More photos from the north...

Last day up in northern Michigan. Here are a few more photos. We had a great time and the weather was great. In Pensacola, the heat index has been 105 - 110F for the past few days. Here it has been in the 70s.

Jason, Tanya, Ras and I went to the wineries off of Old Mission Peninsula. We bought over 30 bottles of wine between us.

Ras and Rox at the Mackinaw Brewery

We hit the hard stuff after the wine

Mikey trying to get close enough to roast a marshmallow. The fire was fierce.

Sunset over Grand Traverse Bay

Me, Sammi, and Uncle E enjoying our last afternoon

Mikey, Sammi, and cousin Nick

Still in Michigan...

We are having a blast back home in Michigan. We spent the first week going to a Tigers game (they actually won) and spending time with Ras's parents. The kids went to the Detroit Zoo with Nana and Grandpa while I was up at the cabin. We also spent time with our good friends, the Rayls. This week we are with my parents near Traverse City enjoying the beauty of northern Michigan. Tanya, Jason, and baby Nick are with us, as well as Roxanne. The weather has been great. We are going wine tasting tomorrow in Traverse City. After I post this, I will be Jack Daniels tasting. Here are some photos I grabbed off of other cameras (Ras forgot the computer cable for our camera...RAS!)

Nick enjoying his first beer

Nick advertising for All Sports Consignment

Sammi and Mikey on Grand Traverse bay at sunset

Aunt Tanya, cousin Nick, and Uncle E

The Everett men in 45 degrees Grand Traverse Bay water. We are very tough.

The whole clan

Back in Michigan

We are back in Michigan for a couple of weeks. I had a chance to go up to the cabin with my buddy Larry, so we headed up for a day in northern MI. Took some photos, drank beer, and had a bonfire. Listened to the Wings lose game 6 around the fire. Take this in...

Red Columbine behind the cabin - on my back for the photo.

Beaver dam we discovered on one of our walks

We walked up the South Branch of the AuSable river

Larry and I were driving down a two-track when this fawn jumped out in front of the truck and ran in front of us. It would not get off the path and it ran in front of us for about 200 yards. It finally jumped off and laid down about 30 feet off the road. I wanted to try to get a pic so I went up to it slowly and it never spooked. After taking the pic, I actually pet it's backside for about 30 seconds before it got up and ran off. Just like Ras.

Larry stokes a romantic fire

Year End Honors...

Sammi's last day of school was yesterday, and Mikey just got on the bus for his last day. Ras and I went to Sammi's graduation yesterday from 5th grade. It was quite a ceremony. Sam was honored numerous times and racked up the following honors: A/B Honor role for the entire school year and FCAT Achievement Award for the highest possible ranking in math on the FCAT exam.

Sam stands with a very limited number of peers that scored perfect in the math category on the FCAT.

The 2009 Pea Ridge Elementary Class

A smart daughter and a proud dad

Mikey will get his academic honors at the conclusion of his school year. He did rack up some athletic achievements though. The "Masher" got a year end trophy as well as a game ball for a game where he went 3-3, with two doubles, a single, 2 RBIs and a run. Nice.

Mikey strokes one up the center for a single

Beating out the throw

The Masher with his hardware

All Sports coming soon...

We have been spending quite a bit of time in the store lately. We are still not open for business yet, but are open for consignment. We have taken in football, baseball and softball equipment so far. A lady came in with Tae-kwan-do stuff yesterday, so we have fighting gear as well. The shelves are filling up. We made our official first dollar yesterday when a lady and her son came in looking for a baseball mitt. We had a variety hanging so we let her choose one. She and her son signed one of the dollars and we framed it for the store.

I have been burning up Ebay getting football practice jerseys and baseball pants - all new with tags. The jerseys should go well as we will be into football season soon. My neighbor Mary and I have been hitting the garage sales in the area every Saturday and have been making good progress in increasing store inventory. My parents have even been hitting the sales in Michigan. We are coming up to Michigan for a two week vacation when the kids get out of school in a couple of weeks. We are bringing a trailer to haul back some shelving for the store as well as some of the stuff our parents have collected. Here are some more photos of the store...

Baseball and softball are going to be big sellers.

Most of the wetsuits came from Michigan

Cleats and rollerblades

The Beard is Back

Mikey and Sami's grandpa has joined "the Beard is Back" campaign of the Detroit Red Wings for as long as the Wings are in the play offs. So far they have made it through two rounds and start on Chicago today in round 3. This may seem crazy, but I believe that the wings fate hinges on this man's facial hair. HE MUST NOT SHAVE UNTIL THE WINGS HOIST THE CUP. Sure, he may scare young children, but we can not take that chance. He does remind me of someone though....

Unabomber Ted Kacynski

Unagrandpa

All Sports...

Some of you know that Ras and I have partnered up with a two other couples to start our own business in the town where we live. All Sports Consignment is our store that will run off the same principle as a Play it Again Sports. This is not a franchise though, we are going on our own with this one. It is pretty exciting to see the progress being made. We signed the lease on a 3000 square foot building and are now involved in the build out. We purchased shelving from a Boaters World store that is closing in Pensacola and we have been up at the store sanding, painting, etc. for the last week. It has been pretty crazy. The signs for the store were installed yesterday and look sweet. We are taking consignment starting next week and the store officially opens August 3. We plan on having a grand opening and are trying to get some local sports guys to come over for the day. For all you Tigers fans, we are trying to get Travis Fryman as he only lives a few miles out of town.

I will update the blog more often in the future, but here are some photos of before and after shots of the build out.

Before shot of the nasty color scheme of the old place. It was a sandwich place and a religious bookstore previously. Lord loves sporting goods.

I forgot to take a picture, but in the corner under the white coat of Killz primer was a mural of Noah's Ark. It will now be the area to test putters.

Behind this counter is where the girls will sit in their skimpy All Sports uniforms, sipping on Starbucks.

The front of the store is all windows. Nice. The kids have been jumping around on the hippity-hops while we have been working.

Under the slat boards for displaying inventory, I threw the names up of the three families representing All Sports ownership.

Slat board walls installed.

Tommy and Paul painting the back room.

All Sports Consignment

4487 Chumuckla Hwy

Pace, FL 32571

850-994-3320

Ras is working on the company website. We start painting the floor this weekend.