The Adventurous Explorer's Spring

Highlights

• After some really warm weather in March and early-mid April, we have had some truly lovely cool and beautiful spring weather.
• Frank and Zach had Easter brunch with Michael and Tim and families
• Frank and Zach got out camping for the first time at Cunningham Falls State Park (biking, hiking, and a fire w/ s’mores!) and went again about a month later to the Mt. Storm area, near Canaan Valley, WV.
• Jackson’s birthday party at Skyzone and fun talking to the moms!
• The Lake Anne/Forest Edge basketball game nonsense. Zach had a fun time with his friends, and I chatted briefly with Claire before I volunteered for the last hour. Lake Anne lost all the games, which is unusual and was particularly annoying since I struggle with Forest Edge as the “community killer.” Cora is moving to Forest Edge next year, so our walking crew will shrink again! :( However, Zach has signed up for safety patrol, so our walking crew would be changing anyway. 
• A playdate with Theo, including Henry and the cousins. They played baseball and watched Jumanji.
• Randomly running into Kyle and playing soccer together two evenings. <3
• Bike rides for Frank and Zach and to school for Zach for one week, and Cora joined them on a ride to get ice cream.

• A second Loudoun United game. This time they tied! 
• Meeting with Leni and Megan to plan the muffin exchange and the muffin exchange! I spoke French and we talked about many other ideas for getting together.
• Dom hung out after a soccer game, and we went to Ted’s Bulletin and he and Zach had a blast. Sad we probably won't see him again.
• Crocheting here and there

• Jeff is on the mend, and Jeff, Frank, Zach, and Gib all met and took a hike at Great Falls. I met the crew for dinner at Bollywood Bistro.
• Mother’s Day lunch on Saturday with Mom and Dad, Emily, Zach, and I

• Mother’s Day hike at a park with a challenge course testing balance, bagels, coffee, smoothies, and finally after hours, pizza at Stone Tower winery for me, Frank, and Zach.

Soccer

• Wow! This deserves its own blurb! I created a soccer playlist. Fun, but we’ve never listened to it, other than Eye of the Tiger when they won their second game of the year in early April! I followed Kyle and Dylan around! Tee hee!
• Soccer season got going with five games in April over three weekends. Whew! Jake pulled Zach out of goal on the April 12 game. Unexpected! He believed he saw Zach lose focus and wander around before getting back in position to defend the goal. I told him that I thought pulling Zach out was harsh. It was. Zach is the keeper who is always there for the team. He should be given more grace. And in the end, Jake was wrong! He called to apologize, and he apologized to Zach. That is how human relationships work, and it was tough! According to Liam, it’s not the same to pull a keeper from a game as it is for a regular player because the keeper role is 90% confidence. Ack! The drama! At the last game of the season, Coach Carter gave Zach some major kudos for one of his great stops, and when Zach brushed it off as luck, he said, "No, you were in the right position. You don't give yourself enough credit." I think he maybe even said it was his favorite play of the game. <3

• Later in April, Altin sprained his wrist, diving for the ball and hitting the post, so Zach was the full-time keeper for a few games. 
• At the end of April, the team went down to Richmond, and we gave Dom a ride. We listened to Operation Do-Over and spied an unexpected number of tractors, including a tractor towing a truck, and many yard art skeletons. Wasn’t Halloween six months ago?! The team got lunch after the game at a local spot, Buttermilk and Honey. Driving back it was just me and Zach. A really nice drive through the country.
• In early May, we had our final home game against the #1 Pre-ECNL team, so that was rough. Plus we essentially lost Alan and two other players. Two faded away; one only played two games and the other only three of eight. At many games there were no subs, but the core team played on. So proud of them!
• The boys are all scattering, not only because of the age group changes, but many are going to new clubs. The whole spring has been disrupted by tryouts and altered practice schedules and bad weather that has cancelled practices. More than any other spring, the season has fizzled, trying to get guest players all season. The big losses continued, and it’s been a true roller coaster! It has been nice to have Coach Carter stepping in to guide the boys at three games.
• What will Zach do next year? Well, who needs a keeper? It might be GFR or Loudoun East. We had hoped for Riverbend, but it looks like that won't work out.

Food and Cooking

• Purple barley, tofu, chickpeas, and seaweed
• Thompson Italian brunch with Auntie Em
• Ethiopian! Zach loves it and feels so adventurous!
• Muffin exchange muffins
• Blue Chicken cookies
• La Madeleine chocolate dipped croissant and chocolate custard croissant
• In Vienna, Framed coffee’s cinnamon and honey latte and earl grey and lemon cookie. The cookie has been SO.GOOD!

Zach: Of Note

• Still listening A LOT. 
• He bought some baseball cards and has taken them to school
• RBFC’s free, after school soccer started up; I've helped with the sessions
• He has said twice now that Social Studies is his favorite subject. 
• Ms. Edmiston had them work on their own “I Survived” book, and he picked D-Day. It was fun to talk about his story together! Characters are Noah and Rufus
• They also did a research project, and he picked Thurgood Marshall and told me all kinds of great facts about him!
• He would recommend most days at school to a friend or colleague. (NPS joke)
• We found his first tick on May 13
• In anticipation of our trip to The Cayman Islands, he got Crocs

Projects

• I’ve brought Zach into my Play Club idea, and he’s rebranded it the Adventurous Explorers' Club
• I’ve started a Couch to 5K for AI, and it has really energized me!

Enjoying

• We finished the reboot of OIIce and learned that the actor who played Lorenzo died at the age of 24 in 2020. We talked about it as a family, and I said it was, “crazy,” and Zach corrected me, “No, it’s crazy sad.” I agreed. 
• We have also been enjoying The Secrets of Sulphur Springs
• I’ve started up with my own Sudoku book
• I’ve been doing a lot more reading: The Correspondent - my fave! Love & Saffron, Clock Dance, and I’m currently reading French Braid
• I watched Rustin about Bayard Rustin, one of the political activists that made the March on Washington happen and Stamped from the Beginning

Challenges

• Judie left and trying to sort things out without her, which has mostly been okay so far...
• Virginia special election - results were invalidated

Fun Stuff

• Walks to school with the kids and Beth
• Connection time with Emily, Paige, Mary Kay, and Kathleen
• Dragons! Zach rediscovered his dragon, Dragonini, and we took him out on a hike with us. Then, Zach took him to school, and it turns out many of the kids have some version of the same dragon, so it’s become a thing! 
• Coffee with Judie, regular check-ins with Angela
• Manager Essentials coaching session
• Wine and cheese with Frank

Health stuff

• Foot stretches
• Jumping rope and Darebee
• Doctor’s appointments: annual physical and bloodwork, annual breast cancer check-in, and annual dermatologist scan - all looks good!