Dances With Wolves

Which of the following is the name of Pete's wolf on Minecraft?

a) Wolfie
b) Max
c) Poopface
d) T-Bone
e) Craigslist
f) Niblet

Answer: All of the above!

First Day of School 2012

Pete and Sam had no trouble getting up and ready for the first day of school this morning.

Pete is starting 7th grade at Farmwell Station.  His team this year is the Gorillas.

Sam is starting 3rd grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Sarman.  Joseph and Jackson are in his class this year, too.

Pete and Sam are on different buses, 30 minutes apart, but through the magic of photo editing they can be seamlessly together again:

Here are some more pictures from the walk to the bus:

Sam's rainbow shirt and Pete's shoes look awesome.  Thanks Nana!

Ties

Pete and Sam were doing some "Back To School" shopping with Mom and Nana at the mall in Virginia Beach.  Sam spotted a necktie that he really liked.

Sam: Mom, I want to get this tie.
Mom: Where the heck are you going to wear a tie?
Sam: Around my neck

A Shocking Observation

Seeing the above comic brought to mind a funny story from last week.

Pete, Sam, Mom, and Dad were walking through the shopping center from Zynga to Nagoya, to go back to the car and head home after dinner and dessert.

As they were walking past the "Ace Vacuums" store, Mom spotted an enormous praying mantis up on the wall (which they had passed earlier on the walk from Nagoya to Zynga).

Dad commented on the praying mantis:

Dad: Wow! That's really something you don't see every day!
Pete: I know!  A store that only sells vacuum cleaners!

Information Please

When Grandma and Grandpa were visiting in July, everyone went out one night to Generous George's in Herndon.  It was fun, but a bit confusing since they were there for the first time.

When the waitress came, there was a bit of a frenzy as the order got placed.  Different ideas and requests were shooting back and forth.  Sam turned to ask Pete a question.  Then there was some more ordering.  A moment later, the waitress was off to the next table.

Sam raised his hand and asked: "Can somebody please inform me what I will be eating?"

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 7

Wednesday was the last day of surf camp.  The waves were pretty choppy, after more storms rolled in Tuesday night, so Sam spent more class time playing in the sand.

During camp, Mom and Dad explored the Back Bay area, including an encounter with a Cottonmouth snake that was a little closer than they would have liked.

For lunch, they met Nana at Pembroke Mall.  They picked up socks for Pete and went to Jason's Deli.

After stopping for some basketball at the new courts at the local elementary school, it was time to head home.

Dinner was a combination of Chick-Fil-A and Pizza Hut over by the Expo Center in Chantilly.

Mom will pick up some official camp pictures when she returns with the boys in late August for a few final days at the beach before the end of summer.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 6

Tuesday of the vacation was day 2 of Pete and Sam's surf camp.

Mom and Dad went to a local coffee shop, and then the library, to discuss a number of upcoming events that needed preparation (cub scouts, Lancaster trip, etc).

After camp, everyone grabbed lunch at Roma Pizza and then stayed at the beach for the afternoon.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 5

On day 5 of the vacation (Monday) , Pete and Sam started their 3 day surf camp.

After dropping off the boys, Mom and Dad went hiking at First Landing park.

Then everyone had lunch at Sal's (across the street from Stacey's office) and headed over to the First Tee golf course.  They got in about 7 holes before it was time to head straight over to dinner at Rockefellers.  Of course, Sam got ribs and Pete got salmon.

Then they headed downtown for Beach Street USA.  This was ostensibly to spend some time with Ashleigh and Sarah.  Ashleigh had been bugging them to come with her all week to Beach Street.  However, once they got out of the car the boys only saw Ashleigh for a few minutes of the remainder of the evening.

First, the boys watched a break dancing group from California:

Then they walked over to the stage to see Krendl.

Then they saw some street performers, including the talking dragon thing:

Finally, it was time to head home, to try to get at least a little sleep before day 2 of camp.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 4

Sunday was a rather interesting day.  Saturday's storms had passed, and the forecast for Sunday looked ok, so in the morning Poppy took Mom, Dad, Pete, and Sam out in his boat.  The waves were extremely choppy, and it did not take long for Sam to get sick and throw up his protein bar.  They headed back for safe land.

