We ended April and started May with a nice trip to the beach (Destin area).

We spent much of our time reading. A and I both finished 2-3 books apiece. Even the girls got in their fair share of reading, with their nose in books pretty much all day. That's my idea of a vacation!

While we were there, we celebrated R's third birthday.

We also stopped at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The museum was sold out, so we couldn't get in, but we were able to walk through the memorial. It was a sobering reminder of our country's unjust history and the work of justice that remains to be done. This was a privately funded memorial, organized by an author of one of our favorite books (Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, who also founded the Equal Justice Initiative).

Also in May, the company I co-founded in 2011 celebrated it's 7th year with a party. I've really enjoyed my time with this group of folks. I'm very fortunate to get to work with a team of people that are both smart and kind.

We also went to Chattanooga for Memorial Day weekend. We got a backstage pass to the aquarium and the girls got to feed a lemur and pet a penguin. The weather was really quite nice (it always seems to be boiling hot when we are visiting Chattanooga) and we spent a lot of time enjoying the downtown area, as usual.

We also visited my grandparents. It was sweet to see my grandmother, 88, talk with the girls and hold them. My grandfather, 88, still gardens and we got to talk about what he's been planting and see the golden pheasants that he keeps.

We also voted in the Nashville mayoral election. It was a special election due to a resignation, so they poll workers seemed quite bored and very happy to talk to our girls and shower them with stickers and candy.

Of course, April and May are also a time for planting and growing. The city is so green and lush in the spring, almost becoming jungle-like.

We also celebrated C's birthday, too!

It's not officially summer yet, but our summer really starts once the YMCA pool is open (Memorial Day). We've already made multiple trips this week. The girls love it because they get to see all their neighborhood friends and I love it because it's an opportunity to read!

I completely forgot to share this. This is from April. J got a "Superior" playing for judges at Blair School of Music (Vanderbilt) so she got to plan with other kids who earned the same rating at a concert at Lipscomb. She killed it!

C playing 'Gavotte.'

January was weird. Some days we got to sit outside and eat, and other days we got snow.

 

We took C ice skating for the first time. Probably should get her one of those scooters next time.

Then in February, we all came down with the flu. :( It was a mild strain, but it took about 10 days for all of us to get over it. February is such a gray, dreary month anyway that the quarantine made us all a bit stir-crazy. Poor R was the first to come down with it (after me).

We took part in 250k Tree Day by planting 15 trees in the backyard: tulip poplars, loblolly pines, red oak, persimmon, and rosebud trees. All were selected because they are native to the area and are drought tolerant.

 

I'm looking forward to Spring!

This month we took a trip to Colorado with A's sister and her family. We came back with light wallets and lots of great memories.

On the flight out, C busked (playing her violin) in the Nashville airport and earned a few bucks. When I first asked her what she was going to buy, she told me "I'm going to get clip-clop shoes." (By which she meant high heeled shoes: something she has been pretty consistent about.) "Or maybe a car." She subsequently spent every dime on a plastic unicorn, as you do when you're five.

We flew into Albuquerque and got to spend a couple of days exploring Sante Fe. That was fun - especially the hiking trails in the area and the sculptures outside of Meow Wolf.

On the short drive up to Pagosa Springs we stopped at Echo Amphitheater, a neat little natural amphitheater that, as luck would have it, had a decent echo when you shouted. Who knew? It's so easy for us to drive past these kinds of places in our hurry to get to the next destination (especially when you have a two year old that happens to be napping) but I'm glad we stopped. I love seeing western landscapes. As an easterner, it's so foreign and fascinating to me.

There wasn't much snow in Pagosa Springs (or, indeed, Wolf Creek Pass) at the beginning of the week, so we got in some hiking in the area. Treasure Falls is a short hike from US 160 and the falls were entirely frozen over. We watched a gentleman of questionable judgment attempt to ice-climb up the thing. After going up 30 to 40 feet he decided it was unsafe (to none of the onlookers' surprise) and climbed back down.

One of the primary reasons for going on this trip is traveling with family!

Our nieces, R and L (14 and 17, respectively) got to ski at Wolf Creek with J and C, which was worth the travel efforts.

J went down some of the intermediate slopes (Blue) on her last day, keeping up with her 17 year old cousin and mom. She also braved the colder, more snowy days when C wisely decided to stay home.

C simply could not wipe the smile off her face as she skidded down slopes. I had to keep reminding her to look where she was going. She also saw other people jumping so she kept trying to jump, too. Why not?

I don't know if we'll get to go back next year or not, but visiting Wolf Creek for a week sure makes me want to live closer to some slopes. ;) Nashville, alas, does not have many local options for winter sports. Cities that have inexpensive skiing options and a good economy seem as rare as hens' teeth.

What else did we do in December? We watched a few of the Harry Potter books with J. She has read and re-read all seven of the books over the fall, so she is really into Harry Potter. We also tried to get outside as much as possible to enjoy the weather before it got really cold.

C got together with some of her fellow students and played. We apologize for the fingers in the video frame. The persons responsible have been sacked.

Yes, I've been lax on keeping the single-post-per-month rhythm. My bad!

As the leaves are turning and the nights are getting colder, I am back to update with pictures from the summer! What were we up to?

J and C went to a weeklong horse-riding day camp. We dropped them off around 7am and did not pick them up until 4:30. Here's a picture from their first morning. They came back every day exhausted, but they loved the camp and keep talking about going back next year!

The girls worked hard on their music lessons. It's been fun to see how they not only practice with intention, but they also "play" music - they will often play just for the sake of playing itself.

Their current ability is no accident or genetic prowess: all of it is a credit to their mom's willingness to sit patiently with them and work on it a little bit every day. Her patience with them and persistence to work through the bad days is a credit to her high character.

Every now and then we get to enjoy a moment of zen, reaping the benefit of the girls' practice combined with A's persistent instruction and encouragement: a cup of coffee enjoyed during a Minuet, or planting strawberries to "Boil the Cabbage Down."

Our town was in the path of the 2017 full eclipse, which meant that we were able to enjoy it in it's full effect. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the sun at the moment of totality (doh!) but we still were able to see the effect on nature and the full 360 degree sunset/dusk. I can't wait to see it again in 2024! (Dallas, here we come!)

Speaking of Dallas, we were planning a vacation to the beach but plans went awry thanks to Irma, so we ended up going to Texas for a week. We got to see family, of course, but we also went to the Zoo, the Cowgirl Museum, the Science Museum, and the Ft. Worth Stockyards. It was my first rodeo!

We did our usual hiking at various places. Poppy went on us to a trip to Beaman Park.

For her 8th birthday, we got J a new bike. C took over her old one and was able to start riding it without training wheels after a few days. It's true: starting with a balance bike (a bike with no pedals) makes the transition to a bicycle much easier. Once she got the mechanics of pedaling down, she was good to go! We have a park near us with a lot of paved greenways and we have been making many trips around the loops.

Our garden was pretty humble this year. We did, however, get a lot of figs and, unexpectedly, watermelons.

It's been a wonderful summer, but we are looking forward to fall and winter!

Today we set J up with a Raspberry Pi. If you have never heard of that, it's a small computer that runs Linux and can come with an installation that includes several educational games that you can modify with programming. I'm not ready to start her on that yet, I'm more interested in just letting her explore and try to break things (as I did with MS-DOS back in 1995).

Was she excited? Heck, yes, she was excited.

We hosted a small house party to let C play for an audience. She did great! Thanks to Dad for recording it with his phone.

The cat remained unfazed.