This winter blessed our neighborhood with some beautiful snowstorms. Lots of kids took advantage by sledding down hills and building snowmen. Until we have a kid of our own, we're just happy to take lots of walks (and lots of pictures).

Hello again from Josh and David, after a very busy autumn! 

October marked the 10th anniversary of our first date, so we decided to celebrate by heading out to a cabin in Maryland near the West Virginia mountains. The cabin (in Deep Creek) was a fun location! We assembled legos in the downstairs game room, cooked up pasta in the kitchen, and listened to an audiobook while in the hot tub. Some day we hope to come back with our family!

There was also plenty of time for some actual appreciation of the outdoors!  A quick hike to the mountain lake, and then a few hikes of the houses and trails around.  And one last peek at the leaves turning yellow that was highlighted by a guest appearance of some local wildlife!

Of course we rounded out October with Halloween. Our theme this year was “Super Mario”. David dropped candy down a big green “pipe” while Josh (dressed as Mario) stood out front and managed the kids while they lined up for treats.

In November we made a quick trip to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving with Josh’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew.  This year, David cooked up some childhood favorites (from his many Thanksgivings spent in Miami and Puerto Rico) using recipes supplied by his mom. 

Christmas was still a month away, but Josh’s parents handed out some early surprises to their grandkids. Mostly because this year’s Christmas would involve some big trips. More on that next month!

Greetings! Pretty shortly after our last post, we finished out a busy May. First came our wedding anniversary. We kept things simple by going to Old Town Alexandria (where we got married) and eating at our favorite pizza restaurant.

Family came to visit us for David's birthday, and then we visited family for Josh's birthday.

The most exciting birthday was our niece's, who turned one year old in July. She also got baptized (and David was asked to be her godfather), so we flew down to Puerto Rico and spent a long, eventful weekend with lots of family and food.

Until next time!

This is turning out to be a big year for big weddings!

In February, David's cousin got married in Puerto Rico. The venue was a gorgeous, Spanish-style villa in the mountains with plenty of room for a traditional Cuban wedding (and a traditionally large Cuban family). The best part of the trip was finally getting to meet our newest, youngest niece!

In April, one of Josh's coworkers got married in Richmond, and we got to attend a traditional Hindu wedding. This was the biggest wedding we've ever been to! Two days of delicious food, fun dancing, and beautiful ceremonies.

April is also Easter! Every year, the adults on our street get together and hide eggs, and then all of the neighborhood kids get let loose with their baskets for an egg hunt. This year we decided to get a little crafty with our eggs: We bought some papier-mâché eggs, painted them, and filled them with candy before hiding them around the neighborhood.

In the coming months, we have another wedding to go to, in addition to our own wedding anniversary, and another trip to Puerto Rico for our niece's baptism. We're very lucky to have so many opportunities to gather with friends, family, and neighbors. 

The weather is warming up, so we hope you're staying cool. Till next time!

-Josh and David

Hello from Josh and David!

We had a busy time juggling work and a summer filled with catching up with family after too few visits, so when fall finally hit, we had two major goals: relax and get outdoors. We got some help with the first goal from our nephew, who recently became old enough for our entire family to start building Legos with him.  We were reminded how much we enjoy building Lego sets ourselves, so we decided to while away a weekend with this fun project, a Lego bonsai tree we could use as a decoration piece!

Lego builds are far more interesting than when we were kids. Look closely! Lego repurposed frog-shaped pieces to be the flower petals of the “cherry” bonsai!

We also tried our hand at some new wooden puzzles, using a mix of weirdly shaped puzzles pieces—some were even people in various poses!  Though; why on earth did we choose a puzzle whose colors were only black, white, and grey?  Talk about Hard Mode.

We stayed at a Cabin to get out more, but the weather kept us indoors on the first day, so PUZZLE time!

We also met Josh’s parents halfway between our homes in a lovely Appalachian lake area to try and get some hiking in at the height of autumn leaf colors!  Of course the weather didn’t play nice the first day, with lots of rain, but we did get cold crisp clear skies for the second day! We did get some time walking both the regular and the wild trails. There are plenty around our home of course, but these in the mountains were a bit chillier which makes for some fun brisk walking weather. And hiking sweaters! We had such a great time in the mountains that we’re planning to return regularly with the family after we adopt.

David hiking through the leaves on our second day at the cabin in the mountains.

In contrast, here's Josh on an autumn hike of the trails around our home. Fortunately our neighborhood also has lots of nature trails.

