September Heat

What better way to spend a weekend than with the Johnsons and some beautiful Kentucky scenery. On Labor Day weekend we found a great little spot not too far from home that gave us just what we needed on a hot day.

Fortunately, the Johnsons are always game. Unfortunately, the only person who brought a bathing suit was Emerson. We all wanted to jump in the water with another hot Kentucky day. But at least we got to walk through the Kentucky River and make our way to a local restaurant that we had always wanted to try for some cold beverages and fried food.

September also had our church's annual picnic. This year Sarah organized an inter-generational scavenger hunt as the main activity. Pictured here is the winning team - every team member came from a different family and was in a different decade of their life, all of which scored them extra points. However they performed well on the trivia portion too.

While Sarah and Reese were enjoying themselves at the picnic, John and Callie were at Callie's soccer game against Falls City FC. Callie certainly has hit a confident stride on the field, and this game not only scored a goal but earned the game ball from the coaches. They give it out every game and the player who earns it gets to sign it and bring it to the next game. We were pretty darn proud of her, but more importantly she was proud of herself.

The very next weekend John and Reese drove down to Franklin, Tennessee for her team's games in the Battleground Tournament. It was another extremely hot weekend, and these girls worked extremely hard all weekend long. They played well but had some tough matches, ending the weekend with 1 win and 2 losses. Reese didn't mind, though, because the hotel had a pool, biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and the hotel room she and John stayed was really big. The true marks of a good weekend from an 8 year old's perspective.

On the older side of things, 6th grade brought Callie into a Lexington tradition that took us by surprise. "Is Callie doing Hall's," we were asked. "What is Hall's?" we replied. Oh my, did we learn. To bring you up to speed, Hall's School of Dance is a 9-week rite of passage for many 6th grade boys and girls in Lexington. They learn how to dance, yes, but they are also instructed in a variety of elements of etiquette. Callie was along for the ride because all of her friends were doing it.

So every Thursday night from September through early December Callie and her friends put on their dresses, their panty hose, and white gloves. They took a picture each week to mark the occasion and off they went.

Now before you start imagining some fancy ballroom and debutantes galore, here is a picture of opening night in a local church's gym. The boys are sitting on one side and the girls on the other. Definitely nothing fancy, but they did seem to learn some good dancing basics.

Everyone who we talked to about their Hall's experience growing up mentioned ice cream, and it is likely that is what Callie would bring up first about it as well. The dancing ended at 8:30, and then dozens of boys and girls tossed aside their etiquette and descended on either Baskin Robbins or Graeters, depending on the night.

These will certainly be memories that Callie will cherish as she gets older. It is important to note that the grand finale of the class was a Winter Dance in early December. However, a couple of parents took the evening a step further and hosted a three-course meal at the Lexington Country Club prior to the dance and then of course after the dance everyone still went out for ice cream. Pretty fancy event for 12 year olds.

Callie wasn't the only one getting dressed up, of course. Sarah and Reese made sure to show off their Sunday best before church one day and looked fantastic in their fall colors. September was coming to a close, but the fun of fall was far from over.

We Are the Champions

The first week of school also coincides with one of our great annual traditions, Picnic with the Pops. This year was special because some of the original poppers back in town. Chad and Rebecca have been a part of quite a few memorable evenings, and this year they came all the way from South Carolina to enjoy the music of Queen with us a few thousand of our closest friends.

Our theme was We Are the Champions, so everyone put on jerseys or sports paraphernalia. We gathered all of Callie and Reese's medals and trophies they have accumulated over the years and used them for table decorations. All in all, we were set for a great night.

Our signature drink, Her Majesty, was a hit. It got people in the mood pretty quickly, and fortunately it was also a cold beverage because it was a very hot evening. Folks were heading to whatever shade they could in the hours before the sun went down.

Here's the whole group clustered around one of the decorations that Chris Chrisman made. As you can see we are still two tables strong. When you have such a great group of folks to hang out with, one table just isn't enough.

And as the sun set and faux Freddie Mercury began to belt out the hits, the fun really began. So many great songs and so much dancing. Who knows how we'll top it next year.

