Ben, the monkey

I took this video on Ben's last day of rock climbing camp at the gym. Ben's the boy in blue. He's on the autobelay rope, which holds his weight a little as he pulls himself up.

$250 Dinner - but we're worth it!

To our dear friend Eileen, who is traveling the world on sabbatical ... we missed you tonight (but we'll have to do this again!). Sally, Rhonda and I tried a new restaurant in Raleigh called The Mint. It's in the old reserve bank building on Fayetteville Street at 1 Exchange Plaza. What an amazing place! Mojitos were fantastic, the wine was extraordinary, and dinner was divine ... and then there was the warm chocolate cake! We video'd some highlights to share ... thanks, my friends, for a perfect evening!

Delicious Halibut and Duck ...

Sally and the view & decor at The Mint ...

For posterity ... and to find at the Total Wine store ...

Pictures of Alek's trip

Alek & the bass he caught at Papa's Pond
Alek and the catfish he caught in Papa's Pond - the big one is 25 inches long and over 5 lbs - biggest ever caught in Papa's Pond, and Alek reeled it in himself. (it's half as big as Alek!)
Alek in the boat at Papa's Pond

Mema & Alek ready to cookout hotdogs and s'mores
Papa & Alek and catfish
Papa & Alek rowing the boat on the pond
Papa & Alek ready to ride the 4 wheeler
Alek & the 25 inch catfish - biggest ever caught in Papa's pond! ("so big we had to put it on a chain Mom!")

Alek's Trip

Alek is having a blast at the farm, and calls to tell us about it every day. So far, every day he has gone fishing, rode the 4-wheelers, and shot the gun. He's caught the two biggest catfish out of Papa's farm, ever, one at 22 inches and one at 25 inches. I'm waiting for pictures, but those must be some big catfish! They have also done a cookout (hotdogs/marshmallows), and slept over in the hunting lodge two nights.

Ben's had a much slower week at home. Gary's been out of town, so Ben's been on his own downstairs as I work upstairs. He's reading, watching TV, playing Nintendo, making bugs (we have a toy oven (think Easy-Bake oven for girls) that bakes plastic bugs - he and his friend Evan did this for one whole day), and building electronic circuits (again, a really cool toy that he's now old enough to read and figure out on his own).

He's had to go to the gym with me a couple times, and this morning spent time in the lounge chair reading around the pool while I was in water aerobics - tough life!

Ben's been enrolled in Advanced Rock Climbing camp, but it was cancelled on Tuesday, and doesn't meet on Weds, so he's looking forward to going back today (Thursday) - as am I ... !!!

Hope you're all doing well ... I'll post pics as soon as I get them.

Saturday's Baseball Game

Alek spent the week at Football camp - it totally wiped him out every day, but then it was 90 degrees and the fields were in the sun with no breeze from 9 am to 3 pm. But, alas, I have no video of that. I do have video of his game Saturday morning. I finally caught the pledge and end-of-game-shake, for posterity. Oh, he had two good hits too ... got a new camera angle that I like even better than the previous one. Here goes ...
The Pledge of Allegiance before the game ...

First hit on the 4th swing ...

Second hit on the 2nd swing ...

End of game ...

Ben at Rockclimbing Camp

Ben had a totally awesome week at Rockclimbing camp. It was completely physically challenging and exciting. It was a small group led by two great guys from Lifetime Fitness. It only met for 2.5 hours on MTThF, so he didn't get burned out or pick fights with the other campers (yeah!). Here are two short videos of a couple of the games they played ... I kept forgetting my camera each time he climbed to the top of the walls, so these two are low to the ground. He's going to advanced rockclimbing camp next week, so I'll try to get more 'up high'.

This game is called bouldering - two kids start at opposite ends of the wall and race sideways to the X ... Ben didn't win this race, but he's getting faster at moving and jumping his hands and feet, and he was able to shake off his frustration easily (yeah!).

This game is called Cliffhanger, and the leader calls out the hands/feet to take off the wall. Last kid hanging is the winner. Again, Ben didn't win, but he handled it well. I can really see his calf muscles developing this week ... he's getting so strong!

Sports & Camps

This has been a crazy busy first week of summer. The boys were in different camps, at different times, and Gary was gone all week. On top of that, I actually had to GO into IBM at RTP for work on Wednesday (really!), so it was very hectic. I didn't make it to the gym AT ALL this week. But, we took off Saturday morning for Knoxville and sent Alek home with Mema and Papa for the week. We'll soon pick him up and send Ben with them - a big swap, but worth it for them both to have time alone with the grand-p's.



I've got a few videos to post, so I'm going to post them in separate blogs, because it seems to go faster when the blogs are shorter. Here's Alek this morning ready to leave with Mema ...

Soda Explosion

How we spent Father's Day.

Yes, Mentos in soda really does explode.

And makes everyone scream.

Alek's Game

Alek at bat on Saturday morning. His team is really coming together nicely and playing good ball. Unfortunately, he took several swings this time to connect, but the next time he was up (which I didn't videotape) he hit to to the outfield on the first swing. He's doing great and loving baseball.

He starts football camp today - it's supposed to cool off this week into the 80's, but today will be high 90's. Very hot for football!

Day 2 of Summer

We've successfully survived the first two days of summer vacation ... whew. The boys had to entertain themselves both days and Gary and I were both working (from home). They have done great - a lot more TV and Nintendo time than we'd normally like, but very few fights, and several hour stretches of no electronic games.

