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I had several days off from work, so I decided to make a trip to visit Amy and Gene in Rock Hill, SC and as expected they did their usual skydiving for the week.  With camera in hand I just had to snap away and came away with several great shots. 

Amy had let me know ahead of time that Gene would be making his 5000th jump while I was there and I just had to get some good memories of that moment.  Amy got several of Gene’s ‘jumping’ friends together and they did a big ‘fun’ jump on his special trip thru the clouds and down to earth.

Gene works really hard at the DZ (drop zone) and hardly ever gets to jump ‘just for fun’ and Amy made sure that this special jump would not be work, but a lot of fun. He is either packing ‘chutes’ or making tandem jumps (he is attached to an inexperienced jumper), or sometimes repairing equipment.   Gene was really surprised when it was announced to all folks there and when he landed he and all his friends came down with smiles all around.

Because the jumpers landed scattered in all directions, there was no way to get pictures of them all when landing, but I did get the first picture showing Gene coming ‘down to earth’ and then the second picture is Gene, Amy and their friend Paul.

Congratulations Gene on 5000 and counting safe jumps and I wish you many many more.  I’m really proud of you.

This is Olivia’s final year to attend EB Stanley Middle School and one of my favorite events is the Chorus Concerts.  They had a fantastic performance at Christmas and last night we got to enjoy their final performance “Destination Rock ‘n’ Roll”.  Each and every member of the Chorus should be very proud.  I am very happy to say that Olivia got some of that great ‘Cook” talent and I hope that she continues to participate in the Chorus as she attends ‘high school’.  Great show Olivia  and I love you!!!

Appalachian Trail Days has begun in Damascus, Va and each year they have a Miss Trails Days pageant for girls from birth up to age 18.  This year Madison decided that she wanted to participate and so her Mommy purchased her a beautiful blue dress (to match her eyes) and she practiced waving and smiling and blowing kisses for weeks.  When she got on stage however, her shyness kicked in, but it didn’t keep her from placing 1st runner-up in her age group.

As a proud GranGran I took several pictures but because of the lighting and the camera zoom didn’t work very well, so I got the best pictures afterwards.  The first was on stage and the second was taken outside and I have to say she is so adoreable.  I’m proud of any and everything Madison and Olivia do in life.  Love ya sweety!!!