Let the Fall Craziness Begin

One of the great things that Morton Middle School does to get 6th graders comfortable with their new home is they hold a half-day walk through for both the new 6th graders and their parents. Oh, that's right, we suddenly have a middle-schooler in the house. Yikes! Fortunately, as this picture shows. Callie is heading in with a solid foundation of friends. This is fantastic, because as the parents of a new middle-schooler, we learned all about social media, dress code restrictions, and the dangers facing young teenagers these days. Eye opening for sure.

But Callie wasn't heading into Morton with only her Cassidy friends to count on. Now she was finally able to be in the same school as her Glendover friends, especially Janie, pictured here. These girls first met on the soccer field before they were even in kindergarten. They are a little bit taller now, and still playing soccer, which we love.

Callie was already friends with Addie heading into the year, but 6th grade was going to take it up a notch. They were already playing soccer together, but the timing of middle school gave them even more time with each other. Callie went to Addie's house every morning and from what we hear made herself at home. In the 30 minutes they had before walking to school Callie would often make Addie's lunch, take care of Maggie the dog, and make sure the door was locked behind them. And after school the two girls would walk back to Addie's house until our babysitter Malaney would pick Callie up.

We have to admit that we were so focused on getting Callie prepared for Morton and figuring out her morning and afternoon schedule that Reese's situation was a little bit of an afterthought. This was her fourth year at Cassidy so she knew the school well. She was over the moon excited about her 3rd grade teacher, Miss Schenning. However, the morning of the first day she was weepy and very anxious. We were flummoxed. And then when we asked her what was wrong, she sweetly said, "I've never been at Cassidy by myself," meaning that her older sister wasn't going to be there with her and for her. And neither will her sister's friends. Pretty sweet, isn't it?

Callie seemed ready to go. However, she still indulged us with a smile and a first day of school sign. She was paying attention to the school dress code but wasn't overly happy about wearing jeans. Honestly, this girl would live in gym shorts and leggings if she could.

So there they were, these two incredible girls ready for the first day of 3rd and 6th grade, respectively. They were all smiles and ready to get the year started. John was happy because his classes still didn't start for a couple of days yet.

Despite her early display of tears, Reese recovered pretty quickly once she started seeing her friends and got to be in Miss Schenning's classroom. We were happy that she was so excited about her new teacher, but we had no idea how amazing she was going to be.

After we got Reese settled, we took Callie over to Addie's house where the crew was meeting up to walk to school together. Callie certainly let it be known that we did not need to take the walk with her. However, one thing that we love about this group of girls is that all of the parents are incredibly engaged. In the end, Matt Stone couldn't let the memory go by without snapping a photo and sending it to all of the families. It takes a village and we definitely have a good one.

Rockstar Summer

Just because the soccer season wouldn't officially start until the end of July didn't mean the girls lacked opportunities to play. Reese got to play with a couple of different teams in 3v3 tournaments. The fields are smaller and the pace is fast. She loved it.

Callie's 5th grade promotion celebration seemed to continue well into the summer. Her friend Addie convinced her mom to do a girls' trip up to Columbus, Ohio to visit her grandparents and cousin. It seems odd that 11-year-olds are already doing girls' trips, but this is an especially tight group.

From what we understand, Addie's grandparents took them on a tour of Columbus and The Ohio State University. And they sealed the deal with a visit to the best ice cream place in town. The girls had such a great time that on the whole ride home they talked about where each family could take these girls for a visit when it was their turn. Callie tried to start selling California or Connecticut - that's a commitment that we are not quite prepared to make at this point.

Summer soccer continued in earnest with another 3v3 tournament for Reese in Winchester on a very hot day. In fact, Reese and her teammates made good use of the cool-down sports towels that were stored in a cooler full of ice.

All of their efforts paid off when they swept through the tournament and won first place. Their coach Tyler bought them all Gatorade from the gas station up the road as a reward. Reese and her friend Mary were quite proud of their medals as well.

And here's the whole crew. All but one of these girls was going to be on Reese's team for the year, so this tournament was a great opportunity for them to bond and play together.

As crazy as our schedule may seem we do have down time every now and then, which provides the opportunity for a bit of randomness. Sarah had a fun photo shoot with Reese and captured this picture that seems to highlight Reese's personality - a little attitude, a little confidence, and a little free spiritedness.

