Summer Camps & Things

The boys got to do so many cool and amazing things this summer! We found some awesome summer camps to sign them up for! Brock attended one week of NC State's baseball camp - a half day camp organized and run by THE North Carolina State baseball head coach - Coach Avent - with current baseball players!

We even have a guest author providing some more detailed information below the next picture!  

This is Brock. After I went to the summer swimming I went to a NC state baseball camp. It was fun and helped me get better. On the last day of the camp, I got to get the coach to sign one of my baseballs. Then I got almost every player to sign my 2nd ball and the coach too. THE END 

Here is Coach Avent giving the players a little pep talk at the end of the last day of camp. 

Brock's signed baseball! We put it in an acrylic baseball box for safe keeping!

This post is not specifically in order - earlier in June, Brock attended a Snapology camp - all about Robotics. He said his favorite thing to make was a real working roller coaster! 

Kade was back at Taekwondo this summer - 5 total weeks - Jedi Academy, Zombie Survival, Video Game, Hogwarts, and Survivor Challenge - which Kade had the honor of being selected as a group leader! 

Pictures are from the last day of Hogwarts camp and all the kiddos are playing Quidditch on their "brooms."

Brock and Kade finished their Barnes & Noble summer reading logs and turned them in for a free book!

Brock also attended the Holly Springs Salamanders 3-day baseball camp. We truly love this camp as they include lunch for the campers every day! 

They also include a free ticket to the home baseball game that week - which Brock attended this year with Papa. Unfortunately this camp and the NC State baseball game will have to be Brock's last as they only go up to 12 years old!!

Switching sports, I signed Brock and Kade both up for Coerver's soccer camp in Apex. Outside camps are okay if they are half days, so we thought. The Wednesday of camp it was slated to rain - and rain it did! We ended up with almost 5 inches of rain in a two-day period. Brent went to "rescue" them from camp an hour early and they were soaked even with rain jackets! Thankfully it was all dry again by Friday for them to wear their uniforms!

We'll add this here too. Brent’s neighbor threw down a challenge—help take down a leaning tree. He was pumped, ready to fire up his chainsaw and unleash the power of the Ram!

The rope was attached to the truck to guide its fall - so it would not hit our other neighbor's mailbox! 

Last picture - this is what a lot of the boys' summer days looked like. Lots of Roblox time - together! 

Brock's Summer Swim 2025

Hot weather brings another season of Summer Swim! Some of these boys have been swimming together since 2019!

We kicked off the season in early June - before school even ended - for the Blue & White Intrasquad meet. This is a meter pool, but I converted his times to yards to match the times at the other pools throughout the summer. 

After his signature "tighten the goggles", he was ready for action! 

His two buddies, Chase & William, were not able to make it that day, so it was a bit of a Brock show. You can really tell the difference between year-round swimmers and not. Start of summer swim, Brock completed a 28.93 yard Freestyle. 

Backstroke is not his event, but he is SO good at it - swam just to get a time to post. 

He showed the other boys how it’s done in breaststroke and butterfly, and just like that, we were fired up and ready for some real competition at our usual summer swim meet the next week!  Brock kicked off the summer with a 40.57y in breaststroke and a 34.69y in butterfly. 

I love this comparison picture one of our friends did of our kids through the years! Brock is the boy on the right with his goggles on his forehead in the old picture! 

Now an actual competition! 

Video below is Brock doing Freestyle on June 24th. It was ridiculously hot that day, hovering around 99 degrees and still hot and humid by the time the race started at 6pm.  He secured first place even after adding time for a finish of 29.55y. 

Brock missed the next meet due to our trip to Connecticut. He returned and secured first place ribbons in both Breaststroke (39.52y) and Butterfly (32.77y) on July 8th. Here are the videos to prove it! 

After a few away meets, we were back at Lifetime on July 15th! 

Once again, he’s in a league of his own when it comes to breaststroke—he makes it look effortlessly smooth! Finished with an impressive 38.99y (or 43.33 meters).

Lined up for his favorite stroke - Butterfly! (Brock is on Block #3)

Look at that arm extension and head placement!

Feet together!

Beautiful underwater! 

Big strong arms and shoulders pulling him to the finish line! 

Brent was excited - you can hear it in his voice on the video! Brock secured first place with 32.02y (or 35.58 m). 

Proud athlete and prouder Dad! 

One of the teammates was out for an ear infection, so stepped in as the group leader! The boys all loved the team chant!

Summer swim seemed to fly by this year! Lifetime did amazing and was actually undefeated! The team won every single meet - Brock earned them many a points and earned himself many blue (a few red) ribbons!! Congratulations Marlins! 

Two 7th place Medals and One 8th place Medal

Beaufort Beach Trip - Part II

 

Friday night we opted to stay home and cook tacos! Since I had done the meal preparations, I was told not to touch a thing because I had lots of helpers cleaning up! Snapped a picture of them all in action! 

Saturday was a beach day - we passed by the boat ramp and it was way busier than the day before! Something to keep in mind - boating/fishing on the weekends in the summer is a lot more crowded! 

Brent dropped us off right in front and we carted our stuff to our spot. I love that we were showing off the RSA towel! 

