June 2020

This June was a different one considering everything that was still going on with COVID-19. June is typically one of my favorite months because it starts off with our anniversary celebration on June 2nd and it is the first month of summer vacation! 

To keep with my theme for the year in turning everything into a race, I woke up on our anniversary and ran a 13k, which equals 8.1 miles. Jennifer didn't want to participate so I got up early to run and see the sunrise. 

Thirteen years later and I am so glad this lady is still by my side. She is truly my best friend and I am so glad we get to experience life together.

I had planned out a socially distanced day for Jennifer and I. The kids got to tag along on the anniversary day date. We started by grabbing lunch at Goodfellas and we took it to have a picnic at Georgetown College where Jennifer and I went to college. We had planned to grab dessert at this little bakery, but it didn't open until the afternoon (which was our real purpose for going to Georgetown). Instead we headed down to Berea to hike the Pinnacles. This was the first time that the kids had hiked on these trails. 

At the top of the Pinnacles in Berea. I just love the technology that allows us to take pictures when nobody is around. We couldn't have asked for any better weather for the day either.

We got done hiking and I was determined to get a milkshake from the place in Georgetown that I had my sights set on before the hike. Everyone else in the car said they would rather have Steak-n-Shake milkshakes. They finished theirs about the time I got in line to order mine. I picked the Turtle milkshake from Sweet Matriarch and it was insane. It was served in a mason jar, the rim was covered with fudge and pecans, whipped cream, a chocolate cupcake, and caramel drizzled over the whole thing. It made a mess in the car, but it was delicious!

Every two months like clock work I head to the blood center to donate blood. It is so simple and only takes a few minutes out of your day. I promise that the patients and their families are so grateful for your donation. I see first hand in the clinic everyday that I work the need. So please if you are able GO DONATE!

More bike rides with my kiddos. On this night I challenged the kids to a race, them on their bike and I running beside them. They destroyed me, but it was also the fastest they had ever peddled those little bikes.

Another day off from work means that we are getting out and trying to do something in nature. It was different because you had to reserve a time to come hike and you were only allowed to stay in the park for 2 hours. Nobody complained on the hike and everyone walked the whole time. Jennifer got a little crazy and asked if I thought we should try to take trip out west to hike at some of the National Parks for our upcoming vacation. I told her that I thought it was maybe a little early for the kids to be doing more strenuous and much longer hikes. Hopefully in a few years we can go get some hiking in out west with the kids.

Landon's top teeth started to get a little loose. After a couple days of wiggling it around we got it out. This was his third tooth that he has lost.

Landon had wrote a note to the tooth fairy because he had some questions as to what she did with the teeth after she collected them. Well, the next morning he got a response. It said:
Dear Landon,
I love to collect to teeth. They are so white and shinny. I use them as bricks in my kingdom. I have built a castle, streets and statues. I am currently building an amusement park with a roller coaster and ferris wheel. Your strong teeth will really help with the rides. Thank you for your help.
                                                Love,
                                                         The Tooth Fairy
I put the penny in there so that you could see how small this little letter really was. I was so surprised to get the response, I actually had no idea what she wanted all those teeth for, but it makes perfect sense!

His front tooth must have been giving some support to its neighbor tooth because as soon as he lost the first one the other one became wiggly. This was the first tooth of both kids that mommy got to pull. It was barely hanging on in there.

Landon had been asking me to go play "big" golf. So, we headed out to our local par 3 for a boys round. He played the whole 18 and had a lot of fun.

I typically don't enjoy reading, but this was a birthday gift from my little brother and it was written by the head of Kentucky Sports Radio, Matt Jones. He went to all 120 counties in Kentucky to see how Mitch McConnell has helped or not helped them during his 4 decades that he has been a Senator. It is a great read and I would highly recommend reading it, especially before you make your decision on election day in November. Every Kentuckian at least has something in the book that they can personally relate to. As soon as I got it I opened it up and read the McLean County part to see about my childhood hometown.

Our neighbors were doing some spring cleaning and they found this Disney themed kid cookbook. They asked Brinley if she would like it and man was it a hit with her. She went through and wrote down all the recipes that she wanted to try out. She even went and tried to figure out all the ingredients that we needed to buy at the store so she could make the stuff she wanted. This was some Princess Pink Popcorn, which was popcorn with some melted marshmallows and strawberry jello all mixed together. The kids said it was too sweet! 

One of the unnecessary Amazon purchases during the quarantine was some silicone donut molds. We tried them out and made some with glaze, some powdered sugar, and some cinnamon sugar. Landon wanted extra powdered sugar on his!

At the beginning of the pandemic a lot of businesses decided to have specials or deals for healthcare workers. Crocs, which is a brand that I have been a supporter of for years was one of these groups. Everyday they gave away 20,000 pairs of their shoes for free to healthcare workers. Only problem was that it was an online lottery of sorts. The back story is that I wear a pair of black crocs to work every single day. I tried for multiple weeks to try and win a pair for myself to no avail. A lot of my co-workers had won a free pair and finally one of them won the lottery again and told me to come put in my information. When you win you put in your size and they send you a random pair. Well, these tye died crocs showed up on my door a few weeks later. Totally not my style, but the kids and my co-workers love them! So, I change it up every once and a while and wear these instead of my plain black pair of Crocs.

