Christmas Morning

We weren't traveling anywhere for Christmas, so Christmas morning started a weeklong relaxation fest. The girls slept in until around 9am, just late enough so Sarah had time to prepare the quiches and get them in the oven. We were also able to enjoy a cup of coffee together before we heard Reese's melodious voice asking if they could come downstairs. Once we got our traditional top of the stairs photo it was game on.

It was our first Christmas morning with our new living room furniture which meant we all got a comfortable place to sit. The girls were definitely set up well for a good morning of unwrapping. Since they were little, though, they have loved to unwrap together and take as much joy in what the other one receives as they do in their own gifts. It is very cool to see.

This year Reese was also intent on purchasing gifts for other family members and had a great idea for her mother. Sarah loved the Lexington Sporting beanie that she can use to keep warm on the sidelines when Reese and Callie have their games in February and March.

Callie received a couple of pairs of sneakers for Christmas along with several other items of clothing. She kept saying throughout the morning, "you guys have done too much." We appreciated her gratitude for the gifts and the fact that she doesn't take it all for granted. She is a great kid, and that also played a part in the gift of the day that her sister received.

That's right, Reese Harper Bowes got a phone. It came well ahead of schedule by about a year, but she was very deserving and we know she will be very responsible. The best part of this gift was that Reese was completely shocked and overwhelmed with emotions when she opened the box. She squealed and started crying with joy. Definitely a Christmas morning to remember.

On Christmas afternoon we had dinner with Sharon and Chris at the Leatherman's house, which is always a good time with great food. The very next night we had a dinner and game night at the Sewell's house. The girls were told it was a Christmas pajama themed evening, so Reese and John broke out their Christmas pants and paired them with their new LSC sweatshirts. They looked pretty good, if you ask us. The rest of the week only stands out in that it involved watching a fair amount of Premier League soccer and hanging out. It was just what we all needed to complete 2022. 
 

Tape Ball 2022

On Christmas Eve we went to church earlier than planned because brutally cold weather led our pastors to cancel the second service. Callie and Reese read the story of the birth of Jesus and then we enjoyed a candle light rendition of Silent Night, a highlight of our year. Once we returned home we finalized all of our preparations for dinner and tape ball with the Abrahams. This year marked the return of Linda Kurtz to the event and what made it even better is that this time her husband Daniel got to join in the fun. With 10 people involved, Kelly and Sarah felt the need to up our game and so we had 45 gifts to correspond to 45 numbers encased in a ball of paper and tape. Needless to say, the size of the tape ball is getting out of hand.

But it is tough to argue with an event that brings so much joy and drama to our crew. Reese and Claire are the two most intense players of the kid set, and Daniel showed a lot of competitive spirit in his debut, especially once he realized that the kids aren't the only ones who take this seriously. He really enjoyed that we had no shame in stealing gifts we wanted from the young.

Christmas also marked the return of Ella after she finished her first semester of her sophomore year. We love seeing all of the Abrahams, but we try and get as much Ella time as we can during the holidays in particular. She also does a great job of strategizing during tape ball and we are impressed how she manages to get the gifts she really wants.

We know this picture was taken before tape ball began because Daniel still has his sweater on. It only took a few rotations before the heat of the game made the sweater a problem. We loved having these two become of our tradition and appreciated that they made the effort when they were having to wake up early on Christmas morning to travel to their families. We hope they will do it again with us next year.

Universal Birthday Greetings

Sam, our elf, always greets Reese with a Happy Birthday sign on her big day. This year Sam's writing contained a clue for Reese about where she would get to travel. 

We thought we had her fooled, but apparently had already figured out that we were going to head to Universal Studios and Harry Potter world for her birthday trip. Now that she knew for sure that was our destination she only needed patience to get through the last week of school before winter break. 

We had smooth trip down to Orlando and arrived just in time to have dinner and get oriented to the layout of our hotel. Our trip included three full days and we had passes for two parks each day. If you want to maximize your Harry Potter experience you have to get the two parks in the deal.

On the very first day we made our way right to Diagon Alley so we could have breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry Potter World is in hidden toward the back of the park, and everything about the set up makes you feel like you have entered the world you know from the books and movies. 

