it took us a while, but we finally made our trip up to the state college area a reality. molly and the kids last visited penn state on labor day weekend. they got to see joepa in person one last time during the friday night pep rally. and jackson was the only spence who got to see an actual football game live, coached by joepa in his final season. so, naturally, one of our first stops when we visited last weekend was to the joepa statue at the stadium. we didn’t bring the flowers. amy told us they have been omnipresent since the fall.

we arrived on friday afternoon and kicked off the fun with a nice dinner out with aunt amy and uncle nick! then we squeezed into one car, leaving uncle nick behind, and headed to campus for a gymnastics meet.

phoebe was especially thrilled to be there. it was like a circus, with girls jumping and flipping around, and so many places to look for action!

it was an exciting competition, and penn state pulled out a win with the team’s final event, the floor exercise!

 on saturday, we walked around downtown, did some shopping, had lunch at the corner room, and topped off the afternoon with a trip to the creamery, of course!

on sunday, it was the bryce jordan center and some men’s basketball action! (yes, we know jackson’s wearing a football jersey. don’t judge.)

phoebe kept chanting … “we are…”

we are??

penn state!

thanks to amy and nick for their never-ending hospitality. we all had a great time, and can’t wait for blue-white weekend so we can visit again!

when we opened our advent calendar for december 17th, we found a slip of paper telling us that this was the day to ride the walkersville southern railroad’s santa train! hooray! we missed the train last year, and couldn’t wait to see the big guy again this year…

we had a nice, long scenic ride before santa came and sat down next to us!

when the big guy finally arrived, the kids were pretty shy. after some prompting, jackson was able to tell him a few things from his list. and give him a hug. phoebe? none of the above.

hooray for the walkersville southern! we’ll be back for another excursion soon!!

we anticipated our trip to idaho for a long time, and finally, in mid-september, we boarded a plane at dulles at an ungodly, early hour and headed west. we ended up in salt lake city, rented a car, and after a super long day of traveling (including a visit to the golden spike national historic site in utah), we finally met up with matt, naomi, and ginger in hailey, idaho. they were the reason for our journey, and it was so great to finally see them.

we spent a little more than a week hanging out with the idaho spences. we spent a lot of quality time together. the kids got to play, a lot. and the grown-ups got to talk, a lot. we did some fishing (another post to come from dave about his super-secret adventure with his bro). we did some touring. we did some rock-throwing. we spent a great few days at the gorgeous redfish lake near stanley, idaho. we did some hiking.

but the best part of the trip was simply spending time with our family. phoebe, jackson, and ginger became good friends quickly, and really enjoyed being around each other. and that’s priceless.

and the second-best part? on the way home, we spent an overnight in salt lake city, where we were reunited with molly’s high school friend karyn. she showed us around salt lake (including a great hike up ensign peak, where we got a super view of the city) and she and molly caught up on the many years since they last met (over some awesome mole at a tasty mexican restaurant).

all in all, it was a wonderful break from the everyday. thanks to matt, naomi, ginger, cooper, camo and simon for inviting us into your home. we hope you all can come to maryland some time and soak up our sites soon. and best wishes to karyn and justin, as they prepare for their wedding in december! hope to see you both again soon (definitely in less than 15 years!).

today, jackson became an official kindergartner! he’s now among the oldest students in miss heidi’s class at monocacy valley montessori public charter school, where he has attended for the last two years. he has the same teacher, and is in the same classroom, but now he is the “big man on campus,” and gets to stay all day, eat lunch with his friends, and help the younger students get acclimated. he’s in school from 9 to 3:45 every day, and now has music, gym, spanish, and art classes as well.

it’s hard to believe that only 2 short years ago, we pushed jackson in a stroller to his first day as a preschooler at mvms! today, he rode a two-wheeler the whole way to kindergarten. he’s gotten to be such a big boy!

when molly asked jackson how he got such big, strong legs to be able to bike all the way up big hills to school, he replied, “from santa!”

on his first day of preschool, jackson had the jitters. on his first day of pre-k, he was shy and nervous. today? no nerves at all! he just strode right into school, all smiles.

