A week of Fall

This past week was the most beautiful week.  I went running three mornings, wore sweaters comfortably, and marveled at the changing leaves on trees throughout Charlottesville.  After such a long hot, dry September I was concerned that the leaves would just die and fall off but no, they are beautiful and it makes me so happy.

To take in all the amazing weather we went on a few evening adventures. 

Tuesday: evening bike ride.  Because we basically live in the woods, we rarely see the sunset.  Occasionally I see a friend here in Charlottesville post a beautiful sunset picture and am sad that I missed it and so many others.  Tuesday night we were awarded with a beautiful sunset. I also managed to get our bike rack attached to our car and both Jared and Lydia's bikes on it.  The rack is actually super easy, I just had never done it myself before.  Getting their bikes on was really hard, especially Lydia's but I persisted and got it on, twice.  They did not ride as much as I would have liked given the effort I put into getting the bikes on but I said "yes" and we all benefitted from it.

Wednesday we had a night off from soccer and an evening Mark was home so we went out kayaking. It was a super windy night which made kayaking a little harder and a little more of an adventure than it usually is.  Lydia tried her very best and really made some good progress against the wind but an adult kayak is still quite large for an almost 8 year old. 

Friday Lydia and I went on a date while Jared attended a birthday party. After dropping Jared off we headed to 7-11 for a quick ice cream treat and then stopped at the Earlysville Exchange, a cute little second hand store near the party.  We found a few books for Lydia and Thanksgiving plates and cups for me.  Following that we stopped by the elementary school in Earlysville and enjoyed the perfect weather.  I really like their playground, it's one of my favorites.  Lydia told me that it was her favorite as well because she had a special connection to it.  She then told me how it was the playground where she learned to pump on a swing by herself while I swung next to her showing her and encouraging her.  She's the best.  

Friday evening we headed down to UVA to watch the mens soccer team lose to Pittsburgh.  While it was sad they lost, we had a fun time at the game.  Not only did 3 family friends meet us there but shortly after half time I looked behind me to talk to someone and saw Jim Ryan, President of UVA sitting right behind us.  I really like President Ryan.  His community outreach and attempts to connect with students have been really fun to watch. Exhibits 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Move in Day 2019 Cookies and Puppies

Running for Teachers

Move in Day 2018  Minute 1:36 hahaha

Student and Community Runs  He thought three people would show up! 

So I was pretty starstruck. No one else really cared but I loved it.  Jared hung out with us for all of 30 seconds, but he had a blast running around with friends and occasionally watching the game.  Lydia watched even less of the game and did not enjoy my attempt of a family picture moment.  She was so upset when the game was over, she wanted it to last longer so this picture does not relate to how she felt about being at the game.  It got pretty chilly at the end but we came prepared and are glad we got a game in. 

Right behind my shoulder in the khakis and baseball hat.  He is sitting by his wife and son. 

We took a little walk up to the top of the stands to check out the view from up there. 

It was way colder up there are the top! 

Saturday we attended our second to last soccer game. It was frigid this morning, like 38 degrees! But it warmed up nicely by 10:00.  Lydia was late to her game because we could not find her shinguards anywhere.  I know they are important but Lydia pretty much never goes near the ball when everyone else is "swarming" around it so I wasn't really that concerned.  She has a had a really good team.  Nice kids who are really pretty good at soccer. Jared's team has not won many games and they play against the same team each week but he scored his teams only 2 goals and while I missed those I did see some really well done defending by him which was nice. He has loved playing.  Today Lydia told me she wants to play again next year but we will see if this holds true when we get the emails next August. 

After soccer we hurried home to change and then went to a family friends baptism.  It was a really nice service, one of my favorites that I have attended.  It was great to support them and visit with others.  We got home and did a solid hour of yard work which greatly improved how it looked. It is still overgrown and overwhelming but the area inside our fence looks so much better now. 

We had planned to go on a hike up in Shenandoah National Park, we really want to take advantage of Jared's 4th grade free park pass this year but the website would not work today so I could not print off his pass. Hopefully I can do it this week and we can make it up there.  So instead of a hike we headed to Carter Mountain with a good part of Charlottesville's population to pick apples and enjoy cider donuts. Often they end up running out of parking space and have to close until enough people leave, which is crazy because they have a lot of space, but we lucked out and 10 minutes before we arrived the reopened the lot and we got in. It was a great day to be there.  We picked a new to us breed of apples (Stayman) and I will attempt to make an apple pie tomorrow.  It was nice to be up there even with the crowds.  Sometimes it's nice to be at a place like that with people doing similar things it makes you feel part of a community.  We had never picked apples there as a family.  Peaches, yes and I took my preschool class there but we had not done it in the Fall together and it is such a quintessential Fall thing to do. It was a great outing. 

