Category: Uncategorized

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.

Long time no see! It has been a while, but there has been a lot going on since Rosie turned 7 on December 3rd. It has been busy, just like the rest of you- but it is very FULL of all the good things.

Christmas 2021

In the throes of the pandemic, we had another Christmas- and another, and another, and another… I say that tongue-in-cheek, but each year is a little different now than the year before, and with it, come different needs and joys. It was just last year that Mercy was a tiny 3 month old baby that could be taken anywhere and she would just fall asleep. This year, she is a walking and a talking (in her baby language) everywhere. And the year before that, in 2019, we were a family of 3!

This year, we had a marathon of some Christmases, and learned a few lessons along the way. Our celebrations included Christmas at the Register’s house on Wednesday the 22nd, my mom’s house (also known as Cici) on Thursday the 23rd, followed by Grandma Becky’s house on the 24th, and finally our own house on the 25th. Four Christmases in four days is a lot, and we learned never to do that much again. It was great, just tiring with Mercy able to walk around, Rosie being bright and full of energy, and the need to be a good guest for all of our awesome families. Here are some highlights of those days:

Washington

This was awesome. Taylor’s work closes between Christmas and New Year’s, and I had a stroke of good luck as well: our company is merging with another company, and my manager called a few weeks ago and let me know that I had too many vacation days to roll over to the new year, so I had to use some of them, so I took those days off as well. We looked around at some options: Atlanta, Asheville, etc, and decided a trip to DC would be awesome, because the smithsonians were free, it would be an inexpensive trip, right? Well, it wasnt inexpensive, but it was totally worth it.

A few lessons were learned:

• Smithsonians close on the slow days, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These were also the days we were there.
• The Omicron variant of Covid spreads easily, and Smithsonian employees are also subject to quarantine days. Which meant, without employees, many museums were shut down.
• When one of the popular museums is shut down, the tourists flock to the museums that are still open, and the lines to get in stretch over 1 hour.

So, we worked around that hour long wait the way anyone would: While taylor was waiting in line (with Mercy sleeping in the stroller), Rosie and I went next door to the museum of art (where there was no line), and had a blast. Ok ok, my compassion isnt the greatest with that move, but it worked. The trip was awesome, and we were all exhausted at the end, but not grumpy with each other. Highly recommend.

This was an awesome weekend- and exhausting. Taylor does such a great job of helping Rosie feel loved. Even though the work has to be put in during the (late) hours of 9 pm after Rosie is settled in bed, Taylor knew it was worthwhile to create a scavenger hunt for Rosie when Rosie woke up on her birthday. So we did, and here is the video:

Friday night (Rosie’s actual birthday), she got to do a sleepover with her cousin Anna Grace. I drove and met Anna’s dad, Matt, about halfway to Raleigh, and picked up Anna grace at around 4:30, and by the time the doors were closed, those girls were going 90 miles an hour. They were both wound up and ready to go. THe cool thing is, when we went to the “lighting of the Christmas tree” downtown, the two girls ended up getting their picture taken, and were in the local newspaper- FRONT PAGE!.

We celebrated Rosie with a birthday party for friends on Saturday night- and it was wild. In my selfish kind of way, that kind of situation was my worst nightmare- 12 screaming 7 year old girls.

This was her first birthday where it was all girls- and when I offered to her, she did ask that I make myself a stranger during the party (and stay inside). So, I happily obliged while watching some of the season closing games in college football that night. App state lost.

Here is a funny video Taylor took, to put it in context. This is Mercy, just having a great old time eating a little bit of pizza, while all the craziness unfolds around her:

And here are a few other pics of the weekend

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It was a little sad too- Saturday was my uncle’s funeral. Uncle Gordy- my dad’s older brother- passed away earlier this year, and his funeral was on Saturday. I was pretty torn not being able to go, but with Grammy passing away earlier this year, going to visit Grandma Sue, and Rosie’s birthday this weekend, it just didnt seem like I could make it work to head to PA for this event. I was able to stream the funeral though, and everyone did an excellent job reading, and sharing about Gordy’s life.

