Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful Daddy!  We love you so very much.

Ryan and Tessa posed in front of the 1987 3 series that has become quite the project car.  Tessa loves riding in Daddy's "new" car. 

After church, my parents came over and we did a huge shrimp boil.  Daddy and Gampa had all the shrimp they could eat.  It was a great day.

These are a few of my favorite things

Swim Team

Tessa was absolutely awesome at swim team this year.  Looks like those private lessons over the winter really paid off.  She swam with the guppies, the youngest age group of swimmers on our neighborhood swim team.  The bonus of being a guppy is that they have their own swim meets which usually last less than one hour.  Tessa's best stroke is freestyle although her backstroke is not bad.  She doesn't like the kick board, that is her slowest event, but she always has fun with noodle relays.  This is video of her very first meet.  She liked freestyle so much that she swam it again.  That is the beauty of guppy meets, the official was like "sure you can swim again in another heat!"  Go for it my little mermaid!         

All of the kids get ribbons, of course, but Tessa did actually win a few of her heats of freestyle. 

While Tessa could still swim with the guppies next summer, her coaches tell me she is so good that she should join the regular swim team next year.  I'm so proud of my little swimmer!

Dance Recital

It's dance recital time again!  We were in town this year for dance pictures, she looks so sweet in her costume.  

True to my word, I volunteered to be a backstage mom this year.  There were thirteen kids in Tessa's class ranging in age from five to seven years old.  No other moms signed up to help me, yikes!  Dress rehearsal was a little chaotic but actually fun. 

One of the perks of being the backstage mom is that you get to film dress rehearsal.  Here is Tessa's ballet number, she is second from the right in the back row.  She danced to My Girl, how sweetly appropriate.

Things were a little more hectic the actual day of the recital.  My kids had two numbers and a minor costume change.  The ballet number went smoothly but then headbands and gloves went missing, tap shoes had to be tied, buns had to be repaired, make up had to be reapplied.  I was hopping busy backstage.  But the kids did fabulous.  I watched from the wings while my baby danced her heart out. I cried through both numbers, it's just so sweet to watch these little ones dance.  Here they are dancing to Twist Again.     

After the recital was over, I lined everyone up and we headed out to the lobby.  Parents came to pick up their children and finally my job was done.  I wouldn't trade the time with Tessa backstage for anything, but I was worn out.

G&G had a present for Tessa.  She loves having them in the audience.   

And Daddy brought his ballerina flowers.  We all walked down Main Street and had dinner, with Tessa staying in costume the whole time.  

Mid year Tessa had told me she wanted to quit dance.  I told her that she needed to finish the year first, that we don't quit activities mid season.  I talked to her teacher and she moved Tessa to a different spot in the class.  Tessa was much happier after that, maybe it was just that simple.  Judging by how much fun she had at recital, I'm fairly confident we will be dancing again next year.  I sure hope so. 

Beach Vacation

For our 14th anniversary we went to the beach in Florida.  We stayed on Lido Key which is just one island north of where we stayed last year.  Lido Key is within walking distance of St. Armands Key which has great shopping and restaurants.  Here we are dining al fresco.  Tessa took the picture and I am pretty impressed with her photography skills.  We love to sit outside and people watch.  Most restaurants are doggie friendly so Tessa was entertained watching people eat with their pampered pups.

The beaches are one of the main reasons we vacation in Florida.  They are absolutely gorgeous with crystal clear turquoise water and super fine white sand.  We stayed in a condo with a huge balcony and this was our view.  Looking the other direction we could see the Sarasota skyline.  We ate several meals out here and watched a few glorious sunsets here too.        

We logged many hours of beach time, Tessa played and played and played.  Miss Never Met a Stanger made friends with other kids on the beach.  Ryan and I were actually able to lounge in our chairs and read or talk to each other.  The water is so clear and calm that Tessa could swim easily.  One day we were all three out in the water and a manatee swam by us almost close enough to touch.  It was huge!  It glided along looking for a seaweed snack.  We also saw a very large shark.  Thankfully we were just walking on the beach at that time.  The lifeguard cleared everyone out of the water and we hung around chatting with him.  He told us he judged it to be a 20ft shark based on the size of its dorsal fin.  Wow.  The shark stayed near one of the buoys and seemed to be feeding.  Apparently tarpon was in season and that's what the lifeguard speculated that the shark was eating.  We figured it was a good time to break for our own lunch.          

