Camping and Canoeing at Timothy Lake

We had a four day trip at Timothy Lake with Grandma and Grandpa Denniston. We took two canoes and one kayak. What a blast! Joey absolutely loved the kayak and went out whenever he could get someone to go down to the water with him. Tim wasn't so sure about all this at the start, a little too tippy for his liking. But on the last day he was sitting in the kayak himself making sure everyone saw the waves as he rocked it back and forth. The boys also enjoyed tipping the canoe over and then trying to stand on it and surf. Or just fall off, or keep it rolling over and over. It was all good. We posted some extra pictures of the trip on Picasa. -Steve

I'm 6 years old!

I had two parties. The kid one was first and then the grown up one. I had a treasure hunt. I had friends over and I got presents. And I had fun. I had cupcakes and on them was BUGS!

At the grown up party I had a birthday cake. Sidra my baby cousin and Auntie and Uncle, and all my Grandparents came to the grown up party.
My Dad posted more birthday pictures on Picasa.
-Tim

Tin House Writers Conference

Last week Steve (me) went to a week long writers conference put on by Tin House, a literary magazine and small press. Now I can drop names like T.C. Boyle, Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender and a host of others no one has heard of.

In the mornings I spent the week "in workshop" with ten other short fiction students and author Yiyun Li who published a short story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Afternoons and evenings were full of seminars, lectures and readings by the other workshop leaders.

Slip Sliding Toward

We took the Batman Slip-n-Slide out to Grandma and Grandpa Bullock's. It works better at their house since they have a slight slope in the back yard. Steve took a bunch of pictures, but the best ones were all done by Joey. This is one of his on the left! We posted more of Joey's pictures of Tim on our Picasa page.

Grandson Vacation

Grandma and Grandpa Denniston took the boys and their cousin Brad to Seaside for a vacation for three days. They stayed at a hotel with a pool-so all the time that wasn't spent swimming in the ocean was spent swimming in the pool.

Garden Helpers

Holly keeps finding aphids in all her flowers so we bought a bag of ladybugs. They come 1,500 to a bag and each ladybug eats (up to) 100 aphids a day. Hopefully that will do the trick. And if it doesn't Tim will have fun getting them out of the bag again.
-Steve

Swim Lessons!!

Tonight was the last night of swim lessons! We now have a sea lion (Joey) and an otter (Tim). Joey can swim the length of the lap pool doing the front and back crawl and is learning to dive. Tim is doing amazing arm circles, is learning side breathing and can do an awesome back glide! The end of the lessons is the best part - they get to go down the slide, the current is turned on and they just get to play!
-Holly

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

There weren't very many flowers in bloom, but the boys didn't care. They only go for the ducks. This time they had their own camera so now we have lots and lots and lots of pictures of ducks. The ducks follow you around even if you don't have food, and the geese follow you and hiss at you too. We found some mellow ducks and they ate right out of our hand. Joe wouldn't try it but Tim thought it was hilarious when they nibbled at his fingers.
Here are a few picture highlights of the ducks. And a picture of a flower that Steve took. (boooring!) We went with Grandma and Grandpa Denniston who took us to Laughing Planet for lunch-yum!
-Steve

Hiking at Tryon Creek

We found a snail when we were hiking back to the parking lot. It was red. I really liked it. Red is my favorite color. I didn't want it to be eaten and I put it under a flower.
-Tim

(transcribed by Steve)

I'm 9 Years Old

Yesterday was my birthday these are some of the things I got: the y-wing, Pokemon cards, the Spiderwick Chronicles and Golden Compass books. Also I got the game Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!With a ticket to see the 5th movie!

My grandmas, grandpas , Aunts , uncle, and two cousins came to my birthday! It was very very fun! Dad posted some extra pictures on Picasa.

-Joe