Sailing Sunday

Sunday we headed out early again, well early for a weekend! Ed has been sailing once or twice a week lately at the Downtown Sailing Club in Baltimore. Its a cool place and he gets to sail right in the inner harbor! We tried to take the boys a few times this summer but the timing never seemed to work out. Well, we made it on Sunday and it was great! The weather was gorgeous. Ed isn't signed off yet to take out the J22 yet but he can take out these little boats. Only two people at a time can go so he took Max out first. It was fun just helping put the boat together and get it in the water.

This is the boat before Ed put the sails on. Max is holding the small sail but I can't remember what that one is called. I love that we are right next to the Domino Sugar plant. You can see huge ships come dock there to offload sugar cane (presumably) and Ed says you can smell the sugar sometimes. YUM!

Nolen relaxing on the dock! Isn't he cute?

Nolen helping Ed put the boat in the water. Something wasn't rigged right on the main sail and as soon as they dropped it in the water it nearly capsized. It didn't help that the keel wasn't in yet either. The sail was rigged so that it couldn't fully turn so instead of the wind pushing the sail around, it used the sail to push the boat right over!

Max and Ed on their way out into the Inner Harbor. Its beautiful with all the buildings around. You can't see from this angle but the National Aquarium is off to the left along with a big open area and some shops and restaurants. There are water taxis that run around there and one time we stayed in the tall glass windowed building to the right of the boat.

So in addition to water taxis, there are a few sight seeing boat tours and of course a Pirate cruise! It was so funny to see Ed's boat out there with the Pirate ship! You could hear the whole story that was going on too.

Nolen took a turn after Max and then I had a quick ride too. I wish I had taken a picture of the dock because it was actually a nice spot to sit and read while Ed was taking out the boys! 

After sailing we ordered some wings and went home to watch the Steelers. Unfortunately they lost. But still nice to have football on again! So that is our weekend in a nutshell! 

Ren Fest Saturday

We had another great weekend! I'll start at the beginning...

Saturday we made waffles and then headed out early to get to the music store before it turned into (a really crowded place). Max chose to play baritone this year. Fourth grade is the first year they can choose a wind instrument. Nolen hasn't played anything yet but told the music teacher he wanted to play flute. I'm not sure how he came up with that! She told him she has plenty of flute players but she needs trombones and he would be great because he's so tall and long. He was sold and we have a trombone player! When I told him the flute section is mostly girls he was relieved the didn't end up there. LOL The music store didn't have any baritones and had to order one but we did bring home a brand new trombone! I think I'm having the most fun with it so far! Nolen can make sounds but not very controlled. It will be fun (I hope) to see him learn to play!

After the music store we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It runs for about 6 weeks and we've heard really good things but we've never gone. It was pretty amazing!

Max got into some trouble while we were there. But he was disciplined appropriately.

There were a lot of games! Ed is giving blow darts a try. He hit five targets and won a wooden knife.

Nolen took his turn. He hit the target several times but not hard enough to knock it over.

I think this was the highlight for Nolen. He climbed almost to the top but couldn't quite make it so he JUMPED and grabbed the stuffed dragon at the top. It was pretty cool and he was really proud of himself. Max tried too but he got frustrated and came down pretty quickly.

Nolen playing the sling shot game. Max played too but I didn't get a picture of him :(

Ed is showing off his Firefly fashion!

We all went down this slide. It was pretty cool!

And of course the boys had to play on the playground.

By the end of the day we were all dirty and tired so we headed home for some football and pizza!

A Quick Reintroduction

So I haven't posted a blog update in...a very long time. But we've been doing so many cool things lately that have longer stories than people probably want to read on Facebook so here I am! I won't try to fill in the gap of the last three years. So excuse me for jumping right in. If you must know, the boys are now 9 and 10,  in fourth and fifth grade, love video games, starting to play baritone and trombone at school, and both in GT math. They are as sweet as ever and while I wish they would play outside more and do more chores, its probably my fault for not telling them to!