Jack got his very first inside-the-park HR this weekend!

It's been a LOONG time since I've posted anything on there, but I just sent this email to Grammie and my brothers and wanted to save it here too:

It's been a while and I know you all have been wondering how Jack's been doing with baseball, so I wanted to send a quick update.

He's had plenty of over-the-fence homers but has never gotten an inside-the-park homer, until this weekend.  That boy is SO FAST!  There were 2 runners on base and he hit a line drive down the 3rd base line that got past the left fielder and rolled to the back left corner of the fence.  He flew around the bases and as he was approaching 3rd, he glanced at the left fielder and his 3rd base coach.  The coach kind'of shrugged his shoulders (meaning: "if you think you can make it, go for it") and the left fielder was just getting ready to throw the ball, so he went for it.  The throw was on target, but he slide on the back side of the base and caught it with his hand as the catcher tried to lay down the tag and was SAFE!  It was very exciting and the whole team ran out to congratulate him (just like a regular over-the-fence homer).

I know inside-the-park homers are no big deal when you're younger and happen all the time b/c the kids can't catch, throw, make errors, etc. but at this age, these kids are GOOD.  He's playing for the Castle Cub team which basically means the team consists of the best 8th graders in Warrick Country.  He's known these boys most of his life, but they all went to about 5 different travel teams for the past 4-5 years.  Now they're all back on the same team and it is so fun to watch them play together.  Several of the kids on Jack's travel team made the Cub team, but honestly, only Jack and 2 other kids are starters.  The other starters are from different travel teams.  So far, they are 6-0 and I think they have a chance to go undefeated.  There is so much talent on that team.  I know I'm VERY biased but everyone keeps telling us how good Jack looks out there, and I never thought this would be true, but I really think he's the best kid on the freekin team!  His bat has been red hot.  He's playing great on 1st base and SS.  He's leading the team in stolen bases.  His pitching is damn near perfect so far.  I just can't believe how good he's doing.

I know I've just jinxed him by sending this email, but Mom and Greg, if you get a chance to come watch, I think you'll really enjoy it.

Love you all!!!
Jeff

I got this great email from Missy today

I got this great email from Missy today:

Subject: Your Dad

Would've been 73 today. I think of him often and wish he was still here to get to see our kids grow up.  I think he and Jack would be so close.

I love you honey!


It touched me a great deal and I wrote the following response:

Wow, thanks honey! I'm so glad you still think of him. I definitely do too. I think Jack has a lot of my Dad's qualities. Very confident, loves the outdoors, very athletic, and "moves well". I used to love watching my Dad do things. He just "moved" so well. It used to crack me up! I see the same things in Jack. Everything he does, looks perfect!

Sunday, June 29

Jeff and Jack have been dirt biking more regularly since he quit baseball and the girls and Jack B. were wanting to go.  While I went to Dylen's All Star Champ game in Newburgh, Jeff took them to Greg and Billie's.  After the game, I went out there.  As I drove up, there was Abby on Jack's dirt bike and Ally on a small 4-wheeler.  Both had on helmets but I was a nervous wreck.  I drove up and parked and was talking to Greg and Jeff about Dyl's game.  I was there maybe 5 minutes when Ally stopped and said "Watch this" and started off on the 4-wheeler standing.  As she rounded the front of their yard a good 200 feet from us, I saw her flip.  I told Jeff and about that time Jack came running from that direction yelling she broke her arm.  Jeff took off running and I kicked off my flip flops and took off too.  I decided to turn around and get my car as Greg was taking off on Jeff's dirt bike.  I jumped in my car and backed up as fast as I could while Jeff was running towards me with Ally...still with her helmet on.  I expected to see her arm really broke but couldn't see much.  We took her helmet off and buckled her in and I took off.  Her left wrist was swollen but no obvious signs of a break.  She cried the whole way to the ER.  We arrived at Deaconess Gateway ER and they got her right in and put ice on her arm.  Jeff and Abby showed up not too long after we got there.  Abby was very sweet and worried about Ally.  She said she wished it would've been her.  After a small wait, they did an x-ray and said it was a Buckle Fracture and would need a cast.  Soon, a Orthopedic Tech came and put a temporary cast on.  The Tech was great!  Ally enjoyed being the center of attention and was a trooper.  Monday morning, we called and made an appointment with Ortho and Assoc. for Thursday.  The doctor said she needed to be in a cast for 4 weeks and would then move to a removable splint for some rehab.  Of course, she chose HOT PINK and luckily they had waterproof!  She's done very well...loves being noticed...hasn't slowed down!  She is set to get the cast off on July 29!

