Month: July 2026

This title may be a bit misleading, so let me start by clarifying that saying “Shes gone” refers to a work trip, and nothing more.

Now that that is cleared up, Taylor never asked what happens in her absence, so I am going to pre-emptively share a bit of what happened while she was in Montreal for a few days.

The dishwasher broke, so we had to call the repair guy. Those machines are wildly complicated, and I wasnt about to try and fix it myself. His name is Max the appliance guy, he is from Ukraine, and did an ok job- it worked for a few days, then broke again. I think this says more about the washer than the repair guy though.

Mercy and I ate breakfast on the back porch because, why not? She grabbed my camera and reminded me that I needed to get a haircut, a task that always falls to the very bottom of my “to-do” list:

Then we rode bikes to Mercy’s school. Its sad this will only last a few weeks while she is at daycare in this new house before Mercy goes to kindergarten, but it has been really fun to do this several times. This week, we had a special guest (Rosie) join us for the ride. It is much slower on the way there, and she needs a push up a pretty big hill. Whats really great is how when her big-sister is there, Mercy will push herself a little more, determined *not* to be tired in front of her!

When Mercy got home from school, she decided she wanted to be “mommy daddy”. I didnt know what that meant, but she meant that she was going to dress like mommy (the bag) and daddy (the hat and the glasses and the wallet in hand).

All of Rosie’s friends were out of town that week, because thats how summer vacation works as a kid. Rosie was pretty darn bored, and I felt bad about her being alone all week (this was her week without any summer camps), so we did a lunch date to get away from the tv and ipad. She had two options: Panera, or Ichi Sushi (next door to Panera). She chose sushi, and we had some great conversations. Once she got started, she just chit-chatted the whole way through and I loved every minute of it:

Rosie also got creative with some friends that she later found out were still in town. This was a few minutes after she got on her bike to go for a ride, and called me from her friends phone around 12:30 on a Wednesday saying “Daddy, we made a lemonade stand and we need you to bring money and come buy some lemonade.” You bet your butt I walked 3 blocks over there and bought some a cup of low-quality powdered lemonade, and put on a big, big smile about it.

We also stopped by Cici’s house (my mom) and Rosie just sat in front of this gigantic painting for a while. Turns out Rosie was just super tired, and not lost in thought looking at this masterpeice. Yes, this happened before Taylor left when we drove past Cicis house and randomly stopped inside, but I still liked the picture and wanted to share it because its my blog and I am in charge. And it always amazes me how my mom can whip out these paintings in just a day, and has been doing it year-after-year for decades:

Mercy is really digging riding her bike. We rode to the playground, and even though it rained for a few days, we weren’t going to take “no” for an answer.

One rule I have always had is that its ok to get messy if you can change your clothes; meaning, “dont get messy while we are out doing stuff far from home”. So when Mercy asked if she could ride on the dirt trails we found near our new house, my first response was “no”. Then I thought about it, and decided, “why not?”. We can come home and change clothes and get cleaned up after. So, we did. And she always surprises me- she did great, and this was her first pass on them. Mind you, she is in pre-school:

Finally, we went to a church worship night. Our worship leader, Amelia, is so, so talented and she is moving on. We will be sad to see her go, but also appreciated a Wednesday night worship service complete with instruments for kids to play with. Our church always surprises me by their turnout: I only expected a few folks, but there was really a crowd, and of course there was cake afterwards:

beach, swim, and work!

Each year on the 4th, it’s time for the Register Family Vacation. Last year didn’t get a post on the blog, but 2024 did right here.

The kids are older this year- Mercy and Rosie both great swimmers. Mercy needs a bit of attention on the water, but she does pretty great with her cousins.

I had to work the whole week which was a bummer- had to make up for time off in March going to Mexico, and this put more of a burden on Taylor. But, I got to spend a good amount of time in the waves, and Friday was a federal holiday for the 4th.

The Haney’s stayed at the house next door which had a pool; in celestial news there was a strawberry moon. There were some beautiful sunsets, and the peaches we got from a roadside stand were absolutely delicious.

We cooked a meal one night- local North Carolina fish tacos, and they turned out great. They let me heat up the corn tortillas for the meal- 36 tortillas at 2 minutes each.

We have been doing a “Wine club” with some neighbors recently and did something fun: the sommelier we follow on tik tok recommended a super cheap and a decent priced bottle of cab: $5.99 and $20. It was such a fun experience we tried it with the family. All the guys preferred the $20 heavier cab, and ladies preferred the lighter one that was a merlot blend.

Rosie and I watched Jaws for the 2nd year in a row- it was awesome, but the little cousins kept trying to butt in, so we had to duck into a bedroom to watch it. For the fall, Rosie is going to watch her first really scary movie before Halloween- also something I am excited about. Stay tuned.

The parade was great- on a Friday this year instead of the traditional Saturday because so many people end their beach rental weeks on Saturdays.

Above is the big family picture from this year; below is from 10 years ago (2016). A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things are still (thankfully) pretty similar:

Im still as awesome now as I was back then. Maybe even more awesome?

Finally, for the last day, the Core family and the Lynam family came in- the cores stayed the week after, and Lynams joined in for a few days.

We had a fun day on the beach, and celebrated John’s birthday on the 4th of July- also a fun tradition the past several years.

One of the cool moments was getting to see the helicopters do a fly by for the 250th birthday:

Mercy was WIPED OUT on the way home.

One might think, “wow, thats alot”, and you would be right. Except it wasn’t enough, and as soon as we got back, Rosie had AG camp we had to leave the house at 7:45 each day, then dance at night now that she is dancing with the “seniors” until 9:30pm (this was an honor that she got moved up by the way, another story).

And, luckily the city swim meet was also this week for both kids at separate times!

Ok ok, I know- don’t be a jerk. I just realized when one work meeting with the CTO came up and I had to take it at the pool, and I thought, “what are we doing with this craziness of swim? Every day for 6 weeks, this is crazy!”. But, its only 6 weeks, and it helps them do something positive and work hard, right? Ask me again in 10 years and we will see, but I feel pretty good about it.

Rosie is an 11 year old in the 11/12 year old group this year. She doesnt swim year-round like many of them do, but she does do dance- and that must be enough, because she made it to the championship round- the 24th and last seat in the city (that is like 120+ people!). I’m so proud of her! This was her final event:

Finally, to get some time by myself, I finally got to visit the triad meat market across town for an easy Saturday morning. The place was great- they process their own meat (fresher, less preservatives than the big grocery store). Between there, and the farmers market, we really got a bounty. Then, a big old (Boston) butt went on the smoker, and we had a mediocre pork BBQ for dinner. It was a solid 6/10, but I am new to this smoking thing and it will only get better. Next time gotta go slower and lower despite what the recipe says.