Another year, another tree

We have learned a valuable lesson from past tree hunting experience, and that is that trees in the field are much larger in your home!  This year we took a measuring tape.  (My father will be pleased to know that the unemotional measuring tape steered us in the right direction!)

Thanksgiving Guitar Recital

On Thanksgiving day, the boys played some of the songs that they have been learning on the guitar! 

Fenway Park

Even though the Red Sox did not cooperate with having a great year, my crew was very excited to get up to Boston and experience the magic of Fenway for the first time.  This trip has been talked about for many years, with the boys anxiously waiting for Eli to be 'old enough'.  Well he finally was(!) and in August this year the older boys and Steve and Uncle Dan made the pilgrimage north!!  The boys were beyond excited about this trip:

Starting the road trip at 5AM!

Some of their loot!

The highlight of the trip was unanimously agreed upon as being when Daniel Nava threw them not one, but TWO balls during batting practice while the boys were on their tour of Fenway!

Shenandoah National Park

Way back in August, over Labor Day weekend, our little family unit went camping.  The boys have been asking for a true camping trip for a few years and we decided to end our summer with it.  

After an incredible amount of packing and planning (really I had forgotten how much work goes into a relaxing weekend of camping!) we managed to lug all of our stuff to Virginia for 2 nights of camping and hiking.  Despite the endless packing and constant vigilance Marcus needed around the fire, I hope we have many more camping trips in the future.

We have a picture of Zach asleep in this same carrier during a hiking trip!

Card games in the tent during a ferocious storm.

We ended our trip with a tour of the Luray Caverns!  

Another school year begins

Kindergarten

2nd Grade

Disturber of the classroom

While Marcus may never have met his namesake….he has adopted his Papou's expressions!

Has anyone seen my four-year-old?

 Four-year-old Eli is no more.  This actually does really make me sad.  I may be a tad crazy or just sentimental, but each milestone almost feels like a death.  Baby Eli is gone and while I love who has replaced him, somedays I'd like to go back and just hold baby Eli again….

Elijah, however, is not at all sad to be another year older.  And, despite all of our pleas to forgo his birthday and have him stay the same age, he has indeed decided to turn 5!

Conversations

Here are some recent conversations with Eli (4.9 years):

Upon coming home from work one day, Steve told Eli that he was growing up too fast and needed to stop!  Eli responded, "Well dad...you want me to change your diapers when you get old don't you? ...Then I need to grow up!"

And then,

The night before homeschool started for this year we asked Eli if he was ready for the school year.  Eli said, "Well I already know that 8 + 8 = 2, so I don't really need school!"

Professional photography makes all the difference….

50 years!

The Miller family were all very excited, to not only be done with the move, but to celebrate Ed and Lillian's 50th wedding anniversary!  We had an entire weekend of activities planned but the 'big' party was Saturday night in our backyard.  Everyone stopped unpacking and enjoyed a cool evening under the tent.  Once it got dark, the kids played with glow sticks and sparklers, which added to the magic!

Our collective anniversary gift to Ed and Lillian was a professionally taken family picture which hadn't been done in 15 years.  In those years the family numbers had swelled from 17 people to 34! The pictures turned out beautifully (I will be sure to post some of them once I get them)!

Hidey Ho, Neighbor!

Our new neighbors moved in this month.

Saying that they "moved in" sounds so easy.  The reality was a tad more difficult, but having them here, next door was worth all the stress and work!

The entire fiasco started with trying to finish and clean up from the renovations that were being done to their new house.  The moving truck was due to arrive in Rhode Island to start loading Friday night, June 27th.  The house in Delmar looked like this Friday night:

Basically, it was a disaster.  Not a single room ready to receive their stuff.  So we emptied it out Friday night and cleaned all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday to get looking like this:

Meanwhile, back in Rhode Island they were having their own nightmare….finishing the packing and waiting for the moving truck to arrive….  Not Friday.  Not Saturday.  But finally Sunday night.  Lillian left Rhode Island on Sunday and drove down with her car so that she could be here to receive the truck, if it ever arrived.  After weeks of stressful, intense packing, she arrived exhausted!

Finally, finally after a huge struggle with the moving company (thank you Tom for fighting for us!) the huge 53 foot tractor trailer arrived at 8 pm Tuesday, July 1st with all of their stuff….. oh wait! not all their stuff.  

Also, as a fun little side story, last summer we planned to have a family reunion July 4th weekend this year in order to celebrate Ed and Lillian's 50th wedding anniversary.  Of course, they were suppose to move down starting in May so that wouldn't be a problem….but as it stood John's family arrived Tuesday evening to 'visit' with Ed and Lillian for 2 weeks and to be here for the party!

So Tuesday night, John's family arrive, Ed and Tom arrive, and the truck arrives!  The movers unloaded the truck until 1:30am.

Wednesday morning Steve drafts his nephews and his brother John into driving to Rhode Island and loading a rented 24' truck with the rest of Lillian's things.  Their trip is a disaster of epic proportions which involved lots of traffic, no sleep, stitches! and the need for ANOTHER truck!  Yup.  That's right the 24' truck still wasn't enough.  So Thursday afternoon the Rhode Island crew pull out with Steve driving a 24' truck, John in a 17' truck and poor Jonathan driving his first long-trip-through-multiple-cities-with-lots-of-traffic in the van they went up in.  BUT the house was finally empty!  

Friday morning the rest of family came to Delmar to unload the two trucks!!  And...they were 'moved' in!!  

The slightly hysterical-in-a-maddening-sort-of-way is that the 50th anniversary weekend festivities started Friday night….