It's been a whirlwind of events over the past couple weeks, and it feels like we squeezed in more than we ever imagined possible. Starting back a couple weeks ago, we had to delay our trip to camp for the 4th of July, because Noah's team had one more baseball game in the district tournament after a tough loss. It was worth the wait, because his team won the district championship and advanced to the state tourney! It was so exciting and emotional to watch!
We headed up to camp first thing Thursday morning, and it was quite an exciting drive - we saw both a bear and a moose on the way! Normally we are at camp for at least a week during this time of year, and it was hard to only have 3 days this year, but we made the most of it. There were beach games, fireworks, card games, Parker Pie, fishing, kayaking, tubing, and Evie even got up on water skis for the first time! We are looking forward to a longer visit later in the summer when we can truly settle into camp mode, but we were glad to have a few days up there with the whole crew.
It was a little chilly!
This sums up our life lately, ha ha!
We came home from camp and had one day at home to unpack, do laundry, and re-pack for our trip to Washington, DC for the North American Irish Dance Championship. While it's called "North American," this is an international competition, and the World Champion for Evie's age group (from Ireland) was one of Evie's competitors. The whole event was a different magnitude from anything we have done before with dance, but it was exciting to see so many talented dancers in one place. Our half-joking goal for Evie was to not finish last, and her personal goal was to finish in the top half of the dancers. She only missed her goal by 6 places, and she danced very well, especially considering the pressure of such a big event. One unfortunate hiccup happened during her hard shoe dance was that one dancer fell, so they had to stop and then come back and finish the end of the dance several minutes later. All in all, it was a great experience, and we are so proud of our girl!
Amos and Evie - McFadden buddies!
Evie with Kayla, an amazing dancer and mentor that went to UVM and trained at McFadden
Evie and Ella were able to reconnect! Ella used to dance at McFadden before moving to FL!
Evie and Ella all dressed up
The Gaylord was quite a spectacular venue!
A lot of people have asked to see videos of Evie's dancing, so hopefully these work! Due to the fall, her hardshoe dance is in two separate parts, and then her softshoe dance is in another video.
Even though we wanted to sleep for a week after all that, we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning for a long day of sightseeing in DC. We started at Arlington National Cemetery, which was very moving, but also incredibly hot and humid for walking around. We were able to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Kennedy gravesites, and then we headed to the US Capitol, The National Archives (to see the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution), The Washington Monument, and we cruised around the National Mall on motorized scooters. Yes, we were those tourists, but we were wilting in the heat and humidity, and we had already walked nearly 20,000 steps! We took a break for dinner at Gordon Ramsay's Street Pizza restaurant, and then continued on to a moonlight tour of the monuments on an electric golf cart. This was a huge highlight of the trip!
The boys also snuck away from the dance competition and visited the Spy Museum!
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery
They are standing in the spot where MLK delivered his "I have a dream" speech!
Somehow we managed to haul ourselves out of bed again the next morning for one more day of sightseeing before heading home Friday evening. Oh - did I mention that we had to change our return trip due to Noah's baseball schedule?! On Day 2 of touring DC, we hit 3 Smithsonian museums - Air & Space, The National Art Gallery (just a quick stop to see the DiVinci and a couple Monet paintings), and then The American History museum. We headed back to the hotel, packed up, and headed to Dulles for our flight to Plattsburgh. Grandpa Tom generously drove over to get us and bring us home.
Extra leg room on our tiny 30-seat airplane home!
The next morning, we were up and headed off to Noah's baseball game. Their team looked pretty flat, and ended up losing, so they played again on Sunday and won! Phew...this baseball season just keeps hanging on! The next game is on Wednesday evening, and if they lose, they'll be done. It has been such a fun team experience, and it's going to be hard when it's over!
Finally, this week, we're getting back into routine at home. Poor Matt had to leave on a business trip to Poughkeepsie yesterday morning, but the rest of us are very happy to be sleeping in our own beds again!
During all the chaos, our girl Frankie turned 5! FIVE! How can it be?! She got some new toys and a peanut butter doggie cupcake for her special day!
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