We’re moving inexorably towards the long, hot days of summer. Spring has been unseasonably warm broken only by a handful of snowstorms. We have another one forecast to hit this afternoon. This has put us all in the mood for summer. Although the big kids enjoyed our school experientials (Asher’s is next week), and we slept in and didn’t do much during Spring Break (except for Emmett, more on that soon), it really was just a primer for summer. So now, having to buckle down and study and turn in homework and take tests is almost too much. But we’ll keep on keeping on until the end of May, at which point we don’t want to see another textbook for at least three solid months. In the meantime, here are the highlights of our last few months…

Emmett performed as Rudolpho in Mathilda, and he was a hit. Classmates were lining up to get his autograph on the playbill, and teachers and other students were talking about how funny he was. One kid was even overheard saying that Emmett’s Rudolpho was a *chef’s kiss*! This was the recognition that Emmett had been waiting for, and it’s spurned him to work much, much harder on his craft. He’s now taking voice and acting lessons, and he starts a scene study class this evening. He’s hoping to land bigger parts in productions and see where that all takes him. You’re doing great, E! Keep up that hard work!

Tessa was in a middle school performance of Twelfth Night. She was the comic relief, and she nailed it. She was also one of the only students who spoke slow and loud enough to be heard in the auditorium, so she got the most laughs and the most claps. We were all there to hoot for T, and Emmett even told her that she should perform more because she was so amazing. Although that’s not really her thing, she seemed appreciative of the appreciation.

Emmett, Riley, and Tessa had school experientials, which is a fancy term for a school trip. Emmett went to Washington DC, where he saw almost all the same things he saw with the family last year but still had a great time. Riley rode local CO trails in a Mountain Biking experiential. This was a bit of a bust as the weather prevented them from doing long, hard rides, but he still enjoyed hanging out with his friends outside of school. (We’re shaking our my fists at you lone March snow storm!) And Tessa swam with manatees and went on night walks in the swamp in Florida. She was exhausted by the time she came home, and she didn’t have too much to report, but she seemed to enjoy the experience. Asher is going with his sixth grade class next week to a place in CO for their experiential. Tune back in soon for an update on that…

After experientials came Spring Break. Riley, Tessa, and Asher slept late and lazed around the house, enjoying having very little responsibility and no school work. Emmett, on the other hand, hit up NYC with Mom. This was his 16th birthday present, and he hardly stopped moving for three full days. He saw Cabaret, Maybe Happy Ending, and John Proctor is the Villain–staying after each performance and getting his playbill signed and taking selfies with the actors. Broadway did not disappoint, and by the end of the first day, Emmett was fully under the spell of the Big Apple. He went to the top of the Empire State Building, walked through midtown and downtown, saw the 9-11 Memorial, and took pictures in front of the Ghostbusters firehouse. By the end of day two, Emmett declared he didn’t want to leave NYC. He’d found his place, one which would allow him to get away with never, ever, ever driving. But his three magical days in the City came to an end, and although he’s already seen a number of productions at home (The Whiz, Mean Girls, Gutenberg, with Little Shop of Horrors, Bluebird Improv, & Juliet and more to come), he can’t wait to get back. Maybe for college…

After Spring Break, everyone returned to school, dragging their feet, but happy to learn that they all did extremely well on their second quarter report cards. This gave them a bit of a boost into the final stretch of the year. Riley is throwing shot put on the varsity track team. This is entirely new for him, but he’s diving into it with gusto, watching all the internet tutorials he can about shot put technique as his school as no designated shot put coach. Emmett’s getting ready to put on a solo, single act performance for his theater elective. Asher’s doing mountain biking this quarter. And Tessa’s working hard in ceramics, throwing a tea pot and plant pots on the wheel.

Soon we will have year-end celebrations to look forward to, including Prom and class breakfasts. Tessa was mortified to learn she’s expected to provide the eighth grade class with a baby picture, going so far as to ask Mom to tell the school that we have no pictures of Tessa. Riley is looking forward to after-Prom (9th graders aren’t allowed to go to the dance unless asked by an older DA student), while Emmett-who is in Student Senate-will be running both Prom and after-Prom. And Asher is just cruising through the end of his sixth grade year, hoping that one day he’ll be done with math forever.

