Aside from today being a day that is not yesterday, they both feel the same. Now that the holidays have passed, in fact, each week feels the same.

Every week we have school work, skiing, art, acting, breakdancing, swimming, archery, and Denver Options. Each week we love playing outside, are annoyed at how much work we’re being asked to do, fight with each other, fight with Mom and Dad, build something, run around with Iris, love hanging out with each other, love hanging out with Mom and Dad, go somewhere new, learn something interesting, and say we’re learning nothing interesting. Each week draws to a close on Saturday, and then we start the routine again on Sunday doing it all again.

Playing, fighting, studying, working, practicing, laughing, yelling, building, snuggling, growling, running, complaining, learning. It’s sunny, it’s snowy–repeat. We’re too tired to do anything, we’re bored that there’s nothing to do–repeat. We can’t wait for tomorrow; tomorrow comes and we can’t wait for the next day–repeat.

The holidays were busy but they added something new, something that wouldn’t happen again for an entire year, to our weekly schedule. We miss them. But we are looking forward to when the weather warms up and we get back outside when the sun is shining. Sleepaway camps are scheduled. Summer vacations too.

We’re just slogging through these late winter doldrums. Moving without the sensation of movement is exhausting. Do you feel it too?

Hang in there,

The Pigs

We’ve come through the holiday season with a sense of peace and calm. Amazing, huh? Dad even said that this was the first year that he really enjoyed the holidays. Dad’s usually our Scrooge, but not this year!

We celebrated Hanukkah, lighting the menorah every night and practicing saying the prayer, we went to a Japanese Tea Room for Mom’s birthday, we got our normal Giftavus (Christmas) haul, and we stayed up sort of late for New Year’s. All of it was great. We even threw in DCPA performance of the Christmas Carol featuring two of our school friends and trips to the History Colorado museum and the Museum of Nature and Science. And because we paced ourselves and didn’t overschedule ourselves (too much), we not only survived the holiday season, we feel recharged and ready for what comes next.

So, what does come next?

Emmett is scheduled to participate in a production of Glee, Riley’s heading back to the range for JOAD, Asher’s hitting the floor for breakdancing class, and Tessa’s booked into another session of art. Ski season also starts for us this next week. Each year, Dad takes us skiing weekly, but this year we’re all four going to ski every week. How, you ask, can he keep an eye on all four of us at once on the hill? Well, he won’t. Dad will ski with two of us, while the other two take lessons. A perfect solution.

In the meantime, we’ve been sprucing the house up a bit. You might have noticed the amazing tree house that Dad built? Well, we’re also getting new fireplaces in the house, as well as some other mechanical work done. The fireplaces we really need, though, as those three days with negative temperatures as a high last month really demonstrated how much cold air comes into the house through the ones that we currently have. (We had to stuff blankets and pillows into the openings around each fireplace to keep that cold air out.) It’s a heating nightmare soon to be solved.

Tessa also has a birthday coming up. Sweet T’s gonna be twelve! Although, as an aside, most of the time she comes across as a bit older than that. It’s a combination of her independence and vocabulary learned from listening to hundreds of hours of myth and conspiracy podcasts. And her memory. Something goes into that brain and it sticks. Forever.

Although we are enjoying our days, we are also looking past January. We’ve already booked sleep away camps for this upcoming summer, a trip to Maine, and we’re looking into going to London in September. We didn’t end up taking a trip to Greece this year, but we all agreed that we’d prefer something a bit less scheduled. Something with more free time. Something like our recent trip to DC. After some discussion, we landed on London. Who wouldn’t love all those museums?

So, to recap: We’re all looking forward to getting back into the swing of a normal routine, while also keeping our eye on some highlighted days on this year’s calendar.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on how everything shakes out.

