The Noriega Family: 2022

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Summer Fun

Volleyball season got off to a great start. I was super busy in August and the girls were at home at lot and a bit bored. They missed having activities planned for them every day. In-between volleyball, I found time to do fun things with the girls. We all went to a George Mason volleyball game. Hector and the girls came and the volleyball players.

Sienna really missed her friends, so she was really happy to reconnect with them. We tried to get to the pool as much as we could in August and there are always friends at the pool. This helped feel the void they were feeling for socializing. The kids would make all kinds of fun plans with their friends when they saw them. Sienna went out to dinner with a bunch of her friends. Estelle bugged be every day to set up playdates with her friends.

We made snack time fun. Estelle thinks she needs a smiley face snack every time a friend comes over. Both Natalia and Sienna like to help make these snacks.

We went snapping turtle fishing...not as exciting as it used to be. The girls are discovering that they are outgrowing some traditions. Life changes and that is okay. We have to adapt as we grow and change, but that does not remove the good memories that we have from the past. Those memories cannot be taken away.

And the girls still got to spend lots of time at the gym this summer. Estelle always finds a way to have fun. Natalia and Sienna even got to jump in with the high school girls for a few activities.

And Hector and I found time for some fun too. Hector jumped back into a tough project at work and that was a rough transition from living on the road. Thankfully we still had some fun things to look forward too. We got out on the water with a group of friends to celebrate Clark's birthday. An afternoon of boating and swimming on a beautiful day was a great way to celebrate.

Summer was fun, but the girls were actually ready and excited to start school. Not for the school part, but for the socializing and activities part. Summer back at home was just a little too slow for them. Which is more than understandable after traveling around the USA for five months.

Volleyball Camp, Grandpa and Hailey

We picked up Grandpa and Hailey from the airport the day after we got back into town. I had just enough time to get things put away and beds set of for guests. It was a quick turnaround, but totally worth it because we love having Grandpa and Hailey here. And they came with us to volleyball camp all week. I didn't get any pictures of volleyball camp, but it was tons of fun. Hailey helped do some coaching this year; she is amazing and Grandpa does so much with my varsity level players while I run the younger camps. I love doing volleyball camp with them. Natalia, Sienna and Estelle all participated in camp this year and they each did great. They all have friends that play volleyball with them, so camp week is just loads of fun for everyone. It's fun for me, but exhausting too.

We had a couple days with Hailey and Grandpa after camp ended before they had to go home. We went into the City with Hailey one day and went to Ford's Theater. Hailey got to earn a junior ranger badge with the girls.

We played lots of games, hung out with the Van Dams and even went out to dinner at our favorite Cajun Seafood Boil place. We made fun of Grandpa's white legs and we all had a good laugh when we compared to him to Natalia who always has a nice tan by the end of summer.

We were sad to see them leave, especially since we knew we would not be seeing Hailey for awhile. Grandpa was sick the last couple days he was here (Covid with mild symptoms). The day after he left, Natalia got sick and then the day after that the rest of us were sick. We had one week of unscheduled summer and we were all sick and lethargic and just stayed home and watched TV and napped. Not how I saw the week going, but I was grateful at the same time. It would have been really hard to be sick during camp week and even worse to be sick the following week when volleyball tryouts began. So even though our one week of summer at home was kind of dud, at least it was a week that we could just sleep and not worry about things. Thankfully it passed after just a few days and we were back to normal by the end of the week and ready for life to be busy again.

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Back at Home

Wow, I cannot believe we have been back in Virginia for four months already. We have all struggled a little at different times as we adjusted to life back at home. As we drove into the DC metro area, we all wanted to keep driving and just circle the USA again. But...life has to keep moving and our epic trip had to come to a close. We got back on a Saturday evening and jumped right back into things Monday morning. Hector went back to work...but he had a pretty easy first week and only ended up working about 20 hours. I had volleyball camp and worked about 80 hours that first week. No break for me, but I love volleyball camp and I like being busy, so it was nice to have something to jump right into. I would have hated to have nothing going on that first week home. I would have wondered why we just didn't plan another week on the road. The girls went to volleyball camp as well, so they were happy the first week being busy and seeing friends.

