The Circus Came to Town!

Today the Holland family had a real treat - the Al Chymia Circus was in town, and we had a free day with fun money in our budget. Sooo, off we went to the circus!

There were lions & tigers, trapeze artists, clowns, jugglers, and MONKEYS & AFGHAN HOUNDS! I don't recall those two being among the usual circus fare, but they were highly entertaining!

Here is our close up of a circus butterfly and a ferocious tiger!








































This is a shot of one of the trapeze artists on their dismount - none of these are in terrific focus, but this is a neat one...


















No circus would be complete without an ELEPHANT ride!















This slide show includes tigers, afghan hounds & monkeys (as promised)...Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the elephants doing their tricks (awesome) and the hula-hoop artists. Two of them hula-hooped with so many at one time that they looked like human slinkys!

Horton Hears a Who

C S has a book fair week every spring, and to culminate the weeks' festivities, the school has a book fair parade.

Students from every class select one of their favorite book characters, and dress us as that character. We have recently seen the movie "Horton Hears a Who" (which I HIGHLY recommend), and Nicholas decided to go as "Horton". Here's Horton in
the C S parade!




























Here are each of Mrs. Adams' class that dressed up for the parade, including Mrs. Adams as "D.W."!














There were some indescribable costumes for the parade...enjoy the slide show, and look for "the potty"!

THE FINAL FOUR!

After 23 years, Memphis returned to the FINAL FOUR - mecca in college basketball!

The Mighty Sound of the South was primed and ready for our big splash in the final four, and made the most of our stay!

We first stopped in to one of Nick's favorite Tex-Mex restaurants on the PLANET...
La Fogata...















We had a VERY busy schedule in San Antonio, but began our trip with our first free day...here are some images from one of the most beautiful cities I know...Here's the famous River Walk -






And of course, the Alamo!






I passed the time by feeding the pigeons in front of the Alamo, and actually had several land on my arm and eat potato chips out of my hand. That was awesome!






Our first official function for the Final Four was a TV shoot on the CBS "Early Show" Friday morning (and boy was it EARLY)! Later that day, we competed in the annual Final Four BATTLE OF THE BANDS. The winning band director received (and had to wear) the trophy - a GIANT sombrero. Guess who won, and see if you can spot me!








Finally came Saturday and our national semifinal game, against our tournament nemesis UCLA...finally we vanquished that bunch, and we celebrated our day off at Six Flag Fiesta Texas, and more fun on Monday.
Our favorite event was the Final Four River Rally, which had both bands in the championship and spirit squads load up on barges and float along the river walk, cheering on our schools. What a hoot!

We were mere seconds away from a national title, but fell short against a furious comeback by Kansas, which tied the game with a three pointer with 2 seconds, and then blasted us in overtime. We had to only make 2 of 5 free throws down the stretch to ice the game, but could only manage 1, which opened the door for Kansas. Hat's off to the Jayhawks...they love the Lord, and 2nd place isn't all that bad!

I am DEFINITELY exhausted, and incredibly happy to be home from March Madness. It certainly was some of the most fun I've ever had, but was also very difficult to do without my precious family. It's good to be home!

Hopefully we'll get 'em NEXT YEAR!

MARCH MADNESS!

March truly was MADNESS for the Holland family this year, and what a wild ride it was!

The Memphis Tigers crushed our CUSA competition, again, and won our second straight CUSA Men's Championship. Also, our 2nd straight season without a loss in the conference! Poor guys...

The CUSA tournament featured Caroline's conducting debut, shown here...and Nicholas posing with Tiger great, Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway!






Every year, Nick invites the traveling pep band (the "road band") over to the house to watch the selection show (29 people plus us crammed into our house...yikes!).
Here we are anxiously & eagerly awaiting our seed...






Then we were off to Little Rock, Arkansas for our 1st & 2nd round games, against Texas-Arlington, and then Mississippi State. Other than our first game, I thought we could definitely lose every other possible game in the tournament - boy was I wrong!

We were away for Easter, which was sad for us, but I made the most of it and had "church" with 18 of my students at the Hilton in Little Rock. We had a sweet time together that morning, and managed to beat Mississippi State later that afternoon.

Off we flew to Houston, Texas for the region semis & finals, which meant more meal money for the gang! Here I am passing out envelopes on the plane!






Houston was grueling, but we had a great time. We visited the Johnson Space Center with NASA, and after dismantling Michigan State, we enjoyed an evening in Kema, Texas which is a really neat "carnival" type boardwalk area on the Galveston Bay.
Here's me flying a simulator with the Space Shuttle program...and yes, I'm shuttle simulating and talking on my cell phone...








Before our last pep rally in Houston, I snuck a bite away from the crowd...we were about to face UT in Texas (U-texas that is), and I didn't think we had a prayer...until we hooked 'em!






Check out San Antonio...