Our Hearts Beat for Brooklyn

Spent a few days visiting my fam in Brooklyn, and also hanging with my childhood bestie Tasha and her kiddos. These pictures don't really tell a cohesive story (because also it was just one of those visits?) but suffice to say we very much enjoyed getting to spend time with besties and fam.

Christmas-akuh

In some ways, the predictable rhythm of the seasons and the year (and the Jewish holidays) is a balm to chaos and uncertainty almost everywhere else. In other ways, maybe you are sick of seeing pictures of the same people, getting slightly older and lighting candles on the same menorah I've had for 74.4% of my life. In either case, the world's need for light during her darkest times is never ending, so we're going to keep bringing the sparks.

Triangle Leaf

After years of half-hearted attempts, we finally made it to the fabled Carbon leaf December RVA show at the National, aka the Christmas show. It was PACKED, good vibes all around, definitey more Christmas than we are used to, but also, some fun antics, including the on stage shaving of Carter's Christmas Beard. Also Jon singing about Carter's Christmas Beard. Before hand most of us climbed at Triangle, and in between we all had sushi, so it was a pretty lovely way to celebrate the solstice.

Solstice Traditions

We've been working on our Solstice game for a few years now. It's slowly evolved and we've got a pretty good ritual going now - the yule log with our wishes for the future and the casting out of the past, a roaring bonfire, smores, an excellently curated playlist, good friends, etc. I think we've hit on a pretty good overall rhythm, but there may still be some fine tuning. We'll let you know next year!

Soccer Showcase

Wes was originally going to be the soccer parent this weekend, but he picked up a bug during our Michigan travels and was coughing a lot. We decided it would be more restful for him to stay home, and for AJ not to sleep in a small hotel room with someone hacking up a lung, so I was next up. This was actually AJ's first showcase - very similar to a tournament but you play one game per day over 3 days, no double headers. As a result, there's more downtime - both for homework (which you need because most teammates missed school for the Friday game - AJ had a teacher work day) and for fun, as represented here by the gingerbread house AJ, Wynter and Annabelle decorated.

Other glimpses into our trip include AJ finding a VERY LARGE jar of pickles at the Wallyworld we stopped to charge at, the insane weather that had the kids playing in 25-50F weather over the course of the weekend, the hotel bathroom I turned into a prep kitchen so AJ could have fresh fruit and veggies for snack, and the international walkout they do before each match, just like the pros do!

Thanksgiving in the Mitten

Oberlin only has 2 days off for Thanksgiving, officially, but people seem to cancel the Wednesday before classes as well, or at least make them asynchronous days. Starting Zara's junior year Oberlin will be piloting a 3 day Thanksgiving break, but even so if Z left Tuesday after their last class (usually a lab so 4:30) and went directly home, and ignoring potential traffic, they'd be home around midnight. That gives a solid 4 days to hang (W-Sa) and then a potentially BRUTAL Sunday return trip of 7+ hours. I guess they could leave Saturday for maybe some better travel vibes, but 14 hours for 3 days at home, especially when they'll be home for a 6 week stretch about 2.5 weeks after break seems like a lot.

Conveniently we have both friends and family just a few hours away, so while the rest of us still have a bit of a nightmare travel sitch, Z's got it pretty swanky. This year we all went to On the Rocks so the kids could get a climb in before our trip up to MI, drove up to see Wes' family and had Thanksgiving with them, went down to A2 to see our buddies Caleb and Melissa and their kiddos, spent some time with Clare and Elliot (who are moving (back) to Australia - SOB), and then some time with Johanne, Carl, Gabi and Nick, and THEN a quick on our way out fo town brunch with Stu, Fiona, Eilidh and Chris - before dropping Z back in Oberlin and then making our way back to C'ville, EV style, and all that entails. We packed a lot in a short period and somehow took pictures of almost none of it. Instead you get to see the kiddos climbing (well, standing), the cousins playing soccer in the freezing cold, Z and A at the table during some food but I don't think it was Thanksgiving proper, and me, doing my favorite thing when visiting the land of much flatter than C'ville - my own personal Turkey Trot. It was cold enough I needed mittens and covered ears, but I clocked 5 miles and it was delightful.

Me and Zel

As the primary photographer and author of this blog, I am not often featured. But this picture with Zelda is just so adorable and captures her (and my?) personality perfectly. Photo cred to Wes.

Dragon's Tooth

I've actually only been aware of it for a bit, but there's a set of hikes near Roanoke called the Triple Crown. Dragon's Tooth is both the shortest and the scrambliest, so it seemed like the perfect hike for a random professional development day. The weather was pretty great, and since it was a weekday it wasn't very crowded. The first part of the hike was easy walking, but right around Lost Spectacles Gap (see our hilarious dramatic interpretation of said name, above) it gets all scrambly! It's not Old Rag level scramble, but seeing as this is ON the AT, it'd certainly up the challenge quotient to do it with a full overnight pack. We just had day packs, so not very taxing, but defnitely lots of fun and some good views. It was VERY windy (and exposed) at the peak so we didn't stay super long, but the vibes were good and AJ got to play on rocks.

