It seems like Nate was baptized just a little while ago but it was all the way back in 2001. This was Nate with Mom and Dad when he was a little baby.
Today, Nate was at the same church for his first communion. He was part of a class of twelve children who completed their instructions over the last several weeks.
Nate looks like such a big boy now!
We went Down South to visit family. Here, Nate and Sean pose with their cousin at a wild animal park in Louisiana.
We also spent some time at the beach along the Gulf of Mexico. This particular beach was located in Biloxi, Mississippi.
We took a trip across the Mississippi River on a ferryboat. The grass hillside in the background is a levee. That's all that holds the river within its banks when the water rises.
Nate and Sean enjoyed climbing a tree in the backyard of the aunt and uncle's house in Mississippi. It was a great time playing with all of the cousins!
Mom had a running race in Tennessee on the way back. We got to visit the Jack Daniel's Distillery.
Finally we got back home again, with enough time to stop off at Grandpa's house on Easter.
We went to the circus over the weekend. It was nice to travel downtown for some entertainment, followed by dinner at one of the local brewpubs.
Mom got great seats for the show, only about six rows back from the action. Sean loved the acrobats and Nate loved the animals.
There was actually a much larger crowd than what it may seem in these photos. We took them a half-hour before the show started. We'd just been down on the floor, meeting the clowns, and then settled into our seats.
It's getting warmer and spring is definitely on the way, but we're still finishing up with indoor soccer season. You'd think things would have gone smoothly through the winter -- after all it's indoors -- but who would have thought that all the snow would have damaged the facility and closed it for a few weeks? So soccer season continued just a little longer, with spring soccer just around the corner.
Nate continues to play well although everyone is a little rusty. There are no practices for indoor season and they've forgotten a lot of their previous training.
Sean has a good time, too. There's a little play area off to the side where he can enjoy himself while the game goes on.
Next we dug a tunnel all the way through the pile, from one end to another like an igloo with two doors. Sean was a big help with this part because he was small enough to crawl-in and chip snow away from the back wall.
Nate wasn't as much into construction as Sean. He spent much of the time indoors where it was warm. He was perfectly happy to join in on the fun once it was completed, though! The fort is connected to various parts of the yard by dug-out paths. All of these features make it perfect for a snowball fight -- plenty of places to hide and drop out from sight. It's sure to be a good time over the next several days, and we'll need it because it looks like we might get some more snow on Monday.
The snow finally stopped and we ended up with a little more than twenty inches. That's more snow than we've ever seen here, and one of the top snows in the area's history. Funny, we thought sixteen inches a few weeks ago was a lot! It's the day after the big storm, the sun is shining and it's time for a little fun in the snow.
The plows finally got control of the larger streets. This one is a Snow Emergency Route because the fire trucks and ambulances use it, so it's first on the list of streets that get plowed. There are few cars using it though because none of the neighborhood streets (including ours) has been touched, and probably won't be plowed for days. It's a really nice pedestrian walkway, though. We spent much of the day digging from our driveway to this street so we could "escape" if necessary although we're not planning to drive anywhere for awhile.
That gave plenty of time for the kids to jump in the snow, built forts, have snowball fights with their friends, and all the other activities they might want to do after being trapped in the house for two days.
Nate built himself a little fort from the big piles of snow we shoveled while clearing the cars and the roadway around them.
Grandma and Grandpa Nick came to visit over the long weekend. They're not used to the "cold" weather and they must have thought they'd landed in the Arctic. Although there was still some ice on the river it actually got up to 50 degrees that day. We thought it was almost a tropical heat wave -- it rarely gets that warm in the middle of January -- but tell that to the snowbirds!
We simply couldn't waste such a beautiful day indoors so we took everyone out to Roosevelt Island. This is the marsh on the lower end of the island near the Interstate bridge. It looks so much different in the winter. Everything in the background is green at other times of the year including the tidal mudflats that are filled with cattails and swamp grasses. It looks barren and empty in January.
Grandma spent most of her time in a sweatshirt and under a blanket. Luckily Sean was there to snuggle up for extra warmth.
Nate couldn't let Sean get all the attention, though!
All was fine on Christmas, from the first moments the kids ran down the stairs until they went to bed after a full day of playing, visiting Grandpa, and eating way too much sugar. Here are Nate and Sean in front of the Christmas tree right before they ripped into the presents. Look out the window and you'll see we had a white Christmas for once!
