USA Indoor National Tournament

This has become a special weekend each year for Jared and Chris as they travel up to to Virginia to compete.  They bring Memoir '44 to play in the hotel and have a great time at the tournament and hanging with the team after.  Here's Chris' write-up for the year:

This past weekend, Jared and I (Chris) went up to Harrisonburg, VA for the 51st US Indoor and JOAD National Archery tournament. We did this last year and had a great time. Each day, Jared shot two rounds, each round consisting of 10 "ends" with each end being 3 arrows. On Friday, his two rounds total 518 and one round was a personal best of 264. Saturday he shot a daily best of 521 and on Sunday posted a 519 to finish out a very consistent weekend. This year was his first shooting in the next level up, so he was competing with kids in the 15-18 age group. He has certainly set the tone for his archery future with consistent performances and incrementally improving his scores. I would expect Jared on the podium in the near future.... :-)

 

AHG Award Dance

Tonight was the American Heritage Girls Award Ceremony with desert and dance afterward.  This is Amber's first year in AHG and she's really enjoying the activities. Amber earned the following badges:

• Home Care and Repair
• Archery
• Horsemanship
• Daughter of the King
• Aviation
• Sign Language
• Insect-a Inspect-a 
• Social Skills and Etiquette
• Our Feathered Friends 

Being home-schooled helps (as many of the girls are) in getting lots of badges, since I can easily cater her curricula to meet the requirements. It also gives a focus to our extra-curricular activities, which is a win-win.

After the award ceremony, it was really special to see Lance and Amber dancing together, so sorry I forgot to take a picture, I was just enjoying the moment.  As a bonus, I too danced the waltz with my oldest son that night and Amber too danced with her handsome father.

Strange Weather

There is nothing stranger than North Carolina weather.  Last week we were in shorts laying the sod, then this week the kids were sledding in the snow Thursday and by Sunday, the snow was all gone and we were helping Miss Kathy move and doing a Scavenger hunt at the Arboretum in beautiful sunny weather.  I guess that just about sums up the week.  The only thing to add is that the Amazing Otto Family won the scavenger hunt, having an amazing time and earning us free tickets to the big plant sale later this year.

Country LIfe

Birdzilla laid another mega egg this week, her eggs don't even fit in our egg containers and our other eggs aren't small.

On Tuesday, we went to a really neat show called "Hillbilly Science Spectacular".  This had to be one of the most entertaining science shows we've ever seen.  What made it even more special was that Titus was picked to be his assistant.  You can watch the video at this link: Show

Each year in writing class during Valentines week, Miss Penny takes these silly pictures of the boys:

She also texted me the following after Chris picked up the boys at class today, "Funny story - When your younger kids were calling out to Lance and Jared after class from the car, Lance looked at me and said, "We're just fostering them.  We're not going to keep them." LOL

Saturday was the big day of reclaiming our backyard.  The yard had been a mud pit with not even many weeds growing through the wet fall and winter.  Now with the help of our friends in the S Family we have a beautifully sodded backyard.  It's such a joy to look out the window and see the lush green grass and ironically with many hands, it really took very little time to put down.

Happy Birthday Titus!

 

To celebrate Titus birthday we had the S Family over for a birthday bash, the Saturday before.  All the kids had a great time playing together.  Then today, his actual birthday, we celebrated at Goldfish with a different group of friends.  As luck would have it, he and his friends were the only ones in the pool during free swim and Lance was able to join-in and add to the fun.

Then this evening we had a third celebration at the home with our family.  Titus is such a great kid even three celebrations doesn't seem like enough.  LOVE YOU TITUS!

More Horses

I have a strange list of things my children should do before they graduate.  On that list is the ability to tack-up and ride a horse.  Lance and Jared became proficient horse riders in Florida but Titus was still too young.  As Amber had started taking lessons, I realized Titus should join so he did.  At previous lessons he had come along and helped groom Henry (Polo's barn pony buddy).  He took to riding really well, I think this is going to great experience for both of them.

Happy Birthday to Me!