Best,

The Pigs

Because Riley turned 13 this year (13!), we now officially have two teens in the house. (Unofficially, all of us pigs have been working a teen ‘tude for a bit now.) And Riley’s birthday at the end of October marks the start of our Holiday Season. This year, we were ready for it. Riley likes to keep it low-key, so for his birthday we ate at one of his favorite restaurants, got cake from his favorite cake shop, and hit up Glow at the Gardens. We love the Botanic Gardens on non-holidays, but on Halloween and in December, they get all dressed up with lights and serve hot chocolate. It’s lovely. Also, Riley got a phone, so now’s he a part of that population. (Still no social media for any pigs, though, so there’s that.) Anyway, it was a great day had by all.

The week after Riley’s birthday, we returned to the Botanic Gardens for Ghost at the Gardens, which is an event where staff share personal stories of their haunting experiences at the gardens. Because it is built on the old Denver cemetery, and because the city never excavated and reinterred all of the old residents, not only do the gardens still regularly dig up bodies, but there are tons of stories of ghosts haunting the place. We heard lot of cool stories this year, but this wasn’t the first year we attended this event. The first year we went to Ghosts at the Gardens was the year before the pandemic, and when we were there, we actually had our own ghost experience!

That year, the garden took small groups around from spot to spot on the grounds, stopping along the way to share stories about paranormal encounters. The lights were mostly off on the grounds, and the guide continually asked that the group stay together and that stragglers keep up. When Dad mentioned this to Emmett, who was falling a bit behind, he turned around and said, “What about that guy back there?” But when Dad looked where Emmett was pointing, he saw nothing. He did, however, see that Asher was also staring at the same place. Turns out, both Emmett and Asher saw a dark figure following our group, but no one else did. Creepy, huh!

Back to this year…

We trick or treated with friends again this year, and it was amazing! Emmett was Vecna, Tessa was a Demogorgan, and Riley was Eddie from Stranger Things, and Asher was a soldier. Emmett trick or treated the entire night in bare feet because his costume included foot coverings and he wanted to look authentic. It was cold and by the end of the night both Mom and Dad expected him to at least say something about being bare foot, but Emmett didn’t complain once. What commitment to character!

Speaking of character, Emmett did another handful of classes this fall at the DCPA. We all attended a performance for his Improv Class, and it was so funny that it made the rest of want to enroll in Improve Classes too. He’s scheduled to be in a performance of Glee in the new year, so stay tuned for information about that.

Tessa continued creating fantastic art projects in art class this fall, and she even made her own dragon costume for Options’ Book Character Day. She went as a character from the Wings of Fire books, and she looked fantastic!

Asher’s progressed to not only being water safe in swim classes, but now he’s working on the butterfly stroke. He’s planning to pivot from swimming to breakdancing in January, but we’re all so proud of the progress he’s made with his swimming. Yay, Asher!

Riley joined a JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) archery team and his coach thinks that he’s a natural. Coach wants Riley to start to train for the Olympics in 6 years because he thinks Riley has a great chance at medaling, but Riley wants to just have fun with the sport. He’s going to start slow, entering into some tournaments in the spring, and go from there. We’ll see what happens with it, but really it all comes down to what Riley decides. For now, he’s chosen to have fun, and he’s achieving that goal, which is great!

If you’ve been looking at our pics you’ve seen that we just got back from Washington DC! We toured the Capitol and Arlington, we walked the mall many times over and took in all of the memorials, we went undercover at the Spy Museum (twice), and we skated at the wharf. Also, we got to see the Smithsonian’s Air and Space and Natural History Museums. We were on our feet for an average of 8 hours a day, and we walked most places (except when it was so cold we just couldn’t manage it). But loved it all.

We celebrated Emmett’s birthday when we were there too! He’s 14 now. Crazy. We had dinner at a place with an arcade and we went ice skating to celebrate. Also, he loved his hippo onesie, his squish action figures, and the Lego sets he got for his presents. Overall, it was a win!

Coming up, we have Hanukkah, Mom’s Birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s. We have tickets to A Christmas Carol, Blossoms of Light at the Botanic Gardens, (we already attended Zoo Lights), and we booked a Drag Queen to be our guide at another local holiday event. Everything’s going to be great. We can’t wait!

