Nicholas is walking

Nicholas is walking! He'd been slowly working up to it, each day taking a few more steps. But over the weekend, he started walking instead of crawling to anywhere he wanted to go. Need some proof? Check the picture page - and watch some movies.

Sarah is back - she went to Grandma and Papa Bob's in Ocean Pines, MD for a few days. Papa Bob's granddaughter Madison was also there. They went to the beach, to the pool, to the boardwalk, and played some mini-golf. On Saturday, David, Alison, and Nicholas went to Annapolis to see some disc dog competitions. Ali's friend Angie's husband Jeff has several dogs that do very well in the competition every year. On Sunday, we cleaned the house - the last three hours before bed in the dark when the power went out for a while thanks to some more thunderstorms.

Father's Day 2008

On Father's Day, we went to the Bowie Baysox game with Alison's friend Cathy and her mom and dad. They had a special promotion for Father's Day - we went to the Diamond View restaurant in the luxury boxes behind home plate. They had a buffet and drinks and popcorn. They also let us go onto the outfield before the game to play catch. Nicholas mostly just sat there, although he did roll the ball to Sarah and/or David a few times. When the game started, we sat in some shaded seats just in front of the restaurant windows, but right behind home plate. Two times a foul ball went just over the screen and hit the windows just above us. The promotion included kids tickets so Sarah could ride the carousel and moon bounce. The Baysox won 5-2.

Sarah Kindergarten Graduation

Today Sarah graduated from her kindergarten class at GCDC. The ceremony was held in the big auditorium at NASA. She and her classmates sang songs and shared facts about the planets. Sarah read a letter to next year's kindergarten-ers. She also walked across the stage to get her diploma. David, Alison, and Nicholas are very proud of Sarah; she's learned so much this year thanks to her great teachers - and in all four of her years at GCDC.

Heat Wave & Twilight Camp

From last Saturday through Tuesday, there was a big heat wave in the Mid-Atlantic. We recorded highs up to 99F on a couple days here in Bowie. There also two more rounds of thunderstorms on Sat and Tue; one bolt scared Sarah so much that she came downstairs out of bed. David played softball on Tuesday in the heat before the storms. Wed and Thu have been a little cooler and much less humid.

This week Sarah has been going to Girl Scout twilight camp from ~6-8pm. They've been going for hikes and activities in one of the local parks. The mosquitoes have found Sarah though; her legs have bug bites all over them. She even got one bite on her eyelid. She having loads of fun, however; last night she even brought home a mini-cake that she'd made.

Yankee Stadium

On Friday, David went with his Dad and his brother Steven to the "The Boogie Down Bronx" to visit Yankee Stadium and go to a Yankees game. It's the last year in the old stadium, as a new stadium is being built right next door and will open in time for the 2009 season. We drove to the area around the Port Authority, parked, and took the subway to the stadium. We had tickets for the stadium tour, and got to enter the press box, Monument Park, and then walk along the warning track on the side of the field all the way into the Yankees dugout. If we had come on a day without a game, the tour also includes a visit to the Yankees clubhouse. It was great fun to be there, the tour guide had plenty of interesting stories, and we got to pretend we were managing the game from the dugout bench.

We hung around the stadium in the afternoon, and got some food and drink and bought the kids some Yankees gear. We entered the stadium again right as the gates opened to make sure we got the giveaway for that game (a mini-replica of the Stadium). David and Steven went to the left field stands just by the foul pole during batting practice to try to grab a home run ball. After a few minutes, David started flipping through the game program, when Steven said "David - grab the ball". David looked down first and saw the ball squirming around the seats and grabbed it just before someone else did.

The game was close and entertaining, but the Yankees couldn't seem to get a hit with runners on base. We were sitting in the last row of the loge (middle) section in left field, with a great view of the bullpens and Monument Park. Of course, that didn't stop us from yelling at the umpire for every bad call against the Yankees! By the end of the game, it was a little chilly up in the wind. The Yankees tried to rally in the last couple of innings, but ended up losing 2-1 to the Royals.

Stormy weekend

This weekend, Alison had training for Girl Scout camping, which included camping overnight with other trainees. She packed up all of her stuff, made a last-minute run to Target for some final supplies, and left at 9AM Saturday. David took the kids to the pool right after it opened at 11AM, and just as he got the kids out of the car, the first rumble of thunder hit. David _did_ check the radar before he left, and it appeared that if anything was coming near Bowie in the early part of the day, it would be brief. So, David, Sarah, and Nicholas waited at the snack bar for a half-hour to pass without thunder so the kids could go in the pool. We waited with some friends and Nicholas and Sarah shared a grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, there was thunder every few minutes still, when David decided to leave around 12:30PM. Sarah was in the car, and Nicholas was almost out of the stroller when the heavy rain started. The kids were laughing (and David too) as David rushed to get Nicholas buckled in and all the stuff in the car while trying (futilely) to stay dry. It rained off and on most of the afternoon, but didn't get to the campground that Alison was at until later on. But it rained heavy enough that they canceled the overnight camping part of the training, and Alison got full credit for the training. She can't wait to go camping with Sarah and the Brownies next year.

Today, we again went to the pool. There was a brief shower, this time with no thunder, so we just stayed and kept swimming. The pool water still needs to warm up some this summer - there's been plenty enough falling from the sky in the last month.