Well - the time has come for "the talk" with Jack.  We figured it was time since he hears and sees so much on TV and with his friends.  Also, with him going to Middle School, we are trying to prepare ourselves!  We told him to go upstairs and he looked terrified.  Jeff asked him if he knew what sex was and he said no.  After telling him it was (penis to vagina), he said that's what he heard.  Jeff started with the basics about how sex for procreation, we talked about how to treat girls and not hurt their feelings, how girls can get pregnant, how bodies are changing, etc.  He played with a rubber band and stared at the floor most of the time!  After all was said and done, Jeff asked if he had any questions and he said "when can we play golf"!!! 

Ally won the "Character Counts" award!

I have to brag on my precious Ally a bit here...

One of the neat things they do at Newburgh Elementary is pick one student each week that demonstrates a high level of character and highlight them in the "Character Counts" section.  This is a pretty big deal and the first time one of our kids has won this award.  You have to be nominated by a teacher and it can't be that student's teacher.  They only give it out to one student per week so with 36 weeks of school/year and 620 students in school, it's pretty rare.

It's also very exciting for the kids when they announce the winner every week.  The principal gets on the intercom and reads the story of what this person did to get nominated, which takes a couple of minutes, then he says...  "This week's winner is in 2nd grade....  In Mrs. William's class....  The winner this week is........   ALLY PATTERSON!!!!"  As soon as he announces the winner, the Vice Principal walks into that student's class and gives them a lapel pin, banner, and a gift cert. to a free meal at Olive Garden.  Missy was there and said it was very exciting to hear Ally's name and she was thrilled too.

I was so proud of her b/c I'm always stressing how important it is to help other people and that's exactly what she did!

Abby was the first one...

So I was laying with Abby tonight and we were talking about Suzie and how crazy and sweet she is and out of nowhere, Abby says, "So, did you get Suzie for me or did Santa???"  I was SHOCKED and had no idea what to say... So I said, "Why did you ask that?"  She said, "I just want to  know, now TELL ME!!!"  So I paused for a long, long time and finally said, "Well, I'm not going to lie to you.  Some kids believe in Santa and some don't and that's OK either way."  So she thinks about it for a long time and finally says, "OK then, I believe in him."

That girl is so stinking smart.

We had a crazy game this past weekend that I just have to capture here.  We played in the inaugural Mad Dog Bats wood bat tournament in Terre Haute, IN.  First time we've ever played in a wood bat tourney and it was awesome.  The boys did very well on Sat. and ended up 2nd seed in our division going into Sunday.  We won our first game easily then won our second game pretty easily too, so we made it to the championship game and were on a roll.  We were playing the Indy Hurricanes.  We had never played them before but they were a great team.  The first 6 innings were very exciting.  Lots of hits and good defense, but neither team scored so we went to overtime tied at 0-0.  We were visitors so we batted first.  We finally managed to score a run in the 7th so our boys were fired up.  But the Canes came back and got a run too and tied us 1-1 going into the 8th.  No one scored in the 8th so we went into the 9th inning still tied 1-1.  They had a strange rule where if you get to the 9th inning, you have to play "California rules" where they give you 1 out, but you get a runner on 2nd.  That really helped us and we got another run in the 9th to have a 2-1 lead.  Well, the Hurricanes fought hard and managed to get another run to tie us 2-2.  Then they got a few  more hits and ended up with bases loaded and 2 outs.  So they were the home team and if they scored another run, the game was over and we'd lose.  Cole Royster was pitching and he was visibly nervous when the next batter got up.  The first pitch was a ball.  The second pitch was a ball...  The THIRD pitch was a ball!!!  I've never been so nervous in all my life!!!  One more ball and the game is over - he'd walk that batter which would bring in the winning run.  Poor Cole looked like he was hyperventilating.  Then he finally pulls it together and throws a strike!  Then another strike!!!  So it's full count, 2 outs, bases loaded.  Suddenly the umpire yells "TIME OUT" then walks over to the field ump and they start talking.  Chad freaks out and yells, "ARE YOU SHITTING ME"????  We had no idea what the heck he was doing but we thought maybe he was trying to ice our pitcher.  The ump gives Chad a warning for cussing then walks over to the sidelines to talk to the tournament director.  Finally he tells us the batter is out because he started to bunt but then took a swing.  He couldn't remember if that was a rule or not so he had to double-check with the other guys.  So we MAGICALLY managed to get out of that inning and made it to the 10th inning tied 2-2.  Our boys were super fired up and rallied a bit and put up 3 more runs to have a 5-2 lead.  Then we held them in the bottom of the 10th and ended up winning the championship game 5-2 in 10 innings!  

