October 2019

October was again a jam packed month. For the majority of it we were trying to figure out what we were going to be for Halloween. The kids didn't really have any good ideas for outfits, so Jennifer ended up coming up with an awesome idea. She even decided to do family themed outfits too! Here is everything we did up until Halloween.

The kids had their fall break and I promised them that I would take them to Adrenaline. The kids jumped for almost 2 hours and had a complete blast. They asked me to jump with them too so I was a hot and sweaty mess. 

Trying to teach the kids early to help their old man out with washing the car. They are pretty big helpers for the most part. 

Jennifer and I celebrated our 19th dating anniversary. It is crazy that I have had this beautiful woman by my side for all these years. 

One day a week I spend my day off volunteering at the kid's school. I work on sight words with all the kids in Landon's class. Well, I decided to stay one day to have lunch with both of the kids. 

I also volunteer in Brinley's class too. I help a couple of students in the class with learning how to read a little better. Brinley asked me multiple times to eat lunch with her. No way I could let my little girl down.

With October comes the opening of the Keeneland fall meet. They have a pretty neat sunrise trackside event that they do every Saturday during the month of October. The kids and I went and had breakfast. They also got their faces painted, met some horses, and had a pretty awesome morning.

After an early morning at Keeneland we headed over to the Home Depot to make our project for the month. The kids made helicopters. After the kids completed their helicopters we headed over to the public library where they were having a fall festival. The kids made some slime and played on the inflatables for a little while before we headed home.

The softball team was having a fall scrimmage against Eastern Kentucky. We stopped by to see a few innings before the rain came in.

The clinic that I work at is financially supported by DanceBlue. For those of you that don't know, it is a student run organization who raises money all year long to benefit the children of Kentucky who are undergoing chemotherapy treatments at UK. One of their fundraisers is a 5K. I asked both kids if they were interested in running it with me and to my surprise Landon said that he wanted to do it. We didn't train for the race at all. I had it in my head that Landon would probably run for a little bit and then walk for a bit. I wasn't worried about our time I just wanted to have a good time. Since I wasn't worried about our time we went to eat at Olive Garden right before the race. Well, Landon had set different goals for himself. I just wish that he had told me them. His goal was that he didn't want to walk at all for the entire race. If I had known this in advance I wouldn't have started out near the back of the group of people. We weaved in and out of people for the first mile of the race. We were passing a lot of the college aged kids. The guys were getting frustrated they were being passed by a little kid. All the girls were just saying look at that cute little guy. They had little cheering stations and they always got so excited to see Landon and would high five him and cheer him on. Landon was loving every second of it. I ran behind him the entire time and would tell him how far he had ran. At times I was even struggling to keep up with him because I ate too much at Olive Garden. I called Jennifer to tell her when we were close to the finish line so that she would be ready to get a picture of us. He finished in at time of 28:34 seconds, which was just a minute slower than my race day PR. I was so proud of the little man. Maybe we have a little runner on our hands.

Landon loves board games just like his Uncle McKinley. Landon begged me to see if we could go over to play some games one day. We learned a new game, crokinole.

It's basketball time in the Bluegrass! Big Blue Madness officially starts the season for the Wildcats. I even spotted McKinley and Taylor across the court from my section that I work as a blue coat. I even took a pregame walk up to where my season tickets are located so I could see the new chair back seats.

I also worked the UK football game against Arkansas. It was Jared Lorenzen day and the Wildcats pulled out the win for the big guy. I spent a bit of the game up in the stands with McKinley and Taylor, the lucky recipients of my game tickets that I get for working the game.

Lexington didn't have any rain for almost 50 days straight during the late summer and early fall. When the first rain did happen we got a very unpleasant surprise. Jennifer and I woke up to the sounds of a drip. Upon further investigation we discovered that our roof was leaking in three different spots. We had three different companies come give us estimates and recommendations. All three recommended that we get a whole new roof and that insurance wouldn't cover it because it wasn't due to weather damage. Not exactly the news we were looking for, but we found an awesome company to work with completing the job while we were out of town for a weekend. I would highly recommend Atlas Roofing for all your roofing needs. Let them know I sent you and I will get a little kick back from it.

We made a trip up to Columbus to visit with my sister and her family for Miss Olivia's birthday party. I can't believe that this little girl has been a part of our family for a year. She has so much energy and is getting quite the personality.

Brinley and Landon were in charge of the children's area at Olivia's birthday party. Brinley found this dry erase board and wrote out all the stuff that everyone could do. I thought it was precious.

