Morehead Planetarium & Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We planned a nice visit to the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill with my Dad and Nana Phyllis. Before entering the museum, we spotted this enormous 36 foot diameter sundial outside the museum!

Once inside, we had about an hour to explore the science museum before the show. 

Papa and his grandsons worked hard at this Space Quiz - Kade, true to form, had his own way of answering them = pushing random buttons as quickly as possible before the others even had a chance to read the choices! 

Our show "Carolina Skies" shared how the night sky would look without all the light pollution. It was pretty interesting to see the boys make the connections between astronomy, astrology, and a little Greek mythology! 

The boys even scored some new Carolina shirts while we visited! 

We did learn during the show that Morehead Planetarium was the first to be built within a University. Built in 1949 and designed by the same Architects of the Jefferson Memorial, it is a beautiful building!

Saturday was a big game matchup between UNC and Duke, so we figured getting out of Chapel Hill and back into Cary would be better. Hickory Tavern was just as loud! Ooops! They had the game on every tv in the place so it definitely felt like a very Carolina kind of day! And Kade was happy with the chicken - rated it a 9 out of 10!

Thank you both so much for taking us to the planetarium and spending the evening with us. The boys loved learning - and finding - Sirius and Polaris in the night sky. We really appreciate you two making it such a special evening. ✨

Oak Island 2026

 

This year we planned to be part of the race action in Oak Island! We signed up in September and the boys (Brent and Brock) have been training hard for the 5k! 

The Oak Island race markets itself as one of the flattest courses around! 

I was surprised at how many people were "running" the 5K. I use that term loosely.... people were walking right from the beginning - totally fine, but they should move towards the back or at least walk to the side to let the runners pass! 

Kade and I found an ideal spectator place and kept our eyes out for our two runners! 

Finally we spotted Brent! We yelled for him, but he probably didn't hear us with all the commotion and his music playing in his ear! 

He told us afterwards that he was able to pass that guy in the neon yellow shirt! Way to push yourself all the way to the end!

And I had just about finished my sentence of "now let's spot Brock" when we saw him coming up the way too! 

Happy to be done! They were both pretty sweaty, but oh so proud! 

Here are their stats - not bad at all for Brock's first 5k!!

A close-up of the cool 5k medal! 

Everyone was a bit tired after the early morning start - obviously more so Brock and Brent. After a second breakfast, we turned on our favorite vacation channel - The Price is Right, the Barker era - playing 24 hours a day! Awww - same year as a favorite Uncle was born! 

A lazy Saturday for all - napping, foosball, board games and I got to start AND FINISH my book! 

Of course we trekked over to the beach on this gorgeously sunny day! 

Oh Moose! 

Look at how calm that water was! It was like a lake! 

Happy boy!

Brock wanted him to dig, but not hurt any crabs - perfect to do in the day.

Kade was happiest right by the water's edge building a wall. We reminded him the water is pretty cold - he still got his hands and feet in it. 

Beach hair! 

After a filling Sunday breakfast of french toast and sausages, we went out to the top porch to watch the marathon runners. 

Moose very much loved keeping an eye on them! 

Kade and I really wanted to go to the beach one more time and even though it was cloudy, the radar looked clear, at least for a bit. 

No one out on the beach with us and it was eerie and amazing! Kade played in the sand and I hunted for beautiful shells..... and then the bottom fell out. We ran back to the house - and saw that Brent had come to rescue us!! Alas, we were only 3 houses down, so opted to keep going. It made for a fun memory of being totally drenched and laughing with Kade, then coming inside for a nice warm shower! 

We ended our day with our annual foosball tournament and a visit to Southport for yummy dinner of lobster ravioli, burgers x2 and chicken tenders - I'll let you guess which of us had what! 

Thank you so much to Brian and Nancy for allowing us a weekend stay in your amazing beach house! Alas, we cut it a day shorter than we usually do as Wake County schools took away our President's Day holiday for a makeup snow day. A short stay, but a memorable one!

Winter Storm Gianna

Did you know winter storms have names just like hurricanes? After finally recovering from an ice storm that kept the boys home for two days, we were notified to prepare for Winter Storm Gianna, with forecasts originally calling for up to 10 inches of snow!

Our family waited and watched in apprehension. Brent was scheduled to head to Germany on Saturday, and we weren’t sure what to do. As the forecast totals settled down, Brent opted to move his flight up a day - leaving out of Charlotte - which was the BEST choice as Charlotte ended up with over 12" of snow that Saturday!!

It was just humorous how everyone else in North Carolina was getting snow and there was a great divide for Wake County!! Even our beach property was getting snow!! 

Our snow FINALLY started about 9pm on Saturday night. 

A good 2 1/2 snow cover!

Moose put on his winter jacket and explored the backyard with a little more snow than the night before!

After some breakfast, I ran around the house gathering all the snow gear - Brock wore Brent's snow jacket, snow pants, and boots! Kade wore an "older" pair of Brock's snow pants - size Adult Small! 

It may be a bit big on everyone, but they were warm and dry! 

Moose came out with us for the first hill, but did NOT like the boys going down the hill - he kept trying to jump on them/the sled to get it to stop! Never got it on video because I was holding him on the leash (plus gloves!). I think he liked being with us regardless. 

The boys had fun playing in the snow, but both agreed the previous weekend was better—the ice made for much faster trips down the hill!

Moose was way too smart for me - he absolutely refused to sit on the sled - and every time I picked up the rope in the front, he would hop off! He would not sit on my lap either - he knew what we were thinking! 

We brought Moose inside and tried our luck at a different hill in the neighborhood. No pictures of that as we were FaceTiming with Brent in Germany. I know he very much appreciated watching the boys sled in the neighborhood!

We headed back to the house as the boys had other winter activities on their mind! 

Haha Kade's snow angel! Yup, and there's the grass! 

Brock opted for just rolling down the hill. 

I offered Brock a job to earn something extra - giving him the option to do half for 25% of the total or the whole driveway for the full amount. I was very proud of him to see that he took on the whole job! 

That worked well so I could help Kade build a snowman! 

We used up a lot of the snow in the front yard for this snowman!!

Kade's snowman included a carrot nose, blueberry eyes, stick arms & mouth, and a nice hat! 

We all warmed up with a nice lunch and the boys started their big Lego builds for a nice indoor activity!

Thanks to this wonderful winter storm, the boys were out of school on Monday, had a remote learning day on Tuesday (which felt more like a joke than schoolwork), and two-hour delays on both Wednesday AND Thursday. (Friday, thankfully was a full day!) We are all ready for some warmer weather!