Hurricane Earl

We're bunkering down to meet Hurricane Earl. He's expected to hit the North Carolina coast today. We've put all our outdoor gear into the garage. We've stocked up on food. We've tested the generator. Our camping trip is on hold.

After Earl we're expecting Tropical Storm Fiona. Ironic huh!

Pray that we don't get flooded.

Travel Quests

As loyal readers may know, our family has a couple of travel quests in progress. Here's an update:

Visit all four tennis Grand Slam events. Check. We attended the French Open and Wimbledon in 2003. We visited the Australian Open and the US Open in 2004. We re-visited the US Open in 2007 to see the men's final on a balmy Sunday night and enjoyed Federer defeating Djokovic (and thus winning his 4th consecutive US title). Although this quest is complete we would never turn down another opportunity to attend a tennis event.

Visit all major Guggenheim museums around the world. In progress. So far we've visited the museum in the following cities: New York, Venice, Berlin, and Las Vegas. The biggest and best, Bilbao, we have left until last (though not intentionally). It is high on our list of priorities to get to Spain.

50 states of the USA. In progress. We've visited 23 states. Some for a few hours, others we have literally spent years in. I've mapped out a brief plan for visiting the remaining 27. I think we can do it in roughly 9 vacations which seems like quite a lot. Two weekends away could get us another 5 states. Then the rest are long haul trips.

We were hoping to get to DC this Labor Day long weekend but instead we're staying home and maybe doing some camping. Stay tuned.

Summer beach fun

Both Lucy and Henry love swimming in the ocean. Henry also like eating sand.

The end of summer

Hello everyone. It's the end of summer here. During 2010 we had the coldest winter so far followed by the hottest summer so far. The days are getting shorter, the nights are slightly cooler (ie a low of 75/25) and the kids are back at school. Life is slowly getting back into a regular routine.

What did you miss in the past month? Our tomato and beet harvest, Lucy learning to read, the backyard swingset being mulched, Henry learning sign language, the Son Festival at church, baking cookies, watching Blackadder, having a new airconditioning system installed ..... and so much more.

Just imagine 100 degree days, sprinklers, ice blocks and squealing. And juicy red tomatoes.

Random New Mexico footage

Random Texas footage

Back to School

Today is the first day of preschool for the new school year. To celebrate we had a special breakfast of french toast casserole, fruit cups with whipped cream and orange juice. Lucy went into her classroom very well while Henry wanted to give Dad a really long cuddle (and never let go). But off they went and there were no tears from anyone.