The Great Dismal Swamp-2017

Hello, This is Alex! And the name of this blog post is not a made up name of a place!

Between December 29th and 31st, 2016, my dad and I went on a Boy Scout campout to the Great Dismal Swamp, near the Virginia border to North Carolina.  Filled with Alligators, Snakes, and Snapping Turtles, it didn't sound like a dream camping spot, as you can imagine.  It was very cold and wet, but we had a blast, despite the sub-zero temperatures. My mom says there is no way she could have enjoyed it!

To get to the campsite, we had to canoe for 3 miles through the swamp with all of our gear strapped to the boat.

We used our big and sturdy British tent because our American ones weren't warm enough or waterproof enough.

We hiked through the forest and across some of the swamp, and played manhunt for hours when it got dark.

Naturally, I fell in the swamp later.  I don't think I have ever been by a body of water and not gotten wet.  Fortunately, I wasn't eaten by an Alligator!

It was beautiful!

One of the highlights that I'll never forget was us finding a freshly killed deer (we think a coyote got to him) and skinning, then cooking it for dinner. We had two leaders with us that have done a lot of this sort of stuff so we knew it was done right. It was awesome!

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and the boys passed off a lot of requirements and had an awesome time!!!! And we got back in time for New Years Eve celebrations!!!!

Alex.

P.S. Alex finally wrote this post a couple of days before he is heading out for another adventure at the Great Dismal Swamp. The weather forecast calls for low 20s at night...

Mark Turns Eight!

At the time of writing this post, Mark has turned eight and a half and is approaching his ninth birthday in four months...but it's better late than never!! 😀

This year was a very important birthday for Mark! It was his first birthday EVER celebrated in the USA! And at eight is when he is able to be baptized in our church--a very-very exciting milestone for him.

We had a party themed "Around The World". We love doing home birthday parties and have the kids help us plan out all the activities. We had several boys come from Mark's class and one church friend. Katya helped the boys fold paper airplanes and then we played a game of who could fly their airplane through the smallest hole on the paper target to get the most points.

We also did a fear factor sort of "taste of foods from around the world". We tried to keep it pretty mild, so the craziest we got was dried squid. It was funny how some kids were totally into it and were very brave, while others didn't want to try anything at all as the food was very new to them.



Mark is one of those brave ones, but then he is the kid who requests a seafood platter at restaurants and begs me to go to H-Mart to buy some octopus.



We had a piñata in a shape of the earth globe with some continents on it. Thanks to Robert's ingenuity it lasted through quite a bit of hits.

Here is our happy birthday boy! So grown up looking with short hair.

Reading cards and receiving presents. That's something we missed in England--opening gifts in front of the people--it's kind of fun!



And here is what Mark got for his birthday from his family--basketball shoes, another Monopoly game, headband for tennis (Federer dress up head gear;), Gravity Maze, Nerf gun, some new pjs and bugs;)




Happy Birthday, Mark!

Christmas Day 2017

Merry Christmas! 

I do love spending Christmas at home, in a cozy house with  my favorite people:) The kids didn't wake up insanely early--which is always a plus. They sorted their gifts, as usual. I am not quite sure why they love doing that instead of waiting to get all the gifts from under the tree to prolong the experience:)

Mark left this list of riddles for Santa on Christmas Eve...but for some reason Santa didn't wake him up...no fair. 

Well, and then you know...gift opening! 

Mark changed out of his elf onesie into his Chubacca onesie, showing off his new bigger tennis racket. 

Katya in her new onesie, and with her fuzzy blanket and a ukulele! Oh, and you can see her new bedding as well. Something about that color this year...

Alex got the most coveted gift of all--an awesome electric piano with weighted keys and all that awesome stuff! Now he can practice his songs when someone else is playing the piano or when people are sleeping. 

We had a quiet Christmas dinner together, just our family. We still dressed up as if it was a very fancy occasion. It did take us at least 15 minutes to get any sort of semi-normal picture of all of us together using a camera timer. 

Ham, rolls, Robert's fancy jello--it was just perfect.

It was truly a great family day!

Lyana.

Christmas Eve 2016

Someday this is the type of evenings that I will miss--laughter, goofiness (although I need the kids to stay still), lit up Christmas tree, the spirit of anticipation of what the morning will bring and excitement in the air. These little guys are growing up in front of our eyes but it's sometimes hard to realize how MUCH they have grown. I miss their baby cheeks and squishy thighs, but I am also in awe with how independent and unique they are becoming. 

Oh yes, needed to fix the flash. 

Two out of three is still pretty good.

"Please act like you love each other".

Because we love you all very much. 

Merry Christmas!

Lyana. 

First Time at Chapel Hill

The other day in December, on a sunny afternoon, we had a few hours to spare. It was right before Christmas, in fact, so we didn't want to go anywhere far away. So we decided to drive 30 minutes north to Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina. 

We didn't have a plan and just wanted to see what Chapel Hill's downtown is like. We were a bit ummm disappointed. It was quiet and did look a bit like a High Street in England, but nothing amazing. We found a weird froggy ice cream-yogurt place (I say "froggy" because there was a frog on the the front of it or something, but I don't know what it was) and that's all that the kids wanted anyway. 

A rare selfie with mama.

Students of UNC were already on their holiday, so we just went for a walk through campus. 

"With my love" selfie across the world, continuing the tradition.

We stopped by at the shop that sold some UNC gear and went to town as soon as we found out you could have any letters ironed on for free on the back:))

Oh yeah:) 

At least they were having a bit of fun. 

I am sure this is not the last time we visit Chapel Hill. We have been dragging our feet about getting out and about and it's driving me crazy. All these sports and social commitments are taking up our Saturdays:)

Lyana. 

Christmas Work Party

Christmas season was indeed full of parties and festive events this year because Robert had like THREE work Christmas parties to attend. I got to go to two of them--the one for the partners/associates party and another one for the people who work at their Cary location. I love to dress up and love to eat out, plus I do love going out with Robert, so I am always up for more parties:)

Here is a fun line up of our previous years' party shots:

2017

2017 

2010

2006 (It was actually the U of M Dental Ball)

2011

2012 (wait, what?:))

And here is a picture of Robert with his coworkers at the Cary office. Unfortunately, it's a bit dark. 

Lyana. 

Bringing Christmas Spirit To The Assisted Living Center

On December 1st, our friends invited our family to join them as they went to sing carols and play the piano at the assisted living center in Cary. We had maybe an hour or so to spend there entertaining the elderly people while they were eating dinner. We sang carols all together and then a few of us played solo numbers on the piano. Alex was the only one I recorded as he played a popular song by Queen "Don't Stop Me Now". 

It was so wonderful for our kids to see the elderly people, some of whom were quite immobile and very old. It definitely brought cheer to those people when we sang the songs. We went around the room afterwards and talked to a few of them. The kids will remember that night forever. Mark even wanted to give $10 of his money as a charity Christmas gift to this assisted living center. That was a wonderful way to kick off a Christmas season for our family and we MUST do it again.

Lyana.