Los Flemings

Sam bounced out of bed this morning ready to start 2nd grade at Evergreen. The night before he was very restless and had a hard time going to sleep. He told his mom, "it's worse than Christmas."

He returned home in equally high spirits, having kicked off the year with a watermelon seed spitting contest.

The weather was favorable yesterday for flying in Western N.C. So Sam and Grandpa Glenn took to the skies.










Back on the ground he fulfills his 'bug duty'.

Nantahala Falls that is. We made it over last Monday to take advantage of Mame's day off and avoid the weekend crowds. We had a great day on the river. It was Mame's first day on the Nantahala in her solo canoe. She was following us down but chose to take the 'hero route' through the top hole. This was followed by an excellent demonstration of the whitewater swimming position for Sam's benefit.

(and yes, if you look closely, that is a rock in Sam's lap)

Sam went sliding last month thanks to a day trip while visiting Dandy (who also scored points for going for a slide into the chilly waters of the Davidson River).

Last month we made our first trek to SUUSI (the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute) in Radford, VA. It is a week-long conference/summer camp with workshops and nature hikes during the day and services and musical performances in the evening. For Sam there were lots of great things to choose from like building giant marble raceways, cardboard castles and lawn games.

We were so busy during the week that we didn't end up with many photographs of the experience. But on Friday, Sam and I went on a group hike to the Cascades near Blacksburg. It was 2 miles round trip and at the top in the pool of the falls he did his best Popeye impersonation.