Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Brush Your Teeth Better


Yesterday, Connor got a couple of his baby teeth extracted that have been loose for a while. Dr. Ross said that Connor needs to do a better job with his teeth and everyone knows I've been harping on it with him for a long time now.




Last night when I was tucking him in I looked at his phone and realized he's changed my name in his phone to something that I have definitely been saying a lot lately.



Paige jogs with Daddy for SIX miles!


On Sunday, after we all got home, I decided to go for a jog. As I was leaving, Paige gave me a hug and I asked her if she would like to come and she lit up and was so excited at the idea. We got her a pair of headphones for her phone and we took a selfie together before we left. I usually run for six miles and expected that she'd quickly lose interest and I'd bring her by the house after a few minutes and would finish on my own. To my surprise, she kept up really well, had a great pace, and showed no signs of slowing down. After a mile we stopped for a drink at a water fountain and I asked her if she thought she could go the entire six miles and she really wanted to give it a try.


We stopped once more on the way to the south end of the neighborhood at a water station on the golf course and then before we knew it we'd gotten to the end of the sidewalk at the southern point of the neighborhood. I took a picture of her touching the post that I always touch and we turned around to head back. 


We talked most of the way throughout the jog and we both ended up taking out our headphones and we chatted about all kinds of things. We love our talks and we went through important inventions like the lightbulb and cotton gin and discussed the cold war and superpower nation-states. When we got home, I went on a walk with Andrea and Paige wanted to do that too so she ended up walking with us for another mile after our run. She is so full of energy!


After our run Sunday, we've talked about running and we're thinking about doing the Donna Half-Marathon together next year if she keeps it up. Great work Paigie!

Kids with Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend


While Andrea and I were in Orlando, the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa picked the kids up after the got done with school and took them back to their place for the weekend. On Saturday, the kids helped fix some pancakes and then Paige went to a friend's birthday party. Connor went with Grandma and the dogs to a pet store.

In the evening, they'd planned to watch a movie together, but instead they went to the emergency veterinarian's office after Scout ate some gum from Paige's backpack that contained xylitol. Thankfully Grandma had read about it's poisonous effects on dogs and they got the dog to the vet where they induced vomiting and found around 16 pieces of gum had been ingested. Hopefully Scout makes a full recovery!



Orlando visit - Hyatt Grand Cypress resort


On Friday, Andrea and I went to Orlando for a weekend away together. We ate at Uno's on the way in and once we got to the hotel we decided to just stay in for the evening since it was super cold and windy on Friday. Saturday was much nicer and we went to Disney Springs to walk around and we ate lunch at the House of Blues (good nachos, flatbread and bread pudding!).


In the afternoon we went back to the hotel and rented some bikes. It was a little breezy, but it was nice and cool, perfect biking weather. We rode a tandem bike around the property for a while, which was difficult to get used to.




Eventually we switched to regular bikes and rode around until we were pretty exhausted. In the evening we ate at the bar area in the hotel and watched as a wedding party got ready for a reception in the lobby area. We watched some Netflix (Black Mirror and Cheer), and mostly just had a nice relaxing weekend!




Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Okefenokee swamp tour with Roger, Wendy, Rick, Alice and Paige


This past weekend, Roger and Wendy were in town from Chicago. Paige and I went with them to the Okefenokee swamp for a boat tour and some hiking. We learned a lot about the swamp and the history of the area.











On Sunday, everyone came over to the house after lunch and we went on a golf cart ride, played ping pong, and everyone did restaurant for quite a while at Paige's request.


Shopping with Pay Pay


Paige has had a gift card to Books-A-Million since her birthday last year. This weekend, we finally remembered to go and do a little shopping. Paige got a few things that were on sale and a book about the Civil War.

Connor's Amelia Island Tennis tournament with Charlie


Connor and Andrea went to Amelia Island this past weekend for a tennis tournament. Charlie was also playing in the tournament, so they shared a villa with Anna and the boys. The first match of the tournament, unfortunately, put Connor against Charlie at 8am on Saturday morning. Connor won it 6-4, 6-3 and in the next round he lost to the #2 seed who ended up going on to win the entire tournament.

The weather ended up being pretty good for the weekend, although it did rain a bit on Sunday. The boys enjoyed playing at the park, mini-golf, and swimming in the pool. Andrea and Anna played pickleball against Connor and Owen, and Andrea maybe overdid it a little bit so soon after surgery.






Sunday, February 9, 2020

Donna Half Marathon


On Sunday morning I participated in the Donna race to help cure breast cancer. The Donna race has been going for over a dozen years now and we always hear about it, but we have never been out to watch it or participate. During the Superbowl, Gina mentioned it and I decided right then to sign up. It is a meaningful year for us to go out and it was a nice opportunity to support Mayo and a local charity that benefits women going through the same kind of things Andrea experienced this past year. I ran, of course, for Andrea and although it was by far the slowest I've run a race I did finish with a time of 2:22. It was not an impressive time, but I didn't train at all for it and I was determined not to walk. It was a neat race atmosphere and I was happy to see my family rooting for me at the finish line.





Carb loading for the Donna Half Marathon

On Saturday night, we went over to the Fishman's house for some homeade spaghetti to give us lots of energy for the race on Sunday morning. The kids enjoyed squishing the noodles and feeding them through the machine, everything turned out very yummy!





Doubles Tennis clinic with Rogier Wassen



On Saturday morning, Shawn attended a special doubles tennis clinic with former professional double's player Rogier Wassen. The clinic focused on doubles strategy and Rogier provided some good feedback and tips on some things I hadn't thought about before. My tennis success still has a lot to do with just executing the basic fundamentals, so it wasn't all super applicable to me, but it was a beautiful morning for tennis and I enjoyed it!


Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Chiefs Superbowl win!



On Superbowl Sunday, we went to our friend's house to cheer on our Chiefs team. We've watched most of the games this year and we have been rooting for them for so many years, it is hard to believe that they made it to the Superbowl finally.



We watched the first half of the game, as well as the halftime show, and then we went home in the 3rd quarter to finish it up.



The game couldn't have been more close, with lots of lead changes. With just minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were down to the 49ers by 10 points, and we were all feeling pretty bummed. Poor Connor is superstitious and believes that if he's watching, the Chiefs do badly, so he went up and we thought he went to bed. He actually was checking the score on his phone and once it was clear that the Chiefs would win he came down to scream and celebrate with us. 

We were all so happy the Chiefs managed to get a victory for KC and on Monday Connor wore his Chiefs gear and even wore his Chiefs pajama pants. The Dean ended up reprimanding him and Connor had to change in to his gym shorts for the day, but he was proud to wear his KC gear.





Cailyn's birthday party at Jax Cooking School


On Saturday, February 1st, Paige went to Cailyn's birthday party at Jax Cooking School. They made pizzas from scratch and cupcakes for dessert. Paige loved it so much that she wants her birthday party there in April.






Grandpa Rick's 71st birthday dinner



On Saturday evening, we took Grandpa Rick out for dinner. We'd intended to go Valley Smoke for dinner, but they were packed so we went to Barbara Jean's next door instead, which turned out nicely. We got Grandpa a new Yeti Tumbler to go with the coffee sized cup we got him for Christmas. Afterwards, Grandpa and Grandma came by the house to hang out for a little while before the kids went to bed.






Grandpa Rick ate some good food at Paige's restaurant and Grandma sang him "Happy Birthday".