I was so proud of those buys. They played 3 games that day and the last one was almost 3 hours long!  We were at the ball field for 10 hours that day.  Crazy.  But it was worth it to have a story like that to tell.

Last night Ally asked to be in the Hip Hop Production at D'Alto's.  I told her she had to choose between that and Light Company at church.  She sat there for a minute and thought about it and finally said "I choose dance because dance is my life and I've only known God since I was 5"!! :-) It was so cute!!

Abby cracks me up

This happened while we were camping at Lincoln State Park on June 9th, but again, I suck and am just now posting this.  There was this huge section of Amish people camping and they were taking up 3-4 sites.  I don't think I've ever seen Amish people camping so it was very strange to see the women with their hats and dresses and all the men with their hats and beards.  I took the kids on a walk to the lake and we walked right in front of their campgrounds.  There were about 30-40 of them sitting in a big circle with one guy in the middle reading from a book.  We couldn't hear what he was saying but they were all very quiet and he was the only one talking so I figured they were doing some kind of church service.  The kids asked what they were doing and I whispered, "I'm not sure, but I think they are in church."  Well, Abby speaks up in her loud little voice and says, "I know what they're doing Daddy.  They're eating turkey!!!"  Of course they all heard her and looked over at us and it took me a minute to figure out what she meant, but then it dawned on me...  She thought they were Pilgrims! 

That girl cracks me up!

Jack probably had the best game of his life on Sat!

This happened on Sat. June 9th and I'm just now getting to post it.  I know, I suck.  Better late than never I guess:

Jack probably had the best game of his life on Sat!

Unfortunately, it happened when NO ONE was there!  :)  We were camping so it was too complicated to pick up Mom and Gary and Marlena stayed at the campground with the girls, so the only witnesses were Missy and I.  It was the first game of the tournament and I think the score ended up being 14-8 (we won).  I won't bore you all with the details, but here are the highlights.

- Starting pitcher for 2 innings.  They got plenty of hits, but he struck out several batters and no runs scored.
- Second inning, he struck out the first 2 batters and then the third batter hit a grounder and he scooped it up and threw it to 1st and got him out!  3 up - 3 down!!
- Got up 3 times: 2 doubles and a triple!
- Had his best game ever at SS.  He tagged a runner trying to steal 2nd.  They hit a very hard ball right up the middle and he ran over and scooped it up then threw the runner out at 1st (running the whole time!)  They had a runner on 2nd that was getting way off the base after every pitch so the pitcher threw the ball to Jack at 2nd and they had him in a pickle.  Our 3rd baseman isn't very good so Jack decided to chase the kid down.  I've never seen that boy run so fast!  He kicked it into high gear and tagged the boy out about 3 feet from 3rd base!  Poor guy needed oxygen after that, but it was very exciting.

He usually has small moments of greatness at every game (especially to his Dad), but almost always makes a couple of silly mistakes, and can't get everything working at the same time.  He made absolutely no mistakes at all on Sat.  I even had 2 or 3 parents tell me how well Jack played and that hardly ever happens.  I usually wonder if he deserves to be on the 9U "A" all-star team, but Sat. was one of those games where I felt like he DEFINITELY deserves it.