But before all of that, hopefully Emmett will take his driver’s test and get his license. So send his good vibes because he’s terrified of the test (and sort of driving in general).

Chat soon,

The Pigs

We’ve had the high of winter break and the holidays, and now we are in the doldrums of mid-winter. Short days, long weeks. We are all running on empty but still doing our best! It’s been frigid here lately, and the inability to get out adds to an overall feeling of malaise. But things are looking up. It’s warmed a bit, the long weekend of President’s Day is upon us. Although we have sleeping in and skiing planned, we are still keeping our eyes on Spring Break.

Here’s a roundup of what’s happened since we last checked in:

We celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas with great aplomb. We got into the spirits of the holidays with seasonal movies including Spirited, Die Hard, and the like. We decorated a very small, live holiday tree with lights with the intention of planting it come January. It matched the lights Dad put on the house and trees outside. When the holidays finally rolled around, gifts and treats were had by all and we have the pictures to prove it. Everyone got Lego builds, new tech, and small gadgets. Everyone received a gift that keeps on giving: Tessa, a plant subscription; Asher, a drone; Emmett, a subscription to Master Class; and Riley, new work out equipment. As always, the candy was a bit hit too.

New Year’s was low key with good food and movies and the annual Silly String War. This year we had confetti cannons too! (Those piece of confetti might be in the yard until the end of time.) After that but before school was back in session, we skied, tackled some escape rooms, and went to see the lights at two different botanic gardens. Every year, the holidays seem to pass in more of a blur as if time is speeding up. The good news, however, is that most of us were excited to see friends again at school. But not everything after the holidays centered on academics.

Tessa turned 14! We can’t believe little T is so, so old. We celebrated all things T for the entire week, as her birthday fell on a school day. She got cake and ice cream twice, as well as gifts from friends and family. Her oversized hoodie collection quadrupled, which is good since she was wearing that one hoodie from Maine quite a lot.

Back at school, Emmett jumped into the High School Musical (he’s one of the students in Matilda), and Asher’s back in Dungeons and Dragons club as well as a Games club. Riley and Tessa are taking a break from clubs this quarter, but Riley is now climbing on a local rock climbing team. In addition to extracurriculars, both Emmett and Riley are chipping away at their driving requirements to get their licenses. Each are doing very well.

Coming up we have our school experientials: Think taking a trip with classmates and teachers. Tessa’s going to swim with manatees in Florida, Riley is mountain biking with friends, Emmett is going to Washington DC (again), and Asher will be headed to Florissant for a science camp. Then, we have spring break. Check back in for updates on all of that traveling!

Best,

The Pigs

The holidays are upon us! This officially began, as any follower of the Pig Party already knows, on October 23rd, when Riley turned 15. That signals the start of our Holiday Season because after October 23rd, it’s one celebration after another, all the way through January. This year, Riley got not just presents for his birthday, he also got his permit. He’s now behind the wheel, if only when an adult is present. But he’s doing a great job! Emmett doesn’t love driving. In fact, he hates it. Riley, on the other hand, sees it as a challenge, and he loves it. He’s sure to blow through those permit hours in no time.

Halloween followed hard on the heels of Riley’s birthday. It’s likely the last Halloween that Riley and Emmett will be trick or treating — but you never know, they both thought that they’d be too old to trick or treat this year and they both went together with a small group of friends. Tessa and Asher also trick or treated together this year with school friends. Everyone came home with a huge haul of candy. The sugar pick me up surely came in handy the next day when they stumbled through classes, tired from being up late.

After Halloween, came Emmett’s theater performance. It was his first play with his new school. He was in the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and he was fantastic. His part wasn’t a huge one, but it got a huge laugh. He was an exasperated neighbor who spoke in a thick London accent, and he nailed his lines. After the performance, all of the actors hit up a local pancake joint. Emmett was stoked to join, and because he’s not yet driving by himself, his siblings got pancakes too. (They just sat far away from Emmett and his cast mates.)

