Latest Adventures

Rockin' New Year's Eve!

31 Dec 2005

Alexander's Very Merry First Christmas!

25 Dec 2005

  • Alexander does breakfast... [Web / Reprint]
  • Good thing Santa has a magic bag that re-fills between stops... [Web / Reprint]
  • The boys attack their stockings... [Web / Reprint]
  • Alexander peeks at his stocking! [Web / Reprint]
  • Alexander and Nicholas help Grammy... [Web / Reprint]
  • The next Ringo Starr? [Web / Reprint]
  • That...is a seriously happy boy! [Web / Reprint]
  • It's bare back, not barely clothed! [Web / Reprint]
  • Yeah...whatever! [Web / Reprint]

The Not-So-Silent Night (Christmas Eve)

24 Dec 2005

Christmas comes early to Garner

18 Dec 2005

  • Wow! Cars! How did you know I'd love these? [Web / Reprint]
  • Thinly-veiled Christmas chaos... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas checks out the ABC book... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas and Friends! [Web / Reprint]
  • Ben thinks Lincoln Logs, Nicholas works the drumstick angle! [Web / Reprint]
  • Well, they do have tornadoes occasionally on the prairies... [Web / Reprint]
  • Alexander takes matters into his own hands... [Web / Reprint]
  • Oooh! Shiny paper... [Web / Reprint]
  • Where is Alexander? [Web / Reprint]
  • ...there he is! [Web / Reprint]
  • Alexander working on his tan...or so he thinks! [Web / Reprint]
  • I want that one...and that one... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas and Meghann conspire together... [Web / Reprint]
  • That shirt should read I love sensory overload! [Web / Reprint]

Up Goes the Christmas Tree!

17 Dec 2005

A Fun Day in Port Orange!

27 Nov 2005

  • Visting Aunt Betty, Uncle Roger, and Aunt Nadine... [Web / Reprint]
  • Uncle Roger checks out Alexander's brag book... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas playing with the train (naturally!)... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas...well...you've gotten quite furry! [Web / Reprint]
  • Time to get some oranges from Gramps' orchard! [Web / Reprint]
  • Don't worry...I'm right behind you! :) [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas picks an orange... [Web / Reprint]
  • Either Alexander told a funny joke or Nicholas is just plain silly... [Web / Reprint]
  • One...two...three... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas does a Pete Weber pose with the orange... [Web / Reprint]
  • But Gramps...that's MY orange! [Web / Reprint]
  • Great...great...NOW FEED ME! [Web / Reprint]
  • It's the most crowded and tackiest yard... [Web / Reprint]
  • ...in pretty much all of Florida, eh? [Web / Reprint]

Visiting Mickey Mouse and Friends!

26 Nov 2005

Thanksgiving at Gramps' House!

24 Nov 2005

A Day at Baltimore's National Aquarium!

20 Nov 2005

  • Good thing those teeth don't have a shark attached to them! [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas checks out a horseshoe crab... [Web / Reprint]
  • Wow! Your shells have residents! [Web / Reprint]
  • Horseshoe crab poses for the camera... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nothing beats..uhh...a whole bunch of legs! [Web / Reprint]
  • Where are the dolphins? [Web / Reprint]
  • There they are! [Web / Reprint]
  • No, that dolphin didn't do a face plant... [Web / Reprint]
  • Strike a pose, there's nothing to it... [Web / Reprint]
  • The toughest gig in Baltimore... [Web / Reprint]
  • Daddy and Alexander [Web / Reprint]
  • The aquarium from across the harbor... [Web / Reprint]
  • Looking to sea from the Inner Harbor... [Web / Reprint]

The Great Pumpkin, Part Deux

31 Oct 2005

  • Mine? [Web / Reprint]
  • I wonder what is in here... [Web / Reprint]
  • Ride 'em, Alexander! [Web / Reprint]
  • Look...we want our boodle and we want it now! [Web / Reprint]
  • Remember when you had to WALK to Trick-or-Treat? [Web / Reprint]
  • The best candy in the neighborhood is behind that door... [Web / Reprint]

The Great Pumpkin

30 Oct 2005

Goats, hay, and fire engines...oh my!