Grandpa still had a lot of snow on the ground when we visited in the afternoon. Nate really enjoyed the humongous icicles hanging from the eaves of Grandpa's house. Better enjoy them now -- later that evening it got warmer and started to rain. Now the snow is just a distant memory.
Santa was very kind to the kids this year and brought them a Wii. Sean is a pretty good player, especially with this sword fighting game. All he has to do is swing back-and-forth and his enemies fall down all over the screen.
Today was the day for big fun. We walked down to the local Middle School where there is a small sledding hill. It was just about the right size for Nate and Sean to enjoy, one at a time or both together on the same toboggan.
Everyone was out in the snow enjoying themselves. The sky turned a bright sunny blue and the temperature made it up to just above freezing. That was a welcome sight after the heavy snow, high wind and brutal temperatures of the day before.
Even Dad got in on the sledding action. The extra weight actually made the toboggans travel faster and farther so he was a popular companion.
This was a pretty typical scene in the neighborhood this morning. The snow came up to about 16 inches and the wind pushed drifts high onto cars, bushes, patio furniture or any other obstacle that happened to get in the way.
Sean spotted some fresh, non-trampled snow in our backyard and went for it. He is standing next to a wrought-iron chair. The snow is higher than the seat, and goes up almost to Sean's waist!
A huge snowstorm began last night. By morning we had eight inches on the ground, and by evening we had fifteen inches and snow was still falling. Even though the weather was cold, the wind was howling and the snow blanketed everything, the boys wanted to get outside and enjoy the event. We never made it out of the front yard but that was fine. We'll venture around the neighborhood tomorrow when we no longer have to deal with blizzard conditions.
The snow was so deep that it's hard for anyone to walk around, much less someone as small as Sean. The snow plows didn't come for three days the last time we had a big snow like this so Sean is going to need that sled for awhile!
Thanksgiving is over and, after sitting around for two days stuffing ourselves, we had to get out and about. We walked over to some of the local parks. The first one we visited is known by Nate and Sean as "spider web" park because of this interesting climbing object.
Last night we went to "Boo at the Zoo." Lots of different zoos hold a variation on this event and our local zoo is no exception. It's a chance for all the kids to dress up in their costumes the weekend before Halloween, come to the zoo to see the animals at night and collect a few treats. Mom and dad collected a few treats too!
Nate and Sean both chose a Star Wars theme -- no big surprise there -- and they became Clone Troopers for the evening. They were very specific Clone Troopers although I'll be darned if I can remember which ones. Here they wandered through a maze of haunted scarecrows, which weren't actually all that scary and that's just fine.
They weren't too frightened of the skeletons in the Small Mammal House either. Nate wanted to see the nocturnal animals, and the armadillos specifically. It's a bit difficult to get to Boo at the Zoo during rush hour on the subway so now that we know he's more interested in the animals than the trick-or-treating, we think we'll probably take him to the winter lights events instead. Those are a lot more manageable and easier to plan. Even so, we had a pretty good time.
Nate had a great birthday. He started off by opening gifts from the immediate family. He's still on a Star Wars kick so that figured into lots of the presents. Sean decided to see what he could do to help Nate out with the opening of the presents.
In the afternoon we had a birthday party at the bowling alley of a nearby military base. Several of his friends joined him for a couple of hours of bowling, pizza and birthday cake. Nate did pretty well, all things considered. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
Mom made Nate a cake shaped like crossed light sabers, again with the Star Wars theme. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and he blew out the candles. One of the sabers was chocolate and the other vanilla so everyone was happy.
We love living near the Clarendon neighborhood, especially during the annual celebration called Clarendon Day. It's a festival for adults and children alike, with plenty of food, vendors and games. Of course we headed straight over to the kid attractions (like we had a choice). First the kids spotted this climbing tower with each layer composed of flat bungee cords. Nate had no problem zipping to the top.
Surprisingly Sean had no trouble either, once he figured out a trick that worked for him. He couldn't pull himself up to each layer because he wasn't tall enough, but he could climb the outer mesh to scootch up to each layer. He climbed almost as high as Nate, stopping only because he wanted to dance to the great band playing at the end of the street.
Nate tried his hand at some more climbing, this time on a fake palm tree. Unfortunately he brought the wrong kind of shoes -- crocks -- and he couldn't get a good footing. Uh oh, better luck next year.