Once September finished and October rolled around it was time to try and make up for last year’s (more subdued) Halloween!  First we needed a delivery system for candy that would keep that “fun” social distancing up.  Our solution…a Candy Drop Tube! Then we just needed a theme … and we went with … Mad Science! We ordered about two hundred (we were optimistic about visit numbers) packages of super sour EXTREME pop rocks, because that was about the most mad science candy we could think of.

When you’re a mad scientist, every day is a bad hair day, and that’s ok!

Line of kids ready to go up for the candy delivery, with David upstairs overseeing the all-important candy drop, while Josh entertains those waiting in line below.

Waiting in lines for candy is a lot more fun when there’s a mad science lab full of distractions!

By nighttime, Josh was overseeing a table of science lab distractions, while David was upstairs handling the candy drop! The kids loved holding their bags under the tube and catching the candy, as well as playing with the lab equipment, while Josh entertained the crowds with a “mad scientist” voice. We ended up handing out lots of candy, and we have plenty of ideas to make an even more fun candy delivery device next year!

We hope your autumn had both fun and relaxing moments as well, and you are enjoying the sunshine and cold clean air!

Thanks for stopping by,

Josh and David

Holidays are important family events for us, but this year we continued to play it safe by staying home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

Now we (and our family members) are finally vaccinated. And the month of May (which is when we have our wedding annivesary, David's birthday, and the birthday of Josh's brother) was a perfect month to make up for lost family time.

Josh's parents visited us for a very relaxing weekend at the start of the month (and we got to play some video games!)

Then we visited Josh's family in Pittsburgh for a joint birthday celebration (with ice cream cake!)

For our wedding anniversary, we decided not to go out to any restaurants, movies, or antyhing else, because we are still being cautious about public crowds. Instead, we hired our wedding caterer to remake some of the food that we had at our reception, so we could recapture some of the memories while safely at home.

Last weekend, David's mother came up from Florida to visit us, and we had a lot of fun grilling on the back deck as well as going out for ice cream.

One of the things we love about our neighborhood is how child-friendly it is. Halloween is a big event here, and the street is full of trick-or-treaters out with their families. We love seeing all the decorations go up. Today, I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and take some photos so you could see how much fun people are having. We can't wait till we're parents and it's our turn to take a child up and down the street, knocking on doors and shouting Trick or Treat!

When we were shopping for a house, we looked for the kind of home we’d want to grow up in when we were children. We found our dream home on a suburban cul-de-sac in the middle of a nature conservancy. Today I'd like to take you on a walk around the neighborhood!

Our neighborhood is surrounded by 1,700 acres of parkland with over 30 miles of walking trails and lots of playgrounds. There are plenty of beautiful places for a child to play in and explore. It's not unusual to see the occasional deer!

If you take a five minute walk through the park, you'll quickly find yourself at our local commuter rail station! It's great knowing we have an easy way to get to and from the city. Bonus: The train station is near a baseball field!

The train station also plays host to a Saturday farmers market that opens for business from May to December every year. It's a great way to do some shopping in the fresh air while stocking up on bread and produce.

After a ten iminute walk in the other direction, and you'll find yourself at our local community swimming pool! Being from Florida, we are both lifelong swimmers, and we want to teach any child we raise how to swim from an early age. It's healthy and fun!

Our local elementary school is just a twenty minute walk through the park. It's a great school! (And for days when we can't walk our child to and from school, the bus stop is just a minute walk from our front door.)

Thanks for joining us on this tour!

-David & Josh

David has family in Puerto Rico and has spent many summers and winters there. Since we met, David and Josh have made a few trips to Puerto Rico together, but this time we made the trip with Josh's parents, too! It's always wonderful to introduce a familiar place to people who've never been there before, because it lets you see old sights with new eyes. 

Our first few days we spent in Old San Juan, the historic capital of Puerto Rico, where we explored the old fortress at El Morro, David's mom led us on tours of the cobblestone streets while sharing stories about the local landmarks.

While in Puerto Rico, we also made a day trip to the El Yunque rainforest, where we climbed a tower and hiked up to a waterfall.

And then we took the ferry to Vieques, where David's mother lives. She cooked paella for us, and then we made a late night trip to the bioluminescent bay, where we paddled kayaks out into the glowing water, with the Milky Way galaxy visible in the sky above us. It's a beautiful sight, and we can't wait to bring our child here someday to see it.

Josh has been learning Spanish (and David has been working on freshening up) because we plan to raise our child in a bilingual household. This trip was a great chance to practice in Spanish-speaking environment. It also gave us a chance to spend time with family, including our nieces!

¡Hasta la próxima!