They struggled the three weeks after volleyball camp before school started. They were so used to having fun activities and things planned for them every day. Three weeks with Hector and I working...they were super bored during the day and that made them really miss the trip. I did not struggle until the girls went back to school. I am always so busy in the month of August with the start of volleyball season that I didn't have time to miss the trip. Once the girls were back in school and volleyball slowed down a little, I really missed the constant moving and living on the road. I spent so much time planning the trip; it gave me direction in my life. Once back at home, I felt directionless again and didn't know what to start planning for. The girls were better at this point because school started, they got see their friends again and their afterschool activities started. Hector...he has struggled every day since being home. He really, really liked not working for five months. He enjoyed waking up every morning for five months and having a day all planned out for him. He is ready to quit his job and be a nomad. The girls are not so much on board with that plan...so he keeps going to work every day.

I clearly have not been motivated to blog since the trip ended, but I am going to get back into my good habits and go back and catch up everything we missed...and then stay up to date. While we all miss the trip, it has been a good four months back at home and there are plenty of great stories to tell.

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Upstate New York

With only two days left of our five month journey we did everything we could to pack them in with activities in Upstate New York. As we headed to the finger lakes area, we made a couple of stops. Our first stop was in Palmyra, New York where we learned more about church history. We went to the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah and the Grandin Building. We really enjoyed the tours we had at each location.

The next stop was at the Women's Rights National Historic Site in Seneca Falls, New York. The ranger talk and the museum were really well done here and it was definitely worth spending a couple of hours.

And it was the last Junior Ranger badge of the trip. It seems like a great one to end on for my three girls.

And then we finished our drive to our last campsite, Watkins Glen State Park. We enjoyed a relaxing evening at the beautiful park. The campground is really nice, with lots of space. We took a more vacation approach to the evening and had a fire and cooked tinfoil dinners. The girls got out their hammocks and we enjoyed a peaceful evening.

We started early the next morning because we wanted to hike the Gorge Trail before it got crowded. This hike quickly made it into our top ten list of hikes. It was amazing every step. The gorge is gorgeous! There are so many waterfalls and pools along the path. I had no idea New York had such an amazing area. Seriously, come and see this gorge.

We loved our morning hike! but we were not done hiking. We went to two additional state parks to enjoy more waterfalls and gorges in the finger lakes areas. We did the hike at Taughannock Falls and the gorge hike at Buttermilk Falls. They were both fantastic. Buttermilk Falls started out tough with lots of stairs and it was unclear if the hard work was going to pay off and then all the sudden you are in an amazing gorge and it all seems worth it. It was so pretty, we loved it.

The girls waded in some of the pools and walked behind another waterfall.

But after three hikes in the sun, we were ready for something else. Even though we were sweaty and kind of gross, we went to the Corning Glass Museum. It was way more fun than we thought it would be. They had lots of demonstrations about glass blowing and torching and about glass breaking. We enjoyed all the demonstrations. We were impressed with some of the art and we (mostly me) enjoyed the history portion. Thankfully the museum was open until 7:00 because we ended up spending way more time here than we thought we would.

The chess set was our favorite art piece. The girls enjoyed some of the scavenger hunts the museum had. They got lollypops for finding this sun.

And since it was our last night, Hector and the girls decided we needed to eat out. There is a huge Polish community in central New York, so we found an authentic pierogi restaurant and it turned out to be the perfect spot for us. The girls all enjoyed the pierogis and we loved talking with the people working there and hearing about their lives. Our waiter recommended an ice cream place and how could I say no on our last night. Again, way to much ice cream for us to eat, but we enjoyed it. Not as good as some of the other places we have been though.

It was a full day of fun. It felt right to do lots of hiking on our last day; that has been such a big part of our trip and the hikes were great ones to end on. We went out with a bang.

We packed up in the morning and now we are driving home. We are now back in familiar territory, almost to our house in Virginia. It is weird to be back driving on the roads we have been on thousands of times. On to the next life adventure.