Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Hotdog BBQ with the Gobles

Saturday morning the kids had their tennis lessons at Bolles and then Andrea and I went to lunch at TPC to have our usual salad and nachos. In the afternoon the Gobles came by and I heated up the hot tub and Ryan fired up the grill and cooked up some hotdogs. We enjoyed fresh fruit, macaroni, and chips with our hotdogs. Connor was out with some friends that stopped by on their bikes, but the rest of us enjoyed the warm weather and cool pool. 

I was wondering if Millie Mae was going to remember how to swim, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she jumped in and swam her little booty off. She was super happy to swim and would shiver with excitement if you took her out to make her rest. We thought maybe she was cold, but she'd do the same even after I warmed her up in the hot tub. Sophie wasn't interested in swimming, but did take a dip as well when she took a wrong step off the edge of the hot tub and fell in to the pool. Thankfully I was nearby and rescued her quickly. 

Graydon enjoyed the inflatables and the basketball hoop. Paige played a little basketball and played with Graydon and Millie. She also had fun dragging Griffin around on the inflatables and holding him. We had to keep a close watch on Griffin since he didn't have any floaties with him and was definitely not the least bit scared of the water. 







 

Paige's Junior Team Tennis Match

On Friday Paige had a junior team tennis match at our tennis club. Paige played line one singles and played a boy that was pretty tall and intimidating. She trailed for a while in the first set, but won it 4-3 and then won the second set 4-1. She did an awesome job hustling and choosing when to hit hard vs when to be more conservative and defensive. Her opponent got frustrated and overhit quite a bit and Paige took advantage of his impatience. 

Paige played doubles with Abby and had fun with her, although the didn't win and lost 2-8. I was a little surprised the score didn't reflect how competitive the match really was. 



 

Connor vs Dad in Tennis


Connor had a good tennis season with high school and it's recently come to an end. They didn't have a lot of JV matches, but Connor got to play a bit and it was nice he also go to practice sometimes with the varsity players. I have not been playing as much tennis, but wanted to recently since the weather was nice and it would be a good opportunity for Connor to also get some practice. Surprisingly, I'm not much competition for him any more. A few years ago, when we first started playing against each other, I would hit in to the singles court as normal and I'd let Connor hit in to the entire doubles court to make things fair. Not long after that we had to remove the doubles court advantage to keep things close. Recently, he's just way better. A week ago when we played two sets, he beat me 6-2, 6-0. On Thursday when we played he destroyed me 6-0, 6-2. Hard to believe I could only win 4 games to his 24. We had some close games, but honestly he was pretty well in control the entire time and I struggled to compete.

It was fun playing with him although he likes to give me a hard time about it. I tell him that no matter the outcome I happy when we play. If I win, I'm happy that I'm the winner. If he wins, I'm proud of him and happy that my son is such a good player. I would like to win a match against him again some time, but he would have to have an off day and I'd really need to be playing my best to have a chance.

Millie Mae's Haircut and Conditioner

Millie's hair has been at a nice length for a while now where you can see some curls and it's soft, but not so long it gets tangled and matted. She was due for a haircut and we almost canceled it, but decided it would be good to get her cleaned up a little bit. She did well for the groomer this time and looks pretty cute. I'm worried she's going to start getting matted more as we get in to summer and she's swimming more and playing outside, but hopefully the conditioner I've been using on her lately will help.






Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Paige and Millie Mae go Running

 

Millie Mae still loves to go on runs with me, as long as she can be off leash. She doesn't really love running with a leash, but will grudgingly go if I insist. Running off leash is another story. You can tell she enjoys it and when we get started she will sprint in circles, nip at my hands with excitement, and will dig in the sand at the beach. On Mondays, the golf course in our neighborhood is closed for maintenance and on Monday evening Paige surprisingly agreed to go running with us. We went the entire length of the course, starting in our backyard, and I got a cute pic of her with Millie as the sun was setting.

This morning, Millie and I went to the beach for our morning run. She was pumped to get a puppuccino from Starbucks afterwards and I got a cute pic of her excited expression after I asked her if she was interested.


Millie's looking pretty cute lately as her hair has grown out a bit, it's a good length right now since it's not getting tangled, but it's not super short either.


Andrea's Birthday 2022


Andrea's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which is a pretty boring day for a birthday but we made the best of it. We'd technically gone to Charleston and Amelia Island to celebrate Andrea's birthday, although I didn't do a very good job of planning anything during those trips to really celebrate Andrea or her birthday. On the day of her birthday, we took Andrea to JJ's for lunch, got some tasty dessert, got her flowers, new shoes, and chocolate covered strawberries. Paige made her a cute card we lit some candles on the banana crème florentine dessert that we got to take home from JJ's. 





Amelia Island for Easter and Andrea's Birthday

This past weekend we were joined by the Gobles for a fun weekend in Amelia Island to celebrate Andrea's birthday and Easter. We'd originally planned to go to Sea Island for the weekend, but their tennis was all booked up and we thought about how we hadn't been to Amelia Island and Steak night in a while. We were able to change our plans up and realized that we had plenty of room in the house we reserved to have the Gobles join us. We drove up on Friday and the Gobles joined us on Saturday morning.

The weather was beautiful for the weekend. It was cool and we enjoyed bike rides and walks in the shade of the towering oak trees. I played tennis on Saturday morning and then met everyone at a park nearby. Around noon we ate at Marche Burette for lunch together and then went back to the house to get ready for our kayaking adventure. 

Andrea rented a golf cart for the day and drove everyone over to Walker's Landing where we put on our life vests and then listened to a quick refresher on how to operate and steer our kayaks. Connor and I had single kayaks and the other kids split up between Andrea, Amanda, and Ryan in tandem kayaks. We paddled out in the marsh and the weather was beautiful and cool, although the wind was against us on the way out. We stopped at a big Pluff Mud spot where we stomped around and played in the mud. I'd always been curious about the consistency of the mud around our marsh and it was interesting to explore around and experience the varying firmness of it. There were some areas that were very firm and others where I'd sink up past my knees. 

After cleaning up, some of the kids switched around their seat assignments and we paddled back to Walker's Landing. Connor was having a great time splashing everyone and at one point Graydon challenged him. While they were having their water fight, Graydon was yelling at Connor and somehow his retainer slipped out of his mouth and disappeared in to the water. It was equal parts hilarious and sad as it is going to be hard and expensive to replace since their orthodontist in Kansas City isn't going to be able to simply send a new one. Other than the lost retainer and my carelessness stepping on a sharp hermit crab, the day was perfect and we all enjoyed our kayak adventure. 

Saturday night we watched some movies and ate at the Falcon's Nest. The food was a bit disappointing, but the atmosphere was great and we sat outside and watched the turtles in the stream nearby and the brave squirrel that was determined to steal some bites of food from us. 

Sunday morning we rode bikes, ate lunch, did an Easter Egg hunt, went to a park, and then packed up our stuff in preparation to go home. There was a big storm coming our way and although we could have stayed the night, we figured it would be best to head home that evening. We packed the cars up, got dressed, and then enjoyed steak dinner at Marche Burette's steakout. Andrea's steak was a bit disappointing, but everyone else's steak was delicious and it was a comfortable night to eat outside. The ambiance was enhanced by the live music and we enjoyed our Easter dinner.

The drive home was quick and painless, we mostly beat the rain, and Paige went to the Gobles for the night since there was no school on Monday. Andrea's idea to go to Amelia Island for the weekend worked out wonderfully and we are glad that the Gobles could join us.