Carley and Chris are getting married in September and celebrated the bride at a shower at the beginning of June. The party was at a cute restaurant in West Chester. There were a lot of family there and it was great to catch up with everyone.
Can’t wait for the wedding in September!
Over Memorial Day weekend, Julia and Madeline celebrated their marriage with a party at a restaurant in Fish Town. It was a great party with a lot of friends and family there to celebrate.
This spring we were competitive. Lauren participated in her school’s filed day and took 2nd in the 50 yard dash. Dave and I ran Broad Street with our neighbor, Mark. Lauren and Dave ran in the Gift of Life 5K, where Lauren took 3rd in her age group (15 and under), and Don and I did the French Creek Triathlon, where I took 3rd overall in the women’s sprint. I’m proud of all of us!
Over Mother’s Day weekend we volunteered at the Gift of Life Family House where we cooked a meal for 40 guests staying in the house that night. It was just the 4 of us cooking and we got it done! If only we could convince the girls to help in the kitchen on holidays.
Sophie had her spring Philadelphia Girls Choir concert at Temple Performing Arts Center. The girls were fabulous, per usual. This coming year will be Sophie’s last year in the Cantata group, and then she’ll audition for the Concerto group, which is the most senior group.
And I met Aleen and Sallie in DC for a girls weekend. We went to the National Portrait Gallery, which none of us had ever been to before, and we ate several very good meals. As always, it was a lovely weekend with my besties.
Lauren has been taking piano for about 4 years, but has never performed in recital. Her first teacher did not do them, and she started with her current teacher during COVID, so this was a big deal, and she fought us hard to not do it. But we held strong and she did it and was happy that she did (small parenting win). The recital was in a cute little church in Mt. Airy. It was very informal and most of the students had only been playing for a few years, so everyone was comfortable.
Lauren played two songs and did a great job. I was hoping that this would spark her love for playing, but alas, we’re still struggling a bit there. Oh well, at least it was a good experience 😉
It also helped that her friend Noa also played. They were super cute sitting together waiting to play. I can remember how intense those nerves are until it’s your turn. And then it’s over and what a relief!
For spring break this year we headed to Costa Rica, a destination that’s been on our bucket list for a while now. We decided to focus our time in the rain forest and not visit either coast. That just means we’ll have to go back again! We had some flight issues getting out and ended up staying a night in Charlotte, which meant that we lost a day and a half, but what can you do?
The first part of the week we stayed near the volcano Arenal. While the volcano was technically in sight of our house, we never actually saw it because it was covered by clouds the entire time. Apparently that’s pretty typical. We finally got to the house late Sunday night, so didn’t get to see the grounds until the morning, and when we did it was beautiful. There was a lake in the distance and a lush backyard filled with all kinds of birds. There were a ton of different hummingbirds, all much larger than we see at home, Toucans and parakeets.
On Monday we headed out and did a whitewater rafting tour. It was a ton of fun. In our raft we were paired with a father and daughter from Madrid and led by our guide Juan Miguel. It ended up being a little rougher than at least I was expecting, but I’ve also never done it before. We had a blast. Along the way we stopped at a little island and they guides cut up fresh fruit (the fruit all week was the best I’ve ever had), and we also saw a 2-toed sloth in a tree along the way.
After rafting we hopped in buses and they took us back to their basecamp, where they fed us a traditional Costa Rican lunch, the first of many we would have throughout the week. It consists of a protein (chicken, beef, pork, fish), rice, beans, a vegetable and friend plantains.
That evening we had dinner at the house, and headed out the next morning to hike down to one of the better known waterfalls in the area. It was the first of many we saw. The hike down was quick and included a lot of steps. When we got there Dave and Sophie decided to jump in and swim. Lauren and I watched, nice and dry, from the side. They said the current was really hard to swim against, but it was nice and cool. We then had to walk all of those steps back up, which took quite a bit longer.
Later that day we headed to Ecotermales of Fortuna, which are essentially natural hot tubs headed by the volcano. There were a series of pools that were fed by waterfalls, each getting a little cooler as you got further away from the volcano. You can buy a timed ticket to sit in them. We got there a little early and had the place to ourselves for a bit. Apparently there are minerals in the water which are supposed to be good for health. We did enjoy a cocktail while sitting in the water, so maybe it balanced it out?
We had dinner back at the house and had to pack to move on to our next destination the following morning.
The next day we traveled to Monteverde, which was about a three hour drive. On the way, we stopped off for a hike to another waterfall. This one was actually much taller than the one we’d seen earlier, but a little more complicated to get to, and way less touristy. We only saw two other groups of people the entire hike.
We finally made it to our next house and it was an interesting one. We assume it was owned by a musician or other music group because of the way it was designed and that fact that it had a huge amphitheater on the property. It was wild. Also wild was the wildlife. A ton of cool birds again, and also monkeys! They came to visit us on our porch every day, and wanted to get in the house very badly, so we had to be strategic about opening the doors.
