Mary's garden and grandchildren

Molly and Freddie give a tour of Nana Mary's garden:

Nana Mary describes her garden:

This is Josh writing. In October, I wanted to get Mom on video. I gave her the chance to talk on camera about her childhood, about Peace Corps, about teaching, whatever she wanted. As you can imagine, she wasn't thrilled by the prospect. This video about her garden is the most I was able to get. I'm glad I got it. Oh, and I got one more video, this one of her and Jack:

Videos of Alex, age 1

We've had 2 VHS tapes of Alex in a cabinet for years now. I recently converted them to digital files and made clips from them. Those of you on Facebook have seen many, but not all of these. I now offer them on Youtube for those of you who didn't catch them on Facebook.

Videos are here. There are lots of them. This isn't a guilt trip to watch them all. Enjoy.

One of the VHS tapes was made by Uncle Dennis McCabe at the Stinehelfers' house and at our Durham house on Alex's first birthday, in August 2oo2.

The other tape was made by Jen on our first week-long trip to Topsail with friends, earlier in August 2002. We're about to go on that same trip, year 10.

Most of the videos are self explanatory; they show Alex being cute. Some of you may need an explanation for the last two, the ones of a play set. Papa Dennis brought the play set from Alabama to our house in Durham, tied to the roof of his Honda Accord.

Sledding Adventures

Well, it finally happened. They predicted snow for Raleigh, and it actually snowed. I focused on getting the kids some boots and enough groceries in the house, and did not join in the mad pre-snow rush to find a sled -- which I probably should have. Saturday we went out with our boogie board; and Sunday we went out with the boogie board again and a nice man who lives at the top of the "sledding hill" loaned us an orange plastic sled. The kids went down a total of, oh, ninety times or so. No school tomorrow, so I'm guessing we'll be back out there again. Josh sadly had to report to work on Sunday, but he wrote the following about our trek out on Saturday: After a boogie board ride down the hill, Molly said "That was awesome, dude." Of the boogie board, she said, "That's the best skateboard in the whole world -- the whole city."

We watched a couple drive by on a 4X4 Gator, towing their kids on sleds up the hill. Alex said, "That's a good idea." Molly pointed to kids being towed and said, "That is a good idea because, look!"

Alex exercises his 2nd amendment rights

We sent Alex to the Purple House for his lefty indoctrination. What happened?

Memorial Day Weekend, Part Two

At Hyco Lake, Freddie's first trip out. He was a real sweetie.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part One

May

Zucchini plants, seem to be doing well so far.

Raised bed with sugar snap peas. Alex and I made a "seed tape" with the sugar snap peas. We cut out strips of newspaper and glued the peas along it 2 inches apart, then later he helped me plant them. They came up nice and even. I jerryrigged this very sorry netting myself.

Other raised beds, we'll see how this turns out. There are beets, carrots, and broccoli that probably went in the ground too late. There are tomatoes of various varieties, including some heirloom brandywines that are small so far, but look ok. These have just started to blossom. There are also some peppers that are not looking tall enough yet, and some lettuce that's looking o.k., that you can't see here because they're behind the tomatoes. I have my concerns that this bed won't get enough sun, so this inaugural year will be the test.

Alex and Molly after we spent Mother's Day at a strawberry farm.

We went to a party a few weeks ago, and it really was not swimming season yet, but boy did the kiddos want to give it that old college try.

Puerto Rico

A month ago Jen and I went to Puerto Rico. NPR voice: "This trip was made possible with generous support from the nanas and the papas." We highly recommend Puerto Rico to one and all.

First stop, San Juan

where we stayed in a groovy hotel.


Next stop, Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. Esperanza is one of two towns on Vieques. Above is the the malecon, the beach side of Esperanza's main street, Calle Flamboyán. You can cross the street from here (watch out for cars going 5 mph and teenagers riding bareback on horses going much faster) to find little shops, restaurants, and open air bars where you order rum drinks and watch the sun set over the mountains in the background of this picture. It's literally paradise.


View from the malecon out to sea, where you'll see Jen (on a good day), sailboats, and an island called Cayo de Afuera. We snorkled around the island.


Vieques has lots of beaches. This one is called Navio. We were told they filmed a movie version of the Lord of the Flies here. We did not find a society of tyrannical children. We found paradise.


Even the local business people know they're in paradise.

Jen's final thoughts on Vieques: we need to go back, take the kids, and she wants you, all of you, to come along.


Final stop, El Yunque rainforest back on the main island


where we stayed at a place with an outdoor kitchen, which turns out to be a great idea. The highlights of the rainforest included loud frogs, terrific jungly flora, and waterfalls.




Even more pictures

Assorted pictures + video

Sorry it's been so long, everyone. Here's a few visuals from the past couple of months. Josh reports that he will do a separate blog post on the Puerto Rico trip we took a few weeks ago.


Easter egg hunt at St. Luke's, Boone. Nice service, and plentiful eggs!

Getting ready to watch the Heels play.

Alex at Douglas' Carnival. That's orange spray paint in his hair if anyone was starting to worry about the color as well as the shape...

Visiting baby Freddie. In pictures of him with our kids, for some reason he always looks ever so slightly anxious.



Side by side videos of the piano recital, and an informance depicting a tornado.