California Graduation

In the third week of May we made what is the second of five schedule trips to California in 2011. But this was a big one. On Saturday, May 21 we had to make sure we were in Sacramento to celebrate the graduation of Zac Lucas from Sacramento State with a degree in Construction Management. So we boarded the plane and prepared ourselves for a great weekend.

Before the festivities in honor of Zac began in earnest, we made a quick stop to see Sarah's high school friend Wendy to meet her newest addition, Emerson. Here's a picture of Wendy, her husband Rony, and their kids Chase and Emerson. When they graduated from high school twenty years ago, neither Sarah nor Wendy could have imagined they would be getting together to nurse their newborns and talk about parenting. Although we could not imagine it, it's been fun to do it.

Saturday was the big day, and the whole family was there to celebrate with Zac. Well, almost everybody. John missed the ceremony because he was presenting a paper at a conference in downtown Sacramento. But the important people were there to see Zac get his diploma, and the picture below captures the whole gang.



You may notice in the picture that Zac is not wearing the typical graduation cap. He and his Construction Management colleagues wore hard hats with tassels for the ceremony. It looked great and certainly made it easy to spot them from afar.

Here is the graduate with his proud parents, Dan and Gayle. We are all so proud of and impressed with Zac's accomplishments. He has worked incredibly hard to earn that degree and we know that this is only the beginning of the next chapter in his life. We wish him all the best and can't wait to see what he is going to accomplish next.


This trip also allowed Grandpa Dan to see his newest granddaughter Reese for the first time. The two of them had a great time hanging out and getting to know each other.



After the graduation ceremony the party adjourned to a local restaurant where Gayle treated us to an incredible feast. No one went away hungry, that's for sure.

Sarah's cousin Haley, her husband Ryan, and their daughter Skyler joined us for the dinner. Callie and Skyler really had no interest in eating but wanted to walk around the restaurant and check everything out. Although we provided plenty of distractions to keep them at the table they were hard to contain. At least until dessert came, and then it was difficult to stop them from eating the cake and canolis.


The next day the whole clan headed to San Francisco to take in a Giants game at AT&T park. Grammy Gayle did her granddaughters well by providing each one with full Giants regalia. Here Reese is sporting her new outfit with her cousin Keith. It appears that Reese will love her cousin as much as her big sister does. You'll notice that Keith is pretty photogenic, which will hopefully help further his fledgling modeling career.



The whole trip was pretty fun, but Callie probably enjoyed the ferry trips more than anything else. We parked in Alameda and took a ferry to San Francisco. And when the game was over we hopped on the ferry that was parked right next to the stadium. Seriously, you couldn't get a parking space as close as the boat was. It's the only way to go. Although we didn't see a home run splash into McCovey Cove, we still saw an exciting Giants victory in extra innings.


The weekend also made it possible for Callie and Reese to spend some quality time with Grammy Gayle. In fact, Grammy watched the two of them while we went out to celebrate with the graduate. You can tell that this was a big deal since Grammy took a big risk by staying at home with the two wild ones. Although she didn't need to worry too much about Callie - she was excited to sleep every night in the tent Grammy had set up in the bedroom.



All in all it was another great trip out west. Next time we head to southern California for the first of two big weddings. The fun never ends. In the meantime, we should probably get to sleep.

Kentucky Girls in the Spring

Once again we are coming in under the wire. It is the last day of May and we are going to catch you up with events from the end of April into May. Our whole house is still getting used to having four residents, but we continue to be in awe of the way that Callie has handled the situation. She truly loves being a big sister and thinks the world of Reese. The hugs, squeezes, and kisses are both intense and plentiful. And we can tell it is going to be a lot of fun when Reese becomes more able of reciprocating the love.

Although Callie doesn't usually get the opportunity to participate, she loves giving Reese a bath. And for the most part, Reese loves getting a bath. It is only a matter of time until they will take their baths together. We actually tried it last night, but Reese was not exactly pleased with the situation. It will be an important step in streamlining our evening routine.


Like us, Callie enjoys just watching Reese grow. And like Callie, Reese is happy to stare at people. It's like a match made in heaven. Reese continues to look like Callie did at her age. So perhaps for Callie this picture is like looking into the past.



Of course appearances can be deceiving, and Reese is definitely her own girl and is willing to demonstrate this whenever possible. Even though she can't talk yet, you know very well when she does not want to do something.

Easter morning this year was especially exciting because the Easter bunny left a series of clues for Callie and Reese. They had to follow four different clues to find the gifts the Easter bunny had brought. As you can imagine, Reese went along for the ride while Callie's excitement grew with each discovery. Here's a picture of both of them enjoying the prizes at the end.

If you have followed our blog at all during the springtime you know that Easter is also the time to size Callie up. In other words, it's time for the annual bunny ear picture on the stairs.



This is the fourth picture in that series, and it is pretty crazy to look back over the previous years and see how Callie has changed during that relatively short period of time. We have definitely passed the baby and toddler phases of her life.

After our Easter morning adventures we headed to church. And we were fortunate enough to grab a seat next to our friends the Abrahams. Let's be honest, if it weren't for them we might have not gotten a seat at all. And Callie was more than happy to squeeze in between the two Abraham girls, Ella and Claire. We can get Callie to do quite a bit if the reward is getting to hang out with Ella and Claire. Here's a picture of the four girls after church and the big Easter egg hunt.


Our Easter celebrations continued with another tradition, dinner at the Chrismans. In fact, Sharon told us that if we do ever end up leaving Lexington, she would like Easter to be the holiday we travel to see them. Sounds like a good idea to us!



Reese looks lovely in her Easter dress as we prepared to enter the Chrisman's house. But this divine little child made her presence known clearly when she let one loose as Chris was saying grace. Despite our best attempts to hold it together, not a single adult at the table could keep their laughter in. It was just another wonderful and memorable meal with the Chrismans.

There is no doubt that life is a little crazier with two little girls instead of just one. But as we sit here at night, with both of them sleeping soundly (for now), and look at this picture, we couldn't be happier. We truly are fortunate to have two amazing daughters. And we have only begun this adventure.