Winter Hiking Challenge

    The spring hiking challenge was important to me, for us to complete.  It was the beginning of a pandemic.  We were suddenly all home together.  No yoga.  No hockey.  No school.  We needed to get outside.  We had a lot free time.  

    We did a lot of hiking.  Everyday, not even just for the challenge.  I think we took off Easter, just one day.  

Anyway, we finished!  Successfully!

    Since then, they have begun a winter hiking challenge.  This one is much shorter in duration, only three months.  There are fewer hikes.  There are 8 to be completed.  

Genesee County Park

January 3, 2021

Lockport Nature Trails

January 1, 2021

February 15, Black Snake trail, Alleghany

Chestnut Ridge, February 7

Knox Farm, January 18

Reinstein, January 9

Hunter's Creek, February 27, 2021

College Lodge, March 7, 2021

And we finished!!! Nice job Wagners!  My little hikers!

Holiday Cheer

New Year's Eve taco table!

holiday fun

Damn Tia Jenna

Got her laptop

Rise up!

Shoot!

Oh boy...

Christmas Eve

 

The Ice Rink

    It's always something.  His timing is impeccable.  Jeff waits until the week before Christmas before deciding to build an ice rink in the backyard.   Because NOTHING else is going on.  We are not busy or anything this time of year.

    Anyway.  It is kind of awesome.  The unfortunate thing is that the weather has been hovering at the freezing mark, and not consistently.  

    Dylan has gotten out there one morning.  He skated for about two hours, but then it started to rain.  We will have a lot to look forward to in the dead of winter!

Condensed Caroling

 I wasn't prepared to let covid take everything.  I am a fan of outdoors.  Fresh air.  So why can't we carol?  

No bus.  That's fine.  We went in individual cars.  We didn't go in.  No problem.  Our numbers were smaller, and our route was condensed, (thank God!)

But it was nice.

Simple, short, easy.

We brought delight, (maybe), to some friends that may have felt down.  Most of our patrons were older, and probably deaf.  But in hindsight, that's probably a good thing. 

The Fattest Tree

 Well, we are home.  This is probably the only year we "started" Christmas early.  We did.  We decorated the house the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We threw out the pumpkins.  Cleared away the leaves, yes, even the leaves inside the house for decoration.

We hauled out the boxes.  The following weekend (after Thanksgiving) we got our tree.  It was the fattest tree.  Not the prettiest...but we found it kind of hilarious.

We neglected to put up the village or train for obvious four-legged reasons.

Meet Gizmo Zamboni

 So one day I was at work, and I received a text message.  "I think I just bought a dog."  From Jeff.

We had been looking for months, for the perfect dog.  No luck.  I wanted a rescue dog.  

Okay.

Turns out he (and Dyleva) were going to check the dog out the day after my birthday.

I had to work that day.  I played dumb.  Bought the supplies.  Then I received a very excited phone call.  They were so excited!!!

I arrived home to an entourage.  All excited visitors to see the new puppy!

We spent the night brainstorming names.  Eva wanted Bowie, Winston.  Dylan wanted Buddy.  Jeff wanted Ripple or Charlie.  I liked Flurry, Stanley, Scrimage.

We decided to sleep on Gizmo Zamboni.

Dylan's analogy

 It's election night.  We are all a little on edge.  I let Dyleva stay up later to watch some of the electoral votes come in.

Time for bed.  Dylan started asking me about testing for coronavirus.  I explained that I think it is a swab up the nose, which for me would be painful.  Dylan is silent for a minute and says, "Mommy, you are a daisy.  You are delicate."  He waits a minute longer, and says, "Daddy is a tree.  He has bark."  Thinking of the times he is bleeding and doesn't even realize it.

He continues, "Eva is a sprout."

I agreed that Eva is pretty tough.  She did ride a bike this summer for 3 miles with a broken arm.

And then Dylan said, "I am a weed."

"Why is that?" I asked, surprised.

"Because," he said thoughtfully.  "When I get cut down, I come right back."

Nice, Dyl.