Snow Day Part II

So today I had the privilege of doing what we, "on the hill" or "in the District" call...telecommuting.  Have you heard of it?  It means you get to work at home...in your jammies...with no make-up...listening to Christmas music...Lovin' it!!
Anyway, while this was a planned telecommute day for me, the timing was perfect with all the snow outside and me not having to drive in it.  BTW, I use the term "all the snow" in the context of being a Texan.  I realize that those of you from Minnesota are laughing at me!
Anyway, I actually was pretty productive from about 0600 until 1330 (that's 1:30 pm for you civilians...who had to work...in an office..with your clothes on...wearing make-up) when I looked outside to see all three boys (yes, that means Jay) pulling a sled around the yard and throwing snow at each other.  Right about this time, I was regretting not having real clothes on, so I just took pictures.  However, at about 1600 (4:00pm) we did dash out for a family run/bike in the snow.  Our plan was for 4-5 miles but only got about a mile before Cael crashed on his bike for the fourth time and exclaimed that he now hates snow!  So we made snow angels, which he thought was pretty cool, then had a snow ball fight until everyone was cold and wet, but laughing hard...then we walked back home.  Great exercise, I say!
Below are the pictures from the first event today (the back yard was not nearly as snowy as the front), followed by hot chocolate to warm up.  There's nothing that warm chocolate and melty marshmallows won't solve.  Wish you were here!

December

December has been wonderful...we have had so much fun decorating and baking...and NOT doing War College!! That's right I FINISHED the War College...YEAH!  We're now waiting for Jay to finish one more paper before  he is out of school for the semester so we can ALL do some relaxing on the weekends....until he starts up, again, in the spring semester.  Me...did I mention that I'm DONE with War College...YEAH!!
Meanwhile, when my folks were here, we tried to set up our big, beautiful fake Christmas tree and discovered that it will not fit in this house.  So, off we went to the local Christmas tree stand to find a skinny 5 foot tree that fits just right in the Bolling house.  We then took the boys to get their picture taken with Santa and I think Cael was a little nervous.  (weren't we all on our first visit to Santa?)  Last weekend, we walked around downtown and took some pictures of the National Christmas tree and the White House.
The big news is that today we received about 3 inches of snow and proof of the power of prayer.  You see, Cael has faithfully prayed for snow every night for two weeks and today his prayers were answered.  It was so pretty.  Enough to make it look nice but not so much that commuting was entirely miserable.  I took the opportunity to wait out a bit of traffic and go for a run on the National Mall before I came home and took a few shots of the sites while the boys and the next door neighbors had an awesome snow ball fight....

Pretty psychedelic cookies, eh?

One can NEVER have too much sugar...

Santa, we've been VERY good this year...trust us!

Wish you could have all been here!  I'll try to be more faithful in my posts...did I mention that War College is done!!  YEAH!!!  Merry Christmas, everyone!!

November

November started with Cael first of three surgeries.  He was so brave through the whole thing.  This first surgery took about 6 hours so it took awhile for him to wake up and he was pretty sick when he did wake up.  However, our surgeon is wonderful and everything went very well.  Next surgery will most likely occur in April.

Waiting in Pre-op

Practicing breathing through the mask

Cam comes for a visit on the ward

What I failed to mention in our October post is that our wonderful friend, Ginnie, came for support and child care during the marathon and while Cael had his surgery so that Jay and I could tag-team at the hospital...THANK YOU ANYI GINNIE!!

Geese and Pop (and Meg, Tucker's daughter) came for Thanksgiving and we had a great time playing tourist for a couple of days.  It was also having "mom" help cook for the big meal.  There were many things that we were thankful for shared around the dinner table.  I think Cael was completely overwhelmed with the amount of food that was available during the day...God Bless America!!  There's nothing like my mom's dressing and pumpkin cheesecake.  While they were here, long walks were taken along the Potomac and we made a trip to the big Smithsonian's Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum out near Dulles Airport.  Good times were had, but it is always hard when our family leaves :-(

That about wraps up November...next up, December!

October

All,
I know it has been a LONG time since I posted so I decided I better start updates by months...beginning with October.  Let me first start with letting you know that we have been busy, but God has blessed us more than we deserve!
We enjoyed slightly cooler temperatures in October as we continued to train for the Marine Corps Marathon that occurred on Halloween Day.  My brother, Cole, came for a visit and we had the opportunity to go to a Naval Academy Football game...fun, fun, fun, and we won, won, won!

Cam started back to Cub Scouts and both boys played soccer.  During marathon weekend, both boys ran the marathon mile and stayed together the entire time!

Jay and I did finish the marathon and actually felt pretty good at the end!  I will say that age DOES require training...no matter how many marathons you may have run.  That night, we both hobbled around the neighborhood with boys while they trick-or-treated.  Cam went eclectic as Darth Ironman and Cael was Obiwan Kinobi.  Also posted are pictures of Cael's first pumpkin carving...he did great! As we prepared to take him through the neighborhoods for candy, he asked why the people just gave  us candy for saying "trick or treat".  I could not really answer other than..."they just do, so go with it."  He did and had a blast!

That about sums up October...next up November!