While Sarah continued to hold down the fort in Lexington, Kentucky, John was able to make a quick visit to Lexington, Massachusetts while he was at a conference in Boston. He was able to spend a night with his great friend Amit who has known since the very first days of college. They don't see each other often enough, so every visit like this one is special.

2019 marked Reese's first summer sleep away camp, and she was all excited to go. It made it especially fun that she was going with her friend Ella and they were going to be in the same cabin. And since this was Ella's second year she could show Reese the ropes.

Among the ropes was showing up about two hours early to make sure they could get checked in and score a top bunk. Reese got her bed set up pretty quickly and saw no reason for John to hang around once everything was tucked in and hung up.

For sleep away camp you always wonder what you are going to find when you pick up your kid at the end of the week. As impossible as it may seem, Ella and Reese both had bigger smiles than when we left. Although we got a lot of great pictures from the camp website throughout the week it was great to give Reese a big hug and confirm that the smiles we had seen were the result of an incredible time.

The summer fun continued with a variety of play dates and other get togethers. This picture is from a play date Reese had with her friend Zoey where they got to test out Zoey's new pool. It's always good when you are known as a trusted pool tester.

Callie's friends Harper and Kennedy had another great birthday party over the summer. This year's activity was at a place called Color Chaos here in town. It's a spin off of the breakout room - the girls had to complete a challenge in a room in order to get to the next room. And in the very last room they played a video game that sprayed colors all over the place. Clearly they all had a great time.

Then it was time for Callie's second sleep away camp of the summer. She was going with her friend Emma Jane and as you can see here they were pretty excited to get the week started. It was Emma Jane's fifth time at this particular camp, so she couldn't wait to show Callie what it was all about.

And as it turned out, Callie had the same counselor at this camp that Reese did when she went a couple of weeks earlier. They both loved their counselor Julie and Julie adored both of them. It was a great fit all around.

For the last camp of the summer the girls went to a tennis camp with their friends the Stones. Callie and Reese had already been to this camp before, but having Mary Kate, Miller, and Maddie there made it so much better. The parents also enjoyed the set up because it lent itself nicely to a shared carpool between the families. And just like that, summer was over. Too bad we didn't do too much.

Asheville Weekend

So what do you do after a two week trip of a lifetime to Alaska? You get your sister to fly down from Connecticut to take care of the girls while you jump in the car and head to Asheville for a friend's 40th birthday celebration. Our good friend Seth Johnson turned 40 on the 4th of July, and his wife Jessica coordinated an out of town celebration with us and another couple. The rental had some great robes in the closets. It was hard for Jessica in particular to not take this down-filled apricot-colored beauty.

We drove down Friday and the plan for Saturday was to go tubing all day on the French Broad River. Mother Nature had her own plans, however, and thunderstorms kept the tubes out of the water. Luckily for us, this just meant instead of drinking beer while floating down the river we ended up brewery hopping.

Asheville has a lot of breweries to choose from. We had spotted this one the last time we were down in Asheville, but since it was just us and the girls we didn't make it a priority. No kids means priorities change. We ended up going to 3 or 4 before we went home to get cleaned up for dinner.

One of our last stops was at a great brewery that we had in fact visited with the girls. We thought the environment of this brewery provided enough entertainment to make it more kid friendly. It's also very adult friendly. Who doesn't love drinking beer in a train caboose? We had a great time with Seth, Jessica, Tony, and Amy. Hopefully we can find another reason to all make the trip to Asheville.

Meanwhile, back in Kentucky, other people were taking care of our children. This summer marked Callie's fourth year attending a sleep away camp at Cathedral Domain. The comfort level for everyone was high, and she did not even need us around for the official drop off. As you can see from this picture she was not bothered by our absence at all.

And when we did get home these two were making dinner and having a grand old time. We cannot thank Katie enough for traveling down to Lexington to hang out with Callie and Reese for the weekend. The girls absolutely loved the one on one time and have already asked when our next trip is so their Aunt Katie can come back for more fun.

Seward - Could Alaska Be More Beautiful?