23 Oct 2005

The Annual Galena Hayride

22 Oct 2005

  • That must be some show! [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas mows the lawn! [Web / Reprint]
  • This is what he really wanted to drive... [Web / Reprint]
  • What, no hay?!? [Web / Reprint]
  • That trailer seems a bit full... [Web / Reprint]
  • Riding off into the sunset... [Web / Reprint]
  • What interesting harvests they have in Ohio... [Web / Reprint]
  • You know, it's just not the same as the big Deere... [Web / Reprint]
  • Grammy with a handful of grandchildren... [Web / Reprint]
  • I'll show you "gobble, gobble"... [Web / Reprint]

Visiting COSI in Columbus

21 Oct 2005

COSI website

  • The action is over here guys! [Web / Reprint]
  • Flying the helicopter... [Web / Reprint]
  • where is the collective?!? [Web / Reprint]
  • Playing at the water table! [Web / Reprint]
  • You know those car window stickers with the little boy? This isn't the same thing... [Web / Reprint]
  • Bet you can't get me! (I'm going to git you sucka...) [Web / Reprint]
  • Don't adjust your set...you're not actually inside the water table! [Web / Reprint]
  • Playing at the water table... [Web / Reprint]
  • This is bigger than the one in my bath tub... [Web / Reprint]
  • Welcome to the water table... [Web / Reprint]
  • You think you're getting me out of here? You've got another think coming... [Web / Reprint]
  • Mairin splashing at the water table... [Web / Reprint]
  • Synchronized play at the water table... [Web / Reprint]
  • I think she's enjoying this! [Web / Reprint]
  • Three cousins having fun... [Web / Reprint]
  • Who is the biggest kid here? [Web / Reprint]
  • MINE! [Web / Reprint]
  • He's totally a Rolling Stones fan! [Web / Reprint]
  • Fine, play with the spigot...I'm tasting this! [Web / Reprint]
  • It's Nicholas the Builder! [Web / Reprint]
  • How many times have I told you...you don't put this here! [Web / Reprint]
  • A bit possessive, aren't we? [Web / Reprint]
  • Don't you wish every handy man was this fastidious? [Web / Reprint]
  • Words you never want to hear at NORAD: don't push that button! [Web / Reprint]
  • You know, I'm really missing my race car bed! [Web / Reprint]
  • Patrick tries out the bed of nails... [Web / Reprint]
  • Somehow, I don't think he's trading in his current bed for this one! [Web / Reprint]
  • Poseidon's realm! [Web / Reprint]
  • Well, it isn't a torpedo tube... [Web / Reprint]

Going our separate ways!

20 Oct 2005

Relaxing on the beach!

17 Sep 2005

Well, it's our last full day out on the beach before we have to head home tomorrow. And no, we really don't want to go but there are flights to be caught and work that has to be returned to so we don't have much of a choice in the matter.

ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH!

But the time on the beach when we weren't being chased away by a hurricane was enjoyable nonetheless. Alexander and Nicholas particularly loved the tide pools as a perfect place to play without having to worry about being swept out to sea. There was plenty of sand and water to have a splashing good time...

But we still don't wanna go home! :(

After the Storm!

16 Sep 2005

After a few anxious days of watching the news for the reports on damage and flooding Down East, it's time to head back to Ocean Isle to continue our interrupted vacation at the beach. WRAL had a slideshow of pictures from Ocean Isle, one of which showed the house across the street pretty much flooded up to the ceiling of the first floor. It was kind of interesting pointing out this picture at work with the obligatory yeah...that's the house right across the street. By the time we arrived in Ocean Isle, the house was already torn down and the sea is that much closer. The beachfront view is better without that house in the way, at least!

