Updates

So, Fall has finally arrived!?! We’ll call it Fall, although, I’m not sure that is what it feels like. We kicked off meteorological Fall by heading out on vacation the first of September. Alex added four states to his list of states visited and Julia added an amazing five!! Alex particularly enjoyed the states of West Virginia and Virginia because he loved driving through the mountains and especially enjoyed going under the two mountain tunnels in Virginia (The Big Walker and East River Mountain Tunnels—see Link… http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0705.cfm). I’m not sure Julia enjoyed any of the ride…The main thing she got out of hours in the car was figuring out how to contort herself in order to get out of the top of her five-point harness. Unfortunately, she has been doing it a lot more in the car since our vacation.

Our main focus of our vacation was hitting the beach. Alex has see beaches and the ocean on television and in books he has read and has been asking to go for the longest time, so we figured…’why, not?’ We went to Wrightsville Beach and Ft. Fisher Beach in North Carolina and had a blast! Wrightsville Beach had tons of sea shells and Ft. Fisher had an amazing history. We got to hit the waves at the site of a Civil War battle! While at Ft. Fisher, we visited the North Carolina Aquarium at Ft. Fisher (http://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher) and the Civil War Museum at Ft. Fisher (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/fisher/fisher.htm). Alex and Julia enjoyed both, but probably enjoyed the beach the most! Daddy didn’t like the sand, but they sure did!!

On our last day in Wilmington, we headed over to the USS North Carolina Battleship (http://www.battleshipnc.com/page1.php). It was so much fun! Both Alex and Julia loved exploring the ship and pretending to ‘shoot down kamikazes.’ It was Mommy’s favorite part of the vacation and I can’t wait to take them to the USS Alabama and the USS Missouri!!

Alexism in Wilmington:

While in Wilmington, Alex kept getting confused because our hotel was right by a Target. He kept asking us if we were “still in Carolina?” We would continually tell him, “yes, we will be in North Carolina until Sunday!” Well, he finally said this as we entered the Wal-Mart parking lot on our last night…

Alex: “Are we still in Carolina?”

Mommy: “Yes!"--With some annoyance

Alex: “Well, I get so confused!” I mean they have a Hooters and now we’re at Wal-Mart! We have those at home, too!”

Mommy and Daddy: BaHaHa!!

I am slightly confused on his analysis…I guess I understand why he referenced Hooters a bit…There was just one a block away from our hotel and Daddy kept joking about eating there, but I guess I never realized that Alex noticed that there is a Hooters at home, since he has never eaten there and I don’t think I recall ever mentioning it even as we have passed it! Who knows? He must have a memory of steel!

Our next stop was to visit Uncle Alan, Kris, and Ava outside of Raleigh/Durham. We had a blast hanging out with them for a few days and heading into to Durham to visit Duke for Daddy. Alex and Julia both enjoyed seeing some of the wildlife NC had to offer and had the chance to see lizards, frogs, and praying mantises at Ava’s. In fact, at a McDonald’s in NC, Alex and Julia found a lizard up in the slide of the playground. Alex said that it was “an iguana” and Julia just kept screaming ‘bug” at it. Daddy had to go rescue her, because she wouldn’t go down the slide because it was there!

While in NC, both Mommy and Daddy wanted to try some authentic NC barbecue, so we headed to Stephenson’s BQ. It is a good thing we realized that it doesn’t come with barbecue sauce or we might have been called “damn Yankees” when we asked for some! It was pretty good, but both Mommy and Daddy prefer our barbecue with sauce. We’ll have to head to Memphis or KC next to try some more regional barbecue!

Preschool

Only two days after our return from vacation, Alex started his last year of preschool before heading off to Kindergarten next year! He had a moment of nervousness, but as soon as he saw his friends…he was gone! Alex is really enjoying himself at preschool. He looks forward to everyday and is super excited to take his ‘treasure chest’ back to school tomorrow. The ‘treasure chest’ activity allows the kids to get to know one another and was his first homework assignment. Hopefully, we will continue not to procrastinate for we had to do the assignment as soon as we got home on Friday even though he doesn’t have school again until tomorrow! He was to put the following in the treasure chest:

1. A Family Picture

2. A Snuggly or Favorite Toy—His Baby

3. Something that represents his favorite activity—Bears Football (plays w/ Owen all the time)

4. Something that represents his favorite food—Taco Mild Sauce from Taco Bell (What can I say? The kid loves tacos!)

5. His favorite book—His informational book on Pirates

I have a ton more updates to do, but I’ll work on getting them posted over the next week or so!!