Kelvin’s first-grade class honors one student as its Star of the Week each week. That student creates a timeline of photos and pictures showing events in his life to date. Kelvin, star of the week in late January 2009, chose these photos to represent his birthdays for the past six years, plus a few photos from this month.
The evening of New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2008, began with a four-mile race in Fairfax, VA. High winds that day had blown down trees and power lines, but Rali and Kristof still did the full four miles. Kristof’s time of 44 minutes, 43 seconds, put him right in the middle of his age group. Rich, Kelvin, and Carmen opted to avoid the wind and the cold in a nearby pub!
Afterwards, we went together with our friend John to visit Ted and Susan and their kids. Here are Rali and Carmen in the evening, just before the kids went to bed (way too late!).
Of course, no matter how late everyone was up on New Year’s Eve, the kids were up early on January 1, and Susan whipped up a batch of pancakes, bacon, and sausage. At the table from left to right are Isaac, Kristof, Alyssa, Rachel, Carmen, and Kelvin. Supervising are John and Rich.
On December 26, the day after Christmas, Rali and the kids went for a walk in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, where Rich met them for lunch. Then everyone walked down to the waterfront, where the cool weather kept most of the tourists home. Here are Rich and the kids next to the Potomac River.
The Bulgarian Orthodox religion is unusual in that it celebrates Christmas on December 25 (the Western date, not the Orthodox date of January 7), but celebrates Orthodox, not Western, Easter. So we enjoyed our traditional Bulgarian Christmas Eve dinner on December 24, 2008, in our apartment in Virginia. On the table were an odd, not even, number of vegetarian dishes, which our friend John H. shared with us. He took this photo as dinner was served.
Strolling on the bike trails in northern Virginia in December is very different from doing the same thing in Calgary in December. The kids went out for a walk with their friends Jesse and Kiah on December 10, 2008. From left to right are Carmen, Kiah, Kelvin, Jesse, and Kristof.
On November 29, we visited a friend in the evening and stayed out late. How late? Well, for at least three people in the car, it was way, way past bedtime!
Those of you who’ve visited us recently know about the fleet of bicycles we have, most of them Rali’s. Since we’re living in a small apartment now, we’re NOT getting any more…but I can still find ways to satisfy Rali’s craving for all things bike-related.
In case you can’t see the label, that’s a bottle of Red Bicyclette syrah. Yes, she enjoyed it!
On Saturday, November 29, 2008, 8-year-old Kristof and 6-year-old Kelvin rode the last 48-mile section of the C&O Towpath that they hadn’t yet ridden. This was their longest bike ride ever, and it was all off-road. The ride was from Harpers Ferry, WV, to Great Falls, MD, where Rich picked up the family. Now the whole family has ridden the entire 185-mile length of the towpath from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. Rali’s posted an album of photos from this day’s ride on her Facebook page, which you don’t need to be a Facebook member to visit. Here’s one photo from the set.
Rich just celebrated Thanksgiving in the U.S. for the first time since 1993, and Rali and the kids in the U.S. for the first time. We were happy to join our friends Leyla and David here in Falls Church, Virginia, for a delightful traditional meal. Here are Rali, David, and Leyla, just before giving the kids the first pass through the food line.
This was the last race of the season, Rali insists: the 5-Mile Turkey Trot in Alexandria, VA, on Thanksgiving morning. She finished in a blistering 37:30, a 7:30-per-mile pace. Here is the information from her wrist GPS. Depending on your browser and add-ins, you might be able to “fly” over and watch her race path.
Unfortunately, our camera battery died during the race, so we don’t have any evidence of her finish…you’ll have to trust us! Here are a couple photos of Rali and the kids before the race, though.
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