Old Rag Hike

Boys were stuck at home while the girls were in NYC, so we did some manly stuff:

• Went to Home Depot for some home improvement projects
• RJs soccer game (dominated, but tied 3-3)
• Olive Garden with Milo
• Hiking at Old Rag
• Grilling burgers and steaks

 

Summit rock - fruit and water break

 

RJ at the fake peak ... where we did some bouldering

 

Hike Schedule:

• 6:05am leave McLean
• 7:47am begin hike
• 9:00am RJ tiring, Doug is sweating profusely
• 11:00am we arrive at what we thought was the summit and begin bouldering
• 11:30am we arrive at the actual summit - several degrees cooler, windy, and refreshing. We see sign that says 5.2 miles to parking lot after hiking 3.8 miles on what Doug thought was a 6-mile hike. 
• 12:20pm we arrive at the parking lot and curse the extra 100 yards we have to walk because Doug didn't find a good parking spot.

Rock scramble got 2 thumbs up! Joint pain, heel pain, and overall exhaustion on the fire road on the way back - uugh.

 

Who Nose

It looks like the kids decided to get into a fight. Here are some mug shots from the police station. 

RJ on Mar 26 from Mar 23 injury

Julia on March 26

RJ bounced on the trampoline and his knee hit is nose. Julia ran into Chase's knee while playing sharks and minnows on the playground at school. Both saw the same doctor in the same week.

RJ is basically healed ... Julia is getting her nose fixed on April 2.

To be continued ... 

Whitetail 2025 Wrap Up

The 2025 ski season ended with mixed reviews.

• Julia, "fun season, lots of shenanigans." 
• RJ, "horrible ... no terrain park on Jib!"
• Sara, "best season since 2020 - 25 days of skiing"
• Doug, "excellent, some natural snow for woods skiing, no lines on warm days" 
• RJ, "Dad, that wasn't really woods skiing."

Last day of skiing was 'fair' conditions, no crowds, and some good fun. Doug missed his first attempt at landing beads on the bead tree. But later on he picked them up and tried again.

After talking all season, Doug finally landed the highest bead on the Bead Tree

The pond skimming was very entertaining. 

RJ watches pond skimming (18 years or older to participate)

Ava and Julia on Snowpark at 8:30pm on the final day

After the resort closed Julia, Ava, and Doug hiked. RJ tried to build up snow on the lame terrain park. Mom joined RJ later.

Julia found a bunch of season passes and a driver's license. Now Julia is eligible to drive and go to bars.

Hiking 1 day after the resort closed. Caution: icy slopes

Julia and Ava found some animal bones on the hike

Trains 2024-25

We setup the trains during Thanksgiving, but we didn't get a lot of time to invite guests over due to hockey tournaments, skiing, and the Acumatica Summit. We kept the trains up until Feb 22. Final removal of boards from the basement was March 9.

The train layout this year featured:

• Lego Trains, HO trains, and O-Gauge trains
• All special cars worked (coal, cattle, log loader, milk, magnetic crane)
• RJ wired most of the houses
• Julia un-wired most of the layout
• Bradley got a 14-car HO train to run around the track without derailing
• Charlie's dad brought over some sweet, lightweight O-Gauge cars and an engine similar to the Penn Central

Doug and Julia running the trains

HO Train area

Santa Fe Engine 2 required some fishing line to hold it together

Julia finishes up unwiring all the houses and track connections

RJ Hockey Stuff

RHL Season

RJ and the light blue team lead the league in the regular season and made it to the finals. In the finals they came up 1 goal short, but gave a great effort.

Semi-Final - RJ scored 4 in a 10-5 win

Team after the championship game

RJ's first penalty comes in the last 1:30 of the championship game. He was called for stealing the puck from a helpless defender.

Regular Season Standings

Selects Tournament Pictures

Professional photographer captured moments in several of the games in Philadelphia Tournament #2.

As center, RJ took faceoffs and skated back to cover the 'house' when goalie 2 was in

On the breakaway ... puck is on RJ's left knee ... goalie stopped this one

RJ drew 3-4 penalties during the tourney ... players tended to trip him if he got by them

The Ref making the call

Whitetail - skiing and skating

The Kovacs and Hillary/Logan visited us for skiing this weekend.

