Solo to Cali

I can't remember traveling alone for a vacation since I got married.  Twenty five years later, I did just that and had a fabulous time (no offense to my beloved family, of course).  It was a trip meant to be, as I arrived at the very moment Bennett and Tiffany's family were hosting their going-away party at a nearby park.  So Mary and I showed up and were able to see all of them as well as meet many of their friends, who were so smart, interesting, and likable.  Such a fun party!  I was so glad the timing worked out.

I spent most of my days at Mary's, where I got to spend lots of time with Kate and Aaron.  Fun activities included tennis, biking, swimming (Mary and I were the lifeguards), race car driving (Mary and I were the observers), and a Stanford tour, which included an awesome same-sex statues display.  Aaron has a very cool hover board/go-cart thingy that the majority of people we passed either blatantly stared at it or asked questions about it.  I can't believe I didn't take a photo!  It was good to see Mark, and Father's Day dinner was spent at a nearby seafood restaurant.

Kate and I took some very long walks, during which we created a picture dictionary.  For example, these were our photos for Hydrant and Mailbox.  Impressive, right?

Even more impressive ... Bennett arranged for a tour of the Tesla plant in Fremont.  Wow.  (Sorry I made his family look into the sun when I took the photo outside the plant.) I can't wait for Steven to go on the tour - he would have the most insightful comments about what he saw and heard, given his 25+years at Toyota.
I got to spend the night at B&T's home.  They were so gracious to stay up until midnight talking with me, giving me much appreciated and thoughtful suggestions for a work situation, even though they had approximately 5820 tasks to complete before leaving for Amsterdam a few days later.  Mary and her kids came down the next day and I was struck by the synergy of the five children playing together.  Such beautiful, funny, engaging children.  No arguments, no bickering, no disagreements.  How does that happen?  Everyone in Bennett's family is so excited about their overseas adventure, and I am so excited to visit them next summer!

Can you find Kate in the tree?

Can you even begin to imagine how much fun I had?  SOO much laughing.

Thank you, amazing California relatives, for all you did so I could have a most incredible solo vacation!  I'll be back for sure.  If I knew how to insert heart emojis into this post, I would add about 1000 of them.

A beautiful girl and 12 years of very hard work

Elizabeth's graduation was more fun, emotional, and exciting than any graduation I have attended (and I've attended 22 at Georgetown College alone!).  The lead-up to the actual event was also fun, emotional, and exciting.

For example, this is Elizabeth going graduation dress shopping with me in Lexington.  She did not choose the dress in the photo even though I was convinced she would love it.  I laughed when she told me the only reason she even tried it on was because I asked her to.  At least she was polite about it.

This is Elizabeth getting her ears pierced many times because she is 18 and graduating and that is the deal I made with her. 

This is Elizabeth driving to graduation.  Magical fairies apparently gifted her with a heart crown.

The Kentucky Horse Park Arena easily fit the Class of 2018 graduates.  More than 500 of them!

Elizabeth graduated summa cum laude, awarded to those with GPAs over 4.0.

Then it was all over but the celebrating and staying up all night with friends.

Elizabeth and Rain, her best friend. 

Elizabeth and Emily, her pretty much lifelong friend (see previous blog entry).








Elizabeth and more friends.












Rosemary, Terry, and Angie came to Elizabeth's graduation.  Angie recognized several names from the program due to hearing stories attending various events of E and M's over the years.  







Not a day has passed since May 04, 2000 that we have not known how fortunate we are to be Elizabeth's parents, and we forever welcome any opportunity to spend time with her.  But it was especially nice to have a formal occasion to reflect on how hard she has worked the past 18 years.  We could not be more proud ... elated ... joyous ... teary ... excited ... awestruck ... wistful ... delighted.

Spring

Elizabeth was devastated on May 22nd, Voting Day.  Not because her candidates lost, but because she thought she wasn't registered to vote.  But I saw her name on the registry when I voted and that news made her day!  You're welcome.  Here she is, minutes later, running out in the rain to vote, like all good Democrats should.  Go Amy McGrath!
Elizabeth "finished" school a week ago - seniors' grades were due 7 days before school ended.  This week has been full of special senior activities, like a senior breakfast at Georgetown College and Field Day.  Here she is with her dear friend Emily.  Their beautiful friendship goes back at least 15 years.

Michael and his friend Bricen enjoyed (that might be stretching it) working on their Entrepreneurship: Shoes presentation for their business course.  Through their company, 2 Men N Sum Shoes (don't judge), they buy name brand sneakers, clean them up (with lots of elbow grease, according to one of their slides), and resell them for profit.  They provided advice on creating a catchy slogan, memorable phone number, and cool name (again, don't judge).  I loved hearing them practice and pretending to be their peer, asking thought-provoking questions.  They definitely earned that A.

And of course there has been basketball.  Michael's U16 Prodigy team won a tournament last weekend (left photo).  Prodigy also has a U17 team, which has struggled this year.  Last weekend they asked Michael to play up a level and be on their team.  He did, he rocked, and they won the entire tournament!

Mother's Day weekend activities sent us to multiple locations. I was selected by the GC seniors to give the faculty speech during the graduation banquet.  Michael was off to Indiana with Angie and her sons for a weekend of basketball.  Elizabeth worked each day.  And my three beautiful siblings arrived for hard work at Mom's.  Here we are, happily taking a break from the papers and piles and personal effects.  Life would be so much tougher across the board, were it not for my siblings.

Steven has taken on so many responsibilities related to Mom's estate, including the dreaded medical bill mountain.  He has done incredible work with her home as well, even recruiting Bricen and Michael to spend last Saturday in Morehead raking dirt and moving furniture.  Her home looks so beautiful.  The real estate agent posted 73 (!) photos on-line as evidence.  In spite of all the long phone calls he makes and physical labor he endures related to mom's estate, he remains enthusiastic, supportive, optimistic, and loving.  Always finding time for his family ... and our dogs.  Love that man.