Linda noticed that the house to the west of the now missing house was sporting a for sale sign that wasn't there when we evacuated a few days earlier. Someone will probably buy the thing but it's only a matter of time, folks! :)

The road had a lot more sand covering it than it did before and the water line from the flooding was clearly visible. Even though we would have been out of the flood waters, it was still the right decision to head home and let the storm pass. The fate of the house across the street and the river that used to be the street was more than enough for us.

Anyway, we've got to get serious and get out on the beach to make up for the time we lost due to Ophelia. And there is no time like the present to do just that...

Hurricane Warning, Ophelia Chases Us Away!

12 Sep 2005

Even as the storm clouds keep rolling in from Ophelia, it was time to head out to the beach once more for a bit of fun in the sand. We camped out not too far from Sand Dwellers to the west of the house.

To his credit, Nicholas refrained from tasting the sand (as he has been known to do) but Alexander was certainly giving thoughts to doing a bit of silicon taste-testing. Well, there really wasn't much else that was handy near the sandy nest he found himself inhabiting. Toys are so passé, you know...

After a wonderful morning on the beach, the surf started getting rougher and the tide higher and later that afternoon, the waves were crashing over the sand bag levee not too far from the house. That was enough for us to decide not to try to ride out the storm which looked like it was going to pass Ocean Isle off-shore but that we could still expect signficant rain and flooding from the storm.

Nope, not a hard decision at all! Especially when the mandatory evacuation orders came later that day (and when they want people off that island, they usually get the people off the island because they shut down the water service and close the one bridge onto the island).

So later that night, we were on our way home fighting our way through Ophelia's outer rain bands, some of which were pretty nasty near Wilmington. But by the time we got to I-95, the skies were clear and the moon was shining brightly. We would be going back when it was safe...

Hurricane Watch, Ophelia on the Prowl!

11 Sep 2005

There are times I wonder if Coral Gables (home of the National Hurricane Center near Miami, FL) has it in for us. Last year, we got chased by Charley which came ashore about twenty miles southwest of Ocean Isle just to the north of Myrtle Beach as a Category 1 (minimal) storm (which was better than the Category 4 it was when it came ashore near Naples, FL!).

Mind you, there are always trade-offs when coming to the beach in September. Generally kids are back in school and most of the tourists are gone so that's pretty good. However, it's also at the historic peak time of the hurricane season. Fran and Floyd were both devastating September storms that struck North Carolina.

We knew Ophelia was lurking off the coast before we left Garner as it had formed at the beginning of the month and was one already one of the longer-lived tropical systems. And we had a nice big warning sign across the street about what even a minimal hurricane can do when it erodes the beach the houses are standing upon. So as you can imagine, we've been tuned to The Weather Channel and their Tropical Update segment.

We were already seeing some of the rougher surf and tides that herald the approach of the storm. The house across the street used to have a staircase on the west side of the house. The operative words are used to. The rough surf combined with a higher-than-normal tide ripped it right off and it's getting beaten to smithereens in the roiling surf now.

But that's not going to stop us from enjoying a relaxing day at the beach!

We're Off to Ocean Isle Beach!

10 Sep 2005

The first operational test of our Sienna happens today when we load 'er up for the annual pilgrimage to the land of surf and sand (and surf and turf come to think of it!). Yep, it's time for us to head back to Ocean Isle Beach to the beach house for a week of fun in the sun!

The nice thing about giving the Sienna a shakedown cruise is the main reason we got her in the first place...CARGO ROOM! As a veteran cargo loader of the Escape, I can tell you that we took more stuff with us this year than we did last year...and had plenty of space to pile in more if we needed to! All it took was dropping the larger of the two rear seats into the cargo well and filling up the resulting space which was easily twice the cargo volume of the Escape. We still had a couple of seats available for additional cargo that we needed readily at hand. And there is the all-important DVD player hanging from the Sienna's ceiling...always good on a long trip!

Minivans rock...and they roll! And so we were off on I-40 for the beach in a mini caravan. Pat's friend Linda from Wisconsin was joining us on this trip after having flown into RDU a couple of days earlier (and boy were her arms tired...hey...PUT DOWN THE TOMATO NOW!). We made decent time down to Ocean Isle by completing the journey in a little under two and a half hours.