After having strep throat 7 times in 6 months, Dr. Cochran said Ally needed to see an ENT.  He referred us to Dr. Detweiler.  Dr. Detweiler was great.  He said when they look at tonsils, they can by in different stages between 0 and 5 (5 being the worst).  Well, Ally’s never goes down.  They stay around 2 or worse.  They usually take out tonsils if the child has strep more than 6 times in a year.  Ally was on your way to double that!  So, we set up an appointment to get her tonsils and adenoids out on June 1^st after school was out.  Ally was actually excited since everyone kept telling her she’d get lots of ice cream.  I was worried.  She doesn’t eat as it is so I didn’t know what to expect.  Dr. D said he wanted her to eat everything she could after the surgery to help keep the scabs from forming.  He also said days 5-9 would probably be the worst because that’s when the anesthesia starts to wear off completely and the scabs start.  Jeff and I took her that morning to the Surgery Center.  I think she was a little nervous but was good.  When they called her back, we went to a little triage type room with a recliner.  She changed into a gown and socks.  The anesthesiologist came to talk to us.  She was super nice and tried to ease all of Ally’s worries.  Dr. D came in and talked to us too.  They finally came to get her and we went to the waiting room.  I swear there were 10 other kids there getting their tonsils out at the same time!!  We were only in the waiting room 15 minutes when Dr. D came out and said she did great and also handed me a cup with her top front tooth inside!  It was loose so they pulled it to avoid knocking it out and her swallowing it.  After anyone 15 minutes or so, they said we could go back and see her.  As we walked through the door, she was waking up in the bed they wheeled her in on.  She saw us and began to sob.  It was so sad.  They put us in a little room with a TV and a recliner.  I sat in the recliner and she sat on the my lap.  She just cried and cried.  She wouldn’t swallow or talk for a while…it was heartbreaking.  Jeff left to go back to work and that upset her so I called Lori and she came to visit with gifts (a pink headband and pink bracelets).  That helped a bit! J  They kept encouraging her to drink and eat.  At first she wouldn’t.  She had an IV so they gave her some more meds.  After those kicked in a bit, they gave her some Ibuprofen.  They told her she couldn’t leave until she ate something.  She finally perked up a little and ate a cup of chocolate pudding and drank some Sprite.  She was even smiling and laughing at herself in the mirror with her front tooth missing!  Right around noon, we got to leave.  We headed to CVS to get her pain meds and then headed to pick up Jack and Abby.  By 12:30, we were home.  Just 3.5 hours from surgery to home!!  At home, she took Ibuprofen or Lortab every 2 hours and did really well.  She watched a movie when she got home but ate lunch and then even at one point went outside!  I was shocked.  Jack had a game Saturday and she went to that.  She seemed to be doing great.  They had told us that days 5-9 would be the worst.  Around day 5, she started throwing up.  She was miserable.  I called and they said they didn’t want that pressure on her throat so we had to give her an enema…that didn’t go well.  She went through some ear pain and sore throat during those day…missing a couple days of VBS.  But, on day 9, she didn’t get any medicine all day and she was done.  All-in-all, she did great…a lot better than I thought she’d do.  She was a trooper!!

I met the girls for lunch for the first time today!

I took an early lunch today and picked up some food and took it to the girls for lunch today and it was really amazing. They were so happy and excited to see me and they were really proud to have me there. I don't think I've ever seen Abby smile and talk so much. Ally just kept hugging me and holding my hand and telling me she loved me. I wish they were always so happy and nice to me! I brought them some breadsticks and cheese from Subway/Noble Romans with a juice box for each one. They were really hungry because they did not eat breakfast this morning because they knew I was meeting them for lunch and they wanted to be hungry. After lunch we went out to the playground and it was really neat to see how they played and acted around their friends. Girls are much different than boys. Jack was the "ring leader" when he was that age and everyone kind'of following him around and tried to get him to do stuff with them. He had to keep telling them "no thanks" so he could stay by my side and be with me. The girls were totally different. All of their friends flocked around me and wanted me to play with them. But Ally and Abby wouldn't let go of my hands, so I really couldn't do much. We did try to play a game of "hot potato", but that didn't work out very well, because some little girl named "Mira" (I think) kept taking the ball and trying to boss everyone around and tell them where to stand and what to do. She was really annoying! Finally I took the girls aside and told them to not do what Mira wanted to do and to do whatever THEY wanted to do. Then Mira comes up and tries to listen in on our conversation and I finally had to tell her that I was trying to have a private conversation with my daughters and to go somewhere else! That girl will probably be President some day, but I'd kill her if she was my kid! After we finally got away from Mira, we had a really good time. They kept asking me to watch them do things. I watched Abby do the monkey bars, helped Ally do them, watched them both climb the rock wall, climbed some dome thing with them, and took turns pushing each of them (and a couple of their friends) on a swing.  They took me to their room and showed me where each one sits.  They each gave me a huge hug and kiss and Abby did not let go.  I had to pull her away from me!

It was one of the best lunches I've ever had and I can't wait to do it again soon.  I love those girls so much.

The Brokenness of VXX

This is in response to Jared Woodard's post "The Unbrokenness of VXX":

http://condoroptions.com/2012/03/22/the-unbrokenness-of-vxx

I don't know enough about VXX to claim it is broken, but I would love to know why sometimes it doesn't follow the VIX very closely at all. 3/19/2012 and 3/20/2012 are prefect examples IMO.


