Caribbean Cruise

This year, Chase had a whole week and a half off from school for winter break, so we decided to plan a more serious vacation. Chase has really been into flags for a few years now so his request was to go on a vacation where he could visit the largest number of countries with different and cool flags. We decided the Caribbean would be a good way to accomplish that goal. He was particularly set on going to St. Lucia so that narrowed down our options to a few possible cruises within our time frame. We decided to go on a Celebrity cruise from and back to Puerto Rico that visited 5 different islands. We saw St. Maarten/Martin, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Dominica. Chase not only loved visiting each of the islands and doing specific shore excursions (snorkling, zip lining, tubing, going to caves, and the beach) but also getting flag souvenirs and a few local coins from each country. 

In Puerto Rico, before and after the cruise, checking out the castles

In St. Martin, on the french side (Marigot) which we took a bus to. We then went for a boat ride in the lagoon. These two countries were still rebuilding from Hurricanes Irma and Maria about 7 years back. 

On the beach in Antigua after snorkling; by the waterfall in Dominica before tubing

We took a boat around St. Lucia down to the south (Soufriere) near the dormant volcanoes to do some zip lining

In Barbados, drinking coconut water out of a coconut and down in the caves

Visiting My Grandparents Again

[Previous trips to Barcelona: 2024, 2023, 2017]

My grandparents ended up staying outside Barcelona since we saw them last in the summer. I decided to go visit them for a few days to keep them company and see the sights of their apartment by the sea. We had a great time walking around their town, eating yummy food, and spending time together. 

Fall 2024

[Previous fall activities: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2012]

[Previous homemade halloween costumes: flags, siphonophore]

This year, Chase decided he wanted to be an orange cat for halloween so he cut out and ironed on the orange patches on a white jump suit. He had a ton of fun trick or treating with friends and going to all the Halloween school activities (his last year of elementary!). We also did some leaf peeping and I had some fancy glow in the dark stick-on nails that I felt like documenting. A highlight was celebration Thanksgiving with my aunt/uncle/cousin who have just moved to the US. Nate and I managed to cook a 20-lb turkey and make all the fixings for a wonderful meal together. Chase and his cousin uncle also had lots of time to play the week of Thanksgiving.  

All the halloween fun with trick-or-treating and school trunk-or-treat

Leaf peeping, the zoo, and my fun nails

Hosting a real Thanksgiving meal for the full family

Gardening Success

This year was our most successful year yet with gardening after a sort of failure 2 years ago and nothing last year. We started off the summer having planted watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes, jalapeños, and eggplants. We ended up growing all of them, although the deer got too friendly and ate the pumpkins and watermelons. We harvested jalapeños, tomatoes, and eggplants clear until November! So fun and now we know how to improve for next year. 

Not only was it a good year for vegetables, it was a wonderful year for all sort of flowers, specifically our beautiful hydrangeas. 

Our deer friends were very interested in our garden as well and ended up eating all three of our huge pumpkins and our lone watermelon. We fixed the fence around September which kept them out for the remainder of the gardening season. 

Despite the deer, we were able to harvest lots of vegetables all summer and fall

Some more pictures of our harvests -- including finding out jalapeños turn red when they are ripening and are even spicier!

Chase didn't shy away from eating his home-grown vegetables. He said they were tastier (he rated the tomatoes 7/10) than in store (4/10). 

Painting Our House

[Previous home improvement projects: fixed fence and minisplits, reupholstered chairs and solar panels]

This year, our big home improvement project was repainting the outside of the house. We hired a local company and deliberated the color choice. We wanted a similar gray but also wanted to switch to a fun new door color. Thankfully, we managed to do both and we love how it looks now. The previous paint job didn't sand off the previous coat so the paint had started bubbling and cracking off the cedar siding. They sanded off all previous paint layers and also fixed a lot of rotten wood and other issues. It's so nice to have this done nicely and correctly for many years to come. 

Edit: Another home improvement that we did this year is we did indeed get a new couch for our TV room that comfortably fits all 3 of us. It's from La-Z-boy and has a mechanical side and a manual side along with a console and chaise. It is exactly what we were looking for and has been so comfy! 

Summer 2024

Chase had a very full summer! He spent the majority of it in camps in the morning and then spending time with his grandparents in the afternoons. Two highlights were some fishing camps (where he caught 14 fish in one of the weeks) and a STEM camp at Hamden Hall School which he just loved. We were all able to go on another trip to Barcelona to see his great grandparents for the first time since before Covid. 

Getting 1500 minutes in the local library reading challenge, catching a fish, and starting 5th grade!

