Blu-ray Instructions

Dad is pleased that Sam marked his e-mail as "important":

Cavemen

One Spring day, Pete and Dad were hanging out in the gazebo.  Mom had various clothes hanging out on the clothesline.

Pete: "Dad, why are we hanging our clothes outside like cavemen?"

Mom is 40

For Mom's 40th birthday, after sleeping in (until grandma called) she went running at the Pavilion and then off to the mall by herself for some shopping.  The boys and Dad met her at the food court for lunch.  Then they went to the candy store to get some Bazooka gum, so Dad could demonstrate some bubbles, like in the legendary story of the bubble contest.

When Mom got home, she was in for a birthday surprise.  First, she got $5.  Sam gave her the option to trade in the $5 for door #1.  She selected the door.  Then Sam nicreased his offer to $10.  But Mom still took the door.  Her prize behind Sam's closet door was 9 hugs (3 Pete, 3 Sam, 3 Dad).  But then Pete offered her to trade in the hugs for what was behind door #2 (Pete's closet).  She decided to keep her hugs, which was a good decision because this is what was behind door #2:

ZONK!!

(And if you look closely, you can see the Bazooka gum.)

Mohawk

At long last, Sam got a mohawk for the summer.  It looks pretty cool:

Well, it looks cool until he goes to the pool.  Then when he gets home, it's time to try getting it spiked up again.

Trip Camp

Sam was scheduled for Trip Camp for a week this June.  But poor Sam was sick for most of the week of camp.  He tried to go in on the second day, and had a pretty miserable time.  Also, his "partner" (Tyler) stopped playing mini-golf and didn't want to ride the Roller Coaster or Bumper Boats.

By dinnertime, Sam could barely hold his head up anymore:

Hangman Pictures

One night, Pete and Dad played Hangman.  Pete guessed all of the puzzles without any difficulty.  Afterward, Pete sketched some doodles.  It seems that some of them may be inappropriate, since he was giggling a lot.  Apparently, one of them is someone named "Bear Grylls".

Crawfish Boil

Pete and Sam had a fun time again at the 5th annual Merrywood Court Crawfish Boil.  Thanks to Mrs. Kelly and Mr. Mark for a great time!

The above picture was taken in our driveway.  Dad came out the next day and swept up a variety of claws and other debris.

You can see that the boys have been watching too much Futurama.  Under the crawfish bucket, Pete used water to write "Woob Woob Woob":

Pete tried a few crawfish again this year.

However, running around and playnig with crawfish from about 2pm - 11pm wiped Sam out, and he ended up being sick for 3-4 days the following week.

Jungle

Sam created a comic strip called Jungle.  This may have been inspired by Pete taking a Cartooning class last week at his Lyceum (Summer in the Arts) camp.  These are some of the characters:

Kenny the Rat:

Joe the Elephant:

Chris the Dog:

Carrie the Cardinal:

Here are some sample strips:

Dad's favorite Jungle strip is not pictured above.  It is the one where everyone sits down at the dinner table.  All of a sudden monkey comes crashing through the ceiling, destroying the chandelier and landing on the table.  With an indignant look, he exclaims "Sorry, I was practicing my attic dancing!"

End of Deep Creek

Pete and Sam are looking forward to the group trip, which was changed this year.  The group will be going to a house in Lancaster in July.  One good thing is that the trip will be capped off with a Hershey Park excursion after checking out on Sunday.

So these pictures from last year may be the last ones from Deep Creek for a little while:

Pavilion Upgrades

Everyone went to the Pavilion on June 2 for the grand re-opening.

The boys and Dad had some cake, played basketball, got some balloon animals, made some crafts, and checked out the new Pavilion designs.

Mom took a cycling class too.

The Day Everything Went Wrong

June 20 was one of those days that everything went wrong.

• The boys woke up too late to go to the free movie at Brambleton.
• When Sam finally dd wake up, he was so tired and cranky he had to be dragged to the movie showing later at Tally Ho.
• It was 98 degrees in the afternoon.  When Pete, Sam, and Mom got to the pool around 2:00, they found out it was closing at 4:00 for a swim meet.
• Mom skipped her cycling class and waited for a repairman at Nana's condo who never showed up.  When we finally got through to him on the phone, he said to call him the following Tuesday and see if he can work something out.
• Everyone drove to the Majestic Family Fun Center all the way in Manassas to use their Groupon for dinner and games.  When they got there, they found out that they were under new management and were not allowed to serve any food that night.
• After leaving and deciding to go to the Burger King in Centreville with the split-level play area, they found a sign at the BK that said "Play area closed, due to heat".
• The soda machine was broken in the upstairs seating area.  Everyone went down to get their drinks and refills.
• They went to get ice cream cones after dinner, but BK was out of ice cream.
• When they got home, the cable to the ipod charger was missing from the back seat of the car.

Despite all of this, everyone had a fun day.  And at least they were together.

Leftover Candy

One day Pete, Mom, and Sam went to the Tally Ho theater to see the $1 summer movie special (Happy Feet 2).

As they were leaving, Dad said to Sam: "Make sure you bring home your leftover candy for Dad"

Sam replied: "What s this 'leftover candy' concept that you speak of?"