2109-2022 We did lots of stuff

 We did a lot of stuff, we just post that stuff on Facebook.  We are keeping the kids state count, national park count, and country count up to date on the right though.  Its very informational.

2018: We did some stuff

In the year 2018 each member of the Sivitz family grew one year older.  We like to think we also got smarter and awesomer at being human.  Here are some photos that either will or won't prove that:



Claire and Tyler went to school as they do each fall (they are both still in elementary school, but we're told if they keep getting smarter they'll be advancing to middle school in 1-3 years):

The kids started running Cross Country (the sport, not all the way across):

We visited the city where the heat is on:

We celebrated events of life in the Tuscan countryside with friends.  While there we ate lots of bread and grossed the kids out by kissing a lot:

There weren't any Olympics this year, so we went to Olympic National Park:

We capped the year off by hanging with family and friends in London.  There's lots to see there including this Yeoman and platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.  Claire knows how to read (which is good since she's in 4th grade), she has been reading the related book series:

Halloween happened and the kids and our rabbit George dressed up (Claire is Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games... she is 9, hopefully letting her watch those movies didn't scar her for life):

We did not purchase any giraffes this year.

In 2019 we hope to do similar things.  Our major goal as a family is to find some form of treasure that will reshape humanity for the better.  We hope that each of you takes full advantage of 2019 and seizes the year by its hind legs.  Our magic 8 ball says you will definitely dominate the year!

Our year in photos

First things first: Here's a hint to help you decipher our Christmas card message. See the chart in the photo? That's what you use to decode the message. Yes we are nerds.

Specifically Brian is the nerd. Most assuredly. For him the highlight of 2017 was going to the Porthcurno Telegraph museum, all the way in the very southwest tip of England. It was a dream come true for him. So of course we had to incorporate a code or signal of some sort into our card. Me and the kids went along with the trip because we wanted to see all the beautiful scenery. Along the way we discovered that Claire is finally old enough to take some decent photos of us. What a perk! Look at this gem:

See, this is why you have kids. Eight years down the road you'll be rewarded with a nice photo. Speaking of nice photos, now is the time to wow you with the year's home projects. No goofing off here. This was the result of some serious hard work! I painted the kitchen cabinets with a do-it-yourself kit from Home Depot. It was god awful. I recommend that you NEVER do this yourself. Hire someone for your own sanity.

Brian completed the bigger project of building a home bar and entertainment system in the basement. I have much respect for my husband now. I mean of course there was respect before this, but now there is super respect. We share these photos with you now so we all can enjoy the cleanliness and freshness captured in them. These rooms have not looked this good since these photos were taken. Real life happened.

With parts of our home looking so fancy, it is hard to believe that we would ever leave our house but we do venture out a bit. (Ha ha) There was a trip to the Bahamas this year, and an even more luxurious  trip to Oklahoma to see my parents. For the kids the best part was helping Papa Mike catch wild animal pests in the yard. Tyler was really taken with this adorable raccoon.

There was also a trip to Niagara falls. If you want to see all the nice photos of the falls (and our other trips) then go check out my facebook post. Here's the most important photo from Niagara though. The King is alive and well and in Canada. It all makes sense now.

If you ask Tyler what was the most exciting thing that happened this year, he will tell you "we beat  Zelda"! He's talking about the latest Zelda video game, Breath Of The Wild. He's right, it's a pretty big deal. For us all to sit down, take turns, discuss strategies, and cooperate like that -- it was a miracle! Tyler loves the little green elf character (Link) in the game. He was Link for Halloween and he still dresses like Link most days. That's healthy, right?

Tyler is telling me that another important thing happened this year. He beat Claire's EX Pokemon card.  He doesn't remember the name of her Pokemon -- it was a weird guy who was red and green and cute. He beat it with his evolved Delfox who stands up. Tyler has near 500 Pokemon cards scattered in his room and he spends a lot of time staring at those things. Not cleaning them up. Not organizing them. Just memorizing their hit points. Talk about fun! George, our bunny, also loves Pokemon cards. I love that George's chewing habit gives me a good excuse to throw away cards.

Claire says she is mad that Tyler always beats her Pokemon cards. She announces this while she is sitting at the kitchen table cutting up paper. This is one of her favorite things to do. Claire is ALWAYS cutting up paper and making books, dioramas, clothes for her dolls, signs...you name it. It involves a lot of paperclips, staples, and scotch tape for some reason. The girl is creative, and doesn't like to sit still! She has a weird talent for what I would call fidget-type activities. Things like jump rope, hula hooping, pogo stick...she rocks at these!

For Claire, 2017 has definitely been the year of slime and all things messy. Oobleck, silly putty, kinetic sand, you get the idea. She is constantly begging us for these things. We tell her no no we don't want the mess in the house, but she still manages to get some at school or from friends. It shows up magically in the carpet, smeared into her book bag, and matted in stuffed animal fur. Claire loves her slime. I'm so thankful she didn't dress up as slime for Halloween. 

It has been another blessed year of the kids being best friends. I fear that there will be a year coming up when they will turn on each other and won't want to have "sleepovers" all the time. But we aren't there yet!

It has been another year of adventure and sweet memories. I think the only thing we would change is adding a dozen more trips to see all of you -- our friends and family -- but to fit that in we would have had to invent a time travel machine or something. It'll go on our to-do list for 2018.

I love the winter weather

Blizzard photos anyone? Yes please! But first a pic of our blizzard preparedness state:

 



See, we were ready for all the snow! While the snow was coming down Brian went out and shoveled

at least three times.

  

Claire and I cheered on Brian while we enjoyed the warm indoors.



Brian also obsessively shoveled our deck over and over again.

 

We helped out our winged friends, don't worry.

 

Here is what the backyard looked like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only one time did Brian give up on the driveway and come in for a rest break.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the snow stopped falling, it was time to get our snow gear on. Tyler accidently put on my snow pants, causing some confusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to go outside and sink into the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we spied some deer under our neighbor's deck. It looked like they had slept there over night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to go sledding!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh right, we have to tromp through all of this to get to the sledding hill...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 minutes later we got to the hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We actually had three days of sledding before a plow came to our cul de sac! Here is the view of our street from upstairs. Now only time will tell if we get to do another blogpost about snow play.

 



Geoffrey the Giraffe

Claire cannot resist people in character suits. She absolutely positively has to receive a hug from them and get a photo with them or her life does not feel complete. This happened last weekend at Toysrus. I feel so bad for the person stuck in that suit supporting such a ginormous head.

 

Rake it real good

I hope my children never outgrow playing in leaf piles. Claire is pretty handy with a rake now. Tyler is still useless, but at least he's cute as he destroys the piles. 

 

 

Can't get enough hiking

Hiking is just THE BEST. You know how it is...you set out on the trail and the weather is perfect and you've bribed the kids with just the right amount of candy and the leaves are gorgeous all around. Ahhhh. What is the right word to describe how I feel after a hike? Content? I think that's it. I just feel like I don't care what else we do that day. I've already done the best part.



 

 

This is Patapsco State Park, practically in our back yard.

 

My son is a super hunk. Why would his shirt lie?

 

And now our Halloween costume photos! The moment you've been waiting for!

 

Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker visited us early, on October 18. So nice of them to swing by.

 

 

 

These two kiddos had a blast at our annual Halloween party. Emmett from the Lego Movie and Ella from Cinderella.