Moran Family Fun

August means summer is winding down and back to school is just around the corner. It's the end of a big, fun, summer-long party and the beginning of a new school year. The girls and I are trying to pack as much fun into August as we can. It's meant late nights, dance parties, picnics, and everything else we might not have time for once real life starts again. Yes, August is the Sunday of summer and we just want to have one last hurrah before September, the Monday of the year. The big news for August so far is that Jared left on a six-month deployment. We're now 18 days in and things are going pretty well. The joke is that every night at the Moran house is now a girl's night! Jared's in Sicily working hard and enjoying the sunshine for the next little bit. We miss him but are so grateful for the technology that allows us to text whenever we want, Facetime, and basically keep in touch non-stop; this is not what life was like nine years ago when he last deployed. ...

Summer is flying by and before you know it the kids will be back to school and it will be time to think about Halloween costumes. In an effort to slow things down and make it feel as if the school year is not starting in two short weeks I'm taking a trip back in time to July when summer still seemed as if it would stretch on forever. We had a full calendar in July with company in town, Independence Day, two weekends away, two races, a temple trip, family pictures, and more time spent playing board games than is likely healthy or normal. At the beginning of the month, we took Emily and Bethany for a day trip to London to see the big sights and for a show. The weather was great, sunny but not too warm, and we were able to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, take a walk through St. James' Park, people watch in Trafalgar Square, and learn a little about the history of the Tower of London from a friendly Yeoman Warder. We we...

June brought us Abigail's birthday, the end of the school year, warm enough weather to go to the beach, a visitor from the States, a trip back in time to the town of Lavenham, and a proper English afternoon tea.  We kicked off the month right with Abigail's fifteenth birthday celebration! We enjoyed some delicious chocolate cake before making her work for her presents with a little target practice/scavenger hunt.  Inside each paper cup was a little clue to the location of one of her gifts. She had to shoot the cups with a nerf gun and once she knocked one over she could go in search of her present. Once she found them all we gathered in the living room so she could open them. It was a fun way to make the birthday fun last just a little while longer. Her favorite gift may have been a subscription to Good Housekeeping magazine, which is probably not your typical most wished for item for teenage girls. Then again, Abigail is not your typi...

Way back when, soccer was the sport of choice for our girls. When we lived in Wyoming they played soccer every year with Jared as their coach. Abigail and Emily played a few seasons in Germany as well but not quite every year. Abigail played one season in Maryland with our neighbor and friend coaching her (hi, Steve!) but we've been a non-soccer playing family since the fall of 2014. Volleyball and running replaced soccer as the preferred sports for Emily and for Abigail.  Fast forward to spring 2017. We'd moved to England and the Lakenheath High School girl's soccer team had lost the majority of their players from the previous year due to a combination of players either moving away or graduating. Word on the street was that if someone wanted to play soccer, this was the season to make the team. They needed bodies and would worry about skills later.  Both Emily and Abigail decided to try out for spring soccer and made the varsity team. Three years away from soccer ...

Our love for Germany continues despite our best efforts to move on and get over it already. We feel pulled to Germany, it calls to us and we can't help but answer the call. Our memories of Germany keep a little spark of love alive and that spark is hard to ignore. It's like the ex-boyfriend you know you shouldn't go back to but you still carry a flame for even though you know you should make a clean break, move on, and fall in love with someone new. That's easier said than done sometimes.  A couple of months ago Emily and Abigail were selected to play for their high school in the DODDS Europe Soccer Championships in Germany and Jared was offered the opportunity to work as a referee for the tournament. It was a no brainer really. Emily and Abigail were already going with their soccer team and Jared would be reimbursed travel expenses as well as paid to referee games so it was basically a free trip to the place we love so much. We booked our Chunnel crossing, made ar...

May was a month for running, among other things. Early this year Jared found three races, one each in spring, summer, and fall, that sounded fun and within our abilities so he signed us up. What sounds like a good idea in January can quickly become a dreaded date on the calendar, especially when you haven't made the time to get enough miles under your belt to be really prepared.  A 10K is a great race to fit into training for longer distances and a great distance to bump up to for anyone who can easily run a 5K. It doesn't require the time commitment of training for a half or full marathon so it's easy to fit into your regular routine. The first race of the year for us was the Unilite Night Trail 10K in Afan Forest Park in Wales. Suffolk, where we live, is flat. Wales, where we ran this race, is not. Afan Forest Park is home to 100 kilometers of mountain biking trails. That's a lot of running up and down twisty, rooty, rocky hills.  We were all smiles befor...