We let Andrea and Chris have a date night so they could celebrate their anniversary, which happens to just be the day after Olivia's birthday. McKinley and I were in charge of deciding what to do for the night, so we picked our favorite restaurant and took Olivia to her first Giordano's experience.

Before we headed home on Sunday we took the kids to COSI to run around and burn off some energy before we drove the 3 hours back home. They had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles special exhibit that we spent quite a bit of time exploring.

The Lexington and Louisville ballet collaborated for an event that helped raise money for DanceBlue - the group of UK students that raise money for my clinic. They invited all of our patients as well as staff for the dress rehearsal. Jennifer had to work, so the kids and I headed downtown to see the ballet. It wasn't mine or Landon's favorite, but Brinley really enjoyed it.  

The kids had a trick-or-treat event at their school. This is where the kids wore their Ghostbuster outfits for the first time. They had a lot of people saying references from the movie like, "Who you gonna call?". The kids just looked at them. So, Jennifer and I decided that before we actually went trick or treating that we needed to watch the movie again.

We left the school trick or treat and headed down to Kroger Field for a Dance Blue Fundraiser. It was a great event and we even ended up winning a best of Lexington basket. Landon has unfortunately learned how bidding at silent auctions works and put his name and a bid down for a chick-fil-a basket. I thought we ended up winning it, but thankfully someone out bid us at the last second.

One Saturday morning I took the kids down to Memorial Coliseum to have breakfast with and meet the women's basketball team. You could also stay to watch practice, but the kids really had no interest in that. All of these young ladies were extremely nice and good with the kids. I think they enjoyed the donuts the most.

After meeting the women's basketball we headed across the street to the UK student center for a Halloween party thrown by the DanceBlue students. It is always so much fun to see all of the children that I take care of at the hospital out in the real world. I had one of the mothers ask me if I was able to bring my children with me. I said yes and that it was also very important for me to bring them to events. I told her that every night when I put my children to bed that we pray for the children that I take care of. I think it is awesome for my children to meet and know these children that are undergoing chemotherapy. It makes my heart so happy to my two worlds meet and interact. When we were going home they were telling me about all the fun that they had with my friends.

Another Saturday night means another UK football game. This game against Missouri was a rainy mess, but thankfully I got to stand under the awning and didn't get wet. Another win for the boys in blue too!

We all headed downtown for the UK/Georgetown exhibition game. We had lunch at Goodfellas and then I remembered hearing about the pumpkin carving at Transylvania. We made the quick walk up to see what it was all about. Of course I carved a UK pumpkin with my blue coat on.

After some pumpkin carving we all headed over to the game at Rupp between my two Alma mater. Since I was working the game I had to wear my blue coat, but underneath I was representing the orange and black. Proud to be a Tiger and a Wildcat!

The top left picture was the 3 pumpkins that we carved at Transy. The other pictures are the carvings that we did at home.

All of us with the pumpkins that we carved.

Jennifer had to work the night of Pumpkinmania at Transy so the kids and I went to see all of the pumpkins and to do a little bit of trick or treating. We had a blast and got lots of compliments on our costumes. A lot of people liked the Slimer mask. Since Jennifer and the kids rewatched the movie the kids understood all of the Ghostbuster references. They even heard the theme song playing once and said they were playing their song. 

Working in the children's hospital is unlike anyplace else in the world. You see children and their families while they are battling horrible diseases and diagnosis. The people that work with me in the clinic and throughout the UK Children's hospital try everyday to make the day just a little bit brighter and happier for these families. To help with that we celebrate Halloween in the hospital by dressing up and doing a reverse trick or treat. We actually take the candy to each and every patient's room. This year our clinic dressed up as characters and parts of the popular children's game, Candyland. Everyone in the clinic was so creative and their costumes looked awesome. I went more for the practical approach. I dressed up as the box, because lets be honest you can't have Candyland without the box. I got an awful lot of weird looks walking around the hospital, but it all made sense when I lead our Candyland crew around the hospital. It was such an amazing experience to see all the patients dressed up and waiting at their door for candy or treats. I can't wait to see what the theme is next year!

Halloween night got slightly ruined when the day prior they cancelled the city wide trick or treating because of poor weather conditions.The reschedule date happened to fall on a date when Jennifer and I were going to be out of town and at the exact time the kids were going to be at a birthday party. In order to take advantage of our Halloween costumes that Jennifer put together we decided to head to a couple spots to do some trick or treating on Halloween. First stop was at Cabela's where they were having a little event and you could even get your picture made. As you can see Olivia was our Stay Puft Marshmallow and Jennifer was the Keymaster. After Cabela's we headed over to the mall. This was a huge mistake. The place was completely packed and not worth all the trouble. We waited in a line for about 10 minutes and when we got to the front of the store they handed the kids one tootsie roll each. We packed up at the mall and then headed to dinner at Malone's. We had dinner there to celebrate McKinley's birthday. McKinley's birthday is the next day and we weren't going to be able to see him then. 