One of our mornings we went on a guided kayak tour.  I didn't know they made triple seat kayaks.  That was a bonus to find out that we could all paddle together.  Or rather, Ryan could paddle me and Tessa around.  Just kidding, I helped paddle.  Tessa, not so much, although she did try.  Our guide had a masters in marine biology and he was full of information about the waters we were exploring.  For instance, because of the dense vegetation growing right at the water's edge, this area is the nursery for the entire gulf.  He said 90% of sea life in the gulf starts right here, if I remember that correctly.  Amazing.  Along the intercoastal waterways, he hopped out of his kayak to pick up different sea creatures.  You can tell Tessa wasn't squeamish about touching anything.  My favorite is the little round sea urchin.  He also fished out a conch, a sea cucumber and a large hermit crab for us to see.  As we paddled we saw dolphins, although we didn't get nearly as close as I had hoped we would, and more manatees.  The tour ended with a trip through the dense mangrove tunnels.  It was nice to paddle through this shady part but it was pretty tricky steering our long kayak through the narrow tunnels.

On our actual anniversary we went to Disney.  Yes, we were just there a couple of months ago but it is not a bad drive from the beach.  So we did a day trip to the Magic Kingdom and had tons of fun.  Splash Mountain was closed the last time we were here so that was one of our must dos this time.  Tessa loved it.  Thanks to Fast Pass we were able to cram lots of rides into just one day. 

Theoretically we were just going to ride rides and not take time to meet characters.  Who was I kidding?  We saw most of the characters, including Alice who we had missed in February.  Tessa had a new costume, of course, Princess Sofia.  During the parade the characters would call out to her and bow or curtsy.  She has the cutest little curtsy that she does in return.  My sweet princess, how I wish this magical age would last forever.  The characters and cast members noticed our anniversary pins and made a big deal about Ryan and me too.  Even the adults are included in the magic of Disney. 

I know Ryan thought I was a little nutty, but I really wanted to try paddleboarding.  So we rented boards and they were delivered directly to our beach.  I took Tessa on my board and we paddled away.  You start on your knees and then stand up when you get balanced.  I would like to think my balance is good thanks to yoga but I think Tessa's weight made it a little easier for me than for Ryan.   When I did lose my balance, Tessa and I toppled into deep water.  She thought it was hilarious to fall off.  We laughed and laughed and then climbed back on the board.  After that, she would try to tip us by leaning to the side, silly girl.  We went pretty far out, way past the buoys and took a few more spills.  Paddleboarding is pretty tiring so we eventually beached our boards and spent the rest of the day lounging in our chairs.  I would definitely do this again, it is so peaceful to glide along the water. 

On our last day we drove to Tampa to catch a major league baseball game.  We talked ourselves out of doing this last year and really wanted to make it to a game this year.  As luck would have it, the Yankees, Ryan's favorite team, were in town.  But first, we made an important stop at the Taco Bus.  We have a hard time getting good Mexican food here in SC and I crave it.  The Taco Bus is parked just down the street from the stadium and we were not the only ones who had the idea to grab a bite before the game.  But it was worth the long wait, it's so yummy.  We even brought home a bottle of their homemade salsa.  After that we watched the Yankees beat the Rays.  Since it seems like most of Florida's citizens are originally from New York, the crowd was pretty entertaining.  This is one happy daddy with his girl.    

