First Day of School: 16th Grade (4th Year at Oberlin)

And by day we apparently also mean night of the first day of school. Z and M (and 2 other peeps) are in a very cool and funky house this year, their 4th aka senior aka LAST year at Oberlin. I imagine there will be more room or house photos at some point in the future, but for now we here at the editorial staff of nodashiki make due with what the college kiddos send us. Have a fantastic last year of undergrad, kiddo!

First Day of School: 11th Grade

This is AJ. They are a junior. This is Taki. Their trusty 2006 Prius. This is AJ, a fully licensed driver, taking Taki aka the Lunch Box aka their baby, to school for the first day of junior year. This is the end of an era, my peeps. Barring unusual circumstances, we no longer drive kiddos to school in this house.

The REAL Blackwater Falls

Return to Reed's Creek

This is actually the 3rd year I've been to Reed's Creek, but I didn't climb the first one since I was just there for moral and water and pepper support. And also fun. But we went back again this summer, and everyone at least attempted both climbs - Charlie's unlocked some new lead climbing skills since last summer, and that was cool to see. There was some rain that mostly missed us, and the weather was cooperative otherwise.

And here are Nick and Zara playing a hilarious game of "quick draw" - literally. There was some debate on gates out vs in, and a draw or 2 may have been flung over the side of the crag (don't worry, we retrieved it!)... and now I know what we're doing while waiting to climb next time!

Zara's 21st Birthday Observed

Much like when I turned 21 in the 90s, there is very little photographic evidence of the lovely evening we spent playing pool, eating snackies, drinking drinkies and singing karaoke to celebrate Zara (somewhat belatedly) turning 21. But the few pics I did manage to remember to snap still tell a story, so I present them anyway.

Zara goes to Iceland

Galavanting in Gaudineer

We capped off our first day off this summer with a little family hike to the Gaudineer Old Growth Trail. We're sending Z off solo (well, with N and also 6 campers) to Iceland since A's knee is still not back to brutal death march hiking form. I guess we would have done this hike either way though, since if A had gone too we'd be saying goodbye to 2 family members for 2 weeks instead of just 1. Maybe it would have been a longer hike? But in any case, we enjoyed our little side quest. Welcome back to wild and wonderful West Virginia.

Licensed! (AJC edition)

This is Amity. They are a licensed driver. OMG?!

Extra hilarity - they passed their road test/last day of driver's ed on April 19th, but Virginia Law says you have to hold your permit for 9 months before you get your license... and since they passed their permit test on August 7th, they became streel legal for realz on May 7th.

Turns out... we have a pizza oven

We got a new stove/oven. It's induction, which has been kinda cool but also has a learning curve. Worse part was definitely replacing some of our older, beloved pots and pans. But the oven has convection settings, and also a dehydrator (maybe this will finally solve our fig problem??) but most excitingly it goes to 750F and has PIZZA MODE! Comes with it's own stone and shield and is awesome. It makes some really good pizza. We've been eating a lot of pizza. Mmm... pizza.

Happy Birthday, Wesley!

For Wes' birthday this year, we made a trip to Oakencroft Vineyards and sampled some of their beverages (Wes pictured here with said sample) and also some of their lovely snacks, which I neglected to take a picture of. In the evening we had Thai food (birthday person's choice) and then a selection of desserts from Albemarle Baking Company. We also took the dog on a delightfully long walk, and went for a birthday run. Happy Birthday, Love!