They got out the 'build it yourself' electronics kits today, and built all kinds of whistles, and lights, and motors and spinners. Very cool. They are old enough to follow the diagrams and directions on their own, and they felt really good about the things they built.

No pool today - Gary and I both have late meetings (I'm waiting for mine to start right now at 8pm - gotta love a global job and working with Asia!) and we're going to the waterpark tomorrow (hopefully, if Gary can get caught up on work).

Next week everyone goes to CAMP!

End of School

Kyle, Austin, Alek, Joseph and Wesley on Mrs. Roger's deck.
Alek is the big splash in the pool, after diving off the diving board at the end of school pool party!
Alek at the top of the slide, and lots of kids at the bottom.
Congratulations on a successful 2nd grade year!
Our boy-filled bus stop! Tuesday was the last day of school. Across the back ... Bennett, Justin, Baily, Matthew, Nathan, Wade. Across the front ... Lacey, Evan, Alek, Evan and Ben. Everyone was very happy to get school over. It was 101 degrees on Tuesday.

Our 100 Degree Weekend

Summer is definitely here ... it's been 100 degrees since Friday, and will be again today. We did have a fun weekend though.

Friday night Gary and Alek went to baseball practice then met us at our friend's house for a pre-school graduation party. Congratulations to Jordan for making it through preschool and on to kindergarten in the fall. We all had fun at the party - a great cookout (indoors of course!) and social gathering with lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while. Ben spent the night with his friend Evan, so Saturday morning it was just the three of us off to Alek's baseball game.

Luckily Alek's team is on the perfect schedule for this spring - they had the later games when it was cooler in May, and now have the earlier games when it's getting hot. Saturday's game was at 9 am, and perfect weather. Alek was ripping them to the mid- and out- field! His practice sessions at the batting cage are really showing in his swing. The team this year is really good and their coach is really doing a great job teaching them how to identify where the next play is, and how to position themselves for hitting and catching. I'm really proud of him!

We then spent a lot of the day inside ... watching TV, playing video games and reading. What else can you do in 100 degrees? We didn't want to be outside nor run errands. Around 5 pm we went up to the pool (it was still in the high 90's then) and got Boston Market for dinner. Swam til the pool closed, and then went right to bed. Ben slept for 12 hours ... we didn't see him again until 9:30 the next morning! I of course folded tons of laundry ... now that it's summer, everyone has 2-3 outfits a day along with pool towels and swim suits. YUCK. How do I always forget this?

Sunday morning Gary and Alek mowed the lawn early, and then we just hung out. Gary and Alek went to the batting cage around 2, and Ben read Harry Potter #4 and I was reading book 4 & 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was so great to have quiet time in the house with both of us reading in parallel. Then Evan called and Ben and I headed to the pool. We had pizza at the pool for dinner, and back to bed by 9:30.

Today is the next to last day of school for the year. I'm excited for the boys, but also concerned ... summer's fun, but it also requires that I drive them to and from camp and make lunches every day. If anyone has great lunch box suggestions - please send them my way!

This week we have gym tonight, Alek's end of year pool party at his teacher's house Tuesday night, gym Weds night, TaeKwonDo Thursday night, and then we're going with our friends to the water park at Emerald Point on Friday. That will be fun ... is supposed to only be in the 90's by Friday. Let's hope so!

Sorry, no pictures or video this week ... just couldn't get it together, too hot.

Baseball

Alek and Kyle ready for a new season
The team in the dugout - Alek is looking toward the camera

Field Days

Yesterday was Field Day at the boys' elementary school. Here are some pics ... of course my camera ran out of battery power as soon as I got there ... duh!

Ben, Heinrich, Tanim
Austin, Alek, William

Waiting for the big blow up water slide!
Brian, Kyle, Joseph
Alek and William getting snow cones from Ms. Carmen

Happy Birthday Gary!

Today is Gary's birthday - hurray! We've had fun celebrating - he got his favorite eggs for breakfast, and I took him to his favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. He got a new GPS system (which we used this weekend), a new leash to run with Chloe, a new Syracuse hat and mustard, and another gift to be given later today (we ran out of time this morning).

We had fun celebrating all weekend ...


Friday Afternoon
Ben had his end-of-year picnic at school, and I went to help out. They went fishing, did a scavenger nature-trail hunt, played games, ate popsicles and bag lunches, and made autograph books. It was great fun. I gather him, Alek and their friend Jacob from school early, and we took off for the weekend ...


Friday Night
We drove to Charlotte, NC and stayed in a hotel for the night where we could swim. Very fun.


Saturday
We went to Carowinds amusement park! We thought that the weekend before school was out would be a great time to go ... but so did everyone else ;-(
It was very crowded and very hot. But we managed to have a good time. Ben and I went on the Night Hawk - a roller coaster where you lay down and you go around 2 loop-de-loops and 2 twists - so you never know if you're upside down or rightside up! It was fantastic, really felt like you were flying. But, the hour and a half wait in line was not fun, but we did make friends with folks around us and it was pleasant. Ben did great being patient. Here's a picture of us entering the park. We drove home later that night. Sunday
We got up late and Alek mowed the yard and I folded the laundry and went to the grocery store, then we headed to the pool around 1. We were there until 5 ... came home and made lasagna for dinner, which was very good.

Now today is the 7th to last day of school for the year ... so summer excitement is right around the corner!