Nose Job

Bright and early on Thursday morning (7:30am) Julia went to get her nose fixed. See related article. I think the septum was displaced, crooked, or something like that.

Pre-Surgery with the dogs

The silver lining is that Julia received a lot of attention and a lot of gifts from school and friends. The bummer is no sports for a couple of weeks.

Julia's get-well goodies (Brooke's gift not here yet)

Now Julia can say she has had 'work done' on her face ... and she's only 10.

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.

 

Girls in NYC

Sara spent her birthday in NYC ... and treated herself to diamond status at the Hilton. Girls from her childhood and friends from DC were there.

(and Sara took control of this post - so LOTS of pictures)

Julia and Sara on the hotel rooftop terrace

 

Idina Menzel was in Redwood right next to our hotel. She signed autographs every night after her show.

Julia and Sara on the ferry to Brooklyn Dumbo.

DC Friends - Lindsey, Jenn, Sara, Julia, Lindsay, Charlotte, Courtney

Cotton candy ... yum! And $$$

 

Susu meets for dinner at Rosemary's

 

Addison, Anna, and Julia at the Lego store

 

Ice cream museum

 

This was Julia's favorite picture so Sara forced it in here.

 

Girls made it on TV during the Today's show

 

Julia got a fist bump from Al Roker right after this.

Anna got a hug from Savannah and then she posed with all of us.

Jason Mamoa - too cool for school

Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, and Carson Daly....Jenna Bush was next to Carson

                

5th Ave Shopping

Ellen's Stardust Diner - Loud and crowded ... Doug was glad he sat this trip out.

 

The NBC Studio Tour did not allow pictures, but we learned that it's best to go on Sunday because it is the only day you get to see the SNL studio. We saw all the props they had used the night before. We also got to make our own studio debut...

upload video to youtube? or download here...

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 during a 3-way accident with Amelia and Chase 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 ... see https://dougsara.blogspot.com/2025/04/nose-job.html

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