After we ate a tasty breakfast we headed to Gringott's to exchange some money and stood in line for our first Harry Potter ride. The park wasn't insanely crowded at this time, but it was busy enough that we spent a good amount of time waiting in lines. However, the Escape From Gringott's ride was worth it and provided glimpses into the bank and all different aspects of the stories we know so well.

The folks at Universal definitely do their jobs well. To get from Diagon Alley in one park to Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade in another park you can walk or you can take the Hogwarts Express. And of course, to get to the Hogwarts Express you have to find the 9 3/4 platform. It's a very neat set up and we ended up riding the train at least three times over the course of three days.

One of Reese's highlights was tasting the various types of Butterbeer served in the parks. You can have it cold, frozen, hot, or as ice cream. And yes, Reese tried every single kind but her favorite was frozen. She won't decline the offer if you send cold or ice cream her way, of course.

All three days we spent the majority of the days in the parks. On the second day, though, the weather was warm enough for John and Reese to go back to the hotel for a couple of hours so they could take advantage of the hotel pool and lazy river. This gave Callie and Sarah a chance to check out all of the roller coasters that Universal had to offer and that John and Reese had no interest in riding. 

The trip went by fast and before we knew it we were packing our bags to prepare for the journey back to Lexington. This also meant that we had only a few days to get ready for Christmas and all the trimmings. The girls and John were out of school but Sarah still had to work. It was going to be interesting.

A Thanksgiving Captured Mainly in our Hearts

As November dawned we knew we wanted to go to Connecticut for Thanksgiving but we weren't sure how we were going to get there. Flights were expensive so we delayed getting tickets. Then Callie's soccer banquet was scheduled for the Tuesday night of Thanksgiving week, which made flying even trickier. Ultimately we made the decision to drive. We left on Tuesday night right after the banquet and made it to Clarksburg, West Virginia before staying at a hotel for about 6 hours. We got back on the road before sunrise the next morning and pulled into Madison on Wednesday evening around 5pm.

Nana Banana and Sport were very excited to see us and the time we got together made the drive so worth it. John ran the turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning and then we spent the day at the Balestracci's house. Michael and Brendan were both in town and it was great to catch up with them. For a number of reasons, including the covid years, we hadn't been in Madison for Thanksgiving since 2016, so that made this time around that much more special. The only thing that felt off still was that the Hannens weren't able to make the trip. 

We were only in town for a short period of time so we wanted to get as much time with everyone as we could. We had to make sure we got a picture of Katie and Chris with their birthday bandits, of course. Unfortunately we were not on the top of our picture game so we didn't do a good job of taking more photos. But we did get to see the whole Skonieczny clan on Saturday night when Sport and Nana Banana invited everyone over for dessert.

We woke up before dawn on Sunday and got on the road with the goal of finishing the drive in one day. It is worth noting that John started working on his control issues and let Sarah drive the first stretch, which took us into Maryland. The girls made productive use of the drive and slept the majority of the time. We made it back to Lexington safely before the sun set and prepared for the next phase of the holiday season.

Life Beyond Soccer

It may be hard to believe, but we are involved in things that don't involve soccer every now and then. Fall in the bluegrass means a lot of things, but UK football is certainly a big deal these days. Callie and her friends are definitely part of Big Blue Nation. Sarah and Callie had the opportunity to go to a home game on a beautiful day in September while John and Reese were on the road. The Cats won the game and the girls had a great time. 

At the end of September Reese was invited by her friend Emerson to go see Hamilton in Cincinnati to celebrate Emerson's birthday. Reese was very excited and didn't want to throw away her shot to be the first member of our family to see it live. 

From what we hear the show exceeded expectations and Reese and Emerson sang along the entire time. It was nice for Reese to be able to spend some extra time with Emerson since they are no longer on the same club soccer team.

We always want to make sure the girls remember that they are not the only athletes in the house. This marked the tenth time that John ran the Bourbon Chase, which is kind of crazy to think about. This time around John ran three legs totaling almost 22 miles and lucked out with some wonderful weather. It's always a great experience, though it is also nice that it only comes around once a year. 

With such an active fall we really had no plans in place for Callie's actual birthday. We had some ideas, but we weren't able to coordinate anything effectively that allowed for her friends to attend. We had decided to go to El Toro with just the family but then sent a last minute invite to see if some folks could join us. Fortunately, several of Callie's friends were able to surprise her by showing up. It certainly made the night a little bit more exciting for our new 15 year old. She even agreed to have the wait staff sing to her, which is a big step for someone who does not like attention.

