Sharing our life - all our adventures and bumpy rides. Family of four with two young boys - moved back home to allow them the similar experiences and opportunities we had living in North Carolina. Come explore with us!
First Day of School for the 2025 - 2026 school year! Second year for Brock in middle school and very last year of elementary school for Kade.
This was the summer that both boys learned to sleep in, so getting up early on Monday morning before Brock left for school did not happen - alas the first day of school picture happened at the END of the school day.
Brock and Brent attended the "walk your schedule" event prior to the start of school - but he was one of only a handful of seventh graders to attend - guess it's just no longer cool! He has some pretty interesting electives this year - Mythology, Botany, Famous People, Soccer, and Astronomy, just to name a few!
Kade has a brand-new-to-Washington teacher this year for 5th grade, but really only has him for Science (and homeroom). Since he is in SSA Math taking 6th grade math in elementary school, he will be taking it asynchronously through the NCVPS (North Carolina Virtual Public School). Jury is still out on how I feel about it... right now it's not great. We will find out in another week which electives Kade received.
Kade's elementary school had a cool thing happen on the first day! North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, Superintendent Mo Green, and Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor were all in attendance during the morning arrival! Alas, Kade takes the bus in the morning so he did not see all these people, but pictures were shared from the Principal later that afternoon!
On the last Wednesday of the summer, I took the boys to the newly opened (June) Gipson Play Plaza at Dorothea Dix Park. I had heard weekends can get incredibly crowded, so I figured this would be the perfect time to check it out.
Brock is just about at that age where playgrounds are just so not cool anymore... but he seemed to really like the climbing and sliding parts.
The playground has so many really cool features - I had only read about a few of them, so it was definitely a surprise to see the whole water area! Guess it was a good thing they only wanted to wear crocs!
This is a view of the climbing area across the way.
Kade loves these open slides - he would have been there much longer if Brock did not push him to move along!
The water area - appropriately called Watermill Mountain!
So many little (man-made) streams to explore and configure!
Numerous pumps increase the water flow, while stones redirect it by blocking certain paths.
I wish this was built like 7 years ago - my little aquarian would have lived here, he was even more drawn to the water!
Kade had no problem wading in the water with his Crocs - it was a pretty warm day!
Let's explore some more! After walking around the waterfall wall, we passed the House of Many Porches. Really cute!
This was an interesting sculpture on our way to the swings - they are huge!
The swings are built on one 91 foot long pole! Nice way to cool off swinging and relaxing.
Of course there was a bit of bickering going on here - one wanted to go high and the other one did not!
The swings were nice, but we needed to cool down a bit more. I did a little research while the boys were swinging and yes! - that house of many porches does sell treats! I treated us all to amazing popsicles by the Raleigh Popsicle Company - all fresh ingredients - while we rocked on the porch!
Peaceful view of these old oak trees as I finished up Kade's mango popsicle - "I didn't know it was going to have real mango in it!"
Made our way back around the park to check out the Sensory Maze Garden.
I was genuinely impressed with the park! The City of Raleigh did an incredible job and I think this is just one more reason to visit this amazing park! I hope to bring the boys back soon!
And one more fabulous Moose picture to add to our end of summer festivities!
We had the privilege of visiting Moose's breeder in Virginia one Saturday. With so many special canines to see, we started with this lovely lady right here - Moose's mom, Maleficent, who is aging gracefully at 12 1/2!
After spending some time inside, Stephanie & John were very eager to see Moose who had been hanging out in my air conditioned vehicle. He was all too happy to stretch his legs and get some loving!
Alas - Moose had to go back in the 4Runner while Nightingale and another puppy came out to meet us! I forget his name unfortunately, but that was Dim's grandson (who we have pictures of later!). Nightingale is Moose's granddaughter all the way from California!! She is only 4 months old.
It was so funny watching the puppies play together and fight over this stick - who would claim victory??
Oh! It was Nightingale of course! (She does have a little age over the other puppy - he's only 3 months old!)
Giving me a little side eye after Brent picked her up.
We suggested Moose and Nightingale meet and truly, it could not have gone better! Nightingale was placed in a different fence enclosure so they could still smell each other.
Moose was very interested, but not mean at all!
After several back and forth passes down the fence, Moose had a huge smile on his face so we decided to give putting them together a try.
They did great! He was not entirely avoiding her, but not minding when she would come close to his face - according to our breeder - PERFECT behavior for a first time! This is all really good preparation for any future brother we would get. :)
Since they did so well, we came back out to the front and gave them more space - also more space in the shade!
Stephanie reminded us there are definitely things to learn when having two dogs again - make sure you give them both love so no one gets jealous!
Moose even came over to give Nightingale a little nose kiss!
Both pups needed a break from all the excitement - and we needed to visit with a few more legends!
Brent had met Garthim before, but this was the first for the rest of us. Garthim is the only dog bigger than Moose in all of Stephanie's pack. Garthim is two years younger than Moose and is actually his Half-Brother (Same Dad) and Half-Nephew (Mom's side)!
He looks (and sounds - we heard him when Moose & Nightingale were in that first fenced area together) ferocious - but he was such a sweetheart! He would not let go of his stuffed bear and held it in his mouth the entire time! He loved all the petting and leaned up on us for more just like Moose!
His coat was actually a lot different than Moose's - Brent says this is more "typical" of Corsos. He was much more "hairy" than Moose's short fine hair.
Such a show dog (which he is!) - Stephanie got him to have his ears up on command!
Garthim had to return to his crate as we wanted to meet another famous boy - Dim - short for DimSum! Dim is a formentino - the rarest of the breeds' color. Dim is a little less than two years older than Moose - he'll be 10 in January. You almost can't tell because this boy has ENERGY!
Do not stop petting him otherwise he will jump all around - even on the couch! Too funny!
So thankful to have visited with Stephanie & John and see all their Corsos! Moose was ready to be home and nap the rest of the evening - he was exhausted after his play time!
