DeAngelo's Do Disney!!

One of the good things (ok, the only good thing) about Sarah starting school early, is that she gets a Fall Break in the middle of September. This is a great time to vacation, as most other kids are in school - and places like Disneyworld are much less crowded. We went to Orlando from this past Sunday thru Thursday. We spent a solid day each at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. Sarah's favorite ride was definitely the Aerosmith Rollercoaster- a close second was probably the Mission to Mars flight at Epcot. Nick's favorite was Soaring at Epcot, then the Aerosmith coaster as well. Angela had the sentimental favorite of "It's a Small World" - The Fantasmic Show at Hollywood Studios was incredible! We all had a good time and are already planning our next trip back!

More AT Progress

We've been steadily plugging along on the Appalachian Trail this summer. Our short-term goal is to get through all the sections in Georgia - and we've made good progress this summer. This past weekend we completed a 7 mile (round trip) section between Gooch Gap and Woody Gap. This was one of the easier hikes for us - as we've gotten better at hiking, and hopefully gotten in a little better condition than that first hike way back at the beginning of the year!

New member of the family

We welcomed a new member to our family this past week. Sarah and I took it out for a spin up in the mountains with several other Porsche friends we have met through an internet posting board, called Porsche Pete's Boxster Board. Link here We had an awesome time, and Matt went along as well, in his Mustang - I was very proud how well he kept up, his driving skills are awesome! Sarah was screaming like she was on a ride at Disney World, and fell asleep on the way home from all the excitement!

AT Update

Have not updated in awhile - but we have been busy little hikers during this month. In our last post, we mentioned that we had started at Springer Mountain. Since then, we have done Blood Mountain, Hawk Mountain, and today Sassafras Mountain. We have now hiked a total of 38 miles! Today's hike was one of the most difficult - 3.8 miles virtually straight up. Sarah was strong for the whole hike, and kept her senior citizen parents going by cutting up and making jokes. We were treated to encounters with deer and a box turtle, who had taken up residence in the middle of the access road! Sarah graciously repositioned the turtle to the shoulder - probably extending his life span by at least several days! One of the gaps we came through today was called Horse Gap, so appropriately, we have Sarah's picture in front of the sign.

Wanderlust

Over the past few years, we've made several hikes up Kennesaw Mountain. Last time we did it, we conquered the Big and Little mountains at this site. Since we like hiking, we've been looking for new challenges - and yesterday, decided to tackle the Appalachian Trail here in GA, more specifically, Springer Mountain. We arrived promptly at 9AM, and started our trek. The weather was perfect, and the trail provides natural shading from direct sunlight, as it is shrouded by deep forestation. People along the trail were very friendly - I noticed that it was only a fraction as busy as Kennesaw had been - I'm sure $4 /gallon gas, and the 60 mile distance from Atlanta were contributors to this - which was fine with us. We kept pushing and pushing, not wanting to turn back, more like, "let's just climb this last peak" - until eventually, we were about 7 miles away from our car. The majority of the hike had been DOWN Springer Mountain, and to get back, we ended up hiking 7 miles UP Springer Mountain. Sarah was a trooper, although much of the spring in her step had disappeared by mile 12. We finally made it back to the car, about 5 hours after we'd left it. Tired, but in a good way, and with big dreams of returning, and hopefully scaling all of the GA portion of the trail and into NC. On the way out, we met one of the fellows who maintains the trail. He was kind enough to take our picture - which is attached here.

Mother's Day at a Horse Show

This was a wonderful Mother's Day for Angela ... the whole weekend was spent at a Horse Show with Sarah!
Competition began at 9:30 on Saturday morning so that meant we had to be at the venue at 7:30 in order to get Annie (and Sarah) ready on time. Sarah competed in 4 classes at this show ... and they were big ones! Sarah had a fan club cheering her on Saturday .... her 1st grade teacher, Brooke Wells and her former trainer, Lauren Tedder both came out to cheer Sarah on. It was really great to have such good people in our corner! On this day, her classes each had about 10 girls in them. Sarah did great --- she brought home 2 Fourth place ribbons and 2 Sixth place ribbons. She was the youngest one in the competition so we think she did GREAT!
Sunday the classes were smaller and Sarah did beautifully --- again bringing home 4th, 5th and 6th place ribbons. She even beat her "barn nemesis" in two classes!!!
The most important thing is that Sarah got some more show experience and smiled a whole lot!!!
We will keep you updated as we continue our show season Memorial Day weekend.

