Charleston Trip - Day 3

Day 3 of the Charleston trip was the big wedding day.

Dad went off to do some Geocaching and hiking all around town, while Mom and the boys went to the beach with Joey and Sarah.

Then everyone partied hard at the wedding.

Charleston Trip - Day 2

Day 2 was a busy day on the Charleston trip.

First, the boys went swimming with Joey and Sarah at the hotel pool. Here is Sam demonstrating a trick he learned on America's Funniest Videos:

Next, everyone headed off for the Children's Museum of the Low Country in downtown Charleston. Joey decided to come with Pete and Sam.

First, everyone enjoyed pizza that Dad brought back from Zappos:

Pete discovered that he's now officially tall enough for all of the rides at Busch Gardens:

Mom squeezed through the door to get in:

The boys got trapped in a series of unfortunate predicaments:

Pete did his best Jackson Pollock on the water painting area:

And the boys flooded the city of New Charleston (as well as the museum floor) quite a number of times:

Then it was off a few blocks down King St. to dinner at Jim 'n Nick's Barbecue:

Sam especially enjoyed the chocolate cake for Joey's birthday, that was apparently flown in from the Royal Palace on a very warm plane. He was also struggling to figure out the following word that Dad gave him in Hangman:

Finally, it was back to the hotel for the reception in Steve and Sabrina's Presidential Suite:

Charleston Trip - Day 1

About a month after Uncle Steve and Sabrina's Jamaica Wedding, it was time to head down to Charleston, South Carolina for the "stateside" wedding.

The drive was about 10 hours down on Thursday evening and 13 hours back on Sunday. Dad brought an MP3 player full of stories form storynory.com, and the boys each had a bag of goodies to occupy themselves on the trip. Overall, it actually went pretty smoothly.

Dad picked up Pete early from school and the Pavilion. Then Pete, Sam, and Dad grabbed some lunch and picked up Mom at school around 2:00. They stopped for dinner in North Carolina, and arrived at the hotel by around 11:00.

Fishing Trip

Pete and Dad went on an all-day fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay, with some Dads and kids from Pete's Cub Scout group.

They went down Tuesday night and stayed here. They had dinner here.

The boat set sail from here, and they fished all around the Chesapeake, including here and here and here.

For more pictures and captions, click here.

Paper Frogs

Mom: "Sam, why do I keep finding little paper frogs and swords all over the floor?"

Sam: "It's what I do"

Ice Cream Man

The good news is that Pete planned ahead and was ready with his own money this evening when the ice cream man came down the street. The other news is that he purchased so much ice cream, the guy gave him a cardboard box to carry everything back to the house.

Halloween 2009

We thought June 2010 would be a good time to post our pictures from Halloween 2009.

Pete carved a pumpkin for his school pumpkin carving contest. His was different from the others, because he worked on it himself. You have certainly figured out that it is a dead guy with spikes in his head.

Below is Sam ready for trick-or-treating. You have certainly figured out that he is Spider Man.

Pete had a hard time deciding what costume to wear. He didn't decide until about October 17. You have certainly figured out that he is the grim reaper. The only candy he got was the Three Musketeers bar in the picture. (Plus another 12 pillow cases full.)

Here are Sam and Mason chillin' in Mason's garage. You have certainly figured out that Mason is a pirate.

In conclusion, this was a great Halloween. And if anyone wants some candy, we still have more left over.

Strikers Soccer

Sam played his second season of Ashburn Soccer in the Spring of 2010. The last game of the season was on June 5, about an hour after Pete's bloody baseball game. Sam's co-coaches were Mom and Coach William.

His teammates (see picture below) were Luca, Noah, Elijah, Miles, and Ian. Most teams had 8 players, but the Strikers only had 6 so they got a lot of playing time and exercise

The Strikers won the game 14-1. They ended up undefeated on the season, including 2 ties. The playoffs are on June 12. However, Sam will be in South Carolina for Uncle Steve's second wedding reception.

Mariners Baseball

Pete played on the Mariners in DLL Spring baseball for 2010. The team had a rough regular season, but played well in the playoffs. Both playoff games went extra innings. They defeated the Angels 11-10 in a Tuesday night game that went from 6:00-8:30. Then they lost to the Yankees 10-9 on June 5, after Pete scored the go-ahead run to go up 9-8 in the extra inning.

The picture above was taken in the dugout, exactly 6 minutes before the manager was heard yelling from right field: "Someone get a towel and some ice! Pete got hit in the mouth and he's bleeding". The game was followed by a trip to the dentist on the way home.

Talent Show

Pete was in the Dominion Trail school talent show again this year. He did a group performance with some of his friends. Pictured above are the people in the skit (l-r): Renzo, Devin, Mitchell, Ayush, Luke, Alec, Corey, Pete, Brad. They did a basketball dribbling routine.

The show is not a "talent show" in the true sense. There are no auditions. To give you some sense of the fare, roughly a dozen people each sang the timeless classic "Naturally" by Selena Gomez. The primary requirement is that you are talented enough to go to the rehearsals. I think one of these years they may change it to an "opt out" show - you are automatically entered into the show unless you get a note from your parents that you don't want to be in it.

Due to the sheer number of acts in the show, it ran a little longer than last year. It started Friday at 7:00pm and was over (I'm guessing here) around 2:45am Saturday morning.

Cake

Pete and Sam decided to bake a cake on Sunday, without a recipe. Mom gave them some suggestions to keep things on the right track. When it was ready, they decided to cut it in half and each frost their half. Sam went with a standard chocolate frosting. Pete opted for a marshmallow frosting that involved quite an ordeal with various pots and pans simultaneously on the stove. Sam put some strawberries on top of his half, but he had already eaten the chocolate-covered strawberries prior to the taking of the photo shown above.