ms. king, the principal at mvms, hands out a carnation to each student as they arrive at school, and asks them to give the flowers to their teachers. it’s a nice little tradition! jackson hung up his backpack in his new kindergarten spot, then headed into the classroom without a second glance. he truly felt at home there, and that’s an awesome feeling for us, too!

while big brother was at school, phoebe was a little lost. she asked “where did brother go” several times, but generally she had a great day, playing and pretending. she even helped mom bake up a special surprise just for jackson!

mom’s special chocolate cupcakes with orange icing and a “k” for kindergarten! (yes, molly did use tweezers to position the sprinkles. don’t judge.)

jackson couldn’t have been happier about the cupcakes. he said it was his favorite part of his first day! but he did have a pretty great day, in general. some highlights? he ordered lunch from school for the first time (chicken nuggets and green beans with chocolate milk), he enjoyed Spanish lessons (“hola, mom!”), and he couldn’t stop telling us all about “PE” (“that means exercise, guys!”). we think this is going to be an awesome year for our little learner! and next year, when jackson graduates into 1st grade, phoebe will be a student at mvms, too!

what better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to go blueberry picking? well, to be honest, we tried to go picking up in thurmont on july 3rd, but were turned away! apparently, their bushes were all picked out?! so instead, we headed in the total opposite direction, to a new blueberry farm in southwest frederick county.

this time we called frog eye farm before we headed out, and asked if there were enough blueberries to pick (smart, right?)! and the farm’s owner assured us there were enough gigantic blueberries to pick for ages! and boy was he right. some of these blueberries were the largest and juiciest we’d ever seen!

we left grandpa kurt at home to work on the bathroom renovation project, but grandma joined us! she was intent on picking the very best berries, as these are her favorite fruit! jackson was helpful, as always.

it was seriously humid and super buggy, but the kids powered through!

jackson couldn’t stop picking! even on our way back he kept drifting over to what he thought was a good bush to pick (and eat!) some more.

nice berries, dave and marcia!

as an early father’s day treat, we made a trip in early june to skyline drive and shenandoah national park in virginia and we loved it so much, we reserved another night’s stay in november, so we can see the park in all its fall glory! shenandoah national park is known as the yellowstone of the east, and for good reason. the scenery, the animals (we saw tons of deer, a few turkeys, and even a mama bear and her cubs!), the hospitality, and the amenities were reminiscent of what we saw on our trip to yellowstone back in 2007. and we don’t have to take a long plane ride to enjoy them! we stayed at skyland, the more northern of the two resort areas in the park, built by the civilian conservation corps. awesome history for two buffs like us!

but before we got to the park, we made a stop at one of the many caverns in the region, skyline caverns, for a cool (in more ways than one) tour! the kids liked the caverns, but were a little weirded out when the tour guide turned off the lights!

we made several hikes during our two-day, one-night stay. dave brought the backpack to carry phoebe, but she wanted to RUN! and she did a really good job, too. almost made it the entire way up stony man trail.

what an awesome view at the top of stony man. we all stayed up there a while, eating breakfast and enjoying the cool breezes and incredible sights. oh, and taking lots of pictures.

another trail we enjoyed hiking was “story of the forest,” which a park ranger told us about. the ranger gave us a free illustrated book which gave clues to find interesting points on the trail, such as crazy trees or interesting bridges. jackson got a kick out of the scavenger hunt-like hike!

another thing jackson got a kick out of was carrying his own camera with him, and snapping away at pretty much everything he saw. it paid off with the shot above! check out that great action of a mama deer and her baby. awesome job, j-man!

for more photos of our adventures, click through the images below!

we had talked for a long time about putting in a tire swing in the front yard. the gigantic tree in front of our house was just perfect for it, with lots of branches and plenty of room around it. first jackson picked out the green rope we would use to attach it to the tree.

then, finally, jackson and dave went over to best foreign auto, the auto parts graveyard behind our house where we often see mashed-up cars getting forklifted high into the air. they picked out an old tire from a giant bin for 5 bucks! and we were golden.

dave’s tree-climbing skills were put to good use, as he attached the swing to a high branch. we covered the rope with a rubber bicycle tube, so that where it rubbed against the tree branch, it wouldn’t rip.

now, this is a photo in need of a creative caption!

getting ready for their first ride!

whee!!!! (this is what phoebe now says every time we pull in to the driveway, while pointing at the swing: “phoebe, whee?!!!”)

