Live a Meaningful Life

We woke up really early on June 28th and headed to Atlanta. Johnny had to attend a work related conference, and of course, we tagged along. Our first stop--Six Flags. In case you didn't know, Six Flags has a Read to Succeed Program. If you are a teacher (public or homeschool), you can register your class for the program (really simple process) online. In March you log how many hours of recreational reading each student completed. If it is 6 hours or more they receive free tickets to Six Flags and the teacher receives free tickets as well. This trip was a little extra special--Granny went with us! We love for Granny to go with us! Six Flags on Sunday, June 28th was EXTRA crowded. While we did get a handful of rides in and some time at the waterpark, it seemed that most of our day was walking and standing in long lines! Our favorite memory--Granny on the roller coaster! We have a video!! The next day, Johnny attended sessions and we just hung out at the hotel,...

Monday morning Jackson wanted to go for an early swim at the hotel. He led me down the elevator to the bottom floor and up the escalator to the second floor. Yes, the elevator stops at the second floor, it just isn't nearly as fun. We rounded the corner and made our way to the pool. I chatted briefly with the ladies doing aerobics in the pool and made my way to a nice cushiony chair. Jackson splashed, jumped and swam around. I would often hear "Hey, Mom, watch this!" I watched and cheered as he performed his antics.  After some time had passed I noticed that one of the ladies doing aerobics was walking towards me. She smiled politely as I made eye contact and said, "Let me start this conversation by saying you have a very beautiful child." My mind started racing as she dried some water beads off of her legs. "What in the world did he do that I missed? What has he said?" I even muttered a quick prayer, something similar to, "Oh Lord, please don...

Let's see...where was I? We just changed locations from NC back to TN to the Ocoee.  This time, we set up camp riverside.  Here were our sleeping arrangements. Who needs a noise machine? We had all you could want--flowing creek, insects, trees rustling... June 19th This day turned out to be a day of "firsts." John Gannon had been begging to go down the Ocoee in the duck. We were hesitant, not really sure if he would be ready for such a task. Just as a point of reference, you must be 12 to raft with a commercial company. Two years prior when we all paddled the Hiwassee River he flipped in a rapid and panicked and that rapid wasn't a big deal. All the rapids on the Ocoee are big deals. We finally said we would give it a try. So, after a little gathering of things together they were off... They ran it perfectly until the last large rapid (Hell's Hole). They flipped the boat but within a few seconds, John popped up. Johnny got on top of the flipped...