Catching up to Spring

Our spring so far has been busy so far with track, soccer, spring break, and Easter.  The girls have kept busy between school and practices, and Nina is in full swing with outdoor track for Independence High School.  She loves her team, and even when the workouts are tough and the meets are either very hot or very cold (as has been the case so far this season) the group dynamic keeps her loving being a part of the team, and we’ve enjoyed watching her compete.

  

 

We stayed home for spring break, and with no break in practices for the girls, we tried to take a couple days to fit in some fun things when we could.  One day we biked the Mount Vernon trail from Alexandria towards Roosevelt Island.  Last summer we biked from the same starting location to Mount Vernon (the opposite direction on the trail), so this time we went the other direction.  The sights were way better going this direction, but the only problem was that we went about 8 miles not realizing there was a strong wind at our back, and when we had to turn around and head back, the riding was tough!  We did see some really cool spots though along the way, and stopped for a bit at Gravely Park to watch the planes come in to National Airport which the girls thought was really cool.  I promised ice cream on the way back, so we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's in Old Town Alexandria (about 1.5 miles away from where we parked the car) as the girls were tired from the headwind and it was ice cream or mutiny at that point!  It was a beautiful day though to be out biking, and I love getting out for adventures like that.  

  

    

We got another beautiful day for our trip to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  We took Nina’s two friends, and arrived in Baltimore with some time to explore and grab some food before heading in to the aquarium.  We took our time exploring, then the girls all slept over, so it was a fun, long day of activity for them. 

 

 

 

 We managed to also get over to Beaverdam Reservoir one day for walking around the resevoir and fishing.  Cayenne loves it there.  She runs, explores, swims, and has a blast.  Unfortunately, the fishing wasn’t as great, but it probably needs to still warm up a bit more for that.  Spring is beautiful at the reservoir though.

 

We capped off the week with a fun Easter celebration at Mouse and Pops’ house.  As always, the girls did their egg hunt, the pups did their egg hunt, and Mouse did not disappoint with her game selection.  We played a couple rounds of poison ball with the dogs in rare form.  Moose kept stealing the cones and poison balls, and Cleo and Cayenne just barked at each other and everyone while Maggie sat off in the distance just wishing everyone would be quiet and go home.  Lyla and Mark won the egg toss game, and Emme and Poppy won the Toss the Rag on the Head game.  Don’t ask! It’s never a dull moment with the Mouse orchestrating games.

  

  

  

  

  

Each year it gets harder to hide eggs from the girls.  Do you spot it in the picture below?  Mouse and Pops prepared and amazing dinner, and as always, the real joy is in spending time together.  We are so fortunate to have a family that has a great time hanging out together, and we are grateful for both the resurrection of Jesus and the blessing of family on Easter.  

  

 

 

Start of Spring Soccer

Lyla and I were down in Richmond a a little over a week ago for Jefferson Cup which kicked off the spring season for the girls.  We ended up getting very lucky with the weather.  The weekend prior (when Mark was there with his team), the tournament ended up getting canceled because of the bomb cyclone that hit the East Coast, then the weekend after it was freezing!  We ended up with sunny games and warm weather, although the wind was crazy, and the girls had a great tournament.  They ended up losing in their group’s championship game after regulation, overtime, and two rounds of penalty kicks.  It was tough for them not to get the win, but after the initial disappointment, they seemed proud of the effort they put in, they had fun, and it was great to get back to watching some soccer again!  

 

 

 

 

Lyla Turns 14

As hard as it is to believe, we now have a 14 and 15 year old in the house!  We found ourselves looking back at early blog posts recently, and seeing both girls as babies and toddlers, it’s hard to believe that we’re here already.  Whether we’re ready or not for it, Lyla is 14!  She is adventurous, smart, kind, active, and funny!  She keeps us on our toes, and while she may be more reserved in public, she’s still the family comedian at home, and we love her beautiful and unique personality.

Speaking of unique, she wanted to take some friend to paintball for her birthday.  None of them had ever been, so we thought it would be fun.  I signed them up for Open Play at Hogback Mountain Paintball, and we showed up ready for some fun.  When we got there, the man at the check-in station actually tried to talk them out of it.  He warned them that they’d be playing against men “who wouldn’t take it easy on them” and maybe they should come back the next day for the low impact time slot (and play with younger people).  Despite his lack of encouragment they decided they wanted to play.  After getting all geared up, they were taken to meet the Open Play group and definitely got a bit nervous there.  Nearly everyone playing was a man, and a good portion of them had their own guns and gear - basically they did paintball a lot and often.  After getting over their initial jitters, they got assigned to a team and went out to play, and they ended up having a blast!

 

After 3 1/2 hours, the Open Play session was done, and they were out of paintballs and covered in dirt, paint, and bearing a few bruises, but they won some compliments from the guys on their team and ended up having a really great time.

  

  

I tried to get a few pictures of them in action, but I was in the “dead zone” which is behind a safety net, so the pictures look a little fuzzy through the net, but it was fun to watch them when they were on a course nearby where I was allowed to stay.  Next time, I am definitely going to be out there playing.  It looked like so much fun!

  

  

  

We got back to the house and had a pizza dinner and a sundae bar to finish, and after a few more hours of hanging out, they called it a day.  Needlesss to say, Lyla was wiped out by the time it was all over, but she said it was a great day of fun, so we were glad about that.

Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday, so after a donut breakfast and opening some presents, we stopped off for a birthday Starbucks on the way to school.  She said she had a fun day at school, and then keeping with tradition, Uncle Bo came over to celebrate his birthday with us.  We had a great dinner, then celebrated with Lyla’s requested “gym rat” themed birthday cake.  It was a great evening celebrating these two, and we love them both so much!