Next, with Holiday Season in full swing, we landed at Thanksgiving. We leaned into family traditions this year, renting a private movie theater, getting yummy food from a local restaurant, and having a video game tournament. The week off school was restful for the kids and no one spoiled that by overcommitting to anything. It was fabulous.

Meanwhile, Riley joined the rock climbing team at school and entered into competitions. He wasn’t sure how he’d feel, but – just like mountain biking – turns out he loves it. He competed in all four school competitions, and he really improved his scoring over the short season. But, what’s more, he’s inspired two of his siblings to start climbing again, and Tessa’s going to join Riley’s new climbing gym over the winter holiday break.

Riley wasn’t the only Pig making waves. Asher was asked to form a Leadership Committee at school and was named the November student of the month! His dean said that he had been taking the initiative to propose changes in the 6th grade that would better support both the teachers and the students. As a result, the dean asked him to form a group that meets weekly to identify what’s working and what’s not and to come up with novel ideas to increase everyone’s satisfaction at school. Way to go, Asher!

Not long after Thanksgiving – drumroll please – Emmett turned 16! Wow. He spent the day, along with two other days, at ThesCon downtown where he and a group of his theater class mates spent 12-15 hours each day attending theater workshops and performances. His big present for the milestone birthday was a spring trip to NYC to see theater live on Broadway. He can’t wait. He chose Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club and Maybe Happy Ending. The trip will come the week after all 3 big kids go on the school experientials, a hallmark of their new school where they get to travel either locally, nationally, or internationally with class mates. Emmett is going to DC, Riley is mountain biking in the Rockies, and Tessa will be swimming with manatees in Florida.

Until then, we’re hitting up all of our regular holiday haunts for their light events, hanging with friends, and working extra hard to get into the holiday spirit because it’s so warm here it hardly feels like the holidays. We got a small tree that we can plant in the yard in January, we put up all of the lights, and we even went downtown for the holiday market yesterday. Although the crowds were thick, the chocolate purchased made it worth the trip.

Check back in in January when we have Giftavus, Hanukkah, New Year’s and another birthday to report.

For now, we wish everyone in Pig World very happy holidays and a bright New Year!

We just got home from Maine, and it was fantastic. The weather was perfect (cool with crisp blue skies), the trees were changing, and the mood was relaxing. We went to a pumpkin festival with ginormous decorated pumpkins, we built and lit a sukkah, we visited the Cryptozoology Museum, we went on a haunted history tour, and we picked apples and made apple crisp. But the best part was hanging out with our amazing family. Suzy taught Tessa how to glaze the pottery she made over the summer, Granny Gail let Riley, Tessa, and Emmett each try their hand at driving, and Matthew and Ilia created chef’s kiss worthy meals almost every night. The conversation was thoughful, and we felt welcomed and embraced. As is always the case upon our return, we can’t wait to get back to our Happy Place.

In addition to Maine, our late summer and early fall has been full of adventuring. Riley was on the Mountain Biking team at school and raced in 4 races. He crashed (but got back up) in three out of the four races, and he was rained out in one race, but he persevered and did great. More importantly, he had fun. Tessa performed in a series of theater skits about the nature of art after taking a First Quarter theater class, and she was amazing. Asher was on the soccer team and competed in 3 games, the first he’d ever done on a full sized field, and he loved it. And Emmett is rehearsing now for the fall high school play, with performances in November. All of us are knocking our academics out of the park, we are participating in clubs, and both Riley and Emmett went to Homecoming. Of course no one loves school all the time, but we’re settling in pretty well!

This upcoming quarter, Riley’s Rock Climbing on the school team, Tessa’s doing the Improv class and competing in Robotics, Asher’s doing the DND club and Mountain Biking, and Emmett’s taking a theater class and continuing with Student Senate. We hope things are a bit calmer, but they won’t be much less busy. Riley’s got rock climbing competitions, Tessa’s got Robotics competition, and in December, Emmett’s attending a Thespian Convention with his theater class. We’re excited to see how it all goes!

