Austin's 1st Day of School

Today is Austin's first day of school. He is so excited to see all his friends again. We had an open house yesterday with his teacher. Austin has some new friends and old ones that will be in his class.

Open House, Austin and Keegan

Today at the bus stop was Austin, Kaitlin, Ella, Conor, Anna, and little Katie. The parents, Denna and Paige were there too. Paige and John rode there bikes to school, supporting their little one Ella and bigger sister Kaitlin.



Breakfast


Watching for bus


Watching for bus


Waiting for bus. Cool moon shot


Conor and Austin


Kids; Ella, Anna, Kaitlin

More pic's to come.

Jenni's 1st Day of School

Jenni has her first day of school at Calvary!!!

Oak Island 2010!!!

We are on another great Oak Island trip, here to leave all the hustle and bustle of regular life behind. The kids have been excited for months. They have been counting down the days to the day! We had such a blast last time and the kids remember it all.

I will try to make to keep a log of our events with a few pictures.


August 15th

Leaving the house for a bite to eat at at Big Dogs Café. All full. We begin our road trip to Oak Island! I get an ice pick pain behind right eye, upper side from the waiting. Are we there yet? :) It goes away in a few minutes.

We are at Oak Island! Housekeeping is still at the house. We are going to grabbing a bite to eat at San Jose Mexican restaurant. I do not remember this place last time. No matter. The food is great. We ordered a #16, chalupa, chile relleno, and enchilada. There is a lot of meat. Plus, we got to mojito's, one with Captain Morgan. All is good! This is Kris’s first mojito. She has been looking to try one for some time. As she took her first, slow sip she smirked. I asked her what it was. She just smile her beautiful smile. But I had to know, my daemon. So I asked again what tickled her fancy. She looked at me and told me that it tasted like her family’s garden. I laugh so hard. She as right. They have everything growing in the backyard. It was so funny. I’m glad she was able to tell me so I could share that laugh with her. I love how she is trying new things. It is awesome to watch her grow every day. I’m so bless to be with such a lovely, caring woman. She is my rock!

We are at the house, 507 Caswell Beach!!! 1st impression, this house is big and neat. While it is big, you don't get the lost feeling of most large homes. Each place is brightly decorated with a nautical theme throughout. There are seashells in picture box frames and fish art all around. It has a large kitchen opening up to the dining and living rooms. The master bedroom is off to the left of the foyer and the 1st bedroom of to the right. Upstairs sports three more rooms and a nice overlook seating area overlooking the living room down stairs. Magnificent views of the ocean all around. We are all unpacked and ready to hit the beach.


BEACH already!



Do we have to get wet?



YES!


What a great day.

Now we need to get some groceries!

Ah, walking the beach at night. The waves are awesome and the ocean looks blue under the moon. We are picking up seashells.

Getting Some Pic's up!


August 16th


Some shark fun



more fun



Getting ready for an early start, day 2 at the beach!



shell seaking!


August 17th


Mom starting the day off right



Log ride





Ince Cream Rally!



Waited too long for dinner for mom



This is the best cup of coffee, ever!


August 18th


Taking the ferry to Fort Fischer



NC Aquarium Day



Yes, more ice cream treats!!!


August 19th


Nice rainbow after the storm



Diva Jenni



Tag



Austin got hammered


August 20th


Family Dinner



Goofy time (like all the time)



PUTT PUTT!!!



Dad high stepping?



Not an easy hole. Dad took the 6 stroke penalty



Putt Putt masters!


Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww! Always kissing!

More pic's to come! And here the are, PIC's

Doing the Monster Trucks!

Sweet night at the monster truck race tonight near Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Mom scored some cool tickets with the cub scouts! We are all here this year. Jenni is liking this a lot. She is really vocal, but still shy’s up and takes Dad’s lap. :)

A neighbor gave us two more tickets and we were able to hand them off to Jay from Rouse Racing so he and his son scored a fun day!

Thank you mom. What a great night!!!

Austin's Pounds The Street

Austin took his first spill on his motor scooter today.

It was bound to happen. It is the bike motto, “There are those that have fallen and those who will.” He was shaken up a little bit, but is doing fine. He needed to rest he said. He did have his helmet on. Jenni helped with the triage; peroxide, neosporin, and some Toy Story band-aids. A few scratches here and there, which could have been avoid, I told him, if he had worn proper gear; socks, shoes, and pads. But, hey, what do I know. Back to my theory of supervised failures, frustration yields progress. No matter how much you explain what is right or proper, sometimes you just have to let folks fail to appreciate what you have to say. I found this more and more evident in people that were spoon feed answers and didn’t really use critical logical thinking. Without logical thinking, you’re not living. We should expect to fail in life. It is how we respond to that failure that makes the difference.

Look at me being selfish. Taking my sons accident for my opportunity soap box, and I dislike publicity opportunist. You know who you are.

Austin's Orange belt!

Wow, what a great experience for Austin!

Austin had a karate belt test Saturday and he moved up to Orange belt! Good job Austin!!! It took 2 hours to evaluate the whole class, but the discipline displayed was great. We are so glad to see Austin so excited about a sport that offers so much, both physical and mental. The event started at 11:30 and ended near 2.





More video

Rear A/C stops, $1.29 part

Kris’s Pilot had its first part failure, the rear A/C blower. Mind you, the truck isn’t very large, not enough for me to think it needs a rear A/C. However, someone thought so and it broke. I checked all the fuses and they all checked out fine. There are 4 fuse blocks; two under the hood and two inside, on each side. Wow, seriously?. I remember the day when it was one fuse box and you could make a quick glance to see if one blew. And when it did, it was black on the glass. Simple! Oh, but not today. Today’s cars you need to pull each one.

Oh well. Come to find out it was a thermal cutoff (TCO for the hard core geeks) that failed.


Tiny TCO. A Honda $250 special for a $.48 part

I suspect it was the dirt clogged filter in front of the intake on the blower. Sprayed that out. Nice shinny grill now. No sweat. Honda could happily replace the failed part for ~$250. The Honda part only was ~$100. I found the exact TCO, 133c, 2A, in China for $.45. Seriously, Honda - give me a break. Austin and I headed to Radio Shack to find one rated at 144. Good enough. I got it home soldered the pieces. Kris got home with the truck and I put the part in. Whamo! Rear air! But, man is it pumping air now. I can see the kid’s hair blowing as if their heads were out the window!

All in all, it cost me a few bucks and about 15 minutes of my time. And, most of that was waiting for the soldering iron to warm up. :)

Shaw Family Fishing Trip

Today marked a new chapter in the Shaw family life. We took a Father's Day gift; pontooning on Lake Wylie for some family fishing!

Wow, Austin caught his first fish! It was huge. He saw a one jumping in the water and put his hook in. BAM, it hooked. Austin was so excited. He made sure he held on to that rod. He reel it in slowly as the pole bent a little. The fish was swimming hard. It was awesome!

We spent the rest of the day motoring from one site to the next. Nothing bite like Austin's, but we all shared in the day.

We all had a great time. Austin and Jenni got to pilot the boat. It was fun and exciting. We even squeezed in some lunch at T-Bones. How cools is the to pull in and dock!


Captin Jenni


Captin Austin


Lunch at T-Bones


Jenni doing some fishing


Austin fishing, cool style


Check out the lake

More pic's