Bowlin Beige

The second grade performed a short play called Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Our little bug was a firefly and did a great job with her singing and speaking roles. Here are a few highlights!

JMU is the FCS National Champion! Or, as Ainsley would say, " We are WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! " Try explaining the FCS/FBS playoff system to a seven year old... A whirlwind trip to Texas (which almost didn't happen because of snow storms) led us to the national championship game. As always, when we're around our JMU friends, we had tons of fun and lots of laughs. Lots of food and drink, tailgating with 200+ people, an awesome game, post-game tailgating, and more post-game partying - what a great weekend. Even better was having so many friends join us on the trip - college roommates and friends from all over the U.S. - just such a great time. Our new custom shoes, ready to go to the game! A veeeeeeery cold Texas morning (12 degrees!) 200+ at the tailgate! Guard Girls!  Luckily the cameraman was a good sport about the streamers... We look forward to making the trip again in 2018!

We spent the winter break traveling all over the East Coast to visit family. We started in PA with my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. First stop - Dulles Smithsonian museum on our way north, and then the train museum with Nana and Papa! Papa got out his old locomotives and Parker had a great time helping him! Then we headed home to spend Christmas Eve in our own beds. The kids had a fun Christmas morning before we packed up and headed to the airport. New riding helmet, gloves, chaps and boots! Next stop - Nashville! We got to spend time with Eric's parents, brother's family, and aunts, uncles and cousins. We also got to see some of his extended family over dinner. Then we took a quick day trip down to Alabama to visit Grandma Camilla! She had a great time showing off her house and town to the kids, as this was their first time there! Another successful holiday trip - lots of family, friends...

Fargo?? North Dakota?? Yep - that's the one! JMU had the semi-final playoff game against reigning 5-time champion North Dakota State. Lucky for us,  JMU was smart and chartered at 747 from the valley straight to Fargo. We grabbed two tickets and hopped on board the party plane with a bunch of our fellow Dukes. And what a trip it was! Despite the temperatures (-4) and the snow, we had a wonderful 8 hours there and met some of the nicest people ever. Eric was flying straight from NJ to meet us there (and would then fly home with us) so he missed some of the pre-game excitement. The ND fans were so welcoming and genuinely excited to host us there - they bought us drinks, chatted about football, and wished us safe travels. A guy in the stands even passed out ear plugs to everyone (their indoor stadium is well-known for being loud).  Eric's flight was delayed several times but he made it to his seat 5 minutes before kickoff. Inside the temperature-controlled FargoDo...