There are 2 more points to the Triple Crown - MacAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs - and we hope to get to those 2 (probably as an overnight backpacking trip?) in the Spring.

Chill Days

Some days, you play an awesome game of soccer. Some days you catch the matinee of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" because the day before you played an awesome game of soccer and ended up with your second stitches-worthy head wound in the past 7 months. So when you can't play because the very nice ED attending who did an awesome job sewing up your face said under no circumstances should your face and a soccer ball be in proximity to each other for the next week or two, you pose with Totoro because that makes everything better. For no particular reason.... theoretically.

Triangle Time

Eve had a birthday and is now a big kid 15 year old. AJ was, sadly but probably not unexpectedly, busy playing soccer. But to make up for it, we had a somehwat belated sushi/Triangle adventure to celebrate.

Greenbrier State Forest Camping Adventures

Last year we spent fall break (which is really just a long weekend) at Seneca Shadows, lollygagging around West Virginia near CHM. Last fall that area was a place Wes and I had very lightly visited, 98% to drop off and pick kids up from camp. This year, that particular part of the state is now ingrained in our bones like wagon ruts. Between the 2 of us, we've driven the road between camp and NRocks/Seneca about 8-9 times a week :) Add on some trips to DC, some trips to hike in Dolly Sods or to Spruce Knob, to Thomas, Davis, Reed's Creek, and really Elkins, and let's say we're now VERY familiar with that litle corner of the world and will have many more opportunities and adventures there next year too.

Yup, we're ALL going back to camp in 2025!

But this isn't about CHM, it's about fall break! We decided to visit a different part of the state that's still about 2ish hours from C'ville (AJ isn't a big fan of long car rides, travel soccer player not withstanding). So we ended up camping in Greenbrier State Forest, which is conveniently located near what turned out to be another awesome discovery this summer - Hawk Knob Cider! Well specifically their very dry and very bourbon barrel aged "Cellar Door" cider - it's DELISH! They're out of Lewisburg, which is another cute town (also home of the WV state fair which I missed this past year but hope to catch next one) that we spent a bit of time in during this weekend. So did we plan a camping and hiking trip that also coincided with the opportunity to vist my new fave WVa cidery? Yes, yes we did. We also went on some splendid hikes and enjoyed our time camping. We learned a new trick, how to charge Ivy at campsites with RV-esque power, so that's a big plus in WVa which is otherwise a little lackluster in the charging game. Though we were plesantly surprsied that Hill and Holler, a delightful pizza joint recommended by our fave "local" camp counselor friend, Anne (aka Country), was both DELICIOUS and also had (slow) charging... for free!

All in all, yet another successful camping excusrion - Zelda's getting prety good at going with it, AJ's really stepped up their helping/taking responsibility game (thanks Nat and Snaps and EarthEx) and once again, I love my people.Thanks to the Dunn crew for the loan of their stove while our WhisperLite was getting retrofitted and safety-recalled. 2 burner propane is FANCY livin'!

Pouring one out for you, Zoo - I know you'll be off climbing with N in MRG and having delightful adventures of your own, as you should, but you're with us in spirit, too.

Soccer in Virginia Beach

AJ's travel team plans about half of their games at home in C'ville, and the other half mostly in Richmond. Which is actually delightful. However, there's usually at least 1 game in Roanoke area, and 1 game in Virginia Beach. This is less delightful, mostly because it's an incredible schlep (esp when the weather is still nice and people are actally going to the Beach) and somehow we miscalcuated the (car) charge and ended up topping off at a random gas station where AJ was able to find some green veggie and the rest of us got coffee. It did make the ride home seeem even more interminable than is typical, but we persevered.

Rocky Top-ping It

In the grand tradition of Clue (but in reverse) I don't know because I wasn't there - I was probably doing something boring, like work - but Wes and AJ got their climbing on after school and lo and behold, here's a cool pic of AJ slaying.

Whipped Cream 2k24

So for years Ez and Z were the house whippers of cream (Exhibit A and Exhibit B) but with the both of them off in Obieland, the little sibs have had to step in and take over. And they're doing it with quite a lot of panache, if I do say so myself!

Milla comes to visit!

Milla, one of our favoritest camp counselor friends, made a little stop in C'ville on her way back to Finland. We got to go do lots of hiking and other fun things, and even went on roller coasters at King's Dominion, but I feel like this picture captures our exploits perfectly.

First Day of School: 14th Grade (2nd Year at Oberlin)

This year Zara and Ru (also known as Aggie, Z's silver Subaru Outback) were accompanied by Wes up to Oberlin for the start of their 2nd year. Z now lives in Tank (beloved co-op that I visited, where my bestie Erin lived, in the late 90s!), has a new roomie Molly, and is teaching/coaching 4 classes worth of beginner kid climbers. Last pic is for first day of classes, which on Thursdays, due to scheduling vagaries, don't start until after lunch. Have an AMAZING year, Zoo!

First Day of School: 9th Grade

AJ started high school today. That doesn't seem possible, but here we are. Hoping they have a fantastic time in the Upper School, which in my TOTALLY unboased opinion is both the best division and has the best faculty. Have a great year, kiddo!