March 2022

A couple of years ago I started running half my age on my birthday. This year I decided to bike my age, so I got up nice and early and rode 4 different Peloton classes and one free ride until I got to the desired 37 miles. Much easier than running it, but still a big effort when you have never rode that much at one time. 

After 37 miles on the bike, it is time to eat some donuts in the shape of 37!

The kids were at school so Jennifer and my parents made our way downtown for my birthday lunch at KSBar. Ryan and Drew were there doing the show so I went over to talk with them and grab a picture.

This year my birthday fell on Mardi Gras and the UK basketball home finale. I asked for a king cake for my birthday this year (won't do that again) and we even shoved a baby Jesus in it to see who would find it. I opened my gifts and then Landon and I headed downtown to see the CATS play!

We of course had to stop at Goodfellas for a breadstick and then headed on into Rupp. The wildcats won and ended the regular season undefeated at home. We went down to high five the players and Landon was pumped to see Oscar again. Landon also had one of the coaches hand him one of the players towels. Landon was really excited to get that. 

I ended my birthday celebration with one of my favorite treats, a cream horn from Desserts by Rebecca. It is one of the most delicious things that I have ever eaten. I have tried so hard to make them at home, but mine just aren't the same. 

The party didn't stop the next day when I went to work. They decorated my work space with my favorite, UK sports. 

I had also gotten a card from one of my patients. She finished up therapy and wasn't going to be coming to see us at the clinic anymore. She got me a new charm for my crocs. I was very happy that my friend didn't have to get treatment anymore, but am sad that I won't get to visit and talk with them anymore. 

DanceBlue Marathon Day finally arrived and the kids were excited to go to the in person event. We started off playing Bingo with all my friends (patients) on zoom. 

I was talking and interacting with co-workers and patient families while the kids ran around and played with some of the patients that they knew. I knew the students were about to do the big reveal and I went in the game room to find the kids. However, they were no where to be found. I started getting a little nervous and then I looked and saw them up on the stage. They asked them to go up and be a part of the reveal. I can't believe how much money the students were able to raise for all the patients in my clinic. It will be very helpful to all the families. 

This was a really neat puzzle that my sister got me for my birthday. It had lots of uniquely shaped pieces and even had some shaped like animals. 

We finally got a chance to go to Ohio to meet Miss Eliana. She is a very happy baby. We watched her and Olivia one night so Andrea and Chris could go out. Aunt Jennifer enjoyed snuggling and little baby bath time. 

The kids and I stopped by the Pins bowling location in Dublin, Ohio for a little time in the arcade. All the games are free so the kids and especially my wallet love it! It has tons of classic arcade games. 

We went on a seek and find in Dublin trying to locate the fairy doors. It is a really cool marketing idea to try and get you into local businesses. The kids were able to locate them all so they could turn it in for their prize. Their favorite locations were the ones that included sampling the goods.

Olivia wanted to show us a new place that we hadn't been in Columbus, the Conservatory. Inside they have a butterfly sanctuary that was really neat. The butterflies flew all around you. 

One even landed on Eliana's stroller while she was taking a nap. 

The conservatory also had a really neat children's garden for the kids to play and run around in. Olivia was excited to show her cousins around because she was the only one who had been there before. 

The cousins playing together in the children's garden. 

The kids were really excited about going to the ice cream shop for a treat. I'm glad I got the picture when I did because right after this Olivia dropped her cone. Needless to say the ice cream wasn't the only thing melting down.

Brinley is such a big helper. I know that she is going to be a great mom one day, just like her mommy. Landon is going to be a good dad too. Here he was reading a bedtime story to Olivia. 

Olivia was excited to have her cousins sleep over in her room. 

Brinley's Rampage team had their first tournament of the season and they were the champions! This was Brinley's first championship. The most impressive of all is that they only had 9 girls for the entire day. They battled hard and won it all. They started at nine in the morning and the last game of the day finished around eleven at night.

The tournament day was extremely cold. Notice any similarities between mother and daughter. They never miss out on a chance to bundle up!

The girls getting some instruction from coach Trey. During the teams break in play we headed to Aunt Amanda's restaurant and had lunch. The kids really enjoyed the pizza!

Over the past two years I have been to a lot of football and basketball games, but we hadn't been to many of the other sports. Well, we decided to change that, and because the kids were more interested in the game now it made the experience much better. We watched some of the UK softball and baseball games one night. Now the kids have more knowledge of the game I am quizzing them about what they would do in certain scenarios.

Brinley at a scrimmage with mommy. She started the season playing second base and batting lead off. 

I was cheering on the UK women's basketball team in the SEC Championship and I couldn't believe it when they actually won it all! It was a fantastic comeback. I just wish that I had driven to Nashville to watch it in person.  

