Facebook

Well, I finally caved and joined Facebook! Chad has been on for awhile, but I stubbornly didn't want to be on a social networking site. But, then almost everyone I know is on there now and I just couldn't hold out anymore. Now, I'm glad I did. I've already reconnected with some old friends and it's such an easy way to keep in touch with a bunch of people. But, I'm sure many of the people who check out our blog already knew I finally joined because most of them are on there too!

Mom's NC visit

My Mom was able to come for a 3 week visit. For the first week she stayed with us and with my brother, the second week she went to Wilmington and the third week Chad & I went to Wilmington too. While she stayed with us we had the futon in our office set up as a bed and the cats LOVED it. That room gets the most sun, so they were in there all the time! Here's a picture of them lounging in the sun on the futon.

I took this picture while my Mom was staying at our house - two bluebirds landed on the tree right outside our front window. Even though there is some reflection on the glass it's still a good picture of the birds.

Good Times in Wilmington

While my Mom was visiting Chad & I went to Wilmington for a week to see her and other family. While we were there we spent a lot of time playing cards like the picture below shows. When we get together we love to play a card game called Spite & Malice - I think over all the time we played each of us (me, my mom and my grandmother) all won close to an equal amount of games.

Here's a picture of my grandmother's cat Sweet Pea lounging in a chair.

Cape Fear Museum

While we were in Wilmington we went to the Cape Fear Museum with my family from Florida, but somehow I managed to not get any pictures of them that day! Here is a picture of me & Chad in front of a giant sloth skeleton replica. This skeleton was found in Wilmington while they were working on some roads in 1991, but the original is in the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. I love sloths, but even though this giant one was still a vegetarian I don't know if I would have wanted to meet it in person!

More from the Cape Fear Museum

Since Michael Jordan is from the Wilmington area the Cape Fear Museum has a display of his memorabilia and you can see that Chad is pointing to his hat which is a Carolina hat of course.

Here is a picture of me & Chad both crammed into a phone booth from the pre-cell phone days!

Inside a Beaver Dam

At the museum they have a fake beaver dam that's really more for kids to play in, but of course Chad and I both had to get in it!

Dioramas

The Cape Fear Museum has some really detailed dioramas that depict historical scenes in Wilmington. This one shows all the trade that was done by boats and how the riverfront was full of activity.

This one shows the battle at Ft. Fisher. You can't tell from the picture, but they used cotton as smoke from the guns.

Aquarium visit

While we were in Wilmington Mom and I decided to visit the Ft. Fisher Aquarium. It's really nice and Mom hadn't seen it since they renovated it about 8 years ago. I love going to the aquarium and try to go whenever we're in town. Here's a great picture of Mom as a fiddler crab!

Some aquarium animals

In the freshwater part of the aquarium there are now some quail. These two let me get really close so I could take a picture.

Here's a picture of a sting ray.

Sea Horses

At the aquarium they have a sea horse tank that is really cool. We were able to find about 4 or 5 sea horses, they are really camoflauged so you have to look closely. Here are two of the better pictures of them:

Puffer fish

This big puffer fish was just hanging around by one of the tank windows, so I was able to get a great picture of it.

Then later I got this picture of it all puffed up! I had never seen a puffer fish actually puff up before. I was so glad I was able to get a good picture before it deflated.

Me & Mom at the Aquarium

Here is a picture of my Mom and me in front of the aquarium.

Here's one of us in front of the biggest tank in the aquarium, but as you can see with the flash on you can't really see the fish and it reflects off the glass...

...but with the flash off you can see the fish, but not us. Oh well!

My Grandfather's Cannon

This is a picture of my Mom and a cannon that her father found in a shipwreck near Ft. Fisher. He donated this and many other Civil War artifacts that he found scuba diving to the Ft. Fisher museum and other museums in the Wilmington area.

Family Reunion in Wilmington

Since my Mom was in town we decided to have kindof a family reunion. So, my mom's brother Steve and his family who all live in Florida came up and we had a big dinner and get together at her other brother Tommy's house. Here's a picture of Tommy and Kim who hosted the family get together at their house.

There was also a Carolina basketball game on that night that we had to watch of course. Here's Tommy, Chad and Phillip all watching the game before dinner.

Brothers and Sisters

Here is my grandmother with all of her children:

from left to right Tommy, Rosa Lee, Susan and Steve.

Here is my mom with both of her kids: me on the left and Fielding on the right.

The newest member of the family

Almost exactly a year ago before this mini family reunion my cousin Phillip and his wife Logan had their first child Cash. Everyone got to meet Cash during this trip to Wilmington! Here is Logan holding Cash and Phillip.

Here's another really cute picture of Cash laughing with his parents!

The Whole Family

Here's a picture of the whole family! From the top of the stairs: Julia, Kim, Tommy, Susan (my mom), Rosa Lee (my grandmother), Chad, me, Steve, Fielding, Davy, Phillip holding Cash and Logan.

Ivy the cat

My uncle Tommy & aunt Kim have a cat named Ivy (pictured below) who is now 23 years old and totally blind. But, she is so sweet and you would never know she is blind because she seems to just stare at you like she is in this picture!

Ivy decided that she really liked Chad and sat in his lap for the whole 2nd half of the Tarheels game that was playing that night.

Wrightsville Beach Pictures

While we were in Wilmington the water was so beautiful. Here's a picture we took from the bridge that goes to Wrightsville Beach.

Here's a picture of Summer Sands the place we always stay when we come to Wilmington.

Here's a picture of me & Chad we took of ourselves on the Wrightsville Beach bridge.

Beautiful Wrightsville Beach

It was too cold and windy to be out on the beach much while we were in Wilmington, but we did go out and take a few pictures including this one with the Johnny Mercer pier in the distance.

Valentine's Day 2009

This year for Valentine's Day Chad surprised me with roses, which are pictured below. He also got me the book A Rare Breed of Love by Jana Kohl. I got him the first season of Survivorman on DVD and ammo.


We also got together with Chad's family on Valentine's weekend. Here's a picture of Chad and his sister Amy playing the Wii while Karissa watches.

Here's the whole family!

Athenaeum @ Amos' Southend

Athenaeum, one of my all time favorite bands, played at Amos' Southend on Feb. 7th. I did bring my camera to take some pictures, but unfortunately our camera is not so great and so I couldn't get any good pictures of the band. I got these picutres from Flickr. Below is guitarist and back-up vocalist Mike Garrigan.

Here's a picture of the lead singer Mark Kano.

More pictures from the Athenaeum show

Here's a picture of Adam & Chad at Amos' for the Athenaeum show.

Here's a picture of me & Chad at the show and right beside Chad is a poster advertising Mark Kano's new solo CD (which is great of course!).