Hopefully everyone out there in Pig Land is enjoying this holiday season…

Stay warm!

The Pigs

Can you feel it? There’s a change in the weather. Overnight, we went from hot and sticky to cool, sweater weather. We, personally, are lovin’ it. It reminds us of changing trees, Halloween, and cold nights curled up watching a family movie. It means that snow and skiing are just around the corner. It means harvesting the bounty from our garden. But for now, we are enjoying back to school…

We’ve said goodbye to everything summer. Our camps were amazing. Emmett performed, Tessa arted, Riley biked, and Asher demonstrated deep survival skills. Our camping was awesome. We saw Mount Rushmore, but preferred Crazy Horse, and survived an enormous downpour while in the CO woods. Overall, fantastic.

We are all back at our one-day-a-week school, Denver Options, and this year it’s great! We’re taking everything from Cooking Science to Myths to STEAM. We’re hanging out with new and old friends, and we’re making plans for night games (before it gets too cold) and museum days.

We’ve started new at-home classes too, including US History, science, and Literature. So far, all are pretty good. They aren’t too hard, they are interesting and engaging, and no one’s lost a limb. Although, next week we start back into some workbooks, which no one is looking forward to, so stay tuned for a report on that.

As for extracurriculars, Emmett’s got more theater classes coming up. He’s excited to be working a bunch on craft, but he’s also taking a You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown musical course. He says he’s ready! Tessa’s already started into another season of after school art class. Last spring, she brought home a paper mache dragon head; we can’t wait to see what she brings home this time. Riley and Asher are keeping things simple, sticking only to music and Shop Class for now. (Did we mention everyone’s taking a weekly Shop Class? Drill presses and band saws and chop saws, oh my!) But Riley’s rocking Master of Puppets on the guitar, and Asher’s working on the Mandalorian theme on the uke–so they are all good.

Check back in the Fall when we’ve picked out Halloween costumes (everyone except for Asher is leaning toward Stranger Things; Asher’s committed to a military theme) and carved pumpkins. (Tessa’s already amazed everyone with her baking skills, making pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread from pies harvested from our garden, so she’s ahead of this curve.)

Be well,

The Pigs

This year, we decided to do just as many camps as we’ve done in previous summers (the 2020 pandemic summer being an obvious exception), only now, we’ve decided NOT to do camps with each other. This has been amazing for each of us. We’ve had more opportunities to grow and explore what we’re capable of outside of the Pig Community. We’ve tried new things, honed existing skills, and stepped up when asked. It’s only mid-summer, but so far, so good.

Emmett did a 2 week Pinocchio camp at the DCPA, auditioning for and getting the part of Pinocchio. Not only was he fantastic, but it was so, so obvious how much he’d grown in his acting skills from the start of the camp to the end of the camp. His director even said so. And, best of all, he said that he didn’t have any anxiety when performing. Yay!

Tessa did a 2 week Avid Outdoor camp, jumping into the same outdoor activities she did at sleep away camp last year, just without the sleeping away. She said that she definitely prefers the water sports, SUPing being her favorite, but she must have also appreciated the land days because her group voted her Most Likely to be an Avid Counselor. Her counselor told Mom that this came down to Tessa not only having he confidence to do things without waiting to be asked, but also having the foresight to think through the processes while taking into account the personalities involved in each activity. Tessa also did a week-long rock climbing camp, where she had fun, but not as much fun as when she was out on the water.

Riley did a Zoo camp and 2 weeks of rock climbing. He loved learning about the zoo animals, and now that the zoo’s so familiar to him (this is his 4th or 5th summer at Zoo Camp), he spends his time searching out new information and hidden gems. Riley’s also greatly improved his climbing skills. He’s working on getting his time down on the speed climbing wall as well as the routes with overhangs. Each day, he has a new best time to report. Nicely done, Riley! He’s also proud of being a leader and a great help with the younger campers.

