Here we are on our second and final blog post on the republican presidential candidates.

Scott K. Walker* is the 45th governor of Wisconsin, and 31st republican governor. When Walker left early from Marquette University, he began working for the American Red Cross.  In 2006, Walker ran for governor of Wisconsin but was not elected. In 2010 however, Walker ran for a second time and topped Tom Barrett. During his campaign against Barrett, Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was against abortion, but he also said in a later statement that it is up to the mother of the child and the doctor. Walker believes that a marriage should be between a man and a women. When the US Supreme Court did not abolish same-sex marriage, Walker said that they were "making a grave mistake". On July 13, 2015, Walker announced that he would run for President in 2016. In one of his Facebook posts he said that he was "running for president to fight and win for the American people," and "without sacrificing our principles, we won three elections in four years in a blue state. We did it by leading." Walker, his wife, and their two children currently live in Maple Bluff, Wisconsin.


Ben S. Carson was the first surgeon in American history to separate twins that were connected by the head. On June 20, 2008, he was presented with the Medal of Freedom by George Bush. Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan on September 18, 1951. At the age of eight, Ben's father and mother had a divorce. When his father left, Ben's mother was forced to take care of her two sons by herself. Once his father had left, Ben started failing in school. Soon Ben was starting to be teased and taunted for being the class dummy. The taunts only drove Ben forward. His mom also began fixing his grades. She began with cutting television from his daily routines. She also gave him plenty of library books to fill his extra time with. Within no time, Ben was the top kid in his class. But Ben only continued to work harder and faster. Later after he graduated Yale University, Ben made up his mind to be a neurosurgeon. Soon he became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. On May 4, 2015, Carson officially announced his running for presidency. He believes that the theory of evolution is not true. He said in a 2006 debate that our ability to think and communicate cannot have just evolved. Carson also is actively against abortion and same-sex marriage. He is convinced that true marriage is between a man and a woman. Ben currently is living in West Friendship, Maryland, with his wife and three kids.

                                                        

Marco Rubio, born on May 28, 1971, is currently serving the state of Florida as a senator. In 1956, Rubio's parents immigrated to America form Cuba. He is one of four children born to the Rubio family. From age eight to eleven, Rubio and his family left their Roman-Catholic church and started going to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before Rubio earned his bachelors degree at the University of Florida, he attended the South Miami high school, Tarkio College, and the Santa Fe Community College.  When he completed his degree at the University of Florida, he started working at the University of Miami for his degree in law. He also served Bob Dole as he campaigned for the 1996 presidential campaign. In April 2015, Marco Rubio announced candidacy and his dream of becoming the President of the United States of America. When he announced his will to run for president, everyone around him was questioning whether or not he would get far. But after the first couple of debates, Rubio has surprised everyone with his calm, collected behavior. As far as abortion goes, the Washington Post recently said "that he has an outstanding pro-life record." Rubio currently lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife and four kids.
                                                               

 For the first few years of his life, Jeb Bush lived with his family in Midland, Texas. Jeb is the third of six children born to George and Barbara Bush. His nickname was given to him because of the placement of his initials, J.E.B. Unlike most of his family, Jeb attended the University of Texas where he earned his degree in Latin American affairs. While there he participated in the Longhorns tennis team.  In 1983, Bush moved to Miami, Florida. Shortly after his move, he became an investor in the NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. On October 2, 2014, Jeb's brother George said to the pubic that Jeb wanted to be President. Sure enough, on June 15, 2015, he stated that he would be entering the campaign, making him the third in his family to run for president. His views on abortion tend to sway towards pro-life. He claims that he is the most pro-life governor in the US at this point. Jeb is currently living in Coral Gables, Florida, with his wife, Columba and their three children George, Noelle, and John Ellis Jr., who shares the nickname "Jeb."