We were warned that there were some changes courtesy of Hurricane Charley the year before. You remember Charley, right? That's the one that decided that passing awfully close to my father's house in Port Orange wasn't enough...no, it had to chase us from the beach half a day early last year. Mind you, compared to what the people are having to contend with in the aftermath of Katrina, we were quite fortunate.

The houses across the street? Not so much in the old fortune department. The house directly across from us was gutted and only the frame was still standing. Anything on that side of the street to the east toward Holden's Beach? Swimming with the fishes, my friends! As we're rolling in, there are crews working on building a sand bag levee under the house immediately to the west of Gutted Landing. Yeah, I'm thinking that's probably not a bad idea but probably ultimately futile. By the time Charley got to us, he wasn't a really powerful storm as a minimal hurricane but if you remembered what the street looked like last year, that was still plenty impressive.

Anyway, one quick unload later, it's time for a quick stroll on the beach. Unfortunately, the really convenient beach access points are closed so it's a bit of a hike in either direction to get on the beach. But that's OK...we're on beach time now!

Gram and Gang Come to Visit!

30 Aug 2005

We recently had a birthday and whilst we will name the culprit (Gram) we'll refrain from disclosing anything really juicy like her age (unless the bribe is high enough and includes a witness protection program, preferably in another country like Australia!). :)

Of course, the living room floor became Toddler Central with Nicholas haranguing anyone he could shanghai into playing cars with him. Alexander decided that he preferred just being quiet and cute and as long as he was cuddled, he was content enough.

All in all, it was a good day to hang out and enjoy each other's company. Plus a bit of birthday cake from Sam's didn't hurt anyone...

Saturday...in the park!

27 Aug 2005

It's not just a catchy tune by Chicago, it accurately describes today's outing to Lake Benson Park so Gramps and Grandma Carol could see the facilities that are available just a short drive down Buffaloe Road from the house.

The park has three areas with play equipment, plenty of open spaces that are great for kicking a soccer ball, and nature trails near the lake. There's even a little cabin not too far from the road which houses Garner's famous stuffed albino deer. This house has it all...air conditioning, nice pictures on the wall, and a security system. You might wonder why that's important for a deer that's, well, dead. Well, there is a reason she has the nickname Singy...some idiot broke into the house, stole the deer, and set it on fire. They've done a decent job of restoring it so that you really would have a hard time telling. Of course, the white deer is actually housed across the street from White Deer Park. Go figure!

All around the deer memorial are nice big pecan trees. The last time I saw pecan trees like that was at Fort Sam Houston in Texas where we'd go pecan picking (we had special poles with traps on the end of them). The best trees were near the national cemetery on the other side of post...shhh...don't tell anyone!

The boys really love the park and it's a good place to allow Nicholas to run off his surplus of energy which is always a good thing when it comes time for him to go to bed! Alexander just loves being out in the fresh air and has taken a real shine to swinging on the swing set.

Gramps and Grandma Carol Arrive!

26 Aug 2005

Today, Gramps and Grandma Carol (as well as Moby Dodge whose suspension groaned a sigh of relief once the unloading was complete) arrived for another visit with their favorite grandsons.

Who says Christmas is only once a year?

Of course, it's fun enough watching them get a serious case of sensory overload with all of the things that go blip, boop, beep, bop. And the same could be said of Alexander and Nicholas as well. :)

A wonderful day at the pool!

14 Aug 2005

Today's excursion is a quest for the wet stuff. What's the best way to while away the time on a really hot day? A dip in the pool, naturally!

Unfortunately, our first choice of Pullen Aquatic Center on the NCSU campus was closed for repairs and refurbishing so off we go for our second choice, the Optimist pool in northwest Raleigh. This facility actually has three pools...a main pool, a diving pool, and a sizeable wading pool as well as full locker rooms.