I'm so grateful for Autumn. 

Happy 10th Birthday Jared!

T E N. 

When I think of the number 10 is does not mean that much to me but when I think of Jared being 10 the number takes on a lot more significance.  That means I have been parenting for 10 years.  It then means he is solidly in his tween years. (Prompting me to read scary informative tween articles and think of how to best connect with Jared.) He has only more year of elementary school.  He is getting older and life is going to become much more serious very soon. 

In the meantime I hope to help him have as much innocent fun as he can.  To go outside and play in the woods and to snuggle in bed with his much beloved blanket of the past ten years and read to his hearts content. To ask me to play catch with him and for me to say "yes" realizing this is my best chance to really get Jared to talk to me and to connect with him.  Even if I don't want to play frisbee, catch a football or baseball to say "yes." And to keep praying that he will choose good friends and have confidence in himself. That he will make the best, often not as fun choices. 

On Saturday, after soccer, we took him to the zip-line and ropes course Mark and I visited over the Summer.  We had him pick a friend to invite and were correct in assuming Jared would love everything about it.  Sadly the friend he invited did not and was terrified the whole time. We felt awful.  Jared was happy as can be, joking about how high they were and telling Marcus to imagine the platform falling or the zip-line snapping.  I looked back at Marcus at one point (I was first with Lydia behind me so I could help her when she got to the next platform) and the look on his face made me feel horrible.  Mark caught up to them on one platform and quickly realized how Marcus was doing and firmly and subtlety told Jared to knock it off! That was a bummer.  Perfect activity for Jared, wrong friend to invite. Lydia did not love it but she did like it and have fun. So that did not quite go as we envisioned it but at least we know Jared well. We finished the course and Marcus and I sat down on a bench and he was much happier.  The three of them (Jared, Mark and Lydia) did another course together and loved it so I think it was a win?

On our way back to Charlottesville we stopped for ice cream.  Between the parking lot and order window are some red barriers.  Jared successfully jumped over one the first time and successfully face planted the second time.  That did not go as he planned.  This is real life though.  You plan, you try and then you see what the results are.  His cut is nicely visible in his birthday pictures.

This was the second time on this course.  She did not look this way the first time through.  She was so scared and I was so proud of her for overcoming her fears.  I don't know how many times I told her "remember, you can not fall!"  Here she is demonstrating that it was true, she could not fall with her no hands skills. Some courses were mostly zip-lines others had zip-lines and these obstacles.  On our last course we got stuck behind people who had to be rescued.  It took forever!  It was taking so long we ended up turning around and not finishing the course.  Luckily no one else was starting the course so we could get off. 

We got home around 6:45 and Mark looked at Jared and said, "wanna go kayaking?"  Jared was really surprised and excited to go and to get to go at night was especially awesome.  They paddled around in the mostly dark for 30 minutes or so and said it was really cool so now I need to go and try it.  Mark said it was really cool to watch the moon rise on the lake.  Fall is the best time to go out.

Sunday night I made crepes for his birthday breakfast.  I was not willing to get up that early Monday morning but wanted to make his request.  It worked great.  I also baked and frosted his cake while Mark made a template for the continents that were to be placed on the cake.  That took a long time.  Then Mark rolled out the fondant and made a fantastic world map cake.  He did an awesome job. I'm so grateful for Mark.  Not only for his help but for the example he is setting for Jared and Lydia.  I made some little flags to mark where Jared has traveled.  I think it fit his requested theme of a travel/map cake.  We blew up balloons and wrote messages on them.  Mark looked up Happy Birthday and the number 10 in multiple languages and I referenced our favorite Hamilton lyrics.  Jared and Lydia love it as much as I do.  It's funny to think about last year and how the balloon messages were all Harry Potter themed.  Streamers were hung and eventually we made it to bed. 

He also requested ice cream cups for his class birthday treat and I sadly forgot to buy them Saturday night when I went out to get his balloons.  That was a sad realization.  So at 6:00 am I was on my way to Harris Teeter for ice cream cups.  They did not have ice cream cups but did have Italian Ice so I grabbed those.  In the end he liked them better and they fit better with a travel theme.  I do on occasion think some of the things I do are a bit more then needs to be done for occasions but at the same time I love making birthday requests come true.  Celebrating my kids birthdays are kind of a big deal to me and its fun.

