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.

Photobomb

Picture takers of the world beware - Sam has certainly embraced the Photobomb concept since he learned about it. Below is an example from the trip to Swallow Falls:

Colorful Breakfast

One day, Pete made his own fruit assortment for breakfast. It was so colorful, he had to take a picture.

Deep Creek Activities - Around the House

Activities around the vacation house at Deep Creek included:

Pete and Dad walking to a local Geocache over by the Adventure Sports Center.

Playing frisbee, football, baseball, and Eric's random games around the yard:

Dinner around the big table. Sam tried several new foods over the course of the weekend, including lasagna, cheeseburger, and hot dog:

Dessert:

Hot tub:

Sauna:

Lots of pool in the rec room:

And (eventually) some sleeping:

Deep Creek Activities - Around the Town

Pete and Sam enjoyed lots of activities around the WISP resort area at Deep Creek.

On Friday evening, they played a full 9 holes of frisbee golf with Mom, Dad, and Eric just before dinner. The "holes" were actually on the ski slope, which made them challenging just to walk through.

Saturday morning, Pete did the mountain coaster. On his second run, he proved that the brakes are truly optional - even at the end of the ride.

At Swallow Falls, Pete jumped from the high rock many times, including a front flip. In the picture below, he is jumping in with Steve and Eric:

Sam enjoyed climbing and swimming all around the area:

Sam also found a private cave in the rock formation:

Everyone rode the lift up to the top of WISP mountain, which passed tantalizingly close to the house before the ride back down:

Also, on Saturday morning Mom did some kayaking on the lake and Dad played golf at the resort course with Steve.

Deep Creek Lake

Pete and Sam had a great time at the first annual trip to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. There were 22 people staying for the weekend in one house.

Pictured from left to right are Tom/Katie/Jackson/Reagan, Thad/Kristin/Charlie/Colin, Steve/Laurie/Eric/Grace, Dad/Mom/Pete/Sam, Brian/Patti, and Gabe/Lora/Emma/Caroline.

Pete's 10th Birthday

Pete had a great 10th birthday party at the A.V. Symington Aquatic Center in Leesburg. This was the first party for Pete or Sam that was not held at home. The attendees were Pete, Sam, Corey, Mason, Pickle, Niloy, Brandon, Liam, Blake, Chris, Mitchell, Alexander, Sarah, Mom, Dad, and Nana. Click here for a short video taken on the lazy river.

Vacation Day 7

On the last day of vacation, Dad did some geocaching while Pete, Sam, and Mom went para-sailing with Nana.

While Mom packed up the car, Dad took Pete and Sam to the Woodstock skate park. Sam did a little bit of skateboarding. Pete and Dad also played some kickball.

Then it was off to Fredericksburg. The hotel in Fredericksburg was the Holiday Inn, which was right next door to the Holiday Inn motel where they had stayed before. Of course, Pete and Sam sang this song as they walked through the parking lot. This hotel was much nicer, and was a full suite. Pete and Sam said the vacation next time should be a 7-day stay at this hotel.

Vacation Day 6

It was a bit rainy, so Pete and Sam went to the Cape Henry lighthouse. After making it through the military checkpoint, it was off to the old lighthouse. The old brick lighthouse is the one people can climb inside, and from the top you can see the new black/white lighthouse across the street.

Pete showed us how to use the timer on the camera:

Sam holds up his lighthouse from the gift shop in front of the real deal:

The sun came out, so everyone headed back to the oceanfront for a final day of swimming. The red flag meant that there were dangerous swimming conditions, which meant good waves for Pete and Sam. They spent several hours, and were in the water almost the whole time.

Ashleigh came over to babysit, so Mom and Dad treated Nana/Poppy to dinner at Primo's. Ashleigh took the kids to Rita's for some Blendinis.

Vacation Day 5

Day 5 began with the first ever trip to Motor World. Pete and Sam arrived just after they opened at 10:00, and had the whole place to themselves. This may be because the forecast called for rain. Sure enough, pretty soon it started raining and the rides were closed. During the rain delay, Dad made the ill-fated decision of encouraging everyone to go on the NASCAR slide. So everyone was drenched by the time the rides re-opened about 30 minutes later.

The day continued with a trip to the Oceanfront for 3-D minigolf, North-End Pizza (and ice cream), and finally the beach.