A very Buc-ee's Christmas

M's birthday/Christmas present from D (other than the fancy new washer/dryer all-in-one combo for the new laundry room) was a trip to Buc-ee's, her favorite place on earth other than Ikea and the Container Store. Here are some pictures of her loot:

Drum recital

Geo did great as usual, this time playing to Girl from Ipanema. He gravitates toward the classics while the other kids favor modern songs. Probably D's old-fashioned taste has rubbed off on him. Both Snoopy and Sherlock made appearances.

Winter concert

Geo played two concerts with his school orchestras on Monday. He plays in the all-district orchestra concert in January and has a busy concert schedule in the spring. Not to mention his drum recital on Friday.

FRYS Fall Concert

Geo looks like a waiter but is in concert garb. He looked particularly dapper in his father's hat.

Look ma, no braces!

They came off today thanks to Geo's diligence in wearing his rubber bands.

Now he just needs a haircut to complete his fall break makeover.

Fall is in the air

That means the animals are wearing hoodies and scarves and playing with pumpkins.

Oh, and the humans are having concerts.

(Geo trying not to laugh when seeing me dab on him.)

Seattle visit

M ditched us to go to Seattle for work. She did bring Buh, however. 😑

View from the Bainbridge ferry

Snoqualmie Falls

Waterfront

Weird hotel decor 

View from hotel room

Thirteen!

Somehow, our tiny baby is now 13! He is also now maybe an inch shorter than M. She will soon be the shortest member of two families. 

Geo is the most helpful member of the family. He does chores without asking and is always the first to volunteer to help his parents. He is continuing his Japanese studies and is doing scouts, cello, and drums. He loves the Container Store and buying candy at Five Below. He is a carbon copy of his father in terms of culinary tastes, loving raw salt, Rainier cherries, and raspberries.

Happy birthday, Geo!

Northwest travels

H and D went to Portland for the Go Congress. G came a week early and had some Seattle and beach adventures with Grandma and Papa. M and Snoopy joined the party a bit late. We hung out in Seattle for a day, then returned to Portland, where we enjoyed a meal at Burgerville and climbed Mt. Tabor. 

Chicago Shenanigans

M took Geo on a road trip to Chicago for a chamber music camp. Along with his new cello, we took Snoopy, Buh, and a new addition to our plushy family, Sharky Joe, who hails from the Florida Keys. 

Geo had fun learning to play chamber music with a string quartet. 

M explored Evanston, which is a nice college town.

Geo and M (and Buh) also worked on a tricky puzzle.

We mostly ate stuff from Whole Foods but tried some local restaurants.

We had a lovely penthouse suite at the Hyatt House, which cost more than our mortgage but afforded us a fantastic view of the fireworks on the 4th of July.

The week ended with a fantastic finale concert. Geo is going to Portland for two weeks and D is flying to Chicago to drive M home. The summer is halfway over but there are still some more adventures to come.

Adventures in Mississippi

H spent a week at an engineering camp in Vicksburg, MS put on by the Society of American Military Engineers. He got to sit in a Black Hawk helicopter and steer a towboat down the Mississippi River. He visited Vicksburg National Military Park and some private engineering firms. His team won the camp competition due to his superior math skills, allegedly. The week ended with a catfish fry and shaking hands with a general from the Army Corps of Engineers. This week, he and Geo are in Florida with the Scouts, so the Southern adventures continue.

Whole Lotta Love

Geo played some Led Zeppelin at his drum recital, while everyone else was doing Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift songs. He also smuggled Snoopy into the recital. Unfortunately, his teacher gave Snoopy a shoutout but called him a whale. 😭

Five Below

There is this store called Five Below that keeps popping up everywhere around here. We love it because it has an amazing candy section. Every time we go out, we end up here to replenish our candy supply. 

Even Snoopy has gotten in on the action.

BolderBoulder

H ran the 10k again and shaved 12.5 minutes from last year's time. Way to go, Henry!

Buc-ee's

For some weird reason, M is obsessed with this new mega gas station that opened up about an hour north of Denver. Its mascot is a goofy beaver. She has already gone twice, each time buying way more beaver merch than we ever needed. We have a beaver mug, shot glass, wine glass, hoodies, t-shirts, and even swim trunks.

H and Geo are not impressed and deny that they are "beaver believers" like M. Geo refuses to put a Buc-ee's sticker on his cello case but did deign to wear his new swim trunks to his Boy Scout swim test. 

Albuquerque trip

Whenever we are going south on I-25, Geo says we should keep going because he wants to eat at Slice Parlor in Albuquerque, a pizza restaurant close to our old house. So we made it happen. Ostensibly, we were buying new instruments at Robertson's, but it was all an elaborate and expensive scheme to eat at Slice Parlor. 

We ended up staying in the same hotel as we did in 2017 when Geo fell and hit his head on the fireplace, necessitating three layers of stitches. 

Buh enjoyed coming back to his home state. He is showing off Geo's new cello case.