2018 - First Quarter

Myrtle Beach was amazing - the first time any of us have been there, and we all want to return! 
Elizabeth's friend Rain came with us and we had a super fun time staying in a full-kitchen two-bedroom suite.  Scott County, ranked 12th in the nation, won the silver bracket during the invitation-only tournament.  The entire week was so relaxing and casual, getting up when we wanted, only having games on our schedule.  Here's the view from our hotel, where we enjoyed 60 degree weather.  We returned to Kentucky's only-in-the-teens weather, which continued for 24 days.

In January, Mary's family visited.  Happy new year indeed!  We could not have had a better start to 2018!  Zoe, Niki, and Sami would agree: how they run, jump, and wag their tails for Kate and Aaron.  We think if they stayed with the Sprague-Rose family for a month, they wouldn't think of the four of us McKenzies a single time!

Winter is for basketball.  Michael played and played and played for SCHS, both JV and varsity.  He had quite the stellar JV season, with his name in the newspaper most editions.  He continued to contribute to varsity as well, and we could not have been prouder of his athleticism, basketball IQ, and grit.

Those finely-dressed dogs of ours undoubtedly missed us terribly during game nights .... Elizabeth and her friends cheered for Michael and his teammates during every home game and most of the away ones, too!  What a fortunate brother, to have such a devoted sister.

The euphoria of Michael's SCHS season was at drastic odds with Mom's death.  Each day I am grateful for the final visits I was able to have with her.  I am honored to have been able to be present during her final days and final breaths.  Mom would have been more than happy with her memorial service - funny stories, loving tributes, beautiful photos.  As sad as her death is, I was thankful to have the opportunity to reconnect with many people who knew Mom, to hear stories of her generosity, extraversion, and story-telling abilities.  I appreciated each moment I had with family members, including all of us being together for Patrick's birthday.  I treasure every sibling family reunion (with a special treat thrown in ... Uncle Stan, Aunt Celine, Kate, and Sophia!!!), even if the circumstances aren't as blissful as one hopes they would be.  Because I connected so strongly with the words during Mom's service, I want to conclude this paragraph with an excerpt from Mary's moving tribute to Mom - the final lesson she learned from her:  "I learned that my mom is an entertaining and funny, strong and brave, talented, intelligent, beautiful and loving, amazing person who will be deeply missed."

It has been an emotional pendulum being in Mom's home many times since January.  We are all working on various aspects related to her estate.  Laura was a saint to stay 2.5 weeks in Mom's home and make enormous headway in terms of Mom's paperwork, possessions, and home organization.  I certainly look forward to our sibling reunion in May.  Michael sold his Accord, preferring the gas mileage of Mom's Camry hybrid.  He and his friend Bryson spent a day in Morehead cleaning up her car, in which they found an incredible number of pens and pieces of candy: Mom was definitely a writer who loved her dessert.  What might a person conclude about you if they cleaned out your car?

Elizabeth continues to excel in my college class, which is open only to undergraduates with senior standing.  Just as she did last semester, she has earned the highest number of points this semester; she is the only student who has not missed any points at all!  With no special treatment from the professor!  She's just that good!  I try not to think how my MWFs next year will be lonely without her; she and I have lunch together at 12 before going to class at 1.

And then there was more basketball.  Michael's team won district, won regionals, and made it to the finals of the state tournament, before losing in the championship game.  Angie screamed and cheered with us for many of the games.  Go Cards!  One of Michael's layups was featured on the local news' stories (I'll upload another layup below) and Elizabeth made it onto Rupp Arena's jumbo tron multiple times with Rain and other friends.

  

Elizabeth deposited her fee to confirm her spot at Knox College.  Last week Elizabeth, Michael, Steven, and Angie spent 2 days in Galesburg, Illinois, so Elizabeth could meet her peers for Knox's Class of 2022!  Michael met with coaches at Knox and Monmouth.  Angie familiarized herself with the Knox campus, took in the sights, and went on a bus tour of the city with Michael.  They ate delicious cookies and came home with bags full of clothing from the bookstore.  Including some shirts with a very intimidating fox on their backs.

Steven and I continue to be thankful for our lives and our home.  We love you all dearly and with this latest experience with death, we are so much more appreciative of the love and support you have always given us.  You are all irreplaceable.

Happy Holidays 2017!!!

Elizabeth and I continued our annual tradition of attending The Nutcracker.  Here we are at intermission.  This year we saw a Russian troupe performing the ballet.  They were incredible.

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with Steven's family.  We served pizza.  Such a stress-free day; it was so nice to spend time with our relatives instead of preparing food in the kitchen.  Pizza just might become our new annual Christmas celebration tradition.

We leave for Myrtle Beach in less than an hour, so I wanted to take a moment to wish you all the happiest of holidays!  The Scott County varsity basketball team is competing in a tournament there this week and we are all going!  Elizabeth's best friend Rain is coming with us!  So excited!

We hope all of you have safe travels and beautiful memories during the holidays.

Four cars, four drivers

Michael took his intermediate drivers test today and passed!  He was a whiz at both parallel parking and the three point turn.  He doesn't need a licensed adult with him when he drives now - which means he can drive to and from practices and games and will no longer have to wait outside in the cold for his parents or sister to pick him up.

The plan was for Michael and Elizabeth to share a car, but somehow Elizabeth's busy schedule and Michael's long legs made it imperative that he get his own car.  So he is zooming around in a silver Honda Accord.  And we have become one of those families I always mock that has to park in the street.

Woo-hoo, Michael!  Congratulations!