College Visits and Easter

It’s hard to believe we’re actually at this point, but Nina went on her first college visits over spring break.  We visited Virginia Tech and JMU, and she really liked them both.   The superior tour, by far, was our tour of VT as it was led by the fabulous Emme Wiliams!  She took us on a great, personal tour through campus, a check of the VT stadium, some academic buildings, her dorm, and the VT downtown.

 

 

We spent the night in Blacksburg then headed out to Harrisonburg for our tour of JMU.  After taking the official school tour, I took Nina around to the older part of campus that they don’t show you on the tour.  I showed her my old dorm, where many of my classes were, the quad, the dining hall, etc., then we finished off our visit with a trip to the bookstore.  

   

These cute little delivery bots were all over the JMU campus delivering food to students!  Times on the college campus certainly have changed since my day!!  Nina really liked both VT and JMU.  She liked the campus feel of both schools, the layout of the campus, and was impressed with the offerings of both.  These were just the first two on our list to visit, but I think we got two contenders right from the start!

    

After our college visits, we had a couple days at home then we went down to Hartfield for a few days.  We had a beautiful first day we were there, but unfortunately after that, the temperature dropped and the rain came in.  The new house is beautiful though.  In addition to hanging out, we did some paddleboarding, played some pickle ball, did an early Easter celebration, the dogs got in some swimming, and Pops led the girls on a project of making wicking tubs for growing plants this spring/summer.  

 

  

 

The wicking tubs were created at Hartfield, then when we got back home, we picked up some of the plants that Mouse has grown from seeds to plant in the wicking tubs.  It’s a really cool concept for growing plants, and I’m excited to see what they produce when the plants are mature.

  

River side egg hunt!

 

  

 

Nina's Junior Prom

Last weekend was prom for Nina’s high school.  Prom was Saturday night, and the weather for that weekend was LOTS of rain.  They got super lucky though, and the window of beautiful weather happened to open from Saturday early afternoon through Saturday night.  Nina had her nails done on Friday night, picked up her dress from alterations on Friday afternoon, and was at a track meet early Saturday morning, so things were a bit of a whirlwind, but she got home Saturday around 2pm, just in time to quickly get ready and was out of the house at 3:30 to start pictures. She first met some track friends at Oatlands for a few quick pictures (I wish we had more time there as it was beautiful and would have made for many gorgeous pictures if we had the time), but after a few minutes there we headed off to meet up with her other group of friends at Cabell’s Mill.

 

The group was made up of 12 kids - only four of who are dating, but Nina’s friend was her “date” for the night, but everything was strictly platonic and more about just getting dressed up, going out to dinner as a big group, and having a fun evening.

 

She had such a fun evening, then got back home to change, collect some sleepover stuff, and finished off the day with a sleepover with her track girlfriends.  I’m so glad everything went well, the weather cooperated, they had a great time.  Her whole look was very suiting for her - she looked so grown up and very beautiful! 

It's Been Awhile

It’s been a long while since I’ve updated the blog.  We’ve been busy with work, school, sports, life, etc., and I have had to shelf some of the things I enjoy for a bit to keep up.  This blog has been going on for nearly 17 years.  I’ve realized that I do this more for me and my memories than anything.  Time is going by so fast.  I feel like keeping track of life as we move through it is good for me.  I often go back and just randomly see what we were doing years ago or check in on what the girls were like and what they were doing at random times in the past.  So, I keep updating - just sometimes more frequently than others.

 

We celebrated Lyla’s 15th birthday on March 8th along with Bo’s birthday (I won’t out him on his age - ha ha!).  I’m still trying to process that we have 15 and 16 year old children. Yikes!  Late Feb/March holds birthdays for Brittany, Bo, Lyla, me, and Mark, so we got together as a family for a joint birthday celebration at the Williams house.  On 3/8, Lyla had a busy day of practice and school, but we got to celebrate with her dinner of choice with Bo and Brittany that evening, and her cake this year…well, if you know Lyla, you just know.  

 

March was a busy soccer month.  Lyla’s club team had the Loudoun Soccer Showcase...

 

…and she started playing with the JV team for Independence High School.

 

 

The team is doing great so far (undefeated) and watching a high school game one night, we caught sight of this beautiful spring moon!

Speaking of spring, the trees are blooming, and my birds are out in full force.  I don’t know how it happened, exactly, but it turns out I love watching birds that come to our feeder.  I really don’t know a whole lot about them (except the obvious birds native to VA), but aside from battling the squirrels, I love having them frequent our deck feeder!

 

 Nina has started outdoor track, and set a PR for sprint hurdes in her first meet of the outdoor season then beat that PR in the second meet of the season, so she’s feeling her stride with hurdles right now.  The outdoor distance for sprint hurdles is about double the indoor sprint hurdle distance, so it’s definitely a different race, but she’s doing great with it.  This outdoor season she’ll also be doing 300m hurdles and high jump.  

 

Mark is still volunteering as the high jump coach for Indy’s boys and girls jumpers.  While it’s sometimes hard to fit it all in, he enjoys working with the kids and the jump team has been having a lot of success this year.

  

While Mark and Nina were in the cold and rain here at home last weekend, Lyla and I were in Williamsburg for Jefferson Cup with her club team.  Aside from a dreary start to the day on Saturday, the weather in Williamsburg was beautiful and we had a fun weekend of soccer and hanging out.

  

  

 

Not to be forgotten, our sweet pup is doing just fine.  She’s as pesty as ever (maybe even mores as she ages), but she’s also still the sweetest girl.  While she’s still rather annoying anytime food is out, she’s happiest when she’s right in the mix with her family.