Sam managed to squeeze in 2 dives this summer.  The first one, Alex actually had to take him because both Mom and Dad had to work that day.  Unfortunately the visibility was only about 15′ because there was a storm off the coast and it was a little choppy, but it was good for Sam to get back in the water.

The second dive was at Mystery Lake, a quarry in the Raleigh area, and he had a pretty good time.  He took 2 trips down, about 1 1/2 hours and got some good practice in without having to worry about the waves or the conditions.  The positives is that visibility is always very good and those dives never get cancelled – unless of course it’s lightning.   On the down side, it doesn’t count as an open water dive which is what Sam really needs.

Sam did actually try to go out on a 3rd dive late in the summer and was actually almost half way out to the dive location, but a storm had popped up and the waves were too much along with hail and some bad thunder so they ended up cancelling the dive and bringing everyone back to shore.  Next year, we really have to get some more dives in, hopefully the weather will cooperate.  Sam is also planning to take a welding class this fall in preparation for going off to Diving school in Seattle after he graduates.  We hope to visit the school next summer, just to make sure this is what he wants to do for a career.  We’ll keep you updated along the way.

I’m sure the boys have no idea who Huey Lewis and the News are, but they both are now working for a living.  Well, actually not a living but some extra spending money.  Alex is still technically working for Best Buy but taking a small hiatus as he is now working on completing his internship for school.  The internship should be done in the middle of November, just in time for him to jump back into Best Buy and get some hours during the holiday.  As he is going to school for Hospital administration he is doing his internship at Vidant Hospital, it’s the local teaching hospital in Greenville.  Right now all he is actually doing is helping people to check in/out and getting them to their rooms or out to their cars, but eventually he will be learning more about the paperwork/clerical side of the business.  Although it is a non-paid internship, they do give him a parking pass and he gets $6.00 a day for food… not bad.

Sam, meanwhile, got his first job this year working for Party City.  The manager at the store, Chris, also hired Alex for his first job at Toys R Us before they closed.  Obviously we probably should get Chris something for Christmas this year.  🙂  Sam basically is just a cashier and it only pays $8.35/hr, but it is his first job.  Unfortunately, Sam has already been late 3 times in the short amount of time he has worked there… not necessarily because he was running behind, but because he can’t seem to read his schedule right?  One day we hope Sam will learn how to use a calendar because he never seems to know when he is working, having a sporting event or going out with friends.  If only Apple or Google could invent a calendar for his phone since he seems to be on that most of the time.  🙂

All in all we are very proud of both boys as they have developed a pretty good work ethic and both are learning the value of money in the process.

Nana and Gung Gung came down to help us celebrate Alex and Lis’s birthday.  They made an early trip down this year, August 7th, because they were both headed off to England later in the month and the following weekend which would be the traditional birthday weekend, Sam had a dive on Saturday.  We went out to dinner on Saturday night and had nice breakfast on Sunday morning.

Alex and Sam had a chance to go see Arsenal play Real Madrid on July 23rd.  No they didn’t take a trip to London or Madrid, but instead Washington DC as part of the teams exhibition games.  The original plan was for Alex and Sam to drive up together and spend the night, then come home.  But after further discussion it was agreed that Mom would make the drive and stay the night with them, then drive back.  In hindsight that was probably a good idea because the traffic was horrible.  Anyway, they got to see a great game and had a good time, even if Alex’s favorite team lost in penalty kicks.

We actually celebrated Father’s Day last weekend when Nana and Gung Gung were in town, but we did have a nice dinner on Sunday… beef brisket, French fries, couscous and grilled vegetables for Mom.  Of course, everyone had to work but Dad so he did most of the cooking. 😄

After work, Mom drove across the parking lot to see if she could spot the elusive creature known simply as Sam, in his new habitat.

Beef brisket with fixins

Sam’s birthday is of course June 3rd, but we didn’t celebrate the big day until this weekend when Nana and Gung Gung came down for a visit too.  Sam got to pick dinner, so it was a surf and turf weekend with Salmon and filet mignons.  He also requested his other favorite – mushroom risotto rice, which both the boys love and it’s actually quite odd since neither of them like mushrooms at all.  In addition, Sam got to pick a Saturday matinee movie, so he went to see Godzilla, everyone else with the exception of Alex (he had to work) went to see John Wick.  Sam didn’t mind going by himself and he said he would have given it a 9 out of 10.  The rest of us felt John Wick was a very happy and uplifting movie. 😀  Dinner was supposed to be outside, but some rain showers kept the dinner inside.  We did manage to sneak outside for dessert and the birthday Cake.  Happy 17th Birthday Sam!!

Sam’s slice of cake with the ice cream on top!

Sunday breakfast of Champions, bacon, eggs and waffles.

Well now it’s time to say good bye to Sam and all his kin. And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in. You’re all invited back next time to this locality. To have a heapin helpin of their hospitality.

The friendly little fella somehow managed to hop in the car after the movie and make the ride home with us? Quite unusual since we were parked in the middle of the parking lot? He seemed quite friendly as he hopped around the car, even with all the screaming. 🙂

Well the azaleas and the rhododendrons have come and gone, but the wildflowers and the hydrangeas are just now blooming.  Now if we could get some more rain so the vegetable garden will grow and Lis will have to stop watering it.  🙂

We ended the night at the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks.  The fireworks actually started at 9pm, but luckily we got there an hour early because people were already lining up to get spots to see them.  We went down and staked out a spot in front of the castle, but with about 15 minutes Disney employees came around and asked everyone to stand up and move forward because there were so many people (we can’t imagine what this would be like in the middle of the season?).  Anyway, besides the fireworks Disney also put on a laser show on the castle itself.  The laser show choreographed to go with the music and characters could be seen moving from one section of the castle to the other.  In addition, the castle took on different motifs to match the different movies and character… all this was actually pretty impressive.  We probably won’t ever do that again, but it was worth seeing.

We made a quick trip around the world, stopping for Werther’s Orginal Caramel popcorn in Germany and some Italian gelato in Italy.  The Italian gelato tasted more like ice cream rather than gelato – the only real flavor was cookies and cream.  We asked if they had Pistachio and the girls behind the counter, both from Italy, said that was their favorite, but they had to ‘Americanize’ the gelato…. sad.  It was also the Spring Flower show and they had lots of extra displays throughout the park.  The one regret was that we didn’t actually eat here… would have loved to have the bangers n’ mash in England.

They also had a very nice model train set up outside of England… we are sure Gung Gung would have appreciated this one…..

We spent Wednesday morning until about 2pm at Animal Kingdom.  We were able to see the Lion King show and went on a safari… the safari was a little bumpy and Lis was queasy by the end of it so we opted out of the white rapid rides.

Kimono dragon

This is from the Avatar area – they say this is pretty cool at night because it’s lighted up like in the movie.