End of August and Off to School 2019

 

We had a kind of crazy end to August.  After the kids got back from Middle School camp with church, Lyla got VERY sick.  She was so sick with strange symptoms that the pediatrician had me take her to the ER.  Mark and I were there most of the day with her on the Friday of the week they got home, and after getting lots of tests done and on medicine, she finally started to improve about 48 hours later.  To our dismay, on Tuesday morning that followed (literally just as Lyla was coming into the land of the living), Nina came down with the same symptoms Lyla had.  Thankfully the pediatrician saw her immediately and prescribed the same medicine that the hospital gave Lyla, and after a couple days she rebounded.  That is about the shortest version of the story I can manage, but suffice to say, this was, by far, the sickest we’ve seen the girls ever.  It was a very scary several days for Mark and I, but we were so thankful that they both fully recovered with some time.

Thankfully, this all took place before the start of school.  When the 6th graders had their orientation, Nina was feeling pretty well but wasn’t fully recovered, but thankfully Lyla was mostly back to her old self.  She had I sat out at the dog park the evening before orientation and just talked about the transition to middle school.  It was just so hard to believe that our little Ly was going to be a middle schooler.  However, she felt prepared and excited, and she had a great day at 6th grade orientation and locker set up!  We were very proud of her.

   

Just two days after orientation, the girls had their first day of school on August 23rd.  Since Loudoun County has grades 6-8 in middle school, Nina and Lyla are together this year at Brambleton Middle.  

  

  

Cayenne was also going to have a transition this year.  She is so used to her school routine.  Lyla’s alarm would go off early, she’d go into Lyla’s room to help “wake her up” then go over to Nina’s.  Then, she was always waiting to go to the bus stop.  Both in the morning and afternoon, Cayenne loved walking up to the bus.  Even when the weather wasn’t good, she wanted to come.  Specifically in the afternoon, she would hear the bus coming down the street and would run to get me if I wasn’t ready.  Due to my teaching schedule, I often would be just getting finished with a shower, getting dressed, etc. right before the elementary bus arrived in the afternoon.  She would be waiting with me upstairs in our room or bathroom where I was getting ready, and as soon as she’d hear the bus coming, she’d run to me and start whining.  

 

As you might expect, the middle school bus stop doesn’t have parents walking their kids to it in the morning or waiting there in the afternoon for them to get off the bus, so Cayenne has had some adjustments to make as well. :(  However, we’ve been waiting for the girls on the front porch in the afternoon, and she loves hearing them coming down the street then greeting them in our yard.  It’s a bit of an adjustment for her going from them being around all day to the busy schedule of school, homework, and sports.  

   

In addition to school starting relatively soon after the girls started to get better, Lyla had a soccer tournament locally.  Her doctor said she was free to participate in activity, so we let her play in her tournament.  The weather was terribly hot and humid, and in retrospect, it was way too much for her after just coming off being as sick as she was.  She made it through two games on Saturday, but her body just kind of gave out Sunday afternoon after we finished our second games that day.  We realized she definitely needed a lot more time to get her strength back than times when she was “normal sick” in the past.    

 

  

 Additionally in late August, we had the fun opporunity to gather as a family at La Grange Winery to meet Brittany’s family who had come down from the Philadelphia area. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and we all had such a great time hanging out together.  

 

Both sets of families went back to my parents’ house after La Grange and hung out some more and had a great Mexican dinner.  While the adults were hanging out, the kids built this amazing teepee.  Sadly, the area where my parents live was attacked by an Ash Borer who destroyed lots of big, beautiful trees on their property and that of their neighbors.  A tree company was working to take down all the affected trees, and before they had a chance to haul away a lot of the branches and bark, the girls worked together to build this.  We were all very impressed!

  

The very next day after the winery, Lyla’s soccer team had a social/team bonding event at AR Workshop.  They created really cute soccer themed wood signs.  Lyla’s is a holder for her medals.  The medal ribbons secure around the white rod for display.  All their projects turned out really cute!

 

Our last fun event in August was our annual summer bike ride to Firework’s Pizza.  The schools all had off the Friday before Labor Day Weekend, so we took the opportunity to get in our bike to pizza and back.  This time was especially nice because Mousey and Poppy came with us.  While it certainly wasn’t their first time biking the W&OD, they hadn’t biked to pizza lunch at Fireworks before, so that was a lot of fun to do it together.  As always, we stuff ourselves with pizza, and thanks to Poppy’s stash of mini bungees he carries with him, we were able to get the leftover pizza back to the car in good condition! :)

  

Old Rag Hike

While the girls were away at camp, we took advantage of the time and had some fun ourselves.   On Thursday evening we went to the driving range then out to dinner, on Friday we went to Vanish for a friend’s surprise birthday party, then we headed out early Saturday morning to hike Old Rag Mountain.  It has been on our list of hikes, but we had read that it’s rather challenging for kids (the rock scramble for sure), and pets aren’t allowed, so we had to wait for a day that just the two of us could go.  

