These are photos that go with the last post!

We're Back!!

Hello from the Bains! Sorry we have not done a good job with our blog since Hallie started it in June. We weren't real sure about what we were doing and we got comments from some real strange people. We did not know that we needed to limit the comments to only the sane people we know.

It has been an interesting summer at Lake Martin. A noticeable difference at the Bain house is the many important people missing from the landscape around here. We sure miss Brittany and George and all of their friends around here on the weekends. Even when Brittany was in Dothan last summer, she visited almost every weekend and her friends would visit us often. Now that she and George are in NY, they don't come around. I guess Mr. Jim, Hallie and I are not as entertaining?! Jim, (Bubba) has been at Auburn this summer and he and friends have been here several weekends to wake board and surf. They even hung out with us at Uncle Larry's for the 4th of July.

Hallie had cheer practice for the first three weeks after school was out. She strained a ligament in her foot the week before cheer camp and was on crutches for camp. She got better the week after the 4th and she took up slalom skiing. It didn't take her long to master that sport and she was skiing several times a day.

Mr. Jim, aka (Dad), and Bubba have been perfecting their skills at wake surfing . Janmother gave us our very own bright yellow surfboard and Bubba waxed it up just like the pros. Wake surfing, a new sport introduced to us by Uncle Larry and Sharon, is a water sport performed right off the platform of the boat, (see photos). We have enjoyed introducing the sport to several of our friends this summer. They have all done real well with the excellent boat driving skills of "yours truly".

The highlight of the summer for Hallie and me was our trip to New York City to visit Brittany and George. We left on Tuesday, July 22nd and rode the Amtrak train to Penn Station. The train trip was an overnight trip and we enjoyed the experience, even though the train was 40 degrees below zero and we only had one blanket to share. It was so good to see Brittany, George and Clancy! They welcomed us with open arms as we took over half of their apartment. We shopped from China Town to 5th Avenue on Thursday and on Friday, July 25th, it was Hallie's 12th birthday. We set out at 4am to grab our place at the Today Show so we could get a glimpse of Miley Cyrus at her concert on the plaza. After a long wait in line and a mad dash to stake our space, we could sorta see her over the tops of a million heads in front of us, but the best was yet to come. After she sang her third song, she gave a shout out to the person in the back that was having a birthday! Yes, she was talking to Hallie. Thanks to Brittany, we had a rather large bright orange sign that said, "HEY MILEY IT IS MY BIRTHDAY" and a personalized shirt with the TODAY show logo that said " TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY". We also got to see Miley up close and personal later that morning in Central Park.

While in NY, we were treated to several delicious home cooked meals by Brittany, (she didn't get that from me) and we ate out at several nice places. We visited the beach on Saturday and spent a day at the Bronx Zoo on Sunday with Brittany and George. We even visited Clancy's favorite dog park! It was a fabulous trip and we hated to leave. I could have stayed several more weeks, but I love George too much!

While we were in New York,, Hallie's knee started to hurt and she has since had an MRI and it showed that she had a meniscus tear in her right knee. She had knee surgery on Wednesday to repair it and missed three days of the first week of school. Hopefully she will be healed enough to participate in cheering for part of the football season. It has definitely ended her skiing for this summer. I can honestly say that she has gotten her monies worth out of her crutches this summer!