Tomorrow, Riley turns 15! That means he’s taking Driver’s Ed, and he’ll behind the wheel with a permit in a matter of weeks. Emmett’s progressing slowly but surely with his driving education. He’s got more than 1/2 the allotted hours logged, and he’s not even due to take the test until April. He definitely does not enjoy driving, but it’s not because he’s not good at it, and he’s slogging through. It’ll be good when someone else in the family gets their license, as Mom and Dad are having trouble driving us everywhere we want to go.

Coming up, we have Halloween (Riley’s already hitting up the local haunted house attractions with friends), Emmett’s play performance, Thanksgiving, and then Emmett’s birthday (can you believe he’s going to be 16?).

Time flies, but we are making sure that we have fun while it does.

Pigs out.

We last checked in just before summer began, and now school’s started. Where did summer go? We were mostly busy. We each had an amazing time at sleep away camp. Asher’s spent two weeks in the CO mountains SUPing, kayaking, hiking, and biking. His tinkering was on full display, and he received the Bridge Builder and Engineering Award. Although he enjoyed his backpacking trip while at camp, it was cut short by a hungry bear that he and the other campers named Betty. Right after camp ended for Asher, he turned around and went backpacking with Dad, where he showed off his newly acquired skills. Although he saw wildlife while backpacking with Dad, they didn’t see any bears–just elk, mountain goats, and marmots. Asher also earned quite a bit for the few days he was out with his lemonade stand, and he invested that money in Lego sets with a high playability factor. That, together with the set he received for working hard on math tutoring this summer and the set he got for his birthday (Asher turned 11!), means that he now has enough new Lego sets to last for at least a few weeks. Finally, Asher did an art camp to round out the summer.

Tessa’s big summer adventure was going to Maine by herself to hang out with her favorite cousins. She spent time in the studio throwing pots and chatting with family. She loved staying up late and sleeping in, and she, as always, enjoyed the weather in Maine. She’s looking forward to going back with the entire family in October. Tessa enjoyed her sleep away camp, as well. She did a water sports camp in the mountains, where she spent most of her time kayaking and SUP’ing. She also summited a peak, which she was a bit nervous about, but she did great. After sleep away camp, Tessa had a street art camp. She created her own stencils and then used spray paint to stencil graphics onto a shirt and canvas. They look amazing.

Riley’s summer was disrupted, as both his scheduled camps were cancelled. He got rescheduled into another sleep away camp, which he mostly enjoyed. He loved the river camping, but didn’t appreciate the backpacking. He did well, though, given his flat feet. And he made some good friends that he’s hoping to go to camp with again next summer. Although he didn’t have any other camps, Riley read a lot this summer and he also spent a lot of time mountain biking on his own. This proved to be immensely helpful, as he joined the school mountain biking team, and he spent the last month of the summer continuing to train. He has his first race next weekend!

Emmett’s sleep away camp came at the end of summer, so he spent much of the first part of summer lazing around. He did have one academic summer camp, and since it was held at his new school, he was able to get familiar with the campus and meet some of the teachers, which was good. Come the end of July, he headed off to North Carolina for camp. He was gone for almost 3 weeks! He hiked, swam in rivers and lakes, caved, went to some Ashville museums, and had a fantastic time making new friends. Although he was sad to leave them, the first thing he said when his plane landed was how excited he was to start a new school.

Drop off today for all 4 of us went incredibly smoothly. Everyone hopped out of the car and headed to their classes with a bit of direction from teachers on campus, but everyone was in a good mood. We’ll check back in after this week when we have something to report about our newest adventure. But we’re already feeling good about everything on our lists: soccer, theater, mountain biking, volleyball, improv class, DND club, rock climbing, welding–the list goes on. So many new opportunities!

Chat soon,

The Pigs

Summer starts tomorrow, but we’ve already dived in. Some of us are spending entire days in our pajamas, lazing around the house, reading. (We’re looking at you, Tessa.) Others are already hitting up summer camp. For everyone though, it’s already been scorching hot. Here’s a rundown…

Emmett started out his summer holiday performing for his youth theater group as Madame Starlight. This is E’s amazing drag persona. She is fierce and loves to dance. In short, she is fabulous. She received 10 out of 10 at her debut and she’s not stopping there. Pride is this weekend, and she’ll be performing again. Check back in for what are sure to be show stopping pics.

