The Wright Brothers Memorial

How did it get to be September already?

I guess that makes this post a blast from the past as it happened over a month ago. While in the OBX, we used Liam's fourth grade national park pass (you GOTTA get one if you have or are a fourth grader! Go to this link and set it up! Click here so you don't miss out!) for our very first visit to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. 

It was like a bajillion degrees with equal humidity, yet off he goes:

It was fascinating to listen to the spiel given by the Ranger about the mechanics of flying. I'd never really thought about it before, much less in the high humidity of a hot afternoon. I also had never thought about "fuselage" as being a French word or known anything at all about the French word "aileron" meaning "small wing." All I could think about was my Pap Pap. I wish I could have listened to the whole talk with him. He would have understood every word, even though it was being given in Southern.

As I was fighting off tears, the Ranger called on Damon, out of the entire audience, when he talked about the aileron. Damon was hot and shy, but did his best, and received a paper airplane for his efforts. The Ranger laughed about giving him his very first French lesson. The paper airplane was still circling the backseat of my car not even two weeks ago, so I'd say that's pretty good. 

We got there late in the day and kind of had to hoof it around to see what we could see before they closed. It was probably just the right amount of time to do it as nobody had time to complain about being bored. Of course the sign says to not be on the display, but somebody's kids got up there anyway.

And then we found this photographer getting his picture taken.

After the talk we got back outside to see where the previous flights had taken place. Takes one, two, and three were all pretty similar:

But then, WOW, check out how far take four went. Waaay over there! I can only imagine how exciting that must have been.

I'm so glad we went, and I'm betting we'll go back when Damon gets his fourth grade park pass. Maybe by then we'll know a little more about airplanes. 

Just a boy and his dog

Triskal really is more like a piece of furniture than a pet. We step around her and over her and clean up after her and feed her and take her out, but she rarely gets the true attention she deserves. Here she is, just lappin' it up:

Come on over and give some love to the sweetest old doggie in the house! She's ten and a half and is having a rough summer with this heat and humidity. She still thinks she's much younger than she actually is, and began bounding after me Saturday when I was weeding after some more rain. Then her joints reminded her exactly how old she is and she began hobbling along, poor old thing! She never complains, though, which is more than I can say for the rest of us.

Christmas in July 2016

I'd like to thank the 77 of you who showed up for our Christmas in July shindig. We were so blessed by your friendship and fun fellowship and food!

Just look at all those cars in the yard! 

We had a lunch rush about noon, some downtime around 2:30, then at 4:00 I looked up to see my entire downstairs packed full of people. I had a moment of panic as I realized that it wasn't even dinner and we were pretty crowded, but then folks meandered outside and it looked more like this

Of course the tree was up and decorated by the kids:

That cracked some people up, but how could you possibly have Christmas in July with no tree? I'm stymied.

"And there was far too much food!"

There were some activities for kids:

And some for grownups, like reading in the library:

There was even green eggs and ham for breakfast for our out-of-town-and-overnight guests, especially to ones who brought along their own holiday cheer:

77 people (not counting us) was a lot, but we're sure there would have been more had it not been ridiculously hot with even more ridiculous humidity. Thanks to all of you who braved it to come check in with us, we missed those of you who couldn't make it (and there were quite a few of you, so don't feel like you were alone in missing out), and we'll see you next time! Merry Christmas!