Hall of Fame

Last Thursday Ryan and I drove down to Myrtle Beach to join my dad, mom, and grandmother (my mom's mom, Monie) for a ceremony for the South Carolina Aviation Association. My grandfather, Maj. Gen. Jones E. Bolt (who I called Papa) was inducted into the South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame. It is hard to do his accomplishments justice with the limited amount of time I have to blog with the kids running around my feet, but I had to get the experience recorded and let those of you who don't already know what an amazing career he had. 

Papa went to Clemson and graduated in 1942. He married my grandmother Polly in 1943, and went to England as a pilot. He flew 15 missions and on his 15th in April of 1944, he was forced to evacuate his plane near Paris and he was taken captive by the Germans. He was sent to a POW camp near Sagan, Germany and he wasn't released until April of 1945.

After the war he went to Aircraft Engineering School, and in 1948 he and some friends formed  the Acrojets, the first aviation acrobatic team, but due to the Korean War had to take hiatus. It was picked back up as what most people are familiar with today, the Thunderbirds.   From here my memory fails me, because he spent the better part of 20 years going all over the place, training other pilots, and eventually earned the rank of a Major General, by 1965.  Click on the link and it should tell you more if you wish to know. Instead, I'll tell you his story is fascinating, and my dad has enough stories of growing up an Air Force kid to fill a book. I never thought it was strange that my dad taught me to count from 1 to 10 in Japanese when I was younger until I realized that not all parents have the same story that he does. Not all parents spent a few grade school years in Okinawa. Not all kids meet their grandparents arriving in their own plane at the airport. I think I kinda knew that was cool, but didn't get how really, really cool that was.

Last May, Dad decided to send in an application on Papa's behalf to the SC Aviation Association, because he, as do all of us, felt like Papa and his career is worth recognizing and honoring. It was such a great memory to make with my family, and am so thankful we got the chance to go. Thanks to Kelly Keever and the McGowans for keeping the kids for us so we could have a bit of peace and quiet, too! 

Dad and his older brother, Bob, with Papa's plaque. It's a very cool holographic photograph that changes from the picture you see to one of Papa when he was much younger dressed in his pilot's gear beside his plane. My dad's oldest brother, Manning, was not able to make it to the ceremony, and my grandmother Polly is in a nursing home.

Ryan, Monie, Me, Mom, Sara (my cousin), Kathy, and in the back, Dad and Uncle Bob.

Most of Papa's story I heard in bits and pieces over my life, mostly at tailgates and a few holidays while he was talking to someone else. I never really thought much about it, just that he kept telling the same stories over and over. It wasn't until after he died that all the pieces were put together for me, and I understood the magnitude of what he did and who he was. To me, he was just Papa, who never missed a Clemson home game, talked a lot about airplanes and people he knew, gave great hugs, and ate more ice cream that I thought was humanly possible. And I guess he always will be Papa to me.  But now he's way more than "just Papa".

Christmas, in Overtime

At this point, it is for pure documentational purposes I continue to blog about our holiday. After Christmas, the NC Burnses came down for a few days. Kate loves playing with her cousins, and we enjoy visiting and catching up. It becomes more fun and somehow less chaotic the older all the kids get, and they all get along so well. Lou Ann wears herself out trying to keep everyone fed, as we spend as much time as possible at their house cramming in as much visiting time as we can. Hopefully we can make it up to Boone soon, possibly for a 5K in July? We'll see! 

The Burns Family

Scott, holding Zach (18mo.), Carol and Paige (6), Memaw, McKenzie (7.5), 

Lou Ann holding Lauren (3), 

Ryan and Kate (5.5) Molly and Nancy (almost 2) and Tom.

Intermission: A Hair Cut

It had been June since I last had my hair cut, and so I called the most talented hair stylist I know and scheduled an appointment ASAP. Alice and Elizabeth came over to hang out too, so it was like Steel Magnolias style hanging out; we talked about food, shoes, old movies and other people. I thought I knew that my cousin Carole was good, but I got to learn for myself how great she is when I went to my aunt's and Carole cut my hair. I just told her I needed a trim and some layers, because the last time I had my hair cut, my regular girl cut most of my layers out. And for those of you with curly hair, you know you always need layers. So, layers and trim were her instructions, because I am neither adventurous or knowledgeable about hairstyles. 

It is the best haircut I have ever had. She cut the bangs perfectly so they still tuck behind my ear but fall to that perfectly unannoying spot beside my face if I happen to pull my hair up, she put shorter layers up top that curl up so neatly and left some long ones in the front, and then thinned it all out so even the long curls are still springy. But best of all: she blew it out straight, straight, straight. It took her an hour and 15 mintues to do it (almost the entire Home Alone video we were watching) but it was so worth the time.  

For those of you who met me post 2002, my hair used to be straight, just straight. And then a few months after Ryan and I got married, started to curl up in one spot. I had many curly hair clinics from my girlfriend Mary and finally figured out how to do it. And never straighten my hair because it takes so long. But it was so fun to have it back to how it was for 23 years of my life. Ryan saw the cut and called it my "old school hair". Thanks Carole! I'll be going to Richmond this spring for another trim!

