Jay Baugh - Lip Sync Champion

To say Jay was excited about his last High School Band Camp would be an understatement.  As always, it started with a couple of days of Rookie Camp to help teach the incoming Freshmen how to march and play at the same time.  Then it went to 2 weeks of full time work....8am-6pm the first week....then 8a

m-830pm the 2nd week.  The last day of camp is always a private performance for the parents to show them the new program, and let me just say, I think this year's program may be my favorite.

Along with all the work they put in, they do get to have a little bit of fun.  Each day is a different theme, and the kids all dress up.  As you can see in the photo, Jay(ne) went all out on backwards day (where the boys dressed like girls...and vice versa).  They also had competitions each day.  I'm so proud to say that my son is the Gatorade Guzzle champion...AND the Lip Sync Champion!!  A student captured Jay's Lip Sync performance on video, and I felt obliged to include it here.  Enjoy!

Family Cruise 2015

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Family Cruise 2015 is in the history books!  We had so much fun!  it was the first time that we had ever all been on vacation together at the same time.  In total there were 29 people in our group.  We all boarded the Carnival Glory out of Miami, FL and we went to 4 different ports:  Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas; St Thomas in US Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Grand Turk.  By far, the best 2 stops were Half Moon Cay and St Thomas.  In Half Moon Cay, the water was crystal clear.  We rented some tubes and mats, and Carnival had a big barbecue on the beach for everyone.  Cody got some good video with his go pro here.  In St Thomas, we took a 40 minute boat ride over to the island of St John (it is only accessible by boat) and, on the ride over, we saw lots of famous peoples' houses (Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Madonna, David Letterman). When we arrived to St John, we went into the US Virgin

Trunk Bay - St John

Island National Park to the beach at Trunk Bay.  It is listed as the 3rd 'most beautiful' beach in the entire world.  We went snorkeling here, and loved it!  We saw lots of fish and coral along the snorkeling trails there.  In San Juan, we just walked into town from the pier.  We stopped at CVS and got a few groceries, took some pictures at Senor Frogs, and got back on the boat.  San Juan is not one
of my favorite places...it is just nasty.  In Grand Turk, we docked right on the beach.  There is a new shopping area that had a Margaritaville with a HUGE swimming pool that we hung out in for a long time, and Cody and Riley snorkeled in the ocean again for a little while.

The ship we were on was pretty cool.  It had been refurbished in 2012, so it had all the new Carnival bells and whistles.  Like Guy's Burger Joint (we had a BUNCH of burgers!).  It also had a big waterslide that Riley rode 212 times!  It had a taco bar that me, Jay, and Cody ate pretty much everyday.  Riley and Cody won at sports trivia one night and got a trophy.  We watched some amazing musical shows, played bingo, and saw lifesize Hasbro boardgame shows.  Jay tried all sorts of new and 'amazing' foods that he had been wanting to try....octopus (he did not care for it), ratatouille, ox tongue, and frog legs!  We had a great waiter named Vane.  He was from Macedonia,
and he made all our dinners very enjoyable.  He cut up with the boys, and they all had a blast!


The best part of the trip for me was just being able to shut down my cell phone for a week, and spend time with the people that I love the most.  Hopefully we made lots of memories that will last a lifetime!

To see all of our Cruise 2015 pictures, click here

2014 JCCHS Band - 'Into the Light' performance

From the first day that we saw the 'parent performance' of this show, we were amazed.  To take 80 Freshman who had never marched before and teach them all of this in a 2 week band camp is just unbelievable to me!  Apparently we were not the only ones that enjoyed it.  This band went won grand champion at the competition in Milledgeville, GA.  And they also placed ahead of numerous nationally ranked bands at competitions at Habersham, at Jacksonville State University, and at UT-Chattanooga.  This is the band that has put JCCHS on a national stage. They have even been invited to go to London, England on New Years Day 2017!
Jay, you guys were so good.  Everyone talked about how powerful (loud) you were.  Your band just seemed to blow everybody else away.  Above all else, you seem happier than you ever have.  Your love of music is something that I believe will stay with you throughout the rest of your life.  You just let it shine through you!  I love you, and I am SO proud of you!

Riley's 1st Falcons game

Riley has been waiting 10 years to get to go to the GA Dome to watch the Falcons play.  Today he finally got that chance.  We got tickets to see the Falcons play the Arizona Cardinals.  Both teams were in 1st place, so it had the makings of a pretty good game, and it did not disappoint.  The Falcons pretty much dominated from beginning to end.  They ended up winning 29-18.  We got to see Matt Ryan, Julio Jones (who set a career high with 189 receiving yards), and Devin Hester (he is REALLY fast).  Roddy White was hurt and did not play, but we did see him on the sidelines.  For Arizona, we saw Patrick Peterson and the Honey Badger.  Riley really wanted to see Larry Fitzgerald, but he was also injured and did not play. 
We had a pretty good time.  We got there a little early, so we threw a football for a little while in the parking lot.  Then we came in and walked around the dome.  We ended up at an ice cream stand.  I got a brownie ala mode, and Riley got a cherry Italian ice.  VERY Very good!  It was a very good day...cannot wait to do it again!

To see our Falcons game pics, click here

Fernbank Museum of Natural History

I had always thought that Cody would enjoy going down to the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta.  I had went there on a school field trip when i was younger, and just knowing how much Cody likes that type of stuff, I knew that we would have a good time.  So, today when we were looking for something to do, I thought of Fernbank.  Off me and Cody went on our adventure.  Of course we had to stop at The Varsity on the way down to have lunch.  Cody tried one of the best onion rings in the world, but he was not too impressed.  Once we got to Fernbank, we were met by the biggest dinosaur skeleton that we had ever seen.  It was MASSIVE!  Crazy big....3 stories tall, too.  The museum had many dinosaur exhibits.  They also had an exhibit about the different parts of GA and what animals were native to each part.  Cody liked the exhibit on fears....it tested what you were afraid of.  And he also liked the exhibit on your senses...it had a bunch of illusions...and if you know Cody, that is right up his alley.  We finished it off by watching an IMAX movie about the Galapagos Islands, and then we also got to see people perform a Chinese Lion Dance.  All in all, it was a pretty good day for me and Codybug!

To see all of our Fernbank pictures, click here