Since we will miss Easter, we travelled to Baltimore to see Grandad. We got to:
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| RJ tries to cast the cat toy to lure Lola out |
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| Lola wasn't going to budge until she saw an opening to escape! |
New car ... Honda Accord Hybrid replaced the oil leaking, poor visibility, trunkless, gas guzzling Honda Accord Crosstour.
Doug decided to try to maximize his mpg. Sara called this hypermiling. I never listen to 80's music ... ignore that in the pic below!
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| Average is about 50 mpg, I logged 71.7 on a trip back from swimming the next week. |
They say that shi* always flows downhill. That's true of our neighborhood drainage ditch. After a heroic effort the day before the storm, sticks came from somewhere and blocked the drain. This caused a lot of stuff to overflow into our back yard and under the fence into the neighbor's yard. Stuff included ...
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| Part way through the cleanup. The picture doesn't do the mess justice. |
The junk flowed all the way to the hill at the end of the picture. I need to have a chat with neightbors about better managing their trash.
Bradley and RJ ventured out on their bikes to McLean. First they stopped at the library to warm up. Then they went to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee. Then they went to Santini's for dinner.
Since it was now dark, the way home was via bus. Here is how that went ...
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| Boys (with Sara trying to get out of the picture) after returning from the adventure |
A 1-day trip to Whitetail was required to get Doug's ski stuff for Whistler. There was no snow but we did some hiking and a lot of treasure seeking. RJ and Doug tried to see the turtle swimming in the pond ... but RJ got bored and decided to try to sneak up on some Canadian Geese.
The metal detector found a bunch of cool stuff ... including $1 in quarters, various bottle caps, screws, a computer chip, and 2 iPods (one was broken).
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| Kids collaborated during a treasure hunt. Here they are washing their 'treasures' |
Kids and Doug has an odd day off ... so we took on the Billy Goat trail again since it was so much fun in Jan 2024.
One of the highlights of this year (sorry ... no pictures) was Doug and another random Dad holding RJ upside down by both ankles to retrieve a football that had fallen into the water next do a 3 foot drop-off.
Just like last time Julia bleated like a billy goat when she saw blue trail markers.
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| Found the old spot where we took the picture last time |
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| Julia was a bit hesitant about climbing the ridge, but she did it! |
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| RJ was NOT hesitant to climb. We found one cliff he did not want to attempt without a rope |
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| We forgot to send this picture to Sara |
We got to see G. Geoff and his newish dog Arthur while he was making a trip to DC from State College.
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| Luckily we cleaned up the trains so Arthur could run around the basement |
Work trip to Bohol, Philippines. Sounds fun, but it was 40 hours of flying and long work days. I did manage to snorkel outside the hotel and take a boat trip to an island snorkeling experience.
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| View from my room |
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| 7-Eleven walking distance from my hotel |
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| Spent most of my time here |
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| This wiring reminds me of the mess under the train garden |
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| Starfish looked like Patrick from SpongeBob |
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| Lots of people/boats in the snorkeling area. Turtles and fish were plentiful! |
Julia selected the American Pika as her project animal. Doug helped her a little bit ... but Julia was pretty self sufficient.
The best part of the board was the QR code that linked to a video with the sound that an American Pika makes. Make sure you notice the bee that flies into the pika.
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| Julia with her board at school |
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| Julia in school newsletter with rest of class |
Random kids events during February:
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| Julia and Alex hang out in the lower level |
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| St. Agnes 8th grade at Spy Museum |
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| RJ and Hudson practice curling before hockey practice |
Family packed up and headed to Charlotte for some warmer weather and some hockey. While there we:
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| Lunch with the Warren's on Lake Norman (Christy and Luke pictured) |
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| Aunt Debbie getting run over by the Zamboni |
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| Walt and RJ at the cancelled game (leaky roof meant too much water on the ice) |
So in case you were wondering ... why did we drive to the hockey arena when the game was cancelled? Answer: they didn't cancel the game until after it was supposed to start. Since it rained all day I'm not sure why they didn't let us know in advance. Coach Doug and some boys salvaged the day by going to Top Golf.
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| The girls went to the Museum of Illusions |
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| Aunt Debbie suggested that we visit one of the 7 wooden troll sculptures and ride a really big slide on the first night. All except Walter are trying to be trees. |
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| The team won all 4 play-in games and the championship! |
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| Julia's stuffed animal was good luck in this game (they would probably have lost without her) |
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| Family picture in front of the troll |
RJ's actual birthday was on a Monday. St. Agnes was supposed to be off ... but too many snow days changed the plan.
So RJ was under the weather and had to go to school. But Sara pressed on ...
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| due to sickness RJ wanted soup and bread for dinner (it was actually quite good!) |
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| RJ with a 'small amount' of gifts |
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| Best decorated (and most self-serving) gift from Julia ... Caps logo on back was awesome |
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| By desert (cheesecake!) RJ wasn't feeling very sick or tired!! |
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| We celebrated at Olive Garden a couple weeks later (a couple school friends, Juju and Emma were there as well) |
As a birthday warmup RJ invited friends (Milo, Samuel, Cody) to ski with him at Whitetail and enjoy pizza in the lodge.
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| Boys line up on top of Jib |
The boys discover a HUGE mound of snow at the top of expert's choice. The next day the ski-patrol Nazi yelled at RJ for doing this exact same thing.
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| RJ and his big fan Gunner hanging out for pizza at the lodge |
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| Julia, Poppy, and Summer were the first ones to the table (boys were skiing hard!) |
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| Julia and Doug passed the puck on a frozen pond at Whitetail (we went to a pond where no 'Karens' would see us) |
Thanks to a long stretch of sub-freezing temps there was a LOT of frozen lakes. We went to see the Moeller family at Lake Barcroft.
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| Look at that ice! Awesome!!! |
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| RJ and Doug in the game ... notice the couch and fire in the background! |
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| RJ and Hudson from CHA4 |
Trip to North Dakota, travel hockey, and general over-scheduling could have cancelled trains ... but we powered through.
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| Day 4 of setup |
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| Julia helps with track cleaning (RJ did a lot of the wiring this year) |
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| Doug's grandmother's train was rolling this year |
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| Ceramic village, street closures and backup |
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| Whitetail mountain took on new life this year! Big parking nightmare. |
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| Arial view |
Julia wanted to go skating ... so we picked Saturday at 2pm on a holiday weekend. Yes ... there were a few people there.
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| Julia and Amelia before skating |
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| End of session - Julia is the one pointing in the middle with pink helmet. |