On the way home, Mom, Dad, Pete, and Sam stopped at Buckroe Beach for a picnic lunch.  However, the flies were "just awful" so they had to pack up and head home.

Sam with color in his face before the trip:

Note Pete's hair before the trip:

Guys fishing on what should be the jetty:

Note Pete's hair before the trip:

At Buckroe:

In the afternoon, they went to the downtown beach area.  The red "Dangerous Waves" flags were out, and sure enough Sam got swept out so far on his boogie board by a riptide that he and Dad (and eventually Pete) had to be "rescued" a bit to make it back to shore.

They spent some time after that playing in the sand.

Dinner at Wendy's was the safest part of this day.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 of the Virginia Beach vacation was Saturday.

Mom left early for ODU to take her Praxis exam, and Dad went for a run around the College Park neighborhood and the new Elementary School.

After Chick-Fil-A for lunch, everyone took the new Tide train to downtown Norfolk to go visit the Nauticus museum.

Train:

Mermaid near the museum:


Building canals:

Inside an artillery shell:

Big fish near the museum entrance:

Sam mimicking the eel (Dad's favorite picture from the trip):

Sam operating the undersea crane:

Pete steering the USS Wisconsin:

And of course, Lego's:

Dad built "Tool-Bot".  He has a tendency to destroy other Lego structures at random times when he gets mad.

For dinner, Pete, Sam, Dad, and Poppy went to Hooters.  Only Dad had ever stepped foot in a Hooters before.  Mom, Nana, Stacey, and Erin went to a Mexican restaurant.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 2

Day 2 of the vacation started with a trip to Ocean Breeze.  Mom and Sam went with the coupons to purchase the tickets, while Dad and Pete found a geocache near the outskirts of the parking lot.

After entering the park.  Sam enjoyed the new lazy river, where they decided to stay in the park and have lunch at the Palm Tree Grill.  Pete and Mom checked out the new slides that replaced the tube slides.  Then Sam went in the wave pool and Pete and Dad did the Hurricane and a few other slides.  Pete managed to do each slide at least once, and everyone made it back to the car just moments before the thunderstorm started.

For dinner, Mom heated up some lasagna.

Virginia Beach 2012 Vacation - Day 1

The 2012 Virginia Beach vacation started well with everyone piling into the car at precisely 10:00am.  After a nice lunch stop at Friendly's in Fredericksburg, things took a turn for the worse due to an accident causing a big traffic backup on I-95.  Several hours later, everyone arrived around 5:00pm and it was too late to go to the local pool.

The boys enjoyed a family roast beef dinner at Nana's house and relaxed to prepare for the week's activities to come.

Mohawks

When Jackson came over to play one day, Sam discovered that he wasn't the only one with a summer mohawk:

Summer in the Arts (Lyceum) 2012

Pete did his second year of Summer in the Arts (Lyceum) camp this year.  He took four different classes from last time.

Mom, Dad, Nana, Poppy, and Sam joined him again on a Saturday morning to see his artwork and performances.

First, he sang "Down By the Salley Gardens" from his Voice class:

Then they saw his cartoon, "The Adventures of Floo" from Beginning Cartooning:

Third, he performed "Where the Wild Things Are" with his Dramatic Interpretation group:

Finally, they went to see his Computer Graphics design:

The cupcakes from the food design class were making Pete hungry, so it was time to head to Giovanni's NY Pizza in Leesburg for lunch.

Lititz Geocaching

Pete and Eric joined Dad and Brian for some geocaching on the morning of Saturday July 28 in Lititz, PA.  This was during the annual fraternity reunion trip.

They started out with a geocache called "Hamming it Up", which is the one pictured above.  Dad finally found the container well hidden in a pile of large rocks after about 10 minutes of searching.

Then they ran about a mile to the location of the second cache, "The Pride of Philly".  Pete located this one after about 5 minutes of searching.

They walked back to the car and then joined the rest of the group for lunch and a trip to the local chocolate "museum".

Thanks to Brian for taking the picture!