Julian conquered his fear!!!

Two years ago we were at Stratham Fair and Julian wanted to climb the rock wall. He got about 1/3 of the way up and got scared and came down. Today at the Rock n Ribfest he finally conquered his fear. He stood in line and patiently waited his turn. He got about half way up and came back down again. He had chosen one of the harder spots to climb and had a hard time getting his holds. He looked up at the wall after he came down and said. "I'll try again later, I'll make it then." So, a couple of hours later we went back over and he again waited in line for 15 or 20 minutes and tried again. He finally made it to the top. He was so proud of himself. He had a couple of tricky spots but got over them no problem. He was determined to make it this time. At one point near the top he actually did a bit of a jump to get up to one of the higher holds. He caught it and climbed the rest of the way up. Nice job Julian!!!

Rock N Ribfest

My brother-in-law Sean is in a BBQ competition this weekend with his Uncle and a few of his friends. They have to cook a pork butt, brisket, ribs and chicken. They will be up all night tonight smoking their meat! Anyway, we went over to the festival they have in conjunction with the competition. They had many rib vendors from all over the country and even one from Australia (which was amazingly good). They had onion rings, corn dogs, french fries, pizza, fried dough, sausage subs, cotton candy...all the nasty fair food that we all hate to love to eat. They had a big kids area with a bunch of inflatable things for the kids like bounce houses and slides and stuff like that. There was a stage for kids entertainment and another stage for adult entertainment. They had a cover band on stage when we got there that was actually pretty decent to listen to. Julian got his face painted as you can see by the picture. On our way home we were hungry again after standing in line for the face painting for OVER AN HOUR! We ended up at McDonalds before going home and I had gotten used to his face looking like an alien. As we were walking in there were several tables along the window pointing and looking at him and smiling. It was really funny. They all loved his face. He really liked being the center of attention--NOT JULIAN, loving being the center of attention??? Haha. We had a great day. My Uncle Ronnie came with us which was fun too. He is always good for entertainment. We ended up spending the entire day there and had a lot of fun.

McCarthy's Feis

My niece McCarthy was in a Feis last weekend. It was her second show for Irish step dancing. She is very cute and did a great job in her pre-beginner category. The champions have been working at the dancing for a long time and were really impressive to watch. They did soft shoe and hard shoe which is the one I like. In the group picture she is the little one in the middle.

No More Pencils No More Books

No More Teacher's Dirty Looks!!! Yesterday was the last day of 3rd grade for Julian. His friend Johny Ash (Johnny Cash) had a massive pool party to mark the occasion. The Ash family has a beautiful huge backyard with a pool and a big play structure. They have two kids, one is Julian's age and they have a daughter who is in I think 5th grade. The party was fun. They had lots of food and drinks for everyone and the kids had a great time. By 7:00 Julian was ready to go home and warm up. The day was really nice for a pool party but by early evening the pool was in the shade and the water was co-o-o-o-ld. He was shivering like crazy!!! But he had a great time of course. In the pictures you see Julian looking mischievous with that water squirter and the other picture is with Julian, Johny (left) and his friend Tim (middle) from down the street. We hope to see more of them over the summer.