Nice! The big 3-0 :)

I've got lots of fun memories of spending time just us cousins with Nathan and Heath in our early years first in NoVa at Quantico and then in Charlotte/ Raleigh. But one of my most memorable times with Nathan was when he came to Philmont with my Scout troop from Raleigh. It was between freshman and sophomore year of high school (literally half a lifetime ago, if you can believe it!), and my friends and I were definitely in our "we think we're so cool" phase. But not Nathan. He was unabashedly un-cool. We were all suburban white boys sporting do-rags and cut-off t-shirts, and in comes Nathan wearing his purple "Adventure Island" hat and crazy 80's shorts (see Exhibits A and B below). We'd sing various pop songs along the trail, but Nathan didn't know any of them. But what he DID know was all of the lyrics to the Weird Al versions. Every. single. one. EVER. I was mortified for people to know I was related to this guy. The other guys would just look at him like he was crazy. Eventually, we just rolled our eyes. Just Nathan being Nathan...

Of course, now with 15 years perspective, turns out it was all a matter of degrees. I mean, I'm wearing shorts over long johns for crying out loud :)

Happy 30th, Nathan. Couldn't have happened to a cooler guy :)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Thanks for the memories like. . .

 

Shelling with Nicky and driving his boat!

 

Cooking scrambled eggs, Boy Scout style and catching the plastic bag on fire

 

The surfboard summer

 

Sailing in Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill's boat

 

Going out on the Marine Science Center's discovery boat

 

Busch Gardens, riding the roller coaster.....

 

Best of all, the times the phone rings and your voice say, "Hi, Grannie....."

 

Know you are loved.  Grannie and Grandpa

 

 Getting a head start on Grannie's piano

[Posted by Jason on behalf of Grannie]