• Sharp Family Blog

    Sharp Family Blog

Sophie had no interest in doing soccer again, but we thought we’d give it a try with Lauren. She’s a pretty coordinated kid and loves to kick a ball around the house. First lesson was a success! She did some dribbling and even scored her first goal.
GOAL!

Control with her friend Julia

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The sound of cicadas has been replaced by crickets chirping, so that must mean summer is coming to an end. It was a pretty great one though.

In July Aleen and I road tripped it up to Mass to visit Sallie. It was a long drive (preview of what was to come a few weeks later for our Maine trip) but so worth it to hangout with some great, old friends.

Sallie, Aleen & Me
And then in August we headed down to Va. for the weekend to drop Sophie off, who spend an entire week with my parents. We had the annual high school friends BBQ at my parents house with the whole gang, and most of the kids
Becky, Ari, Sarah, Jenny, Aleen, Lauren, Me, Bracy, Samantha
Lexi, Parker, Darby, Kaylee, Darby
 Sophie was also reunited with Lexi. Sarah and I are really forcing this best friend thing on them. We’ll see where that ends up…
Lexi & Sophie
And then for the very last week of summer we trekked all the way up to Maine. All four of us packed in the car and headed to Bucks Harbor in Brooksville, MA and picked up a 40 ft. boat that was our vacation home for 5 days and nights. We sailed/motored around to Swan’s Island, Mount Desert Island, and McGlathery Island before heading back to Brooksville.
We did a lot of exploring in intertidal zones. They were teaming with cool creatures, like these start fish that Sophie found. 

Sophie at the helm. It was tough navigating the waters with so many lobster pots, but there were a few spots where Sophie (and I) could steer for a bit and give Dave a break. 

Dave and the girls

The fam in Acadia National Park. Beautiful hike and breathtaking scenery. 

Sophie in front of a very cool, very big rock that was only visible at low tide. The tides were huge there. On this particular hike we started having to wade thought water and ended with vast rock to walk on (you can see in this pic). But the tide also comes back in pretty quick, so we couldn’t linger for long. 
And that’s it. The last hurrah of the summer. We tried to pack in as much as we could it and was a great one! 

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It was a great school year! Lauren’s first in the Toddler House and Sophie’s last as a pre-schooler. Lauren loves her class – I’m so happy she’ll have the same teachers again next year.

Water transfer

Cutting cheese and giving the stink eye to anyone even thinking about taking it

With a friend

Sister love in the hallway. One of the teachers caught this cute scene.

End of year ice cream social
I volunteered to be a parent helper for Earth Day (actually, Dave volunteered, and then and to travel, so I took his place. Although I knew worms were involved, I agreed anyway). We did a lot of planting in the courtyard. 
Sophie with her posse: Liora, Claire, Beatrice and Else.

And the 3 Amigos: Sophie, Liora & Claire
I also volunteered to be a chaperone for Sophie’s class trip to City Hall. 
All 28 kids and 6 adults took the City Bus to get there. I will tell you that not everyone on board was so happy about this. But the kids had a blast. 

Once we got there we got to go all the way to the top of the Tower, which is something they only recently started letting people do. The elevator to get up there, and the space to observe is small, so each parent went with just 5 kids. It was a pretty cool view. 

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Lauren is 2.5 and that means potty training! Actually, her teachers told us she’s been showing interest for a while, so she was ready. And she was. This kid had it down within less than a week. After the struggle that we had with Sophie I was expecting some long weeks ahead, but it’s been smooth sailing. Her only request: purple underwear. Done. 

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Unbelievably we’re almost half way through the summer. We’ve packed it with a lot of trips and friends and tried to enjoy every last second.

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed to The Sharps’ house in MD with friends John, Crystal & Bella and Pete, Leslie & Hudson.

Here’s he crew picking’ crabs.
And of course there was sailing. Here Sophie is helping John steer. 
The first weekend in June we headed down to DC to meet John, Crystal and Bella again. 
 
