Random November

Kade attended his second Taekwondo tournament in November. He earned an award for the strongest in his division! 

Here is Kade and a friend outside showing off their moves!

It's been a strange mild fall - lots of outside time!

Brock and Kade received their first Covid-19 vaccine dose on Thursday, November 11th. Although they both were excited to start their vaccination process, they were NOT happy with the needle part. 

Thanksgiving weekend the whole family went for an outing at Ritter park (where the boys played baseball this spring/summer). Moose came to and got to have some off-leash time running the bases! 

We cooked the turkey on the Traeger this year - brined and buttered it up before the 4 hour smoking. 

After only one hour - it's coming along. Unfortunately I didn't document after hours 2 and 3!

Look at that concentration cutting into the bird! It was amazing and I think we found our new Thanksgiving tradition. Soooo good - so much better than frying!

Moose knows something smells good!

Finally, some awesome pictures of my boys! Going into Year 2 for Kade in Taekwondo! And their school pictures! 

Kade, Grade 1

Brock, Grade 3

Halloween 2021

The first thing to do to prepare for Halloween - pick the pumpkin! (In between Taekwondo practicing and dancing of course)

The day Brent and Kade went fishing, Brock and I made cupcakes. I had Brock follow the recipe all by himself - he only asked for help getting the egg shell out of the measuring cup (too yucky to stick his finger in to pull it out!)

Too bad, only got pictures of pouring them in the holders and no pictures of the after when they were all iced!! Boo!! 

Moose got to wear his new Halloween costume! Not too many costumes fit my 118lb Cane Corso!

The Friday before Halloween, Kade's Taekwondo studio set up a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot. Super cute to see all the different themes! One pickup truck turned into a full blown pirate ship with a 12 foot mast!

Halloween breakfast consisted of homemade waffles and sausage - with our new mini spiderweb waffle iron!

Finally, it was time for candy!

Just like last year, we set up a table with two bowls of candy for the trick-or-treaters! This way, I was able to walk with the boys to all the houses!

My silly guy! This year Brock was not feeling all the walking, so he and Brent turned in early. This little guy wanted to go to every house! Finally, his pumpkin was getting a little heavy and reluctantly turned towards home. 

My pumpkin carving this year. 

Brock spent some time on his own carving too this year - I was really proud of him for doing it on his own. Teeth are hard - he said he'll give the pumpkin teeth next year. :) 

Lastly, a video when Kade first tried on his new Halloween costume - Hawkeye/Ronin - and he had to see if it looked good with the form he learned during Taekwondo summer camp. He still remembers his moves!

2021 TAC Titans Halloween Bash Meet

Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) in Cary hosted their Halloween Bash Meet on Halloween weekend and Brock's Lifetime Swim Team was invited. This was the big time! TAC is where the best swimmers swim in the Triangle - Olympian Claire Curzan of Cary swims there!

Brock was on the tv (broadcast on tvs inside only)! Lane 5! Pretty cool to see his last name on his lane!

Brock's 25m Fly video. We were all the way up in the stands and we didn't see his jump from the block. 

He swam amazingly! Best personal record! 17:07 SMOKED the competition. 

Unfortunately, we would find out later, his time was disqualified. We were so bummed for Brock. The referees were not messing around at this meet. Brent had downloaded the app and we saw that within each event, probably 35% of all competitors were disqualified. Brock's Coach inquired on why - "asynchronous arms". We don't see it.... and to DSQ an eight year old for that?? Ugh. 

We had to wait a bit between each event (first event was #26 heat #4, and second event was numbered #32, heat 3). Second event was his 25m Freestyle. 

I would say he had a bit of late jump into the water, but otherwise, knocked it out! Here's Brock's 25m Free video. 

He had some tough competition, but secured first place in his heat (and the entire meet!).  TAC has touch pads to ensure the timing for each event is accurate - more exact when the human element is taken out of the equation.    

Last event was Brock's 50m Breaststroke. This event was a 10 & Under event (so he was up against 9 and 10 year olds!) 

Coach David and Brent assumed he'd place top 5 or so out of all competitors - nope, he secured a first place spot for this event too! (Look at how much taller the boy to the left of Brock is in the video!)

Only swimmers and coaches were allowed down on the floor, so Brock's Coach wrote each swimmer's events on their arms so they would know when was their turn! 

Brock's celebratory meal - Cook-out cheeseburger & cookies & cream milkshake. He's a happy boy! 

Kade's First Offshore Fishing Trip

Kade was finally old enough to join Brent on a full day fishing trip. After waking up and leaving the house at 3am, the boat was pulling away from the dock at first light in Atlantic Beach. 

North Carolina is THE place to fish for King Mackerel in October - just so happened that weekend was the King Mackerel fishing tournament out of Morehead City. These are all the boats lined up 2 by 2 waiting to be released out for the tournament. 

Brent said they rode out about 15 miles offshore to the first fishing spot. They hung around there for a bit, got some bites, but nothing stuck, so they ventured closer in.

They started fishing at a different spot, only 3 miles off shore and put in the "secret weapon." On our family fishing trip to Nags Head in August, we caught 2 ribbon fish. Brent knew that mackerel love ribbon fish, so kept it until now. He set it out and within FIVE MINUTES, he was hooked up! The boys caught a HUGE King Mackerel! (Unfortunately no pictures until they arrived home) 

Brent gave Kade several opportunities to drive the boat.

After a nice nap in the truck (and fueled up with some Smithfield hush puppies), he was all pumped to show off his big catch!

It's even taller than Kade!

Photo by Kade

And like a responsible fisherman, Kade stayed out there with Brent to clean the entire boat. We were very impressed with his commitment - he fished, so it was his responsibility to help his Dad. So proud of you Kade and your first big catch!!

Halloween Covid Time!?!

Halloween Cookie Decorating! Thanks Target!

My decorated cat - ha!

I love that they are all serious about their decorating skills!

Time to eat!

It was a wonderful activity as we were HOUSE-BOUND - quarantining from Brent. Yup, unfortunately, Brent tested positive for Covid early October and we were all stuck inside - but separated - waiting it out. Brent set up camp in the spare bedroom and the rest of us stayed upstairs - only venturing down WITH MASKS to eat dinner in the dining room (further away from the spare bedroom). It was quite an adventure with managing the house, kids' school, my work, and trying to be as sanitized as possible.

 

Amazingly, the kids and I continued to test negative (we tested 4 times) through when Brent was finally able to get his negative result. Brent had a really mild case - achey and tired only 2-3 days. As of end of October, Brent still has no sense of smell. 

Moose waiting patiently to be let in for his "visiting hours". 

We tried to keep busy with different activities! 

Finally we all received a green light (negative test) and were able to venture out - freedom!! We made the most of our first time out with the boys' favorite lunch at our favorite spot (the back of the 4Runner)!

We all needed some fresh air - so headed to Bond Park to tackle the 1 mile Story Walk (read a story while you walk the trail... and do some exercises along the way). 

Brock is balancing while reading his page of the story. Make it fair - take turns reading one page! (But yet, they fought over this too....blah)

Screaming "Boo"! I don't think they understand that you should be more quiet on these nature walks. 

Task complete! We finished the story walk - and got a free donut coupon!

What to do when you see a big rolling hill??

Roll baby!

Oh yeah... and we better cash in on that free donut today too!