Festival for the Eno

After our busy fourth of July, we still had the rest of the weekend to enjoy.  Fortunately, every fourth of July weekend the Festival for the Eno comes to town, and it's one of our favorite Durham traditions.  The Eno River is one of our favorite spots, and the festival has music, food, and river fun...what could be better?

This year, there was one problem with the Festival for the Eno.  There had been just an obscene amount of rain over the few weeks before the festival and the river showed it.  The area where we usually wade in and search for little fishies during the festival was raging and filled with water.  Needless to say, it was blocked off with yellow tape and no one was allowed to wade.  Now, you know my boys, the only reason they wanted to come to the festival was to wade in the river, so what were we to do?  Fortunately, the park where the festival takes place also has a few creeks that feed into the river.  So, the minute we found a bridge over one of these creeks the boys were off and wading.  I'm glad they got to play in the water-Benny just tromped around, and Evan found a great branch that he could just to swing himself into the water.

(the raging river)

(My little monkey enjoys the creek.)

(a little wading)

While I like the river, I also like everything else that the festival has to offer.  The music is always lots of fun-bluegrass, contemporary, folk, and more.  The boys found some hula hoops and had a great time dancing to the music.  Ian even managed to hula hoop successfully-apparently for the first time ever.  We also toured the old mill that uses the water from the river to grind corn and wheat.  We feasted on some pretty good food truck food and some great ice cream that we always look forward to.

(a view of the crowds enjoying some music)

(Evan has some success with the hula hoop.)

(Ben has an interesting technique.)

(Yum...ice cream!)

Turns out this time, the boys' favorite part was not the river.  We found one of the tents where they had a bunch of river creatures.  One of the men in the booth was holding a little corn snake.  He actually let the boys hold it.  I was very concerned-not that the snake would bite the boys, but that my "gentle" little boys might accidentally crush the poor little snake.  Fortunately, all survived the experience.  Now, Evan can't stop talking about how he is going to have a pet snake-oh goody!

(the boys and their new friend)

Fourth Of July

This year, we decided to celebrate the Fourth of July with  BANG (pun intended)!  The Fourth was on a Thursday so we ended up having a four day weekend to really celebrate.  It was a fabulous weekend, but by the end of it, boy were we exhausted!

We started of our Fourth of July with a trip to Downtown Durham.  Every Fourth they have a children's bike parade, so we popped the boys bikes in the truck and headed on over.  Once there, the boys had the chance to decorate their bikes to make it festive for the parade.  They added ribbons and streamers and balloons, but their favorite had to be the blown up rubber gloves they tied on the handle bars.

(Daddy helps Evan decorate his bike.)

(Kids practice riding before the big parade starts.)

(We're ready!)

Once the bikes were fully decorated we were ready to parade, so we headed up and around Durham Central Park surrounded by other kiddos and families up a hill, down a hill, over a bridge and back to where we started.  Once we were back we were met by an awesome surprise.   One of the Durham Fire Trucks had parked next to the park and was spraying its hose into the grass.  The kids danced in the water and had a great time.

(We went up the hill...)

(...and across the bridge...)

(...and to the waiting fire truck!)

(This is fun!)

The rest of the day was spent at home just relaxing a little bit.  Well, everyone relaxed except Ian who wanted to play with the new saw that he got for Father's Day.  So, he spend the afternoon making saw horses, and eventually the boys couldn't resist and had to join in too.  Evan had a ball hammering a nail into a block of wood.  Well, he did until he brought it into the house and poked his brother in the arm with it.  That's ok, we called the doctor and Benny was up to date on all his tetanus vaccinations...ughh!

(slip and sliding)

(Evan is hard at work.)

(Mmmmm....popsicles!)

