New York City

Kristi left for New York this morning with her mom Kim. Kim came to Raleigh on Monday, May 28 for a few days. They are meeting Josie and Emily in New York for a vacation. Kristi will be coming back on Monday, June 4. Kristi will post a blog on her travels later and has already uploaded some pictures.

Double Digits

Today Nora turned 10 years old. She did not want a high key celebration and opted for a neighborhood get together at the pool. We met there after school and swam until we were rained out. Pizza and presents followed. She was very happy with how the day turned out and especially liked her gift from mom and dad which was a mobile phone. Yes, we broke down and added a line to our family plan. Nora has filled it with the phone numbers of all her family and some of her friends that have mobile phones. She has already made several calls and you can expect to hear from her soon.

Nearly Famous

I took Nora down to the Triangle Mall this morning so she could wait in line to try out for the television show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? We arrived at 9:40 a.m. and stood in line with hundreds of kids until after 2:00 p.m. We were told that they would register kids up until 2:00 p.m. and then those that were not registered would be sent home and the auditions would continue up to 4:00 p.m. Nora was a trooper and made a new friend while standing in line. This blog does not have a happy ending as we missed the cut off to register by just three kids. If they had allowed three more to register Nora would have had a shot.

Happy Mother's Day

Durham Bulls

Tonight we all went to our first Durham Bulls baseball game. The Bulls are Triple-A and played the Norfolk Tides. We all had a great time and it was a perfect way to end Josie's last night visiting.

Wrightsville Beach, NC

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Wrightsville Beach is 145 miles from our house, just over a two hour drive. The water was much warmer than a month ago when we visited Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The girls had a blast as usual and Sam really likes crawling on the sand and getting his hands into the water. We brought our dog Magnus with thinking he would really enjoy the adventure but that was stopped by the "beach police" as we learned dogs are not allowed. Regardless, Magnus enjoyed the van ride.

Duke Gardens: Durham, NC

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Kristi's sister Josie is visiting us from Minneapolis, MN. One of the events on our list is to visit the Duke Gardens. We all headed to the gardens mid-morning and spent the afternoon there. I will admit that I am not a die hard fan of plant life but I do have a greater appreciation having toured the "Crown Jewel of Duke University". There are trails you walk through with hundreds of different types of flowers and plants that are identified by signage. I recommend that anyone visiting the area for their first time schedule a visit to the gardens.