So obviously it’s been awhile.
And, we’re moving to Spain.
And since a blog seems like an easy way to let people know what we’re up to while we’re gone, we’re resurrecting the old family blog. The OCD in me can’t allow an 8-year gap to go unacknowledged, so I have insisted on having a catchup post.
Here’s what’s happened the past 8 years, in a nutshell:
We moved to a house off of Monument Ave for a year
We had another baby, Grace Brielle
We bought our first home
We had a couple teens live with us for a couple years
We lived through the pandemic
We road tripped across the US during the pandemic
We had some other vacations
I did a sprint triathlon with a friend
Our kids have had birthdays and moved up grades, so now we’re on the even ages (12, 10, 8, 6) and the odd grades (7th, 5th, 3rd, 1st). We had a brief stint homeschooling Natalie for the last half of 1st grade
We celebrated our 10 year anniversary by going to Costa Rica
Three of our kids have gotten baptized
Jacob ended up serving as branch president at church for five years
I ended up serving as our church’s regional young women camp director during the pandemic–we ended up with a virtual camp in 2020 and a day camp in 2021
We transitioned from Spanish to English church, after 12 years being members of the area’s amazing Spanish branch
We got to participate in the Raleigh North Carolina Temple open house, the DC Temple open house and dedication AND the Richmond Temple open house and dedication
We fixed things in and around our home, including taking out a lot of landscaping including a fish pond, taking out all carpet, taking out a wall, having a wall built elsewhere, putting a hole in the wall between two closets and dubbing it “the secret passage”
We’ve had 3 broken bones, 3 incidents requiring stitches, 2 ER visits, one mental breakdown (that would be me haha), lots of lost teeth
I’ve changed my hair a few times
Jacob’s continued to grow his law firm, which included a painful but necessary restructuring a couple years ago (in anticipation of our planned sabbatical to Spain)
I started a very part-time job as a Spanish interpreter for Henrico schools
Natalie and Hazel participated in school and community talent shows
Natalie participated in the Virginia All-State Middle School Honors Choir
Natalie participated in stage crew for her school’s production of Beauty and the Beast (by the way, her school was Moody Middle School, which we nicknamed “Mad Eye Moody Middle” and made her a tshirt of it)
Our kids have done soccer, gymnastics, swimming, cross country, basketball
Tyrus won the school spelling bee in 2nd grade
I know I missed some things
Most importantly, we’ve had lots of good times with family, neighbors and friends–beach vacations, kickball, food drives, backpacking, pool time, and plenty of just good old hanging out
For the pictures below, I did not spend a huge amount of time carefully making selections; it was just swipe swipe swipe, select ones that caught my eye. I did try to get the big events like baptisms. I’m sorry if there was an important moment we shared together that isn’t pictured
