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

We returned from our trip to Maine with heavy hearts as Apollo died while were out of town. The vet said that he most likely had kitty heart disease, which we’ve since learned isn’t uncommon in cats, and that he had a heart attack. Although learning that he passed quickly and without suffering was the best of bad news, we are adjusting to the hole left by our Mitten Kitten.

Mitten was a sassy and demanding kitty, and he solidly believed that he ran the neighborhood. He went outside every morning to go to the bathroom, but he regularly broke into our neighbor’s catio to use their litter box. He most often slept with either Emmett or Riley, and although he liked to make his bed on one of their stuffed animals, he wasn’t afraid to sleep on one of their heads if it was cold outside.

Mitten took walks in the neighborhood with Dad and Iris in the mornings, and he played with all of us whenever we were outside. He liked to help with gardening, and he loved saying hello to our closest neighbors, Jack and Carol. He even asked to be let into their house. (They declined that invitation.)

Mitten was an accomplished television watcher, joining the family on the couch during family movie nights to snuggle. Before settling into watch TV, he would request his own saucer of milk just as often as he requested a small spoonful of pesto. He also loved jumping into open grocery bags on the kitchen counter.

Mitten, we will never forget your individuality.

We will always love you, and we will miss you, Mitten.

We’re getting rain this year. Everything is brown and green dotted with small bits of color. We planted tulips and hyacinths, and although they hated the snow that fell on them a few days after they went into the ground, they love the rain. Iris loves the rain too. It triggers her water dog DNA. She rolls in the wet grass and paws in the mud. We love the leaden, overcast skies. When we wake to rain, there’s the chance the night could be dark and stormy and anything anything can happen on a dark and stormy night.

The hummingbirds have returned. And some brightly colored birds. Not so much the baby bunnies, though that could be down to Mitten’s hunting. Last summer Dad discovered Mitten’s abattoir–5 or 6 small, headless bunny bodies lined up next to the house. Mitten arranged them all neatly in a row. He’s very fastidious. We’re thinking that the bunnies might now know better than to come close to Mitten’s home. Hopefully, they’ve moved far enough away, somewhere Mitten can’t find them.

This week is our last week of Denver Options. In two weeks, we are done with our online classes. And in a little over 3 weeks, we’ll be headed to Maine. We don’t have the end-of-the-year crush most students experience, but we’re so, so ready for a break from Wake, Learn, Rinse, Repeat. Although we have a few good trips and camps scheduled this summer, we’ve decided not to schedule as much for ourselves as we did last summer. Fingers crossed this is truly the Do Nothing Summer.

Some quick updates:

Emmett performed as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He was wonderful. Days before the performance, he got glasses. He’s farsighted, which is so Emmett, so when he wears the glasses, it’s like the world right in front of him–the world that he often missed before–pops into view. Welcome, Emmett, to life in real time.

Riley’s been competing in archery tournaments. He’s a very good bowman, but for the last 2 competitions, there’ve been no other entrants in his age bracket shooting barebow. The upside is that he always wins gold. Although he enjoys this, he’s looking forward to having someone else to shoot against. Maybe that’ll happen at the tournament in July.

Asher’s been busy recreating scenes from World Wars 1 and 2 out of Legos. He’s the family engineer and so creative. He doesn’t need Lego instructions to build anything. He sees all of those teeny pieces and parts in his head and knows how they fit together to fashion something much, much bigger. He’s looking forward to moving onto our next historical unit–African History. Maybe he’ll build one of those long lost kingdoms next.

Tessa loves getting on her iPad at the same time as her school friends and playing Roblox games with them. She’s hoping that the Do Nothing Summer includes weekly hang outs with them. Also, she just completed a resin art project–an underwater scene–that she’s very proud of. Her next step is drawing classes. She’s finally come ’round to the idea that learning to draw, which she anticipates will be extremely frustrating, will greatly improve her doodling.

Check back in when we’ve got some summer under our belts. We’re sure we’ll have more to report.

Best,

The Pigs

Aside from today being a day that is not yesterday, they both feel the same. Now that the holidays have passed, in fact, each week feels the same.

Every week we have school work, skiing, art, acting, breakdancing, swimming, archery, and Denver Options. Each week we love playing outside, are annoyed at how much work we’re being asked to do, fight with each other, fight with Mom and Dad, build something, run around with Iris, love hanging out with each other, love hanging out with Mom and Dad, go somewhere new, learn something interesting, and say we’re learning nothing interesting. Each week draws to a close on Saturday, and then we start the routine again on Sunday doing it all again.

