As I got older, it became a place to bring a date and ride the Himalaya with.  You were guaranteed to get close.  It also was a time where I got to try a lot of different foods.  The Raleigh area hadn’t yet become the diverse area that it is now.  Barbecue and other Southern cuisine were still the dominant culinary choices.  The smells that the Fair offered seemed very exotic to me.  Speaking of exotic, the Burlesque Show was still a part of the Fair when I was younger.  I remember thinking this was something very, well, strange.

As I got older, the Fair lost a lot of its magic and became a place that seemed dirty and over priced.  I still liked the food, but it was by no means exotic any more.  Deep frying anything, although funny, seemed a bit nauseating.  The only reason Amy and I went was to eat and people watch.  People watching at the Fair is just delicious.   There are people there that haven’t left their hometown since the same time last year.  The same type of people can also be found on one of my latest favorite sites, People of Walmart.

Then we had kids and they finally reached an age where we couldn’t just eat and watch, or skip entirely.  Getting the kids out of bed on the day we are going to the Fair is as easy as it is on Christmas morning.  They were so excited this year.  Everything came full circle.  The Fair took on an air of wonderment again.  The lights, sounds and smells were reflected in their faces.  It was probably one of the best Fairs ever this year.

We took a few pictures with our iPhones.

Fireball Froggy Grady

A couple of Fridays ago, “Spoon”, our neighbor caught and brought over frog (toad?). Spoon, his wife “T”, the boys and I all went into overdrive making a home for it. I had a cracked aquarium in the barn that couldn’t be used for fish so I grabbed that. I also had a bag of aquarium rocks, so I poured some in. Spoon grabbed some foliage and tossed it in. Spoon then went and found some crickets and other bugs to feed the frog/toad. While we were setting up his new living quarters Josh had named him/her “Fireball Froggy Grady”. He looked very red in the night light, so Fireball made sense.

We’ve been having a good time with him.  We enjoy feeding him.  He’s been loving the flies that we swat for him.  He also enjoys crickets very much.

Congratulations Mom!

We recently returned from our first family camping trip- the first of many more to come. We had a blast! The boys loved sleeping in the tent and chillin’ in their camp chairs. Nana and Pawpaw (my folks) joined us along with our little nephew Ethan. The beautiful fall weather at Hanging Rock State Park was ideal- crisp air, blue skies, and vibrant autumn foliage. Friday, Dad and I drove up with the boys and set up camp- the kids were wild with excitement! Then we hiked a short trail to a waterfall. “Waterfall” is really a relative term- it was more like a trickle, but the kids thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. After that, we headed back to our campsite to play and start dinner. Josh and Nate made quick friends with our neighbors- special thanks to the Betts family for helping to make our weekend so special! Alan and Mom rolled in right about dark and we got the fire going, complete with marshmallows. Big eggs and bacon breakfast and off to conquer the mountain. Yes, we did in fact go to the very top of Hanging Rock with a 2, 3 and 4 year old- about 4 miles round trip, a lot of it straight up. (Props to Alan for carrying Nate up the last leg of the trail- you’re such a great daddy!) It was awesome! Needless to say, we were pooped after that- so naps were in order. Dinner that night was fabulous- Nana and Pawpaw served a fabulous london broil with mushroom sauce and all the fixings. Deeeeelish! The boys ate their weight in pancakes the next morning and we started packing up. We hiked one more short trail before leaving- this waterfall was more impressive and we got some great pics. We will be going back to this park again- I would highly recommend it to any of you outdoorsy types.

Josh shared the election process on our way home from school yesterday.  He described how the Blue guy, Obama, had a lot more votes than the guy who was Red.  It probably helped Obama that Josh can’t ever remember the Red guy’s name.  He and Nate shout out “Obama!” every time there is an ad on (which is quite often the last few weeks).

Earlier in the day I had read that Scholastic’s election had Obama winning as well; 57% to 39%.  Other vote getters were Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Stephen Colbert.  Since 1940, the Scholastic election has been right every time except twice.  In 1948, kids voted for Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman. In 1960, more students voted for Richard M. Nixon than for John F. Kennedy.  I guess this makes sense as most of the time the kids will vote for whomever their parents are voting for.

While in my thoughts I began to notice more bikers on the road than usual.  It was a beautiful day and they were making the best of it.  I happened to be trailing a couple of them and so I was able to witness over and over again the “biker wave” (as shown in the graphic).

I thought it was so cool that this group of people had their own “secret handshake”.  Being the proud new owner of a Nissan Frontier truck and constantly spotting like minded purchasers, I thought it would be cool if we had our own wave.

Over the next few weeks I tried a bunch of waves; two fingers in a quick axe chop, flip flopping the hand in a three stooge-like manner, open handed Indian “how” while fluttering my fingers, and the list goes on.  It took a while but I finally found a combination that people started responding to.  I found that one finger, the middle one, raised straight up with your palm facing towards you worked the best.  It is really catching on.  Whenever I see other Frontier drivers, I give them the “Frontier Finger” as I like to call it and sure enough, they return the wave.  Awesome.

Well, we get to the park; a park I had never been to. The park we usually go to was booked up for that day, so we chose one a bit farther down the road. We get there and I realize that there isn’t any parking next to the shelter. So, I have to lug the kids, cooler, presents, decorations, balloons, etc around three soccer fields to the shelter. Once again… Fun.

Then Josh got sick at the party. He lay next to his grandma for most of the party.

Everyone else had a good time though and so did I when all was said and done.

The Diego Cupcake Cake was a hit as you can tell by the pictures of the kids and their faces. The bright blue and green icing made for wonderful diaper surprises the next day. Especially the next day when Nate didn’t have a diaper on and it leaked in breadcrumb fashion across his grandparents’ carpet. Clean up… fun.

Check out all the pictures of Nate’s Birthday Party.

I pick him up out of his bed and take him to our room where he and I are stripped down.  I then lay down with him on our bed and try to console him.  I’m rubbing is back when I hear his stomach “gurble”.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom," I ask him.

"No," he says whilst hurling all over me.

Oh the fun of parenthood.

He was fine the rest of the night… and the next morning.  I waited an extra hour just to see if he was keeping food down.  He was, so I headed with the boys to Day Care.  They wouldn’t let me drop him off though after I informed them that he had been sick the night before.  They said this bug had wiped out a couple of classes.  The bug is crafty in that it rears its ugly head and then the kid feels fine.  So, the first parents whose kids were sick thought exactly what we did… it must have been something they ate and moved on.  So, the bug has a chance to spread.

Enough about that.    Back to what the blog was suppose to be about, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!

This year, I was greeted on Monday morning after a wonderful week at the beach (those pics coming) with everything in and around my desk saran wrapped. When I say everything, I mean Everything. The guys at the office wrapped every cd, box of paper clips, pen, snack, you get the point. I’m still unwrapping things. Take a look at the pictures. Man, these guys are a hoot (jerks).

Check out all the pictures.