On a sadder note, the weekend after Callie's birthday John flew to Miami to support his friend Jason whose mother had just passed away. Tyler flew in from Long Beach as well, but Bill took the prize by coming all the way from Madrid. It was very good to be able to be present for Jason during such a difficult time and it was a great reminder of how important friends are in our lives,

Callie's high soccer schedule had an unfortunate conflict. Her team was out of town the weekend of Henry Clay's homecoming dance and therefore she missed it. Fortunately, her friend Una invited her to go with a group of girls to the homecoming dance at Dunbar High School. It is one of the benefits of living in a city with multiple high schools.

A fun twist to the evening for Sarah was that one of the other girls in the group was the daughter of a colleague from work. Although it wasn't at Henry Clay, it was great for Callie to have her first high school dance with a nice group of girls.

And it wasn't like Callie didn't know anyone else there. In fact, she knew going in that Claire Abraham was going to be there with her boyfriend so she kept an eye out for her. We were very happy to receive a text with this picture during the night of the dance. Everything about it was a sign of how time keeps moving on and the girls keep growing up.

Shortly after Callie dressed up for a dance, Reese was dressing up for some candy. We have some great trick or treating options in the area, and her friends picked one close to our house. They also decided to all go as T-rexes.

The inflatable T-rex costume is one of the most fun because of how silly it looks as they are walking or running. We have a great slow motion video of Reese and her friends racing across the yard.

You can see in the picture above that one of the girls did not feel like dressing up like a T-rex and instead dressed up like a matador to corral all of the dinosaurs. 

With Halloween in the rear view mirror and soccer winding down to an extent, we could turn our attention to the holidays that were right around the corner. Among many things that means Libby and Lucy are in town a bit more often visiting their grandparents next door. Photo opportunities are a bit harder to manage now that the girls are older but we had to at least get one shot. We love the fact that they still enjoy spending time together no matter how much time has passed. 

50 Year Old

So the half-century birthday was bound to come, and it is always more enjoyable to mark this milestone with good friends. It's even better when those good friends turn 50 just a little bit ahead of you. Kelly's milestone day was August 27, just about a week before Sarah, so our wine group decided it all deserved a night out on the town.

The evening started with some tasty beverages and live jazz at Creaux, a great establishment downtown. We are all so used to gathering at each other's houses that it is nice to venture into the public arena now and then.

Our next stop was the Infinity Bar on top of the Centre City complex in the middle of the city. It was a great view and we had a fantastic time just being together. As a side note, this screen shot captures Sarah's most consistent foray into social media to date. It may not last long, but BeReal has made an impact in her daily life and allows her to document such fine moments as this.

The celebrating didn't stop there. The following weekend we headed to West Virginia with the Abrahams to keep the party going. A primary destination was New River Gorge National Park. We were looking forward to some hiking and some great views. Fortunately we got both. Some really cool views came from our bridge walk.

The bridge that crosses the gorge is the largest steel arch bridge outside of China. The arch is about 1,700 feet long and the roadway of the bridge is nearly 900 feet above the New River below. On Bridge Day held in October each year there is a lottery to bungee jump off the bridge or even BASE jump off. We went with the safer option of a guided tour walking across the underbelly of the bridge.

The arch is 1,700 feet long but the actual bridge is about 3,300 feet long, so it is not a short walk. The morning of our tour was foggy which made for some eerie but cool pictures. We were worried about not getting to see the views we had read about, but in the course of the hour we were walking the fog cleared and we got to see it all.

Everyone was pretty comfortable with the height. It helped that we were all attached by ropes to a safety line. However, Reese took some time to get to her comfort zone. She has a healthy respect for heights and so was not immediately excited when we had told her what we were doing. 

We had a great guide who shared a lot of insight but also allowed us to take our time and enjoy the views. She also knew the perfect place to stop and get a group picture that captured the bridge and the New River so far below. We do love our National Parks and this was another great experience to add to our family history.

We also managed to fit in a nice hike up the New River that had waterfalls and swimming holes. Reese was the only individual that had any interest in swimming, but from her report the water was cold so it didn't last long. Overall the weekend was a blast and a great way for Sarah and Kelly to acknowledge another trip around the sun and the joy that comes from making that trip with family and friends.

