Escape to La Chua

We tried out a new escape room place.  They're a family-run business and they had a holiday-themed escape room (we had to restore power to the North Pole). We wore our Christmas hats for the occasion. :)  The rooms were a bit of a tight squeeze with all of us, but we had a good time solving the puzzles -- and we did escape in time!  

Afterwards the weather was so nice that we decided to go for a nature walk, and we ended up at La Chua trail, which was a lot of fun.  Isaac was excited to see a snail kite, which used to only be found south of here.

 

Xmas

 Merry Christmas!!

We flew down to Gainesville FL on Thursday, the day before the big blizzard hit Buffalo.  ( I really wish the blizzard had waited 2 weeks so I could have been there to thrill in the novelty and winds and snow.)

The airplane to GNV is small, but at least we don't have to walk outside on the tarmac to get to the plane.

It cooled down quite a bit in GNV shortly after we arrived. Matthew wanted to jump in the water at least once while the temps were in the 50s.  Friday and Saturday night the temps have dropped to the mid-20s.  And it only warmed up to the upper 30s during the day. 

Friday night we went to see Christmas lights at The Duck Pond, which is really a pond on the grounds of the North Florida Regional medical center.  

Solo Fly

Matthew had his first swim meet of the modified (middle school) season. It was a lot of fun!  As before, each kid swims in three events. Matthew did the breaststroke leg of the relay and an individual breaststroke. He also did the butterfly -- as a solo!  The other team was a little smaller and in general there were a lot more girls than boys, so he had the pool to himself. :)  He did a great job, too -- good form and it looked pretty fast to us!  

 

Winter Concert

James had his winter chorus concert this week. (Matthew isn't doing chorus this year.) It was just four songs, short and sweet, but very nice.  You can easily spot James in the pictures since he's the only one with a mask!  (His choice, he still likes wearing it to school as well.)

 

Slight Snow Day

Today was the first snow day of the season. They were expecting a big lake effect snowstorm. Last night we had about six inches pile up in maybe an hour and a half, but then it tapered off and it doesn't seem like we got any more (and some of what's there has now melted). As usual, the Southtowns got a lot more -- Hamburg had something like two feet of snow and the Bills stadium had three feet.  

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/look-bills-stadium-is-unrecognizable-after-getting-hit-by-massive-snowstorm-that-blanketed-all-of-buffalo/

They moved the Bills game to Detroit due to the storm. :)

There wasn't quite enough snow for sledding, but James, his friend, and the boy from across the street had a great time playing snowballs in the back yard.

 

Basement Bar

Mike's basement project is coming along!
 

Late Kelkenberg

Seth and Isaac had planned to visit in October, but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute because James had covid (which he caught from me).  We were going to go to Kelkenberg with them, but ended up going later instead, on the last weekend of the season. The weather was still beautiful, and it wasn't too crowded. The kids enjoyed the corn crib just as much as last time!  And James also was a fan of the basketball, not surprisingly. :)

Tippy the dog (the one who reminded Isaac of Snowball) was still there. The farmer claimed she was getting fat because everyone was feeding her donuts and hot dogs, but she didn't look too fat to us. :)

Halloween

 

For Halloween, Matthew went as Zhong Li, a character from one of his favorite video games (Genshin Impact).  James was going to go as an inflatable T-Rex with his friend, but the school rules didn't allow inflatable costumes, so he went as a scientist instead. :)