Rob's Class
Rob just called me after teaching his first class at NKU. So it's official. ... The class is a Basics of Biology lab for non-biology majors. Plus, they're taking this in an accelerated, 5-week format, so probably most of the students wouldn't be there if they didn't have to be (it's a required course). But Rob's excited about teaching it, nonetheless. It's a 2-hour class, 3 times a week, and Rob gets the first 10 minutes or so to introduce material for the day. So it's not lecture-heavy, which is probably good, since he has little time to prep.
We're gearing up for 12 hour days, and lots of weekends worked. ... At least we only have the next 5 weeks to worry about.
Vacation Plans
And then we're going on vacation!! For those of you who don't know and who are interested (which might be a whole 3 of you), this is our rough outline for the trip (note that these days are NOT set in stone, but it should go down pretty close to like this):
July 3rd - leave for Yellowstone
July 5th - 11th - Family Reunion in Yellowstone
July 11th - July 20th (or so) - Time in Utah
July 20th - mid-August some time - Rob leaves us. Time in California
mid-August some time - leave CA for a long, leisurely trip back to Cinci, including a longer stay in St. Louis, where I grew up. Hopefully Rob will re-join us for that part.
August 16th or so - arrive back in Cinci
Yes, we are driving.
Rob will leave us after Utah and fly back home. Then me and the kids will head to CA for some time at the beach, etc. After that my mother will drive back across the country with me and the kids (plus cousin D). This was my MOTHER'S idea, I will have everyone know. She's the crazy one. But it'll be fun. Definitely a summer to remember and never repeat.
I'm excited to show my kids Yellowstone. It's one of my favorite places in the world. Not that I've been a ton of places in the world, but of the places I've been, it's one of my favorites. There's just nowhere else like it. We will be camping in Yellowstone that whole week, so it'll be an adventure.
Graduation - Ceremony and Party
Rob graduates next Friday, June 12th. For those of you who are sad to miss the ceremony (yeah, right), Rob has informed me that you can watch it live on the internet. So here's the link:
The doctorates are awarded in a ceremony that starts at 10:30 am.
For those of you who are happy to skip the ceremony but who would like to help Rob celebrate his achievement, there will be a party that evening at our house. 5:00 pm - midnight (or whenever you'd like to leave). It's a potluck. We'll be providing meat: hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats and mets. And all the fixings for hamburgers. Everything else is potluck. So bring stuff you like to eat. :)
Our Spontaneuos Weekend
We had a fabulous weekend. Rob was pre-feeling the crunch of a busy June, so we did lots of fun stuff this weekend to pre-make up for it. For the second weekend in a row, we camped out in our backyard on Friday night. Had a tin foil dinner. Stayed up late talking by the fire. It was great. We had invited people to join us for a spontaneous camp out in our backyard. No one ended up showing, which is totally fine. It was just fun to be spontaneous.
The next day we took a drive to test the car top carrier that we'll use for our vacation. We borrowed the carrier from someone who hasn't used it for years, so we checked it for water-proof-ness, and then took a drive on the highway to check the straps and stuff. Took the kids with us. Driving to nowhere in particular. We decided to turn around at an exit near Indiana that just happens to be the same place you'd exit to go to a fun park.
So we took the kids to the park. Ended up staying for a few hours. Rob got all spontaneous on us (I LOVE when he's spontaneous, so he tries hard to be spontaneous at least once a year) and we rented a paddle boat. Paddled around this cute little pond. Saw lots of ducks, including about 20 baby ducks, and baby ducks are adorable. All 20 baby ducks were with one female duck. We wondered if she was babysitting.
We ended the weekend by attending a spontaneous pot luck picnic dinner. Met some new friends and hung out with old friends, too.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, full of fun and spontaneity. The spontaneity wasn't on purpose. It just happened that way.
(Yes, I was trying to be funny with the last comments.)
Pictures
Now that that's all out of the way, I'll post some random pictures from May.
We babysat a baby, and Teancom thought the portacrib looked inviting. So for a few nights he went to sleep in it. I thought it was cute, and I had to take a picture:
My lilacs in full bloom, early May:
Rob's little brother got the lead in a play. He'll be portraying Nephi. So, in a late-night moment, Rob made these Nephi faces: (You're welcome, Garrett.)
(And, yes, that's Rob's belt around his head.)
Teancom, all ready to play outside in the rain:
I just loved that it was warm enough out that he could go outside without pants. Him in no pants, a jacket with hood on, and bright green crocs. What's cuter than that? And you can be jealous of my outfit-picking abilities. It's okay.
The kids have been playing outside a lot. We brought out the kiddie pool and by the end of the first day, a week ago, they were both lobsters. Teancom was a red and brown lobster, and Elijah was a red and white monster. The boys have been taking turns wearing the floaty stuff, too:
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