This year Nathan turned 43 years old, and we all enjoyed celebrating the wonderful husband and father that he is. Nathan puts other first and is always present with his family. He looks for ways to challenge us and find new things for us to do as a family. He likes celebrating in a low-key way and that is what we did. We started the day with the typical birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon, and fruit salad.
Then Nathan opened some gifts, Benjamin had a soccer game, and we had dinner and cake in the evening.
This fall, Nathan spent a lot of time outside working in the yard getting the grass healthy, trimming trees, and bushes, and landscaping, while he had time off of work until the end of September.
The first picture is the backside of the house. Nathan trimmed the apple tree in the middle and date tree on the left side, planted bushes alongside the back of the house, and spent a lot of time mowing and watering the lawn.
He trimmed all the bushes and trees in the front of the house, planted new bushes along the walkway and front of the house, and hung an American flag.
We had the front door and shutters painted from brown to black, and had the outdoor light fixtures swapped out from gold to black. The new landscaping and fresh paint brightened up the house a lot.
We have two very productive persimmon trees in our yard that produced way more fruit than we knew what to do with, so we invited people to pick the fruit. This sweet fruit is very popular amongst Koreans, and they would come to our home with their own ladders and pickers to make sure they got every last fruit that was ready for picking.
A few days before Nathan went back to work and a little over a week before I went back, we received notice that our shipment from Turkey was here and available for delivery. We were anticipating it arriving in late October/early November, so it was a welcomed surprise. We got used to living off of minimal stuff the past few months. Receiving our stuff is always a blessing and a curse, and like always we purged as we unpacked. We were mostly unpacked by the time I went back to work, aside from several straggler boxes of photos, large pictures to store away, and one more run to Goodwill.
Shortly after, we had our deck redone and a patio installed. Our deck had several soft spots and part of the frame needed to be reinforced. It was mostly a one-for-one redo, but we did upgrade the railings from white wood posts to black aluminum, and it made a big difference in its appearance and visibility from the deck. We also had lights installed on the deck and patio, and an access door built into the deck lattice to store items underneath the deck.
Starting the excavation for the patio. The patio was built within a few days, then the team took a few days to very carefully build the sitting wall out of individual stones. The craftsmanship was impeccable, it was impressive to watch.
When the patio was complete, Nathan planted bushes around the edge of the sitting wall.
He and the workers did a great job on all the projects.
And we had a little over a month to enjoy the patio before winter set in.
We had a fun and active few days with Aaron. One day after the kids went to school, Nathan, Aaron and I went to Manassas Battlefield for a hike.
The kids had extra time off for Labor Day weekend, and one day we took the metro into DC for the day.
We got off at Smithsonian the walked along the mall and saw the Capitol Building and Washington Monument from afar.
Then made ours way along the Reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.
And to the White House.
Eliza and I took the metro back later that afternoon, and Nathan, my brother, and the boys stayed for a Washington Nationals baseball game. The kids had a great time at the game, and everyone was tired when they got home that night.
On Aaron’s last day, we went canoeing and kayaking on the Shenandoah River.
It was a lot of fun to have Aaron with us for a few extra days, and we look forward to the next visit!
In late August, my parents came to visit for a week. It was the kids first week of school, so we just started settling into our new routines and it was good for them to see what day-to-day life is like for us. One thing my dad had been wanting to show the kids is how to fish, so we went to Cabela’s and got a rod and some fishing supplies. The kids had one rod and had been using bread and hot dogs as bait, but they had not caught anything yet.
Casting 101 class…
This is the pond behind our house that the kids fish in. This is the view from the fishing dock.
Great success…Eliza was the first to catch a bass.
Then Benjamin….
And he caught a little bluegill.
Even Nathan caught a bass. From here on out, the kids fished for weeks and caught several fish every time they went out. We are lucky to have the pond and dock right behind our home.
Another evening, Nathan, my dad, and Benjamin went to a high school football game.
One evening our neighborhood held a fall festival. They had rides and activities for the kids, food trucks, and music. It was a crowded but fun evening and all the kids saw lots of friends from school.
Caleb working on his backflips
Grandma Sue walked around to rides with Eliza most the evening.
Benjamin tried bull riding…he fell off in about 2 seconds, but still had fun.
It was a big crowd!
That week, Benjamin received good news that he was selected to do school announcements for Alvey in the morning. To apply, kids had to fill out an application and have an audition. Close to a hundred kids tried out and only 24 were selected. Each semester there are 3 kids reporting the news and 3 behind the camera. He was selected as a reporter, and is very excited about this upcoming opportunity from April - June.
During that time we celebrated Eliza Rose turning 5 years old! Eliza has grown so much this year, both physically and mentally. She is sharp witted, loves everything pink and unicorns, adores her big brothers, has a big heart, and she is responsible and a hard worker.
We celebrated in the morning with birthday muffins for breakfast then celebrated after school.
Eliza had a big birthday surprise awaiting her that morning. Aaron flew in the night before and came up from the basement during breakfast. The kids were certainly surprised to see Uncle Aaron.
Off to school for this 5 year old!
She was excited to have her grandparents and Uncle Aaron here to celebrate.
After school celebrations with a unicorn cake and opening gifts. It was a special day for this 5 year old.
On my parent’s last day they said goodbye to the kids in the morning, then we went to Harper’s Ferry for the day before heading to the airport.
We are thankful they were able to spend the week with us as we settled into our home, and Aaron stayed with us for several more days.
