Thanksgiving 2025

We hosted a fun Thanksgiving complete with traditional food, pickleball, a birthday, and some sports on TV.

Julia preps the origami turkeys for the place settings. Doug made cookies that we forgot to give Granddad

Julia set the timer to 5 seconds ... probably should have been 10

Walter the dishwasher in action!

Julia made a delicious chocolate cake for Grandad's 83rd birthday

RJ regripped the pickleball paddles in the morning. Cousin John couldn't resist ...

Cousin John outlasted RJ (who took a 2 hour nap)

Somehow Walter was invited onto the forbidden couch

Julia on the wheely chair and Walter pulling for food. Walter wasn't exactly the Budweiser Clydesdale, but he got the job done ...  

Whitetail Prep

Quick trip to Whitetail to get equipment for ND, prep ski house, fix internet, and have some fun.

Started with a hike to see if Doug's bead toss was still the highest on the bead tree...

Sadly, bead tree was trimmed

pi Remember to inspect back of chair 40!

Kids recovered fallen beads and Doug started a new bead tree (only 2 necklaces)

Julia hung out with Ava while RJ/Doug gathered food for lunch/dinner. Sadly I have no pictures of Julia/Ava playing pickleball, eating s'mores, and doing whatever else 10-11 year old girls do.

RJ's crew didn't come up so he kept Gunner out of the girls' hair

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No Sports

In a strange sports-free weekend we did some volunteer work ... 

Setting up to prepare 28,000 meals at St. Agnes

RJ working in the meal prep line

KOC pancake breakfast at St. Luke - RJ biked to church, Julia had food in her mouth

Doug made chocolate chip pancakes at the empty workstation near the electrical hazard :-)

... and we treated ourselves to a nice dinner as Sakura.

Kids were mesmerized by the chef ... RJ said to mention he was 3 for 3 catching food in his mouth

Big Sleep

Somebody stole our 11 year old and gave us a teenager ... 

Yes, it's 11:52am and Julia is still sleeping

Julia requested this clarification: The night before she watched "Clifford the Big Red Dog" then read a book until 11:10pm. She needed the sleep.

Power Lunch

Turns out that Halloween candy can make a delicious and healthy lunch. 

RJ's typical post-Halloween lunch

So how is this healthy?

... turns out that you can trade this stuff for things like sandwiches and sodas. It's a lot easier than packing lunch ... like Doug is forced to do except for free-lunch Wednesdays.

Gardening 2025

This year we split the garden into 4 quadrants. Each member of the family got their own quadrant to name, plan, plant, weed, and harvest.

• Doug: Cash is Clay (the crummiest soil with a big path running through it)
• Sara: Make Gardening Great Again (a decent plot with an ever growing mint patch)
• Julia: Worms Welcome (some super soil with some annoying roots from the maple tree)
• RJ: Who 'dat Seed (some good parts, bad parts, and weedy parts)

RJ's section featured an mis-mash of unlabeled seeds. His plan was to plant anything he could put in a salad. After a super fast start ... Who 'dat Seed turned into Who 'dat Weed.

March 16: RJ plans some of his science experiments (beans, lettuce, radishes)

The 4 quadrants (Ginger was not allowed in)

March 23: Tilled and ready to go ... RJ's early plants didn't make it

May 11: Crops starting to come in, RJ getting radishes, lettuce

July 11: garden producing cucumbers (a lot!), cherry tomatoes, squash (yellow and zucchini)

Aug 23: garden producing cantaloupe, lots of cucumbers, very large zucchini, and gross beans

Sept 4: Doug was eating a lot of cantaloupe, Julia got her first (and only) watermelon

Oct 26: patience pays off, Cash-is-Clay hauled in ~10-15 peppers and some large tomatoes

Nov 11: a couple more peppers and some carrots are all that remain

Lessons Learned:

• People work harder when they 'own' their land
• Starting the garden on March 9 is too early
• Cramming 20 cantaloupe plants into a small area results in a lot of small vines and little fruit
• Granddad was right about planting watermelon (again)
• RJ started on fire with lots of lettuce and radishes, but lost focus
• If you want awesome peppers ... get started early and make sure the plants get lots of sun
• Nothing except some random kale grows in the back garden by the new shed
• The plan to take pictures every month didn't pan out

Hockey - weekend games

After cross country, Julia had 2 soccer games, and RJ had a hockey game. On Sunday we took it easy (only one hockey game).

The results of sports after cross country could be described as 'sleepy.'