 

Despite being warm and humid at the start, the higher we climbed, the cooler it got.  With the shade of the trees and plenty of water, hiking it in the summer was great.  I’m sure it’s a very popular fall hike to do, however!

  

Along the way up the mountain, there were several “fake summits” where the view is beautiful and you’re very high up, but more is actually to come.

  

  

The hike itself is a great workout, but the rock scramble portion is a different type of challenge.  In the below left picture you get an idea of what the rock scramble portion is like.  Climbing over and through those rocks up into the fog got us closer to the top. If you look closely, you can see a person on top of the far rock.  We thought that was the summit, but it actually wasn’t.  We had to keep climbing more to the right and up to get to the true summit.

    

Other than being bummed that I tweaked my shoulder in the rock scramble, it was awesome! We ate our packed lunch when we got to one of the fake summits just below the real summit, then made our way up to the top for some great 360 degree views of the area. 

It was an awesome way to spend the day together, then we visited a brewery we hadn’t been to before in the area, then made our way back.  The girls returned back home the next day, but it was great that we all had a fun couple days to enjoy something different than the usual!

 

 

Jr. Olympics and Middle School Camp

Last week, Nina had the very cool opportunity to compete in Junior Olympics.  She qualifiied in high jump as being one of the top six high jumpers in our region for her age group.  Mark, Nina, and I drove down to Greensboro, NC, (this year’s location for JO) on Tuesday, got in town for a late dinner, then stopped by her coach’s hotel to pick up her bib, certificate, shirt, bag, etc., then finally made it to our hotel just before 9pm to check in.  Thankfully, she didn’t need to be at the stadium until Wednesday afternoon, so we had time to get a good night’s sleep, a good breakfast, and take our time getting over to the stadium.

 

The event was quite impressive.  The track and field area was awesome, and stands for spectators lines three sides of the track.  While the experience was a great one, Nina didn’t feel like she jumped her best.  It was just one of those off days, unfortunately.  Regardless of the end result, it was a fantastic accomplishment to make it to Junior Olympics her first year in track, and we shared with her that our experiences have taught us that sometimes we can learn a lot more from disappointing experiences than triumphant ones.  

She noticed some areas in her form that she needed to change like throwing her head back while going over the bar rather than tucking her chin, and her very next summer session practice after JO, she almost completely changed her technique over the bar to throw her head back and arch more.  So, already, we saw how taking an experience and learning from it can be so helpful in the long run.

  

  

The morning after we returned from Greensboro, the girls left for our church’s Jr. High Summer Camp.  The church takes the kids from Thurs-Sun to North Bay Adventure Camp just off the Chesapeake Bay.  Nina had gone last year, but this was Lyla’s first year going, so we were so happy that they wanted to take this opportunity to go.  They had an awesome time, felt that they grew deeper in their relationship with the Lord, and built friendships with kids from church.  Mark and I were so happy that camp was a wonderful experience again!

   

Date Night and Scott's Run

It’s not often that we get a night out with just one of the girls, but Lyla has a sleepover at a good friend’s house a Friday night, so Mark, Nina, and I went out together for the evening.  We found a good dinner spot at One Loudoun then hung around for an outdoor 80s concert and Fantasticks.  Spending time with the girls one at a time is always a treat.  We get to see a different side of them when they’re by themselves, and we think this girl is a pretty great teen who is a lot of fun to hang out with!

   

One of the big things on the girls’ wish lists for the summer was going to Scott’s Run.  It’s not a big thing - it’s a local spot that’s about 35 minutes away, but they love going.  The big draw is climbing the log and or rocks and jumping into the deep water below.  This year the jumping log was removed.  Technically, we’re not “supposed” to be swimming there, but what’s the fun if you don’t rule break now and again.  :)  So, this time all the jumping was from the rocks, but they still had a great time.  They brought a friend along, and after their fill of jumping from the rocks, we walked on down to the waterfall area and the river.

  

 

The area by the river is great for letting Cayenne run around and letting the girls explore.  Normally, I’d let Cayenne off leash at the swimming hole, but there were two groups of people sitting off to the side who had lots of food set up, and Cayenne just may lack a little self control with food, so she had to stay on leash.

 

However, once down at the river, she was free to run, swim, and chase sticks.  She had a ball! After a couple hours there, we packed up and made the trek home, but I’m glad we got in at least one visit to Scott’s Run this summer.  It’s always a highlight!