Chase's Graduation Party

May 31, 2008: Chase is officially a high school graduate! We had a party in my parent's backyard with about 50 of our closest family and friends. It was a great time. Our friends Carma and Ken came from Springfield, IL and Nick and Dana from Farmington, IL. We met them while working in Biloxi. What a great time to see them! We love you guys! My parent's neighbors, Dub and Elise Payne have watched Chase grow up. My parent's moved in to their house when Chase was a little more than a year old. Dub and Elise had some great stories to tell about Chase coming to their yard to help Dub in his garden and visiting with them. What wonderful people have shared his childhood. Our friends and family blessed him with their presence and presents! He will not be heading to college blanket poor and has a nice little egg to start his adult adventure!

Chase has applied to LaGrange College in Georgia. He will be experiencing campus life at it's best. He will be living in dorm housing in the Fall.

So, here are some pictures of Chase's day.

The cake, made with love by Minnie!

Thanks, Minnie, it was wonderful!

The Family

Nana and Grandpa Phil

Minnie and Grandpa Tony

For Lack of Better Things to Blog About!

Ok, so not much going on with the Dillards lately, feeling badly that I haven't blogged, so I thought I would tell you that without fail, Joe and I have watched every episode of American Idol this season. I know, I know, get a life! Anyway, this guy, David Cook, is America's newest Idol! He is a cutie, isn't he? When the season started, I wasn't crazy about him. I could now totally see me buying a CD! More later, we do have a busy week and I got a new camera, it is being delivered today!

Gardening

So, we planted a garden. Now, I am a city girl. I don't know a single thing about growing vegetables. I decided with gas prices and food costs on the rise, we will soon be eating a meatless Hamburger Helper for dinner each night if we didn't grow a garden. Our park owner was kind enough to give us a plot, but I had to plant banana peppers and tomatoes for him!

I wish I thought to take pictures while we were tilling and planting, but I didn't. We planted corn, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries (already not doing so well), cantalope, watermelon, honey dew, pumpkin and sunflowers. It is not a very large garden, we only have a few of each veggie or fruit. We have an entire section dedicated to corn because I read directions! (giggle) Apparently, it is better to plant several short rows of corn than one long row which was the original plan. Coy, Caden and myself planted the garden and had a blast. Caden planted the sunflowers all by himself, so we shall see about those. Coy planted green beans and we, too, shall see about these!

Here are a few pictures of our garden currently, I will update regularly! This is a picture of one of Caden's Sunflowers! He was so excited when we found it this morning!

This is a Banana Pepper, it has a bloom!

This is a tomato plant, it has a bloom too!

Caden's Birthday

Can you believe it? Caden is FOUR! Time goes by so quickly, I can hardly believe it! When we moved to LaGrange, we found the Animal Safari Park. We thought it would be fun to do Caden's party there. Joy, Dennis, Grandma, Ron, Kelli, Kain and Kylie, Joe's aunt and uncle, his cousin and her boyfriend and children came. My parents also came and some friends of ours with their children all from the Chattanooga area. My mom made a beautiful cake for Caden. It was terribly delicious! She did a wonderful job! The park was the neatest place. I was concerned about the older kids and adults having a good time, but it was a blast for all! They have a walk through part of the park that is set up like a zoo. They had more aggressive animals and monkeys in the walk through section. Then, we boarded a private "Zebra" bus and went to the part of the park where there are less aggressive animals who roam around the park and wait for patrons to bring them food! Our drivers name was Will. He was a great guide. Always stopping and giving us just the right amount of time! We were armed with cups of pellets made from natural materials. We were able to feed all of the animals. They had countless and a variety of deer, buffalo, cattle and pigs. The animals would see or here the bus coming and they would come running. The pigs were the cutest. They came running from everywhere. Everytime we stopped to feed an animal, there was a pig there! Legs running as fast as they would go! So cute! Even the turtles in the lake began coming out of the water as we drove by! We saw Zebra, which can not be hand fed as they are very mean! We saw a rhino, who is the cleanest animal in the park. He was in an enclosure and only pooped in the back of his cage! The black Llama, pictured below is the kindest and friendliest animal in the park. He even used to ride around the park on the buses when he was younger. The giraffes were definitely mine and Caden's favorite. I never realized how beautiful their eyes are. They are unbelievably large with, honestly, the biggest eyelashes I have ever seen. They were majestic! We saw a Zedonk, also like to bite, but a bi-species breed of Zebra and Donkey. He was neat looking, but had weird eyes! There was an ostrich, also not too friendly, who had laid an egg. That was cool to see. They also had Ligers and Lions. They were in an enclosure on the ride through part of the park. They were roaring or growling at each other as we stopped to watch them. I can not even begin to describe what that "felt" like. You heard it, but you felt it more! It was so loud and deep it made your insides vibrate! It was definitely the most exciting part of the day for me! Ok, so here are a few of the hundreds of pictures taken of our day!

A Working Man!

Chase has finally gotten a job! He is working at the Carmike Cinemas in LaGrange. He started last week, but only worked one day. He worked two nights this weekend! He has to wear black pants, shoes and socks, a tuxedo style shirt and bowtie with a burgandy vest. I begged him last week for a picture and he absolutely refused. He is really anti-photo! Today, he was getting ready for work and needed his bowtie tightened. He doesn't know how to do it so I told him I would adjust it for him if he would let me take a picture. He denied my request, I denied his! Finally, he gave in and this is the result. Isn't he handsome?

The Dam Road

You know the movie, I think it is called "The Grizwald's Vegas Vacation?" They visit the Hoover Dam. They have a "Dam Guide" who tells them it is illegal to catch "Dam Fish" and if they have any "Dam Questions" they should ask him. Well, we found this in an adventure this weekend and I had to share!

This is a photo of the Dam! It, by the way, is located in West Point, AL.

Quick Update

We have had a whirlwind of the past couple of weeks! Joe had his vasectomy and did very well. We have all suffered from various gastrointestinal viruses. Caden dropped a wooden puzzle piece on his toe and knocked his toenail off! It has been super yucky but is finally about ready to be trimmed off! We have had visitors, the Sluders, and built a clubhouse for Caden in our backyard at the park! The directions say it should take two moderately skilled men 20 - 24 hours to complete. It took Tony Hale, me, Joe, Greg Sluder, Lynnette Sluder and different kids off and on about 19 hours to complete. It was a bear, but we had a ton of fun doing it and Caden is excited beyond belief!