shortly after arriving home from our whirlwind tour of eastern pennsylvania, our family’s portable hard drive took a turn for the worse and we thought all (meaning our last 6 years’ worth of personal images and videos) was lost. after a few friends tried to help out, we turned to some pros. and voila! we got everything back, including all our videos! yay!

so, here it is, our long overdue post on our fun times in doylestown during the holidays!

presents, presents, cute baby girls and snow!

we enjoyed ourselves for almost a whole week in d-town, meeting our newest niece, ginger miriam, having a date night with matt and naomi (way too much fun, needs to be done more often) and just plain hanging out with grandma and grandpa. along the way we took a few pics, but for the most part we just enjoyed everyone’s company. looking forward to a planned trip out west to see more of the idaho spences soon!

look what santa brought jackson… a big kid bike! super cool, dude!

the girls and their aprons from jan.

it’s the crazy hat family!

got your hands full there, matt!

the girls loved taking baths together! lots of splashing all around!

jackson thought the girls were wacky!

naomi trying to read the girls a story, but there was just too much squirming!

ginger is a master of the serious stare. but get her started on laughing or talking and watch out! she’s a riot!

she’s not a fan of the hugs, phoebe.

phoebe and daddy had fun in the snow…

…and big brother jackson loved it, too!

dave turned 35 on 10/10/10 and to celebrate the occasion, we picked up some live lobsters at the grocery store! the original plan was to go surf-and-turf, but the lobsters alone posed enough of a food challenge for us novices!here’s the birthday boy, getting ready to dig in!

it wouldn’t be a spence birthday without homemade cupcakes! this time it was snickerdoodle flavor. the kids couldn’t wait to dig in!

what could be more perfect – as we brought the lobsters inside, jackson noticed a rainbow up in the sky! happy birthday, dave!

jackson began his first week of pre-kindergarten by boarding his bike and heading off to monocacy valley montessori public charter school with mommy. as a pre-k student, he’s still in miss heidi’s room, and he still attends 9-11:30 daily. but he’s one of the “big men on campus” because six new 3-year-olds have entered his class, and three new pre-k students entered as well.

a small amount of anxiety on day one (“mommy, I don’t want to talk to any of the new children who don’t know the rules.”) gave way to lots of smiles when jackson saw some of his buddies from last year, including daniel, garrett, and cayman and collin. jackson really likes that he can show all the “new kids who don’t know the rules” how to get along in the classroom. and he’s proud of himself, because he sees how much he’s grown since last year.to celebrate, jackson, phoebe, and daddy met mommy at work after school and we all had lunch at la paz, jackson’s favorite spot to get quesadillas with sour cream!

little sister enjoyed a quesadilla of her own, and a big-kid drink! she’ll start pre-k 3 at mvmpcs in only 2 years!
unfortunately, jackson was so exhausted from his big day, he slammed his fingers in the door at the restaurant. so, he soaked them in a cup of ice. poor guy.
all in all, it was a “delicious” first day, and a really successful first week back at school. jackson has had no trouble adjusting and he’s excited about all the new things he will learn this year!

our sweet phoebe has been with us for a full year, and to celebrate that milestone, molly made a cooler full of cupcakes and plenty of homemade icing, and we headed up to pennsylvania. all of her fellin-side cousins, aunts, uncles, and nana and pop pop, came to eagle rock for a cookout, swimming, and eating, of course! what a beautiful day – the weather was perfect, the food was yummy, and the company was awesome. phoebe had such a good time, especially once she finally got her hands on her special strawberry “smash cake” with strawberry icing!

we had two kinds of yummy martha stewart cupcakes — devil’s food (chocolate) and strawberry. some included plain white buttercream icing and others were topped with a strawberry buttercream, created with strawberry preserves from jill’s freezer! awesome.

but phoebe wasn’t the only one we celebrated that day. her godfather, colin, turned 16 on aug. 2, and so we all got to tease our favorite teenager by singing the happy birthday song to him, too! (how about those awesome cupcake toppers? another super-fun etsy find!)