After 3 weeks of camps so far, Asher has also grown into his inherent fantastic-ness. He started with a local rec center camp, and unlike past camps where he didn’t always want to go back, this time he was excited to see his friends and play everyday. He never wanted to be picked up early, and the counselors reported his great attitude. In art camp, Asher got to work on a spray paint canvas. He was excited to explore this new medium and crafted a wonderful piece. But it was in Survival Skills camp where Asher really shined. He taught his co-campers everything he’d already learned about outdoor survival, even going so far as to bring one of his survival manuals to camp to share with friends. His counselors said that he stepped up helping others while advocating for himself, and that he was a real leader in his group. Yay!

But this summer hasn’t been 100% summer camps. We finally got new sod in the backyard and we are taking advantage of it every chance we get, with night games and Slip ‘n Sliding, our Fourth of July fireworks were epic, and we’ve loved spending time chilling in our comfy home.

After this week, we are taking a road trip to parts north to do some camping. Hopefully, we see some cool animals and interesting sights. We’re planning on stopping at Devil’s Tower, so maybe UFOs will be involved.

Stay tuned…

It’s officially Spring, and although winter was dry and not too cold, we’re still excited to see everything green up and start to grow. Summer’s still a bit off, but we’ve only got 2 more weeks before school is out and we’re released to the wilds of June, July, and August. To get ready for the summer, the entire family’s logged hours of time outside putting a raised garden into the side yard. We’ve got a list of all the plants planned to go in, but we were excited to see so many of the plants we planted last fall have come back! Our hops and our clematis are already weaving their way up the side of the house, and almost all of the perennials and grasses we planted around the house have thrown up green shoots. (The only ones that didn’t make it so far are ones that Iris pulled out of the ground.) Once we get the backyard sod installed, we’ll have thick, green sod to play on and generally enjoy for the summer. We can’t wait!

Here’s a bit of a roundup of what we’ve been up to these past few months.

Asher’s moved from basketball onto flag football, and though he enjoys it, there’s nothing he likes more than building Legos. He used some of his allowance to purchase military Legos, and now he’s constructing a Lego military base. He will sit at the Lego table or on the floor in the Lego room building for hours and hours. He’s creative and has fantastic spatial awareness, so his builds are fairly impressive for a small nugget.

He’s still swimming and is now officially a good swimmer. Yay, Asher! His skills have advanced to the point where Mom feels comfortable with him being in the pool without water wings, which means that we might even go to Water World this summer!

At the beginning of March, Emmett completed an epic 7 show run of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, performing as Poseidon. It was marred only by a 24-hour stomach bug. He performed Friday night, threw up immediately after he got home, missed his Saturday performance, but managed to pull off performing in the Sunday matinee. He was ashen faced and tired on Sunday, but he really wanted to finish off the show’s run, so he pushed through. Nice work, Emmett!

Tessa, Riley, and Emmett asked to start music lessons again. (Asher declined.) Riley on the guitar and Tessa and Emmett on the piano. (Emmett wants to learn to compose on the piano.) They’ve all received top marks from their teacher, and have progressed through a ton of material in a very short period of time.

They’ve all three also been coding in online classes. Tessa and Riley’s classes just ended, and Emmett’s has just begun. They’ve stuck to games they love, Minecraft and Roblox, but they are learning general coding skills that are applicable across many platforms.

Tessa is still arting, creating wall hangings, clay creations, and paintings in art class, in addition to undertaking her own art projects at home. Tessa’s creativity also runs to cooking, so we are never without baked goods in the house. Thanks, Tessa!

Riley has hit new milestones in archery with both his recurve and compound bows. He practices in our backyard range and has worked his way up to scoring in the top third of the class. Go, Riley! He has also just started taking Greek language classes. He loves all things ancient Greek, and he decided he’d like to learn the language as well. When we visit there next year, he’ll be able to translate for the entire family.

Finally, Emmett and Asher bought some Learning to Draw books and are working in their sketch pads to master cartoon figures and animals. Asher loves cute animals, and Emmett’s working on faces and hands. So great!