While we were all outside observing or participating to some degree in the sawhorse building, the boys also did a little slip and sliding and popsicle eating, perfect for a hot fourth of July weekend!  As dusk started to roll around, we decided it was time to bring out our own fireworks.  Since I know the boys' feelings about loud fireworks, these ones were not particularly spectacular, and they were quiet.  Plus, they were always the ones I liked best as a kid.  We have a tradition of picking them up on the way home from the our beach trip in South Carolina where there are bunches of firework shops.  So we lit our sparklers, popped our poppers, ran through some smoke bombs, grew some ash snakes, and even fired off some little popping grenades when the boys were feeling particularly brave.

(sparklers!)

(Ben gets a little assistance.)

(snakes)

(poppers)

We ate a quick dinner and then headed down to UNC to Kenan Stadium.  Evan had been talking about wanting to see some fireworks, so we thought we'd give it a try.  Based on Ben's opinions about loud noises, I wasn't too sure how this would go.  But we gave each boy a pair of ear plugs, showed them how they would block the noise, and we were as ready as we'd ever be.

We arrived at the stadium very early because we had never been and weren't sure how quickly everything filled up.  So, we had lots of free time to kill.  First, Evan had to get his face painted.  He used to absolutely refuse, but now he thinks it's lots of fun and got an American flag painted on his cheek.  Ben, however, decided he wasn't up for it.  Then, we just sat down in our seats in the stadium, watched the music, and just watched the people.  It actually wasn't too bad and before we knew it the lights were dimming and it was time.  The boys popped their ear plugs in and the show started.  Evan didn't really need his ear plugs, he sat mesmerized the whole time clearly loving every minute.  Ben needed his ear plugs and then my hands firmly pressed against his ears.  After that, he was content to watch the show.  He did get fussy at one point toward the end, but for the most part, he did honestly a lot better than I was expecting.

(Evan with his face paint-look at those baby blues!)

(My boys)

(He's just loving every minute.)

(Benny didn't mind once he had his noise control.)

It was a fabulous fourth, and we definitely had some tired little kiddos by the end of the day.  They didn't get up until around 9 the next morning.  And keep in mind, that was only the first day of our four day weekend!

Bowled Over!

Once we got back from our fabulous beach trip, we still had more summer vacation.  However, the monsoon season had descended upon Durham, and it was a little bit of a rude awakening after our week of fun in the sun.  That's okay because we moved indoors with our friends and headed to the bowling alley!

The local bowling alley is nice enough to offer two free games a day to all kiddos during the summer, so it was the perfect low cost outing.  It was a little bit of a preschool reunion when we were joined my Jacob, Annabelle, Edmund, and Nathan from Evan's preschool class and a total of 7 additional siblings in tow.  It was quite the crowd.

Our games of bowling were a bit of controlled chaos.  We had two lanes, bumpers, and a ramp to share between them.  Some of the kids used the ramp to push the balls into the lane and some did not.  Regardless, the bumpers helped all of the kids hit the pins instead of the gutters.  We had a few balls not make it all the way down the lane and have to be rescued, and we had a few fingers pinched because everyone liked to hover around the ball return and play with the bowling balls in between turns.

Evan and Ben made it a remarkably long time before they got distracted by the arcade.  That's ok, I don't mind if they sit and pretend to play the games, just as long as they don't ask me for any money.  It was the perfect, wild, crazy summertime kiddo outing.  So, we decided to top it off with a trip to Moe's which had kids' eat free day-a great way to finish off a lovely day!

(Take a look at this groovy group.)

(Ben puts his ball up on the ramp for a little bowling.)

(No wonder fingers were pinched!)

(Brothers wait for the balls to come back.)

(Evan takes his turn.)

(Jacob, Evie, and Evan smile after a lovely morning.)

Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt...

While we were sunning ourselves down at Litchfield Beach, we decided to take one morning and head back to Inlet Adventures for our now traditional mini-golf outing.  First, we picked up our clubs and balls, and Evan was very excited because he got a glittery golf ball.  We headed out and were ready to go.  The boys were professionals already.  They did not quite understand the finer points of hitting the ball once and then waiting until everyone had gone before hitting your own ball again, but that was okay.  They also were not wonderful and avoiding everyone else's ball, but they had fun so the technical details weren't all that important.

(We pose for a group shot in between holes.)

