Moving On

Dylan submitted his last paper and finished his last final today to close out his freshman year at Mary Washington. We moved him out of his dorm earlier in the week and he's ready to celebrate.

Spring Game

Sam walking with his buddy Colton and the rest of the team to the locker room before the spring game last week. Just a couple more weeks until he's home for a bit.

Michigan Sunrise

On Michigan Avenue seeing through a crack in the buildings to the sunrise over Lake Michigan.

Scrimmage

Sam played well today until he tweaked his hip flexor. Not a serious injury but limited him the last 30 minutes or so. Great day for football in Iowa.

Whitehouse Gardens

Nicole and her friend Chris spent the morning touring the Whitehouse Gardens. Not Biden sightings but it looks like they had a great day for a tour.

Drake Diner

Had dinner with Sam and a couple of his freshman football buddies. Nice kids, one from Philly and one from Libertyville, IL who know one of Kevin Constable's kids. Kevin was one of my best friends from high school. Good times.

Intense

Some more rugby action from last weekend.

How it ended

Dylan celebrating another Mothers try against Fairfield.

How it started

Dylan was practicing hard yesterday and cut his lip in a collision. It was the lip, not the teeth, much better.

Getting Ready

That's Sam coming into view from the right with the football on the way. Spring football practice has begun and the boy is getting the ball more these days.

Looks Like a Catch

Spring football practice.

New Old Town Art

A new art installation on the water in Alexandria.

Tidal Basin

This photo would have people crammed together if taken at noon. Things are pretty chill at 5am.

Cherry Blossom Run

Nicole and her running friends did their annual early morning tidal basin run this week. Some nice shots without any other people around.

Another Marathon

Virginia Beach shamrock marathon is in the books. All that work for a beer.

Together Again

Driove down to Fredericksburg last night to watch a little of Dylan's rugby practice and have a family dinner. They had not seen each other since early January and Sam really hadn't seen where Dylan was living. It was fun being together and it think Dylan really liked the visit.

Big Mug

While Sam was downing tropical drinks, Dylan was drinking from a 2019 7's cup at a rugby party. We are all getting together for dinner tomorrow night in Fredericksburg which will be nice.

Spring Sammy

Sam got here for spring break late Saturday and started drinking margaritas like he was on Daytona Beach.

Chillin

Dylan sent this nicely done photo of his new Daft Punk album playing on the turntable in his dorm room. The sidewalks of UMW are deserted tonight.

21st

A few days late but we celebrated our 21st anniversary last Thursday with Dylan joining us at Brabo in Old Town.

Open Side Flanker

Dylan played well at 7 yesterday. Good to see him out there again.

New Kits

The Mothers are sporting new kits for their 2022 campaign and started out with a couple of good wins against CNU and Longwood University. Dylan played #7 in both games and was solid besides looking good.

Orono Super Fans

Thanks to Rachel we had these sweet t-shirts to help us cheer for Mae from our various locations.

5A Champions

Mae's Orono Spartans hockey team won their section last night and are headed to the state tournament. She has been in 3 section final games and finally cleared the hurdle. Hopefully they win the state tournament and she wins a second section and gets back to the state championship in her senior year as well. The pandemic has created many more ways to watch high school sports from home these days and we enjoyed the game from the comfort of our living room last night.

Quick Visit

Sam got to Newark at about 10pm on Friday and left at 10am on Sunday. It was a quick trip to see Lexi but he looks happy he made the trip.

Monmouth

Nicole scooted up to Monmouth University on Saturday morning to see Lexi and visiting Sam. Lexi had a track meet and Sam came in for the weekend for a visit. Dylan and we're home working on some school work and missed all the fun.

College Life

The bulldogs lost but Sam seems to have had fun with the blue overalls.

Peggy’s

Sam celebrated the first week of 2nd semester classes and two weeks of football training at a local pub.

Team Building

Dylan's rugby team took the train up to DC on Saturday to to a team building treasure hunt. They split up into teams and were sent out in the city to find locations and take pictures or video of them with some rugby themes, like, a line out in front of the Capitol or a group picture in front of the Old Glory headquarters.

They had fun on a cold day. Dylan is in the back row next to the guy in the red jacket.

Number 24

Sam and I got tickets to the big rivalry game between Edison and Hayfield by taking advantage of Sam's alumni status and Nicole's chocolate chip cookies delivered to the coaches. Fairfax County has limited crowds at games due to Covid. Edison lost but it was fun to see kids and parents we know from both teams. His buddy Nadir is sporting the same number Sam wore at Edison and the tip off picture is similar to the many I took of Sam over his four years on the team.

Sam was due to report back to Drake yesterday for the beginning of winter football workouts but his flight were cancelled due to the 14 inches of snow that fell in Des Moines yesterday. He wasn't to disappointed and we got him for a couple of extra nights. He leaves on Sunday at 11am now.

Snow Shots

A nieghbors holiday cheer. It's good to see the neighborhood wrapped in snow.

Snow Fun

A 10 inch snowfall then a 3 inch coating a few days later has left a winter wonderland here in Alexandria. Sam and Lexi are loving it.

A Few Plowed Streets

Some of the streets were plowed by 5 tonight but now ours.

Winter Walk

Snow has been hard to come by the last few years but we finally got a good 9 or 10 inch dumping of the stuff. Our street still isn't plowed but we got out to find a ton of downed trees and limbs from the heavy, wet snow. Lots of people without power today but we were spared. The magnolia does get pretty heavy with this type of snow and a good size branch snapped off but it will be sunny and 37 tomorrow and should be free of snow later in the day.

New Year

A light at the end of Prince Street in old town on a foggy end of 2021.

Neighborhood Walk

Walked about 3.5 miles early Christmas Eve to see all the lights. Some streets were more festive than others but tons of cheer out there. This is Dylan sporting his Old Glory garb for a social media post I believe he posted.

Pickle Cousins

Some pickle ball and cider this afternoon.

Orono Hockey

Watching Mae bring the pain.

Canadien Embassy Tree

Canada the nicer neighbor to the north.

Nicole’s Morning Run

Early run downtown to see the holiday sites. The Capitol is much more peaceful without the MAGA insurrectionist's around.

Late Fall Skies

No snow but fall like weather most days.

Flying Pig Christmas

The decorations around use get interesting this time of year.

Abrahamic Saturday

A celebration of monotheistic religions based on the first prophet. I prefer Saturnalia but it's hard to find decorations for that at Target.

Tale of Two Holidays

We are celebrating 9 crazy nights of Hanukkah this year to include the boys and grandparents that are all leaving tomorrow. We got our winter solstice trees today as well.

Flyer Visit

We got flyer on Saturday and he gets picked up again on Saturday night or Sunday. He's a good dog.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Good to have everyone in the same house again.

Japanese Maple

Had a tree cut down and replaced by this Japanese maple about a year ago. It's not really growing that fast but it sure is pretty in the fall.

Cold Comfort

21-14 loss on a cold day in Des Moines. Dylan and I watched from the warmth of home.

Vote

Got to visit the boys grade school lunch room today. Unfortunately not enough Virginians are voting today which will may allow a minority to take the state backwards to the good ol' 1950's.