SWINE TIME and the Harpers

South Georgia is known for its seasonal festivals. Ya'll must have heard of the famous Swine Time, Rattlesnake Roundup and Mule Day. These are big events and we look forward to them all year. Swine Time is the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Climax, GA, population 900. It is a day dedicated to pigs. It has a greased pig catching contest, pig squealing contest, and a chitin eatin' contest. We decided to take advantage of what Swine Time had to offer and started with a 5K for which none of us trained.




Results for our age division:
Ridge: 2nd place

Ryan: 3rd place

Cheyney: 2nd place


McKay: 3rd place


(Don't be too proud of us; I think there were 5 people in each age division)

The Harpers

Jenny and I have been best friends since we were 6 months old. Now she is a mother of 3 beautiful little girls (Shelby, Coby James, and Bay). I love her family so. It is so cool to have a best friend for life.
the thumb suckers .... Look at those friendly chickens!!!

Alligators, manatees, and bald eagles OH MY!!!

The day after Thanksgiving, we got to have the Hill family all to ourselves! My dad has been so excited to take the kids (Emilie, Elisabeth, Alexander, and Benjamin) to Wakula springs. It was a great trip and a must do when visiting the South. We saw 12 alligators, 5 manatees, and 1 bald eagle, not to mention tons of other wild life. I will let the pictures speak for themselves!
As you can see, we were pretty dang close. The gator even hissed at Emilie.

Turkey day traditions

This is Cheyney speaking. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is full of family, friends and fun. Ever since I was little, my family, the Barbers, Meyers and Lunts and others have created priceless traditions. Some have fallen by the way side like: camping out the night before, making a video, and sneaking into the Barbers van before they drive away. I guess we have gotten too tired to sleep outside, too old to make a video (always featuring Garrett on the toilet), and too fat to hide in the Barbers Jeep. But many traditions still stand, even though many are married and making traditions of their own. This year we got Ryan's sister, Wendy, and her darling family to be with us. I hope this will be a new tradition.

#1. Turkey Bowl game: Dads vs. Kids
The dads are getting slower but are recruiting married "kids" to be on the their team. This was my first year on the adult team and the first time the dads have won in about 5 years! Ryan made a touch down. I tried to block for the quarterback and caught a 10 yard pass. I was a HUGE contributor to the team.

Look at me with my awesome blocking skills. I call it the RABBIT STANCE.

California Trip Update

Late post. I was in California Oct 26-29. A few notes:

* I went to the wedding of my wonderful friend Justin and his wife Stephanie. The wedding was in Palm Springs and was just perfect. I'm so happy for them.

* The house they had the reception at was amazing. I stayed there Friday night. It's for sale and I think I could buy it if I saved up my entire income for 114 years.

*At the reception I had a brush with fame. Any of you who grew up in Utah watch Hooked on Aerobics on KBYU? I met Mr. low effort himself, who was the groom's uncle.


*I Made it over to LA for 36 hours and it was way too short. I was only able to say hi to people I much rather would have spent the week with. I stayed with Hubs in Hollywood. I miss him, and miss all of you. I promise to bring Cheyney and spend more time the next time we come out.

*Flew out of Burbank. Nice to see the San Fernando Valley still exists. Hubbel even took me for a drive over to the statue of liberty of the valley.

Tar Heel Date Night

Late Fall is here in Raleigh. Its getting cooler, the leaves have changed, and basketball season is starting. You have to choose a team around here. Every day when you drive around here you see people with magnets, stickers, and flags on their car rooting for their school. We've already decided the team we're rooting for out here is Carolina as opposed to Duke or NC State.We have allegiance to UNC since Cheyn works for them, they used to have Jordan, and they have an excellent basketball team to watch currently ranked at the top.


Cheyn scored some tickets from work and we got to go to the basketball game last night. The exhibition against Shaw had the feeling of a Harlem Globetrotters game. There were a few great dunks and it was a blowout. Cheyn bought herself a shirt for the game on Saturday and I almost was convinced to too, but then I realized that I need to get a new Cougs shirt before that and I felt like I would be cheating.

Video from our seat at the game, tarnished by my mug at the end on other blog.