Asher was the first of the crew to attend summer camp. Last week, he made a papier mache Party Toucan that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd of art show attendees. His toucan had a bucket of popcorn and an invisibility cloak, two things everyone should bring to the party. This week he’s constructing rockets in Rocket Academy to go where no Asher’s gone before. Some of his launches were failures, but not all of them, and one launch that made it into the air won the award for best design. Go Asher!

Tessa, as previously reported, has taken to wearing daytime jammies. She’s been reading a lot, listening to numerous podcast episodes, and eating bowls of cereal. Every once in a while she wanders into the yard to mow, but that’s mostly after she’s slept in until 11am. She’s in full summer mode. Next week, she heads to Maine to hang out with her favorite cousins.

Riley’s preparing for outdoor sleep away camp. He’s breaking in his hiking boots and conditioning his flat-flat feet by taking long walks on the bridal path with a weighted backpack. At first, it wasn’t a pretty sight. But he’s passed the “I don’t think I can do it” stage and he’s graduated to “I can’t believe I’m doing it.” That’s proper evolution. Next week, he’ll be in Rocky Mountain National Park where hopefully he’s moved onto the “I love this” portion of the program.

Still to come: Adventure sleep away camp for Emmett, Asher, and Tessa, theater and LARP’ing camp for Emmett, writing/improv camp for Riley, and art camp for Tessa. And let’s not forget Asher’s birthday! Our summer has many moving parts, but so far we’ve enjoyed them all (and even the pajama-filled downtime in between).

Best,

The Pigs

We missed blogging after the holidays. Again. It’s just that so many things are happening so fast that we’ve dropped a few balls. Blogging is a dropped ball, and we apologize. But let’s not dwell on the balls on the ground. Let’s us catch you up on the balls nimbly being juggled in the air. Because with a family of six, there are quite a lot of them. Let’s start where we last left off, the end of December, and work our way forward. Stick around to the end, that’s one of the best parts. You won’t be disappointed.

Giftavus was amazing last year. (Or Christmas for all of you normies.) We received so, so many Lego sets. We did receive toys and clothes and cooking/baking stuff, but Legos were 100% the highlight of the day. Those sets were some of the biggest we’ve ever worked on, and many of them took us multiple days to complete. It was epic. Hanukkah was great too. Our Hanukkah gifts are always a bit more bespoke than the Giftavus ones, and we light the candles and say the prayer. It’s a great way to dive into the longest nights of winter. Also in December, we had the regular run of holiday related events like Blossoms of Light at the Botanic Gardens and Zoo Lights at the zoo, but this year we also saw Yippee Ki Yay–a Die Hard parody. It doesn’t get more Christmasy than Die Hard. For New Year’s, we binged 4 movies and stayed up past midnight to see the fireworks light up the sky in the distance. Like we said, epic.

Although we got a slow start to the ski season this year, we still made it up to the mountain quite a few times. Everyone but Emmett, that is. He was busy from the start of January rehearsing for Mean Girls the musical, and he performed in March. He was the principal! Emmett nailed the part, and he was amazingly funny. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, stop reading now and stream the newest Mean Girls. We’ll wait. Check out the pics Mom uploaded too. Those give a tiny hint at Emmett’s hilarity. We particularly enjoyed, “Oh, hell no! I didn’t leave South Side for this!”

While Emmett was hard at work rehearsing, Tessa was busy in art class arting, Riley was practicing the guitar, and Asher was working on his footwork, power moves, and freezes in Breakdancing. Asher also did winter soccer, which he loved. He’s looking forward to trying fall soccer this year.

In late January, we hit a milestone. Tessa turned 13! She, of course, got a phone, which she was super excited for. But she also started sporting some ‘tude, and a few days early too! Mom and Dad tried to put the kibosh on that, but it’s more likely that since she’s now officially a teen–and there are three of us now for those of you keeping track at home–she’ll be inching higher up on the drama-meter. Who knows, maybe it was a one time thing. Fingers crossed. Only time will tell.

