published!

A long time ago, Jed and Macon sent pictures to Ranger Rick, and for months, I'd open each issue and look for their drawings. I had given up on it, but last night, Jed popped out of bed to come show us something, and for once, we were not upset! Congratulations, Jed!

out and about and back to routine

We've been getting back in the swing of things and so far, everyone seems to be having a great school year. Second grade is challenging Jed's work ethic a bit, but in very positive ways and he seems to really like his teacher. Macon is exceptionally proud to be in pre-k, which he quickly points out is not "regular" preschool.

Jed ran for class president with the tag line, "Helpful. Loving. Champion." and came in third, so he's the Speaker of the House. And our other speaker of the house is testing out new words all the time with recent favorites being interesting, awful, correct and incorrect.

To get you up to speed on our doings, here's a quick recap of most of September . . .

biking around Lake Shelley in Raleigh (Jed lost that dangling front tooth since then.)

Messing around in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard at dusk, which resulted in their first lightening bug experience! 

We were at Grandma and Grandpa's to go to the Stokes Stomp where Macon and Jed tried out woodworking . . . 

and we got to hear the South Stokes High School marching band! Go, Sauras! 

But the highlight of the Stomp for the boys was kayaking in the Dan River on their own! 

Here, Jed gets a push out.

And Macon gets a quick lesson.

Macon didn't stay out too long before signalling his done-ness in true Macon-fashion by heaving his paddle on to the beach, but for the 3 or 4 minutes he was out, one of the guys carefully shadowed him.

Jed, on the other hand, was a comfortable pro.

Videos for further proof . . .

I had been messing with my video settings, so this one is in slow-motion, but you may be able to drag the bar along or hit fast forward to get it up to normal speed.


This one plays at normal speed.

Macon's first day

Macon's last first day of preschool has finally arrived!

summer wrap

I think, I hope, the boys had a good summer. 

At this time last year, I was contemplating a North Carolina road trip for this summer, but I wasn't anywhere near organized enough for that. However, we still covered a lot of ground: Stagville State Historic Site, Raven Rock State Park, Old Salem with grandparents for a week, San Francisco, Tweetsie, Kitty Hawk and most of the Outer Banks, Alamance Battleground and Saxapahaw, and Lake Gaston. We wrapped it up this weekend with a bike ride around Shelley Lake here in Raleigh and a Paperhand Puppet Intervention performance in Chapel Hill. 

I, for one, am worn out. I feel like I packed a thousand picnic lunches, filled water bottles 10,128 times, sweated more than 2,600 gallons, and coated everyone in sunscreen at least 727 times. In short, I cannot wait for the quiet that will descend tomorrow after I drop Macon off for his last first day of preschool. 

In spite of the occasional whine and complaint, this summer was a lot of fun and even though they will forget plenty of it, I know some of these miles will be burned on their brains and hearts, and I know our grandchildren will go to Tweetise, too. 

resting midway around Shelley Lake today

lake gaston last weekend

With school for one (Jed) but no school for the other yet, it's been a long two weeks of complaints about what one "gets" to do and what the other "has" to do, but right in the middle, we had a wonderful invitation to join several families at Lake Gaston. As you can guess, Eric and I had a nice, quiet ride home.  

Macon doing some floating.

Jed became a fan of the stand up paddle board.
Here, he's sitting on a board while another boy paddles, but eventually, he got the hang of things. 

returning from a jet ski ride

Macon and I heading out on the pontoon boat. 

Macon and one of our hosts checking out the wake. 

Macon setting a great example. 

Some people take a booze cruise, but Macon prefers a snooze cruise. 

But after he woke up, Eric put him to work, 

and Jed ventured out on his own.