Why there?

Way back in March of this year, the pandemic seemed to be letting up. There were rumors of “Life going back to normal” and things seemed to be opening up.

Taylor and I were feeling bored. After the rush of being pregnant with Mercy, the pandemic, having the baby, and getting through the holidays of 2020, things seemed slow around March.

Brian Maness was with me at Tumblebees around that time, and shared with me about their upcoming trip to Charleston, and that got me thinking- we need a trip to look forward to. That very night, I went home and looked up some destinations: Washington DC, Charleston, Wilmington, where could we go?

Taylor had the idea of going on a big trip, and asked my thoughts on having some friends join us, and since no one in the world had plans that far out due to the pandemic, we picked a date that worked from some friends.

And because looking at destinations is overwhelming, our friend Julie Cook helped us decide on a destination, and recommended Secrets Maroma Beach.

Some highlights

• Houston. Had caramel apples as his carry on on the flight to the beach.
• Sarah. Was able to plan childcare for the whole week the day before the trip when she learned that her own parents had covid. AND, Sarah’s visit to the “Rock Show”.
• Chad. Was very good at making friends at the pool. And very good at supporting Rachel.
• Rachel. Really enjoyed the sand. And rolling in said sand.
• Taylor. We have used the phrase “Mexico Taylor” to capture ALL of the fun we experienced on the trip.

Why so special

Back in Kindergarten at Irving Park, Houston and I may have been in the same class. We were however, in the same small group with Jimmy Renslow from 6th grade until we graduated, meeting every Tuesday.

Taylor was friends with us from 11th grade on, after we became christians, growing and striving together.

That small group I mentioned? Rachel was the younger sister of my friend that hosted the group.

Chad was a year behind us in college, but virtually lived with us his freshman year. He moved in his sophomore year.

Houston met Sarah in grad school. And Chad and Rachel got serious right after college.

That history is just a 25 year web of relationships and inside stories, all built on solid faith- through divorces, college, weddings, children, proms, graduations, girlfriends, jobs, houses, and a whole bunch of other junk in life.

We all live in the same town, but for whatever reason, it is near impossible to get us all in the same place at the same time between work, and keeping all of our kids without something contagious that would jeopardize a backyard hangout, for example. So this trip was something special.

what did you do?

Honestly, not much. We ate and drank a lot. Side note: on our last trip to Mexico, in the pictures it looked like I had a bit of a belly, and Taylor was looking GREAT! And since pictures are so long lasting, I didnt want to have pictures where I thought my stomach was too big- so I slowly lost a few pounds over 6 months- 12 pounds total. And, I gained 8 back that week 🙂

We just sat by the pool, sat by the beach, sat in the pool, ate by the beach, and basically mixed up variations of this over and over through the week. In the evenings, the resort had a few shows (see clip below). We went to dinner together around 6 each night if everyone was up for it, and had marriage time. Played beach volleyball. Taylor and I had a massage. Basically, we just enjoyed life without being parents for the week, and I forgot how nice it was to connect with people like that.

Alright, here are some pics of the week:

I have never seen so many kids trick or treating! Perhaps this seemed so shocking on the heels of covid, but building on the success of having the roads shut down to help facilitate trick or treating for our neighborhood, the road was packed!

We had a lot of fun meeting up with some neighbors, and having Zippy, Aunt Mallory, and my mom join us as we had dinner with the Swarengen’s before trick or treating. Here are some pics:

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At the last minute, we got the chance to come down to Ocean Isle Beach for the weekend, and it has been great. The weather was beautiful, and we got to sit out on the sand and play in the water- the week before Halloween even!

Mercy and Rosie played so well together. They are such different kids- but NO ONE makes Mercy smile like her big sister does. They played on the sand and just laughed, and got along so well. It was a great weekend, and their relationship just brings me so much joy.

Honestly, there isnt much new to post this week. We are just excited about going to Mexico in 12 days, and trying to lock ourselves down so no one tests positive for Coronavirus, and derails our trip.

Here are some fun pics of the weekend:

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