Disappointing Loss

We played the 2 seeded Gainesville team this morning and while we hung with them for much of the game, we ended up looking losing by double digits. The little Patriots were not operating on all cylinders today. They had the potential to beat this team but they needed to play better. Both boys are sad that the season is over but the Patriots plan to play some tournaments this spring and of course there is summer ball.

Tall Team

Our gym schedule was messed up tonight and we were double booked with an 8th grade Catholic school team. We decided to have a little scrimmage so that everyone got a workout. They were much taller, probably a foot on average but the boys handled them pretty well. The Pope's team definitely beat us ( we weren't keeping score) but all in all we did well. Sam and Dylan matched up size wise with most of them except that 6-2 guy in the foreground but we had much better ball handling skills and the boys out rebounded them most of the night.

Huge game tomorrow against a big and talented 6th grade team. We need our best game to win but it is definitely a possibility.

Art boys

Playoff Victory

Some Krispy Cream donuts after a sweet overtime playoff win against Chantilly. On to #2 seed Gainsville on Saturday. Go Patriots.

Warriors Win

The last Christmas gift for the boys are as a success. Their favorite player scored 32 points. Time for bed, it's a weeknight.

Birthday In Laws

Handsome Boys

We were able to get out to dinner in old town despite the snowy, sleeting and freezing rain business. We celebrated Linda and Gil's big 5-0 birthdays.

Happy Shoveler

Nicole finally got some snow to shovel. She missed Monday storm but made sure to get out early and shovel today.

Blues Man

Dylan's area band concert was tonight. This is a band made up of a bunch of the elementary schools in our area and required extra practices over the past couple months. Sam did a similar thing with strings. I'm happy they like music enough to apply themselves to participate in higher level music programs. They sounded great.

Wood Pile

We have been chewing through this at a pretty good clip lately. Cold, snow and fire go together well. We got about 6 inches last night and that closed schools and my office today. It's been cold so the streets were in bad shape so it was probably best. The roads are perfectly clean now, so we should be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Not Boston, but...

It's already snowing so it is almost guaranteed that school will be cancelled tomorrow making this a 4 day weekend. We were all off for Presidents Day today. Nicole is off to Dallas in a bit so it will be just me and the boys hunkering down. Not sure who's going to shovel since that's Nicole's passion but I'm sure we will figure it out. I kinda hope her flight is cancelled.

On the medical front. While I didn't ski this weekend with the rest of the family, I did take a wicked fall on the tubing track. I was walking the boys over to get tubes and hit a slick spot forcing my bad knee to bend behind me more than any of the PT's thought possible. I landed on my right shoulder and somehow jammed two finger on my left hand. I laid there for a bit and thought I really screwed my knee up but as it turns out, the knee is sore but the shoulder and fingers are causing some good pain. I either dodge a bullet with the knee or they did a really good job putting it back together again. I really hope the shoulder gets better, I hear PT on shoulders can be even more painful than knees.

Beautiful Bryce

Bryce is a super small mountain resort in the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains. It's only a two hour drive from DC and sports two chair lifts, two carpets and 5 trails. Our friends the Lorengers have a nice house about midway up the hill, right on the green run. These are their chairs that I spent some time in yesterday watching Nicole, the boys and everyone else swish by. It was tough to watch people ski but I will get back to it next year. We all had a great time with the Lorengers, another couple and 10 kids in the house.

A storm blew in around 6pm and dropped the temp by about 30 degrees and came with snow and winds gusting to 60mph. Wind chills were -20 this morning so nobody skied but we did do some tubing. We are back home know and waiting for the next storm coming tomorrow night.

Valentine

We men organized some Valentine's Day gifts. We intended to send the kids down the slopes with the stash of stuff but a storm blew in and cancelled tat plan. They were still surprised.

Bryce

Getting some skiing in for Presidents Day weekend. Nate is all the way to the left.

Sam Selfie @ 12

Complete Game

The team played really well and while they lost, it was a complete game. Dylan got a lot of playing time and scored 4 points. He hit one of two free throws and a three pointer that brought he patriots within 6, late in the second half. He was also passing extremely well and was playing mad defense. Sam started slow but turned it up to 11 in the second half. He was up against a guy his size and completely owned him in the paint. Sam had 13 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks. People were bouncing off him in the lane and were slow to get up. Dylan drew a very pretty charging call as well, standing his ground and getting the call. We ended up losing by 8 points but they were close to taking the game from a really good team.

Mop Head

They had not had a cut since December and Patrick hadn't seen them since the Fall. They really needed a good grooming.

Jackson

We got haircuts this morning, then stopped by Lucky's to wish Jackson luck on his move to Omaha. We will see him at the basketball game tomorrow but then he's off to Nebraska. Good kid, listens more than he talks and that's a good trait at any age.

Here Comes Trouble

Dylan was looking for his college car at the Auto Show.

National Wheel

A shot from our visit to National Harbor on Saturday. This thing is not as big as the London wheel but it's pretty good size.