The Once a Year Blog: January 2015

Sunday, January 25, 2015

On wheels

Claire got an early birthday present: roller skates! She is obsessed with them and practices skating in our kitchen every day. Yesterday we took her to the local skating rink. She was in love! Claire is already as good a skater as I am. I'm pretty sure it has been 20 years since I last roller skated, so I was pretty wobbly out there. Sure was fun though!

Mostly due to her small size, Claire was the winner of the limbo contest:

Tyler put on roller skates for the first time too. He was slip-sliding all over the place, even when he was hanging onto the wall! After 15 minutes he announced that he was all done. I was proud of him for giving it a good go. Our little guy was perfectly happy running around the outside of the rink, and enjoying the dance tunes.

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

First snow day

There's something magical about the first big (relative to a small child) snow fall of the winter. We got a whole 3-4 inches, and it was enough to close schools. The kids were giddy and unusually cooperative with all the snow gear prep-work which takes at least 30 minutes. They ran outside squealing. Literally squealing!

The first thing Tyler did was to grab his lawnmower and start "mowing" the driveway.

Claire delights in stomping around in fresh snow, making tracks.

Tyler also loves pushing his dump truck through the snow.

Doesn't our poor Christmas tree look so sad, tossed out on our front walk? Excellent placement, Brian. : )

After our morning of sledding we came inside and watched the birds while we sipped our hot cocoa. We were surprised to see that a red-bellied woodpecker is now a regular at our feeder.

That guy is pretty big. When he lands on the feeder it tips a bit! We're looking forward to seeing who else drops by for breakfast.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

NYC

In mid-December we took the train up to NY for a weekend getaway. I could not get over how many people there were in the city. It was incredible. Anyway, the really amazing part was that we did not lose our children while we were staring at all the brilliant lights and the huge crowds of people. Hooray!

We got to see some old friends while we were there, which was wonderful. You know us though, we try not to post photos of friends and family. But at least there is a photo of a random dude in a soldier suit, right?

Claire and Tyler's quest to visit all 50 States, all US national parks, and to see the world

Progress:
States: Claire 37/50, Tyler 33/50
Countries: Claire 14/203, Tyler 14/203
National Parks: Claire 11/62, Tyler 8/62
State (Date Claire or Tyler First Visited):
California (C: 1/30/2009, T: 5/15/2011)
Hawaii (C: 4/24/2009, T: 8/7/2021)
Missouri (C: 5/22/2009)
Texas (C: 5/25/2009, T: 5/26/2012)
Colorado (C: 11/25/2009, T:8/16/2014)
Iowa (C: 11/25/2009, T: 7/27/2011)
Oklahoma (C: 12/20/2009, T: 12/24/2011)
Arizona (C: 4/02/2010)
Nevada (C: 4/17/2010)
Virginia (C: 5/29/2010, T: 5/27/2011)
Maryland (C: 5/29/2010, T: 3/16/2011)
Delaware (C: 8/05/2010, T: 6/25/2011)
New Jersey (C: 8/05/2010, T: 6/25/2011)
New York (C: 8/05/2010, T: 11/19/2011)
Connecticut(C: 8/08/2010, T: 11/21/2011)
Massachusetts(C: 8/08/2010, T: 11/21/2011)
Kansas (C: 9/05/2010)
Pennsylvania (C: 10/09/10, T: 6/25/2011)
West Virginia (C: 10/17/10, T: 7/6/2012)
North Carolina (C: 12/24/2010, T:4/12/2014)
Florida (C: 12/24/2010, T:2/14/2015)
Illinois (C: 7/27/2011, T: 7/27/2011)
Michigan (C: 9/2/2011, T: 9/2/2011)
Ohio (C: 11/23/2012, T: 11/23/2012)
Vermont (C: 11/28/2013, T: 11/28/2013)
Washington (C: 8/24/2018, T: 8/24/2018)
Tennessee (C: 11/30/2018, T: 12/6/2019)
Maine (C: 8/24/2019, T: 8/24/2019)
South Carolina (C: 11/24/2020, T: 11/24/2020)
Georgia (C: 12/1/2020, T: 12/1/2020)
Louisiana (C: 12/28/2021, T: 12/28/2021)
Mississippi (C: 12/30/2021, T: 12/30/2021)
Oregon (C: 7/19/2022, T: 7/19/2022)
Montana (C: 8/20/2022, T: 8/20/2022)
Wyoming (C: 8/20/2022, T: 8/20/2022)
Idaho (C: 8/20/2022, T: 8/20/2022)

Country (Date Claire or Tyler First Visited):
United States (C: 1/30/2009, T: 3/16/2011)
United Kingdom (England+Scotland) (C: 6/25/2009 T: 8/18/2017)
Mexico (C: 12/09/2012, T: 12/09/2012)
Switzerland (C: 09/18/2013, T: 09/18/2013)
France (C: 09/18/2013, T: 09/18/2013)
Germany (C: 09/20/2013, T: 09/20/2013
Lichtenstein (C: 09/24/2013, T: 09/24/2013
Cayman Islands (C: 02/16/2016, T: 02/16/2016)
Ireland (C: 08/15/2016, T: 08/15/2016)
Bahamas (C: 04/08/2016, T: 04/08/2016)
Canada (C: 07/25/2017, T: 07/25/2017)
Italy (C: 07/25/2018, T: 07/25/2018)
Iceland (C: 07/21/2019, T: 07/21/2019)
Costa Rica (C: 4/07/2022, T: 4/07/2022)

National Park (Date Claire or Tyler First Visited):
Lassen Volcanic National Park (C: 9/3/2009)
Grand Canyon National Park (C: 4/2/2010)
Yosemite National Park (C: 7/4/2010)
Virgin Islands National Park (C: 12/21/2011, T: 12/21/2011)
Cuyhoga Falls National Park (C: 11/23/2012, T: 11/23/2012)
Shenandoah National Park (C: 10/26/2013, T: 10/26/2013)
Rocky Mountain National Park (C: 8/8/2014, T: 8/8/2014)
Olympic National Park (C: 8/27/2018, T: 8/27/2018)
Acadia National Park (C: 8/25/2019, T: 8/25/2019)
Yellowstone (C: 8/20/2022, T: 8/20/2022)
Grand Tetons (C: 8/24/2022, T: 8/24/2022)

Amusement Parks Visited:
Busch Gardens (Pennsylvania) (C: 07/2010)
Sesame Place (Pennsylvania) (C: 06/2011, T: 06/2011)
Dutch Wonderland (Pennsylvania) (C: 06/2013, T: 06/2013)
Adventure Park USA (Maryland) (C: 07/2013, T: 07/2013)
Disneyland (California) (C: 10/28/2013, T: 10/28/2013)
California Adventure (California)(C: 11/1/2013, T: 11/1/2013)
DisneyWorld*4 Parks (Florida) (C: 2/14/2015, T: 2/14/2015)
Six Flags (Maryland) (C: 6/15/2016, T: 6/15/2016)
Universal Studios (California) (C: 8/7/2021, T: 8/7/2021)

Sports Stadiums Visited:
Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals (C: 05/23/2009)
Nationals Stadium, Washington Nationals
Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles
XFinity Center, Maryland Terrapins