Everyone’s looking forward to taking a trip to Maine in a bit to visit our cousins Suzy, Gail, and Rose. We can’t wait to see their home, hang out with them, and tool around Maine. It’ll be a perfect start to the summer because when we get back, it’s week after week of summer camp. We decided not to enroll in any camps together, which makes our overall summer more full, but we’ll each strike out on our own, meeting new people and learning new skills outside of our tight knit crew.

We hope you’ve all enjoyed the start to this year and are smoothly moving into the spring!

Best,

The Pigs

Although the autumn was hot and dry, and although we’ve only had a handful of snowstorms since the start of the year, it’s still winter. The cold spell last week kept the temperatures below freezing for at least a week, something that doesn’t happen often in Colorado. Today, though, we’re back up to the 60s, and it’s supposed to hit 70 tomorrow. Nice weather, but we still need snow!

There’s been enough snow in the mountains that we’ve been skiing each week with Dad, and it’s been awesome. We’ve been heading up the big lift and skiing blues this season. Aside from some arguing in the car on the way up (we’re all too tired to do it on the way down), our skiing days have been pretty chill for everyone. Everyone but Emmett, that is, who’s been diligently rehearsing his part as Poseidon for the upcoming Percy Jackson musical performance. He’s also the understudy for Ares! He’s going to do amazing, we are certain of it! He has 7 (seven!) performances that start this Friday. We are so excited for him!

Asher’s been hitting the court this winter playing basketball. He’s still learning the rules, and he’s not certain he really likes to follow them all (a shocker, we know), but he’s doing a lot of running up and down the court. He got his team picture last week and his own trading cards. Fantastic.

He and Tessa just finished up a Dragon’s Eye art class, where they created a dragon’s eye out of clay and painted it. Tessa’s back at a new session of Art Club this evening, Riley’s still racking up his pins in Archery, Asher’s strokes are progressing in swimming, Emmett’s practicing acting and voice over techniques at DCPA classes, and both Tessa and Riley are coding. Add to that our regular school work and Denver Options days, and we’re really very busy.

We are heading out to Maine in May to see cousins Suzy, Gail, and Rose, and we can’t wait! We’ve got a house on the beach, where we all fully intend to relax in preparation for a busy summer camp season. But that is still 3 months away. For now, it’s still winter. They are predicting snow this upcoming weekend. Cross your fingers there is enough to sled on.

Take care,

The Larsons

2021 was quite a year.

On top of all the seasonal celebrations (birthdays, July 4th, Thanksgiving, winter holidays), we moved, we expanded our mental health practice, the big kids all did sleep away camp for the first time, Emmett performed at Disney World, all of the kids performed in Treasure Island, we went to Hawai’i, we adopted a new puppy (Iris), Riley made his annual trip to Children’s Hospital (Nerf gun dart in the eye), Emmett officially became a teenager and got his own phone. It was b-u-s-y. We never thought that we’d be the drama type (except for Emmett, of course, who is a natural born thespian), but we realized this year that whenever someone asks us “How are things?”, we have a lot to relate. It’s not just that we have a lot on our plate. There’s always something happening to us. Each time we think, “Yes, we’ve made it to some downtime,” boom! Crazy happens to us. It happens to us. This is, at least on this first day of 2022, something we’re going to unpack so as to better understand and be better situated in 2022. Nevertheless, we’ve made the most of 2021’s opportunities, crazy or no.

How? you ask. Since we’ve not posted since June, that is, indeed, a reasonable question. In fact, we only posted 3 times in 2021. Three times! (We were in the midst of so, so much happening that we didn’t even have time to update Pig Party Nation regarding the Pig Party.) We apologize. We have been remiss.

Are we over scheduled? Perhaps. Are we just not scheduling the right things to promote peace and quiet? Maybe. Did we experience a lot of transition in 2021? Definitely. Did we push ourselves to conquer fears in 2021? Without a doubt. This last piece is the proof that we’ve not wasted our experiences.

Let us illuminate.

