Start of Summer

Nina and Lyla wrapped up the school year on June 16th.  By the time the year came to a close, they were both ready for the school work to be done, but the year flew by!  Next year, Nina will be a junior and Lyla will be a freshman - both at Independence High School. Right before the kids finished up school, Mark and I got out for a for a little day date to Ravens Rock and Bear Chase Brewery.  Both places are beautiful for the views, and the post-hike refreshements are hard to beat at Bear Chase!

  

  

As for Nina, she’ll be spending some time this summer at her first job.  She took the lifeguard certifcation course this spring and had already completed her CPR certification through school, so she got hired on by the pool service that manages the pools in our neighborhood and got started working on Memorial Day weekend.  The pool hours were limited until school got out, so she’ll be looking forward to more hours and more paychecks now that summer is officially here.  When Lyla and I came to the pool, I tried to sneak a picture of her on the stand with my phone without being too obvious. Ha Ha!!

The weekend just after school ended was Father’s Day, so it was great to gather out at Mouse and Pop’s house with the family and enjoy some good food, time outside, and celebrating the fathers. 

  

  

Father’s Day was also Emme’s 18th birthday, so as of this picture here, the cousins are ages 18,16,15,14, and 11.  It’s hard to believe.  I’m so thankful that they have each other and that so many of their good memories are attached to times with family.

 

The End of Middle School

It’s hard to imagine, but we are officially parents of two high schoolers.  As weird as that sounds, Lyla will be heading to Independence High School next year, leaving Brambleton Middle behind.  The 8th graders had an eventful last week.  They had their Awards and Recognition ceremony Thursday evening where Lyla was recognized for her role as an Amassador, the 8th grade dance on Friday night, then when they returned after the weekend, they were off for a full day at Kings Dominion.  

 

They had a lovely evening for the dance, and according to all reports, it was a blast!

 

 

 

 

Emme's Graduation

It’s hard to believe, but the first of the girls has graduted from high school!  This time last week, we were celebrating Emme’s graduation from Trinity Christian School.  It’s hard to even believe we’re at this point, but Emme has worked hard, enjoyed high school, and is ready for the next chapter at Virginia Tech in the fall.  We enjoyed being there for her commencement, then having some more celebration time with dinner together, then cake and more celebrating back at the Williams house.  Congratuations to Emme on all her hard work and success in the past few years.  We are so proud of her and know great things are ahead for her!!  

   

 

 

Nina Turns 16

As hard as it is for us to believe, Nina turned 16.  Honestly, I don’t even know how it’s possible that we have a daughter who is 16, but somehow we have arrived here.  Nina’s birthday this year fell on a Monday, so we took the Saturday prior to celebrate her.  She’s always wanted to get acrylic nails, so I took her to a nail spa to get that done in the first part of the day on Saturday, then her friends arrived in the late afternoon, and we took the girls down to Georgetown.

 

It was an unusually hot day for May, but it was a dry spot amidst plenty of rain and some colder temps that we’ve been having, so we enjoyed the chance to hang outside, walk around in Georgetown some, and then head to dinner.

Nina loves Italian, so we got reservations at il Canale and had a fantastic meal followed by Georgetown Cupcakes for dessert.

  

We ate our cupcakes down at the waterfront, listened to some music, took some pictures, and generally just enjoyed a beautiful night in the city.

  

  

  

  

She continued her celebrating the next day with dinner and cake with our family and Mouse and Pops, then the following day (her actual birthday) was quite eventful.  We started with the usual donuts and trip to Starbucks, but not long after being at school they were evacuated for a suspicious package threat.  Emergency personnel had to do a full sweep of the school, backpacks, etc before the students were allowed back in school.  However, once they got back in school, fire alarms went off and the power went out.  In the end, everything was fine and the students were safe, but it was a stressful day for them to have all those things happening in sequence.  She made it through the school day, went to practice, and came home for her dinner of choice, so at least all ended well.  

  

Happy Birthda to our sweetest 16 year old!!!

 

Mother's Day and More Spring

This spring has been busy with school, sports, and activities.  Honestly, I really enjoy it.  I would rather be watching the girls do their thing or heading to their activities than not, so I’ve enjoyed seeing lots of soccer and track in the past few weeks.  

Lyla’s team has been busy in the past month with rounding out their spring season, tryouts for next season, and preparing to finish out the season with a Memorial Day tournament.  Lyla is still enjoying her role as a central defender.  Her height and speed are great advantages to her at that position, and she seems to really enjoy herself and her team. 

  

  

  

Her team is a blend of a great group of girls and familes.  While that changes from year to year somewhat (as teams are always fluctuating from year to year with players moving up and down in the rank of teams in the age group), we’re so happy that she’s surrounded by a great group of girls.  Their coach who was new to them this year won’t be returning next season, so they’ll have their 3rd coach in 3 years, and while consistency is nice, we also see value in being able to adapt to different coaches/teachers.  So, we will enjoy watching them finish out this season over Memorial Day, and we’ll look forward to seeing them play again in the late summer as high schoolers…if that’s even possible to fathom!

Dropping in a quick picture here from Mother’s Day.  I love these two so much, and being their mom is one of the greatest gifts in my life. 

While Lyla has been busy at soccer, Nina has been busy with track for Independence High School.  They’ve had a great season, and they even get the help of “coach Mark” from time to time at the high jump pit.  We know when Mark is working the high jump pit, the bar is going to be EXACTLY the right height and perfectly level.  While I like joke Mark for bringing his own measuring tape and level, it’s a jumper’s dream to have things so precise.  We’ve been at meets before where the bar was visibly crooked…talk about a distraction!

  

Nina’s events this spring were high jump, hurdles, and either the 4x100 or 4x400 relay team.  She progressed through  5A Regionals for 100m hurdles and high jump, and she’ll be attending states as the 4x100m relay alternate, so it’s been a busy season for her that will wrap up next weekend at states in VA Beach.  She’s done a great job of keeping up with school, sports, and homework.  It’s a lot to balance, but we’ve been really proud of her hard work.

  

 

(sister spectator at the District Championship) :)

In addition to sports and school, Nina is still enjoying art.  She recently had three of her pieces entered into the cluster art show for schools in our area and drove us to her own art show. Times are changing!!!!  The apple painting below was the piece that her teacher selected from Nina’s work to go into the show.