Playing, fighting, studying, working, practicing, laughing, yelling, building, snuggling, growling, running, complaining, learning. It’s sunny, it’s snowy–repeat. We’re too tired to do anything, we’re bored that there’s nothing to do–repeat. We can’t wait for tomorrow; tomorrow comes and we can’t wait for the next day–repeat.

The holidays were busy but they added something new, something that wouldn’t happen again for an entire year, to our weekly schedule. We miss them. But we are looking forward to when the weather warms up and we get back outside when the sun is shining. Sleepaway camps are scheduled. Summer vacations too.

We’re just slogging through these late winter doldrums. Moving without the sensation of movement is exhausting. Do you feel it too?

Hang in there,

The Pigs

We’ve come through the holiday season with a sense of peace and calm. Amazing, huh? Dad even said that this was the first year that he really enjoyed the holidays. Dad’s usually our Scrooge, but not this year!

We celebrated Hanukkah, lighting the menorah every night and practicing saying the prayer, we went to a Japanese Tea Room for Mom’s birthday, we got our normal Giftavus (Christmas) haul, and we stayed up sort of late for New Year’s. All of it was great. We even threw in DCPA performance of the Christmas Carol featuring two of our school friends and trips to the History Colorado museum and the Museum of Nature and Science. And because we paced ourselves and didn’t overschedule ourselves (too much), we not only survived the holiday season, we feel recharged and ready for what comes next.

So, what does come next?

Emmett is scheduled to participate in a production of Glee, Riley’s heading back to the range for JOAD, Asher’s hitting the floor for breakdancing class, and Tessa’s booked into another session of art. Ski season also starts for us this next week. Each year, Dad takes us skiing weekly, but this year we’re all four going to ski every week. How, you ask, can he keep an eye on all four of us at once on the hill? Well, he won’t. Dad will ski with two of us, while the other two take lessons. A perfect solution.

In the meantime, we’ve been sprucing the house up a bit. You might have noticed the amazing tree house that Dad built? Well, we’re also getting new fireplaces in the house, as well as some other mechanical work done. The fireplaces we really need, though, as those three days with negative temperatures as a high last month really demonstrated how much cold air comes into the house through the ones that we currently have. (We had to stuff blankets and pillows into the openings around each fireplace to keep that cold air out.) It’s a heating nightmare soon to be solved.

Tessa also has a birthday coming up. Sweet T’s gonna be twelve! Although, as an aside, most of the time she comes across as a bit older than that. It’s a combination of her independence and vocabulary learned from listening to hundreds of hours of myth and conspiracy podcasts. And her memory. Something goes into that brain and it sticks. Forever.

Although we are enjoying our days, we are also looking past January. We’ve already booked sleep away camps for this upcoming summer, a trip to Maine, and we’re looking into going to London in September. We didn’t end up taking a trip to Greece this year, but we all agreed that we’d prefer something a bit less scheduled. Something with more free time. Something like our recent trip to DC. After some discussion, we landed on London. Who wouldn’t love all those museums?

So, to recap: We’re all looking forward to getting back into the swing of a normal routine, while also keeping our eye on some highlighted days on this year’s calendar.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on how everything shakes out.

Best,

The Pigs

Because Riley turned 13 this year (13!), we now officially have two teens in the house. (Unofficially, all of us pigs have been working a teen ‘tude for a bit now.) And Riley’s birthday at the end of October marks the start of our Holiday Season. This year, we were ready for it. Riley likes to keep it low-key, so for his birthday we ate at one of his favorite restaurants, got cake from his favorite cake shop, and hit up Glow at the Gardens. We love the Botanic Gardens on non-holidays, but on Halloween and in December, they get all dressed up with lights and serve hot chocolate. It’s lovely. Also, Riley got a phone, so now’s he a part of that population. (Still no social media for any pigs, though, so there’s that.) Anyway, it was a great day had by all.

The week after Riley’s birthday, we returned to the Botanic Gardens for Ghost at the Gardens, which is an event where staff share personal stories of their haunting experiences at the gardens. Because it is built on the old Denver cemetery, and because the city never excavated and reinterred all of the old residents, not only do the gardens still regularly dig up bodies, but there are tons of stories of ghosts haunting the place. We heard lot of cool stories this year, but this wasn’t the first year we attended this event. The first year we went to Ghosts at the Gardens was the year before the pandemic, and when we were there, we actually had our own ghost experience!

That year, the garden took small groups around from spot to spot on the grounds, stopping along the way to share stories about paranormal encounters. The lights were mostly off on the grounds, and the guide continually asked that the group stay together and that stragglers keep up. When Dad mentioned this to Emmett, who was falling a bit behind, he turned around and said, “What about that guy back there?” But when Dad looked where Emmett was pointing, he saw nothing. He did, however, see that Asher was also staring at the same place. Turns out, both Emmett and Asher saw a dark figure following our group, but no one else did. Creepy, huh!