After skating (7:10am - 8:45am) Milo and RJ broke some ice on a neighboring pond

RJ spotted a turtle moving beneath the ice

On day 2 we found a bigger pond near Blair's Ridge (6+ inches of ice)

Julia and Doug whistle for the grouse on Far Side

Stair Sledding

If you think sliding down the stairs on a cardboard box is a dumb idea ... you're right. At least the kids put a bean bag at the bottom of the stairs.

 

 

Speaking of bad ideas ... anybody up for a chair race around the kitchen and living room?

RJ turns ski-teen

RJ's 13th birthday was conveniently on Sunday during super bowl weekend. Crowds were light and snow was good. Monday after super-bowl was a FABULOUS NO-CROWD ski day.

Feb 8, 2025: Rail Jam

After a McLean hockey game Friday night, RJ got up early to register for rail jam.

RJ took 2nd place ... so he got a Bose speaker and a ski backpack to carry his tunes

Video above shows one of RJ's rail jam runs. 

Feb 9, 2025 - RJ's actual birthday and ski race

Due to an issue with the ski lift and the ice, the race didn't begin until 11am. RJ skied with Cody and Samuel from school and hung out with Rocco during the ski race.

Video of the practice round below.

RJ qualified for the final race but a crash (similar to other kid in video above) knocked him off the podium.

Dinner for super bowl was dumplings with lemon cake. 

After dinner, Cody and RJ skied until the slopes closed at 9pm. Then they came in and watched the end of the super bowl. Eagles won! Sara missed $100 on the neighborhood squares because the Eagles didn't stop the Chiefs on the final 2-point conversion.

Feb 11, 2025: Snow in McLean and presents birthday

Snow started falling around 3pm, kids cleared driveway, Dad picked up Mama Jun's for dinner

RJ and gifts

Favorite gift - charcoal pillows!

Teenager at last!

Floor hockey with Julia

Ice cream cake

Squishball Disaster

Julia's squishball 'blew-up' in the living room. This caused a lot of agnst and quite a cleanup effort.

The mess was everywhere

Fabulous Brunch

Tia Jen and Scott came over for Sunday brunch. Nice spread!

 

Sourdough, eggs with perfect paprika, treats, and more

Basketball 2 on 12

Julia's basketball team was a bit late showing up. They won, but they might have forfeited because the last 3 players showed up 4 minutes late.

Julia and Elena prepare to take on 12 girls on the opposing team

 

Spice Challenge

Not sure I understand completely, but the Spice Challenge involves mixing up various spices and eating them in a corn chip. 

Kids lining up the spices

The festival came to an end when Julia choked on some cinnamon.

Hockey in Phily

The first hockey tournament away from DC featured the following:

• Snowstorm
• Bonding with teammates
• Visit from Doug's college roommate
• Watching Eagles win a playoff game
• Losing the first 3 games 
• Winning last game by forfeit due to snowstorm
• Playing inter-squad scrimmage with free ice time - USA versus Canada
• Ending up in a diner at 11:00pm at night

First Game - Doug and Julia watching in background

Hotel hockey rink (there was a PlayStation at the other end)

Girls cheering on the team in game 3

Scrimmage - USA versus Canada (during Canadian National Anthem)

Girls got to take shots after the game

Whitetail Weekend

Conditions were great. So were the crowds. 

We welcomed several friends ... Laurie and Duncan, Amelia and family, Hillary and Logan, and Lanna. We also got to see Zara on Sunday.

Julia, Ava, Zara at the top of Angel Drop

When the lift lines got too long, the boys built an impressive snow fort / igloo.

At this point 2 boys could fit inside. It got stuffy - so they made air-holes.

By the end there were 2 entrances and 5-6 kids could fit inside!

Air Fryer

Sara acquired an air fryer. RJ used his new cook book to make bagels and churros.

RJ busy making air-fryer bagels on a day off from school - Julia loved them

 

Snow in McLean

Return to McLean

We setup RJ's hockey goal after returning to McLean. Doug is now ready for the beer-league

We had Lego / Dew-After-Dark night ... although this picture makes it look like we were not focused

No School ... Yet 

A snowstorm prevented school from starting on January 6. Kids didn't go back until Jan 9.

Neighborhood gang came over for sledding

Julia made a sno-cone with real snow

Sara took the gang to Potomac School for bigger hills. RJ tried to use the terrible snowboard.