The next day we went to an adventure center that had sky bridges above the tree canopy and ziplining. It was a lot chillier than we were expecting, so we definitely weren’t dressed as warmly as we would have liked. The area is called the Cloud Forest, and true to the name, much of it is in the clouds, which means a lot of drizzly rain.
We all walked across the sky bridges, which I did basically because I had no choice. They were incredibly high in the air and swung back and forth a bit when you walked on them. But I sucked it up and did it. However, after that it was time for zip lining and Lauren and I both decided that the bridges were enough for us. We sat and drank some lovely coffee and hot chocolate while Dave and Sophie zip lined. They said it was really cool, but also, they couldn’t see much because they were completely in the clouds.
Before heading back to the house we did another hike through a reserve area. It was incredibly lush and beautiful. And we also ran into almost no other people the entire time. Amazing.
The next day we took a tour of a coffee and cacoa farm. It was the most “educational” thing we did all week, and the girls were not thrilled, but they did get to make their own caramel from cane on the farm, and we all drank coffee from their beans, which was delicious.
That evening we did a night tour of the rain forest. We were with a guide and a group of about 10 people who all had flashlights. We walked through the forest looking for animals that come out at night. We saw a huge tarantula, a few sleeping birds, and a lot of night insects and bugs. Not a jaguar in sight. Actually, our tour guide told us he’d been giving these tours for 20 years and has yet to see one, so we weren’t too hopeful.
On our final full day we did the best hike all week. It took us about 4 hours and was deep into a canyon with about 6 waterfalls along the way. Once we got to the bottom, we hopped on horses that took us back up to the top. Once we got to the top they fed us, a traditional Costa Rican meal of coarse. It was an amazing way to end the week.
I’m already dreaming about getting back there. Maybe checking out the coasts next time. The nature was amazing, the food delicious, and the people welcoming.
Well, it happened. Sophia is 13! We had a small family party for her on the big day, which was a Wednesday, and then she wanted to go to a Sixers game with her friends, so the following Saturday Dave took her and three friends to a game against the Celtics. The had a heartbreaking loss, but everyone had a good time anyway.
It’s hard to even call the season that we’ve had winter because its been so mild. There hasn’t been one snow fall and I’ve barley even needed my puffer jacket, which has been fine with me, but the kids, especially Lauren, are pretty bummed. Sledding in the back and playing outside in the snow are what they live for in the winter.
Lauren had her winter school choir concert recently, which was very cute. It’s the first in person, all grade performance that she’s had since first grade.
And we went to our last Flyers game with the season tickets – the end of an era! Unfortunately they lost, but it was a good game anyway.
At the beginning of February, Dave and I took a 5-day trip, kid free (!) to Puerto Rico. The trip was a company “reward” for Dave for top salespeople and select leadership. Although we were there with about 200 other West Rock folks, we had a lot of time to ourselves, which was lovely. The weather was perfect – that temperature when you walk outside and it doesn’t feel like anything – with lot of sunshine.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve, which was in Rio Grande, about 40 minutes outside of San Juan. The resort was situated on 500 acres with lots of areas to hike around and explore. It was huge, so we were able to find beaches all to ourselves.
One day we took a hike to El Yunque National Forest, which is a rain forest about 30 minutes from where we were staying. It was lush and beautiful. At one point we hiked down to a river and Dave dove in (it was too cold for me).
Another day we went into Old San Juan to do some shopping and had an amazing dinner (at a restaurant that I will never remember the name).
I’m so thankful that my mom came up from Virginia and stayed with the girls (even the insane girl dog) so that we could get away for a bit. It was lovely to relax, not work, and reconnect 🙂
Two days after Christmas we got loaded up and headed to New York for a few days of skiing. We got an Airbnb in between Hunter and Windham mountains with the Morris and Townsend families. We also celebrated Lauren’s 10th birthday while we were there. On the 28th we had a little party with pizza and cake and a competitive game of Kids Against Maturity.
While Ally and I hung at the house enjoying some quiet time, Crystal and the dads took the kids for three days of skiing. According to Dave, Sophie and Lauren have been doing really well and they both “graduated” to ski poles.
Unfortunately there was one pretty big mishap. Crystal was taken out doing down the mountain and hit her face on John’s ski boot. She broke her nose and hand and will need surgery to fix both when they get home. She’s been a trooper, but was out for the count the rest of the week.
We had a great this year! We hosted again and had a crew of 25 for dinner. Christmas morning was nice and quiet with just our family. The girls both got what they wanted – Sophie a pair of Air Jordan’s and Lauren a make-up table (she’s been very into make-up as of late).
We’ve been hosting Christmas for a few years now and have the routine down. Dave cooks the dinner, with his mom making the ham at her house, I get everything set up, and from there everyone shows up and enjoys themselves. The crowd only stayed until about 9 this year, so we had plenty of time to clean up and enjoy the evening.