Ice Skating

We didn't get to skate quite as much as Gracie would have liked in August due to how busy we were.  However, Gracie and I did get to the North Buffalo rink before Labor Day weekend.

The day after ice skating the whole family picnicked with a dinner from Mississippi Muds.  It was a beautiful evening along the river with some good live music playing.

Fieldwork

The whole family helped me quite a bit with my research this summer.  In addition to getting it done quicker, it made it a heck of a lot more fun!  This was the last data collection of the year.

Science Museum

We went to the Buffalo Science Museum the day after getting back from the beach.

Some of the highlights were Grant's movie making and Lara and Gracie's weather reporting.

 

OBX

Six days after getting back from Maine we were off to Nags Head, NC for a week with Amy & her crew.

We stopped at a hotel in Ashland, VA to break up the drive.

We got to the Outer Banks around noon on Sunday and hiked and picknicked at Nags Head woods while we waited for our house to be ready.  Turtles and blue crabs were easy to find.

Our house still wasn't ready after hiking so we went stopped by a public beach, checked out a campground and went to Bodie Island lighthouse.

We pulled into our house at 4, just a minute before Amy.  Miss-T View was a perfect house for all of us.  It was about 4 houses back from the ocean and so just a short walk to the beach.  It had a crow's nest that you could see the ocean from and a hot tub on the lower deck.

We spent the days on the beach and spent most of the evenings out and about.

On Monday Amy took us on a sunset dolphin cruise in the inlet.  It was beautiful and we saw lots of dolphins.

We capped off the night with some homemade ice cream from Big Bucks in Manteo.

Other nights we went to Oregon Inlet,

Jeanette's Pier,

the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge,

celebrated Amy's 40th birthday,

and hung out on the beach.

End of July

July was a busy month.  Grant did great with his expander.  Besides being a bit frustrated trying to eat with it on day 1, he has done really well.  In mid July the kids did tennis lessons together through the Grand Island rec dept and they also did a nature camp.  It was Grant's second year doing both those and Gracie's first. 

These are bird feeders that the kids made as part of a competition at nature camp.

After nature camp, Lara and the kids went to Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jed's to house sit while they were at the beach.  I was there for the weekend but then had to go back to NY to teach.  On Thursday, I stopped at my research site on the way back down to PA where I stayed with everybody until I had to head back to my research site on Sunday.  I was driving our 1995 Saturn the whole time and that is the longest trip it has been on in awhile.  Thankfully, no troubles as it turned over 254,000 miles!

A big plus this year was getting to enjoy the Fiscus' new pool.  (pics to come)

Then the following week (after teaching Mon and Tues), it was off to Maine for our annual friend vacation.