First Day of School!

RJ started kindergarten today. A couple of us cried!


RJ was pretty excited for his first day of kindergarten!

Julia wanted to be in the picture too.

The Principal escorted him down the red carpet because he is new to the school.

Pat & Fifi's

It was so fun to visit Uncle Pat and Aunt Fifi. The trip was much too short, but we did manage to see a few beautiful views from around their community, in addition to spending the solar eclipse with them.

The kids were begging to go on a hike, but seemed happy enough to climb this rock.

Overlook behind the church

The kids tried their best, but somehow managed to not break any of the musical instruments.

Solar Eclipse

The Plan

Drive 7 hours to see Aunt Debbie and Granddad in Ashville, NC. Drive an additional hour to see Uncle Pat and Aunt Fifi in Landrum, SC. Drive a final hour to The Beach Club to see totality.

The Execution

Route 81 (and most other travel) involved Granddad Johnson and 3 million of our other 'friends' in Washington, DC, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other areas driving to the swath of totality. This added about 1 hour to the drive to and from DC and about 2-3 hours from the eclipse back to Landrum, SC. Uncle Pat was a great sport and even took us for pizza afterwards.

The Eclipse

The totality was totally worth it. We had glasses so we could look at the event in progress. We also made a pinhole viewer which amused everyone (mostly that it actually worked!). Then, during totality we got to look without the glasses.

The Venue

The kids will remember the water slides, the free paddle boarding, and the pools more than the eclipse. A few pictures below.

RJ Rides the Slide

Julia (after a while) goes solo

Sara never says no to a water slide

Asheville!

We made the trek to Asheville to visit Aunt Debbie and convinced GrandDad to go too.

After sitting in the car for 9+ hours, we were very excited that the hotel had a pool. Auntie Debbie learned that RJ can squirt water with his hands too! (A recently learned skill of which he's quite proud)

The hammock was so relaxing!

With some cajoling, we got Julia close to Spino. Tex decided that he wanted to be in the picture too.

Thanks to Aunt Debbie, we were able to take a tour of the Biltmore. Here we are in the creepy basement.

RJ and Mom got to stomp grapes. Hopefully, they aren't going to use these for the wine...

A view from the front of the Biltmore

Last Days of Summer Fun

Our best summer ever is quickly coming to an end. We are cramming in a few more things before reality hits in 2 weeks.

The kids and I made (gluten and dairy free!) solar eclipse cookies.

RJ and Julia's first movie theater experience. $1 tickets for special kids movies, $9 popcorn. How can you skip the popcorn on your first theater experience?

Through the library reading program, we got free tickets to the Ocean Dunes Waterpark.
Both kids enjoyed treats from the snack bar. Julia was especially excited about her spider man popsicle.

She took her time eating it.

And made a bit of a sticky MESS!

Back to the water! I didn't get any other pictures in the water because I was wet too! RJ barely made the 42" height requirement to go down the water slides. He was scared at first, but after the first run, spent most of the rest of the day going down the slides while Julia and I played in the shallow pool and splash pad area. Julia was brave enough to go down the smaller slide in the splash area even pushing her way through the big kids to get to it. Four hours at the waterpark and I will sleep well tonight (hopefully, they will too!).

Darn Deer

Anything not fenced in the back yard quickly becomes deer food. The group of 3-4 bucks travels separately.

Garden Update - Cantaloupe

Volunteer Cantaloupe

This year we are growing cantaloupe. It was not our first choice of things to plant. As the matter of fact, it was not our choice to plant it at all.

Cantaloupe Origin. Our best guess is that we ate a cantaloupe over the winter, unusable parts were put into the compost bin and turned to soil, in the spring we put the soil in the garden, and the cantaloupe sprouted. To avoid getting 'weeded' the cantaloupe disguised itself as a cucumber plant and grew among the cucumbers.

The Result: We harvested our first 2 cantaloupes, and there are 3 more big ones on the vine. Yummy.

RJ hauls the cantaloupe #2 back to the house

Here are the first 2 cantaloupes (one was partially eaten by ants) and Sara's prize tomato

RJ Learns to Swim

How to Teach Your Kid to Swim

• Step 1: Take your 4-5 year old kid to the pool. Give him kick boards, swimming instructions, and spend hours with him as he gets freezing cold.
• Step 2: Repeat step 1 forever
• Step 3: Take kid to pool to hang out with his friend (Francesco) who is taking actual swimming lessons. Don't try to teach him anything and let kid absorb information by osmosis.

Fun at pool with kids

RJ swims!

Video: RJ Swims

How NOT to fix a Harbor Breeze fan

The Problem

The new porch fan was not working. Here are the facts that we had to work with:

• Pressing remote button (see picture), caused nothing to happen. Fan did not move, light did not turn on.
• Light on remote illuminated when a button was pushed
• Fan was working 1 week ago
• 5 days ago there was a brief power interruption - kids and Dad were in basement - total darkness

The Investigation

So putting on our detective hats, here is what we tried.

1. Check GFCI switch that controls power. In the past this had solved the issue 2 times.
   Result: switch not tripped
2. Check circuit breaker.
   Result: breaker not tripped
3. Retrieve user manual and follow troubleshooting guide. Get ladder, climb up and verify that the fan reverse switch was properly engaged.
   Result:: fan still not working
4. Take fan top assembly apart to verify that fan is getting power.
   Result 1: Nope.
   Result 2 (after changing settings on multi-meter): Yes.

The Fail

Humm. Contemplate switching battery on remote. Text contractor. Sleep on it. Go to work the next day.

The Solution

Re-consult owner's manual to learn how to re-establish a connection between the remote and the fan.

1. Open back of remote
2. Turn off power at switch, and turn back on
3. Press reset button on remote while pointing at fan.
   Result: Light blinks, remote synchronizes, fan works.

Gads. A long way to get from point A to point B.