I met him for lunch with Chick-Fil-A which he was excited about.  I had yet to go to lunch this school year and am glad it worked out. I left work at 11 instead of 12 and enjoyed eating with him, Lydia, Tyler and Marcus.  If possible I would like to join them for lunch more.  They have the dream schedule where their lunches overlap so I can easily eat with them both one after another.

After school Marcus and Tyler came home with us while Lydia rode the bus to our house with her friend Kitty.  The boys played Legos downstairs, explored the woods with lightsabers, and played catch with Jared's new Quaffle, which Tyler got him.  We ate cake and sang happy birthday and opened presents. The presents he got this year were spot on.  Marcus got him a automatic Nerf gun which he loves and 200 bullets... Tyler got him a quaffle and an orca Lego set.  We got him a classic creator Lego set and a Star Wars drone he spotted at Costco one day.  When I went to Costco to get it they were out but I ended up finding the same drone, only the Special Collection edition online and it did not disappoint.  As I read reviews online I noticed that a lot of people were talking about the box and the opening of the drone.  Turns out that when you open the fancy box the drone lit up and Star Wars music began playing.  Since I knew this I positioned myself according and got a pretty good look at Jared's reaction.  It was fun. 

For some reason Jared now thinks plain white shirts are super cool and was so excited he had some in his clothes drawers. 

He did not expect the effects at all. Look at Lydia's cute reactions. 

 I love how she is watching him. 

We ended the celebrations with Jared's annual birthday interview.

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Legos

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries 

4. What is your favorite movie? Harry Potter 

5. What do you do well? Read

6. What do you like to do with Daddy? Play Frisbee

7. What makes you happy? My toys and my parents

8. What is your favorite scripture story? Ammon

9. What is your favorite song? Aaron Burr, Sir

10. What is your favorite animal? Orca

11. What is your favorite book? Harry Potter

12. Who is your best friend? Tyler and Marcus 

13. Where is your favorite place to go? To visit family.  Especially Marmee to see Jamie her dog.

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play catch with the frisbee or a football

15. What is your favorite drink? Root Beer Floats

16. What is your favorite holiday? My Birthday 

17. What do you like to do with Mommy? Play a board game she actually likes

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Crepes

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Meat Rolls and Ham, Potato, Broccoli Soup 

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Basketball Player

Bluestone State Park, West Virginia

Months ago we coordinated with Mark's childhood best friend Justin (Blank) to meet up in West Virginia.  We found an awesome cabin at Bluestone State Park and met up for the weekend.  They live in Ohio and West Virginia was almost halfway between Ohio and Virginia.  I had high hopes that there would be fall colors everywhere but sadly there was not.  It has been really hot here for so long and we are 10 inches below average for rain so instead of vibrant Fall colors we got dead trees.  There were occasional spots of color but overall it was green or dead. But hanging out with the Blanks more than made up for the lack of vibrant colors.  They are such good, kind, fun people.  Mark and Justin grew up in Turlock together for most of middle and high school and roomed together at BYU Idaho.  The 4 of us were able to hang out a little bit while we were at BYU Idaho and have sporadically met up over the years when we can. We have such a great time together.  Our kids enjoy each other even though they don't know each other that well and it so easy to hang out with Justin and Hannah. It was so nice to meet up and have a whole weekend together.  We all came away from it wanting to make it a yearly tradition.  Their kids are Sienna (13), Porter (10) and Mairyn (6).  Both Mairyn and Porter asked if we could meet up again soon, like next weekend.  So cute. Hannah and Justin both want to add another day if we can next year.  I think they are really busy at home and it was nice to be away from it all.  We are definitely up for meeting again and making it a yearly thing. 

We both got to the cabin around 7:30 -8:00 on Friday.  We lucked out and only had a 3 hour drive while their's was closer to 5. The cabin was really nice.  It had a large open floor plan with a well stocked kitchen, large dining area and living room.  On each end there was a bathroom and two bedrooms.  So we all had plenty private space. It was really nice.  There was a large back porch with a swing and rocking chairs, and that was my favorite spot of the cabin. We were in charge of breakfast and lunch (sandwich stuff) and they covered dinner.  Since it was conference weekend I made cinnamon rolls and we did end up watching part of one session together which was nice. Justin had also requested Orange pancakes and I was happy to make them.  He had them when he came out last spring for a conference at UVA and stopped by to visit us. They were a hit.  They grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and we stopped at DQ for ice cream and ended up finding what has to be the DQ with the best view.  The town closest to the cabin is called Hinton and it is really run down and does not have a lot going on. We were so surprised when we walked into this huge seating area right next to the river.  It feels like you are sitting right over the river. It was so nice.  So that was a fun surprise. 

