Santa brought us new ski gear ahead of Christmas Day this year because we went skiing at Snowshoe from the 19th to the 24th.
Parker got lots of nerf guns to add to his armory. Skylar got lots of arts and crafts projects to add to the house. Nana and Poppa D came and stayed with us and celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Rick and Sarah got married in a Catholic wedding ceremony, which none of us had ever been to before. Regardless, it was fairly par for the course, other than some additional latin phrases.
The reception was held at a very pretty club house on the Potomac. We had fun dancing, sans Parker as no one could get him out of his seat. The food and music was great, albeit a bit loud for my old ears and the kids young ears.
So nice to see lots of family and have a good time!
Our first Halloween doing it daddy style 🙂 We had Ryan and his dad Paul along with Abby come along with us for trick-or-treating in the Glencroft neighborhood.
The kids got quite the haul of candy! I also put together some fun Hors d’oeuvres.
Big boy getting bigger! And yes, he did just spit on his own cake in the middle of a pandemic. Germs – who cares…
Still suffering through Covid in 2021, but we had fun on an Easter get-together with our POD friends, Timmy, Tom, and Gillean.
They brought us to their Universalist Church were we got to walk down a nature trail behind the Church collecting eggs.
Anything to stay somewhat normal! It wasn’t quite the same as years past when we have hosted lots of kids and gone to multiple Easter parties to collect eggs, but it was fun nonetheless.
We also did some egg collecting in the yard, from a surprising bunny who left eggs all over the yard in the middle of the night / early morning.
The kids really came into their own for the 2021 ski season. After 10 days in Colorado and then another 6-8 days skiing locally, they got some quality time in and their skill grew immensely!
I’m fairly sure that only 1 or 2 of the boys actually carved a pumpkin. Skylar carved one and then she and I played some soccer and threw around the lacrosse ball. Parker was in non-stop motion the entire time with his buddies except for the occasion grazing of candy or a juice box.
We went to Sandbridge Beach at the end of the summer. I had never been there before and it was akin to Virginia Beach lite. The strip of land is very thin and there is almost exclusively houses, so the beaches are not packed at all.
It felt a bit like going back in time to Nags Head 30 years ago. All the amenities of Va Beach are about 20 minutes away, so you can still get to a water park, movie theater, or go-carts.
The Friday before we had to leave we gave the kids the option to do whatever they wanted and they stayed on Road Blocks from 8:30AM to 8:30PM. Susan and I walked to dinner and offered to get them dessert and even that couldn’t dissuade them from leaving.
BTW – “Old Town Road” is one of Parker’s favorite songs this summer and while stopping in Williamsburg we drove past “Old Town Rd”. Hadobogee and Parker did some fishing and I was amazed to see the size of the fish that came out of the Atlantic right where we were swimming – and no, we didn’t catch that one!
We went tubing down the Shenandoah River for Skylar’s birthday. Neither of the kids had wanted a “drive-by” birthday party where you sit in the front yard while your friends drive by in a car and shout “Happy Birthday”. I agree that seemed rather lame.
After tubing we went to a Brewery at the top of a mountain with exquisite views of Loudoun. Then we headed home and had birthday cake and presents. Skylar’s favorite cake is Angel food cake with chocolate whipped cream, my grandmothers recipe and also my fav!
We went to the Pentagon for July 4th. They had a flyover with all kinds of planes from WWII relics to modern day fighters. The most impressive was the B-52 stealth bomber, because it’s profile is so unique.
After the airshow we walked over a bridge to a roped off area and spread out as best we could. Skylar and Parker caught lightning bugs as we waited for the show to start.
