Anna Grows

 Anna began her sophomore year at Madison High School on August 23!  This is a huge improvement over last year in that she got to start school in person.  Masks are required of everyone and all school personnel are required to be vaccinated by October.  Anna was definitely tired by the end of the week.  Last year Monday was an "asynchronist" day, which meant no class then with 4 days of on-line classes.  This year they are back to 5 full days.  School starts at 8:10 AM and Anna has been walking to school.  Her classes for the year include the following: Honors Cohort for World History 2, Chemistry & English - the teachers for these classes work together as a team and the classes are related.  For example, they will be talking about the nuclear age in history, studying nuclear matter in chemistry, and reading parts of the book Hiroshima  in English.  They also have 4 major projects throughout the year that link all three classes.  It is a different concept from the normal

 The August tour continued with a quick trip to Lake Anna, Virginia.  The lake is about 1 1/2 hours away from home and a frequent getaway for many Northern Virginia locals.  The Fagella family only visited once for a quick trip to a neighbor's lake house, so it has been a while.  In trying to find pandemic friendly vacations, this seemed like a good option.  Storm got to join the family trip as well.  As always, he is the most excited to go anywhere and was ready to hop in the car as soon as we started packing. The hot humid weather and constant parade of thunderstorms that we left behind at home continued at Lake Anna, making outdoor activities challenging.  Fortunately Lake Anna is in a great location for other things to do and we spent the first day on a visit to James Madison's home, Montpelier.  We made another trip to Lake Anna State Park.  In order to really enjoy the lake, you need a boat which is something we did not arrange in advance.  Theresa brought the paddleboard

A visit to Ohio  August has been a month to get out and about (and we are hoping things don't go crazy with the latest COVID variant so we can continue to get out and about).  Joe and Theresa joined Anna for a long weekend in Ohio to visit Grandma & Grandpa.  This was their first flight since the pandemic and it was packed with no seats to spare.  There have been many changes to flying, including the reduction in routes.  Since Southwest no longer has a direct flight between Reagan and Columbus (a favorite route), thus the family had to go to Baltimore to get a direct flight.  The tone of flying has also changed.  Gone are the days of friendly customer service.  Now the focus is on compliance - as in keep your mask on or you are not getting on the plane. After reading so many stories about unruly passengers not complying with mask mandates, it was a relief to get to he destination without incident.   Joe & Theresa managed to secure a rental car (also not an easy feat these

Grandpa, Aidyn, Anna & Grandma  Anna had a relaxing week with Grandma and Grandpa.  She enjoyed lots of good food (including things she cannot find at home....like pop tarts) and got driving practice with Grandpa at the local fairgrounds.     Joe and Theresa arrived on Saturday for a long weekend.  Stay tuned for more details upon the return home.

Pick-up at the airport  At last the time arrived for Anna's favorite vacation of the year:  a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's.  Anna flew out by herself on Thursday (her first flight completely on her own without the "unaccompanied minor" designation).  Grandma & Grandpa along with cousin Aidyn picked her up at the airport in Columbus and headed back to Paulding. So far, the grandparents have kept them both busy.  There was a trip to the cat shelter to play with the cats (always a favorite for Aidyn).  They put some new porch furniture together for Grandpa (Anna is a whiz with assembling things so that worked out).  There has been lots of skateboarding for Anna and Aidyn.  Of course the best part so far has been lots of ice cream (she is at the grandparents).  Aidyn will be going home on Sunday evening so it will just be Anna for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, Joe & Theresa are headed to the Chesapeake day for a few days.  Theresa will be starting a new job at