Coach Dad

Patrick has a very special coach this year for his soccer team, The Grizzly Sharks. They played their first game today and Patrick made some good plays. Coach also had a good game.

Little Pink Pele

Madeline had her first soccer practice last night at Beach Park. She was very proud of her new gear and had a wonderful time with Coach Glen and the other kids.

School Days

Patrick and Madeline have pretty fun days at school. Several friendly spies caught some cute in-school moments this week: Patrick enjoying his Oreos and our own Cinderella (Maddle's on the right) happily sweeping the floor in pink 

Babes in the Woods

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Back in July we took an overnight trip to Shenandoah National Park following the final rugby tournament. We stayed at beautiful Sky Meadows Lodge and had a brief but exciting hike with lots of wildlife observed...both on and off the trail!

Watching deer from our patio!

Looks like an evening in Blue Mt. Lake circa 1984.

Ruggers

 Patrick tried a new sport this summer: Rugby. There were lots of new terms and skills to learn, but lots of familiar faces to play with: almost the entire Abra class of 2012, thanks to the infinite patience of coaches Malone and White.

Cape Cod Scenes

I'm finally catching up on our Cape Cod trip back in August. We returned to Chatham and stayed in a cute condo right across from Lighthouse Beach. It was great to be able to pop across the street to fly kites, work out, look for seals, and just run play in the beautiful dunes. Of course swimming there is still limited due to great white sharks, but we got plenty of splashing and minnow catching in at Oyster Pond.
Patrick and Madeline pursued the minnows of Oyster Pond with the zeal of Captain Ahab. This year Patrick devised a pond system for holding captured minnows and we observed a new fish behavior: minnow jumping. We scrambled around the beach chasing minnows who'd flung themselves out of the Patrick's pond and returned them to the sea.
After four years we're still discovering new things in Chatham. This year we consulted our hikes book and found Monomoy Nature Preserve...a gorgeous hiking spot just 5 minutes from Lighthouse Beach. And of course we finally caught a Cape Cod League baseball game, which was idyllic. Patrick and Madeline happily discovered a church flea market, where they purchased 'new' toys: a helicopter and a groovy purple hippy bus that converts to a disco. They were as happy as Cape Cod clams with their purchases.
We managed to hit Rocky Point on the way up and back and so had some fun pool swims and a visit from Aunt Melissa to celebrate her bday to top it all off.

Our backyard: Lighthouse Beach!

Keeping careful watch over minnows

The fishermen

Checking out the tide pools at Monomoy

Shirley Temples

We hiked Newport's gorgeous Cliff Walk on the way to Cape Cod:
beautiful ocean views and beautiful house views: our favorite combo.

Happy Birthday Aunt Melissa!

Up in the Air

In August, we flew kites almost every afternoon at Lighthouse Beach thanks to the great gusts of wind. Madeline did great with her princess kite, and really seemed to enjoy having an activity in which she and her brother were on equal footing.