School is done and summer is here!

Hello, hello, hello. So we skipped April...oops. We kept to our monthly update promise for just about one month. Oh well, enough of that. There is so much to share, including a couple of videos of young Callie. Clearly the blog is getting high tech. In any case, let's get things started.

We begin with a picture of Callie's latest pastime, the swing at Ecton Park. She is very good and enjoys the swing tremendously. Here is one of many pictures we took of her in the swing.



Hopefully Callie will continue to enjoy the park as the months go by and the weather gets warmer. We certainly know that we are going to enjoy it. During the summer months on Tuesdays there is live music in the park in the evening. Come on by and join us.


Fortunately, this spring did not bring a cold snap like we had last year. That means we were able to see the true blooming of Kentucky as winter faded into the background. UK's campus in particular was showing some fine colors with tulip displays right and left. And no, those are not monster tulips...Callie is still a little tiny. And this picture shows a more serene Callie, as opposed to the little girl who enjoys ripping up tulips.





We skipped our blog post in April, but as you can see from this picture, we did not skip our post time. Here we see Callie taking a closer look at the racing form for Keeneland during the first Sunday of the spring meet. Of the three races she bet on, only one played out. We will forgive her because it was her first time. But that honeymoon is over when the fall meet arrives in October.


That brings us to our first video of the post. These videos may very well fall into the category of interesting only for the parents of the child. You just never know. In any case, we hope you enjoy this one of Callie enjoying one of her meals. Or perhaps she is just enjoying the aftermath. Listen closely for the sounds she makes. She is cute, but she is not a delicate flower.





April brought a visit from Grandpa Jay and Nana Taffy. They got to spend some time alone with little Callie while we were at work, and from all appearances everyone got along famously. And Callie could not get enough of her grandparents.



Here is the happy threesome enjoying some downtime after a tour of the Woodford Reserve Distillery. After spending the morning at Keeneland watching the horses work out, it only made sense for all of us to check out a bourbon distillery. Unfortunately the visit had to come to an end, and Callie was forced to once again spend time with her parents. Oh well, not everyone can get what they want.



Clearly, everything happened in the month we skipped a post. Lexington and its residents welcomed a wonderful new life into our midst on April 18th. Our friends Charles and Fiona finally got to say hello to their "little" boy Iain Xavier at the ripe weight of 9lbs 15oz. And Callie could not wait to meet her new friend. As everyone in the room said "gentle", Callie placed her hands on his sizeable noggin and appeared to bless him. Or she was just trying to balance. You never can tell.




As mentioned earlier, we didn't get a cold snap this year once spring arrived, and that meant we got to enjoy all of the blooms of our neighborhood. And that includes the dogwoods in our yard. Sarah and Callie are looking very cute sitting in our front yard under the blooms of the dogwood. Not pictured here are the various new tools we purchased to make our front and back yards look as good as possible. The fight against the dandelions is on, and we just need to make sure our weeds don't invade the neighbors pristine habitats. We'll let you know how that goes.


Ahh, bath time. In the early months, Callie had a tough time with the bath. Sometimes she didn't mind it, and other times she would cry until we got her back into her dry and warm clothes. Well all of that has changed...Callie now loves the bath and won't stop splashing in the water.







Indeed, the following video captures one of the last baths that took place in the living room. Callie's splashing has led us to place her bath within the downstairs tub to limit the water on our floor.



Although not illustrated on the above video, Callie usually spends most of her bath chasing these two duckies. Amazingly enough, those two duckies can prove quite elusive within a contained space.


One last picture for the post, and it is of the Bowes family in the midst of a hike just yesterday. It's amazing how green everything has gotten in such a short period of time. We had a great time and learned quite a bit about the forests of Kentucky through the shared knowledge of Dr. Neil Pederson, professor of Biology at EKU. We highly recommend going on a hike through the forest with him.





So there you go, a lengthy post to make up for those missed. And, because of the day of this post, we also need to add a heartfelt Happy Mother's Day to Gayle Lucas and Taffy Bowes, two amazing women who taught us so much about being a loving parent. Until next time...whenever that may be.