Scattered Thoughts . . .

Y esterday was haircut day for Lukey and Kenzie.   Kenzie went to Sheila's stylist to get her hair done while Lukey stayed with me so I could cut his hair. I had planned a slightly different haircut for Lukey   (far more up top than I did here)  but his hair was too short already which forced a few changes during the haircut.  All in all, it came out well anyway. I wanted a fade to zero on the sides and back but my shaver isn't the best quality so I really couldn't go to zero.  I'd say this is a fade to half... Sheila's hair stylist did a good job on Kenzie's hair.  She had quite a bit of length cut off... Today is packing day.  I think everyone else packed this morning so I'm the only one left who needs to pack.  My stuff will be a very tight fit.  I have a lot of medications to pack.  Actually, the medications will require almost an entire bag on its own.  I also have quite a bit of photography gear, chargers, cables, laptop ...

L ukey and Kenzie are both a part of the band at school and last night was their spring concert so we headed out to Cabot last night for a bit of middle school culture.   This was Kenzie's first time singing lead vocals in front of a crowd and she did well considering it was her first time.   Lukey already had another previous concert under his belt (their winter concert) before Kenzie joined the band so he moved around from instrument to instrument on stage during the performances.  I think he prefers drums but he spent time at the keyboard in addition to rocking a tambourine and singing lead vocals.   It was a fun night for all of us!  There is a short video at the bottom of this blog entry with a few short clips of the concert. Below, Kenzie is waiting to come out on stage... I've seen this Kenzie "dirty-look" before...  it is usually directed toward me when I'm joking with her about something.  I'm not sure what it was about on stage...

L ukey and Kenzie's birthday is just a couple of weeks after Ellie and Gee's birthday so it is more like a birthday month! We picked up Lukey and Kenzie from their dad's house (he lives very near us while Liza lives an hour away so we saved her a couple of hours of traveling) and we spent the afternoon with them before we headed to Sarducci's for their usual birthday dinner.  There were no presents this year other than this nice meal since they will be joining us on our upcoming cross-country Amtrak journey.  We had to talk about clothes, packing and measure them for clothes so it was good we had some time to spend with them before heading to Sarducci's.   This annual birthday dinner at Sarducci's is always nice though!   We picked up Pop on the way to the restaurant... I always forget just how dark this restaurant is until I attempt to shoot some photos...  I believe this is the darkest restaurant we have ever visited!  I'm still learning about t...

L ukey and Kenzie have been dying to take a long distance trip on Amtrak for many years.  Last Christmas, we were booked to take Amtrak to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie but our train was cancelled as we were waiting for it to arrive in Waterbury.  It was cancelled due to flooding here in Vermont and, at the last minute, we decided our only option was to drive down to Manhattan instead.  That means Lukey and Kenzie missed out on a huge part of last Christmas' surprise trip.  That Amtrak travel was supposed to be the highlight of the trip but it was cancelled! They were definitely sorely disappointed but we still had a great time in Manhattan at Christmastime.  That train cancellation really put a big damper on the trip though which we were reminded of constantly during the long 12 hours in the car contending with heavy rain, traffic, and detours in a cramped car rather than a long train allowing us to get up and walk whenever we felt the need.  Having to s...