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!