Fall Sports

High school soccer comes at you like a freight train. The season starts in mid-July and ends in early October. In between the weeks are filled with practices and night games that don't get you home until 10pm. Needless to say, we love it.

Callie had made varsity, but as the season began, we didn't really know what that would mean. How much playing time would she get and how would she perform on the field with girls that were up to three years older than her?

Our first inkling of what might happen came in the form of a text message from a friend who pays more attention to the local paper than we do. "Made the paper as a freshman...AWESOME!" That message accompanied a picture taken of part of the Herald-Leader's girls high school soccer preview. Callie's coach pointed her out as one of the standouts for the team. John went right out to buy a copy of the paper. This certainly set high expectations for Callie to live up to, but she was ready for the challenge.

While Callie was getting to know the life of a varsity soccer player, Reese was getting acclimated to her new club team. LFC is no more and instead we have Lexington Sporting as our primary club team. It's part of a larger effort to also bring professional soccer to Lexington, so it's pretty cool all around. This is the first year that Reese will play 11v11 on a full field and after two years with Coach Tom she now has a new coach, Coach Paul. 

For the last three years Reese has played with most of the same girls. This new team brought together girls from a number of different clubs and teams, including some girls who had been playing up an age group. And on top of that this was one of the teams chosen by the club to play in a national league called Girls Academy. Among other things this meant our fall schedule included weekend games in Illinois, Indiana, Detroit, Tennessee, and Ohio. We didn't know what to expect, but everyone was excited. The picture above was taken after their very first game, a 5-0 victory over a team from the Chicago area. Seemed like a good sign for us.

To make things even more hectic, this year Fayette County changed up the middle school sports schedule. Instead of girls basketball starting in late October and being a winter sport, it started in August and therefore completely overlapped with soccer. Reese and several of her teammates had to juggle basketball and soccer for a couple of months, which wasn't easy.

The basketball coaches had to be flexible because without the soccer girls they wouldn't be able to put a team on the floor. And Reese and company were also good helpers at the fundraising carwash, so they were doing their best to contribute across the board.

In August, Grammy flew out so that she could see Callie play high school soccer. Due to the timing, unfortunately Reese didn't have a soccer or basketball game while she was in town. It is hard to believe that this was the first opportunity Grammy Gayle had had to see either of the girls play, but it was nice to have her join in craziness for a week.

Her visit also coincided with her 75th birthday which meant we are able to treat her to a nice dinner at a great restaurant that we could walk to from our house. It's always fun to have Grammy in town.

A fun aspect of high school soccer is playing your club teammates who happen to go to different schools. When Henry Clay played Dunbar, for example, the game featured five girls on Callie's club team. And this was almost the case every time we played another Lexington high school team. However, this also put extra pressure on Callie as she wanted to prove herself against those same teammates. Overall, Henry Clay was having an up and down season. They had some games where they clicked and others where they couldn't make anything happen. Through it all Callie was getting a lot of playing time, starting at forward, and scoring goals. She was learning a lot and gaining confidence as the season went on.

Reese was also going through a learning curve with her team. Coach Paul decided early on that he was going to have Reese play outside back, a position that was never on her radar. To her credit, Reese rolled with the punches, played where she was asked to play, and never stopped giving 100 percent. It must be noted that Reese is the youngest on her team and the way they create the age groups it means she is often on the field with a lot of girls who are almost a year older. The size difference, especially at this age, can be alarming and Reese was often guarding forwards who looked like they were twice her height. However she never backed down.

Her team didn't back down either. By mid-September we were feeling pretty good about the team as they kept winning games even against competition at tournaments from Georgia, New Jersey, and Maryland.

We had the good fortune of seeing Nana Banana and Sport in late August as well when they made the trip down with the same idea that Grammy had. They got a bit luckier because they not only got to see Callie play a couple of games but they also got to see Reese play basketball.

One good thing about 6th grade basketball is that they had a league just for 6th grade teams. The games were played every Saturday, which wasn't ideal for soccer, but we tried to make as many of them work as possible. Another great thing about basketball is that she got to play on a team with her good friend Mary. These two have played on the same soccer team for three years but this year the club made a strict rule about age groups, and since Mary was born in 2011 and Reese in 2010 they were now on different teams.