                                                                                                                                                           

References:

1. Bio. 

2. Wikipedia 

3. RealClear Politics

4. www.bencarson.com 

5. www.marcorubio.com 

6. www.rubio.senate.gov

7. the Washington Post

   8. www.achievement.org

*As of 9/22/15, Scott Walker has withdrawn from the race

This year Caroline, Ben, and Jack all wanted to play a version of baseball. Caroline is playing softball, Jack tee-ball, and Ben is playing coach's pitch baseball. In between each of their practices, Ben and Jack have been in our backyard playing one on one baseball. They throw it up and hit it as hard as they can and to get someone out, they peg each other as hard as they can. To tell you the truth, I was very lucky to have these pictures without the ball smashing the camera to bits.

A couple days ago, Travis told my mom that his co-op would be hosting a scavenger hunt the following Friday. Of course with two baseball/tee-ball practices and Dad's work trip, Mom had told him with great disappointment that he would probably not be able to go. But go he did. Sure enough  on the following Friday, there we were driving through Downtown Greenville on our way to drop Travis off. During the course of the week, Mom had decided that these social things put on by the co-op were very good for Travis to do. But Mom didn't want to go there and back between the two practices and Downtown Greenville. So today, practices were being replaced with a nice picnic in Falls Park.

During the sandwich making, Caroline, Ben, Jack, and Eli played a few rounds of tag. While we walked around Falls Park, we saw and participated in, several of the scavenger hunt team answers. The Kyker's (minus a dad and an older sibling) helped teams arm wrestle, had them photobomb our picnic, and give a teammate a hug. 

When we finished watching the ducks, Mom took us in Spill the Beans coffee shop. In case you haven't heard of or been to Spill the Beans, it is a coffee shop located at the entrance of Falls Park. This time instead of purchasing a steaming coffee or even iced coffee, Mom got us all some ice cream. The way they make their ice cream is really neat. They give the choice of either chocolate or vanilla, then they give you however many toppings you want to put on. Then they blend all the toppings into the already delicious ice cream. And their you go one bulging ice cream cone/bowl. This time I ordered vanilla ice cream with cherries. At 8:15pm we left Falls Park for the second time and headed towards the nearest parking garage where our car was parked. Soon we had Travis and were pulling out of Downtown Greenville.   

For the Kyker clan Wednesdays are just another day of school, reading, and time outside. Today however, is different. Last night Mom announced that tomorrow we would go (along with our friends the Keigley's and the Bursh's) to go visit Sassafras Mountain. Once a month the Keigley's, the Bursh's, and an assortment of other close friends would host a sort of co-op. Today we were asked to join them. Accompanied by an audio book we embarked on our maiden voyage to the highest point in South Carolina. Sadly, the night before, a huge rain storm ran through and the mountain was covered in a big blanket of fog. I think I would have taken many a picture, but since the view was shrouded in fog, I resisted. However mom was able to a picture of our rambunctious group of children.  

As you might be able to tell by the picture, rain was slowly, but steadily, falling. Soon it got so bad that the mom's decided that it would be best to take the class elsewhere. After a tedious talk between the parents, (which didn't take long, due to the rain) they decided that the best course of action would be to go to the Keigley's house and finish the lesson there. So that's what we did. Packed up our wet clothes and headed home. But right before I was able to catch a glimpse of a massive hornets nest.

I don't think you can tell by the picture but it was swarming with angry-looking hornets. With great sorrow, I watched as the rain came down harder and faster as we entered Greenville. When we eventually got to the Keigley household, I was met with two of their dogs jumping up and down in front of me. If you were to walk into the dining room five minutes later, you would be met with thirteen kids bending over their work, as they struggled to produce an accurate sketch of a Sassafras leaf. With the Sassafras plant being edible, I think that more leaves were being consumed than being used as drawing props.

When our work was finished, London, Caroline, Mosely and I played a board game until it was time leave. For those of you that think going to Sassafras Mountain would be fun, I do highly recommend it. Although the drive is rather long, once you get there you want remember the drive. 