Exhibit A

Emmett did cosplay camp, creating a male Elsa-look for his final project. At first, he was upset that his materials and his ability to mold the materials he had weren’t enough. After a bit, Emmett came to a realization that he might not always be able to embody his finished product-whether it be literal or figurative-the way that he wants. He sees things very clearly in his mind, Emmett’s imagination is prodigious, and getting from point A to point B isn’t always feasible. Mom, however, spoke to him about a lesson there: Learn to enjoy the ride, she said, and have compassion for yourself while both recognizing and pushing your limits. It isn’t an easy lesson, and many adult struggle with it, but Emmett has firmly planted himself in the performing arts, and if he is to remain there in health and happiness, it is an important lesson to learn now. Emmett applied the lesson while tackling head on performance anxiety at Disney World. He was so joyful in the moment while performing, in fact, that he had tears of joy streaming down his face. When asked about it, he said that he was just so happy to be performing at Disney World that he couldn’t help but cry. His Beauty and the Beast performance in December benefited from finding joy in the moment, and his academic work has benefited from him being compassionate with himself. Well done, Emmett.

Exhibit B

Riley pivoted from rock climbing to archery classes in 2021 (though now he wants to start rock climbing again, go figure). This past fall, in an archery camp, Riley received great attention from the coach for his skill. Although Riley’s had a recurve bow for a while, he just recently started taking regular lessons. So, when he was told by his coach that he was a natural and that the coach would like Riley to join his JOAD team, Riley was understandably proud of himself. Riley mulled over the offer. As the week in camp wore on, however, Riley decided that although he likes archery, and although he enjoys demonstrating his abilities to the acclaim of others, he chose not to continue working with that coach after the camp came to a close. Why? At first, Mom thought that it was because the coach made Riley work hard. Riley doesn’t love doing sprints and pushups as much as he loves hitting targets. Mom looked and all of the other area JOAD teams were full. She continued to circle back around to Riley, asking him if he wanted to work with this one coach. But again and again, he said that he didn’t want to. Finally, he clarified that the coach “had a vibe” that made Riley feel uncomfortable. Riley went on to say that the coach didn’t step in when some of the campers weren’t so kind to each other or when they made fun of another camper that wasn’t such a great shot. Riley didn’t want to work with a coach that let his students think that bullying behavior was acceptable as long as they were winning. Instead of joining a JOAD team, Dad put up a target in the yard where Riley can shoot more regularly and on his own terms. Good job, Riley.

Exhibit C

Tessa loves to create art, but in 2021 she also discovered that she loves to have time to herself to art in whatever capacity she chooses. She was presented with multiple art camps this past year–week long art summer camps, sewing camps, theatrical art classes–but she said no to all of them except for one weekly, multi media art class. Instead, she’s been spending a lot of time in her room or in our new art room just creating. She made holiday decorations for the house, including intricate snowflakes and a paper string of lights; she and dad created a cocooned victim for our Halloween spider web lighting; and she made individual, personalized holiday presents and birthday presents for everyone in the house. She’s realized that her love of art doesn’t extend to doing just anything, and she’s decided that joining a camp or class means less time for her to choose her own projects. She’s chosen to take just one class to get the instruction she wants and to see what she can do with the knowledge she already possesses. That’s some great self awareness and self confidence. Create away, Tessa.

Exhibit D

Asher came a bit late to swimming. He was in weekly classes before COVID, but those were the before-times. During COVID, his swim school closed, along with the rec centers, and he took a long hiatus from the pool. When we moved to our new house, Mom got Asher signed up at the old swim school where the big kids learned their strokes. Asher, however, wasn’t as interested in being in the pool as the big kids were when they were his age. He was, in fact, afraid of the deep end. This went on for a while. The first week, he refused to go into the deep end. He told Mom that he was afraid he’d drown. Mom explained that his was a private lesson, that his teacher had no other kids to keep an eye on beside Asher, and that she was there too. The second week, Asher skipped class because our smallest kitty had gone missing, and we were canvassing the neighborhood. (See? So much happening. Thank goodness Itty-Bitty came back that second night.) The third week, Asher and Mom talked about a plan of action for him to succeed. He asked for Emmett and Tessa to come to his swim lesson with him, for them to sit on the other side of the viewing window, and for Mom to sit on the bench poolside. Done, mom said. Asher was still afraid, but with everyone there, he knew there wasn’t a chance he’d drown if he got into trouble in the deep end. So, instead of refusing, he swam his laps. And he did it again the week after. By the third lesson, he was good to go into the deep end without Mom poolside and without his siblings keeping a close watch on him. He said he was no longer afraid to go into deeper water, and he learned that leaning into the people that love him most will often help get him through something difficult. We will always be here for you, Asher.

