I'm not crying, there's something in my eye.

This is my good friend Julie doing Bubba's hair for Homecoming. My baby. Needless to say, I'm a boob and got a tad teary-eyed watching her get her hair done. What can I say, I came by it honestly. My aunt and mother cry over beer commercials.

Bonnie, Clyde and Bubba

So here's the story in a nutshell. Weasel loves giant, black trucks. I have no idea why, she just does and is determined to own one. Fair enough. I was telling a friend of mine, Annie, about The Weasel's odd obsession and she said she had a friend with the baddest of all big, black trucks. The license plates are even MANTRUK--enough said. Annie arranged for me to borrow the truck on a Saturday afternoon, but I needed it to be more dramatic. I had Annie park the truck at the mall and I took the Weasel inside to "check on a sale." When we came out, the truck was parked near our car so the Weasel and I went to check it out. While we were looking inside I "accidentally" opened the driver's side door. She was a bit startled and said, "dad, isn't the alarm going to go off? What if somebody comes outside and sees us? " I assured her that nobody would see and that if they did, they'd probably only yell. She hesitated briefly but was fine with it. While looking inside the truck, I "discovered" the keys on the mat. I told her that we should go for a ride. She kept telling me I was crazy and asking what I was doing. She told me we'd get in trouble, blah, blah, blah. Eventually she hopped in with me and we "stole" the truck. I stopped the truck and Annie and I had a good laugh and the Weasel slugged me. It was awesome. Annie showed us how to use the satellite TV which played on three screens, one in the dash and two behind the front seats. You can watch a different channel on each screen. She didn't care about the TV's as much as the mother of all stereos. I told her we could go anywhere she wanted. We drove through the Gateway Mall with the windows down and the radio at a volume that produced seismic activity in Toledo. It was awesome. We went to lunch and ended up driving that truck for 3 hours. Priceless. The only drawback was that I had to ground Weasel for stealing. I think she learned her lesson: stealing is awesome.

Howdy

I tried to post some pictures on the blog, but I kept getting a "service unavailable" message. So, here's a link to our blog where I was successful in posting pics.

www.go-go-johnsons.blogspot.com

Hope all are well!

For Grandma and Grandpa

Catfish Fun...and a Turtle!

Riley and I went fishing this morning. There are a few small "lakes"/ponds in our neighborhood that we heard had bass/catfish/bluegill, etc. We hit Wal-mart early for some chicken liver and mealworms. Riley's first cast with the chicken liver landed her a catfish in about 30 seconds. Her next cast then brought the biggest surprise of the day...a turtle. Who knew turtles liked chicken liver! We had a lot of fun and with it being less than 5 minutes walking distance from our front door, I seee us making many more trips in the future.

Palmer Family Reunion

Here are the pictures you've all been waiting for!

The Palmer siblings and their spouses (minus Gary's wife, Karen)

The whole gang! Hmmm...what can you say about this group?!

Amy gave Dad and I tickets for our birthdays to go on a whale-watching cruise. She also donated her own ticket to Gary (the photographer), and he said it was the highlight of the reunion for him. We had a great time too, and got lots of whales, dolphins, and sea lions. Here we are with Lizzy at the beginning of the cruise.


This picture shows how close the whales were to the boat!

Several of the whales "spouted off" for our entertainment.


Sea lions soaking up some sun on a buoy.

It was good to see everyone...we'll do it again in 2012, so start making your plans now!

Days of Our Lives....

I thought we would finally post a few pictures of the last month of our lives. It seems like we have been too busy to even take pictures lately. Not having the internet for a month didn't help things either. Everything is going well in KY. Riley is doing well in 1st grade. She got perfect scores on her first two spelling tests. I take her to school in the morning and then she rides the bus home. She even has a few new friends. We are trying to find a pre-school for Macie, both for her sake and Valerie's. Charlotte is finally potty-trained (cross your fingers). Carver is as cute and chubby as ever. Valerie has been busy redoing two of our three bathrooms and was just called to help with the activities in RS. My job is going well and I'm getting adjusted to my new responsibilities. I was recently called as the Young Men's (Man) President - it should be interesting. Hopefully we can take and post more pictures now that things are settling down.

Riley with the movers - all packed up and ready to go.

We went up to Driggs the day before we flew out for one more glimpse of the Tetons (and a Huckleberry Shake)

Riley and Charlotte on the plane from Atlanta to Evansville, Ind.

Carver buried in our carry-on luggage.

We made it! Waiting for our rental car in Evansville.

Riley on the first day of school. Nothing like starting 1st grade from the Comfort Suites.

Dad's B-Day Celebration. The girls threw me a surprise party.

Carver after church today. He looked so handsome.