Christmas, Round 5

I so badly wanted to put in a clip art photo of a little girl opening a Christmas present in that previous post to represent Kate, but it wouldn't let me download the image. Does anyone out there know how to do that?

I think the main reason I am recording the Christmas madness is so that come Christmas 2009 I can recall exactly who we spent time with and when and where (and what we gave others so I won't give them the same thing again). Christmas Day evening we went to my parents house for 'the big deal', which consists of dinner, gift opening one-by-one, dessert, more gift opening, and if there is time, games. This year we ate traditional Christmas food: ham, turkey, and casseroles of every sort. My mom makes these amazing sweet potato biscuits, mmmmmmmMM. That's right. They are so good. My cousin Carole and her husband Matt scored major points with a Hello Kitty tent and Light Brite (or Light Brighter, as Kate calls it) for the girls. I think I am going to shop more like her from now on - get for them what I would have wanted if I were still a kid. I did have a Light Brite and Hello Kitty tent when I was a kid, I think.

And we did end up having time for a game, which was loads of fun. We learned it from our friends Sean and Stacey Weiland at our small group Christmas party. Everyone writes down something about themselves that most of the others would not know, eg: "I once carried the Olympic Torch". Put the card in a hat, mix them up, and as one person reads them aloud and numbers them, the others guess who the card belongs to. My mom won with 8 out of 15 the first round, which was impressive. And I found out my dad was once in a middle school choir competition. I didn't know they had whistlers in choirs. I also learned it was Alice who touched the Olympic Torch while a student at Clemson, my brother broke his pinky toe on a diving board, Aunt Nancy played field hockey all 4 years in high school, when my grandmother Monie was a little girl she hid costume jewelry in a jar and buried in her yard in Landrum, and my cousin Carole, because of a dream that was so vividly real, only recently discovered that, in fact, Kevin Bacon is not a distant relative.  

Matt and Carole looking at old Christmas photos with Nancy Rose.

My mom got this awesome sweatshirt for Aunt Nancy. Her love for all things Austen rubbed off on me.

My sister-in-law Heather's first experience with our "Gift-opener-wears-the-Christmas-themed-headpiece" tradition.

Even Monie wears the antlers.

Kate, exhausted from 5 rounds of Christmas.

And Christmas is still not over....

Christmas, Round 4

Now we arrive on Christmas morning. And awful parent that I am, took absolutely no pictures of our oldest child opening anything of any sort. If you look through our photos you would honest to goodness think we only have one child. I feel (kinda) horrible. 

We do get to sleep in our own house and wake up and drink our own coffee and take photos and video of just our family and stay in our pjs until noon. But...we are on Christmas Round 4. 

Yeah, "eyabobs".

Yeah, iPod.

Yeah, puzzuw.

"Yook, Nancy do it too."

Christmas, Round 3

Christmas Eve evening we headed to Ryan's parents house to eat and exchange gifts.  We headed straight down from the country and showered at their house (I didn't want to eat dinner with ash in my hair). It was fun to enjoy watching Tom and Lou Ann enjoy watching the girls enjoy opening their presents. 

Kate is so happy.

This was Kate's reaction to her Fancy Nancy doll. She literally jumped for joy.

Nancy putting on all the dress up scarves from Mimi.

Christmas, Round 2

"Up to the Country"

Christmas Eve day we went up to Gowansville where my Aunt Gerrie and Uncle Charlie have a house. It used to be my Aunt's mother's house, and until they decide if they will renovate and live up there, we use the surrounding acreage to go 4-wheeling and make bonfires and roast stuff. We ask "Hey, are you going up to the country tomorrow?" We call it the country, despite the slow suburban sprawl creeping up Highway 14. 

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Gerrie have Alice and Elizabeth. Alice and her husband Brian live in Birmingham, and were up for a couple of weeks. My Aunt Nancy has Ben and Carole, and Carole and her husband Matt came down from Richmond for a few days. Carole and I are the same age and she is the closest thing I had to a sister growing up, and we still love hanging out. It was fun to catch up and play outside together. 

It was cold, but not windy, but rainy, and we stayed out in the rain anyway. It was kind of ridiculous, but so fun. We rode the 4 wheelers through the new paths Uncle Charlie had cut through the woods, and my cousin Carole and I like to go to the dove field and ride where it's more open so we can kick the speed up. There are bramble bushes that you have to look out for - I have scratched my face and hands going 20mph more than once. We also had shooting practice and roasted some hot dogs. We were outside for hours, just talking and playing, and it was so fun. Uncle Charlie doesn't need an excuse to start a fire, so he was more than happy to get a hot one going for us, complete with snowflakes made of ash.

My cousins Elizabeth and Alice. We were keeping warm by the fire.

Uncle C enjoying his dog on a fork. We ran out of buns.

Uncle Charlie telling Carole where he cut the new trails. 

The Fam, though not everyone. Missing is Ben and Andrea and their kids Emily, Jake and Lizzie and Monie, Uncle Ray and Aunt Heather weren't able to make it up. This pic is funny b/c I have the camera propped on twigs on the bannister of the deck. Elizabeth and I had 10 seconds to press the button and run off the deck, around the ivy bed and get to our places. Her picture is a bazillion times better than mine, but it was so funny.