I'm not sure that this is comfortable, but if you're tired enough then anything will work.

St. Patrick's Day calls for some green clothing and some green food. We woke up and had green pancakes with whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles.

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with some green mustaches at work. Being at work will be the only joyous thing from this St. Patrick's Day because just a few hours after work I came home to watch the Peacocks basketball team knock the Wildcats out of the NCAA tournament in the first round. It was an absolute disaster that I still can't believe happened. 

Landon's baseball season started out with him hitting two home runs in his first scrimmage of the season. This kid has put in the work during the off season to get better and everyone can really tell. 

We were all very excited to help at the meal pack with our church. The kids are seasoned pros at this now and we were in a group with a bunch of first timers. The kids were both very good about switching and letting the new kids try out the different jobs. For the first time ever I stayed afterwards and was table captain. It was a lot of fun and we will be excited to sign up again next year. 

This year for lent (no we are not Catholic I just really like the concept) I told Jennifer that she could pick one for me. She chose two actually. That I had to be in bed every night before midnight and that I had to get rid of one thing a day for 40 days. I think this satisfied the requirements. I took a load of stuff to the church and donated it so that someone else could benefit from it. 

March this year was really interesting. I think it didn't have the same sports joy that it usually does because the CATS had their unexpected early exit from the tournament. However, it just seemed to be replaced with more time spent working with the kids at softball and baseball. Maybe it was for the better. There is always next year for us to capture title number 9! Thanks for reading and God bless!

February 2022

Landon's class had their first field trip since COVID became a thing. They went downtown to the children's theatre to see a play. Landon is in the green shirt on the second row. He said he had a lot of fun.

Landon continued his indoor soccer season. His team only lost twice the whole season and it happened to be the same team. Both times they played Landon's team, the Scorpions, were missing players. For the second time in the indoor season they were runner's up.

We had a new family member arrive on February 3rd, Miss Eliana. She was born during a winter storm, which just happened to be named winter storm Landon. We can't wait until we are able to get up to Columbus to meet her. Until then we will just have to Facetime her. 

Jennifer got into such a cleaning mood that she took the door off the oven so that she could get in there to clean it. I had never seen an oven door off so I had to take a picture.

Happy Birthday Jennifer! We are so happy to celebrate you. We started off the morning with homemade waffles and bacon. I even decorated Jennifer's office space. The kids made their mom her favorite cake, yellow cake with chocolate icing. 

Better picture of the cake the kids made.

I was so excited to make a drive to Bowling Green one day after work. That's because I was able to finally get my Highlander back. It has been a long month living with just one car. I am so thankful for the people at Lee Myles Auto Care who fixed my car. It was finally nice to meet them in person and tell them thank you.

Landon and I ready to watch the Super Bowl. This Super Bowl put me into a real predicament. I have a ton of friends who are Bengals fans. However, most people know that I am a big Browns fan. Well if you know the NFL then you know that the Bengals and Browns are divisional rivals. I wanted nothing more than the Bengals to lose. Cheering for the Bengals would have been like cheering for the Louisville Cardinals. Never going to happen! If the Bengals did win I would be happy for my friends.

Another UK home game means some time with my little man. Every trip to RUPP Arena includes one trip to the concession stand and a Goodfellas bread stick. Kentucky won, but more importantly was the time I got to spend with Landon. He has turned into a big fan and is up and cheering the Wildcats on to victory. 

Well, it might look familiar but we decided to head back to Florida in February because we thought the parks would be less crowded than around New Years. We did the same as before and Jennifer worked in the hotel while the kids and I ran around the parks and played. We ran into Bart Simpson and the crew from Scooby Doo.

Universal Studios celebrates Mardi Gras for a whole month. Every night they have a parade where people on floats throw out beads. We watched the parade the first night there and the kids thought it was so much fun.

Look at all those beads that they collected. We also had some beignets to feel even more like we were in New Orleans. 

Literally we were collecting tons of beads because we went back the next day too! We even found this bead tree where people had been throwing beads on it for decorations. The kids wanted to throw some out on the tree too. They both added some to the tree. 

In the early morning we rushed back to Harry Potter world so that we could get there before it got packed. Our season passes let us get into the park an hour early which was awesome! I had never seen Hogsmeade with so few people in it. 

We met some more characters during our time in the park. We saw Patrick and Squidward from SpongeBob. We also got to see Vector, the bad guy from Despicable Me. The kids and I even spotted Poppy from Trolls. The kids were also excited to ride the Twirl-N-Hurl ride in Simpson land, but I opted to sit it out. 