After a second transition night in our Anchorage hotel we got on the road to Seward. We had some ideas for stops along the way because of the very helpful and talkative bartender at the hotel. We had spent some time talking to him during our first stay where he shared local stories, including ones about bear maulings at parks in town and at scenic stops along the highway to Seward. This made our stops on the journey a little more exciting. We chose not to tell Grammy and the girls about these stories until well after the fact. We were heading to the Kenai Peninsula for our last part of the trip. Unfortunately, forest fires had been in the area for over a week, so the smoky haze you see in this picture would be around depending on how the wind was blowing.

Grammy had reserved a great rental house for our stay in downtown Seward and the girls were able to break out their hammocks for the first time. The house was perfect, the location was ideal, and the girls made themselves at home very quickly.

From the house it was a short walk to the stores and restaurants of the town.  As we had done on our previous legs we had already scouted out various places we wanted to eat. Really, though, the we in that sentence is Sarah. Every step of the way she was implementing ideas that she had researched for months.

For night one in Seward a restaurant called The Cookery was on our itinerary. It did not disappoint. When we first got there we were escorted to the back patio to enjoy a drink and an appetizer while we waited for our table.

This was a perfect welcome to Seward. From the back patio we got a glimpse into their open-air kitchen and the smells drew us right in. We also could check out the different entree options as the cooks prepared them for other diners. For an appetizer we ordered some seared scallops. They were so good that Reese knew exactly what she wanted for dinner. This made us very proud and we were more than willing to not pay for a kid's chicken nuggets so she could have a round of scallops to herself.

We all had tasty meals, making sure that we took advantage of the fishing industry of Seward. And we needed to make sure we were well fed because the next several days were going to be packed.

What's better than a 12 hour bus tour? How about an 8 hour boat tour? Seriously, we were very excited to spend our first full day in Seward on the water. Again, this is where Sarah's research paid off. We bought tickets with the same tour company that given President Obama a tour in 2015. Both the  President and us made the right choice.

We give you exhibit number one to support our case. When we were heading to Alaska, John said what he really wanted to see was an orca whale. Within the first 30 minutes of our boat tour his wish was granted. We saw a pod of 7! This is a residential pod, which means that they Resurrection Bay home. We also saw a smaller transient pod of three and they were definitely hunting. It was incredible.

At all times we were looking for our next animal sighting. The inside of the boat's cabin was roomy and warm, but you needed to be on the deck to really take in the whole environment. And in contrast to our boat trip in Juneau, on this trip we were constantly on the deck because of another animal spotting.

This boat trip was taking us in and out of the waters that make up Kenai Fjords National Park, and a distinct element of the park are the glaciers. So our boat tour took us by and to a number of glaciers. The biggest one we saw was the Aialik Glacier. As we approached the glacier, the boat went slower because of all of the ice chunks in the water. And the closer we got to those ice chunks we realized that there were seals on top of them. Who would have thought we would see something like this. Jaw-dropping.

It is a cliche that a picture doesn't do it justice. But we do want to provide a sense of scale in terms of just how big this glacier is. If you look closely at this photo you can see what is a large tour boat. And yet that large tour boat looks like a toy boat at the base of this icy behemoth.

As our tour boat got the opportunity to get a little closer we were able to feel the magnitude of the size and experience a calving, which is where a portion of the glacier breaks off and falls into the water. It sounds like thunder and you feel it in our bones. All the seals hanging around the base of the glacier appear unimpressed, but we couldn't believe that we were able to experience such a sight.

We come to yet another point of our travels where we couldn't stop taking pictures so we could make sure that people knew that we were truly there at this spot. And of course this is another picture we can use to show the girls what cool parents they have who expose them to the wonders of the world.

Here's a little girl power shot. Three generations of strong women in one photo. What you may not be able to tell is how cold all four of them were. The drop in temperature just approaching the glacier was something to behold. You were torn between wanting to stay on the deck to take it all in and wanting to keep from freezing.

And every now and then the two of us get to make an appearance. After all the pictures were taken we had another great packed lunch and talked about what we had seen. The only question was what else could we see before the trip was over.