Nov 8: Team ready to take on Montgomery County (0-1 loss, sleepy)

The hockey game on Nov 9 went a lot better, highlights below.

Cross Country Wrap Up

St. Agnes had a super strong showing in the Championship meet. Of 6 categories St. Agnes won 4 - including the first ever 7-8th grade win for St. Agnes.

Both kids made big improvements over their last times (but tough to compare because they were different courses.

Who	Race 1	Race 2	Championship
Julia (3km)	18:18	15:05	13:18
RJ (4km)	hockey	17:51 (ankle)	16:37

5th-6th grade girls - and a dog that assisted with getting everyone to smile

Julia and Nora D. race down the final stretch

RJ ran with his buddies Samuel and Devon. None of them won the race, but as a team the 3 of them won first place of the 21 schools in the competition.

Great Day for a Hike

Sara took Julia and Amelia for a hike. Beautiful weather, beautiful pics.

Scenic

Wet shoes? Of course!

Julia Wraps up Soccer

Julia's ADP and Rec soccer teams ended the year on a high note. ADP team seemed to get much better as the year went along. The Rec team was easily the best team in the league.

ADP team finished with a 6-1 win

Later that day the rec team won 6-3 (they went up 5-0 and eased up)

Halloween - 2025

The scariest thing about this Halloween was the amount of candy that the kids accumulated. Poor Zara (not pictured) joined RJ, Brady, and Julia for trick-o-treating this year. At first she fell behind, but by the end she was running with the rest of them. Including a 'short cut' through a dark abandoned lot.

Kids carved their own pumpkins this year (cute bat and Happy Halloween)

 

The crew was super impatient at the neighborhood party ... but at 5:30pm they started trick-or-treating.

Bradley dressed as a climber ... and played the part by climbing a couple trees

RJ with 22 pounds of candy ... 20lbs of which he could not eat

Julia organized her candy ... and still looked a bit like a zombie the next day

RJ and Bradley before trick or trearting

RJ Loses Shoes

How does one lose a pair of shoes that you were wearing? We have looked everywhere in the house, the cars, the yard, friend's houses, the hockey rink, and more. If anybody has any idea where RJ's shoes are, please let us know!

June 6 photo

Trunk or Treat

While Doug was returning from a work trip to Seattle, Sara took the gang to Trunk or Treat at St. Agnes.

Julia and Nora D. prepare costumes for trunk or treat

Boys prepare to give out some potatoes

Several 8th graders attended (several got volunteer credits for cleaning up)

Julia and gang man their trunk (and eat some candy)

17th Anniversary

We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary in Rochester, NY at a 13 year-old hockey game. For dinner we treated ourselves to the most expensive dinner we have ever eaten ... at Olive Garden ... and Julia didn't eat anything. Yes, it was a group dinner with a shared bill.

Back in McLean ... 

Julia was excited to be the photographer

RJ was still wearing his suit from church

Cross Country warm up meet

Both kids ran in a cross country developmental meet. 

• RJ twisted his ankle, but finished the race in 17:51 (4km)
• Julia ran hard and tried not to talk to Nora D. She finished in 15:05 (3km). A big improvement over 18:18 in her first race.

Sara has been helping with team organization (so she can wear her 'St. Agnes Coach' shirt

Girls hanging out after the race

Rochester weekend

Julia was excited about her 'vacation' to Rochester, NY. Oh ... and RJ had a hockey tourney there as well.

After a 6-hour drive and short nap, RJ as ready to play some hockey.

RJ had a good game on Friday night and got the 'hat' award

RJ was stellar in game 1. Tired muscles caught up with him by game 3 of 5.

Julia and Sara spent the entire day on Saturday at the The Strong National Museum of Play. As a result they missed a couple of hockey games but had loads of fun on Julia's vacation.

Julia and Sara in front of the Sesame Street house

Julia's first public piano concert

The ropes course was supposed to last 20-30 minutes. Julia spent about two hours on it.

Life size Simon would have been easier with more than one person

Julia scales wall (you were supposed to stand on the floor and look like you were flying over the city)

A short soccer game as a warm up to the final game

RJ and team at Olive Garden on Saturday night

After a frustrating final game (3-0 loss) we headed home. By the time we were 1 hour out of town, RJ was back to his old self.

On the way home we drove right past the Little League World Series venue in Williamsport

After dinner at Jersey Mike's Subs and a couple hours of rain, we pulled back into our driveway at 10:40pm. Whew.