No Training Wheels

As our family vacation to Michigan rapidly approaches, we’ve been focusing on getting the girls ready for cycling. Specifically, Anja has moved up to a bike with “gears” and no pedal brake whilst Isabel has made the big leap to “no training wheels”. Both are doing really well, although our little session ended early tonight with skinned knees on both girls. Fortunately, it was nothing that a bit of TLC and a band-aid couldn’t fix. Lynne left this morning for a short three-day trip, a conference; she’ll be back on Friday evening. Weather is really hot here, will be over 100F tomorrow.  Hot!! Hope you’re week is going well.

MBA Kick-Off Week

There have been no updates for a week, most of you will know that I spent last week in Chicago, it was the kick-off week for my MBA. I had full intentions of getting a few posts out but it was impossible, we had several very long days and nights, blogging was never an option. I took a few photos of some new friends, which are shown below, but I also share some of the Chicago skyline, the University and the Booth School of Business itself, all of which were actually taken by a fellow student, Ram Bala, who kindly allowed me to share them.

Things are going well here at home, I’ll be back to more family orientated updates during the week.

Happy Fathers Days

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads out there, wishing you a great day with your families. Unfortunately I will not get to see my kids today since I’m at Chicago this week, this will be my first missed home activity, but I knew this would occur when I signed up for this MBA. Obviously I’ll still speak with each of the kids this morning and as I sit here flicking through my photos to write this post, I’m so terribly proud and happy to be their father. I love you all. It’s been a while since I have been up this early and with such a clear mind on a Sunday morning, it’s 6am and I’m about to head out for a short run before class at 8am, microeconomics this morning. Enjoy the day everybody.

Time to go to Chicago

Tonight after the kids are all in bed, I’ll travel to Chicago to start my MBA. It starts tomorrow morning at 8am and I’ll be there for 10 days to get the program started. It’s going to be an intense week. We received a bunch of reading and our first assignment to complete prior to our arrival and I’ll have to admit that I have yet to complete it all. I also need to admit that I’m a little apprehensive about starting, I’m very sure before long, however, I will have settled into it and it will be pretty routine.

It only seems like yesterday that Lynne and I discussed the very idea of doing this, thanks again love for all you support, and now here I am on the verge of starting. I will provide updates as I go alone of course. Only 21 months until graduation.

Two Views from the Same Pool

Monday is over and we have now got the week started. Lynne is in Ireland, Limerick to be specific and Pat has settled in well. The kids have now got pretty familiar with her again, they are disobeying her orders already, so life is normal again and she is considered one of the family.

Wanted to share a few photos, same theme but such contrasting emotions. We always get a small swimming pool each summer, the kids love it but this year for some reason our local chipmunks are really attracted to it. On numerous occasions one has been caught inside it, to much excitement by all, except the poor chipmunk that is. I’m just hoping we don’t come out one morning to find a very sorry looking one, know what I mean. Anyhow, just thought it interesting to note how the same item could provide such a different backdrop. Have a good week all.

Straight Arrow Day Camp

Finally getting around to posting some pictures from camp. Isabel and Anja each spent a week at Straight Arrow Day Camp and we spent the last two Friday nights at Family Night. This is the final activity of a fun-packed week where each camp member, together with their counselors, perform for their families. It’s a great evening for everybody, the counselors and camp organizers do such a fantastic job, they deserve so much credit for the care, dedication and enthusiasm they put into their time at camp.

I have some pictures from the two evenings shown below, but if you wish to get a real sense for these occasions, click on the video clips at the bottom.

Gran Arrives

I got back safely from Montreal yesterday evening. I actually waited at Chicago airport for a few hours to collect Pat, Lynne’s Mum, who will be with us for three weeks. It was crazy since we actually also met with Lynne at the airport yesterday, she was on her way to Ireland. She will be at a conference in Limerick all week but only after spending tonight with Davey, Sam and the twins.

We’ve had a relaxing morning thus far; poor Connor keeps calling Pat, "Granny Owens". I think he thinks that all grandmothers are called Granny Owens, I’m sure he will master “Gran” before too long.

Montreal

I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Montreal, Canada. I’m here for two nights for work. I arrived this evening around 7pm and before the light faded and got too dark, I headed out for my favorite way to see any new city these days, running around the city center. I ran for about 40 minutes and got a good sense of the immediate city center anyhow. It’s really like any major city, lots of huge banks, hotels, busy streets all mixed in with very old preserved buildings and small little parks. I’m probably not going to get another chance now to tour around since I have a busy day tomorrow but I’m glad to have seen some of it.

I took a few pictures but I’m unsure how good they look, the light was fading quickly. I'm sorry a few are sideways, no idea why and I tried unsuccessfully to fix it on my work computer, its a windows system::))

Happy Birthday Mum

Can you believe it’s June already? That means tomorrow is my Mothers birthday, Happy Birthday Mum. Wishing you a great day, go out an have some fun, you’re 21 today right?

Since Mum was here last month I have posted lots of polished pictures of her here on these pages. I liked the picture below, which captures the essence of my mum, relaxed sitting around the kitchen table whilst we were chatting away one evening.

Sheri's Annual Visit

We had Sheri here this week for two evenings on her annual teaching trip to Purdue. She got to witness first hand the chaos that is our household in the evenings. It was a pleasure to have you as always Sheri, great to see you again, hope your return journey was uneventful, give our very best to Bruno and wishing you a very pleasurable weekend. Come again soon. The OwensTaylor Gang!!