Like I said October was full of fun and tons of activities. We had a great time celebrating Olivia's birthday and all the Halloween festivities. I am just thankful that now if you ever say "Who you gonna call?" that both of the kids will quickly respond with Ghostbusters! Thanks for reading and God bless!

September 2019

Here is everything we did in the month of September 2019!

We started out the month with a trip to the Louisville Zoo. The Prock's came with us and the kids had a blast showing Elam all the animals!

We had planned on letting the kids play in the water at the splash park. However, some kid had an accident and they closed the park down. The kids, especially Elam had a blast playing with this water ball.

I had heard quite a bit about the Bernheim Forrest, especially from one of my patients. He told me that it was one of his favorite places to hike in Kentucky. We were extremely close after the zoo, so we just headed a little south of Louisville to go find some giants. These wooden sculptures of giants were huge. It was a fairly easy one way mile long hike to see all 3 giants.

 It was funny because just moments before they had told me that their legs were too tired to walk anymore.

Jennifer and I taking a break during our hike while the kids were running around and walking on the rock path..

This giant was my personal favorite.

Not sure what exactly this structure was supposed to be, but I got Jennifer and the kids to take their picture with it.

We also found these really neat red metal sculptures and the kids wanted to climb on them. It was all fun, until Brinley fell off and hit her arm. Jennifer and I were worried that she had just broken her arm, however she ended up being fine.

Another neat little sculpture that we found during our hike.

This was the one that I feel had the most detail.

The kids love playing with our neighbor, Willow. The kids always want to play every time they see each other come out the door. Too bad we are usually heading out to do something.

Another successful game working with the game day recruiting team. We beat Eastern Michigan, but unfortunately lost our quarterback Terry Wilson for the year. 

On Labor Day in Lexington it is the official last day that all the local outdoor pools are open. So, the kids and I headed out to the YMCA to get one last outdoor swim in. The kids had a blast jumping off the diving board and even got some free popsicles.

At work we have an amazing salt water fish tank. One of the highlights of the tank is the puffer fish. Nobody at work had ever seen it puffed up until randomly one day at work someone saw it. We all rushed to the front to catch a glimpse. I took a picture so that I could show everyone that missed it. It was amazing how much it can truly puff up.

In August Brinley was being so crazy about letting me pull her tooth. I promised that I would get her a Lego set if she let me pull it. Well, I pulled the tooth and then the girl said she wanted this huge Lego set. I was not going to pay for it but Brinley offered that she would pay for half of the cost. I agreed and she was so excited. When it came it the mail that was the only thing that she wanted to do. I made her go to bed, but she got up at 4 am and started building again. It was well over 1,000 pieces.

The kids workshop this month was a scarecrow planter. Brinley did an awesome job. Landon really wants to try and make it look exactly like the sample on the instruction manual. He had trouble getting the paint to cooperate with him. After a little meltdown I helped him with the paint job. I think it turned out pretty good considering it was a children's activity and I am a 34 year old man.

The kids and I made it out to watch the UK Men's Soccer team play against Tulsa. The kid's enjoyed rolling down the grassy hill and they even grabbed a picture with Scratch. The wildcats ended up winning the match 2-0.

One day after school I told the kids that they couldn't play on the iPad or watch TV until they played outside. They came outside and sat on the swing and read until I told them that they could go inside. The kids found a loop hole and I couldn't even fault them for it.

Walking to my car after work I caught the guys filming the Paul Finnebaum Show. I stopped real quick to get a picture. This was taken off of a big video screen showing the live show. I am in the blue by the shoulder of the man in the dark shirt. I am holding up my phone to take a picture.

The kids are playing fall ball and having a lot of fun. They didn't have many kids sign up so we just practice every Tuesday and have a game on Thursday. They are learning a lot and getting a lot more experience.

Well, the third home game of the season was against the Florida Gators. This was the first game with our backup quarterback Sawyer Smith. We were the better team, but ended up losing. To help with a little bit of last years magic I even ate some of the salsa that I made on the day that we ended the streak against them last year. It didn't work.

We all made a Sunday afternoon trip out to the Women's soccer match against Indiana. The Cats ended up losing, but the kids won on the day. We caught a soccer ball and t-shirt that they threw out to the crowd. We even got to meet the gymnastic team before we left for the day.

