Fun with Fam PART TWO

Train ride to Royal Gorge

Fun with Fam Part ONE

Seven Falls at Night

Mimzy, Pop Pop and Bradojets

I am finally blogging about the wonderful week with my mom, dad and Brady. This was the first time Sam got to meet Brady. Brady was so cute with him. Brady has spent the last year and 1/2 in Central and South America.





(Note the cute alpaca wool sweater above and the jammin' pants below… both gifts from Mimzy and Pop Pop during their visit with Brady to Bolivia and Peru)


We also got to celebrate Brady's birthday while they were here. I asked Brady what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said, "Spend it with Sam." Sam is one lucky little boy.

Mexigonia Weekly

My brother, Brady, and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, are off on a ridiculously amazing adventure. They have bought a 1981 Rabbit Volkswagen and are driving through Central America to South America. They met last summer (2008) while doing an journalism internship in Washington D.C. Their plan is to document their travels while learning more about the region and cultures. They plan to be gone for over a year! If you would like to check them out, go to http://www.mexigonia.com/.

They stopped by for a visit before they begin their trip. We got to see their sweet ride that runs on diesel and vegetable oil. They have buckets and a pillow case filter so they can stop off at restaurants and use their old cooking oil as fuel. I love that their car has a ton of personality with yellow rims and red seat belts. It only goes 55 mph and they have to warm some plugs before they start it. They are so adventurous. I am sure they will have a wonderful time and I am sure my mom will be up many nights worrying about them.

(notice their spare tires in the back seat)

I love you Brady and Elizabeth.

....and they're off.

Valentine's Visitors

We had the pleasure of Brady coming up from Georgia and Elizabeth, his girlfriend, coming down from New Jersey to spend the valentine's day weekend with us. We managed to have some fun activities and enjoyed the weekend with them.

WE had a few fun activities on Saturday. We went up to the Tobacco museum at Duke Homestead in Durham Saturday morning. The had a replica of the liberty bell made out of 350 pounds of tobacco. Outside they had an old time working tobacco farm. The museum was so convincing Brady and Cheyney momentarily tried to smoke some tobacco outside but they didn't have a lighter. After that we toured around Duke University and went to the chapel.

That evening we went down to an indoor skydiving place. We were filmed but the DVD doesn't convert or at least I cant do it yet. It was awesome though. Its the closet I (Ryan) can come to flying since I don't dare jump out of an airplane like the other three already have.

You know when you are cruising down the freeway and you put your hand out? Well its like doing that with your whole body inside a giant wind tunnel. I recommend it to all those who want to try. Here is an ad that shows what it was like.


Here is a quick sideshow of the day's activities below.

On the road to Athens

... Athens Georgia that is. I lived in this apartment with Jenny for a semester. What great memories! We would stay up late listening to Lenny Kravitz and watching Party of Five.

Next was our tour of campus.

My parents have really taken to retirement. After sushi, Brady wanted to take us to the Georgia Theater to watch a band. Ryan and I were tired at 10 p.m. and ready to go to bed but Mom and Dad were up for a concert. The first band, Jar-e, was great with an awesome saxophone. Next was a D.J. or mix master and finally Toubab Krewe.
By this point, it was packed. We thought smoking was outlawed indoors in Georgia like 5 years ago but it was a total hot box in there. Mom and I saw someone light up a joint right next to us. We were a little concerned about wearing our coats into church the next day.

Finally, we had our own concert at Brady's place. Mom and Dad rocked on Guitar Hero. Brady was a great host and it was fun acting like a college student again.

God Bless America

We had a great weekend trip to D.C. Brady is there doing a journalism internship. His girlfriend, Meg, flew out for the weekend AND Brad and Ashley (my cousins) were there for a weekend vacation sponsored by Brad's work. It was all too good to be true. A super nice perk was Brad and Ash were put up in the Marriott 2 blocks from the White House that they graciously let us stay in with them. It was a million degrees out side with 200% humidity so we tried to spend a lot of time indoors in museums. It was so great to be with family. I already miss Brad's sense of humor and that Ashley is my twin separated at birth.


I am so proud of Brady living in D.C. What a smart cookie! He has already been published. I am jealous of his D.C. life, public transportation, and ghetto apartment.
This is Brady's apartment, almost as bad as mine in L.A. He sleeps in the living room on the floor. Does this sound like someone else we know? We have to plan another trip to visit him before he leaves in August. Anyone want to come with?

Freakin' Metal

Yes! This is my brother, Brady. Don't worry, he really isn't this redneck. Just a fun 5 minute phase between haircuts. This is an ode to my brother because he just got back from Russia. This boy is OUT OF CONTROL. In the last 12 months, he has lived and adventured in Santiago, Chile, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, St. Petersburg, Russia and Athens........... well, Georgia.

I just found out that he had a girlfriend while he was in St. Petersburg. Naturally, I dont find this out from him. He is way too secretive. I found it out from mom. She saw him walking hand in hand with a cute redhead (another UGA student). My mother felt very awkward seeing her little boy (23 years old) expressing himself this way. Everything becomes brighter and more significant when one can experience interdigitating in a foreign country. Common sense becomes cloudy because all that is wanted is an enchanted courtship. I had a romance in Russia as well. Eventhough he wasn't Russian but American and not Mormon, I thought he was the cat's meow. We got lost touring the Tzar's village and kissed during fireworks. I thought it would last because he promised to stop drinking and talk to the missionaries. When I got home, I realized he was fat.

Sorry, back to Brady. As you can tell, Brady is full of adventure. I like to think that he is following in my footsteps but he is really in a different league. He used to blow fire. You know, like put gasoline in his mouth and spit it on a torch. He almost died doing it, of course. The flame followed back to his mouth and his body went up in flames. After the fire was out, he decided that it was time to go to bed and stated, "I am a little burnt out." He spent the next day trying to hide his 2nd degree burns from my mom by wearing a hat and only looking at people with his head turned showing his good side. Well, I am not very smart because for Christmas I gave him the belt he is sporting in the picture. It not only has a big gawdy redneck buckle, but also doubles as a lighter.

Brady truly is my kindred spirit. We both have the "Webb Round Face". This is like our gang or caste system because Branagan and McKay have "oval" faces. Anything Brady and I excel at, we attribute to our round face superiority. I just wanted everyone to know that my brother is freakin' METAL!!!