The hardest part of this pandemic has been not being able to see family. We have stayed away from each other because we didn't want to risk anyone getting sick. However, with McKinley finishing up his residency at UK and moving we decided it might be one of the last times all of us could get together for some time.Olivia and the kids had a blast playing with each other and Olivia even had her first orange sherbet push pop. I know Grandma and Grandpa were happy to have all their kids and grandkids together at one time.

It had been such a long time since I have gotten to see my little niece Olivia. She is growing up so quickly and is full of energy!

The whole crew all together again after not all being with each other since Christmas. It had been quite a long time!

I had been going on tons of bike rides with the kids during this time. Well, I decided to push them further than I ever had before. I didn't tell them, but we normally do 2.5 miles and I was going to push them to do a 4 to 5 mile ride. Well, three miles into the ride my back tire popped and I didn't have anything to fix it with. I tried to push it, but the inner tube kept coming out and keeping it from rolling properly. That meant I had to walk the other two miles with my bike on my shoulder. 

The kids wanted a summer treat so we went to Dairy Queen for a blizzard and cotton candy dipped ice cream cone.

My little brother is moving again! Since he started college I have helped him move a total of 9 times! This time I am moving him to his own house and he is going to start at his first job. He started working this year as an attending at Vanderbilt University in Internal Medicine. I am very proud of him and I know he will do great things. Not exactly the best time to be starting in medicine, you know during a worldwide pandemic, but you have to start somewhere. 

We made the trip down to Nashville to help him move into the house. We enjoyed some local hot chicken and even had breakfast at a cool little donut shop, Five Daughters Bakery. Most of us got croissant donuts and they were delicious!

Then we tried out Top Golf Nashville. The kids had such a good time that I signed us up for the summer pass which allows you to play all summer long. 

For Father's Day most men would just lay around the house and relax. Not me! I woke the kids up and we headed out for a run with the jogger stroller. Man they have gotten heavy over the years. I ran an 8k, which is five miles. One kilometer for every year that I have been a father. We saw eight bunnies out on our run too which made Brinley really excited. 

Part of my Father's Day celebration leaked over into the following Monday. We headed up to Cincinnati to hike the Bender Mountain Trails. We spotted a buck walking in the woods while we were walking. After that we stopped for lunch at Panda Express, which is one of my favorite fast food restaurants. Lastly we went to play golf at Top Golf since we had our season pass and everything during the week is free before 5 pm. We ended up playing for two and a half hours and the kids loved it.

On the way home from Top Golf we decided to grab dinner at Malone's. This was the first time that we ate in a restaurant since the pandemic started in March. The kids were excited and Jennifer and I were a little anxious about all the necessary precautions. Every thing was great, but maybe we were just really tired of eating at home!

It is a privilege to get to vote in this democratic nation. We exercised our right to vote by absentee ballot this year.

Chef Brinley was at it again with her Disney cook book. This time she made blueberry parfaits. They were really good. 

The city of Lexington decided to start baseball. The league where we normally play decided to cancel t-ball. I was set to be the head coach for both kids and we had a lot of our players returning from last years team. I saw a Facebook post from a friend about their child playing at Southeastern Baseball. I was able to sign Landon up, but Brinley wasn't interested in playing coach pitch. (Northern - where we played last year allows girls to play a year longer) Landon was so excited about getting to play, and so was I. We went out and started getting some practice in at a green space in the neighborhood. 

June 2020 may not have been what we were expecting, but you have to make the best of what you are given. I am so happy that we get to spend more time together and that the kids are officially on summer break. I hope that we are able to do some fun things together over the rest of their time off from school. Thanks for reading and may God bless you and your family!

May 2020

Well, with the pandemic in full force in May it meant that another month at the house with my 3 favorite people! It was filled with the kids finishing up the school year on NTI and trying to keep occupied with the days off at the house. Thankfully Jennifer and I have been able to keep working at our jobs, I know many people who weren't as lucky as us. 

With more time being spent at the house I have taken to getting a lot of home improvement jobs done. I took two days to stain the back yard fence and deck. I know that it had been almost 8 years since I last stained it. I remember that it was one of the things that I did while I was home on paternity leave after Brinley was born. 

One day I was goofing off and practicing trick shots off the roof of the house. I almost made it on my first shot so I asked Brinley to take a video of it. A couple tries later I made it, but Brinley didn't get it on video. Then I asked Jennifer to come try and capture it. She cut the video off after it bounced on the ground, but it went in after bouncing on the ground one time. So I made it twice without either of my girls getting it on video. If you know me I am determined. So, we spend the next 45 minutes attempting it again. I finally made it a third time and Jennifer got it this time. Here are some screen shots of it.