The cake was a delicious treat enjoyed by all. By the way, "all" means "only Pete and Sam".

The Last Meeting

Last week's cub scouts meeting was the last of the year, and quite possibly Pete's last ever. Pete had a good time at the meeting.

First, he raced the Go Kart around the parking lot. This was the Kart that his Webelos den built during the year, under the expert guidance of Mr. Korrie.

Next, Pete and his group led the flag ceremony at the meeting.

Finally, it was time to head outside for shooting off some water bottle rockets and throwing pies at the leaders.

As always, Pete and Dad were the last to leave the event, after dark.

Just One Question

It was getting pretty late, so Dad said to Sam, "ok, you really need to get to sleep, so you can ask me one more question and then I need to go".

Sam replied, "ok. What is life?"

Jamaica Wedding Weekend

Dad spent a lot of time with Sam while Pete and Mom were in Jamaica at Uncle Steve's wedding. Below are some of Sam's quips and observations:

On the ride home from bowling:

• "You know, real life is harder than video games"
• "Did you know that every day there is somebody bowling somewhere?"

"We read a book in class today called Clifford Visits the Hospital. This book is fiction. If this happened in real life, he would probably poop all over the thermometers."

(after sprinting into the house, grabbing a dollar, and running down the ice cream truck): "The Hershey's Chocolate Pie I had earlier was my dessert appetizer. This is my actual dessert."

(after going into about 20 cars at CarMax): "My favorite was the one with the bird poop all over it"

"I went to school, the driving range, Burger King, and CarMax. I've had a rough day."

"Mostly all teachers are women. This is because women are smarter."

The Melting Game

After about 40 inches of snow were on the ground in early February, the family decided to play a guessing game. The winner would be the person who could come closest to guessing when the last drop of snow would be melted on the street. Sam recorded all of the guesses in his notebook:

Congratulation to Pete, who precisely guessed the ultimate melting date, March 11.

Snowmageddon

Springtime is especially welcome this year. This past winter featured record snow for Northern Virginia. A big storm in December brought about 22 inches of snow. But this was surpassed by a storm in early February that brought 32 inches here at Dulles airport, plus another 10 inches just a few days later.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Dad: "I'm getting too old to play Pete's games. He asked me to help him get past an enemy on Super Smash Bros Brawl. About 10 seconds after I picked up the controller, it said 'Game Over'. So I walked off to go ask Sam to help him."

Unexpected Endings

Pete just finished telling Mom a story about some activities he and Sam were doing while she was gone for the day. The story ended with the phrase: "and then his throat ran into my foot"

Mini-Vacation Day 3 - More Water Park

Day 3 of the mini-vacation was spent at Great Wolf Lodge and then heading home.

9:00 IHOP

10:00-3:00 Water Park

3:00-5:00 MagiQuest

5:00-10:00 Head home

Highlights: Howlin Tornado, River Canyon Run, getting doused by the bucket at Fort Mackenzie.

Lowlights: Too cold for mini-golf.

Mini-Vacation Day 2 - MagiQuest

Day 2 of the mini-vacation started in Fredericksburg and ended in Williamsburg.

9:00 Donuts

11:00 Arrive at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg

11:00-2:00 MagiQuest

2:00-7:00 Water Park

7:00-8:00 Relax

8:00-9:00 Dad and Pete returned to the water park

Highlights: A surprise visit from Nana, with a Valentine's package of goodies. Magiquest was fun. Pete and Sam enjoyed Wolf River Wipeout (surf simulator). Dad and Pete had a great final hour at 8pm with no lines and lots of pitch dark water slides.

Lowlights: Getting Pete to calm down for bed. Dad's long walk back and forth to the Business Center.

Mini-Vacation Day 1 - Funland

Mom has returned to substitute teaching this year. She started off the year teaching at Rolling Ridge in Sterling, and was then scheduled to teach until February at Pinebrook in Aldie. When she found out that the original teacher would not be returning in February, Mom agreed to stay on for the rest of the year. Since this would be a tough few months for everyone, they decided to do a short family vacation over the President's Day weekend.

Day 1 began with a short drive to Fredericksburg.

12:00 Lunch - Ledo's Fredericksburg

1:00-6:30 Funland

6:30-7:30 Dinner at Red Robin

8:30-10:00 Watched "Shorts" at the Holiday Inn

Highlights: At Funland, Pete and Sam enjoyed the indoor playground, bumper cars, Frog Hopper, "jump rope" game, roller coaster, Himalayan, and lots of other games. Mom went off shopping for a few hours. Mom and Dad got one free ride on the bumper cars. Prizes includes a bouncy ball that would later make an appearance in the deep dark void behind the 2-ton dresser at the Holiday Inn. Because of all the pothole delays in the race, Pete and Sam were actually able to watch the end of the Daytona 500 from our table at dinner.

Lowlights: The crane games. Sam had to be a passenger for the bumper cars, but still had fun. Forgetting to put Pete and Sam in separate beds at the Holiday Inn.

Why It Takes Sam 4 Minutes To Take 3 Shots

Dad: Sam- before I tuck you in for bed, you can take 3 shots on Pete's basketball hoop. If you make at least one shot, you can then take one bonus shot.

Sam: If I make the bonus shot, do I get another bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I then make that shot, do I get an additional bonus shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: If I continue to make bonus shots, can I continue to take additional shots, until such time that I miss a shot?

Dad: Yes.

Sam: ok

Pancake Breakfast

The photo above was intended to be "all of the items gathered together in preparation for Pete and Sam's Sunday morning pancake breakfast". There are actually at least 3-4 items missing from the picture, but it is unlikely the reader will be able to guess more than 1 or 2 or them.