On top of these examples, all of us have decided that we would rather no longer have big birthday parties. (By Mom’s count, our family alone has had more than 40 kid birthday parties, so we aren’t lacking in that capacity.) But we’ve decided that we would rather not have a ton of friends over to run around the house screaming for 3 hours. We decided that we would rather have meaningful experiences that we get to craft: Going to the mountains with the family, inviting a friend and her family to the movies, having a few friends come for a sleepover. Although, overall, we’ve not spent a ton of time with a ton of kids, it seems that we’ve come to recognize that being with people just to be with people isn’t very satisfying, especially in large numbers. What’s better is to spend quality time with a few close friends.

So, while we made good use of the the experiences we had in 2021, we are asking the Universe to make 2022 a bit more tame. As in, not so much chaos. We, for our part, are doing our best to make choices that support that. We are already keen not to overschedule summer 2022, we’ve planned our year’s travels and are intent to make the trips a mix of both adventure and relaxation, and we’re planning to enjoy more down time in our new home. There have already been pajama and reading days and pajama and Lego building days, all of which we’ve enjoyed. After doing so much, and moving so many times, being able to rest, relax, and rejuvenate has been wonderful. We’d like to order more of that, please.

Here’s to you 2022! We choose balance for the new year.

Pigs Out

It’s official! After wandering for more time than we thought possible, we’ve moved in to our forever home. For those of you keeping score at home, this was our 6th move in 7 years. But now that we’re here, and now that it’s done, it seems worth the wait. Everyone has their own bedroom, there are lots and lots of windows, and we’ve got a huge yard. This turned out to be especially important, as we just adopted a puppy! (Yay!) Her name is Iris, she’s a 3 month old Newfoundland mix, and she is a snuggler. (Double yay!) The kitties are getting used to her, and she’s getting used to the house and her new family. She especially loves running like a crazy lady around the 2 acre backyard. (Yes, we did say 2 acres.) It’s great! There’s still much to be done to the house both inside and out, but we’ve got time. It’s ours!

We got here just in time for a summer packed with fantasticness. Asher already had a week of art camp where he built a portable castle filled with characters and weapons. He created a backstory for each character as well as an enemy for the castle inhabitants to fight. So creative! Emmett also just finished a camp. He was gone at a 2 week long outdoor adventure sleepaway camp during the move, and he came back to a new house and a new puppy. He hiked, biked, canoed, kayaked, rock climbed, did archery, and generally had an amazing time. (Riley and Tessa go to the same camp at the end of July.) Up next is Ninja Warrior Camp for Tessa and Riley and Cosplay camp for Emmett; Asher is set to do an outdoor Survival Skills camp and a sewing camp; and everyone will go to Zoo camp. Throw in swim lessons for Asher, rock climbing club for Riley, and violin lessons for Emmett, and we are pretty booked.

But wait, there’s more…

We are going to Maui in August! We did our Scuba classroom and pool lessons last month, and now we need to do our Open Water Dive portion of the certification. This will be our first big vacation in years. Years! We can’t wait. We are staying right on the beach, and we are scheduled to kayak and snorkel with sea turtles (in addition to Scuba-ing). Plus, we’ll have plenty of time for just hanging out in the warm Hawaii sun. Ah, just thinking about it feels good. Imagine what it’ll be like to actually be there.