Last night, Dad, Travis, Caroline and I crept around the house like little elves while we decorated for my Mom's birthday. Travis and I hung up some banners while Dad and Caroline made a chocolate espresso cake. Since Monday is a holiday, Mom gets the privilege of having Dad on her birthday. A few days ago when I realized that it was, in fact, a holiday and Dad would be here supporting Mom, I was greatly pleased.

  
When we finished the job, we carefully (without disturbing the sleepers) crept upstairs and climbed into bed.

Today, after our wonderful meal and present opening, we got ready and headed for Asheville, NC. When arriving at our destination I realized that Downtown Asheville was pretty similar to our Downtown Greenville. One thing cool that Asheville has is plenty of restaurants. Besides places to eat, Asheville has a pretty cool park located in the very center. In the park it has about twenty different chess boards and plenty of chairs to boot. I think the idea is to bring some chess pieces of your own and play in the park. Asheville also had many of street performers. While we walked around, we saw magicians, guitarists, and a man painted the color of copper and pretending to be a statue.

After Eli bent down and placed a one dollar bill in the man's hat, the man with drew from his position and smiled warmly in his direction. At this, Eli hid behind mom and wouldn't come out from behind her legs. After several persuasive attempts to get Eli to come out, he gave up and moved back to his daunting pose.

Happy Birthday Mom! and I hope you have many more to come.

Starting August 6, 2015, the first Republican Presidential debate took place in Cleveland, Ohio. The debate was hosted by Fox News and Facebook. There are exactly 17 republicans running for President at this point. In the next couple of posts I will be starring the top seven candidates so far. 

Ted Cruz is a Republican United States Senator for Texas and a chairman of the subcommittee on the Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He graduated high honors at Princeton University and even larger honors at Harvard Law School. Cruz also successfully made the top 10 candidates for the debate and placed 6th overall. Cruz announced his entry into the running for president while at a rally at Liberty University on March 23, 2015. Cruz is strongly against abortion. He also believes in traditional marriage, but he does believe that the state should have the power to carry out whatever laws they deem legal. Although he was born in Canada, Cruz's mom is a legal US citizen. Ted and his wife Heidi currently live in Houston, Texas with their two daughters Caroline and Catherine.      

                                                                                         
                                                   

Throughout her life, Carly Fiorina has been a best selling author, a well respected public speaker, business commentator, and strategic advisor. In just fifteen years, Fiorina grew from an ordinary employee worker to leading AT&T's spin off company Lucent Technologies. In 1999, she was asked to become Hewlett-Packard's new CEO. In mid October 2006, she released her autobiography "Tough Choices." Six years later, she left HP and started working on charities and non-profit organizations. In November 2014, The Washington Post reported that Fiorina was actively looking into the role as US President. She believed that her experiences in business would give her the winning edge to become the first female in American history to be a United States President.  On August 6th, 2015, Ms. Fiorina failed to qualify for the main debate and was placed in the one that was set three hours earlier. According to almost every news channel around the US, Fiorina blew the other candidates away.     

Donald J. Trump, owner of the multi million dollar company Trump Organizations, lives and works in Manhattan, New York. In 1971 Trump became the CEO for his father's company Elizabeth Trump & Sons. During that year he changed the company's name to Trump Organizations. Trump also appears and hosts many TV shows, but The Apprentice is his most popular. After the show's established success, Trump was payed over three million dollars an episode. He is a real estate worker, television host/star, and author, He is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. As far as golf courses go, Trump owns seven. In 2006 he purchased a piece of land that consists of over 1,400 acres in Menie, Scotland. Even now the land is being transformed into a colossal golf course and resort. Trump intends on hosting huge golf tournaments like the The Open Championship . Trump announced his run for presidency in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015. Oddly enough, right before Trump announced he was running for president, former President Bill Clinton spoke with him. Another  suspicious incident involving Trump began with him giving a decent amount of money to Hilary Clinton. I guess you could say that there is nothing wrong with giving a sum of money to people you like, but not when the person you give money to is a democratic candidate.  

References:

1. Wikipedia  2. RealClear Politics

3. www.trump.com  4. carlyforpresident.com

5. The Washington Post  6. www.tedcruz.org