A beautiful day for a fun run

Lining up at the start

Marie writes: On April 22, Xander's school had a "Bunny Hop" race for kindergarteners. It was two laps around the parking lot. The weather was beautiful and Xander had a great time. He placed around 6th in the boy's race out of a group of about 13 - 15 boys.

Coming down the home stretch

Hawaiian exploration, part 2

A quick update from Doug, Lisa and Liz's adventures in Hawaii.


"We went to the most southern point in the U.S.," Lisa wrote Sunday. Later that day, Liz began her journey home, while Doug and Lisa will spend a week on Kauai.

Earlier, the trio drove across the northern part of the big island, checking out waterfalls along the way; visited Volcano National Park; and took a "lava boat tour."

"Seeing the lava flowing into the ocean was spectacular," Lisa reports. Less fun was the "extremely choppy 40-minute ride there and the twice-as-bad hour ride back. Liz compared it to riding a mechanical bull and getting a bucket of salt water routinely splashed in your face."

We look forward to more photos to come!

April at the beach

Dan made another quick trip to Eastern Long Island on April 6 and brought back some more photos of the back beach in Noyac, downtown Sag Harbor and the ocean at Bridgehampton.

This time the tide was low on the bay but higher at the ocean. The wooden pilings that had become exposed at the Bridgehampton beach have been partly re-covered by sand, indicating that the beach is recovering from the pounding of Sandy and other winter storms.


Click below for more photos.

Busy having fun in Hawaii: Part one

Doug, Lisa and Liz are on a vacation in Hawaii. They arrived Sunday afternoon in Kona on the big island.

On Monday, Lisa and Liz explored Kona and took a para-sailing ride, as seen above. Doug, meanwhile, had set out early in the morning to hike up Mauna Kea, a volcanic mountain. The summit is Hawaii's highest point, and Doug, who had hiked to the high points of 15 other states, set out to make this #16. He hiked five hours to the summit, at 13,796 feet. The hike back down took a mere three hours.


On Tuesday, Liz and Lisa went on a "zip and dip tour" -- a zipline adventure in the morning and a hike to waterfalls in the afternoon. "Liz won the race on the final zipline -- a side-by-side 1,200-foot zip," Lisa writes. "Doug spent the day exploring the north coast of the island.


"Back together for the evening's adventure -- snorkeling with the manta rays. A 40-minute boat ride out to a site where divers submerge large lights to attract plankton on which the manta rays feed. We were in the water for about 45 minutes and five different rays were sighted. Very cool trip!"

Here are more photos Lisa sent along:



After another day in Kona, the trio will head to Volcano Village next to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for two nights. Liz will fly back on the weekend but Doug and Lisa are staying for a second week on one of the smaller islands, Kauai.

Check back for further reports and photos.

Shanna, Kathy bask on beach in Barbados (Updated with photo album)

Kathy and Shanna recently returned from a spring vacation to sunny Barbados.



Shanna writes: My mom and I decided to get away for a few days and have a mother/daughter vacation. It was my first time out of the country and I loved every second of the experience.

We stayed at the Hilton hotel in Saint Michael Parish for five days.



We relaxed at the beach and pool, checked out an old fort on the hotel's property and explored the local area.



The beaches were amazing and I have never seen water that blue.

The trip was a great mix of relaxing and getting to explore the local places to eat -- especially a placed called Cuz's fish shack, which was literally a shack that served awesome fish sandwiches!

Although this was the first time there for both of us, it certainly will not be our last!

Here's an album of photos from the trip.

Marie, Brian and Xander check out their new home

Realtor's photo of the house Marie and Brian purchased today.

Marie and Brian have become homeowners!

They closed today on a house in suburban Fredericksburg, Va., about six miles from the apartment where they've lived for almost three years.

After signing all the papers, they took son Xander on a tour of their new digs.

Xander's very much looking forward to filling his big new bedroom with all his stuff.

He was nearly as impressed with the roll-out trash cabinet in the kitchen!

Originally built in 1977, the house was just completely renovated inside and out. Below is a look at the kitchen and some of its all-new appliances.

The family will move in gradually between now and June, while Xander finishes Kindergarten at the school a short walk from their current apartment.

Introducing: Birch Street Radio

This is a test. For the next couple of months, Birch Street Media will conduct a test of internet radio via Live365.com.

Please join in the experiment! Tune in to Birch Street Radio and then let us know what you think!

Here's how it works: DJ Dan lines up a playlist of tunes, adding some comments here and there, and it plays continuously on Live365. Anyone can listen at any time just by going to the Birch Street Radio web page and clicking the play button. Live365 drops in commercials a few times an hour - about a minute's worth at a time.

Dan says: On Birch Street Radio you'll find a lot of familiar tunes, but also some you rarely hear on the radio. Some are put together in sets of two or three songs that I think go together well - musically, lyrically or thematically. Others are just floating in the mix by themselves.

There's nearly 18 hours worth of music on the station right now, and I hope to keep it fresh by changing the selection frequently. Please let me know what you think - and send me ideas of what you'd like to hear added to the mix. (Also please alert me if you have any problems making the site work!)

Birch Street Radio -- Listen and enjoy!

Remembered on his birthday