The boys loved swimming in the pools and hopefully that bodes well for the beach trip that's coming next month.

Raiding the State Farmer's Market With Gram and the Gang

30 Jul 2005

Well, our Sienna's first passengers that weren't us decided to help inaugurate passenger service in style. It was good to get together and we decided to hang out a bit at the North Carolina State Farmer's Market.

This isn't your dinky, beside-the-road farmer's market. This is a full scale hub of agricultural items that services the entire region. They've got everything from local farmers hauling their crops in to commercial operations working out of the market. We like to occasionally raid the farmer's market for produce that is generally a lot cheaper and better quality than what you can get in the grocery store.

And of course, there is another attraction...the NC Seafood Restaurant. This place is definitely one we like to visit every now and then when we need a bit of a Calabash fix without driving all the way to Calabash. It's not fancy but the fact that it's busy all of the time ought to tell you that it's pretty good. And even in the busy times, it's rare that you don't have a nice big pile of shrimp (or whatever else you may fancy including broiled seafood) in front of you very quickly...the operation behind the counter is the model of efficiency. Come hungry...because they will definitely feed you. There really isn't a way to do shrimp on your own that will cost less than what these guys will do for you! :)

After stuffing ourselves with shrimp, it was time to walk it off in the vendor's pavilion. And of course, walk away with some good deals on great produce. Too bad you don't really get the haggling experience you'd normally get at one of these sorts of markets...no cute kids discounts for us, I guess. :(

Meet our Newest Family Member

29 Jul 2005

During a recent trip to Washington, D.C. for Alexander's surgery with Dr Bruce, one thing became readily apparent and that was that our family hauler required a bit of an upgrade.

You see, it was perfectly OK for four people but quite often, we find that our party is actually a party of five now. And that's something that the Escape just wasn't really capable of handling, particularly when two of them are in car seats (and no, surfing I-95 on the top of the Escape really isn't an option...watch out for that low bridge!... nor is it really cool to strap someone in a rocking chair up there like Granny from "The Beverly Hillbillies").

So here we are in Washington trying to figure out how we're going to get five people home in a vehicle that only seats four. Gramps ended up helping us out tremendously when Alexander's discharge was delayed but the writing was very definitely on the wall...we were going to have to take the dreaded next step in our family's hauler.

A couple of months later, it was time to return to Washington, D.C. for a follow-up appointment with Dr Bruce (who was very happy with Alexander's recovery) so we hired a Chrysler Town and Country. We had cargo room to spare and everyone was pretty comfortable all the way to Baltimore where we were staying so we knew we were on the right track.

So off to the dealers we go to have a look-see at minivans. It was readily apparent that the industry has progressed quite a bit from the old Ford Aerostar minivans by tempering passenger hauling capacities with a nod to catering to the type of passengers riding in the van. Back then, you were lucky if you got rear audio controls and headphones and if you were really lucky, you could actually control your A/C back there as well. But other than that, the vans really had no personality to them other than they weren't a big 15-passenger bus. And if you were looking for performance, handling, and comfort...just imagine flying a fully-loaded C-130 Herky Bird with those big Allison turboprops chewing up the air. The C-130 isn't fast and it isn't pretty and it sure as heck isn't quiet...but it does the job.

So it's not terribly surprising that minivans would have a bit of that stigma of mommy van or Chevy Chase's family truckster.

Hoo boy, have the times changed and for the better! To borrow a phrase from dear old deceased Oldsmobile...this isn't your parent's minivan. A lot of attention has been spent on making the experience of riding in one of these vans as enjoyable as possible. There are entertainment options that are just mind blowing...DVD players with screens that drop down from the roof (or are on the back of the front-seat head rests), amazing audio systems, the works.

But they didn't stop there...there has been serious attention paid to the performance and handling of the modern minivan. And to top it off, the one thing minivans do very well...cargo hauling...is much improved by making it convenient to drop seats out of the way for increased cargo hauling. It used to be that you had to remove the third row of seats entirely...now they fold down into the floor and provide a big cargo area.

