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!

 

  

Anniversary Visit to Charlottesville

Last weekend, Mark and I got away on a 20th anniversary celebration to Charlottesville.  We left the girls and Cayenne under the trusty care of Mouse and Pops and left Saturday early afternoon for some hiking, food, exploring, and hanging out.  We stayed in downtown Charlottesville, right off the downtown mall, so as we walked out of our hotel, we were able to walk out amongst all the cute shops and restaurants in the downtown area.

Our first stop was to Citizen Burger, located right there in picture above.  We were starving and ate every bit of our 1/2 lb burger and fries!  We were rather full from our burgers, but we wanted to check out Starr Hill Brewery which was just about a mile down the street, so we went there afterwards and caught the rest of the first playoff game there.  Speaking of playoff games, what an incredible weekend of football!  

    

Sunday was our full day of activity, and we started off with an incredible breakfast at Ace Biscuit and BBQ.  Bo had recommended it to us, and I’m so glad he did because I don’t know that I would have thought it was anything special from the outside, and it’s not on that downtown mall strip, so I don’t know that we would have found it if we weren’t looking.  However, it was the best breakfast biscuit sandwich of my life.  Seriously.  It was so delicious, and the people that worked there were the nicest.  The next time we’re in Charlottesville, 100% I’ll be going back!

  

With our stomachs full from breakfast, we headed over to Ragged Mountain for our hike.  The trail was a 6.7 mile loop around a reservoir (not an ascent to the top of a mountain and down), but that’s probably a good thing because the trail was snow covered the entire way.  We only saw a few other people out, but it was actually a really beautiful winter day to be out in nature.

    

  

Out 15 minutes away from our hike was Ragged Branch Distillery, a place that Mark had on his list to check out in Charlottesville.  They are a bourbon distillery who are family owned, and they operate on their property there just outside of Charlottesville.  They have bourbon tastings inside the house below (which is gorgeous inside), and a back porch and patio that looks out over the moutains where you can enjoy a drink and a view.  They also operate several hundreds of acres raising beef which they also sell.  Since it was quiet there when we first arrived, we had a nice chat with the owner about his business and got to hang with his four labs that roam the premises, then some more people arrived, we finished up our stay and headed back to get ready for dinner.

  

We chose The Local for dinner, although it was hard because there are so many wonderful looking restaurants in Charlottesville.  We had a wonderful dinner, and the restaurant had great atmosphere, so I’m really glad we chose it.  We’ll just have to keep returning to try all the other good places we looked into!

  

We had plans to head home on Monday afternoon, so after coffee and Bodo’s Bagels, we made our way to IX Art Park which is a place I wanted to see.  Charlottesville has their own mural project which I discovered first when Nina and I were on our way back from Lynchburg and spotted a wall mural off the highway that we rerouted our trip to go back and find.  After stumbling upon that mural, I did a little research and saw all the different murals that Charlottesville had throughout the city.  As we would go along our weekend, I was on the lookout for them, but I knew I could see several in one place at IX Art Park.  Aside from the murals, there is an indoor art experience, an outdoor playground for kids, a taco place, and a brewery.  I loved the murals though.

 

  

  

After the art park, we headed back home to normal life.  :)  It’s always fun to get away and check out a new place, eat all the good food you enjoy, have a schedule of activities you enjoy, and just have some fun hanging out together.  We’ll definitely have to go back again before too long - we really enjoyed our time in Charlottesville!