Welcome to the World of Our Four Fantastic Pigs

Welcome Home, Ajax!

on December 22, 2023

Guess what? We got a puppy! His name is Ajax, and he’s a Great Pyrenees/Saint Bernard mix. He’s a little over 4 months old right now, and he’s hovering about 45-50 pounds. We think he’ll be a bit bigger than his big sister, Iris, who is around 90 pounds, which will be perfect. Iris and Ajax are the best of friends. They spend hours playing in the yard wrestling and exploring. Ajax has discovered a cache of sticks that no one else knows about. He litters the upper yard with them and when we collect them and put them into the compost, he always has 10 more stashed away to bring up. Where do they all come from? We’re guessing Asher, but we can’t say for sure. But as Ajax is a friendly floof that we all love, we’re rolling with it.

Other amazing updates: Riley is the state Archery champion! He is also the outdoor Buckle champion! He did amazing over the summer. Now he is moving back to indoor competition. Riley doesn’t love competing, as he really would like everyone to win, so tournaments haven’t been his favorite, but he’s going to see if he can come to a good place with it. If not, he’ll just be a very good recreational archer. Whatever he chooses though, we’ll be there to support that decision.

Emmett’s performance in Six was a smash success. He was Anne of Cleves. His song, I’m the Queen of the Castle, was amazing. Check out the video. He’s now moving onto Mean Girls, where he’s playing the principal. He’s also in the ensemble. He’s so happy to have a good part AND be able to dance. Emmett’s always loved dancing. Check out the video of him at the Depeche Mode concert. We had strangers remarking on how talented he is. He even made a new friend whom he danced with at the concert. We’re looking forward to seeing him perform in Mean Girls in March.

This fall, we’ve done all of our favorite fall things: We went to Glow in the Gardens, Zoo Lights, and a new jack o lantern thing at another outdoor garden place. They were all great except for the new jack o lantern event, which we didn’t love as it was really commercialized–think Marvel and movie character jack o lanterns. That’s not really our thing, but now we know. We did enjoy trick or treating for Halloween. We loved getting dressed up, but we got a late start so we were only out for about an hour before people started turning off their lights. Next year, Riley’s thinking of having a Halloween party instead of trick or treating.

We just got back from a bit of time in the mountains. We sledded, swam, rode fat tire bikes on snow, went to our favorite candy shop, and enjoyed a fantastic night of charades. (Asher successfully acted out Beetlejuice by impersonating a dung beetle!) Emmett was super quick on the uptake, and he guessed a number of correct answers that everyone else was struggling with. His visual-spatial skills served him well.

There was a stand up video game console at the house, and we loved diving into old school arcade games especially since we just got a relaunched Atari 2600 for Hanukkah. The Atari games aren’t as in depth as the ones we play on our Xbox, but it was great to see Dad excel at Asteroids and Mom rock on Qbert. At the mountain house, when Mom set the new high score for Pac Man, Riley said, “Guys, we are in the presence of a god.”

Riley and Asher are doing outdoor survival classes, Riley obviously is still arch-ing, Tessa’s in both mixed media art and drawing classes, Asher is in soccer, and Emmett’s doing ice skating, DND, and theater. Everyone’s very busy. But happy. We’re grateful for that.

In other news, Riley turned 14 and Emmett turned 15. That’s just crazy. Tessa is talking about turning 13 in January, when she’ll get her own phone. Even Asher is double digits. We are so old. Not too old to look forward to the holidays, though. We can’t wait to open presents on Monday for what we call Giftavus. Then it’s New Year’s with our annual Silly String War. And the week after, it’s back to the salt mines. But for now, we’re enjoying the possibility of snow on Mom’s birthday and all of the presents we’re getting and giving the next day.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!


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