in case you couldn’t tell, the “theme” for the party was ice cream! the kids’ favors were ice cream bowls, phoebe’s headband had a cone on it, and we all enjoyed some awesome homemade ice cream that jill brought along. afterward, phoebe tried out her pink howdy cow, which we found at our favorite toy shop, dancing bear in downtown frederick.

our little princess enjoyed all the attention!

big brother jackson couldn’t wait to show phoebe the present he had picked out for her. his love for his little sister just keeps growing, and it’s a joy to watch.

thanks to everyone who made phoebe’s 1st birthday so special. here’s to many, many more lovely birthday celebrations for her!

usually we wait until the end of summer to make a trip to the beach, but this year, we did the opposite, kicking off the steamy season with a weeklong trip to ocean city, new jersey, june 20 to 26.

we started our journey on fathers day by boarding the cape henlopen, one of the larger ferries in the cape may-lewes ferry fleet. what a fun way to start our day: a 90-minute trip across the delaware bay! once we, and our packed car, were back on solid ground, we made our way to ocean city to check out our rental. the barainyaks — beth, paul, sarah, jake, and josh — had already checked in. what a great, little place in a super neighborhood, very close to the beach! score!

we were fortunate to have beautiful, hot weather all week, with almost no rain or cloudy skies! we spent many days relaxing on the beach and playing in the waves, rented bikes and a surrey to ride on the boardwalk, checked out “toy story 3″ to escape some sunshine, played boardwalk mini-golf, visited the cape may county zoo, ate lots of tasty meals and desserts, and just generally enjoyed ourselves. check out the last three photos in the gallery below for a sneak peek at a beach portrait session for jackson and phoebe’s birthdays!

thanks to the barainyaks for sharing our vacation this year! what an awesome trip. the only downside? it’s already over!

wonderful weather and a no-wedding saturday added up to lots of fun for the spence fam this weekend! on saturday, we hosted another yard sale on our driveway. we made a few bucks, but more importantly, got rid of a lot of stuff that’s been cluttering our garage! dave spent the morning organizing and now we can move pretty freely in there, which is a big relief! jackson was a bit confused about the whole process and even got a little upset when some people were “taking our stuff,” but he got over it!

also on saturday, we attended sts. peter & paul orthodox church greek festival for some delicious food. jackson’s favorite was “greek quesadillas,” also known as tiropita, or feta cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. basically, it’s spanikopita without the spinach!

jackson also had a few bites of molly’s gyro. (the guy above made the gyros for us — he was super. they were stuffed to the brim! yum!) the “sour cream sauce,” also known as tzatziki, won jackson over with that dish! he and phoebe are also huge fans of the homemade rice pudding. jackson would’ve eaten the entire container if we let him!

on sunday, we all ventured out to ellicott city. what a great, neat little town! dave met a couple there to do an engagement shoot, and molly, jackson, and phoebe spent a few hours exploring “old town.”

first stop was the b&o railroad museum, the birthplace of american railroading! there, the kids enjoyed exploring a caboose.

the train museum was a lot of fun. a few minutes after this picture was a taken, a “real” train drove right past us! jackson loved watching it, covering his ears when it got too loud! we also spent some time learning about how a telegraph works. jackson tried to tap out some letters and said he was “sending a mesh-age to america!”

after the museum, we did a little shopping, found lots of bargains, and lost phoebe’s sunhat! oh well.

finally, we met up with dave as he got done with his lovely couple. (see his favorite shots soon at spence photo’s blog!) dave and jackson got a quick lesson in handspun yarn (below) just before we got back into the car. totally fun weekend.

at the end of february, we all took a wonderfully relaxing trip to florida to visit dave’s parents. we spent about a week in stuart, in mostly sunshine-filled weather. it wasn’t warm by florida standards, but it was warm enough for us, after surviving the blizzard(s) of 2010!

we had a great trip full of experiences! phoebe took her first airplane ride. jackson, dave, and kurt enjoyed circus sarasota. we visited the palm beach zoo and reconnected there with the limberts (who used to live in frederick). jackson got in a lot of swim practice. marcia helped molly begin to learn to sew. we visited jensen beach, the children’s museum of the treasure coast, and checked out rescued sea turtles at the loggerhead marinelife center of juno beach.

we had such a wonderful time, in fact, that it’s taken us almost a full month to go through all the photos and choose our favorites! so, our apologies for not updating this blog sooner. but we think these photos were worth the wait!