In February, we started back into a heavy regimen of attending live performances including the Jekyll and Hyde ballet, Improvised Shakespeare, a virtual event about space exploration, Emmett’s Mean Girls performance (Mom and Dad attended all 4 of them and those songs were stuck in their heads for weeks), and MJ. We even waited at the stage door after MJ and got performers’ autographs.

Then, in March we celebrated Dad’s birthday with a private showing of Dune 2, followed a few days later with Emmett getting his driver’s permit. His permit! Where has time gone? It seems like just yesterday that we were duct taping Emmett’s feet to the pedals of his bike (check older blogs for this story). We can’t believe he’s already driving. Before you know it, Riley will be driving too. That’s just 5 months away. It’s crazy, and almost impossible to compute. But there it is.

In late March, we had about enough time to exhale a nostalgic sigh before getting back in the saddle to begin the application process to attend a private school. Yup. You read the right. We are all going to a new school next year! So many firsts! We had to complete testing and written applications and interviews, all of which ate up almost an entire month, but it was worth it. We all got in, and we’re all so excited to try something new. We are not only looking forward to a much larger student pool to interact with, but there will be extracurriculars and theater and homecoming and school trips and sports–and the list of new opportunities goes on and on. To be honest, we are fairly nervous, but our excitement just now outweighs our nerves. Stay tuned for updates on how this new chapter in our academic lives proceeds in the fall…

April hit with some snow (though not nearly as much as we expected) and lots of schoolwork. We slogged through the cold and kept our noses to the grindstone. Then in late April–wait for it–we went to London! Yup, we spent almost two weeks in London. We had to spend two week because we had so much scheduled. A performance at the Globe, a show at the West End, tours of the British Museum, Stonehenge (before hours where we got to go into the inner circle), Hampton Court, the town of Salisbury, the Tower, the Churchill War Rooms, the Imperial War Museum (twice), the National Gallery, and walking tours featuring the shows Good Omens and Sherlock and another following in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper. We also rode on the Eye, hung out in Parliament Square, ate in too many English Pubs to count, purchased London swag and Stranger Things merch (we saw The First Shadow, a Stranger Things prequel only playing in London), and generally took in all things English. We even found time to hit up the Covent Garden comic book store for May the 4th, because who’s going to miss Star Wars day? Not us. Not anywhere. It was amazing. We are excited that this is just the start of our international traveling. We are already thinking of next year, trying to decide between Peru and Scandinavia, but for now we are recalling fondly how fantastic our London trip was.

Now, it’s May. School’s almost over. Just one more week. I’d like to say we have a few weeks after that to lie low before summer camps start, but we really don’t. We have Spring planting, house projects (we’re having the windows on the house and the roof replaced–both thanks to a 2023 hail storm) and we’re getting solar installed. Mom and Dad are opening a new clinic location for the practice and doing more hiring. And we have to prepare for everyone’s sleep away outdoor camps. Still, so many balls up in the air. But we feel that we are juggling them fairly well. What do you think?

Pigs out.

Guess what? We got a puppy! His name is Ajax, and he’s a Great Pyrenees/Saint Bernard mix. He’s a little over 4 months old right now, and he’s hovering about 45-50 pounds. We think he’ll be a bit bigger than his big sister, Iris, who is around 90 pounds, which will be perfect. Iris and Ajax are the best of friends. They spend hours playing in the yard wrestling and exploring. Ajax has discovered a cache of sticks that no one else knows about. He litters the upper yard with them and when we collect them and put them into the compost, he always has 10 more stashed away to bring up. Where do they all come from? We’re guessing Asher, but we can’t say for sure. But as Ajax is a friendly floof that we all love, we’re rolling with it.

Other amazing updates: Riley is the state Archery champion! He is also the outdoor Buckle champion! He did amazing over the summer. Now he is moving back to indoor competition. Riley doesn’t love competing, as he really would like everyone to win, so tournaments haven’t been his favorite, but he’s going to see if he can come to a good place with it. If not, he’ll just be a very good recreational archer. Whatever he chooses though, we’ll be there to support that decision.

