Month: June 2022

Rumor has it

Last week, Rosie and I went to the public library. It was fun- they had a great scavenger hunt to find the sea creatures hidden around the library, and Rosie is exceptionally observant. She nailed the scavenger hunt.
When it came to getting a book, her teacher recommended a few items. It is sad to say, she is now jumping into chapter books, and leaving those oversized children’s books behind.

The book that she picked was a biography on Benjamin Franklin. Rumor has it from years ago that grammy- my dad’s mom- said that our family is related to Benjamin Franklin somewhere up the family tree.

I told this to Rosie, and she got excited. So, I did what any good parent would do, and started a 2 week free trial on ancestry.com, and started to look back to see if it was true. After 2 cram sessions, I can report: it isnt false, but it isn’t true (yet) either. Maybe I can make the connection sometime before next week. Currently, I found lots of folks from MA from the 1600s.

Cheer camp

Rosie has it made- she has so much fun packed into the summer it is hard to keep up. Last week, she did cheer camp.

Taylor was a cheerleader- since, forever. She started young, and cheered through college. And since Rosie idolizes Tay (in a pretty awesome way. They are super cute), it was inevitable that she would cheer one day. In the past, Taylor has said to her, “you are still a bit young. Let’s wait until after 1st grade.”

that time is now!

my take? There are lots of sports to choose from. If you take a step back from sports, there are lots of activities to choose from- like music or dance or art as well. So why cheerleading? Do I really want to be a “cheer dad” and go down the road of watching cheer performances at competitions for the next 10-15 years? They are so loud, and there is so much makeup. Soccer is a great sport you know…

But the answer is YES. If she likes it, I am into it; but if I could pick, I’d rather be a soccer dad.

Anywho, Rosie loved it. Her favorite part was spending time with her cousin Amelia, and at the end of the week, they had a performance to share.

And the video:

Summatime shananigans

Our neighbors- the Swaregens- live 2 blocks away. We met them 2 years ago, right in the midst of covid lockdowns when we were out for a family walk. We went on lots of family walks in those days, because what else? This girl and her dad were about 75 yards away, and lo and behold, this little girl with red hair was also wearing a unicorn themed bike helmet! The two girls were instand best friends, and they even had the same (virtual) kindergarten teacher at that time.

We later learned that her dad also went to Page High School (my alma mater) and was a year ahead, and he went to Appalachian State.

The parents have become friends of ours, and had us over for dinner on Saturday night for some southern bbq, and…well, this happened:

Then, it was the parent’s turn:

(The good parts)

Something was skipped back in February, and I wanted to take a minute to go back and share about our trip to Colorado.

Why Colorado?

Last year (in 2021) for Rosies delayed birthday gift, her and I went on a day- trip to go skiing in the mountains of North Carolina, and it went AWESOME. I did a blog- post about it, feel free to take a gander.

So this year, we got a chance to take skiing to the next level, by going out West to ski and celebrate uncle Jake’s 40th birthday.

The Logans packed up, and went to Fraser, CO!

Arrived in a blizzard

Car rentals are hard to come by, and expensive. For this trip, since it worked well for me in a trip in the past, I used a car from Turo to get us to our destination. The car was on the less expensive side, and it had a few years on it, but I wanted to make sure that it had four wheel drive just in case there was any snow. And sure enough, there was. While driving from the airport to Fraser (normally a 1:45 minute drive or so), we got the chance to turn it into a 3+ hour drive, over the 17,000 ft peak. It was terrifying, though I couldnt let the passengers in the car know exactly how scary it was. But, we made it safe and sound to meet uncle Jake.

Tubing and skiing, oh my

Matt and Evan weren’t due to arrive until later, so we got an extra 1/2 day on the mountain to make due with. We talked about skiing an extra day, but the best option was to get our trip started out with some TUBING! It was awesome, and surprisingly fast. You guys know Im a nerd, so I used the feature on my watch to record the run, and clocked 23 mph. It was awesome!

We got 2 days on the mountain, and by the end of day 2, Rosie was officially better than me. She was fearless, and would run through a brick wall to try and keep up with her (much cooler) big cousins. She crushed it.

This was my first trip skiing out west, and I just couldnt get over how beautiful it was. The pictures don’t do it justice, so I took a few short videos of our runs in 4k video.

It was a blast. A few other things happened that I am not going to get into now, but here are some pics that were highlights of our trip:

Unfortunately, I write these posts as a “first draft” on Monday mornings, before the kids wake up. Looks like they are waking up, and though there was a lot more fun that could be shared, here is where I must end for the day.

Every year we are lucky enough to have a family beach trip with Taylor’s family at Ocean Isle beach in North Carolina. It is an awesome week, and the family has grown so much that this year we will need two houses for the very first time.

