Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Zachary Taylor poster and presentation


Paige and I worked on a US President project this past week and she also presented it to her class. It took us a while to find all the information for the project, and to get it all arranged and to practice. Paige did a good job going through everything and drew a nice illustration of Zachary Taylor as well.

Monday, February 19, 2018

Bike riding and time at the park


This past weekend we had some nice cool weather, so we took the opportunity to go on a nice long bike ride and to play at the park. The kids were troopers on the bike ride and we went 2.3 miles to the bigger park that is a bit farther away from our house. We played at the park for a while, and I chased the kids around a little until I bonked my head on a bar that I didn't see as I was climbing around. Apparently the equipment isn't made with a grown man in mind. Andrea helped Paige with some gymnastic moves and played catch with Connor too.



Connor's flag football touchdowns

Connor's team had their second win of the season this past Saturday. Connor had a really good game. He had a few good rushes on offense, including a rushing touchdown, as well as a pass reception for a touchdown. On defense, Connor had some key plays including a fourth down flag pull and a few diving pass blocks where he made a play on the ball and tipped it away at the last second.



Capuano Sweetheart Italian Dinner


On Friday night, we went to the Capuano house for an Italian dinner with our Julington Creek tennis friends. It was fun to see their new house and enjoy some delicious Italian food.

We had a babysitter lined up for the kids, but unfortunately she forgot, so they came along and hung out with us. It wasn't what they'd been hoping to do on Friday night, but they were good.


Valentine's Centers with Paige


Andrea went to Paige's classroom on Valentine's Day to help out with the Valentine's Centers. Andrea got lucky and did the fun bingo game with the kids.


Overall, we had a nice chill Valentine's Day after school and work. I got Andrea a yummy strawberry cake and she got me a bunch of macaroons. 

Lunch with Paige


Paige loves when we come by her school, and this past Monday Andrea had some time to meet her for lunch. She brought Paige some Chick-Fil-A food and Andrea also ate lunch with Paige's friend Emma, who wanted to join them.




Sunday, February 11, 2018

Great Grandma Delores's visit to Florida


On Thursday, Great Grandma Delores came to Jacksonville to visit. I went to lunch with Grandma and my Dad on Friday, and then we all got together on Saturday after Connor's football game. We went to Al's pizza for dinner, got some custard at Whits, and then played some games together at the house.



Paige has been working on some songs, that the kids might be singing together at the school fair. She sang one to us, while we were relaxing in the Family Room.


Connor's honor roll and kid of character award


Connor has been doing awesome in school lately and got all A's again in the second quarter. This last week, he also got the "Kid of Character" award for "Respect". We are so proud of Connor, and he has been so cute trying hard and doing his best. On Wednesday, I went to wake him up and he surprised me by already being dressed and awake. He was faking being asleep under the covers, and I he cracked up when he surprised me. He said he's set his alarm for 6:20 and he'd already gotten up, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, brushed his teeth, and was ready to go! I told him he needed his sleep, and I asked him why he set his alarm. He said "I've got to push myself!"

We were impressed with him, but told him in the future that he shouldn't be setting his alarm. It was pretty cool and definitely a funny surprise.

Flower headband


Paige typically wears a bow to school, and recently wanted to wear her flower headband to school. Andrea fixed her hair up special with the headband and I took a quick pic of her before she got on the bus.

Sacksonville flag football touchdown

Connor had his first win on Saturday with his Sacksonville flag football team. They've been matched up with 5th and 6th graders and had to play some fairly uneven matchups lately and got beaten pretty badly. On Saturday their team was fairly shorthanded, so Connor played most of the game, and did well on offense and defense. The team won 21-12 and Connor had some big plays including a good run down the sideline.

Paige's tennis clinic

Paige's tennis has been improving quite a bit lately. I was picking her up on Thursday and at the end of their clinic, they were doing a drill where they had to serve a ball in and then handle a variety of feeds. Paige did it three times and hit most of the balls back, did pretty well with all of them too. She's almost ready to play some matches!

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Birthday lunch with Grandpa Rick at Pieology


Today we celebrated Grandpa Rick's birthday with him. He wanted to eat at Pieology, so we met Grandpa and Grandma at the Nocatee location for lunch. We got Grandpa a starter subscription for some razors, and the kids made him some cute homemade birthday cards.

Happy birthday Grandpa!

Omni Tennis Bootcamp - Cliff Drysdale


We were scheduled to attend the tennis bootcamp at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation for the third time on January 26th through 28th. We had been worried about the weather since the forecast for Sunday looked like it was going to have a 100% chance of rain, and when we got started on Friday Sal had the same concerns. There were 12 hours of tennis planned for the weekend, and with the rain forecast on Sunday, they crammed everything in to 5 hours on Friday and 7 hours on Saturday.

It was fun to see some of our favorite pros, and there were quite a few players signed up. We had some good competition and it was nice to get some new perspective on our game from some different coaches. We had some yummy food from Marche Burette, Aloha Bagel, Cantina Louie, and got some sweets from Nana Teresa's Bake Shop.


Connor and Paige with Grandpa and Grandma and the circus



While Andre and I went to the Amelia Island Boot Camp, Grandma and Grandpa Vernon took care of Connor and Paige. Grandpa came in on Thursday and got the kids off the bus and then stayed the night and got them on the bus in the morning. On Friday, they went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the weekend. 


On Saturday, they went to the circus and got to see some neat performances and performers.






The kids enjoyed playing games with Grandma and Grandpa, hanging out with the doggies, and playing outside in the nice weather. Thanks to grandparents for taking good care of our guys!


Family Pictures 2017



During our Christmas visit to KC, we had planned to take family pictures with the entire Anders extended family at Moments and Memories. Unfortunately, with some people being sick, we all couldn't go. The Vernons still kept the appointment, and we got some family pictures in a studio setting, which were different than the kinds of photos we'd been getting lately.