First of 10th

The start date at Veronica's school sure comes up quick. Here we go again!

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My dad turns 75

We went up north for a night to celebrate my dad's birthday and to enjoy some time on the lake.

My younger brother was there with his family too. Here Omri is taking a tube ride with his cousin Mason:

Trevor on the rope swing (not pictured: Omri, Veronica, R, and Heather):

Ladies on the pontoon:

"Deep sea swimming" off the boat:

Adelyn got in too!

If you can't tell, she's into Frozen (and following around her big brother):

Badminton was a hit:

My mom also turned 75 (in February), so we were celebrating her too. A big Thank You to her for feeding this group of people!

It's not easy to get away for a weekend anymore, so I'm really glad we were able to get up there. Happy birthday, mom and dad!

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Good Earth Village 2026

The kids spent five nights away at summer camp in southeastern MN. I was a good chance to learn some independence and also to just be a kid again in the great outdoors. I only have these photos I took at pick-up, but it sounds like they had an adventurous week!

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Spring dance recital 2026

I was able to bring my camera into a dance recital by volunteering to do some shooting for the owner of the dance company. It gave me the opportunity to get some shots of Veronica as well. She performed in three different dances...

Lyrical:

 

Tap:

And ballet:

Great show!

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Rookie of the year

MPA's rookie of the year in theater goes to...

 

Veronica!

Here's the plaque:

She also received recognition for her number of volunteer hours (in the top 5 of the freshmen class). Way to go, V!

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M&A b-day

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A little more Christmas

My parents were in the cities watching my niece and nephew, so they came by on Saturday afternoon for a delayed mini-Christmas celebration.

Adelyn enjoyed the snacks:

V opened some tarot cards:

Mason got a Treasure X set. Omri has a lot of experience with these and helped Mason with the excavation:

Fun seeing these guys working together:

I wish I took more photos!

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So many good treats this year...

...including, among many other things, this potica from my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jack:

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Christmas morning 2025

As mentioned in my previous post, I was not feeling well on Christmas Eve. I took a home test on Christmas Day and was positive for Influenza-A. December tends to be a rough month on me. Thankfully, by this point, all the planning was done, and that was left was just execution and pure fun. We didn't go anywhere and half of us stayed in our pajamas the whole day. I really love this crew and enjoyed spending this holiday with them. Here's a collection of photos from the gift opening. Not pictured: watching newly released episodes of the Taylor Swift docuseries and Stranger Things and playing a lot of Mario Kart World.

 

With her peanut and electric blanket:

Pretty excited about my own gifts!

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Christmas Eve 2025

We had a nice lead up to Christmas, hosting some good friends for a Peruvian chicken dinner on Thursday (completely unphotographed!), and then having Linda join us for Christmas Eve. We went to church and had our traditional tamale dinner.

 

Afterward, there was some Scrabble:

And the Charlie Brown Christmas special:

We did not take our annual walk around the neighborhood to see the lights. I was not feeling well, so that may have had something to do with it.

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