Boston

We took an impromptu road trip with Matt to Boston during the kid's Spring Break. Matt had a meeting and we decided to tag along for fun.

What's that about the best laid plans?

It wasn't the fun day we had hoped. Car problems, getting out of the house late with three kids, and unseasonably cold weather put a BIG damper on the trip.

Not as fun as we had anticipated.

But, we did get to visit the New England Aquarium and stop on the way home at a friends house in Connecticut. The day may not have started out best, but it ended well.

The kids enjoyed the aquarium, for the most part. Oliver and Chloe loved the touch pools, Emma Claire did not want to touch anything.

Chloe and Oliver at the touch pool with the rays.

A very large sea turtle.

A grouper? that really followed us all over the tank. Emma Claire declared she didn't like it. 

Visitors to the City

It's always nice to see visitors. My aunt and her granddaughter (my 2nd cousin), Abigail, came to NYC to sightsee. It was a high school graduation present for Abigail. Chloe and Matt were in Florida racing, but Oliver, Emma Claire and I went into the city to "visit". It was a great day. We had such nice weather and it was fun to go into Central Park and enjoy it. Little did we know that the weather was going to get much colder on Monday and would stay that way for a while. It was nice to enjoy spring with family before winter re-emerged.

Oliver, Abigail and Emma Claire in the park.

The world to Oliver is just one big parkour course.

Emma Claire really liked playing with Abigail. 

My Aunt Laura and me.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

We celebrated Matt's birthday this weekend and today, his actual birthday, he flew to Palm Beach with Chloe for the final round of the Florida Winter Tour. Not a bad way to spend your birthday, racing in Florida, but he also got a pretty nice birthday present, a Triumph America motorcycle.

The Tank

Some 18 months after getting our saltwater reef aquarium we decided it was time to really get it going. I've spent the last year or so trying to learn the ins and outs of the tank and not much has been happening in it. So, for Valentine's, we paid a visit to the store where we bought it and made a plan to really get the tank going. We added some more live rock, sand, got a big cleanup crew of conchs, snails, starfish, crabs and shrimp and picked out some fish. I even added some corals and an anemone (that drives me nut with all of its moving around the tank)! 

The kids and Matt named all the fish, after Top Gun characters (who came up with that idea I wonder?). 

We now have a beautiful display tank with the following fish. Their names are in parantheses and the star denotes who has claimed it as their favorite fish--

Hippo Tang (Maverick) *Matt

Clown Tang (Jester)

Yellow Tang (Lotus) *Emma Claire

Tomato Clown (Goose) *Chloe

Clarkii Clown (Sundown) *Oliver

We also have 4 small damsels (one of which has always been in the tank from setup) and 2 sandsifting gobys. 

Goose, Lotus and Jester. 

Maverick (aka Dory)

Ocala

We snuck away for a family vacation to Florida to watch Chloe race at the 2nd round of The Florida Winter Tour in Ocala. The weather was lovely, though it has been a very mild northeast winter this year (and I'm not complaining). 

For some reason, I didn't get too many photos, but of course, most of the time we were at the track. The kids did have fun. Oliver is old enough now that he can go and find pals to play with and Emma Claire is making her own pals too. 

Oliver and I on the plane. Chloe and Matt went down a day ahead to set up and start practice.

Emma Claire and her team BCR pals. 

At the hotel. Oliver and Emma Claire loved playing mini golf.

Big sister brought Emma Claire a cupcake from the driver's dinner and she was one happy, chocolate-covered girl. 

They're in Florida and We're in This

On cue, Matt and Chloe head to Florida to race and Mother Nature dumps 7 inches of snow on us in the northeast.

Then the chains broke on the snow plow.

Then the heating went off.

Can you guess where we'd like to be right now?

Not here.

Oliver and Emma Claire watching the kart racing in Florida while it snows outside. 

Turbo liked it until he couldn't climb back up the steps. 

Portia's cold and wet.

Deer in the front yard.

Staying warm with a fire and a movie.

Its That Time of Year

Chloe and the MiniMax field at The Florida Winter Tour race in Homestead, FL. 

Breaks over, it's time for karting season to begin.

The Helmet

Oliver picked a design for his race helmet and he chose Lewis Hamilton's 2011 helmet that was designed after Ayrton Senna's race helmet. The kid has good taste in race drivers.