Cabin 26

We spent most of Saturday outside in the perfect Fall weather. I was so grateful that even if the colors were not there the Fall weather was.  Our first hike was in Bluestone Park and the second one was about 45 minutes away in Grand View.  It was so beautiful, definitely worth the drive.  Sadly before we even ate breakfast Porter got injured.  He and Jared were outside climbing a tree and one of the branches Porter was standing on snapped and he fell over 10 feet down to the ground.  He was really scratched up and one leg really hurt.  He tried icing it but could not put any pressure on it.  When Mark and Justin went out to look at the tree they could see that most of the branches were really short like they had broken off because of the dry weather.  Porter could not put weight on it all weekend and when they got back to Ohio they took him to the ER and he had fractured his tibula and fibula.  It was so sad.  I am so impressed with him.  He hardly complained and just hopped around and waited in the car while we played around. He even went out in one of our kayaks.  He will be on crutches and in a cast for the next 4 weeks.

Our first hike was a steep slippery downhill hike(dead leaves covered most of the trail).  We were lucky that Hannah stayed in the car with Porter and was able to meet us at the end point because none of us wanted to climb back up that hill.  We stayed by the river for awhile and played frisbee which Mark loved.  I found some sidewalk chalk and Lydia, Mairyn and Sienna made a hopscotch game that had 50 squares.  It was fun to see our kids playing together so well.  The second hike was really beautiful and all the kids did a great job.  Justin drove with Porter this time and met us about halfway through.  He noticed that the trail went right by the road so we were pleasantly surprised when we saw his truck waiting for us.  We had snacks and then carried on with our hike.  Once we finished the hike we went back to Bluestone and did some kayaking.  Sienna and Hannah went first and we had them get in the water at the upper boat ramp and then we drove down to meet them at the second boat ramp.  This lake is huge.  When they first put in there were huge waves because it was really windy.  Neither of them had kayaked much and I know Sienna was nervous but they ended up having a great time.  Jared jumped in a kayak next and took off.  We thought he was just going to stay close to where we were but he thought we wanted him to kayak back to where Hannah and Sienna started.  We did not.  I tried to call him back but he could not hear me over the wind.  Porter was paddling nearby so we called him in and Mark jumped in to go chase down Jared.  He could not reach him in time though so the Blanks took Lydia back to the cabin with them to start dinner and I drove our car back to the boat ramp to meet Jared and then Mark.  Even though we did not plan for Jared to go that far we were super impressed with his kayaking skills.  He was going against the wind and current and Mark could not catch up with him. He just plowed ahead.   This was only his second time using an adult kayak and he really liked it. 

Hike # 1 Riverview Hike

Lydia, Mairyn, Justin, and Porter

Both Jared and Lydia think Justin is the coolest adult in the world.  They love to play with him, talk to him, they just want to be around him.  He is really great at making them feel like he really cares and wants to be with them and know all about them.  All week Lydia could not stop talking about how excited she was to see Justin.   I love it.

Hike # 2 GrandView Rim Trail

Spencers and Blanks

Dairy Queen with a view

Hannah (back) and Sienna Kayaking.  It was a beautiful evening.

That night after dinner we drove back down to the boat ramp and star gazed.  I had downloaded an app that you hold up to the sky and it shows you what constellations were nearby which was really cool and helpful. Sienna and I wandered around the lot holding my phone up to the sky trying to identify constellations and Jared, Lydia, Porter laid in the truck bed and looked up.  Mark, Justin and Hannah stayed near the blanket with the little ones and after awhile I came back to lay down and look up and Mairyn came over and snuggled up to me and it was really cute. I'm really glad we went out to do that.

