Summer 2025

Rewinding to late May, Caroline attended Senior Prom (at the Museum of Science!) with a group of girlfriends

Her high school graduation was held at the U Mass Lowell arena. Nana, Joe, Tracy, and Jenna came up to attend and somehow we failed to capture a photo of them!

Next Caroline and Lyla visited Colleen in London

Over 4th of July we visited DC to see my family. All the cousins were there except Brooke, who was away at Governor's School

The kids watched fireworks in Chesapeake Beach and hunted for shark teeth

and otherwise relaxed

 In this family portrait, Caroline's sunburn is noticeable, and so we asked ChatGPT to modify the photo to remove the sunburn

Its response was this photo, which corrected the sunburn but also changed our eyes and smiles. We then told ChatGPT that the smiles looked demented and asked to make them less creepy

and this is the result. Who are these people??

This year's summer rock concert was Coldplay

It was an amazing performance, but the headline the day later was from an incident during the acoustic set when they panned the crowd looking for a couple and caught a CEO with his arms around a female executive who was not his wife. 

Tessie continued riding lessons at the local stable. She has started jumping with a new horse, Sully, who suits her

She attended local camps and also went to North Carolina for farm camp. It was hot down there but she liked caring for a kid named Carmel Delight

and a nanny goat named Stokes

Ana and Chris wish they had goats on their property

and Heather learned about Shelby North Carolina's famous food, liver mush. There is a liver mush festival October 25th in Shelby if you want to check it out for yourself

Back home Tessie is Tai-Tai's snuggle buddy

and she helped finish a few more Junior Ranger booklets. I liked her 4th life milestone here.

Erin's big camp adventure was with Overland, on a 2-week trip in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado

 

They ditched their phones and spent their nights in tents

The trip culminated in a 17-mile, 4,500 feet vertical ascent and descent of Mt. Elbert, at 14,439 feet the highest in the Rockies and 2nd highest in the lower 48

There were other adventures involving propane fires and accidental bear spray firing, in addition to challenging group dynamics. Those are all undocumented, but Erin tells the good stories if you ask her to. 

The Envirothon national competition was held in Calgary, Alberta at Mount Royal University

There were 51 teams from 43 US states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 2 from China

This year's Lexington team had 4 seniors who knew the drill, which involved training for the testing and hanging out with the other kids

For the testing, there were 5 subject exams on Wildlife, Forestry, Aquatics, Soils, and the annually rotating Current Issue, which this time around was "Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change". And then there was an oral presentation based on a prompt relating to the current issue.

Last year Caroline's team was 2-time defending champions but fell to 6th place overall. Caroline would say that as overworked juniors, they didn't study enough beforehand. This time around Caroline said that the team was locked in and they crammed as a team in the weeks leading up to it. Before the overall winner was announced, the highest scoring team for each exam was announced

Maryland won Aquatics, New York took Wildlife, North Carolina won Current Issue, Pennsylvania scored the Oral Presentation, but Lexington took home the 1st place checks for Soils and for Forestry. For the overall winner, the announcer said that it came down to a single point differential. Who would it be?

They did it again!

Thank you National Conservation Foundation and corporate partner Smithfield for another generous prize, which brings Caroline's career earnings from Envirothon to $10K

Maryland almost squeaked out the victory. One misidentified skull on the Wildlife exam might have made the difference.

Next year's competition is at MSU in Starkville, Mississippi. Those teams will be sweating it out in the South!

As a child of a Canadian citizen, I am also a Canadian citizen but until now I lacked proper documentation. After submitting my request for a citizenship certificate and supplying the required birth records, I received my nicely embossed paper from the Canadian government. Just behind this paper was a memo stating that children of children of Canadian citizens currently do not have citizenship rights. Apparently there is a proposal in the legislature to offer 2nd generation citizenship to families who maintain "substantial connection to Canada", defined as the parent residing in Canada for 3 years prior to birth of the children. Hmm, I don't have 3 years of residence, but I've been wearing my cousin Brian's mukluk boots in the winter for 30 years. I root against the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Canadiens. I pronounce "been" the same as bean. I eat poutine whenever presented with an opportunity.  Does this count as substantial connection to Canada?