Spring/End of School 2025

 The last month of school flew by, as it always tends to do. Easter was at the end of April, so that meant that spring break ended on April 22, followed by standardized testing week, spirit week, teacher appreciation week, Corban had a field trip, and then it was the last week of school.

Our "traditional" Easter dinner at the Blacksburg Tavern:

Easter baskets!

For Mother's Day I got a Lego set of one of my favorite Disney characters. He lives
on my desk with the picture that Corban did a while ago of me doing an ultrasound.

Corban's class took a trip to Monticello. Learning about Thomas Jefferson's home and history was so interesting, and the gardens were beautiful. We were in the middle of a garden tour when it started pouring, but we still go to see a lot. And then we got to eat at an "all you can eat" southern restaurant and all the kids loved that. 

Corban just waiting at church for his piano lesson to start.

Corban did such a good job at his piano recital. The song that he was
playing got switched a couple weeks before since he broke his left 3rd
finger when it got jammed on a basketball, but it was still great!

Both of the boys had a lot going on with Scouts towards the end of the school year too. Corban helped at a food drive and took organizing the collection very seriously and was very helpful. We were supposed to spend the night camping at the Trout-O-Ree, but it was below freezing and raining. We went up the next morning to fish but that was short lived since it was snowing (in April). The group also went to see and learn from a weather balloon launch and had their end of the year party.

Gabriel went on his first camping trip without us and seemed to have a really great time. He was in charge of breakfast for his patrol and even learned how to cook us a new dinner of sauteed sausage and peppers with rice. It's good! He went to an overnight lock-in at a rock climbing gym and brought his friend Emerson. He also had an end of the year ceremony.

And then it was the last day of school. Goodbye 4th and 6th grade. I think that Corban enjoyed school this past year more than any other year in the past. His teacher was so engaged and made learning so fun. He said that he wanted to stay in the 4th grade. Gabriel ended up figuring out the middle school thing part way through the year and doing really well too. It was hard to jump from a single classroom to multiple teachers and different study halls. The schedule was not the same on any day during the week. After a bit he figured out a groove and self managed most of his work without much help.

Awards Day. This was the first year that we had the elementary ceremony in the morning and then came back in the evening for the middle/high school ceremony. Corban got awards for excellence in the language arts and the "Bible Scholar" award. When he went to stand next to Ms. Ford for the awards she joked that he was standing closer to her than he had all year. Corban needs his space.

Aaron, Asa, Evan, Ms. Ford, Emma, Corban, Colton

The evening program was all new to us. Each student wasn't called up to talk about their specific accomplishments or positive character traits. Awards for grades, attendance, and community service were given (apparently we were supposed to be keeping track of Gabriel's community service hours if he was to qualify for those awards - oops).

Gabriel, Holly Meyer, and Aela. The kindergarten bunch. Selah is
moving over the summer so they are what's left of the original group.

Aela, Aiden, Gabriel, Emerson

Gabriel got a "Faculty Commendation" award, which means that 3-4 of his teachers recommended him for the award which is based on class performance as well as attitude and effort. We were so proud of him!

The next day Gabriel had his violin recital. It was the first time that Taylor did not play with him and he did an amazing job. And Grandma Cheryl got to come for the Gabriel's end of the year Scout ceremony, Awards Day, and Gabriel's recital since they were all packed into one long weekend.

Fun on a short church hike on The Coal Miner's Trail

And then we launched off into summer!

Disney Trip

It was finally time for the Disney/Legoland trip! We were a little nervous the few days leading up to leaving because Gabriel got the flu a little less than a week before we left and we figured it would run thru everyone before we left, but the day before no one else had gotten sick. I called Corban's pediatrician's office and left a message for the nurse asking what to to. His doctor called me back after office hours and said "no kid wants the flu at Disney World. I'm calling in some Tamiflu." So we all took Tamiflu. Corban seemed a little sick when we were driving down but after that everyone was fine!

We left on Saturday in the afternoon after the Pinewood Derby and drove about halfway down. On Sunday we drove the rest of the way and had time to settle in and the boys did some swimming before bed (in the "piano pool" which was pretty cool). Another evening at the other pool they were showing Mulan (which the boys had never seen). They enjoyed watching it while goofing around in the water.

Ping Pong at the pool

Bright and early we headed out to Magic Kingdom. We wanted to get there early to hopefully get a good place in line for the new Tron ride.

Giving Dad Mickey Ears

Tron was awesome!

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Lunch view

Seven Dwarves Mine Train

This Jungle Cruise boat captain was the best I've ever had. Made the kids and
the adults laugh cracking jokes comparing her ex-boyfriend experiences to the
different animals and scenes.

Started and ended the day with Tron

The next day was Legoland. I'm glad we took a day to go there because we all had fun, but the boys were clearly about to age out of most of the rides and experiences there. We found a couple faster rides and they enjoyed the huge Lego store and seeing all of the Lego creations. Corban was excited for the Ninjago area in particular.

On Wednesday we took a "rest day." We went to Disney Springs to eat at Earl of Sandwich, check out another Lego store (where the boys used their Disney gift cards that Uncle Aaron and Aunt Tiffany got them for Christmas), eat Wetzel's Pretzels, and wandered the other fun Disney stores.

That evening we met Caroline and Josh for dinner. Caroline was in the youth group and is now engaged so it was fun to meet up with them and chat.

Thursday was Epcot. The boys were most excited about the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. It was so new and popular that there was no "stand by" line to ride. You had to purchase an extra ride ticket ahead of time. We all wished we could ride it more than once. We rode Soarin' and the Ratatouille more than once and enjoyed the amazing Epcot firework show. It was the one day that was a little rainy but it was a good day for that. Lots of indoor lines. And they got to experience "Spaceship Earth" in the Epcot ball before it closed a couple months later.

Nemo

Guardians of the Galaxy ship

We saved Hollywood Studios for the last day since it had the most rides and experiences. We got to do a bunch of things more then once. Corban remembered the Slinky Dog rollercoaster from 4 years ago with great excitement. He was also pumped to be able to ride the one ride that he was too short for years ago - the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster (it's FAST and they had to ride it more than once). They both loved it.

Phineas and Ferb

Toy Story Mania

Cool Star Wars stuff in Galaxy's Edge

Indiana Jones Stunt Show

Reading in line

Corban pretending to sleep

Smuggler's Run

Rise of the Resistance. Corban got cheeky with an
Imperial Officer and almost got us in big trouble ;)

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

The morning that we left we packed up our stuff and headed to the dining hall to eat Mickey waffles. As has become our thing on the last day of a trip, we play mini-golf. We could have tried another course but the boys wanted to the Fantasia course that we did the last time we came.

None of us really wanted to come home from this trip, but unfortunately we cannot live at Disney World.