happy halloween!

We visited Pullen Park with our friend Nolan this afternoon. Thanks to Sandy's winds and threatened rain, the park was pretty quiet, but the Wurlitzer organ that provides the carousel's music was cranking. Since the carousel reopened over a year ago following an extensive restoration  the organ hadn't been playing, but today, we found out that the Wurlitzer lives again! The whirring gears, jumping drums, and thumping trumpet-like megaphones cranked out standard tunes for most of our spin, but I was delighted to hear Ghostbusters!

And we weren't the only one thrilled with Ghostbusters! Click here for another family's video. 

If you're fascinated, here's a video that lets you see the inner workings of a similar Wurlitzer. 

busy boys

Jed does a lot of craft projects at school, so he does a lot of craft projects at home now, too. Macon, meanwhile, loves loading the dump truck and assembling trains. This morning, he was making a train out of an actual toy train. If train cars are not available, he'll line up any objects to create a train anywhere, any time. 

a full dump truck is a happy dump truck

and we're back . . .

 . . . to the swim suit!

Last year, it took Jed a while to warm up to his Halloween costume, and he balked on costume day at school. So this year, I decided to give him part of the costume early, and when his flippers and scuba mask arrived the other day, we also had to get the dreaded swim suit out again. Our record was 7 straight days in the swim suit. Where will it end this time?

even a diver has to eat

 As an aside: Macon likes brussel sprouts! 

Last night, the boys had tacos, green beans, sweet potatoes and a few brussel sprouts, with no expectation that they would actually eat them. Lucky for Jed, who did not like them, Macon took everyone else's and ate them like there would be no tomorrow. 

best thing I ever ate.

This morning, Macon and I joined Grandma and Grandpa for the North Carolina Century Farms lunch at the State Fair. There, Macon had his first barbecue sandwich. To say he liked it would be a vast understatement: without hesitation, he attacked like a cheetah on a baby wildebeest. Ten minutes later, nothing remained but crumpled waxed paper. 

slc highlights

On Friday morning, the boys waved me off on my first solo trip in a long, long time. I headed to Salt Lake City where my friends Courtney and Gabe moved a few years ago. 

By Friday afternoon, I was enjoying this view. 

This is from the high school near Courtney and Gabe's house, but it's essentially the view from her house. 

On Saturday, we visited Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. 

We saw antelope, but none close enough for a good picture. 

Buffalo!

Courtney shows off our permit. 

The circle of life: buffalo poop and a skull. 

Several coyotes checked us out. None came too close, but we kept our eyes open just in case. 

A buffalo roams the marsh along the edge of the lake.

On Sunday morning, we took the scenic route (but really, all the routes are scenic) to Park City. 

I had a great time and can't wait to go again! (That's code for let's go on a road trip, Allison!) 

Clear the sidewalks!

Jed has a new bike!

He has been begging for a bike for weeks, and with Sarah (aka the voice of reason) out of town, he finally broke the weak link of the family (aka me).  I expect that he will spend approximately 9 of every 10 waking hours on the bike.

In the middle of last night, Jed woke up screaming and in a panic from a bad dream.  I went in to comfort him and asked him what was wrong.  He wailed that we had left the bike outside last night (not true, by the way).  Wonder what was on his mind when he went to bed?!

grandma and grandpa's

After an easy drive to Germanton . . . 

we woke up the next morning, ready to play . . .  

and Jed had Grandma on the floor by 7:30 a.m. 

A bit later, Jed, Macon, and Grandma braved the caution tape to measure boxwoods at St. Philip's.

In the afternoon, Caroline and Lucy visited. We did some scooting . . . 

followed by some walking. 

Then, I went up to my high school's homecoming for an informal reunion of the class of 1992. 

Go Sauras! 

This morning, before heading back to Raleigh, we checked in with our favorite goats. 

one more St. P post

As St. Philip's is being dismantled, I've been thinking about why I've spent so much time on what I knew from the outset was a losing battle. And the reason is because not only do I just love that beautiful building, I also appreciate the context in which it was built. So if you're interested in a long (although actually brief) history of the church's architecture and Germanton's history, I hope you'll click here to check out the St. P website.

And I promise not to interrupt the flow of cute-kid pictures for the sake of St. Philip's again!

Update to Sarah's Post

In describing her role in the Oakwood celebration that took place this weekend, Sarah is vastly underselling.  In fact, she was in charge of the whole darn thing, which involved a forum on Friday with two panels of distinguished speakers (two city councilmen were in the audience), a play on Saturday that was attended by more than 100 people, and a street party on Sunday that was a huge success.

It was a massive undertaking, and it came off without a hitch.  Amazing.

back to business as usual

I've spent the last few months working on a project to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our neighborhood's preservation nonprofit and during the last two weeks, I've been pretty focused on that. But it wrapped up with a block party last night, so Macon and I have spent this morning doing laundry and trying to restart other projects that got pushed to the back burner. As usual on Mondays, Macon enjoyed having unfettered access to toys, books, and Mama.

Reading. Unmolested. 

Snuggling with the dragon blanket. Where I want. When I want.

The tool bench is mine! Mine! All mine! 

And therefore, I will drive a firetruck on it. 

To read more about our neighborhood's celebration, click here for a story in the N&O and here for a story from the Raleigh Public Record. You can also listen to a fantastic compilation of interviews that summarizes what happened in our neighborhood in the early 1970s by clicking here.