This is Mark. A typical 13 year old teenager who tries not to smile too often to appear “uncool”. Who rolls his eyes and mumbles “you are so weird” to his mom on a regular schedule. Who still thinks school at home is the best thing that ever happened to him but who is ready for something different for next school year at high school.
He is growing up so fast! Katya won’t recognize him when she comes home from her mission.
So what have we been up to? Honestly, I don’t seem to take a lot of pictures these days. The ones I take gravitate around tennis...So here we go. In October, Mark had a tournament in Midlothian, VA. They were holding two tournaments in VA that weekend, which was wild. Mark comfortably got into the L4 and was really hoping he could get into the L2...but to no avail. Our friends, the Kents, whom we knew in England, live near Richmond/Midlothian, so they came to watch Mark multiple times to support his crazy matches. It was fun!
They had no doubles at the tournament, unfortunately. Otherwise, he would have played them with Connor. Instead, he just got to hang out and eat with Connor-haha.
Back on the home front--more tennis at Cameron’s. Mark goes to around 11-13 hours of tennis a week there plus Quentin’s fitness session once a week.
Here is Mark after a super intense and fun hitting session against his fitness coach.
And when Mark played a tournament in Charlotte at the end of October, the Butler boys, our family friends, came over to watch him as well! Always SO fun to have friends come watch Mark.
First evening of the tournament we discovered this amazing creperie, Hazelnuts. I had amazing gluten-free savory crepes and Mark had something of an American style crepe. Mark LOVES crepes. So we actually went there twice!
Daniel Lvovich and Mark played doubles at this tournament. They work well together! Daniel’s parents are Belorusian.
In fact, they did so well, that they won the whole thing! L5 in 14s.
The following day, we had some rain delays, so we went on a food journey. Got some Korean hot soup which was amazing.
I find some unique places when we are not in a hurry!
Singles went great as well! Mark beat some really tough opponents and ended up losing to Rafael Lopez in the finals.
They had to finish their match in really damp conditions with a lot of mist, practically rain, but they did it.
In other news...Mark is growing super fast out of his clothes. He also absolutely despises trying on clothes to see if they fit. It’s unbelievable and funny how it seems like such a big chore to him. It’s one of my favorite things ever! He also tells me he wants all those baby pictures off his wall....so yeah, they will be coming down soon:).
His eye check up went well, just FYI-haha.
And we’ll finish with another picture of Mark eating, because he does that quite often these days, especially in the evening after tennis.
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