Fall of 2023 - Sanja's visit

Sanja came for a short visit!

A silly picture of Stephen, just for fun, and Buck, his partner in crime:

First day of school

Last year at Chiles Elementary for James, first year at Chiles for Stephen, first year at Buchholz High Schoolfor Sonja and Michael, 3rd for Nikolas (except that he is only physically at school last two periods and baseball afterwards, and the rest of the classes are at Santa Fe College and online)

This would be the end of a school day for Stephen:

Summer 2023 - Blue Ridge Lake, etc.

Kids with their friends: Nikolas with Noah and his sisters, James at Leo's birthday party

Some pictures from Blue Ridge Lake:

Stephen at home, still sucking thumb:

Crescent Beach:

Nikolas's confirmation

We had grandma and grandpa in town for two weeks, through Nikolas's confirmation. They got to watch the boys play baseball, saw Sonja play soccer, and enjoyed warm, sunny weather before they headed back to Boston. Here are some pictures from the confirmation day. Nikolas's best friend Noah joined us for the dinner after the ceremony.

Deko with his great-granddaughter:

Nikolas is easy to spot: the tallest kid in the group:

Dinner:

Spring 2023

I took Stephen and James to the festival at the dairy farm, to get to see a bunch of cows up close (Stephen had to hold his nose) and learn a bunch of stuff.

Another spring event is the elementary school festival. Stephen was very excited to meet his best friend Victoria there and try all the bounce houses, rockclimbing, and everything else they could get into. Here is our brave rockclimber (one of these days I'll get back into it myself!):

Kids' close-ups:

Stephen's energy seems infinite. He keeps going without a pause... until he crashes. Here he is, sleeping on a bean bag in the middle of the living room, with headphones on his head (and a thumb that just slipped out of his mouth):

He is the most popular kid at his preschool among both the boys and the girls. A few months ago he asked, "When will I grow up and be a boss?" He comes up with the ideas on how to play, everyones follows him, and he is always very helpful and happy, someone they all want to have around. If only I had the time for playdates.....

This spring Sonja added softball to her sports repertoire that already includes soccer and swimming. She joined the middle school softball team after only a couple of camps since last summer. Here she is at bat.

Middle school soccer team:

Sonja's travel soccer team:

Ski Trip to Utah, end of 2022

Another year, same place - only this time Stephen got to ski, too! The big kids refused lessons even though they could have really used them and went on their own, while Stephen took lessons the first day, and after than he was ok just accompanied by Robb on the Magic Carpet lift. He learned how to turn and stop in no time, but the little punk wasn't satisfied with only going down around the cones, no! Every other run he'd go off between some trees on the side of the main path. By the third day he asked to go on a chair lift with the older kids. I thought it was too early and mainly worried that he'd get scared of getting on and off the lift, but we got him a pass anyway. He did great! He zigzagged down the run without losing control and kept going all day and the next few days. The snow was great this year, again. There was some fresh powder, not of the epic kind we had last year, but this trip for me was all about moguls. I found a run that had barely anthing but perfect moguls that apparently were not popular with the crowd, so I had a whole run, top to bottom, all to myself on many occassions. Incredible!