Vacation Day 1 - North Carolina Aquarium

Prior to checking in to the beach house, we stopped at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Here Pete and Sam are terrorizing a snake:


Here the boys are terrorizing a shark:


Here Pete is petting a stingray. This was a few days before we found out that they stab celebrities in the heart with poison.

Vacation Day 5 - Ernesto

Our new friend Ernesto came to visit on Thursday evening.

This meant the "No Swimming" flags were out for Friday (and Saturday, for some reason). We interpreted this to mean "no swimming in the deep parts if you're not a good swimmer", but they just didn't have room on the flag to fit all of that. Note, from our angle the flag said "ON SWIMMING", so we told Sam he could go ahead and swim.


Perhaps the only real effect of the storm is that our tennis court and croquet field were rendered unplayable for the remainder of the week.


Here are the local news guys recording a segment in front of a flooded area. This was about a block away from our house. The water looks pretty high, but you could drive through it in the SUV without much trouble.

Vacation Day 2 - Buried Treasure

After discovering half of a pirate treasure map Monday evening (while digging a pit for the barbecue), an all-out search was on for the second half of the map. We located the second half in the net while crabbing on Tuesday morning. So then the hunt was on.

Pete and his friend Aaron trying to decipher the map:


Once we located the "X", it was time for some digging:


Once we got the chest out of the ground, it was time to distribute the booty:


Pete wore some of his new items to dinner that evening. The pirate restaurant we sought was just an empty lot, but we found a cool place named Goombay's nearby anyhow. Pete tried a new food - Popcorn Shrimp.

Captain Jack was a bit intimidated by Pete when we went to the Roanoke Festival later in the week:

Vacation Day 3 - Crabbing in Roanoke Sound

We had lots of fun crabbing on Tuesday morning. We stopped at the bait shop, then headed to the docks under the bridge that runs from Nags Head to Manteo.

Here are Pete and Sam using our old-school method of standard crab line with chicken neck for bait.


Pete had trouble at first, but then once he developed his technique he pulled in 5 consecutive crabs on one piece of bait. We suspect this is likely some sort of local record.


Sam was ready with the net:


Sam caught the first two crabs - and he was the only one to catch two simultaneously on one line:


Here is Pete with his first crab. Whenever we got one, he would run over and help. This help did not involve the net or the hook; he would just tell you if it was male or female:



We also found the second half of the pirate treasure map in one of the nets


Back at the house, gutting the crabs with a little something Pete likes to call Mallet Mash

Rest in Pete

We're back from our long vacation to Nags Head in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We will recap some of our vacation adventures over the next 1-2 weeks.

Rash Guard

Here is Sam playing horseshoes in the August afternoon sun. Note, he is wearing his "swim shoes" and "rash guard". I don't know what we ever did before there was Target. I do remember getting a lot of sunburn as a kid. Between the rash guard, swim shoes, and the SPF 45 spray-on sunblock, I doubt that Pete and Sam will ever know the joy of pressing your hand on a big patch of sunburn and lifting it up to leave a white handprint.

Who Could Hang a Name On You

Sam's favorite restaurant is Ruby Tuesday (Pete likes it too). So you can imagine that they were quite pleasantly surprised when I informed them that there is actually a song called Ruby Tuesday. I burned it on to a CD, along with a few of their other favorites, to take on vacation with us.

Company Picnic

We went to our company picnic on Saturday. It was at a big house with lots of land near Manassas, owned the parents of someone in the company. I was waiting in the garage to get Pete and Sam changed into their bathing suits, when the owner suggested that we can go inside and change in one of the bedrooms. When we got in there, Pete was looking around and he said "they sure have a lot of money". We got dressed and walked out to the living room, where the owners were sitting. Then Sam said very loud, "they sure have a lot of money".

Pete is 6

Yesterday was Pete's 6th birthday, not to be confused with his party which was on August 5. Christy said he can pick anywhere he wants to go for dinner, so we had dinner at Dairy Queen.







Here are some of his presents:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles puzzle
Sock 'Em Boppers
Spongebob: SuperSponge Playstation game
Kidz Bop 5, 6, and 8
Spyro 2: Ripto's Revenge Playstation game

Morning Chair

Sometimes when Pete and Sam get up very early, we can convince them to sit in the chair in the sitting room next to our bedroom and watch some TV. This seems to be early enough that they are too tired to start fighting with each other.

