Model Rocket Flights

The Republic Attack Gunship that J got Christmas Eve has finally been completed. The base of the ship was flexible after completion causing the ship to break apart easily. We were able to correct that design flaw by adding 8 additional plate pieces strategically to the base.

When we left the house today there was NO wind. So we decided today would be a great day to fly model rockets. We brought two rockets and six motors with us today. By the time we got ready to fly the wind had picked up. Flight one the parachute did not deploy completely and it landed in a tree. We were able to recover the rocket by knocking it out with a stick. Flight two was with our second rocket. It's parachute did not deploy well either and it is still in the tree. Flight three was great...but it was caught by a wind gust and was lost completely. But the day was not a loss....we met some nice kids at the school field and we enjoyed the three flights we did have ; )

Fontana Dam Video

We took a great day trip out to see Fontana Dam. It was unseasonably warm for December (upper 60's+ F). NC has been experiencing a severe drought. You can see in the pictures that the reservoir is drastically low. http://www.ncdrought.org/ You can see from the link that the area where the dam is located is classified in the red 'D3-Extreme Drought' zone. The Dam was very impressive and the pictures do not really convey the scale of it.

Christmas Eve & Christmas 2008

Friends of the Library used bookstore in Sylva, NC....one of our favorite destinations!
Fontana Dam

Guitar Hero World Tour for our wii!

Lego#7676 Republic Attack Gunship!

We had a nice Christmas eve at Maw Maw's house with lots of good food and presents. Maw Maw and Paw Paw got J this HUGE Lego set of the Republic attack gunship. It is taking longer than expected to assemble mainly because of all the presents Santa brought for J on Christmas morning. We all enjoy playing with the Wii Guitar Hero World Tour. Santa also brought some star wars guys, a jenga game, a rubiks cube, and a scuba diving outfit for the GI JOE santa brought last year. As a family Christmas treat we all took an overnight trip to Dillsboro, NC and had a wonderful time. We took a drive out to see the dam at Fontana Lake. I will make a microsoft photostory 3 video of the trip and post it soon.

We are also very excited to begin this year's Cub Scouts Rocket Derby Kit! This year our design will be 'Glamourous Glennis' Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 plane that was the first to break the sound barrier. It will prove difficult because we have to use the wood in the kit to make the wings. This will take some thought....more to come on that later.

Happy 13th Birthday Monterey Jack!

Last Sunday Dec 15th was Monterey Jack's 13th birthday!! We had a huge celebration. We all went to hardee's and had cheeseburgers for lunch, we went to petsmart and got all sorts of attention, we also go to go to grandma's house and had cake!

Gingerbread house and Christmas tree shopping

Somehow we missed out taking pictures of Thanksgiving...but here are some pre-Christmas photos of J's gingerbread house (all by himself) and the perfect tree he picked out for us this year!

Runescape

J is just learning to play runescape. Jagex now has it set up so that if you are underage there is no 'chat' feature turned on. J really enjoys this game. There are a lot of quests and puzzles to figure out. His character name is Jgp2001 if you want to play too!

Lego Agents Mobile Command Center #8635

Yes it has been a very long time since we have posted! Things have been busy! But Christmas Vacation is finally here and we are really enjoying the nice rest! So I will try to do a few 'catch up' posts today...

This is J and one of our dogs. J made a special bed for him for a camp out in his room.

This is a pic of J at the cub scout bike rally. J is still learning to ride, but he had a great time. This was a really cold day.

J worked really hard and saved up his own gift money and allowance money for MONTHS to buy this Lego kit all by himself!

This is the Lego Agents Mobile Command Center. J was able to assemble it completely by himself in a few hours. The kit has awesome playability!