The Morton coaches are a husband and wife team who brought a lot of energy to the task. They were great working with the girls and had them running drills, learning plays, and above all, having fun.

Reese has played a lot of rec basketball over the years, so she knows the game. And she was a little bummed that she wasn't part of the starting five every time, but she still played a lot. The fact is, she plays basketball the way she does everything else - she hustles and doesn't give up. Her speed and feistiness kept her on the court.

The basketball season ended with a 6th grade championship tournament on a Saturday morning in October. At least three of the girls had to miss because of soccer conflicts we didn't think our Mustangs would last too long. Shame on us, because these girls won their first game and then they just kept winning. In the championship they scored the last five points of the game and secured a come from behind victory. Reese played almost every minute of every game and it was a blast to watch. Needless to say the coaches were overjoyed and the players were exhausted. 

With basketball in the rear view mirror we now turned our attention to high school soccer's playoffs. It started with the 42nd District playoffs. Henry Clay has won their district something like ten straight years, but this year it was a new coach and the season had been up and down. The Blue Devils had a 6-10 record entering the playoffs and Frederick Douglass had only lost three games and was coming in with a lot of confidence. 

The first game for Henry Clay was a rematch against Scott County. Just weeks earlier on Henry Clay's senior night, the Blue Devils pulled out a victory in penalty kicks. We were hoping our girls could play a bit better this time around. They started off hot with a goal early in the first half as Regan Spivey scored with an assist from Callie. What happened after was a bit surreal. With ten minutes to go in the first half, Henry Clay was still up 1-0. In the span of seven minutes, Callie scored three goals. A hat trick in seven minutes. Impressive for anyone, much less a freshman. The game ended with a 4-2 victory and two days later they played Frederick Douglass.

They had lost to the Broncos 2-0 earlier in the season, a score that didn't reflect how well they had played. And on this night they were fired up, especially because the Douglass team and supporters were a bit cocky coming in to the evening. Towards the end of the first half Callie scored a goal off of a corner kick. It certainly got the Blue Devil fans rocking in the stands. Douglass evened it up 1-1 in the second half and the stage was set for a tense final 20 minutes. With about eleven minutes to go, Henry Clay got a corner kick. Callie was taking the corner, and in a fun twist of fate, Reese was the ball girl on that side of the field. The first corner was solid but cleared by Douglass. Reese gave her another ball. Corner number two was cleared yet again by Douglass out of bounds. Reese provided the ball for corner number three. This time Callie put it right at the six-yard box and Grace Plummer headed it into the back of the net. Beautiful goal followed by some mayhem and high fives in the stands. When the ref blew the final whistle the Blue Devils were District Champions!

After the game they not only handed out a team trophy but named the all-district team. And since we had never experienced something like this, we didn't realize what was going on. Neither did Callie, and when her name was called she wasn't sure what to do. But there she was, one of four Blue Devils named to the squad. And it doesn't take being a biased parent to know that she deserved it. In two games Henry Clay had 6 goals. Callie scored four and assisted the other two. 

One thing that makes high school sports so fun is that you play for your school and therefore your classmates come to support you. There were a lot of kids from Henry Clay there to cheer on their friends and the whole Blue Devil squad. Not sure we'll be able to duplicated this experience, but we are still looking forward to keeping the streak of district championships alive for years to come.

That finish in districts put Henry Clay in the Regional playoffs, where they faced Madison Central. Unfortunately it was a game that brought an end to the season with a 2-1 loss. The season ended on a down, but overall it had more ups and the girls have a great future ahead of them. As one final set of ups, Callie earned a couple more post-season honors. She was Honorable Mention for both the all-region and all-city teams. It truly was an incredible year for her and we are so very proud.

We had a long break in between the last game and the banquet, but it was great to have the opportunity to revisit the accomplishments of the year and celebrate the seniors. We missed most of the banquet last year to it was great to be able to experience the whole deal. We were so excited for Callie as she was named Rookie of the Year for the varsity team. Her friend Janie was MVP of the junior varsity. These two will be doing great things on the field together moving forward.

Callie is lucky to be part of a large freshmen cohort. There are a lot of just good people in this crew and just as many great soccer players. The future looks bright.

But before we can dwell too long on the next high school season we have to turn all of our attention to the club schedule. Reese's team was in full swing in October and Callie's team started practice in early November. As they say, no rest for the weary!