(We almost lose Gramps off the ledge while he's trying to get that shot.)

(Ben the golfer)

(Gramps takes his golfing seriously.)

(Gram keeps score.)

(Everyone smiles before they putt.)

Evan took it a little more seriously this time than Benny.  He really wanted to get the ball in the hole and scoped out the holes each time we got to one.  Fortunately, he was the only one of us to get a hole-in-one.  He was so excited!

(The professional determines the best way to approach his next shot.)

(Hole in one!!)

The most exciting part for me with Benny was when, at about hole 9, he said he needed an emergency trip to the potty.  That was fine, I grabbed him and started walking.  Little did I know that we had to wind our way through the remaining 9 holes in the middle of the day summer heat, up and down stairs, over bridges, etc. to get to the restrooms located at the exit.  Making that walk, briskly, while carrying a preschooler who was in a hurry to reach his destination was tiring to say the least, but we finally made it, and made it in time.  Luckily for us, the golf office worker told us a much quicker way to get back.

After golfing, we all sat down in the shade of some trees to relax and recover from the heat for a little while.  The boys weren't that tired and they were wandering around.  At that point, they met her.  There was a beautiful mermaid sitting on the bench behind us.  Benny and the beautiful mermaid had quite a love affair, and here's their story...

(Ben and Evan meet the mermaid.)

 

(Looks like he's pushing Evan out of the way and needs some privacy with his girl.)

(He laughs it up with the mermaid.)

(He shares a joke and continues to flirt.)

(Hmmm, Ben, I don't think that's appropriate.)

(He stares deeply into her eyes.)

(Really, Benny?)

Cool in the Pool

While we were at the beach, the boys were always clamoring to go to the pool, especially Evan.  We always had to fight them to go to the beach first, and every time we were there we all had a ball!

Evan has really gotten to be a little swimmer lately, so he loved putting on his goggles and swimming under the water.  He would stay for hours in the pool just asking an adult to stand about 10 feet away from him on the wall and he would swim back and forth.  He would get so mad when we would scoot our feet back while he was swimming to us, and he never really used his arms, but he really is getting to enjoy swimming.

(Daddy smiles as Evan prepares to swim to the wall.)

(Ben and Evan are towed through the pool on the raft.)

Ben on the other hand didn't just dive in.  He liked to hang out on the steps pouring water from one container to the next.  When prompted he would ride on a grown up or jump in to the pool into someone's waiting arms. He also discovered the neighboring hot tub which he absolutely loved.  I guess it's because he gets cold so easily.  That was actually the first water on the trip in which he willingly stuck his head underwater on his own.

(Is Benny swimming?  No, I think he's riding something, but what?)

One day, we were lucky enough to get to visit the pool at the hotel where Reid and Candice were staying, and boy was it cool.  There was a spray area with buckets, a small wading pool complete with a submarine, a regular pool, two bubbling tubs (which oddly enough were not actually hot), and a lazy river.  Needless to say, we had an awesome time and didn't even notice when the rain was coming down on our heads.  We all tried out all parts of the pool.  The boys enjoyed a couple laps in the lazy river (made slightly less lazy by the 10 year olds running laps though it).  Benny especially was a bit nervous about the sprayground with the big dumping buckets that would slowly fill up and dump at unexpected times, but he had a good time when we got past the buckets and could play in the submarine.  While the boys didn't like the dumping buckets, I think the grown ups had quite a bit of fun with them!

(Gramps and Ben goof off together.)

(Daddy and Evan are lazy on the lazy river.)

(Reid and Candice float happily by.)

(I take a break to give my Benny a squeeze.)

(Candice poses as she looks on from her balcony to the pool.)

(Reid, Ian, and I play in the buckets.)

(Oops, Gramps gets a bit wet.)

(Grown ups can play in the submarine too!)

(Say cheese!)

We had fun in all kinds of water during this beach trip, but the pools were particularly fun for everyone.  However, not all of our fun was in the water, so stay tuned to hear about other fun that was had at the beach!