Playing with his cousin uncle and the whole family together for my dad's birthday

Trip to Orlando for Chase's 10th birthday

[Previous Chase updates: 9 years, 8 years, 7 years, 6 years, 2nd year of school, 5 years, starting school, 4 years, 3 years, 25-32 months, 2 years, 15-20 months, 1+ year, first four months in Cambridge, data analysis from first 2 months, first few months]

Since Chase turned 10(!!) this year, we decided we needed to celebrate in a big way: a trip to Orlando. We were able to go to the Kennedy Space Center, Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and to Gatorland. We were able to go on pretty much all the rides we wanted between waiting in a few lines and a couple well time standby spots (specifically Space Mountain and Guardians of the Galaxy for Nate and me -- Chase isn't into scary rides). We also stayed at a cool timeshare/resort (Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee) that was huge and had 4 pools including lazy river and a place for fishing. It was a really fun vacation and even though Chase was not into Disney beforehand and still really isn't, he had a great time at the parks. 

Fishing at the resort and at Kennedy Space Center

At Magic Kingdom

More Magic Kingdom -- the castle during the day and at night

At Epcot (we took very few pictures there and although Chase loves countries, it was a bit disappointing as a park) and with his two pins for first time and birthday

At Gatorland with a turtle, a train ride around, and holding a small gator and snake 

Total Solar Eclipse!

Since the path of totality was close to us on the northeast, we took the day off work and traveled to see the eclipse. Originally, we were going to go to Syracuse, but with rain and cloud cover, that ended up being a bad choice. We quickly pivoted and ended up in Peru, NY -- very close to the Canadian border. It was such a surreal event! At totality, everything went cold and the streetlights turned on. I'm so happy that we got to experience it together -- something Chase will not forget for a long time! What hopefully he will forget is the 10 hour trip home (usually should only have been 3-3.5 hours). 

Easter in TN!

This year, we got to celebrate Easter with family in TN. We were able to have a long weekend together: play games, go to church, attend a Easter egg hunt, and spend time together out and about. So fun now that everyone in Nate's family lives around Nashville.

Winter crafts

Following up on last year, we did some more winter crafts this year. Chase designed Valentine's Day boxes which each had a key that would pop the heart out when inserted. Each key had the initials of each of his classmates. 

I also did a 3rd year of embroidery bingo from BonnahCo.. Still didn't win but a fun new theme this year and now I have three embroidery boards hanging at my cubicle. 

Chase designed these himself on Fusion360 and 3D printed them for his classmates.

3rd year of embroidery bingo in the books!

2023 in Review

[Previous years in review: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013]

This year, we continued the theme of this blog with quite a number of crafts and home improvements. A big craft/design focus of this year was 3D printing thanks to the printer that Ivan gave Chase for Christmas last year. We learned how to use Fusion 360, acquired up to 10 different filament colors, and printed many, many things. I continued my embroidery, Chase did some sewing, and we once again crafted a unique Halloween costume. In terms of home improvements, we fixed our own fence, installed mini-splits, and bought a fancy keyboard/electric piano. Our goal for next year is to get a new couch for our TV room that can fit all three of us. We have a love seat and previously had a treadmill but with us going to the gym regularly, it made sense to give away the treadmill to make more room for seating so we could actually watch a movie together. 

We also did a lot of traveling this year: 
early April: Chase and I went to San Diego with my parents
late April: I went to Tampa (FL) for a conference 
May: I went to New Hampshire with Olga to hike Mt. Chocorua
June-July: Barcelona, Paris, and Switzerland

July: Nate's parents visited us in CT
August: Rhode Island with my parents and Olga
early October: Corn maze with Boris and Laura

October-November: I went to San Diego twice, once with my parents and once for a conference
late November: Omaha for Thanksgiving
late December: Nashville for Christmas

Chase just slightly added to his state count with Tennessee, bringing it to 13 (MA, CT, RI, NY, NE, CA, NV, IA, IL, PA, NJ,  MD [& DC], TN). Unfortunately, our Europe trip didn't add anything to his count as he'd been to all those places before, so he stands at 13 countries (and 3 continents). Also Chase turned 9. Other than 3D printing, he is very into collecting coins (specifically pennies), solving Rubik's cubes, and knowing esoteric facts. He has enjoyed playing violin at school this year, along with piano and French lessons during the week. He is also still doing chess and Tae Kwon Do. Not shown here are the many, many play dates and trips he has taken with his friends throughout this year. 

Finally, we took some updated family photos. 2023 was a very full year -- let's see what 2024 has in store. 

Here is an Instagram collage of photos from the year: