Long Day

Sam had a pretty long day at King's Dominion:

- Taxi Jam

- Treasure Cave

- Eiffel Tower

- Triple Spin

- Flying Eagles

- Carousel

- Avalanche

- Bumper Cars

He was so tired by the end of the day, the family decided to just leave him in a nice grassy area.

Waiting in Line

This is Sam waiting in line to ride "Flying Eagles" at Kings Dominion. He was pretty much the only kid in line who was reading the comics. The other kids seemed to be wasting their time staring at the ground, hanging on the railing, etc. Dad also seemed to be the only person in line working on a crossword puzzle.

Height Requirements

Pictures can be deceptive sometimes. The picture below accurately shows that this year Sam clearly fell into the 44" - 46" range, for the purpose of determining which rides he may go on at King's Dominion:

However, we took a second picture from a lower angle, with quite different results:

We figured maybe this second picture would convince some of the ride operators that he is more than 46" tall.

Note that Pete is 54"+, so he can go on pretty much anything. They really need another category of wristband which essentially says "this individual is permitted to go on any ride, but may not wander off and get in line for the Shock Wave without telling anyone."

Napkin Drawing

One evening, just before dinner, Pete quickly prepared the following drawing and asked Dad to identify it:

After about 20 minutes of guesses and more guesses, the family was able to correctly identify the subject matter of the picture. We will spare the reader the agony of guessing and just say that it is a polar bear sleeping, standing-up, in a snowstorm.

A Lovely Email Poem From Sam

Dad made the mistake of sending this e-mail to Sam:

This is what he got back:

First Day of School 2010

Pete and Sam are back in school. Pete has Mrs. Robin Lafrankie for 5th grade, and Sam has Mrs. Kathy Rather for 1st grade.

The bus actually came less late this year on the first day. The official pick-up time is 7:34, so at around 7:35 Pete/Sam/Mom/Dad started the walk down the street. The fact that about 60 people were already at the stop was not a concern. The bus actually came about 2-3 minutes after Pete and Sam arrived at the waiting area at 7:40. It was on the wrong side of the street, but close enough. Of course, Pete gets to sit in the last 2 seats because he's a 5th grader.

Sam is a full day student this year, so he will have to figure out something he likes to eat for lunch. Apparently he has already figured out how to use the ice cream token.

Sam is more excited than Pete used to be about taking Spanish. Here is the conversation when Dad arrived home from work after the first day of school:

Dad: Hi Sam, I'm home.

Sam: What time is it?

Dad: About 6:30pm

[pause]

Sam: Buenas Noches

Pools

Now that school is back in session, it is a good time to look back at the pools and waterways that Pete and Sam went to over the summer:

Lakes Pool

Mills ("Bucket") Pool

Pavillion Pool

Woods Pool

Ocean Breeze (Va Beach)

Water Mine (Reston)

Splashdown (Manassas)

A.V. Symington (Leesburg)

College Park Pool (Va Beach)

Radisson (Philadelphia)

Holiday Inn (Charleston)

Great Wolf (Williamsburg)

Iberostar (Montego Bay)

Hampton

Atlantic Ocean

Youghiogheny River (Deep Creek Lake)

Shenandoah River (Harper's Ferry)

New bathing suits for everyone next year.

Water Mine

It was the last Sunday before the first day of school. Dad had never been to the Water Mine waterpark in Reston, so everyone headed out for a day of fun. It was a bit windy, so swimming was not the best option, but everyone stayed for about 6 hours. The order of events at the park was roughly Little Pete, Rattlesnake River, football, volleyball, Rattlesnake River, frisbee, Little Pete, football, Rattlesnake River, frisbee, Rattlesnake River, write in Sam's journal, football, Little Pete, Rattlesnake River, football, carousel.

Sam Dad Saturday

It was the last Saturday before the first day of school. Mom and Pete went out for some shopping, so Sam and Dad were out and about. After lunch at Sal's, they headed over to Dominion Trail. There were some good winds from the remnants of Hurricane Earl, so first they flew a kite. They didn't bring any other implements, so they walked around the school. After hitting the playground, they found a good piece of mulch and played some hopscotch. They scaled the brick wall, and somehow got back down. Then there was the throwing contest. Then they rescued Crickito, who was tangled in a web. They found an old piece of chalk. Dad drew a picture of "_____ with a _____", which Sam had to guess. After hitting the second playground, they did the states game. Sam got 44 out of the 50 states correct. After playing with Nelson, they found a pair of sunglasses, Sam almost hit himself with a rock, and then headed home.

Starting Sentences

Sam and Dad were sitting poolside when Sam was working on an entry in his journal. He shared the following observation:

Sam: "Do you want to know a word that a sentence should never start with?"

Dad: "Yes"

Sam " 'And' "

Dad: That's true.

- pause -

Sam: "Also 'eyeballs' "

Paper Airplanes

Sam has been completely obsessed with paper airplanes for the last 2 weeks. There are piles of planes all over the house. One night Dad asked Sam to sort the planes into a "keep" pile and a "trash" pile. The result was about 50 in the keep pile, and 9 in the trash pile.

One day Dad spotted something disturbing and grabbed the camera. Look carefully at the picture below and see if you can spot a sign that the obsession has started to go a bit too far.