Fore!!

 Is there a better way to celebrate the end of a long week than pizza, sodas, fresh air, and golf balls? We couldn't think of one either...

For someone who has never held a golf club or played an inning of softball, Amelia sported a pretty nice swing...

Everett only had two goals when we left the house .... beat his dad at TopGolf and eat pizza.... one out of two isn't bad....

180 Degrees

If you just came home from a week-long beach vacation, what is one thing you could do to put an abrupt halt on all fun, relaxation, and joy .... did you guess 6 hours of meetings via video conferencing?  If so, you'd have described my day and been close. That said, my day was great compared to the way Everett celebrated coming home ..... by getting two teeth pulled.  To his credit, he handled it like a champion.  To my credit, I only fell asleep during 2 of the meetings. 

Vacation

It's always been a hard balance to actually live in the moment and capture any of it for the blog.  So, this vacation, our first real vacation in 2 years, I decided not to try.  We're 4 days into it and unplugging is going quite well....Which is good for me because vacationing with this guy, who always lives in the moment, is not a sit still and reflect on your day type of thing...

Keep Your Hands Inside the Ride

At what age should you let your daughter go to places like amusement parks without you being there?  Don't get me wrong, other parents I trust will be there, just not me.  Keep in mind I understand I can't deflect all the COVID germs,  I can't make the roller coasters any more safe, and I can't even keep her from tripping and scraping her knee.  She would literally be less protected if it were me taking her instead because the other parents are doctors.  That said, I was thinking an appropriate age was roughly 28...apparently, I was overshooting by about 16 years. 

Huntress

You don't know this.  Olive, who is lounging in the kitchen, doesn't know this.  I know this. More importantly, Lucy knows this.  What can this big secret be?  If you guessed Lucy has been quietly creeping to the edge of the kitchen like a lioness stalking her prey for the last 5 minutes, you'd be right.  For some reason she will often spot Olive lying across the room, yard, bed, etc. and begin this hunting ritual.  Surprisingly, Olive does nothing to provoke this. More surprisingly, she never sees it coming.  She'll look directly at Lucy, then look away.  Sometimes she's so oblivious to it that she lies back down.  At that moment, the wild dingo pounces.  It's honestly a thing of beauty that would make National Geographic proud.

Trip Down Memory Lane

 We were lucky enough to spend the last few days down at the grandparents' house.  This trip was even more special than usual as we were able to see family members we hadn't seen in a year and a half.  We were able to catch up, laugh, play games, and light off the worst batch of fireworks the world has ever known.  While we weren't complete since a few loved ones, including the newest additions to the family, were out of town, things felt like they were getting back to normal for the first time in a long time.  We were even able to recreate a photo from years ago to see how much everyone has grown.  Next time, hopefully we can have the whole crew...

Happy Distance

 Everett enjoyed his first time eating in a restaurant in over a year.  He and I didn't set out to break his streak. That said, tt was nice to sit inside with literally zero other patrons and watch the people "being safe" in the packed outdoor dining rub shoulder to shoulder with strangers....I was able to teach Everett a few things like "you can't touch the table or booth with your hands if you're busy double-fisting french fries" and "before you pay to go to the exclusive VIP section of the bar, make sure there aren't more "VIPs" in there than there are normal folks in the rest of the place".