Very quickly, it became obvious that we'd be choosing between the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna for our first minivan. They're consistently top-rated in the minivan category and the quality of construction also speaks highly of them. We were looking for an eight-passenger configuration so we could put a car seat within arm's reach of the driver seat and a drop-down DVD screen were necessities.

We took out the Odyssey first and it has a very nice ride. But two things pretty much ruled it out...lack of LATCH hooks where we needed them so we could drop the entire third row into the floor if needed and it's easier for Daddy to get into the back row of the Sienna when it comes to putting Nicholas into his car seat without gratuitous mooning of wherever we happen to be!

So now the fun begins...dealing with dealers. Honestly, a root canal is probably more enjoyable an activity than dealing with car dealers. There is a reason they're not particularly well-liked or trusted. Visit a few of them who are selling the same make of car and you'll hear just as many stories and one gets weary about hearing the same sob stories about how they have to keep the lights burning and the secretarial pool typing. And mind you, I actually like haggling over the price.

A little side story here, if I may. When we ended up with the Escape, we actually had no intention to buy a vehicle the last weekend of 2002. None at all! But a vehicle was at the garage for repairs and the guy said they were dealing so we figured why not. That test drive was interesting to say the least. The first guy (imagine Lurch from The Addams Family) who knew even less about the Escape than we did and had a pathological aversion to anyone taking a left turn on their test drive). So we finish driving an Escape and an Explorer (which Julia hated) and then we sit down with the dealer who then tells us why we have to pay a documentation fee so that he can keep the lights on, etc. We finally get this bozo to name a price and he has an inspired idea...send the puppy home with the girl and she'll be hooked. So he lets us take the Escape with us for an extended test drive over the weekend. The next day, we discover that Capital Ford is actually open and they have an almost identically configured Escape and he beats the other guy's price by quite a bit provided we do the deal that day. So we even though we normally don't do big deals without thinking about it overnight...we figured we'd already done that with the other deal and so...why not?

Imagine this...two nearly identically configured blue Escapes are now in our possession...one we actually own and one we're returning the next day to the first dealer. And that first guy was pretty irate that he didn't close the deal he obviously counted as his. He kept going on about how he came to the price we wanted (obviously not...he went to the price he was willing to go, not the price we ultimately paid!). But then it got truly bizarre...the idiot sales manager starts announcing to the world that our deal was the second he lost that week to the competition...thereby telling everyone who is dealing and who isn't! It was truly weird, to say the least.

Anywho, car dealers. Icky! As in below pond scum icky! But a necessary evil. So off we go to chase down a salsa red Sienna LE with the packages that we want. This is a chase that would lead us through their website to find out what Toyotas are available in the Southeast and then three dealers (including one at Leith Toyota in North Raleigh who started wigging out on us when we pointed out his numbers didn't make a whole lot of sense).

But after a long search, we finally our van configured how we wanted it. And the van was well worth the wait (as it was actually built to order at the factory). A dream to drive, quieter than we remembered, and with plenty of room for everyone to ride comfortably and with tons of room for cargo, too.

And the beauty part of it all is that Julia finally has a vehicle that isn't blue. :)

Happy Birthday, Julia!

22 Jul 2005

We won't divulge the age here, folks. Just that it was nice to get out of the house and thanks to a very accomodating Grammy, we could enjoy a good meal sans kids. You don't really appreciate how much that simple thing can mean to you until it's so rare that you don't have a meal involving cajoling a two year-old to eat or you're sticking a bottle in another child's mouth.

And what a wonderful meal it was at Jimmy V's Steakhouse. A long time ago, a friend and I discovered this place after a round of golf at Lochmere and we were hooked. The service is impeccable, the food is amazing, and yeah...there is a hefty bill but it is worth it. No one else we've tried in the area truly compares. And definitely go with the cowboy steak...you won't regret it!

A Lazy Fourth of July

04 Jul 2005

Today's mandate was quite simple: RELAX!!!

