The Woulfin Family: November 2008

Pop - We love and miss you

On October 12, 2008 my Pop passed away at the age of 90. Pop was my last living grandparent and Maddox's only living great-grandparent. I am so glad that I got a picture of Maddox with him last year when we went to visit him. My Pop had a rough life as so many did that came of age during the Great Depression. He never complained though. He worked hard his whole life and with Nana (who passed away 14 years ago) raised 4 wonderful kids. There are 6 of us grandkids and 5 great-grandkids.

I always remember him wrestling with us on the ground when we were little. He always called my brothers and cousins "Tiger" and we thought that was hilarious. He used to make and drink Whiskey Sours all the time. One time I demanded that he give me the "orange juice" I thought he was making so he gave me a sip...it was horrible. He was a Deacon in the Catholic Church and officiated at all of our Baptisms and First Communions before he retired to care for my Nana who had Alzheimer's Disease. He felt it was his duty to care for her at home until the end, and I cannot imagine how that must have been for him.

Over the years, he developed symptoms of Alzheimer's as well and ended up in a wonderful Assisted Living Facility. As he declined we kept visiting him and trying to keep his mind from forgetting us, but as I'm sure anyone who has been exposed to this illness knows, it's a losing battle.

I'm so thankful that my Mom and her sister Kathy were able to be with him when he died. While it's sad that he is no longer here, I'm so happy that he's finally reunited with Nana after 14 long years. They loved eachother so much, it's a blessing that they are finally together. The funeral home posted a bio of him with a slide show of pictures through his life, which is amazing.

Obituary - http://www.webfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=205300&fh_id=10498

Goodbye, Pop! We love and miss you!

September and Beginning October 2008

Since I'm so far behind on my posts, I've decided to hit the high points of September and October 2008. Here we go :)...

Sesame Street Live In early September we heard that the Sesame Street Live show was coming to Phillips Arena. Since Maddox LOVES Sesame Street so much (and the tickets were pretty cheap), we decided to try it out. The show was really adorable, however I think Maddox got totally overwhelmed by it. Being that he's only 15mths we weren't totally shocked. It was pretty loud and he didn't cry and freak out, but he was sort of awed and then passed out, so we left at Intermission. Maybe next year :). Here are a couple of pictures:

First GT football game
Also in September we decided to take Maddox to his first Georgia Tech football game. We were able to get some great tickets for GT vs. Miss State and figured that since the game was in the afternoon we may be able to get him to sit through a bit without passing out. It wasn't too hot out either, so we thought it would be pretty good. We headed down to campus early and hung out at the ZBT house for pregame. Then we made the walk to the stadium. We got into our seats and realized that it was going to be a lot hotter than we thought. Although the temp was ok, we were sitting in direct sunlight and I had forgotten the baby sunblock for the first time since Maddox was born. We kept him in the shade with a sweatshirt and he was interested at first. Then came the first GT touchdown. All the noise totally freaked him out and he started crying because he was clearly scared. Then a funny thing happened. GT started scoring a LOT (funny that never seemed to happen all that often in the other games we went to) and Maddox was pretty much done. Stefan took him into the inner part of the stadium where they sell the merchandise and food to let him run around a bit and after a while we decided to leave. I'm proud that we made it to halftime and GT ended up winning the game 38-7. Go Jackets!!!

GT Homecoming

As is customary since we moved back to the Atlanta area, we headed down to campus to the ZBT house for GT Homecoming in October. Maddox really enjoyed running around the house and it was wonderful to see a lot of our friends and their children. It always amazes me how different we all are since our days at GT. It's definitely a bit surreal to see people you partied with 10yrs ago (my has it been that long) chasing around babies and toddlers and talking about the which car seat is the best model. My how times have changed.

Tybee Island Vacation 2008

The first week of September 2008 we rented a mini-van and headed down to Tybee Island, GA for a vaction. We even brought Nelson and Mama Les, Grandpa, Nana, Granddad, and Uncle Luke met us there. We rented an amazing house with a pool in the backyard for the week, which was only 2 blocks from the beach. None of us had been to Tybee Island before, although we've been to Savannah which is a 30 min drive. We're so used to going to Ocean City, MD which is loaded with condo buildings and hotels, amusement parks, boardwalk, etc. Tybee Island is almost the exact opposite...a very small and quaint beach town. We had a great time and Maddox loved it. Having the pool in the backyard was awesome...even Nelson got to swim (although I didn't get a good picture of it). Maddox loved the pool and absolutely adored the ocean...I think he could've done without the sand though. It was great to have time with our parents and Luke as well. It was a very low stress vacation and Stefan and I even got some time alone togther. I've included some pictures, but all of them are in the Summer 2008 album (link under albums). I highly recommend it, especially for young kids that are not ready for amusement parks yet :).