Emmett’s performance in Six was a smash success. He was Anne of Cleves. His song, I’m the Queen of the Castle, was amazing. Check out the video. He’s now moving onto Mean Girls, where he’s playing the principal. He’s also in the ensemble. He’s so happy to have a good part AND be able to dance. Emmett’s always loved dancing. Check out the video of him at the Depeche Mode concert. We had strangers remarking on how talented he is. He even made a new friend whom he danced with at the concert. We’re looking forward to seeing him perform in Mean Girls in March.

This fall, we’ve done all of our favorite fall things: We went to Glow in the Gardens, Zoo Lights, and a new jack o lantern thing at another outdoor garden place. They were all great except for the new jack o lantern event, which we didn’t love as it was really commercialized–think Marvel and movie character jack o lanterns. That’s not really our thing, but now we know. We did enjoy trick or treating for Halloween. We loved getting dressed up, but we got a late start so we were only out for about an hour before people started turning off their lights. Next year, Riley’s thinking of having a Halloween party instead of trick or treating.

We just got back from a bit of time in the mountains. We sledded, swam, rode fat tire bikes on snow, went to our favorite candy shop, and enjoyed a fantastic night of charades. (Asher successfully acted out Beetlejuice by impersonating a dung beetle!) Emmett was super quick on the uptake, and he guessed a number of correct answers that everyone else was struggling with. His visual-spatial skills served him well.

There was a stand up video game console at the house, and we loved diving into old school arcade games especially since we just got a relaunched Atari 2600 for Hanukkah. The Atari games aren’t as in depth as the ones we play on our Xbox, but it was great to see Dad excel at Asteroids and Mom rock on Qbert. At the mountain house, when Mom set the new high score for Pac Man, Riley said, “Guys, we are in the presence of a god.”

Riley and Asher are doing outdoor survival classes, Riley obviously is still arch-ing, Tessa’s in both mixed media art and drawing classes, Asher is in soccer, and Emmett’s doing ice skating, DND, and theater. Everyone’s very busy. But happy. We’re grateful for that.

In other news, Riley turned 14 and Emmett turned 15. That’s just crazy. Tessa is talking about turning 13 in January, when she’ll get her own phone. Even Asher is double digits. We are so old. Not too old to look forward to the holidays, though. We can’t wait to open presents on Monday for what we call Giftavus. Then it’s New Year’s with our annual Silly String War. And the week after, it’s back to the salt mines. But for now, we’re enjoying the possibility of snow on Mom’s birthday and all of the presents we’re getting and giving the next day.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

We can’t believe that summer’s coming to a close. We started back to Options this week, and the first week in September we start back into academic work. Honestly, we were so looking forward to seeing our Options friends again, although we had a few over during the summer for a handful of pizza nights, that we hardly noticed how fast summer flew by. But fly by it did.

We all had our adventure sleep away camps, some of us had adventure camps without sleeping away, and others had Dungeons and Dragons and/or cooking camps. We went to Water World, the museum for an IMAX showing of The Mummy (the 1999 version, obviously), and we had a private showing of The Haunted Mansion. We set off epic fountains in the driveway for July 4th, we dodged golf ball sized hail in our backyard more than once, and Asher raked in the dough selling lemonade on the corner. (No, seriously, in addition to selling out of product on multiple dates, more than one person stoped just to give him money, telling him that they appreciated his capitalist spirit.) Summer 2023 was busy. And quietly during this busyness, Asher turned 10. 10! He’s a solid tween now. Happy Birthday, Little Man! We love you!

Emmett’s adventure sleep away camp was two weeks in California. He flew to CA all by himself, his first time flying solo! But he did great. He loved camp too. Tessa and Asher spent a week at Avid sleep away camp in Colorado, while Riley’s Avid camp was in Wyoming. It was Asher’s first sleep away camp, but he handled it like a pro. No homesickness at all! Only Emmett wants to go back to his camp next summer, though, so not everyone’s experiences were equally fantastic. Mostly, Riley, Tessa, and Asher loved camp, but didn’t like having to sleep in tents. They’d have preferred day camps with adventure where they got to come home every evening. We’ll see how they feel when it’s time to schedule for Summer Camp 2024.