To make our drive home the next day easier, we drove to Jacksonville after the game.  Unfortunately, we hit some kind of metal debris in the road and ended up with a blown out tire and a busted wheel.  So Ryan had to unpack the entire trunk to get to the spare.  Bear in mind that Tessa and I do not pack light.  Thankfully, BMWs come with full size spares.  And Ryan, being the tire engineer that he is, had actually checked the spare to make sure it had air.  The only problem was the soft sandy dirt on the side of the road did not support our tire jack.  When Ryan cranked the car up into the air, the jack wobbled and broke.  We called roadside assistance and Ryan said many bad words.  Tessa was happily watching a movie still safely strapped into her seat.  While we waited, Ryan managed to repair the tire jack.  I'm not sure how he did except it did involve banging the jack onto the concrete a few times.  Not to make the same mistake twice, he hunted through our stuff to find a nice solid surface to put the jack on.  Tessa's daily Bible fit the bill, talk about building on the rock.  This time he cranked it up and swapped the tires in record time.  A highway patrol officer stopped to check on us.  He looked at all of our stuff strewn alongside the road and at the new tire.  He wasn't sure what was more impressive, that Ryan had managed to fix the jack and change the tire or that Ryan could get all that stuff into the small trunk of our little BMW.  I had to laugh at that.  We made it safely to Jacksonville and then home the next day.  With the exception of our tire incident, it was a fabulous vacation.  Our time together is so precious, I'm especially thankful for vacations like this.    

K5 Pre-School Graduation

It seems like just yesterday that I walked Tessa in to her K5 class and now she has graduated!  Her graduation ceremony was precious.  The kids were so excited to show off what they had learned throughout the year.  Ms. Haynes did an incredible job getting them to sing songs or recite something for every single letter of the alphabet.

After the performance, they left to put on their robes and gowns.  Then they filed back onto the stage to receive their diplomas.

We gathered them together for a class picture.  This has been such a great group of kids.  Next year they will split and go to several different schools.  

Of course the proud parents wanted to jump in for pictures with our mini grad.  Tessa kept shifting to make sure her diploma was visible in the picture. 

 

 

We all went back to the classroom to for a last round of hugs with Ms. Haynes.  Tessa has loved having her as a teacher and I've been grateful for that.  A good teacher makes all the difference.     

Since I was Room Mom, I said a few words of thanks to Ms. Haynes.  Of course, I cried and so did she.  Most of the parents participated in a group teacher gift.  Since gift cards are generally well received, we opted to give a basket filled with gift cards.  But I wanted to make it cute so I got a little creative with the packaging.  I stuffed a french fry container with cut paper and a Chick-Fil-A card, pinned Target cards onto a paper plate target, did yellow wrapping paper popcorn for the movie tickets, tucked a Barnes & Noble card in a mini book and attached the Starbucks card to a coffee cup and put her favorite restaurant gift certificate in the card.       

After the ceremony, Ryan had to go to work but we three girls got to go out to lunch.

This school year is officially over and next year Tessa will head to "Big School" for kindergarten.  Academically she is more than ready for first grade but, with such a late birthday, we feel it's best not to rush her through school.  We want school to be a happy place, not a place of frustration and struggle.  Her K4 & K5 teachers have encouraged me that this will benefit her and her pediatrician agrees.  So, with preschool graduation behind us we look forward to a fun summer. 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was not a particularly pretty day this year, even if it was a happy one.  Tessa and I took pictures before church.  She was being very sweet but unfortunately, the focus on my camera was messed up.

After church we went to the Poinsett Hotel for lunch.  This is what we have been doing for ten years now and it sure beats cooking.  This was our first Mother's Day without Nanny and we all did okay.  Tessa loves the table with children's activities and we all like the food.  After many trips to the buffet we just relaxed over coffee.   

We opened cards and I cried because they were so sentimentally sweet.  God has blessed me with a wonderful mother and, by giving me my precious daughter, made me a mother too.  

Daddy Daughter Camping

As part of the Adventure Guides program, Ryan and Tessa went on a Daddy Daughter camping trip.  Tessa made me laugh when she came downstairs decked out in this ruffly skirt wearing tons of jewelry and carrying an evening bag.  That's how my girl packs for camp, I'm so proud of her!  I did end up limiting her to one piece of jewelry and one stuffed animal which she crammed into her sparkly purse.       

