Solar Eclipse

 We were excited to view a partial (92%) solar eclipse in mid-August.  After weeks of hype, the big day arrived.  Our school system had an early release day so that kids could go home and experience the eclipse with their families.  When the hour came, we went outside with our eclipse glasses and watched as the moon passed between the Earth and the sun.  It had been cloudy all day, but it cleared out enough that we could see the action. We are not suppose to have another eclipse in our part of the country for many years, so I'm glad we were able to see this one.

Nephew News

I have seriously got the sweetest, cutest, smartest, and most precious nephews in the world.  And, I am happy to say that Brian and I have a new sweet, precious, smart nephew to brag about.  In early August, Brian's brother and his wife gave birth to Gavin Matthew.   We are hoping that we'll get to meet him when we travel to Delaware early next year.  I know that everyone is over the moon for him (especially his sister).













In other nephew news, the kids and I went to Canton this past weekend to see John Daniel get baptized.  It has been a month since we've seen James and John Daniel, and they have both grown so much.  James is saying all kind of words, and John Daniel is rolling around.

I'll gladly brag on my nephews any day of the week, but I don't want to leave out the fact that I also have four precious nieces, and I'm about to have a fifth!  God has truly blessed our family.

 

Ovo

The kids, Granny Mel, and I saw Ovo by Cirque du Soleil this weekend, and we loved it.  The costumes, music, set, and performances were all amazing.  The performers were dressed to resemble insects, and the acts were also insect-themed. We were blown away by the talent that we saw.  I'm pretty sure there will be additional Cirque performances in our future.   

The School Year Begins

The kids are back in school, and they both had a great first day.  Olivia began fifth grade, and this will be her last year in elementary.  Her big news for the day was that the math teacher let the class choose their own seats, and so she ended up in a group with three of her buddies.  I know at least one of these buddies to be as chatty as Olivia, so this seating arrangement may be short-lived.  

Owen began fourth grade, and he has the same teachers that Olivia had last year.  This is great because we already have a idea about the amount and type of work that will be assigned.  He is excited that most of his buddies are in his class again this year.  I'm so glad that the first day back was a success.

Summer Break 2017

The end of summer break is upon us.  I go back to work tomorrow, and the kids start back next week.  This summer has flown by, but we've had some fun.  Below are some of the things that we've accomplished in our time off.

We finally made it out to Laura Walker State Park to see the new boardwalk.

We found one geocache along the trail at Laura Walker.  This is not impressive because we searched for three and only found the one.  We remain the worst geocachers ever.

 I tried to convince the kids to swim in the lake, but they were not having it.

 Owen attended a three day basketball camp, which he loved.

 Those basketball skills came in handy later in the summer when we went to see the Globetrotters and Owen was chosen to be in the show.

 He was so excited to be chosen.

 The kids participated in summer reading at the library and attended a few of the programs.  The coolest program was a STEM camp that taught the kids how to use a soldering iron.  Parents were required to participate with their children because those irons are hot.  Owen did so well with this.  He used the iron to assemble a "Weevil Eye" kit and it worked.

 After hearing the safety lesson before the soldering workshop, Olivia decided that working with the hot iron was not for her.  So, she did a circuit class instead.

We only had the opportunity to visit Wild Adventures once this summer, and we spent most of the time in the water park.  The kids have gotten to where they like being in the wave pool, so that's where we camped out.



The summer of 2017 was a good one, and I hate to see it go.  Still, we are excited about starting back to school and getting back into our routine.

50th Surprise

Brian's first cousin Brandon turned the big 5-0 last week, and we went up to North Carolina to attend his surprise party.  He was definitely surprised.  Brandon's wife Sandy really went all out.  She had lots of people come from out of town to surprise him, and she had tons of food brought in.  It was really well-planned.  We enjoyed our visit immensely.  We got to catch up with all of the family and meet some other really great people.  Melanie rode up with us, and she also had a really good time.

Since we were only an hour and a half away from Carowinds, we decided to check out the park.  Carowinds is home to Fury 325 (which is the current #1 steel coaster in the world) and Intimidator (current #8 steel coaster). This was the kids first giga-coaster (over 300 feet).  We were impressed with the park overall.  There was a solid line-up of coasters and a good balance of other rides as well.  They also had an attached water park that we visited during the middle of the day because it was sweltering.  The good news is that the heat kept a lot of people in the water park all day, so the lines for the rides in the amusement park were relatively short.

We had such a great weekend, and we can't wait to see everyone again.

Beach Collage

I had so many great pictures from the beach this year, that I've decided to post a few more.