Always off-season

Each time I manage to post photos, it's a reminder of what weather is like at others times of year -- so last July there were winter photos  and now we have summer photos.

So here are pictures from two weeks of camp (daycamp for Oren and Noa, first time sleepaway camp for Li'el and Eytan).

There's also a summer swim team in our township that the three oldest kids got to try this year.

(okay, that pool video wasn't from summer, but it was grouped thematically).

Meanwhile, we were able to do some summer outings too -- museums, zoo, visit from Unc, etc.

We made it a top priority to mostly stay home, which was lovely, and led to the almost-done building of a tree house (which I somehow didn't take a picture of, but I will next summer when it gets finished!). The one exception to this stay-home policy was a weekend at family camp with Unc and Christy.

...where aside from other fun things (like swimming and kayaking across the lake above), there was a funny local Michigan campaign sign.

Big news in the fall was a bar mitzvah for Eytan, with lots of visitors.

And a birthday for Pa the same weekend.

We sold our old van (with beloved sticker windows) and bought a red one in better shape.

Fall brought a return to school for all of us.

Including a middle school play (which now includes both Eytan and Li'el) (with a throw-back photo of a previous school play too for fun).

I had a lot of school field trips this fall.

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Fall meant soccer games and cross country meets.

Really nice fall colors, dry weather (nice for people, less so for pasture growth), and friend birthdays.

Haircuts.

Eventual Halloween costumes.

And space suit inspired videos.

With us milking the cows this fall, I've been making a lot (a lot lot) of cheese.

And other people have been doing some cooking too.

We ended up adopting a second cat, who spent her first few weeks like this.

She has mostly come out of her shell, although she still tends towards skittish, and she and Timber don't get along, so for now we have an upstairs cat (Butters, Butt-butt for short) and a downstairs cat (Timber).

Lots of birthday celebrations (Eytan, Mama, Noa, and Papa).

We were able to go to NY for Thanksgiving.

And to Minnesota over winter break, where we lucked out with snow and lots of visiting.

Chanukah we were back in Pittsburgh.

And in animal news, baby cow Rose has grown significantly (two sets of July v. January photos below).

On December 31st we all did a New Year's Eve running race in Harmony, PA (5K for Eytan, Li'el, and Mama; 1 mile for Oren, Noa, and Papa) followed by fireworks at 6pm.

 

And Noa rode a trolley for a friend's birthday in Washington, PA.

And now we are for sure in winter, with much appreciated and unusually consistent snow.

Wishing you all the best in 2025, and see you again in summer (if trends persist)!