Here we are in front of the White House. This is as close as they would let us get. But we did see Obama come in on his helicopter, flanked with two others, and land on the lawn. He had just given the eulogy at Bo Biden’s funeral in Delaware. 
Dave and Sophie also spent a week together on the boat sailing around Maryland with our friend Carl and his daughter Gianna.  
Sophie and Gianna. 
We’ve spent a lot of time down in Maryland. The Sharp’s house is only a 2 hour drive from our house, and Rock Hall is a town that the whole family loves. Lots of time on and in the water, bike riding, and of course crabs! 
We have two kayaks down there, and Sophie loves to go out for a spin the bay.

The girls acting goofy on the beach.

Benson has been getting a little braver with the water. He’ll wade in about chest deep – but still prefers to sleep on a towel on the beach. 

Dave and the girls. 
Aleen also came for a long weekend visit. We went to Morris Arboretum which was in full bloom and beautiful. 
Selfie
 And when we can’t make it to Maryland, there’s always the baby pool in the back yard. Hardly a substitute, but the girls love it anyway. 
The girls and our neighbor Maya.

And we just got back from our annual 4th of July week in Ocean City, NJ. This year the extended family was there as part of the year long celebration of Nana’s 90th birthday. 
All of the July birthdays: me (36), Maithili (30), Addison (16), Mom (60), Becky (33), Graeme (33), Vicki (51). And Lauren, who would not let me put her down.

Quinn and Sophie. 
Cousins

The girls on the beach after our family picture 

Some of the crew on the beach house steps. Uncle Dick was there, so of course there were balloon hats.

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Last week I had a conference in San Diego. We decided to make a vacation out of it, and Dave came out on Wednesday (no kids!). What an amazing city and what a wonderful vacation. We were there for 3 full days after the conference and we packed them with activities, but the mentality there is so chill, it didn’t feel like we were rushing to do anything. 

On our first full day there we did two hikes, one along the Sunset Cliffs, and one call Ho Chi Mon trail, which is really a path carved by surfers, beginning in a very fancy neighborhood in La Jolla and ending right at the beach. It was no joke. Pictures cannot fully capture how steep and uneven the path was. It was all made of sandstone, so occasionally crumbled under our feet. At one point we had to walk across a very thin plank and at the end it was so steep that the surfers tied a rope to shimmy down on to the beach. 
Here’s a shot of how narrow it was in some places



While we slowly meandered down, tripping and slipping, we were passed several times by agile surfers in bare feet, wet suits and surf boards. It was a little embarrassing. I also think they were a little surprised to see us on their turf. But it’s San Diego, so of course they were very laid back about it.

That afternoon we rented sea kayaks and went out into the ocean. No pics for fear of getting wet, which was wise because both Dave and I flipped over. Loss of sunglasses, but luckily no phones or cameras. We got up close with some sea lions, which was really cool. 



The next day we rented a sail boat and went out into the San Diego Bay. It was windy and Dave had a blast. I was admiddely nervous. It’s been a while since I’ve been sailing on anything but cushy, pleasure sail boats…



That night we went to a fancy dinner atop one of their highest buildings in the downtown area. The highlight was watching the sunset. It was lovely. 



On our last day we went to the famed zoo and saw this guy. He was very happily munching on some bamboo and was not interested in turning around to smile for the camera. But cool all the same. I’ve never seen a panda before. 
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Last night Dave took Sophie to the Union League Daddy Daughter dance. They both had a blast. Although the theme was “Frozen” Sophie wore one of her fancy, sequence dresses (so many to choose from!), but still danced among the Elsa and Anna’s. 
Dave and Sophie

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This year we spent Eastern in Rock Hall, Md. The girls did an easter egg hunt in the back yard of the Sharp’s house and made a killing. Only in the Eastern Shore can you find eggs in crab traps! Candy all day! 

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