While we admired the glacier some of the crew were busy picking up pieces of glacier ice to make special drinks for everyone on board. The adults could get glacier ice margaritas and the kids could get a non-alcoholic beverage. We're not sure if it was the ice or the length of time we were on the boat tour, but these two got a little loopy after consuming their respective drinks.

What else would we see? How about a breaching humpback whale? We saw quite a few whales on the journey, but at this point we saw a mother and calf playing. They were both breaching, slapping their fins, and just putting on a show.

The tour was not just about the animals, of course, and our boat captain took us to and through a number of different spots along the way that were just gorgeous. At this spot the boat cruised slowly through these rock spires off the coast.

The beauty of the trip overall was almost too much to keep up with, especially because it was different types of beauty. We knew we would see glacier but we didn't expect to see coastlines and rock formations like this. Again, our guided tour seemed to exceed expectations on so many levels.

All good things must come to an end, and we got in one last group photo before the boat pulled into the harbor. We would have gone on the same tour the next day but we did have other things planned. But believe us we thought about it.

We knew we wanted to go on a hike one day, and the crew on the boat gave us a recommendation for a great one on the outskirts of town. The hike would take us through the woods and to a secluded shoreline. Because of the ongoing warm weather Reese decided she would be prepared for the possibility of a polar dip of sorts. Good thinking on her part, because she was able to make it happen.

We kept our string alive of not eating at a picnic table as we soaked in the views over some turkey sandwiches. As you can see, Reese insisted on staying in her bathing suit and after lunch even buried herself in the sand.

We did a lot of hiking throughout our trip, in addition to everything else, and Grammy Gayle kept pace every step of the way. This is a pretty remarkable feat for a woman who just a year earlier had gone through two surgeries to remove parts of both lungs following a lung cancer diagnosis. She is a strong woman with a survivor attitude.

Although it is no longer the case, this spot in Seward was once mile zero for the Iditarod dog sled race. This is right in downtown Seward, next to the Salmon Sisters store and the Alaska Sealife Center. We visited both of those businesses during our trip and can recommend them for very different reasons.

With our trip to Kenai Fjords we have now visited nine national parks as a family. Grammy Gayle gave us a gift to kick off the trip with national park checklist t-shirts. We couldn't think of a better way to highlight the ninth park by wearing our shirts for the occasion.

John had first learned about Mt. Marathon from a postcard his sister Suzy sent years ago when she visited Seward. The mountain juts up right at the edge of Seward and there is a well known race that takes place every July. The trail head was just a couple of blocks from our rental house, so one afternoon the two of us decided to take the hike to the top. We got close, but not to the peak. The more exciting part of the hike came on the return portion, when Sarah and John took divergent paths. They thought the paths would come back together - they were wrong. This meant that for about 40 minutes John was pretty sure he was going to have to tell the girls that he had lost their mother while Sarah was reasonably confident she would make it down the mountain but just wasn't sure where she would actually emerge. Luckily, we met up right where we had entered. And neither one of us saw a bear.

The next day we had to make the trip back to Anchorage for one more night at the hotel before our flights back to the continental US. However, we had one more stop to make. Right outside of the town of Girdwood is the Winner Creek trail that you can take a hand tram over Glacier Creek that will then allow you to hike on to the Alyeska Ski Resort. We had actually tried to do this on the trip to Seward, but had the bad luck of arriving right when some first responder teams were practicing rescue missions at the hand tram.

John and Reese went over first and then Sarah and Callie made the trip. Grammy Gayle was back at the resort awaiting our arrival. It was a very cool experience. Unfortunately Reese was going to remember the hand tram longer than most of us because she got a rope burn on her hand, but at least none of us fell out of the basket and needed that rescue team.

The remainder of the hike was pretty easy because it was all down hill. As we wrap up our last Alaska post we do need to make an important note about something not appearing in our pictures. During the two weeks of our trip the US Women's National Soccer Team was making history on their way to another World Cup championship. Despite all we had planned we made a point of finding places to watch their games. This meant getting a Hulu subscription for the first game, scrambling to find a sports bar in Juneau, and coordinating our departure time from Seward to combine the epic game against France with a tasty breakfast in Girdwood. Even a trip like this one was not going to interfere with our support for the USWNT. So after an incredible two weeks we headed home to take on the rest of the summer.