We brought Oliver's white helmet to Jose, who worked on the design to make it an Oliver original and painted it. Jose was the one who recommended that we switch the colors on the helmet and in doing so the stripes on the back of the helmet would be the Ethiopian flag. 

Oliver really likes his new helmet and has gotten many compliments on it. 

Harlem Globetrotters

Part of Oliver's Christmas was tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Both Matt and I saw the Globetrotters when we were kids, so I was curious to know if the kids would enjoy it too.

Both Chloe and Oliver were a little confused at first. It took them both a while to catch on that they weren't playing a REAL basketball game and that it was more a show than a basketball game. Once they got that, they had fun. Now only if they could figure out how to spin a basketball on their finger.

Christmas

We went to Dallas to celebrate Christmas this year. Our flight was on Christmas Day so the kids could open all their presents before we left. 

Chloe opening her cover for her Macbook laptop before she actually opened the laptop. She kind of knew what was coming next. 

Oliver got his helmet painted. He chose a Lewis Hamilton/Ayrton Senna design. Jose, who painted the helmet put a special touch, the Ethiopian flag on the back. 

Emma Claire got her Porsche GT3. She told you that's what she wanted Santa Claus.

The kids got up on Christmas morning and they had other presents. Santa brought Emma Claire Shopkins and Oliver and Chloe got hoverboards (preferably the kind that don't catch fire and burn down houses).

We then flew to Dallas and arrived at Bebe and PaPaw's house for Christmas dinner and more presents.

While we were in Dallas, we got to see Matt's brother and our neices and nephew.

The cousins all had fun at the hockey game.

 And Matt and I got away sans children to Austin.

Happy Holidays and Happy 2016!

Merry Christmas!

Pre-School Holiday Performance

Emma Claire's pre-school class held a Christmas nativity performance for the parents before the holiday break. The children sang songs and then put the figures into the nativity scene. There was cookies and punch afterwards. 

Emma Claire putting her piece into the Nativity. 

Emma Claire and her pre-school teacher. 

Singing. 

The finished scene.

Emma Claire and Charlie, one of her favorite friends in school. 

Iceland & Sweden

Matt's father, Chris, passed away from lung cancer in November. Matt had luckily been able to go visit his father, who lived in Sweden,  shortly after his diagnosis. Chris lived in Sweden for nearly 20 years, and once his funeral date was decided upon we decided that Matt and I would go and the children would stay with my mom. 

While making arrangements to go to Sweden, we looked at airline prices and found that you can fly Icelandair for a very reasonable price and have a stopover in Iceland for a few days with no penalty. So, Matt and I had a weekend in Iceland.

When we landed in Iceland in the early morning, the winds were blowing and howling. It was quite a Icelandic welcome. My first thought was, "Why the h&** did we come to Iceland in December?! We thought this would be a good idea?". 

The sun didn't come up until late morning and you don't see any form of life on the street until it does. We also discovered that the Icelandic people are night owls---the streets are filled with people drinking at the bars until 2-3 a.m.

It was a quick stopover, but one we can check off the bucket list. Iceland...been there, done that. If we return, it will definitely be in the summer.

The view from our hotel onto the main shopping street in Reykjavik.

A selfie on the high street.

The Hallgrimskirkja church with a statue of Leif Ericsson in front.

A view of Reykjavik from the Hallgrimskirkja.

A view of the sea and mountains from the Hallgrimskirkja.

Waiting for our flight from Reykjavik to Stockholm. We sent this photo to Chloe, the mannequin was wearing most of her Christmas wish list. 

 We left Reykjavik for Stockholm and stayed at Matt's father's home with his wife, Marie. It was nice to see family and meet some of Matt's aunts and uncles I had never met before, even if the occasion was a sad and somber one.

Marie sharing some Swedish Christmas traditions with us.

Iris looking out the window.

Matt and his brother Rob.

Matt with the ABBA display at Arlanda airport.

 We flew back home via a hour-long stop in Reykjavik. We had to walk out to our plane to board. I took a photo, only because what international flight in 2015 do you ever have to walk out to get on board in the plane? Everyone kept checking with each other to see if we were all going to NYC, afraid we were getting on board some puddle-jumper flight to Greenland or the far north!