February 2, 2008
Saturday
HEY! WINTER is almost over (no matter what that damned groundhog says)!!!!
Can I get a who-ahhhhhhh here?
Thank God. 2 more months of cold and then it'll be April and then May and FINALLY SUMMER.
Today started off pretty slow moving but Erica mentioned this morning that she wanted to go to the NC Museum of History and Kevin wanted to go do some hiking.
We set off to downtown Raleigh first. And while we didn't know it at the time, the NC Science Museum was doing their annual GroundHog Day thing. So they had the Sir Walter Wally (see above link) out at the Science museum right across from the History museum so, there were a TON of people out there.
The NC History Museum was actually very nice. It's worth going even if the only thing you love about North Carolina are the sports. Very nice. Not what either Kevin or I expected.
Afterwards, we ended up heading over to Clyde Cooper's Barbeque which has been in downtown Raleigh since, like, 1932 or something insane like that. GREAT Pork BBQ and the lemon pie was not that neon yellow mess. It was like a creamy lemon filling. YUM!
After all the walking and the food, I didn't feel like doing anything except going home and parking my carcass in my chair but we headed up to Umsted to do the hiking thing. That's where Kevin and I spent part of Christmas Day together so, I love that place anyway.
I normally love being out in the woods and just checking out the scenery and stuff like that but I had to really pull it out of me to do the hiking and mess today.
But Erica had a blast and Kevin got some great pics and that's always worth it.
At one part on the trail there is this huge rock and there were two other kids scrambling to climb it and Erica jumped right on that one. Nearly giving me a heart attack when she was sliding down the sheer face of the wall about 15' feet high. The other mother sitting and watching her kids gasped out loud at some of the moves Erica was doing. At one point the woman just looks at me like, "HOLY CRAP" and I said, "yeah, I don't need any caffeine after THAT maneuver!"
The girl is totally unafraid and bold about it. Sort of weird because she can be so hesitant and cautious when in other situations (social stuff mostly) but activities like that (ice skating too), she just throws herself into it. It's pretty amazing to watch because I know I used to be the same way when I was her age. Always climbing on things and doing crazy things like that. Now, I know what MY mom felt when she was watching me doing things like that.
Even watching her with my heart in my throat, I was still proud as hell. It's exactly how I felt watching Mikey do things out on the football field or on the basketball court.
Photos
Here we go!
Kevin took a "stealth photo". Erica noticed him but I was off in lala land somewhere.
Lunch at Clyde's.
At lunch with Kevin.
VERY determined.
Working on getting to the summit before the boy did.
My Girl Rocks.
Here she is sliding down the face of that rock at Mach 5 speed, I may look nonchalant at the bottom but this is ONLY because she hadn't started the straight down descent at that point. Yikes!
Random photo from the other weekend:
Kevin had told Erica about the lifts they were using on a job site and she wanted to ride on one. So, we took her over there and he hooked her up. Please note the style with the JLo hat and the boots and hoodie. She's killing me.
