Christopher Alan Hailey

A year ago today my cousin Chris passed away from a long battle with cancer at the early age of 23. Those of you that had met him or knew him well knew that he was such a wonderful, friendly, courageous, and sometimes moody person that loved the outdoors and hunting. Those of you that never had the priveledge to meet him really missed out.
My favorite story of Chris was when he was probably about 5 or 6 and we were supposed to be going to sleep on Christmas Eve in our sleeping bags at Grandma's. Chris, as stubborn as he sometimes was, did not want to go to bed. Instead he found it amusing to run around and do something to each of us to aggravate us and we would in turn yell to our parents to tell on him. When our parents had had enough, my Dad came in with one of Grandma's wooden spoons threatening to pop him if he didn't lay down. He ran around yelling "nah, nah, nah, nah, you can't catch me." Then he looked at my Dad and said, "That spoon will break if you spank me" My Dad assured him that it was strong enough to withhold popping him. Chris did not give up so my Dad popped him and guess what? The spoon broke in half! We all starting laughing including my Dad and Chris looked at him and said, "I told you so."
Today we celebrate Chris' life and are so proud of everything that he accomplished. He is so fortunate to live in Heaven and watch over each of us everyday. He was a much stronger person than we could have ever been. I wish that Jack would have had the opportunity to meet him. I tell him about his Cousin Chris everyday and he smiles.

We love you Chris and miss you everyday, but know that you are in heaven keeping everyone straight!

Jack's 1st Boat Trip

Sunday we took Jack out on Dad's boat in the Tchefuncte River. He had a great time when he was not in the life vest. Poor thing, look at how miserable he looks.
The only way to make him happy in the life vest was to let him sit with his Cookie in the drivers seat!

Finally he fell asleep. How cute is this?! We rode around on the boat for a while and then went to the beach for the rest of the day so that Jack would be comfortable. He loved playing in the sand and water.

Much needed Reunion

For the first time in a while everyone was in town for the weekend. Mo and I are both out of town so it isn't very often that we are both at a girls dinner at the same time. We all went out to dinner on Thursday night and had a great time catching up. I miss you girls and wish that I was close enough to do it more often!!!

My 1st Fishing Trip

Brandon flew into Mandeville on Thursday night for the Memorial Day weekend. Friday afternoon we left and went to Doug's camp in Montegut, La. for a fishing trip on Saturday. I was not that excited about it because I don't fish. I was very excited about a relaxing day on a boat getting sun though. Doug, Brandon, and Mom had a great time, but weren't too lucky on the amount of fish that they caught. They said that they weren't biting good that day. I did get persuaded, really forced, to fish for about 30 minutes and caught a redfish, but I made them throw it back because I thought it was too small. These are all of the fish that the 3 of them caught that day. We will be eating fish for a while now.