Landon had been asking about the popscicle place. So for a nice little treat after the soccer match we headed to Steel City Pops. Everyone really enjoyed it after sitting in the hot sun at the soccer match.

Brinley really wanted to sign up for gymnastics. She has loved it. 

We also took a little family trip over to Memorial Coliseum to see the volleyball team in action against Purdue. The Cats lost the first set before we arrived. After we got there they won the next two sets to make it 2-1 in a best of 5 sets. We had to leave because it was a school night. I looked later that night and the Cats collapsed and lost the last two sets and lost the match.

It finally worked out with my schedule to volunteer at our church's Jesus Prom. It is an amazing event that they hold every year for people with physical and mental disabilities. It was awesome to see all of the prom goers with huge smiles on their faces and so excited about a happy and fun filled night.

The kids and I headed out to see the UK Volleyball team take on Louisville. Our cousins Abby and Sarah were there with their volleyball team. It was good catching up and learning a little more about the rules of volleyball from someone who actually plays.

The kids and I went to the store and I saw that they were running a sale on chex mix. It made me think that it would be a perfect snack for us on our upcoming road trip. 

We had a quick weekend trip planned to Chicago so that Jennifer could run the Chicago Half Marathon. Well, Saturday morning I was the first one up so I decided to take a little run in downtown Chicago. I made it to the "bean", the Willis Tower, the Chicago river, and I even spotted multiple sand castle figurines around the city.

After my run I came back to the hotel and found Brinley awake. So, we took a little walk down the street to a Chicago staple, Stan's Donuts. We picked out a variety and then headed back to the hotel to share. Donuts seemed like the perfect start for Grandpa's birthday. He is now 68 years old!

Our next stop was at the Museum of Science and Industry. We explored all 3 levels of the building including a submarine, combine,clown exhibit, bicycle exhibit, baby chick hatchery, and we even watched a robotic assembly line make us a personalized toy. There was so much stuff to see and explore we could have spent a couple days in there and still not have seen everything.

At one point I even caught the birthday boy napping while the kids were playing in a water table. 

We had to leave the museum a little early because we had to make it to the race expo so that Jennifer could get her bib for the race the next day. The kids had to get in this picture because they had to sit on a couple of letters because they kept falling over when a gust of wind came thru.

We stopped by Grant Park and got a picture with the Buckingham Fountain. 

We also got up close to the "bean". Apparently Grandpa said he had never seen Cloud Gate before. Brinley and Landon had never been to Chicago before so I know for a fact it was their first time.

Not as many people take the picture from the inside of Cloud Gate. I think it looks psychedelic under there.

As you can see their are tons more people their during the day than when I went for my run earlier in the day. The picture with the reflection of the skyline is pretty neat. Just wish there was a way to get all of the people out of the picture.

We found a random bull statue that the kids rode on and Grandpa even grabbed it by the horns. Then we headed to my favorite Chicago establishment, Giordano's Pizza. Just look at that cheese in the top right hand picture. They even gave the birthday boy a slice of Tiramisu for dessert.

Before walking back to the hotel we took a stroll down Michigan Avenue, aka the Magnificent Mile. Dylan's candy store caught our eye so we went in and look at all the candy. The kids really wanted to try the huge cotton candy. As you can tell from the bottom right picture, they really enjoyed it!

Sunday morning Jennifer and I got up around 4:30 in the morning to get ready and head to the start line of the Chicago Half Marathon. We had to leave early because they closed down the interstate that you drive to get there. It was absolutely pouring down rain when we were driving there. It slowed down quite a bit for the actual race. I was able to catch Jennifer at about 4 different spots during the race. At one point I even ran along side of her for a little bit. After finishing they gave her the largest medal ever. The thing is huge! I didn't run this one with her because I already completed Illinois on our quest for all 50 states. I ran the Chicago Half Marathon in 2007 with Andrea and McKinley. So, now we have officially completed half marathons in 8 states.

We thankfully had Grandma and Grandpa with us on the trip so they decided to stay at the hotel and sleep in. I am not so sure they would have enjoyed standing in the cold rain with me. In fact after they woke up they went and swam in the pool for a little while. We grabbed lunch at the Shake Shack right next to our hotel and then we both headed back to Kentucky. We had a lot of fun in Chicago celebrating Grandpa's birthday. We packed quite a bit into just a short little weekend trip. 

We had quite a lot of fun during the month of September. This year has been speeding by and I can't believe it is already October. The kids are having a lot of fun in school and as you can see I try to keep us busy every other part of the day. Thanks for reading and God bless!