Is it Spring yet? Sure doesn’t feel it here in the Northeast! We’ve had a prolonged stretch of cold, rainy weather and we can’t wait for some summer sun! Hasn’t stopped us having fun though!
We began the new year with a trip to North Carolina to visit Shawn’s Father and Brother and their families! What a great time we had! We got to visit the North Carolina Zoo, tour the Pottery Country, enjoy Cousin Sarah’s cooking on New Year’s eve, and generally have a fun time playing with our relatives! (No, we don’t mean the monkeys - but they were fun too!)
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It was a pretty snowy year in our area this winter… Here’s the neighborhood kids tunneling down the sidewalk at the boys-only bus stop in front of our house:
One of our neighbors organized an AWESOME ski trip up to Bretton Woods - what a hoot!
Forced inside for months, Joshua and Jacob played a lot of basketball this year. Joshua was the rebound king on his team. Though he was usually matched with the biggest kid on the other team, he was tough under the boards and a great ball handler. On his instructional team, Jacob learned to use his speed as a guard to drive the lane and make the dish or the lay-up. Both guys were solid players!
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We did all right in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby this year. Joshua’s car finished fourth in the Webelos I division while Jacob’s car finished first in the Wolves!! (Dad made a car this year too and finished second in the “unlimited” division!) Jacob got to represent the Pack at the District Pinewood Derby where he finished 8th out of 24 Wolves!
As a break from the cold weather, we were fortunate to have spent the February school vacation on a cruise with Disney Cruise Lines to the Eastern Caribbean. (Lots more pictures are here.) We had a BLAST snorkeling, swimming, sailing, and generally enjoying the warm weather.
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Not the we don’t love the snow… In fact, we got to spend a long weekend up in New Hampshire skiing at Attitash. It was a great weekend to be there with fine skiing, an aerial show, and a celebration of the resort’s anniversary. The boys skied up a storm - having a blast on the steeps, the jumps, and in the glades! It’s great to ski as a family - though we know it won’t be long before the young guns leave mom and dad behind!
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Joshua sang with the Fourth Grade Chorus this year. Here they are performing as part of the “all town” chorus…
We were fortunate to have Grampa come and visit us for Easter. We had Easter egg hunts, played in the yard, took Grampa out to dinner along with Grams to celebrate his birthday, and had a real nice visit.
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John trained through the cold and snowy winter only to have marathon day in Boston dawn hot and sunny again. He did volunteer work at the start and then jumped in for another meltdown of a run, crossing the finish line, able to celebrate only that it was over, in 3:49.
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We were treated to an Open House at the boys’ school. Here, Joshua’s class appears as characters representing their State Projects.
Joshua and Jacob both played a lot of baseball this year. Jacob played with the double-A Rockhounds. He had a great year developing his baseball skills. He was a strong hitter at the plate, a screamer on the basepaths, a quick infielder, and even pitched a few innings (with great velocity but limited control)!!
Joshua, or “J-rod”, played with the triple-A Muckdogs. He played excellent infield, showed great game awareness and a strong bat - and he pitched an inning or two as well. All told, there was a lot of fun on the ball fields!
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The boys made Mother’s Day special for Shawn with a number of handmade gifts!
We celebrated Joshua’s 10th birthday at the local bowling alley. He and his friends had a great time knocking ‘em down and eating cake!
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Joshua performed in another concert in May - this time not only singing but also performing on the recorder and clarinet. Great stuff!
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Shawn kicked off the triathlon season with a short event in Marblehead. While John and Jake attended obligations at church, Joshua went along to cheer her on and even ran the last bit of the race with her. She was able to declare success - finishing right at her goal time!
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Our family has two new members as of this spring… Wappy, on the left, who shares a room with Jake, joined us in February. Peanut, who hangs with Josh, arrived in May. They’re both a lot of fun!
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That’s what’s keeping us busy these days! What have you been up to? Drop us a line and let
us know!!
We’ve got lots of plans for the summer - scout camps and long weekends and some nice relaxing. Hope your summer is a great one and we’ll post at you again in the fall!
