Dallas for a wedding

I spent a year in Russia with these friends after college

And this fall, Mistie was married! It was a great occasion for a mini-STINT reunion! She was a lovely bride. Kristen and her husband and Thad and I met in Dallas for the weekend. We got back-stage passes to see Mistie before she walked the aisle - it was such a sweet gift to me! What a great time reminiscing, catching up with old, dear friends, and enjoy Texas! 

Lucky me, we have some RPI alumni who have recently moved to Ft. Worth and graciously drove to our hotel so we could have coffee and catch up! 

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What beautiful cakes!

 Mistie's reception was wonderful in every way. The buffet was Texas barbecue and Persian food.

At Mistie's recption (the Women's Club in Waxahachie), there was a Texas Declaration of Independence on the wall! I loved it!

Fall

The beginning of the school year means all sorts of activities are beginning, too! Soccer! This is Will's first year playing soccer, and he loves it. He plays with a big grin on his face all the time. He has some of the best coaches we have ever encountered.

Lucy is delighted to be taking tap and ballet. That's Anna Kate in front of Lu. She's deciding about dance.

We took a great hike on a day off from school. Beautiful!

While we were at Camp of the Woods for our Northeast Staff Conference, we took a hike to a waterfall. 

orientation

Will on his way to Kindergarten orientation. He's my fourth child and my first to go to kindergarten!

The school gave the kids tickets for the ice cream truck! It took us a while to visit 3 classrooms plus visit AK's teacher from last year (a total fav!), so we ran after the ice cream truck to catch it.

In preparation for middle school and city buses as transportation and who knows what else, Anna Kate got her first phone.

Anna Kate got to set up her locker at orienation! She loves the lights-really-work-on-a-sensor-chandelier!

 And some other fun stuff, too. She is not excited at all!

Summer fun!

We kicked off summer with strawberry picking! 

Sonic is finally near Albany! Oh, we were excited! We waited over an hour for these drinks!

We helped deliver pull tabs to the Ronald McDonald House!

We attended a wedding in Pennsylvania of some fav students

Will shows off his independence - climbing in to the fridge to get a cheese stick.

The middle of August the kids and I went to Ithaca! It was so fun, and it happened to be Ruby's birthday!

This summer has brought my best, most fruitful garden yet! (I hear it's a good year for other gardeners, too, which means it is probably weather-related and not me-related.)

We had so-much-fun with a slip and slide at Myra and Peter's house!

Peaches mean canning and making jam!

El Paso - sneak peek

Hillery met us in Las Vegas, NM, to take the kids to El Paso while Dave and I attended our National Staff Conference. Her girls surprised my kids by coming along. They were so sneaky, sitting in chairs outside the hotel room reading magazines. . . .

 Everyone got back to school haircuts!

Buddy turns 5

I don't think any of us can believe that this little guy turned five on February 17. Wow! 

Everyone was off from school and work (President's Day weekend at RPI and Girls' Winter Break), so we enjoyed a slow morning and, of course, Pioneer Woman's French Puffs. 

 Will really wanted all his presents in the morning. But, well, I wasn't ready. We had travelled all weekend and I needed some time to finish party prep. We met half-way and let him open Gramma Maggy's and Grampa Bill's present - a new bike! It's a great bike, and we even took it outside to try it out - through snowy sidewalks and puddles of melted snow, we finally let him ride on the street with Dave near by.

For dinner, Will wanted "Taco Tuesday" - good for all of us, since tacos are a hit and Will eats crunchy taco shells and grated cheese. Yep, that is him eating a taco shell full of grated cheese, in a new Emmett shirt.

 He has quite the personality and was shooting that dollar-store gun all day. He is a little showman.

 Will wanted brownies and yogurt pretzels and M&Ms for his birthday, rather than a cake. Everyone was ready for dessert, and Will still wanted to keep playing with his new things. We managed to draw him to the table for singing and candles, but he didn't eat any brownies after all.

February, the first half

We've been getting a lot of snow (not as much as Boston, though), and it keeps coming on Sunday night and Monday morning. So, we've gone a couple of weeks with unexpectedly long weekends. Sometimes the kids sled down our porch stairs

 We spent President's Day weekend at Camp-of-the-Woods. It was arctic cold. But on Saturday we ice skated in the pavilion.

 And spent some time outside. Camp-of-the-Woods is in the Adirondack mountains. Will decided to climb over a pile of snow rather than walk around it.

 The Camp is actually located on Lake Pleasant, which is, of course, frozen solid. We walked out on it and played some.

 Sunday was super cold, so we spent our time indoors, doing things like rock climbing.

During our Winter Break, we went to The MiSci Museum in Schenectady with Myra. I didn't take many pictures. But a couple of some familiar-looking butterflies

 And the hurrican tunnel!