This year, we decided to include our own family trip to the beach as well- just the 4 of us, to the beach, for 4 days. Taylor found the perfect place for us. One lesson learned from our Christmas trip to Washington DC is that (unfortunately) we have outgrown the single-room option while traveling. Though it is cheaper, the poor quality of sleep and the way we have to be silent around Mercy’s nap schedule when sharing a room just aren’t worth while. So this two bedroom condo in Kingston Plantation was perfect.

Besides our room, the overall size of Kingston Plantation included several large condo buildings, dozens (if not hundreds) of townhouses/duplexes, pools, a gym, a spa, etc.

We spent most of our hotel time at the pool. Taylor and I joke that Mercy keeps trying to injure herself- by jumping in the pool (she can’t swim), jumping on the table, jumping off a balcony, etc. Rosie could live in a swimming pool- she just needs someone to entertain her. Taylor’s summary is “we have one kid we are trying to keep alive, and another kid we are trying to entertain.”

The first night we did barefoot landing. It was great- way better than we expected, with many updated restaurants, stores, music, etc. Plus, Mercy had space to run around, which is a huge plus for us in this weird period of life with a 1 year old and a 7 year old.

The second night we did Broadway at the Beach. THIS- is the heart of myrtle beach. What I mean by that is this is where the riff-raff, and all of the stereotypes about Myrtle Beach being commercialized and run-down can live. The board walk there is falling apart. The people watching was insane- you want a dress code? You are not gonna find it there. Cotton candy, dipping dots, and air-brushed memories really make this place shine. We loved it.

June is awesome. Rosie is on her first week of spring break, and is busy with swim practice. For her age group, swim team only lasts 5 or 6 weeks, but those weeks are intense.

Running

One of my new years resolutions was to run a 1/2 marathon (the other goal was to grow a hydrangea), and the only way I am going to do that is if I am signed up and committed to doing a race. So way back in January, I looked up some races around May/June in the area and settled on this one: the “Downhill at Dawn” 1/2 marathon in Black Mountain, 20 minutes east of Asheville.

I called my buddy Leo, who is running and has been my friend since high school, and he also committed to the race.

The course is a friendly, low-grade downhill race starting at the conference center at the top of the mountain, and ending in a church parking lot at the bottom of the mountain. My goal was to finish between 1:45 and 1:50, and I did- with an official time of 1:50 and some change. If you are really a nerd, here is the detailed analysis on Strava

Even though Leo and I both read the same website, neither of us had any idea that the race was a Christian ministry based 1/2 marathon. This isnt a problem per se, but we just werent ready for it. A few things stood out:

• The race offered discounted rates on rooms. We stayed, not knowing that the rooms were in a retreat center
• the rooms had no tvs
• the conference center had no beer
• Billy Graham

I didn’t realize, but Leo laughed a lot. Apparantly, I have a reputation of being a Bible thumper to Leo and his wife, Kelli. When Leo shared about the race, Kelli said to Leo, “I’ll bet Luke signed you up to stay at a Billy Graham hotel.” And sure enough, this place was founded by none other:

Recitals

Rosie had her first dance recital this past weekend. “It was the best few minutes of my life” were her exact words after we picked her up in the lobby.

Growing up with Matt and Jake, this was also my first recital as well, and it was a whole affair. Rosie got to wear makeup, Taylor did her hair, and she just looked so grown up. Amelia and Lila also danced, and here are their videos as well.

Robbery?

Well, kind of. Our home has a strange layout- where it would be just as easy to go to the front door as it would to go to the back door, so we have a camera that is mounted with a floodlight from the corner of the house to view the comings-and-goings of our house. It is also helpful when we are out of town.

Part of my morning routine it to look at the camera and see all of the critters that move around at night- mostly possums, cats, foxes, and rabbits are around.

BUT- then I saw these two clips. It is not too exciting- he was there, and walked down the driveway two minutes later, at 3:45 am. All he did was go through the car, but fortunately there was nothing to take.

Good morning!
Its hard to believe its already June. There has been a lot going on- but at the same time, it feels like nothing has been going on.

It has been hard to get back to this corner of the internet to bring myself to writing about Family. It has been a hard year for a number of reasons, and out of sadness, it has been hard to write anything. It is hard to know whether it is better to process my thoughts and get them out in the open, or to hold off and not say anything at all? For now, there is much to be resolved, so sharing here would not be appropriate.

But, life here with my immediate people has been great! Taylor changed jobs after working for the Center for Creative Leadership for 7 years, and she now works at Aiir consulting- a company that does almost the same thing, for a more niche customer base.

I changed jobs the past couple weeks as well, and now work for Apple as a part of the Apple Pay team. Dreams do come true!

My mom just left on a trip to Europe where she will be for almost 2 weeks, on a trip that was planned almost 3 years ago but was delayed due to Covid. She will be in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy.

Rosie just finished her first season of soccer, and finished out a win-less season. Now, she is looking forward to her recital this weekend, and getting some laps in as part of the swim team.