Soccer

Gavin had an excellent fall soccer season with the Dynamos. Lots of his friends play on the team, and getting to be with his pals and getting to run around for an hour a few times a week is a perfect combination for this boy.

 

 

To the right of Gavin in this picture (on the other team, in the green penny) is Nils, a good friend of his from church. We have Nils' dad Jeff to thank for these great pictures.

 

You might also notice in the background . . . Coach Gray! Austin might be actually growing to like soccer, even though his main job as assistant coach through two seasons has been crowd control in a group of very social, highly-distractable, extremely active boys.

Halloween

Gavin has gotten really into Dr. Who the past few months. It was inevitable that he would dream up some fantastic costume for Halloween from his favorite show. We threw around a few ideas that seemed really complicated, then he settled on wanting to be the TARDIS, which is the police phone booth Dr. Who makes into a time machine. We found a great box and spray painted it blue then decoupaged on the essential elements. He looked perfect.

 

 

Gavin's final elementary school costume parade. He turned his box sideways so he could walk in it more easily.

 

 

Lucy dressed up as "Disgust" from the movie Inside Out for the middle school dance. Her friend was Joy. Really, perfect choices for both of them.

Lucy's Birthday

After an easy, low-key birthday party last year, Lucy decided to celebrate turning 13 with a party extravaganza. She wanted a mystery party -- but this year, a murder mystery. We found instructions for a fun fairy-tale themed murder party and Lucy invited all her best girlfriends, who all came dressed as their "character" in wonderfully creative costumes.

 

 

There was much disappointment that I hadn't planned another rendition of Cheeto-head. Instead, we played pop-everyone's-balloon-before-yours-gets-popped.

 

The girls really got into the murder mystery. They figured out clues and suspects and everything. Unfortunately, they all guessed wrong on the murderer!

 

Post-mystery presents, followed by So I Married an Axe Murderer and popcorn.

 

Happy birthday to my favorite teenager!

Convocation

As my "reward" for winning the Dodge Award this year, I spoke at Convocation. Nothing like wearing yards of velvet and polyester on the hottest day of the year! I kept my speech nice and short, though, which may have been what people liked most about it.

Corps march down.

My march up.

Speechifying.

My support crew . . . love them!

 

Birthday Trips

This guy is 45 years old!

 

 

We decided to celebrate his birthday with a trip to Granby Zoo.

Riding the camels.

Feeding the rays.

The Lorakeet Lady.

Chasing each other around the track.

Giant bubble pool.

My awesome family.

For Gavin's birthday, Gram and Papa took everyone to the VonTrapp Lodge in Stowe for a weekend of fun, games, and lots of German food.

Valley mist.

Gavin's favorite gift.

Pretzels and bratwurst on the patio.

Ping-Pong and air hockey.

Handstands in the pool.

Gorgeous birthday weather!

Victoria & Olympic National Park

Victoria

Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC

 After the wedding, we took a couple of days to explore Victoria. I wish we'd had more time, it was amazing. I had no idea this little gem was hidden up there on the western edge of Canada. The place was very British, and very Pacific Northwest, but also very Canadian.

 

We feel welcome!

Even the tour busses look British!

Creative busking.

We happened into a little Indian cultural festival, complete with dancing, food, and henna painting. This wasn't quite the "Indian" culture we hoped to find -- Austin was all excited about the First Nations stuff -- but we had a great time. Gavin discovered the delights of Indian food and Lucy got a henna tattoo. 

Indian dance festival

Gavin discovers Tandoori Chicken.

Lucy's henna hands.

The Royal British Columbia Museum was incredibly cool. I could have stayed there all day. One level of the museum was all about natural history, with taxidermy animal tableax and nice aquariums. The other level was all about human culture, evenly divided between an impressive First Nations presentation (including languages, which the kids loved) and an immersive display of early white British Columbia culture that felt as though you were walking along streets from 100 or 200 years ago. 

Chased by a Wooly Mammoth.

Real totem poles.

Ferry ride back. (See, I was there!)

 Olympic National Park

 

Love these kids.

After our visit to Victoria, we were able to catch up with Dave & Kara one last time, for an evening jaunt along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The weather was absolutely clear and perfect -- bad for Washington, which is having a drought, but perfect for tourists hoping to see the ridgelines of the Olympic range. 

A perfectly clear day.

Fishers & Grays

A little hike through Olympic National Park

Bye, Washington! We will miss you.

Fun with Fishers

Fishing Trip

 

 

Gavin got invited to go along with Austin and all the uncles on Dylan's Bachelor Party fishing trip. He lived up to his middle name, catching a nice little flounder. He also served as the trip photographer, so credit for all these fishing photos goes to Gavin.

Gavin's fish.

Brandon caught a shark!

Great clear views of Mount Rainier.

Gavin liked the crabs best.

 The girls didn't get to go along on the fishing trip (somebody had to run after kids!) so we got together later that night for a little girls night in Poulsbo.

 

Love these ladies!

Indianola

 

The biggest surprise of our vacation was the tiny little town of Indianola. We wandered out there on Hannah's suggestion one morning, and there wasn't much there. A nice little rocky beach and a pier. But then we tried the buttered blueberry muffins from the little general store and deli. A.maz.ing!

A piece of buttered heaven.

 We got the biggest surprise when we went back later that night: there are phosphorescent algae in the water that sparkle and glow when disturbed. My kids joined with Dylan and Hannah and their friends jumping off the pier into the pitch black, cold, salty water, where they swam around in little pools of green light. This might have been our favorite thing on the whole trip.

Lucy was the second one in the water.

Gavin wasn't far behind.

I wish I could have captured the sparkly green water!

Pool Party

Max Capacity 4? I don't think so.



Playing "Toothpaste" with Grandpa

The morning of the wedding we decided to get all the cousins together at somebody's hotel. We had the place pretty much to ourselves, or else we created so much chaos nobody else dared come! The kids played games, and soaked in the hot tub, then piled up on each other to create human totem poles in the water.