Busy Sunday!

This Sunday (and Saturday as well) we spent several hours at the barn. Sarah has been working on her balance while riding. She's gotten really good at riding hands-free, at the trot, and the cantor. If Annie was planning on a leisurely Sunday laying out in the pasture, Sarah dispatched those dreams early, and gave her a seriuos workout!

Go Thrashers!!

Got some free tickets to the hockey game last night. Angela had a prior work committment, so Sarah and I along with a friend and his son, Gavin, took in the game. We have been to several games this year, although these were in the "choice" seats. Sarah was definitely among the loudest of the Thrashers fans. Decked out in "Blueland" attire, she caught the attention of all the fans in our section. When the announcer asked the crowd to "make some noise", Sarah was glad to oblige. This was Gavin's first exposure to hockey, and by night's end, he appeared to be a convert! Only downside was that the Thrashers lost 2-1.

Horsey Stuff

I noticed in reading thru the posts on this blog that I have not mentioned anything about Sarah's bestest friend and number 1 passion - Annie! This picture is from a horse show last summer, just before we purchased Annie. Sarah is very responsible with her friend, takes care of her, grooms her, and rides her just about every chance she gets. Annie has a birthday coming up - her 7th! - and you can bet Sarah has some big plans for that day....

Daddy-Daughter Dance

One of the biggest thrills of living in our neighborhood, is the Annual Daddy-Daughter Dance. This year's dance was this past weekend. The night gives fathers a chance to take their daughters out for a "date" - starting with dinner (Mexican this year) and capping off the evening with a dance at the country club. Sarah and I had a great time - dancing the night away to Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, and some oldies like "YMCA" and "Let's Twist Again - Like We Did Last Summer" - much much fun, leaves us counting down the days until the 2009 event!

First Hockey Skating Practice

She's a little black and blue, that's the downside....she has all of her teeth, and can't get the smile off her face - that's the upside, and so the first hockey skate practice was a resounding success. Tonight's lessons - in a group of about 30 kids - split into groups, defined by their different colored shirts - consisted of a learning the proper way to fall, the proper way to get back up, how to spin on your knees and pop up, and then concluded with a mock hockey game between groups. Sarah's group is the Red Hawks. She took right to the stick handling, fell with the best of them, and had several Olympic-style knee spins. She also ripped off a couple of blazing slap shots during the mock game at the end of practice. Mom and Dad have decided that we need to invest in knee pads for our rising ice devil, and maybe remember to wear fleece next time to observe practice!

Hittin' the Ice

Yesterday we had a family outing at The Cooler. This is an indoor ice rink not far from our house. It was cold outdoors, and colder in The Cooler! The ice was in really good shape - and had a pretty large crowd for the public session. Sarah and I were outfitted with hockey skates - Angela settled for the less agressive "figure" skates. Hitting the ice was no problem, and Sarah quickly became accustomed to the proper techniques for falling. She did well, picking up speed, stopping, avoiding other would-be kamikazes - and even participated in an on-ice rendition of the Hokie Pokie!

Let it snow....

Much to the excitement of Sarah, this past Saturday brought yet another blanket of snow to our home. We had a similar dusting just a few days earlier, but she wasn't able to create a snow man before it all melted. Not the case this time - as you can see. With the help of a school mate, Katrina, and some professional instruction from Dad (former world champion snow man builder in Jefferson County, New York) we were able to create a snow man that would rival just about any effort in the northern latitudes. As of today (Monday) - the snow man is doing well and providing sentinel services at our driveway.

Sarah Signs Up for Hockey!!

No, that's not a misprint - we signed our little 8 year old Kovalchuk up for hockey skating lessons today. The lessons are meant to teach kids the skating techniques they need to play ice hockey - wow! Not so coincidentally, the Atlanta area received a blanket of about 2 inches of snow last night - yipes!

First Post

We will use this to keep up with our family across the country.