Sunday we packed up the cabin and went out for more kayaking. Mark felt very strongly that the more kayaking we did the better.  It's not awful to drive with them on the car but you do have to go a little slower and stop more to make sure they are tight so he wanted them to be enjoyed and they really were. He and Justin went out for awhile and I was really happy they could have some one on one time.  Jared went out with Sienna and they stayed out forever.  They went much farther then we thought they were going to and ended up staying near this one cove for a really long time.  They would not tell us all the details but they saw a catfish and apparently made up a long story about Bartholomew the catfish while they were out there.  They were all giggles when they finally got back.   I did not expect them to bond like that so it's fun that it happened. We apparently need to be very clear with Jared about distance with kayaking because he has a lot of confidence and it's unnerving to have them be far away and out of reach.  Once they got back Lydia and Porter went out and then Hannah and Porter took a turn.  Lydia had never used an adult kayak before and did a really good job.  After that we said goodbye and headed home.  We were able to listen to a few talks on the drive and made it home in time to watch the second Sunday session.

It was such a great weekend. I am so glad that the Blanks expressed interest in meeting up again. Sometimes I really like something and worry that others won't or that I care more about it then them so it was so nice to hear that they want to do it again too.  I think the Blanks are really wonderful and am so glad we all enjoyed ourselves.  Even poor Porter talked about how he wants to do it again and he basically broke his leg! He is a really tough kid.

Date night and Harry Potter in Staunton

Mark and I are far from weekly date night people.  We are probably closer to every 6 weeks which is not a great record but we are working on it.  Mark particularly wants to improve this.  This past Friday we went on one of our best dates ever.  Often when I am walking around UVA I see the Lime Electric scooters laying around and I have secretly wanted to try them out for months now.  So Friday night we did.  And it was awesome. 

We downloaded the app, checked for scooters on the map, found and loaded two into the Highlander, parked near my building and started riding.  It was so fun.  It made me feel cool and young and maybe even trendy.  It was fun whizzing around UVA (they go up to 14.8 mph) and chatting as we did.  There is something about being at a University that excites me.  We rode around for about 25 minutes and then stopped at ColdStone for ice cream. We had not been to ColdStone in years, like more than 8 years and it was delicious.  Such a fun date! I would totally do it again.

 You can just make out the chemical engineering sign. 

Saturday we went to soccer and Lydia had her best game yet.  It helped that she actually paid attention and did not let her fear of the ball keep her from playing.  She even scored a gaol which she was thrilled about.  Jared's team lost but he scored 4 of the 5 goals his team made so he had a pretty good game.  They lost 7:5 but thats how it goes sometimes. I was prepared (and relieved) for this to be his last season but we were talking to the league coordinator after his game and he said that Jared can play next year since he is still 10 when season starts.  He will turn 11 about halfway through.  So, one more year.  Which is fine!  I am happy for him to do something he really enjoys and can't really complain about how it is set up.  All the games/teams on the same field at 9:00?  It's about as good as I think it can get for schedules.


After soccer we drove over to Staunton for their Harry Potter festival.  They do a nice job and its fun to see so many people out who love Harry Potter but we all felt a little let down this year since we had just done the studio tour in July.  We enjoyed our Butterbeer, watched Jared play Quidditch, and Jared and Lydia got sorted into the houses they wanted. Lydia did not play in a Quidditch match like Jared, but on one end of the court they had rings set up so she made some shots there.  We stopped at a chocolate store to get some chocolate frogs as well.  I wanted one little bite and asked Lydia for one.  She looked at me, I leaned in to take a small nibble and she popped the rest of the frog in her mouth!  I was shocked. It was so unlike her.  I was pretty miffed. She may be sweet and wiling to share many things but not chocolate frogs apparently. 

Such a great Fall window display! 

Too bad it was 90+ degrees out.  Lydia may have lasted in her robes about 10 minutes.  

Jared held out for longer but even he had to take them off. 

To make it more challenging, sort of like you were flying, you had to balance 

on these circular boards which was a nice touch. 

Lydia got "snitch" eyes face painted on her. You can just barely see it.  I do not like face painting.  This is probably the 3rd time she has had it done in her life.  I liked how it was cute, simple and small.  For the record neither Lydia or Jared have really asked to have their faces painted so it has not just been me being mean.  

A few months ago Jared lost his Harry Potter wand. I feel like we had looked everywhere for it. I am by far the best at finding things in our house and was having no luck.  Jared felt that the last time he remembered seeing it was when we did campout day at the beginning of August.  So we wondered if maybe it was in the tent when Mark put it away. I set the tent out weeks ago for Mark to look at but of course nobody really wants to unroll a tent and then try to get it back in its box.  So a few days before the festival I busted out the tent and there it was!  I found the wand.  It was great.  Not so much for Mark who had to put the tent away but Jared was so happy to be reunited with his wand. I was really glad we found it in time for the festival.