Back to this year…

We trick or treated with friends again this year, and it was amazing! Emmett was Vecna, Tessa was a Demogorgan, and Riley was Eddie from Stranger Things, and Asher was a soldier. Emmett trick or treated the entire night in bare feet because his costume included foot coverings and he wanted to look authentic. It was cold and by the end of the night both Mom and Dad expected him to at least say something about being bare foot, but Emmett didn’t complain once. What commitment to character!

Speaking of character, Emmett did another handful of classes this fall at the DCPA. We all attended a performance for his Improv Class, and it was so funny that it made the rest of want to enroll in Improve Classes too. He’s scheduled to be in a performance of Glee in the new year, so stay tuned for information about that.

Tessa continued creating fantastic art projects in art class this fall, and she even made her own dragon costume for Options’ Book Character Day. She went as a character from the Wings of Fire books, and she looked fantastic!

Asher’s progressed to not only being water safe in swim classes, but now he’s working on the butterfly stroke. He’s planning to pivot from swimming to breakdancing in January, but we’re all so proud of the progress he’s made with his swimming. Yay, Asher!

Riley joined a JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) archery team and his coach thinks that he’s a natural. Coach wants Riley to start to train for the Olympics in 6 years because he thinks Riley has a great chance at medaling, but Riley wants to just have fun with the sport. He’s going to start slow, entering into some tournaments in the spring, and go from there. We’ll see what happens with it, but really it all comes down to what Riley decides. For now, he’s chosen to have fun, and he’s achieving that goal, which is great!

If you’ve been looking at our pics you’ve seen that we just got back from Washington DC! We toured the Capitol and Arlington, we walked the mall many times over and took in all of the memorials, we went undercover at the Spy Museum (twice), and we skated at the wharf. Also, we got to see the Smithsonian’s Air and Space and Natural History Museums. We were on our feet for an average of 8 hours a day, and we walked most places (except when it was so cold we just couldn’t manage it). But loved it all.

We celebrated Emmett’s birthday when we were there too! He’s 14 now. Crazy. We had dinner at a place with an arcade and we went ice skating to celebrate. Also, he loved his hippo onesie, his squish action figures, and the Lego sets he got for his presents. Overall, it was a win!

Coming up, we have Hanukkah, Mom’s Birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s. We have tickets to A Christmas Carol, Blossoms of Light at the Botanic Gardens, (we already attended Zoo Lights), and we booked a Drag Queen to be our guide at another local holiday event. Everything’s going to be great. We can’t wait!

Hopefully everyone out there in Pig Land is enjoying this holiday season…

Stay warm!

The Pigs

Can you feel it? There’s a change in the weather. Overnight, we went from hot and sticky to cool, sweater weather. We, personally, are lovin’ it. It reminds us of changing trees, Halloween, and cold nights curled up watching a family movie. It means that snow and skiing are just around the corner. It means harvesting the bounty from our garden. But for now, we are enjoying back to school…

We’ve said goodbye to everything summer. Our camps were amazing. Emmett performed, Tessa arted, Riley biked, and Asher demonstrated deep survival skills. Our camping was awesome. We saw Mount Rushmore, but preferred Crazy Horse, and survived an enormous downpour while in the CO woods. Overall, fantastic.

We are all back at our one-day-a-week school, Denver Options, and this year it’s great! We’re taking everything from Cooking Science to Myths to STEAM. We’re hanging out with new and old friends, and we’re making plans for night games (before it gets too cold) and museum days.

We’ve started new at-home classes too, including US History, science, and Literature. So far, all are pretty good. They aren’t too hard, they are interesting and engaging, and no one’s lost a limb. Although, next week we start back into some workbooks, which no one is looking forward to, so stay tuned for a report on that.

As for extracurriculars, Emmett’s got more theater classes coming up. He’s excited to be working a bunch on craft, but he’s also taking a You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown musical course. He says he’s ready! Tessa’s already started into another season of after school art class. Last spring, she brought home a paper mache dragon head; we can’t wait to see what she brings home this time. Riley and Asher are keeping things simple, sticking only to music and Shop Class for now. (Did we mention everyone’s taking a weekly Shop Class? Drill presses and band saws and chop saws, oh my!) But Riley’s rocking Master of Puppets on the guitar, and Asher’s working on the Mandalorian theme on the uke–so they are all good.

Check back in the Fall when we’ve picked out Halloween costumes (everyone except for Asher is leaning toward Stranger Things; Asher’s committed to a military theme) and carved pumpkins. (Tessa’s already amazed everyone with her baking skills, making pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread from pies harvested from our garden, so she’s ahead of this curve.)

Be well,

The Pigs