Dog Walking

One of the ideas that Katie and Lily had this summer was to start a dog walking service. This was used on their promotional materials for "Divas Dog Walking." They are definitely divas.

It takes all kinds

So far, business has been rather slow. They do get to walk a little dog in the neighborhood called Ella. To give you a sense of perspective, Oreo kind of towers over her. I think they charge $1/walk and they split the proceeds. Lily is nothing of not a saleswoman.

Average Kid

Noah had his well-child appointment today. He is 43.7 inches tall (up from 41 last year) and weighs 42 pounds (up from 39 last year). This puts him in the 56th and 53rd percentiles, respectively. The doctor gave him a clean bill of health.

When I asked him about how his doctor's appointment went he said, "Great! I didn't get any shots!" That is a good attitude about it for a 5 year-old.

Canine Closeup

Lily asked that I post this photo of Oreo. She is proud of it and rightly so. If my company's internal directory ever allows photographs I may try to use this one. I think she took this the day after we got him.

One of Lily's best photographs ever

Staggered Entry

Today was the big day. The day Amanda has waited five years for. The day Noah almost started kindergarten. Although the problems surrounding after-school busing are becoming quite the local firestorm, the mornings seem to go OK. In fact, the bus was a little bit early today. Unlike on someone else's first day of school, Noah never hesitated getting on the bus.

Noah boards the bus

Forgive the blurriness of the photo. You can only do so much with an iPhone and a moving target.

I asked how Noah's first day was and he said, "Great!" He got to meet all the teachers for the specials, but was disappointed that they didn't play any sports in PE. He will soon enough though.

First Day of School

Lily poses with the annual sign - is it me or do her legs make her look like something out of the 50s?

Today was the first day of school for the traditional calendar in Wake County. However, Noah goes in on Wednesday for "staggered entry." Wake County uses Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as days to evaluate the incoming kindergartners to decide placement in classes. You can think of it as a kindergarten combine. The way I put it, they identify the boys who drink Kool-Aid straight from the pouch, the girls who are extremely shy, the aggressive kids, the loud kids, the cut-ups, etc.

Lily of course knew the drill, though things changed a bit with the bus. Now we are at the end of the route instead of the beginning. Also, we get the bus on our side of the street instead of having to cross Thorpe. This is good except the waiting area is not as nice. At any rate, all went well this morning.

This afternoon was another story. Wake County is trying some new bus routes this year and it was a disaster. Lily's final bell is at 3:45, but her bus didn't leave until 4:53. She didn't get home until 5:45. I suspect that the school system is getting an earful about this today, as they should.

Amanda had prepared a lovely tea to surprise Lily, but it didn't work out very well. Amanda was going to make risotto since that is Lily's favorite, but after waiting at the bus stop for an hour she didn't have the time or energy to stir for an hour over the stove. We ended up going out to eat and had a nice time. I'm just glad for an excuse to eat frozen yogurt!

View from the Top

Here is a photo that I stitched together. It was totally worth the hike.

View from the bridge

Vacation Photos

One of the reasons why this blog has been quiet for so long is that we were on vacation the last two weeks in July. We got a free trip to North Myrtle Beach thanks to some work that one of my co-pastors did on a house there. It was nice to spend some time with the other elders and their families for a few days. You can see that we got busy in the sand.

We got back from that trip on a Friday and then on the following Sunday we went to stay at a cabin in Boone. Here are some photos from that trip. I believe that this waterfall is simply called "The Cascades."

This was taken on Grandfather Mountain. This was an expensive day because they charge $18/adult and $8/child. We decided we wanted to get our $52 worth out of the day, so we started off with a hike up the bridge trail to the famous "mile-high bridge." The bridge itself is really not that high, but overall you are still a mile above sea level. We hiked back down to the car (only about .4 miles each way) and then drove down the mountain a bit for a picnic. I think that this photo was taken after our picnic. The view was quite stunning.

After that, we decided to do more hiking after a potty break. We drove up to the top and tried to do a loop. Once we figured out where we had to go we started on the very strenuous Grandfather Trail. We didn't get to the part with ladders, but there was some climbing up and down involved. The kids were troopers. However, about halfway through it started to rain. Amanda and the kids found some shelter while I ran back up to the very top to get the van. We finished all of this with a trip through the nature museum and a stop at the sweet shop for some fudge.

On Thursday we went to Linville Falls and Linville Caverns. These photos were taken from various overlooks around Linville Falls.

Unhappy Puppy

Oreo had his "procedure" today. The vet said he did very well. While he was there he had his last baby tooth pulled and also got microchipped. It was kind of a matter of changing the water pump while you have the timing belt off.

This is a photo of him in his crate with the collar on. Sadly, this collar will be his companion until around Labor Fay. The poor guy hates it, but he will adapt. That's what is beautiful about dogs.

He is awfully mellow tonight. I hope he is back to his old self. It is pretty pathetic now.