 

The family really made my birthday extra special this year!  It's been a long time since I received flowers and these were gorgeous.  The kids made really pretty paper flowers to line the ceiling  I had lamented that I wouldn't see my birds in the morning anymore because the Oak was gone, my family listened and bought me a wonderful window feeder and as an extra bonus some beautiful stain-glass pieces (I love stain glass, especially blue stain glass.).

The amazing part is they managed to accomplish this while I took Lance and Jared to Writing class and did my Costco shopping run.  Chris had asked in the morning what I wanted for dinner,  I said "Lasagna but its Wednesday we don't have time for that."  I was wrong, soon as we left, he ran out the door with Amber and Titus, did all the shopping and started the lasagna.  It was taking a little long, so he texted Lance to drag his feet talking with people leaving writing class.  Then on the way home he came up with a false errand to run at the grocery store.  In the end everything was perfect, so thankful for my loving family that made me feel so special tonight.

Timber on Target!

 

We've feared for a while that the White Oak in the front yard was dying.  We didn't want to remove he tree because we didn't want to loose such a big tree and because of the cost.  However, another perk of our arboretum membership is to get free consultation from an arborist.  The arborist came by in the fall and confirmed what we feared; the tree was already half dead from a fungus.  Thankfully the fungus wasn't contagious to our other oaks (it must have been injured at some point and it enter the trunk that way).  We were hoping we could do something to save the tree, but alas we could not.  One of the many things I enjoyed about the arborist, is they don't remove trees as part of their business, so their opinion to remove, is not compromised by a conflict of interest.  I asked for a recommendation of who should remove the tree and he gave me a name.  Funny part is when I had them come out for an estimate, the owner of the company was surprised they had recommended them.  Apparently he didn't know the arborist was no longer competition.  We dickered back and forth a bit and he gave me a very reasonable deal (half what neighbors had paid) "since business is slow in January

When they came to take it down on Wednesday it was quite the event, school came a screeching halt, as did Chris' work day.  The tree is about 120ft tall and they had to use a large crane; taking it down in three 40ft segments.  The most amazing to me was they came, set-up the crane, took down the tree, mulched or carted it away in only two hours.  Toward the end, the gentleman you see up in the tree came over to us and asked "Why did you decide to remove the tree?".  We told him because we knew it was dying, then he said "It was so rotten my spikes were sinking in like it was mud.  I think it would have come down next wind storm."  Ironically, a week later we had that big wind storm, the tree had been only 15 ft. from the house.

Saturday, Amber's American Heritage Girl Troop went to First Flight Archery to earn their Archery badges.  Coach John and Leslie has tweaked the "Introduction to Archery" class to meet their badge requirements.  Since there was an open line, Titus was able to join in as well and get his introduction class done*.  All the girls had fun and earned their badges, we'll see if anyone wants to continue.

*No surprise, he shot the best out of the group, earned an ice cream bar but chivalrously gave it to the girl in second.

Horses on Target

Friday, Amber finally began horseback riding lessons.  Lance had met a young lady at dance class that owned a horse and today Amber started to learn to ride.  To say she was excited would be an understatement.  We've been looking for a place that was close and affordable for years.  The horse she rode is a Welsh Pony named Polo.  Brittan and Polo were the perfect combination of excitement and stability Amber needs.  

Saturday, Jared competed in both USA Archery and JOAD State Archery tournaments.  This was really long day of shooting. **Update:  He ended up placing 11th but considering it was his first time shooting in this age range (15-18) and he was technically still 14, I think its pretty impressive.

On Sunday, Chris posted this on FB "Dental care in the Otto house is becoming serious business", or it could be the bathroom has terrible lighting and my eyes are old LOL.

New Years Day Hike

This year for your New Year's Day Hike we chose Raven Rock Park.  This is one of our favorite hikes.  We like it because its a challenge and its a destination hike.  The destination is an area next to the Haw River with a long staircase down.  At the bottom there are huge rock formations along the river that the kids like to explore.  As an extra bonus, the trail is a circle, not an out and back, so the way home provides different scenery as well.

The kids were "Looking Amazing!".

Per tradition we also measured everyone. Lance still holds the title (by an inch) as tallest child in the house but I think he may have to relinquish it next year.