and because we haven't seen enough monster trucks this year

we are going to see monster trucks on the beach this weekend.

date knight

on monday all the chick-fil-a stores in our area held a mother-son "date knight" so i signed us up. it was really cute. they had table cloths and faux candles on all the tables. the employees were all dressed in renaissance-style outfits. they served us at our table and we got free dessert. it was still fun, even though Q was his typical impossible to eat out with self. he got his picture taken with the chick-fil-a cow. they are supposed to email it to me, but i am doubting that will actually happen. it sounded like they do a daddy-daughter version each spring so pickle can go with her daddy then.

the rest of vacation

following our OBX vacation, did we just make the short 7 hour drive home? of course not. instead we made the 12 hour trek to massachusetts to meet new cousin logan and to see monster trucks at the fair. they had the moster trucks last year and Q loved it. this year he was ok with it, but clearly underwhelmed having been to so many legitimate monster jam events this year.

towasaurus wrex

the appropriate named storm damage

the MLB bigfoot

also fittingly named - hurricane force

awaiting the trucks (and already filthy)

the guy in the black shirt is jim cramer, notable as the creator of bigfoot, the original monster truck and more notably to us, the narrator of this unbearable (to us, but sadly not to quentin) bigfoot dvd someone gave Q for christmas one year.

bigfoot won. are you shocked? yeah. no.

also filthy.

Q was happy to discover a race car in one of the exhibition buildings

and even more excited when he found this one.

i don't think the owner/driver of this car had exactly planned on letting kids climb in, but after it was established that the dude used to race at riverside against my dad and grandfather, it was allowed.

i think Q may have enjoyed sitting in this car more than the actual monster truck show

and once big brother gets to do something, "me too" has to do it too

what the heck, why not both get in?

they had the pool of corn kernels again this year. notice how many kids surround the pool now.

and now. we stayed at the corn pool for a loooooooong time.

caroline closed out the day with ice cream.

and Q behind bars

outsmarted

when Q and i walked into his classroom today, 3 of the boys in his class were chasing each other around with elaborate helicopters they had constructed out of k’nex toys. i was impressed that these kids could build such complex machinery (furthering my fear that Q is woefully behind his much bigger, much older classmates) but Q was enthralled. he didn’t even want to sit down to eat his traditional breakfast pickles… he wanted to make a helicopter too. knowing that i didn’t have a particularly busy day at work, i figured what the heck, i could sit down with him and help him build one, maybe it would help him settle in to the new room some more. so i looked at the other boys’ copters and attempted to copy them, which was hard since they were running and whizzing by. Q let me struggle for a few minutes, trying to recreate the other kids’ work and hunt out the right pieces, but when i attached a piece incorrectly he admonished me, “mom, that’s not what the directions say.” wait. there are @#$% directions?!?!? sure enough, in his hand is a laminated card that illustrates the helicopter building process in a manner that pre-schoolers can easily follow. he took the half-copter i had created and started adding the pieces to it just as the card instructed. man, i feel dumb.

totally shocking!

i know you'll find this hard to believe, but as we were leaving the outer banks on saturday morning, we stopped at grave digger one more time. there was a legitimate reason though... dennis anderson, the driver of grave digger, was doing an autograph session that day. based on what we saw on the website, he only does a few a year so we just lucked out with the timing. we were able to get off the island super easily so we had some time to kill before the autograph session at 10. we decided to grab some breakfast at digger's diner, and man was it a great choice. we walked in and right away both jeremy and i noticed adam anderson, grave digger's son and driver of the taz truck and now the blue retro digger truck, sitting at the counter. he even scooted a seat over so that the four of us could sit together at the counter. we didn't say anything to him or anything, but it was very cool that Q got to sit next to one of his favorite monster truck drivers at breakfast (even if he didn't realize it!)

no longer naked

and they rolled out a couple of newer diggers for the occasion so happy

we got to peek in the garage

so many diggers

caroline even dressed for the occasion, with her grave digger shirt and her skull & crossbones hair bow. and sleeping beauty. she totally belongs at monster trucks.

amusing the kids in line with iphones. somehow we managed to end up 3rd or 4th in line for autographs.

meeting the man himself. he was so nice. he really took the time to talk to everybody, taking several minutes with each group, signing stuff, answering questions, and of course taking photos.

caroline would not let dennis hold her, so he picked up Q instead.

OBX - day four

friday was our last full day at the beach. it was a lazy day. we went to the beach, napped, and went to the beach again.

caroline still hates the beach.

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i mean, it's just awful, right?

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Q and daddy built a "fence" out of some of the tree limbs that were washing ashore -

ginny surveys her domain from her nest -

evening beach trip. we couldn't go to the beach without the trucks.

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he really loved the beach. -

so did i. so pretty. -

ghost crab! -