Here is the 5 min. chart of the VIX on 3/19 and 3/20:



And here is the 5 min. chart of the VXX on 3/19 and 3/20:




Those charts don't look very similar at all to me. The VIX clearly closed higher on 3/20 than it did on 3/19, but the VXX clearly closed LOWER on 3/20 than it did on 3/19.

I would love to understand why this happened so I could trade accordingly.

Thanks Jared!
Jeff

Abby lost her first tooth yesterday

We took my Mom out to Cheeseburger in Paradise for her birthday last night and Abby was showing her loose tooth to everyone because she was so excited to finally be losing her first tooth and it was hanging by a thread. She has been trying to pull it out for the past week or so, but quit trying when it got really close to coming out (probably b/c it hurt a bit). It was so close to coming out at dinner, but she wouldn't let anyone touch it. Then at the end of the meal, she asked Grant if she could have one of his gummy bears. She started eating it but after a few seconds, said she wanted to spit it out (which was very unusual for her). So I let her spit it out into my hand then I threw it on one of the dirty dishes. A few min. later, she noticed that her tooth was gone! Everyone started freaking out b/c we thought she swallowed it or dropped it on the floor. Finally I thought to look in the gummy bear, and sure enough, there it was! We asked her later why she wanted to spit out the gummy bear and she said, "because it was crunchy"!

That night, before bed, she made a little note for the Tooth Fairy and told him she liked him. I laid with her and she said, "Daddy, I really want to see the Tooth Fairy". I told her just to stay awake as long as she can and maybe she will. 5 min. later, she was sound asleep.

The Tooth Fairy brought her a $5 bill and she came running into out room at 5am to show Mommy.

Since December 31st (New Year's Eve) 2011, we started going to church on Saturday nights at Crossroads. After having problems time and again, Mom said this was our solution! She was right!!! It's been 6 weeks and we haven't missed a service. The kids are now involved in Choir and Jack is starting at The Light Company on Wednesday after school next week. It's been overwhelming how much of a difference it's made in our lives. Having someone to turn to and REALLY pray to is such a blessing. Yesterday, after Choir, I received the email below from the girls' (and Dylen's) teacher. So sweet!

*******

-PRAISE moment = During rehearsal this evening, I was in awe of the beauty of worship with these young ones. It was one of those times when you wish there was a hidden camera to capture it! Even though the upbeat songs are what make us want to dance, the slow songs can sometimes speak volumes for what these kids really understand. While singing the song, "Jesus with you," I asked the kids to sing the song with their eyes closed and in a worship pose. We talked about
worshiping with hands raised or hands on heart or hands folded in lap. In that beautiful moment of singing, these kids were in their choice worship pose worshiping God with eyes closed and hearts raised to the Lord. May this thought rest in your soul as you remember what great job you are doing by encouraging your kids to take part in these great worship activities.

Miss Abby

Abby was sick and stayed at Grandma's while we worked. Even though she was sick, she still had to be busy. She's soooo funny!!









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Jack's First All Star Mention!

Jack is doing great in All Stars. He's positive, hard working and gives 110%. We are very proud of him!

Letter to Grammie (Day 5 of our RV trip)

The weather was very nice today (mostly sunny and about 75 degrees) but it started raining again about 6:00 so we still haven't had a chance to sit by the fire at this campground. That's OK though. They had a blast today. This campground has a million things to do and on Wednesdays they have this special deal where you buy a wristband and get to do all the activities unlimited from 11-3 so they played miniature golf, rode go carts, rode bumper boats, had a water balloon fight, jumped on a huge trampoline, swam in the pool, and slide down a water slide. They were all too short to ride the go carts by themselves, so Missy and I had to take them so that was a lot of fun. I cannot believe the amount of money they have invested in this campground. This is like the Disney of campgrounds! We had a lot of fun today. The weather started looking bad so we decided to head into town (downtown Port Huron) for dinner and found a really neat restaurant right by Lake Huron. There were lots of boats in marinas, but we didn't see any coming or going (probably b/c of the weather). But it was a very good meal and very affordable too for some reason. It was a pretty old restaurant called Quay Street Brewery and Restaurant and I think they just haven't been raising their prices to match other restaurants. Then we came back to the campground and watched Air Buddies in their theatre. We're all in the camper now getting ready for bed. We have to leave for our last destination tomorrow so our trip is winding down. We only stay one night at this last place and then we head home on Friday. I think everyone is about sick of living in this cramped RV (especially when it's raining) so I doubt anyone will be sad to get home. We've had a ton of fun though and the best part is all the time we've spent together. The kids really start hanging on me when we take trips like this and I really love that part. They all want to hold my hand when we walk, sit in my lap when we sit or just climb on me when there's nothing else to do. Normally that stuff kind'of annoys me b/c I usually have something else to do but I really love it on vacations like this. I've probably only spent 2 hours total on the computer this whole trip and 90% of that was writing these emails to you! So that alone is a testament to how much time we've spent together.

