. No one had known about the fire above them. When the ceiling collapsed, it was a shock.
Sixty years later, 1997, the Hotel Denison had quieted down. The Hotel was redone, but most of the glamour had been lost to the fire; including the staircase which had a wooden statue of an angel. The staircase had been destroyed, burnt to a crisp. When they redid the Hotel, they moved the fireplace to a back stairway. The elevator shaft hadn't been touched.
The residents of the Hotel come to see the hotel and what it used to look like. Others come to see the ghost.
Some say the ghost of those who were lost in the fire still live there. The maids have been seen walking the halls, children have been seen playing in the dinning room, men have been smoking and playing cards in the smoking room. Emily Young has been seen on the roof, walking about looking at the city streets below her.
I have seen Emily. I live a block away from the Hotel and I walk on Crawford street; the street of the Hotel, at night.
I am currently trying to buy the Hotel and remodel it into what it once was.
Submitted from: Austin Bennett, TX, USA

“It is a great pleasure to me to pay for my room in this magnificent hotel. It was beyond my expectations, and nowhere, in my travels, have I found a hotel any better equipped and with better accommodations.” — Harry Houdini, as reported in the Denison Herald, October 14, 1924.

http://www.denisonalumniassociation.com/hoteldenison.htm

Dennison, TX

At the end of July we traveled out to Texas to visit with Jeff's family for a few days. Our first stop was Denison, Texas. Denison is the birthplace of President Dwight Eishenhower. Dylan loves studying the president's and was excited to tour the birthplace of the former president.

Panama City Beach

While my niece, Alyssa, was visiting us, I decided to take her down to Panama City for her first visit ever to the ocean. My friend, Lisa, and her family were down there on vacation, so we drove down to spend some time with them on the beach.

I love this pic of the boys!

The boys love spending time down at the ocean.

Alyssa on the beach for the first time ever!

Riley and his best friend, Seth.

Dylan had to hang with the girls, Alyssa and Ashley, but he didn't mind.

Pensacola, FL

We made a trip down to Pensacola Beach to for a weekend of fun with the Water's family. It has become a tradition that we always take the boys to Hooter's for dinner when we go out of town. Taylor & Aaron are trying to hit all the Hooter's restaurants in the southeast.

I just couldn't resist this picture of Taylor & Aaron
"spooning". It will make a great "bribe" picture someday!

Taylor's new ride

With Taylor hitting the road soon (okay 7 more months)...we decided to help him out with his first ride. We bought him this Dodge Truck to get him around town.

Taylor's new wheels A view from inside.
The front....what a pretty truck!
This one is Taylor after some of the neighborhood girls straightened his hair!

Jeff's Birthday

We celebrated Jeff's 38th birthday with dinner at Olive Garden with some friends Ben & Kristen. We then returned home for Jeff's favorite carrot cake and cupcakes for the kiddos.

Yes...we put 38 candles on the cake.

Darrien and Alyssa

Dylan, Alyssa and Lizzy (our newest family member).

Where's the fire extinguisher???