Note that Sam is wearing his clothes. This is his new obsession - wearing his clothes to bed. He's only worn pajamas maybe 2 or 3 times in the last few weeks. (He has also stopped taking naps except maybe once or twice a week.) Hopefully we can break this pattern when he starts wearing uncomfortable winter clothes.

Dinosaur Chicken Theatre

Last night Pete and Sam wanted to have "dinosaur chicken" for dinner. These are little chicken nuggets that are shaped like dinosaurs. About 2/3 of the way through the meal, Pete suddenly presented the following one-act play detailing the extinction of the dinosaurs (click the picture to watch the video).

Purple Belt

Congratulations to Pete for getting his purple belt.


The purple belt classes are later in the evening, so I have been taking Sam outside to walk around and make sure he does not fall asleep during Pete's class. Things we found on recent walks include Gatorade, red gem path, hole, apple, pool, ants, picnic, and Bob the Builder.

Pete's Carnival Party - The Aftermath

After Pete's party, we were thinking that this would be a fun party to do again when Sam turns 5 or 6. It should be a lot easier the second time. This is really the first theme party we have had for Pete. We are not into elaborate parties until the kids are old enough to appreciate it. I'm glad that we decided to skip the $50 popcorn machine, and that we got the $10 pipe organ carnival CD on ebay. Maybe once in a while we can set up the games in the yard and have a little family carnival.

Pete's Carnival Party - The People

Despite the appearance from yesterday's photos, there were actually some people at Pete's birthday party.

Here is Christy helping out with Fishing Frenzy. This is Sam's favorite. He was "testing" it in the house for a few days before the party. He has his own little pole, which is shorter.


Poor Nana was barraged at times. Her job was to hand out popcorn to anyone with a popcorn ticket, and hand out extra game tickets to the winners of Lucky Ducky. Note Sam raising his hand asking for more tickets. Every time I saw him, he was saying "I'm running out of tickets". Ashleigh is making free balloon animals for everyone. Note, after cake we let everyone play the games again for free (no tickets!). On a related note, Virginia had a sales tax holiday on clothes and school supplies the same day as the party.


Not sure who this next person is with the balloon on his head, apparently he jumped in front of the camera when I was trying to get a picture of Fishing Frenzy.


Check out the cool cake that Ashleigh and Christy made.

Pete enjoying opening one of his cool presents.


Mason, Corey, Sarah, Ben, Pete, Tim, Caleb, Heath, Josh, Alec are blowing their mouth-whistles that they won in the carnival. It appears that Sam swallowed his just prior to the picture.

Pete's Carnival Party - The Games

Pete's carnival party for his 6th birthday was held on Saturday, and he had a great time. The weather was great, sunny and about 10 degrees cooler than the 103 we had earlier in the week. Today we will mention the games, and then later in the week perhaps we can look at the people and the aftermath.

The Games - There were a total of 14 games, assembled from household materials, plus the standard music/bubbles/popcorn/cake:

(note, I took the pictures below before most of the games were completely set up)

Tic Tac Toe - Throw ping pong balls into cups
Smashinator - Knock down cans with beanbags
Bucket Bash - Throw a ball into a basket
Super Squirt - Shoot a ball off a peg with a water gun

Fishing Frenzy - Catch "fish" with a magnet and paper clip
Mega Jump - See how far you can jump on colored grass
Sweet Tree-ts - Grab a colored prize from the tree (after Mega Jump)
Roll the Sponge - Roll a ball into a hole in Spongebob board
Super Toss - Toss two rings onto a peg
Drip Drop - Drop a paper clip into a bottle

Lucky Ducky - (not pictured) Pull a duck to be awarded more tickets
Big Shot - Shoot a basket
Cow-a-Grab-a - Grab a lollipop with a cow squeeze crane

Mystery Machine - Grab a prize hanging inside a tent (note the tent sagging in the middle from the weight of the prizes). Somehow all of the kids ran directly to the Mystery Machine when we sent them off into the carnival, even though in the planning stages we thought this was a bit of a dopey concept.

Friday Dump

Ok, it's Friday so this is the last dump of pictures from Pete's sports camp. You will have to make up your own captions.

Camp Mystery #3

What sports are these?

Camp Mystery #2

What lacrosse position does Pete play that requires using two sticks?

Camp Mystery #1

Camp Mystery #1: Why is Pete always seen holding his tennis racquet like a guitar?