NHS Induction

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Emily was so excited to learn that she had been selected for George Washington High School's chapter of National Honor Society and tonight was the kids induction ceremony.  Several of her friends were also inducted so it made for a fun evening.

   

The ceremony was nice.  The officers from this year lead the ceremony and focused on the 4 pillars that members are expected to uphold.  The ceremony was pretty short and after all the kids got their certificates it was time for cake and punch in the school cafeteria.  Emily's skating friend Sarah Saffer was inducted too so we got to spend a little time with her away from the rink which was nice.

   

   

Then, just a few days after induction, Emily told us she was going to apply to be an officer.  I was shocked.  Getting into school activities had not been something she had shown much interest in doing.  But she completed the application and the video (yes, there was a video component) and went in for the interview.  A few days later she got the exciting news...she was selected as the Treasurer!  She was more excited than I have ever seen her about something school related.  Heck, she seemed more excited about this than most of her passing skating tests!  There was a special induction just for the officers, but parents were not invited.  Members only.  At graduation she will get a special sash to wear and she is also VERY excited about that.  Can't say that I blame here since there will only be 5 of them in the entire class!  We're so incredibly proud of you, Emily!!!

   

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Sunday April 21, 2024

We had to celebrate Daniel's birthday a little late this year since we had been in Nashville.  But, delayed fun is still fun, so we were excited to celebrate Dad's special day all the same.  He enjoyed lots of presents, hot dogs and tater tots for dinner and cake (of course).  He also got lots of love from all of us - including the cats!  52 looks good on you D!  We love you!

   

   

Skate Nashville - Long Program

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Today was freeskate day!  There were supposed to be 4 skaters today, but again one withdrew leaving only 3.  So, it was a pretty small group.  But we were still hoping for a solid skate to see how the new program would do...and we were hoping for credit for a 2A.  She did have a very good skate.  No credit for the 2A, though.  I swear it is so close!  Still, she ended up in second for another silver medal!  Such a great skating weekend!  This all bodes well for a great competition season!

   

   

   

   

Skate Nashville - Hitting the Town!

Friday, April 19, 2024

Today was a first for us.  Today Emily had no skating events.  Her short program was yesterday and her long program wasn't until late afternoon on Saturday!  So, today we just had all the fun in Nashville!  We started out with a morning shopping trip to a local mall.  We found several things for each of us and it was really fun!  The mall even had a cute little carousel so of course I needed a picture.

Then we met the rest of the skating crew at the Hard Rock Cafe down on Broadway.  No cowboy hats this year, but it was still super fun!  Then we took in the sights of Broadway for a bit before heading over to the Goo Goo Cluster candy factory!

   

We decided since no one had any skating this afternoon that we would try out the chocolate tour the candy factory offered.  Goo Goo Cluster is a Nashville original and is the first chocolate ever to be combined with another ingredient - in this case caramel and peanuts. 

   

   

   

As part of our tour, we got to learn a little history of the candy and the company, taste some really yummy treats and even make our own, individual Goo Goo Clusters.  It only lasted an hour, but it was really, really fun.  I highly recommend it if you are ever in Nashville.

After the tour, we headed back to the rink to see Lily and Johie skate again and then, since it was really late when Johie finished, we stopped by a local shop for pizza...except it turned out to be more of a carry out only place....they only had one table and it was kind of a dive.  But, oh well, it worked.

Skate Nashville - Short Program

Thursday, April 18, 2024

We had a great time in Nashville last spring, so we were excited to return to Skate Nashville again this year!  Emily was definitely a little more nervous, though, because this season she moved up to Novice ladies...even though she doesn't have a solid double axel, yet.  We drove up on Wednesday night and Emily skated her short program on Thursday at noon.  It started out that there were 8 in her group - which would have been a pretty good size, but then 3 withdrew.

   

   

   

   

She had a great skate!  No credit for either double axel, but she hit everything else and finished in second for the silver medal.  She was over the moon!  Great performance for her first time at this level.  That was all her skating for the day!  We spent the rest of the day cheering on Lily and Johie in their events and grabbing dinner at PF Chang's!

   

Solar Eclipse

 Monday, April 8, 2024

So most of the country was a-buzz about the solar eclipse happening today.  The "zone of totality" actually went right through Dayton, and Daniel thought about driving up to see it (since he was post call today), but the traffic was supposed to be pretty heavy so he decided to pass.  But that did not mean we were not prepared for fun at home!  We had our eclipse glasses, Moon Pies, Milky Way, Starburst candies and Sun Chips.

Daniel set the telescope up on the deck and waited.  I was only luke warm about the whole thing, honestly, but it turned out to be really cool!  We only got about 90% coverage, but even that much was really cool.

   

Daniel took his favorite picture and added a little color in Lightroom and it came out amazing!  We also found some cool time lapse pics of the whole event...but my personal favorite was the rendition with Oreos.  Fun!

   

Yum.