The boys were too funny. I do think they enjoyed fishing in the calm waters with their net the day before, but they repeatedly asked to go somewhere with "big waves"! They much prefer this side of the beach to swim and jump the waves! 

That water was gorgeous and the perfect temperature! 

We were hydrated and had reapplied sunscreen - touched base with Brent to pick us up in another 30-45 minutes. All good! 

And then disaster struck! Brock came limping back to the chair (just as I opened my book to start reading, of course) complaining that something was stuck in his foot! After rinsing it off with some beer - hey, we only had so much water!! - I could tell there was a tiny piece of glass stuck in his toe. 

I ran over to the lifeguard stand to see if he had any tools in his first aid kit. He was kind enough to stop by and offer some assistance, but could not get it out either. 

Now we just wait for Brent to come pick us up. And next time, I will be putting tweezers in my beach bag! (It took me less than 2 minutes to get it out once we arrived back home) 

After Brent came to rescue us from the beach, we needed ice - made our way over to his old stomping grounds! 

Dinner that night was back at Morehead - Sanitary Fish Market! We walked a bit of the waterfront first and took some pictures. 

Brent spotted a Wicked Tuna fishing vessel!

We were seated with a great view of the waterway and were intrigued watching the boats all lined up like this! They were taking turns waiting for a little "people ferry" to transfer the people off the big boats to the shore! We did not know why this was happening, but heard later at dinner this was the end of the 3-day "Big Rock Kids" total release tournament!

Walking the waterfront a bit more after dinner. 

The 17 foot long Big Marlin bronze statue, erected in 2013, stands on its tail and is identical in scale to a world record size Marlin! 

Back to the beach rental where Moose feasted on his own hamburger patty. One big spoiled pup! 

This summer we decided to turn our typical beach week into a 4-night getaway, and honestly, it was the perfect amount of time to unwind and soak up some salt air energy! I personally preferred Atlantic Beach over Nags Head. That area of the Outer Banks was starting to feel a bit too Myrtle Beach to me. We will return to Beaufort very soon!

Beaufort Beach Trip - Part I

 

Following the boat out of the Neuse Sports Shop parking lot can only mean one thing - we are on the way to the beach! Morehead/Beaufort/Atlantic Beach - here we come! 

We found an adorable little rental in Beaufort that had ample parking for our boat - and they even welcomed us with a homemade pound cake! 

We arrived later in the evening on Wednesday, which was fine by us - time enough for us to work a 3/4 day, pack and unpack upon our arrival. 

On the first full day, Brent and Brock opted to brave the humidity for a nice jog. TWO miles later, they arrived back hot and sweaty! I do envy the way Brock wants to work out with his Dad. It is quite admirable! 

After cooling down and getting all clean, we took it easy relaxing on the porch swing and rocking chairs - letting Moose do his guard-dog duty. 

For the first time, we all were able to go check out our property together. 

It has some amazingly old trees on it - 40 foot high magnolias. We hope to keep as many as possible. 

The family headed to Front Street in Beaufort to window shop and get some dinner. Spotted Brock trying out his phone to snap a photo of his huge fish & chips meal! I guess it looked better than it tasted. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I think Kade's meal was the best out of our dinners. He loved it so much, he asked for seconds!

Trying to recreate the picture from so many years ago of Brent holding both his boys' hands walking to the restaurant in Beaufort! 

I think we did an okay job - not exactly the same stretch of Front Street, but close! 

July 2025   vs.   June 2017

After walking around the shops a bit more, we stopped for some ice cream! The ice cream was melting so quickly down the cone, I couldn't keep up with it! Brock and I both struggled with our cones, but Kade was smart getting his in a cup! 

Repurposed sail cloth made into very expensive, but gorgeous, maritime-themed bags! They look super durable.... but just had to say no after peeping that $200 pricetag! 

The boys looked sweet hanging out on a bench waiting for me to shop. 

A random historic house on Front Street I liked while walking back to our vehicle. :) 

The next day was boat day! After putting the boat in at Radio Island, we were off to Shackleford Banks! 

Thankfully, there were several boats we could follow out there so Brent could place his little breadcrumbs for the next time (lots of sand-dunes make it a bit tricky to maneuver over there!). 

We anchored up and enjoyed our traditional Bojangles on the boat before everyone got in the water. Brent did show off his cast net throwing skills. Alas, no bait fish caught. 

We all swam to shore and walked a bit closer to the two wild horses we spotted. We hung out along the beach and played in the water before swimming back to the boat for some refreshments. 

The boys were inspired by the cast net and wanted to catch their own fish, so Brent hooked them up with a little net. They swam back to shore and set to work. 

Brent and I watched the boys work TOGETHER from the boat - commenting again how easy it is for them to get along when we are at the beach!

Looks like they caught something! They put their lifejackets on and headed back to the boat - a good 100 yard swim! 

They were so proud of their catch! 

The boys lined up their fish just like the professionals do at the end of a charter! 

Brent did have a meaningful conversation with them about the ethics behind fishing for a purpose - perhaps the demise of these fish lacked that? 

Well, at least the birds got to have a nice meal!