Another night at Universal means that we collected even more beads. I really have no idea what we are going to do with all the beads. If you need any just give us a call we still have tons of them. 

Picture of the kids with Hogwarts while we were waiting in line for Hagrid's Motorbike ride. Even with smaller crowds the wait times could get up to 2 hours long for this ride.

We discovered an area we had never been, the Dreamworks Dance Party. We saw Alex and the Penguins from Madagascar along with Puss-n-boots from Shrek. The kids didn't have any desire to dance. I might have boogied a little. Thankfully the kids didn't have phones to film me. I have to get all my silliness out some way. Better to do it in front of strangers.

We met Spiderman and Doctor Doom who are characters from Marvel. Neither kid was tall enough to ride the Hulk rollercoaster. I spoke with a worker at the front of the ride and he hooked us up by letting us skip the line and not have to wait with the kids. He took me up the exit and let me ride in about 5 minutes (instead of 60+).

Jennifer and the kids walking out of Universal Studios one night. Notice everyone was wearing more beads!

Hot days in Florida call for cold ice cream treats.

Our two little wizards went around and did magic with their wands. We even got to see the sorting hat. The kids even wore their school robes around one day. The kids discovered one day that their wands weren't working right. We found out that you can take them to the wand shop so they can repair them. (Actually they just replace them) The kids were so excited to have the wands ready and working again. 

The picture on the left could have been the last picture before our life changed forever. The kids and I were walking into the park and I stopped to get their picture with Islands of Adventure lighthouse. I started walking towards the entrance and I thought both children were following me. When I turned around to give the kids their passes to get in I only had Landon with me. I asked him where Brinley was and he said he didn't know. We quickly backtracked and my heart was pounding. There was well over 1,000 people trying to get into the park. Thankfully when we got back to where the picture was taken she was standing right there. I was so relieved and I told her I was sorry we lost her. 

The kids favorite ride again this time was Velocicoaster. I love the bottom picture that I captured while we were waiting in line. The picture is the last inversion that the coaster does. 

We found out that anybody could be bead throwers up on the Mardi Gras parade floats. We were able to secure three spots by signing up in a virtual line. (It wouldn't let me choose 4) Jennifer picked to be out in the crowd and to take pictures of us.

Just a week late, but it is always fun to wear a birthday button. This is the fourth time that we have been in Florida to celebrate with Jennifer in the month of February during our 21 years together. What a better way to celebrate than with a hot butterbeer.

The kids found us some Oscars to take home. 

The kids told their mother that she had to ride Velocicoaster with them on this trip. She decided that it should be the very last ride of the trip for her. The kids were so excited to have this happen. The picture on the left was waiting in line. The one on the right was after the adventure. You can see the blur of the coaster in the background on the first huge drop. Jennifer said it wasn't too bad, but not something that she wants to do again. I bet we will talk her into it again. How can you tell these kids no.

I had some co-workers tell me about this crazy gas station that we should try on the drive down called Buc-ee's. It is more than a gas station, it is an experience. You have to get some beaver nuggets when you go. It was also the most money that I have ever spent at a gas station. We tried the brisket sandwiches which were good too. They are getting one close to us in Lexington soon too.

I forced the kids to attend the last home game for the women's basketball team. This was Rhyne Howard's last home game for the wildcats. It was great to see her one last time. They destroyed Auburn and she ended her career with a victory at home. She had a great chance to win player of the year and be the first overall pick in the WNBA draft. (She actually won player of the year and went first overall pick) I am so glad we went to see her play one last time!

We also just happened to see Oscar Tshiebwe walk into the game. The kids and I were so excited. I ran over and asked for the kids to get a picture with him. He took one with the kids, but then had to turn everyone else away because he had to get somewhere. Turns out he was going to preach at a local church. This young man is so awesome. What an amazing basketball player, but an even better human. (Turns out he won the player of the year award too! So the kids saw both college basketball National Players of the Year in the same day.)

After the women's basketball game we met up with Uncle McKinley and Taylor at the batting cages. The kids wanted to show them what they could do on the pitching machines. Everyone got in and hit a few. The kids enjoyed seeing everyone get in there and whiff on a few pitches. Jennifer might have been the best hitter of the day. 

The end of February comes with great joy because the next day is my birthday! My parents came up a day early so that they could see McKinley and Taylor. My mother also made an orange slice cake for us. This is a traditional Christmas treat, but we didn't get one last year. This is a favorite treat of mine and McKinley's.. 

Although February is such a short month it was jammed packed full of fun. A new niece, birthday celebration, trip to Florida, and most importantly I got my car back! I am not sure when we will be back at Harry Potter World, but I am sure it will be sometime later this year. Thanks for reading and God bless!