Well, I'll try to write more tomorrow night but we might be busy packing and cleaning so I might not have a chance. Thanks for "listening"!

Love you,
Jeff

Letter to Grammie (Day 4 of our RV trip)

Yes, we are in Michigan. Right near the US/Canada border. I actually thought Port Huron was in Canada, but I was wrong, it's in the US in Michigan. We've seen 3 of the Great Lakes on this trip. First was Lake Erie, then we saw quite a bit of Lake Ontario on the road today and now we're right next to Lake Huron.

Niagara Falls was awesome and I think we did everything you can do. But we made the mistake of going to the US side of the falls first instead of going to the Canadian side. The US side was closer and it was amazing and we walked around for hours looking at all the sights and the kids ended up getting pretty tired so by the time we went over to Canada and saw the amazing, amazing horseshoe falls, they were kind'of sick of the place and ready to go home. I basically had to run over there and take a few snapshots of the horseshoe falls when that's where we should have been standing and admiring it all. But we did have a blast and did a lot of cool stuff. We walked over a small walking bridge that crosses the Niagara River just north of the falls. The water flowing over those rapids was incredible. They said it flows about 35 MPG and I could believe it. Then we walked for miles around the American Falls and looked it them from all angles. There are some lookouts that are literally about 5 feet from the edge of the falls. Then we went up that lookout tower and got some great shots from up there. Then we did the Maid of the Mist. I know we did that as kids, but I sure didn't remember how amazing that was to be at the base of those falls and hear that roaring water and get soaked from all the water mist. The kids absolutely loved that and I'm so glad we went. After that we drove through customs and into Canada. That was pretty cool too. By that time everyone was getting kind'of cranky and everything was very far from the parking lot so we did lots of walking in the hot sun until we stopped at a very cool restaurant for lunch/dinner. That revived everyone quite a bit and raised the spirits so we had enough energy to make it to the horseshoe falls. I took a ton of pictures from all angles and I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Well, we finally got some rain. We're sitting in the camper right now in the middle of a pretty bad thunderstorm. Missy is scared to death, luckily the kids are sleeping, and I'm loving it! There's nothing better than camping in a thunderstorm to give you that "close to nature" feeling. Technology is great in these situations. Missy's on the Weather Channel on her phone watching the live radar so we can tell that the worst is almost over, but back in the old days you had to listen to the pattern of the rain and make a judgment call on staying for the reward of a beautiful day the next day or potentially getting stuck in a 3 day monsoon. We're pretty far from home right now so we don't have much choice!

I'll send more later. I think the plan for tomorrow is to hang out at this campsite. This is by far the coolest campsite I've ever seen. We might venture into town and see the lake and beach. Kind'of depends on the weather too.

Love you,
Jeff

Letter to Grammie (Day 2 of our RV trip)

Yes, they are known as the "roller coaster capital of the world". They have more roller coasters than any other park and some of the coolest ones in the world. I only rode 2 and they kicked my butt.

Yes, that's Lake Erie. We're driving around the whole thing! We're in Grand Island next to Niagara Falls right now. This campground is awesome too. The kids are playing in the pool that had 2 slides and Missy and I are sitting in the shade relaxing. It's pure sun and 70 degrees - absolutely perfect! I think we're going to hang out at the campground today and head to NF tomorrow morning. Camping like this on a road trip really is the perfect way to do it. There's always something to do and you never get bored. Jack already met a new friend named Cameron who just invited him to play "Ghosts and Graveyards" tonight at 9:30. Jack said, "I think I have to go to bed at 9:30". :) We drive right next to Niagara River on the way here and you could see the water flowing very quickly. There were tons of boats in the river, but it seems like it would be spooky to me. If your engine ever died, it seems like you'd only have a few minutes before you'd go over the falls! We saw a boat trying to go against the current and it was kicking up tons of waves, but barely moving! Crazy.

Well, I'll write more tonight or tomorrow. Love you!
Jeff