We intended to just hang around, watch some movies, let the kids run wild in the back yard, and then sacrifice some steaks and sausages to the propane gods.

I'd say we succeeded quite well! :)

The kids had fun playing on the jungle gym, play house, and in the sandbox. And when they weren't there, we had them playing in the shaving cream and running through the water. OK, Patrick Samuel and Nicholas...Miss Mairin wasn't quite into the messy stuff like the boys but I think it's safe to say she had fun nonetheless.

We got a chance to break in the new patio set (read: very heavy patio set!) for dinner and we were all quite comfortable. After the kids were safely off to bed, it was time for some more cards to close out the evening.

Celebrating the Fourth at Lake Benson Park

03 Jul 2005

Previously, we enjoyed the Fourth of July fireworks (more often than not through blinding rain!) from the front porch of our house in Clayton. If you looked between the houses across the street, you had a clear view of the fireworks from downtown when they cleared the tree tops.

Our current location doesn't seem to afford us the same clear view of the fireworks so we figured we'd take advantage of the official Fourth of July celebration staged by the Town of Garner at Lake Benson Park. Fortunately, the park is about a mile away from the house down Buffaloe Road so it's pretty convenient and Nicholas sure enjoys playing there. So the plan was that the whole bunch (Grammy, the Ryans visiting from Columbus, and us) would pile in for a tailgate/picnic in the hours leading up to the fireworks at night. This would also be the first time the Ryans would see our new home in Garner so it's always fun to show off the place! :)

It wasn't long after we did the grand tour of the house that it was time to pack up the vehicles and head over to the park. We arrived there right about 1700 hours and getting a parking spot was pretty easy (even with the traffic backed all the way up Buffaloe from the other direction...in the future...approach from our side of the park!). Unfortunately, we were a ways away from our little campsite so we all pitched in to lug a bunch of chairs and blankets and coolers to the assembly area. Did I mention that it was a pretty hot day? Well, we certainly felt the heat doing all of the heavy lifting. After everything was in place, it was time to have a quick look round.

The first thing that was instantly apparent was a village of air-filled rides in the children's entertainment area. These are the inflatable slides and jumping pits you'd normally see at the fair but without the requirement to spend a bunch of buck$ for tickets. I'd thank the Town of Garner for that but as a ratepayer, I'm sure it ends up in the yearly tax bill. But to be honest, Garner puts on a heck of an event so it's all good. Nicholas rode down the big race car slide...and decided that was enough for him. No amount of coaxing was going to get him into the jumping pits! I'll bet you next year we will have the opposite problem of trying to get him out of the rides so others may take a turn.

There was a concession area available but we had decided on getting some chicken from Bojangles so now it was my turn to head on out to get the bird. Gramps had given us this electric cooler that acts both as a cooler and a warmer and that kept the chicken quite toasty. Unfortunately, leaving halfway through meant that the parking wasn't going to be anywhere near as close as before. Next year, we'll bring the chicken with us in that warmer.

The next couple of hours involved chicken, lots of fluids, a fair amount of soccer, more fluids, and a lot of great music from the bands. With an hour to go before the fireworks, we were treated to the North Carolina Symphony and that was a special treat. By that point, Nicholas needed a nap so he snuggled into my arms and was out like a light. You know, you just can't beat a wonderful day relaxing in the park with your son cuddling with you.

The fireworks woke him up soon enough and Garner sure didn't go cheap with that display. That is one of the best fireworks displays that I have ever seen in my life (and when I've seen what Disney puts in the air, that's saying something). The finale just had to be seen to be believed.

Of course, when thousands of people show up for fireworks and there is only one exit, you can imagine the traffic trying to get out of there after the show. So naturally, we hung out and played some more soccer for about an hour after the show. But finally we were on our way back to the house to put a bunch of kids to bed and get to playing some cards!

We definitely had a full house with nine of us staying overnight (owing to the late hour getting back home after the show) but it was nice to see that the house can handle quite a few guests comfortably.