while most people remained holed up in their homes, waiting out the blizzard of 2010, which dropped at least another foot of snow on top of 32 inches that fell only a few days before, what were we doing? walking downtown to volt, of course, to interview and photograph famous chef bryan voltaggio and eat the food he and his staff created in a special “snow fixe” menu.

are we crazy? yep! but who could pass up this opportunity? dave and molly first ate at volt in october 2008, and fell in love with the food. one year later, bryan and his brother appeared on “top chef” and became nationally recognized personalities. jackson loved to watch the show with us, and could spot bryan every time he came on screen.

on wednesday afternoon, as winds howled outside, molly fielded calls from her reporters, all working at home. one of them lamented not being able to cover a great story — the fact that volt was indeed going to open its doors to diners during this historic storm. so molly said, “ok, i’ll cover it instead!” she was eager to put her reporting skills to good use again. and, what luck, she happened to live with one of the gazette’s freelance photographers. so, she volunteered dave to work, too!

check out the story and photos by clicking here.

all of us got majorly bundled up, phoebe riding with molly in the bjorn, and headed out for a surprisingly short walk downtown. when we arrived, the staff was waiting for us, and helped us get our many layers off and put away. we settled in for a memorable dinner.

it was such a wonderful experience in so many ways. first, the other diners were all so fantastic! everyone was in a great mood and very willing to talk. our “neighbors” to the right took several photos of jackson and complimented us on our very well-behaved children. another fellow diner offered to take  a family shot of us eating, and a third gave jackson his iPhone so he could play a game on it.

the highlight for molly — aside from the outstanding food — was definitely getting to meet bryan, and hang out in his kitchen for a short while. he is a bit shorter in person than he looks on television. but he’s very kind, genuine, and knowledgeable about food. he talked about getting himself and his staff up to frederick through the storm, about wanting to get back in his kitchen and cook after a long absence, about loving downtown frederick, and wanting to offer those of us living downtown a respite from the storm.

jackson was thrilled with the special chicken fingers and fries the chef made for him — with tiny dipping pots full of mustard and ketchup. molly loved her main course best — pineland farms beef strip loin with yukon gold potatoes, filled with three different sauces: roasted red pepper, chive and sweet golden raisin, with turnips. dave’s favorite was his first course — yellowfin tuna with jasmine rice, sesame lavash, yuzu vinaigrette, chili oil and cilantro. molly liked dave’s dessert better — goat cheese dulce de leche with granny smith apple sorbet.

what a wonderful dinner, and a memorable way to spend a snowy day. we won’t soon forget it!

predictions of record-breaking snowfall, crippling the capitol region, came true. by our yardstick, about 32 inches fell on east church street from about 6 p.m., friday, through about 4 p.m., saturday. the snow came long and hard, quickly coating all our trees, our car, and even jackson’s basketball hoop in the backyard.

on friday night, dave and jackson took a long walk down church street to pick up friends roman and zach, then on to la paz for some mexican dinner. the place was packed! we think it was the only restaurant open.

dave also managed to get out early saturday on an adventure downtown, shooting photos for the gazette. you’ll see some of what he saw in the gallery below.

who knows how long the snow will stick around. it’s highly doubtful that school will be in session for at least a few days. molly’s getting ready to brush off her boots for a trek into work on monday, though. the news must be posted online!

for now, enjoy our photos. we’re thinking of printing up some t-shirts:”we survived snowmageddon 2010″. or: “snowpocalypse now, redux 2010″!

jackson took  his first trip to the dentist today, to the family smile center in frederick. our dental hygienist, sandy cha, took good care of him, helping him count his teeth (he has 20) and congratulating him on taking good care of them.

sandy used strawberry-flavored toothpaste to clean his teeth and flossed with a special animal-shaped kids’ flosser.

jackson’s favorite part was watching the television on the ceiling, though!

daddy was a real sport, holding onto jackson tightly while he had his exam.

at the end, jackson got to choose three stickers and a special prize from a gumball-type machine.

before we left he got a special photo taken with his friend, scuffy, and a blue balloon. just before this was taken, molly asked him to show us his teeth — and this is the face he kept making. too funny! we’ll be back in 6 months.