Ski into 2023

The plan was great. Ski in the new year with the Kovaceviches and our friends from Whitetail. 

Strep throat (poor Summer and Janelle) and some really warm weather cancelled postponed the celebration. See the New Year's Redo post. So we did some spring skiing and watched fireworks with friends.

RJ and Milo before the K's had a premature exit

Doug and Julia setup an acorn stand on Fanciful

RJ back to his usual tricks ... jumps, woods, and a slight concussion.

Christmas in Whitetail

After a harrowing drive from Cleveland, we saw Grandad and Aunt Debbie in Whitetail ... and we got in a few ski runs later that night. 

Aunt Debbie, Walter, and kids

Doug, RJ, Julia got Legos

Julia and her Legos

The next day RJ was up to his old skiing tricks ... jumps, woods, and pushing the rest of the crew forward.

Christmas in Cleveland

Christmas in 2022 was in Cleveland and Whitetail. While in Cleveland we saw Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Donna, and several relatives.

We beat the cold front by 2 hours, then temps dropped to zero degrees with 25-35 mph winds for 2 full days.

The new game room provided lots of entertainment while stuck inside

Who could resist a $2 NFL ticket!

Turns out the whole upper deck was able to resist - we had fun for 2 quarters plus halftime

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Single pane glass - heat was up-and-down like a yo-yo

Christmas Eve dinner with Cousin Ian and others

Christmas morning - pre-gift opening

Gift opening

Other trip notables:

• Doug did not remember to bring his gloves to the Brown's game
• Grandpa provided quarters so kids could hunt them in the left over wrapping paper
• Drive home was a bit of a terror ... salt covered windshield and wiper fluid froze
• Lebanese food!
• Mass at 10pm Christmas Eve 

This is as far as Doug's gloves made it

Kids hunt through wrapping paper for Grandpa's quarters

RJ's School Project

RJ did a good job preparing and delivering his project. He worked on it at home over the weekend because he was at his peanut food challenge when the rest of the class prepared. He passed the peanut challenge!

Sara was off work so she got to go and take pictures

Preparing for Christmas

Gingerbread houses, Christmas cards, the tree, a few nativity scenes, outdoor lights, the Mormon Temple, and more.

Julia hangs Christmas cards (Dec 11)

Making / eating gingerbread houses (Nov 26)

Kids and Nicholas at the Mormon temple lights (Dec 10)

Doug and Sara in McLean (Dec 16)

Brooke, Santa, and Julia at the St. Luke breakfast (Dec 18)

At the St. Luke breakfast Christmas celebration, Bradley won the grand prize tree with lottery tickets and RJ won the second prize centerpiece.

Help waking up

After staying up late reading, Sprinkles has to help Julia get up.

Wake up Julia!

Doug Turns 55

Doug had an awesome 55th birthday. Took off work, went swimming, got some awesome gifts, and had dinner with the family at Z-Burger / Maman Zoon. New place ... kids loved it.

Hair looks BAD after swimming

Legos are a good gift at any age!

Sherwood Tree Lighting

We travelled to Sherwood to see Cousin John after Thanksgiving. We got to see his new house, we got a night tour of Sherwood on a golf cart, and we got to see the official tree lighting. 

Next year we might 're-light' the tree

 

Thanksgiving and Granddad's 80th Birthday

Quick trip to Baltimore for Granddad's 80th birthday and Thanksgiving. RJ survived without his allergy medicine by holding his breath to get Dungeon Dice from the basement.

Dinner with Granddad and Aunt Debbie. Shocker ... RJ is holding a salt shaker

Sara made cupcakes and got Granddad an awesome pic of the kids. Walter wanted to be in the pic!

Church Mystery Solved

During church, we like to follow along with the readings. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, the readings were not in the Worship book. We figured the church must have gotten new books. A week later the readings were back. Strange. 

Then one week, after some careful inspection, RJ noticed a small difference on the spine. About 90% of the books had a gold box around the GIA. The ones that didn't have the gold box ... didn't have the readings. Mystery solved.