Tessa and Ryan spent two nights in a cabin at Camp Greenville.  The weather was terrible, rainy and cold, but it didn't slow them down.  They had a campfire with songs and s'mores and hot chocolate.    There were lots of activities for the girls to do including crafts and archery. 

They rode horses.  Apparently this horse got a little fiesty but Tessa held on no problem. 

They went to a Sunday morning service at Pretty Place.  Tessa is posing with her new friend, my child has never met a stranger. 

They canoed which Tessa will tell you was her favorite part.  I'm sure Ryan is glad no one went overboard into the cold lake.   

 

They both had lots of fun and plan to join the Adventure Guides again for a camping trip in the fall. 

Kentucky - Part Two

Saturday and Sunday we had tickets for the races at Keeneland, probably the most beautiful horse track in America.  Every Saturday during race meets Keeneland has Sunrise Trackside, an experience not to be missed.  Fans are invited to watch early morning workouts, eat breakfast with the jockeys and the trainers, tour the facility and get an up close and personal view of the horses.  Even though it was literally freezing cold we had a great time.  Keeneland Kids Club was set up inside where the kids could meet the mascot Buckles, play pin the ribbon on the horse or dress up in jockey silks.

The Budweiser Clydesdales were making an appearance on Saturday.  We had a photo op with one of them that morning. 

Also available for photo-ops is the official bugler of Keeneland, Bucky.  He announces each race with a blast of his bugle.  

Keeneland hosts races twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, but what it is most noted for is it's sales center.  Top tier horses are auctioned here for mind boggling amounts of money.  The auction house and extensive barns are open for visitors to wander through at their leisure.  Ryan and Tessa watched this beautiful horse, Lilly, get her bath before the races started.

The first post time was 1:05pm but the bars opened at 11am.  They serve a drink here called the Keeneland Breeze which is made of Maker's Mark bourbon, Cointreau orange liquor and Ginger Ale.  It was unbelievably good.  We ate lunch and pored over our betting guides.  By the first race we were all feeling very good and very lucky.  Of course, for each gray horse we spotted we placed a $2 bet in honor of Nanny.  True to form, the gray horses did not run well but we smiled every time we bet for her.  Tessa was remarkably good at picking winners and absolutely loved the excitement of the races.  While it was fairly quiet in the stands before the first race, by the time the ninth race rolled around, the place was jam packed.      

The Coolmore Stakes was the big race of the day with a winning purse of $200,000.  The appropriately named winner, Winning Cause, was one of the many horses that won us money.  I was disappointed when his trainer later decided not to enter him in the Derby, that would have been cool.  During the previous week, Keeneland had hosted the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes which sent its three top finishers, Java's War, Palace Malice and Charming Kitten to the Derby.  After the races we celebrated my mom's birthday with a fantastic steak dinner.  She said the whole day was a great birthday present. 

On Sunday, we had tickets for the Phoenix Room a lovely dining room overlooking the paddock.  After the excitement and the crowd yesterday, it was nice to be inside at a comfortable table.  Lunch was served buffet style before and during the races and our waiter kept us stocked in wine and drinks.

 

This is my mom's favorite room and I can see why.  Before each race the horses are walked around the paddock.  It's a great time to observe a horse and speculate on how he or she will run.  Jockeys then mount up and head through the tunnel to the track.  This leaves just enough time to place a bet at one of the private betting stations set up just for the diners in this room.  For those of us that still like to see the race live, there is a balcony viewing area.  No surprise Tessa wanted the excitement of watching from the balcony.

Here she is having collected her money from one of her many winning bets.  You can see we were playing with big money, wink, wink.  At the end of the weekend we did come out ahead which is a little bit amazing.  There is a method to the madness of how we pick horses, but mostly it just comes down to luck.  We shopped in the Keeneland store and spent all of our winnings plus more.  Because this is such a ritzy racetrack the shop is pretty fabulous.        