We just got back from a trip to San Francisco last week (where we picked up Emmett from his camp), and we all really enjoyed the city. We toured Alcatraz, Sausalito, Chinatown, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park, the Marin Headlands, the Presidio, and the Embarcadero. We loved the three story rainforest in the California Academy of Science. We liked where we stayed too. We were at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge and had amazing views each day, except when Carl, the fog, made an appearance–which was almost everyday. We even ate at place in Chinatown where they filmed the most recent Matrix film, and the food was amazing. The trip was two thumbs up.

Now that we’re back though, everyone’s excited about something. Riley’s excited for us to pick up our Rivian. We’ve been on the list for more than a year, and he’s been hoping to bring home an EV for even longer than that. Emmett’s moved to Options on Tuesdays so he can have the day there to himself. He’s excited to hang out with new friends in classes where he gets to make his mark sans siblings. Asher’s looking forward to jumping back into his weekly DND campaign, and Tessa’s excited to see more of her Options friends outside of school.

Last week was sweltering, it even killed our AC and we had to have it replaced, so we’re all hoping for cooler days to come (especially Iris who had an allergic reaction to something triggered by the heat and couldn’t stop itching her entire body for almost two weeks). Seriously, though, who doesn’t love the autumn? We’ve got the usual slate of fall activities coming up with pumpkins, Halloween, Riley’s birthday, and ghost hunting, but we’ve also got a ton of DCPA performances on our schedule. We just saw Midsummer Night’s Dream last weekend, and coming up in 2023 are Beetlejuice, Six, and Yippee Kay Yay. We’ve got more in 2024, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Check back in soon. We’ll be able to tell you about Emmett’s Theater Camp (he’s working on a medley from Six) and Riley’s archery tournament (he’s going to state), as well as Astronomy class and more of Asher selling lemonade.

Pigs out.

Our trip to Maine was everything we’d hoped it would be. It was relaxing. The weather was cool. The place we stayed was right on the water and we were able to wade, skip rocks, and fish. We hung out with our favorite family members, cousins Suzy and Gail. It was fantastic.

We hit up Boston before coming back home, and that was great too. We walked the Freedom Trail, did an amphibious Duck Tour, walked up all the stairs on the Bunker Hill Monument, ate amazing pizza at Regina’s, checked out multiple historic cemeteries in a ghost tour, and watched the Constitution sail out of the harbor on one of its handful of annual trips. We loved it. Check out the pics.

We returned home to summer camps and wet weather. Emmett had a water adventure camp that was rained out 2 out of the 4 days, and Tessa and Riley’s adventure camp ended up being entirely land based because the local rivers were running too high to safely raft or kayak. Only Asher’s cooking camp and his and Emmett’s Dungeons and Dragons camps were unaffected by the rains.

We had a downpour that resulted in the reappearance of our backyard river, to the delight and amazement of everyone. We did get some water in the basement, but we’ve identified the offending downspout and are hopeful that now it’s fixed, we won’t have water in the basement again. Everything is green, though, even if there might be too much rain for the vegetable garden to really thrive. Just this week it started to dry out and warm up, so stay tuned for updates on how the veggies fare.

We went to Pride this past weekend, another annual event that we love. We cheered on all of the parade participants. We waived our flags higher and cheered louder for our favorites, though. The Rainbow Mandalorians, the DCPA float, and every drag queen got extra love from our crew, which meant that we cheered non stop for the entire time we were there.

Next week is July 4th, and we are looking forward to our annual family BBQ and fireworks display. If we all feel up for it, we might head out to watch one of the local displays once it gets dark. After that, Riley, Tessa, and Asher have Avid sleep away camp, Asher turns 10 (OMG, Asher’s into double digits!), and then Emmett heads to California for his own sleep away camp. In the meantime, we have Water World, the Renaissance Fair, Archery Tournaments for Riley, more DND camps for Emmett and Asher, and general summer fun.

We hope that you are enjoying the slower, warmer days of summer.

Chat soon,

The Pigs