Lots and lots has been happening. We’ll keep you posted as more things come up. Asher is turning 8 (eight!), we start at a new school the week after we come back from Hawaii, Mom and Dad are opening up two new practice locations for the business. So, lots of stuff is coming up. But now that we have a home base that won’t change for the foreseeable future, maybe we can do all of our stuff with a little more ease.

Wishing all of you out there in Pig Country a great summer.

Be well,

The Pigs

It’s spring in Colorado, and that means–snow. Lots and lots of snow. Take one historically large snowstorm, add a handful of other medium spring snowstorms, and you reach the end of April in Colorado with snow on the ground. Things are greening up, broken tree branches are on the ground, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it snowed again next week. Although the warmth is intermittent, however, we are happy to see buds on the trees and bulbs poking up out of the ground. We are looking forward to a lot of upcoming events. But first, a quick recap of what we’ve been doing.

Emmett and Riley are deep into coding classes; Emmett has been coding in Roblox and Riley has been coding in Minecraft. While they both enjoy coding, they are ready to take a break from that screen time (gasp!) when these coding class sessions end. Emmett has also been dipping back into musical theater after a bit of a break from it, doing private singing and acting lessons with an instructor he really likes. Meanwhile, Riley is back at the guitar, working hard on Imagine Dragons and Oingo Boingo songs alike.

Tessa has been arting. She completed a Street Artists class and is now creating baking miniatures (think ceramic donuts and ice cream sundaes). She has also been working on the theme from Harry Potter in her piano lessons, and it sounds great. Sometime this summer, she will host a belated birthday sleepover with friends, as she opted not to have a party for her big day this past January due to COVID.

Asher has spent the majority of every hour of every day building Legos. It’s not hard to locate Asher in the house, as he leaves a trail of Legos in his wake. His builds, however, are impressive beyond his years. This is both his saving grace and the mantra we repeat, trying not to swear, after stepping on one of his stray Legos on the floor. (This happens more than it should.) When he is not building Legos, Asher is also arting. He created a paper mache dragonfly, a sleeping fox kit multi-media canvas, and a paper mache Mount Olympus. (Yay, Asher!) Also, Asher is “horning” (Trademark, Asherverse). This, for the uninitiated, refers to trumpet lessons. He loves playing the trumpet and we are glad. Everyone, however, is going to take a short hiatus from music lessons starting at the beginning of May, which isn’t a bad thing since it looks like we’ll need some time to finally move into our forever house. We are in the midst of closing on the house now, and you never know until contracts are signed, so we don’t want to speak too soon, but the entire crew is super stoked for this move.

The new house has two acres, which means gardens and chickens and new puppies (RIP Isaac). Also, the new house has enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own. This translates to built in detente, something needed on a daily basis. It also will have a library, a room we’ve dearly missed since moving out of our Pinewood house, and lots of large windows, also something we’ve missed from our Pinewood house. We have big plans for this new place, so think good thoughts all you kind souls out there in the Pigverse.

In addition to a new house, the big Pigs will be going away to sleep away camp this summer, and they are both excited and scared, though not in equal measures. They’ve never been to sleep away camp before (thus the fear), but this is Avid camp, their favorite outdoor day-camp, so they have an idea of what to expect. The promotional materials for the overnight edition of Avid camp reads like a brochure for Camp Half Blood, minus the weaponry, full camp war games, and lava on the climbing wall (Google it, those of you not familiar with the Rick Riordan oeuvre). Asher will wait until next summer for sleep away camp and is, instead, going to do an Avid Survival Skills day-camp.

Other day camps featured during the summer of 2021: Zoo camp, art camp, cosplay camp, and sewing camp. As Erik and the Big Pigs are currently completing their SCUBA certifications (Mom is already certified), we are also planning a trip to Grand Cayman for the open water dive portion of our certifications. (Provided international travel opens back up.) Add to this family camping trips, and the summer is shaping up to be a good one. Needless to say, good times will be had by all.

Best,

The Pigs