Milton's 3rd Birthday

Milton's 3rd birthday was spent in quarantine, but probably have been the same thing under normal circumstances as we are not ones for grand parties.  Milton wasn't so sure about everybody singing to him.  His favorite candy is Mike & Ikes so that was the decoration on top.  The thing on the very top is an Owen artistic representation of a boat. We were able to have Rod and Ileene and my mom, Otto and Rory tuning in for the party too.

Rod and Ileene Visit NC

Rod and Ileene came out for their first visit to North Carolina on a long weekend.  The kids were beyond excited to have them visit the "L House" as Owen puts it. We visited the fine Southern cuisine of Krispy Kreme and Waffle House.  Our first day's outing was to Beaufort and taking the ferry over to Shackleford Banks.  We found some great huge shells on that beach! The next day we went up to the Aurora Fossil Museum (see separate post).  Then we went to New Bern to see the Pepsi founding store and got some really fantastic fountain Pepsi soda.  The biggest discovery was "Grandpa Beach" off a little path from our service road.  It is more fresh water and pretty non-existent waves.  When we went to Onslow beach they were working on stabilizing the dunes with fences that the kids liked seeing the big equipment pounding in the new posts.  It was a really fun weekend!

March 2020

Well, I typed something for this post but Owen got a hold of my computer and it disappeared.  This is a microcosm of how much being stuck at home with the kids sucks. They can send over some Gitmo prisoners and I will have them broken in a matter of days. Distance learning takes hell to a whole other level. In sum, everything got cancelled, and it stinks.  Work, schools, my orchestra concert, Damon's marathons, playgrounds, restaurants, etc.  Pretty much everything that was interesting to do cannot be done. We went to the beach one day and then it got shut down a few days later.  We were able to go canoeing a couple times too before they closed as well.  Right before everything closed down we bought a trampoline that Damon will take Owen out on nice evenings and spend the night with sleeping bags under a mosquito net.