Brinley woke up on her birthday with a yard full of surprises from MiMi. 

We made a trip halfway to home to Elizabeth town to have a socially distanced celebration with Grandma and Grandpa. We had Mickey Mouse ice creams and Brinley opened up her gifts from them. 

With all dining areas closed we asked Brinley if there was anything she would like to eat for dinner. She requested steak, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, salad, and Ale-8-1. She also requested a unicorn brownie as her birthday cake.

We rented the new Trolls World Tour and watched it out on the back deck with a little fire going too. 

Every year the first Saturday in May is reserved for the running of the horses in Kentucky. With the pandemic they postponed the race until the fall. That didn't keep me from keeping the spirit alive at work. Jennifer made me some mask with creative designs, one of which was horses. I paired that with some jockey goggles for a nice little fun outfit at work. I even found this stuffed horse and galloped around with it to have a little fun on the Friday before the "Derby".

Another project for around the house was pressure washing the driveway. The kids wanted to try it out. I think they were having fun, but quickly decided that it was more fun to ride their bikes. 

After the kids went to bed one night when Jennifer was at work I got the old PS3 Guitar Hero game out and started playing. After I played a song I just happened to notice the name of the singer, which just so happened to be the exact name of the young man that I used to play guitar hero with at the hospital. It brought back a lot of memories about a great young man. Check out my band's name, Murse which stands for a male nurse. 

Mother's Day was wonderful to celebrate mommy. Brinley wrote her a message on the minecraft screen that said "I Love You Mommy". We went on a Mother's Day 5K race as a family and enjoyed some raising canes. We surprised Jennifer with a new beta fish. After our last fish died she said she never wanted another one so it was more of a joke, but the kids really enjoyed it. Welcome to our family Violet.

Sidewalk chalk has provided a lot of joy and happiness over the last couple of months. Brinley got some unicorn horn chalk and wanted us to color with her. Brinley's artwork was the top left picture and it was a scene from minecraft. I did the UK sign. Landon started making a cookie, but then marked it out when he messed it up.

Landon has really gotten interested in going on bike rides with me. On this day he pushed his hardest yet. I was really  enjoying seeing him riding his bike.

The next day we went on a bike ride to his school. He hit another PR. We took a little break at the school. In total we went around 5 miles. Little man didn't complain once on our ride.

The neighborhood sometimes has a police speed monitor that they put up to help people slow down. The kids and I used it to see how fast we could both bike and run. The kids had a blast seeing how fast they could go. 

UK athletics held a virtual 5K one weekend. They gave you three days to complete the challenge. With nothing else really going on I decided to run it all three days! I was put on Team Lawson, who is the head coach of the UK softball team.  

Brinley has had some interest in cooking at times. She helped Jennifer make some pancakes one morning.

Brinley is growing up too fast on us. Here she is trying to ride on mommy's bike. It won't be too long before she is tall enough to ride it.

One night the kids and I started coloring a giant coloring page. I got so caught up into coloring that I stayed up until about 2 am trying to finish it. It was so peaceful and I didn't have to think about a single thing except staying in the lines.

We had a water balloon fight with the whole family.  The kids were so excited. Maybe we should have practiced throwing before we had the balloon fight. So many of the kids throws were way off target. They finally started just running up and busting them on you.

When the pandemic started there were multiple business that reached out to healthcare workers to offer them free or reduced stuff as a thank you for working during this trying time. Crocs was one of those companies and they started giving them away for free, but there was a huge demand. They would give out 10,000 pairs a day, but sometimes 600.000+ people were on to try and get a free pair. I am one of the only people that I know who wears Crocs to work daily. I tried almost daily but to no avail. Thankfully one of my co-workers was looking out for me and got picked one day. She let me fill out the information so that I could get the free pair. You tell them your size, but have no say in what design you get. Only a few more weeks until I find out my new pair.

The school year didn't end like any of us had hoped, but the kids were really excited to be finished with NTI. We celebrated with a little bike ride around the neighborhood and a balloon fight in the school parking lot. A couple of pictures and ice cream rounded out celebrating the end of the school year. I really hope that they never have to go through home based learning for this amount of time ever again!

The kids had been asking about having another backyard campout, so we were happy to make it happen. This time we "glamped" in the backyard. We brought the TV outside and we watched the Guardians of the Galaxy. We had recently got the kids started on watching the Avengers movie series. We even had us a little fire and made some s'mores. The kids had a blast, but the next morning my back hated me after sleeping all night on the ground.

Right before the pandemic I had signed up to be a volunteer at church. As soon as Southland Christian Church opened back up I was ready to help. Not many people came out the first week, but I will be ready whenever the world gets a little back to normal. I have enjoyed getting to socially distance meet new friends and even a few old ones too!

This May had a lot of new things for us, but we made the most of them all and enjoyed spending time with each other. We spent a lot of time outdoors and I tried to keep the kids active. Hopefully we can get back to a little more normal lifestyle soon. Thanks for reading and God bless!