Make sure you get a book with a gold box

Golazos Soccer - Fall 2022

Another great season of soccer. Games were close in the beginning - with a mix of wins and losses. But the team ended the season with a 5-game winning streak. RJ got the last goal of the season in the 3-1 winning finale.

Getting a 'normal' picture was not easy with this group

Post game party

Coach Joel was awesome as usual ... medals and personalized notes for all team members!

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Girl Scouts celebrate Juliette Low's birthday

To celebrate the 162 birthday of the Girl Scout's founder, several troops got together for an afternoon of activities. 

Julia's troop gets organized

Hanging with troop 60280 after the event (Julia climbed to top of the smokestack looking things later)

Halloween 2022

It was a dark and rainy night, but that did not deter RJ and Julia from maximizing their candy. By the time that Halloween arrived, the kids had already participated in 3 trunk-or-treats, so additional candy was not 'needed'.

We saved money on pumpkins this year - we got 6-7 (4 were carvable) from our garden.

Julia preps the "Door Prize" pumpkin

RJ heats pumpkin seeds and seasons them with salt and Old Bay

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Julia sorted her candy (the TJ Max bag was still full at this time)

RJ with his candy on the floor and some in the TJ Max bag

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Bike to Mall

While RJ was scoring 7 hat tricks (yet to be verified), Doug and Julia went for a bike ride to figure out how to get to the new bridge over 495 that connects Old Meadow Road to the Tysons Mall. Important notes from the 12.6 mile ride ... 

• A car on the beltway beeped at us!
• We got slightly lost (good thing we tried it before I used it for a commute)
• The ride lasted 3 hours including stops
• Julia was more interested in 7-eleven than the mall

Crossing new bridge over 495 just south of route 123

 

Cross Country Meet #2

After a 5:45am wake up call, the kids participated in their second cross country meet.

• RJ's 3km time: 13:11 (tried pacing himself ... ran into competitor at end)
• Julia's 2km time: 11:39 (super fast start ... faded) 

Julia and the Frosh Girls warming up

RJ and his school prayer partner

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Wedding Anniversary

Although this post is dated Oct 11, the actual anniversary 'celebration' took place on the 15th this year because Doug was in London.

Sometimes it feels like Bradley is part of the family

 

Julia and Doug try on some glasses

 

The Bride and Groom

 

A picture that was actually taken on October 11 (on the way to get some curry!)

Dizzy on the Side Hill

Great weather weekend ... the treehouse is now a pile of wood ... waiting to be rebuilt.

After trying to dig up a nut the squirrels buried, the kids decided to play on the zoysia grass on the side hill.

Zoofari

How much fun can a small zoo in Reston be? Answer ... a lot! Thanks to a birthday party, Sara and the kids got to go ... 

Kids got carrots to feed the animals

 

Birds were fun. They pecked the food on the sticks ... and RJ

 

Who stole the NDSU mascot?

 

Garden Cantaloupe

We got 2 cantaloupes from the garden this year ... looked awesome. The taste did not live up to the appearance, but Julia and Doug still ate them.

 

Cantaloupe #2 - a bit smaller

Daily Life - the little things

Nothing better than a trip to Olive Garden after a day of soccer and stick-and-shoot ... 

After a tough soccer game, a trip to Olive Garden brought back the smile

Julia and the organized stuffed animals

A bit about each:

• Sampson (Rabbit): key player, hands out treats, a bit of trouble
• Sprinkles (Uni #17): tap-tap-tap for wake up call
• Donut (Brown Dog): gets the most attention
• Pebbles (Penguin): also learned tap-tap-tap, can flap and fly
• Scout (Koala): eats leaf (often lost) in pouch, girl 'scout' cookie on foot
• Mousie (Mouse): not scared of Sandy (snake)
• Poley (Polar Bear): Mom's old stuffy who likes the cold