Gampa and Daddy had to leave Sunday night to be back at work on Monday.  But we three girls stayed one more day.  On Monday we visited Nanny's grave again.  It was a beautiful day and we spent time looking at the graves of our many relatives buried there.  Tessa waited patiently, seating herself on Grandpa's foot stone and reading a book.  Being an avid reader his ownself, he would have loved that.  We visited other cemeteries where different relatives are buried.  Then we drove out to the Woodford Reserve Distillery.  If you are going to take your daughter to gamble, you might as well take her to a distillery too.     

Making bourbon is an interesting process of distilling corn into moonshine and then aging it in burned barrels.  I know it doesn't sound appetizing, but the end result is delicious.  The tour guide credits the Kentucky limestone water as the key ingredient.  As luck would have it, we toured the warehouse on a day when they were uncorking barrels to be bottled.  Back at the gift shop we were encouraged to taste the bourbon and sample candies made with bourbon.  We bought both a bottle and boxes of chocolates to take home.              

It was time to for us to return to South Carolina.  While definitely an unconventional way to have a funeral, it was perfect for our family.  Nanny may be buried in her Old Kentucky Home, but we all know that she is really in Heaven along with Grandpa, Nannan, Papa and other loved ones.   

Kentucky Part One

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Nanny passed away.  She was here with us in Greenville but our family does not do funerals.  Instead we traveled to Nanny's hometown in the heart of the Kentucky Bluegrass.  She is now buried there between the father she adored and my grandpa, her loving husband of 58 years.  No matter how many places she lived in her life, Kentucky was always her home.  So, in her honor, we toured the horse country and bet on the horses for her.  I think she would have loved that.  Our first stop was Berea, the town where my grandparents were married all those years ago.

We ate lunch at the Boone Tavern and then walked the small town and college campus.  It's a very artsy town with shops full of mountain crafts.   

The tulips were absolutely gorgeous, I have never seen such beautiful bulbs.  The redbuds and the dogwoods were blooming too.      

The next day we took a tour of some of the local horse farms.  Kentucky is world renowned for its thoroughbred horses and is one of the top breeding places in the world.  People pay thousands and thousands of dollars in stud fees for the horses we saw.  And, this may be too much info but I found it interesting, there is no artificial insemination or in-vitro in the thoroughbred world.  That means, horses travel from all over the world to physically visit breeding barns like this one.

Our tour guide is a native, a trainer and a horse owner so he could answer any of our questions about horses.  All of the barns were clean and immaculately kept.  These are some prize animals.  This is Henny Hughes, a descendant of Secretariat and a former Triple Crown contender.  His first year in retirement his stud fees were $40,000!   

We were lucky enough to be there during foaling season.  Many of the mares had already delivered and we were able to see them out in the pastures with their babies.  Kentucky is ideally suited for horses with mild weather and miles and miles of pastureland.  It's claim to fame is the limestone water and mineral rich Kentucky bluegrass.  The typical diet of a racehorse is mostly only those two things.      

One of the farms we stopped at encouraged us to pet the horses and really interact with them.  Nanny was always fond of the grays and would consistently bet on them.  She would have loved this horse.   

Tessa loved the foals.  This little guy is only a couple of weeks old.  The farm manager we talked with hadn't slept in days because he had so many horses foaling.  But he only had one pregnant mare left so he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We may well have seen some future champions.

Our tour included drive bys of movie scenes.  This farm, Donamire, is featured in the movie "Dreamer" a heartwarming horse film with Kurt Russell.   

The next day we went to the Kentucky Horse Park, a park devoted to all kinds of horses, not just thoroughbreds.  They host lots of events including Rolex, a huge cross country hunter jumper event.

We were there on a quiet day and, because the weather turned cold, we had the park mostly to ourselves.  Tessa could not wait to ride.  We visited the Children's Barn where kids learned about caring for horses, including how to groom one.  We also took a horse drawn tour of the park and learned more of its history.     

One of the great features of the Kentucky Horse Park, is the Hall of Champions.  We were up close and personal with some celebrities of the horse world including Cigar, Da Hoss, Funny Cide and Go For Gin. 

Even though my mom had lived here and I had visited before it was great to be a tourist, we both learned a lot about the horse business.