To the Zoo

I went with Sam's class on their field trip to the zoo today and Ella spent the day with Daddy. I think both kids had a great day! Sam enjoyed getting to feed the goats and the giraffes. He also enjoyed the time at the zoo playground. I realized that kindergardeners are exhausting.

Bye-Bye Tooth!

Sam lost his first tooth the last week of April! He was so excited. He had been wiggling it around for weeks. It was so loose we knew it was going to happen any time. I was telling him to try to twist it and it just popped out.

The tooth fairy came and brought Sam a silver dollar. He was thrilled when he found it in the morning. He went running up to John and said, "Daddy look! The tooth fairy brought me a big dime!"

No more real loose teeth right now but I am sure the tooth fairy will be visiting again before too long.

Ohhh lightening!

I have some catching up to do on the blog. I have been without a computer since May 1st. It has been a real pain since I use the computer for so many things. We had lightening strike near our house and come in through the lines causing a great deal of damage. We lost two tvs, two garage door openers, the electric parts of our gas fireplace, wii, playstation 2 & 3, tv receiver and our computer.

Our house has been full of repairmen which is such a pain. The thing I hate the most is the we will be there between noon and five. Sure, I have nothing better than to sit around and wait all afternoon. We are down to a few finishing touches on the tv in the main room and then everything will be working again.

The silver lining was that we got to upgrade our computer. Tonight is my first night on but I'm already amazed at everything new computers can do. I know the man at Best Buy thought I was crazy with some of the questions I was asking but oh well.

Duke Gardens

On Tuesday John went golfing again with Scott and the kids and I headed to Duke Gardens. It was beautiful as always. The kids rushed me through all of the flowers though because they were anxious to feed the ducks. They had some baby ducks that Ella was absolutely crazy about.

That afternoon we spent some time again with Christie and her boys. We were also able to see Stacie and her girls. We really miss our Carolina friends but know that they too will be leaving Carolina soon. That evening John gave a talk to the residents at UNC. His talk went very well and he enjoyed seeing old colleagues.

Carolina- day 3

On Monday we spent the morning with our friends the Greens. It is amazing how big the boys have gotten but it has been almost a year. That evening we drove around and looked at how things had changed. We also drove to the UNC campus. It was beautiful with the dogwoods and azaleas blooming so we took some new pictures by the Old Well.

Carolina Sunday

Here are some pictures of the kids at one of our favorite parks. The Chapel Hill Community Center. It has a big play structure and tons of room to run around. Sam also loves to have races with me on the boci ball court. It also has a beautiful rose garden but we were too early for those to be blooming yet. John was playing golf with Scott while we were at the park, which is no surprise to anyone I'm sure.

Sunday evening we had a BBQ at the McCulloch's house. It was my birthday so Kristie had a cake to celebrate the day. We enjoyed spending time with friends and relaxing.

Going to Carolina!

We went to North Carolina for five days to visit old friends and some of our favorite places. The first day was mostly travel. They no longer have the direct flight from KC to Raleigh so we had to switch planes in Detroit. Sam was a big fan of the Detroit aiport. They have an above ground shuttle that takes you far away gates. He thought that was pretty awesome!

Ella was excited until the first plane began to take off and she got scared. She doesn't remember flying back to Missouri all those times. She was fine though once we got in the air and did well until it was almost time to land and her ears began to bother her. The above picture is Ella on the plane.

We spent the first evening at Scott & Kristie's on the back deck having a few beers while the kids played in the playroom. It was a nice evening.