Lavender Farm

We went and picked two bundles of lavender today at a farm in Campbell County. We bought a lavender cookbook and will hopefully be trying out some recipes soon.

We're down two kiddos this month. Clara is on her month long mission trip and Chris is working this summer at Camp Gray.

First Portrait of hopefully many more

Today was an interesting Father's Day for us.  In a house that consists of five kids, all of the teenagers were out of the house.  We have three in Delaware and one in Wisconsin.  This allowed us to visit for an extended period of time with Granny and Pops over brunch as well as a visit at Grandma and Grandpa's this evening for dessert.  

For Father's Day (celebrated with my kids on Saturday brunch this year), I was given a new background and stand for a portrait project that I'm working on.  Pops was the first to pose in front of the new background stand for me.  He stood in front of the black background while a huge background stand with a sheet draped over it served as a soft box of sorts to diffuse the light.  I snapped the shot and then did a little bit of post editing to get it the way I wanted it.  Here's the fruits of my Father's Day photography project and hopefully the first of a portrait project I have in my head.  

Sabrina sings at Reds Game

Last night Sabrina with the Ryle Choir at the Cincinnati Reds game versus the Cleveland Guardians. They sounded great!

We stayed for a couple of innings before returning home to take an evening walk in the neighborhood. We got to see Grandpa on the walk and even toured a vacant home in our neighborhood when we bumped into the neighbor who is flipping the house.

Last Choir Concert at GMS

Today we saw the end an era at Gray Middle School.  These photos are from our last middle school choir concert.  We've enjoyed the years of listening to Molly and Sabrina sing at Gray and we've already been treated to a couple of Sabrina's performances at Ryle.  

Duveneck Art Fair and Mother's Day

We had some nice time together this weekend for Mother's Day.  We went to the Duveneck Memorial Art Show in Covington on Saturday and looked at many interesting artist's creations.  

One last Spring Break Adventure

Chris and I were scheduled to work at NKU for a band event from 4 pm to 7 pm on Sunday 3/17. I figured after we were finished with our shift I'd return him back to UC. When we arrived at NKU, the work had already been done and there was nothing left for us to do so we started to make our way to Clifton. As we crossed over the Dan Beard bridge, my son who wanted to stretch his spring break just a little bit longer looked over at the Cincinnati skyline and said, "I've written a paper about the 'CARE-roo' Tower but I've never been to the observation deck." I corrected his pronunciation of Carew and then contemplated the diversion.

The trap was set and all of a sudden I found myself as an accomplice to the Spring Break extension by veering off the return trip to Clifton and instead making our way to park underneath fountain square. On St. Patrick's Day.

We walked into Carew Tower and stumbled upon the bank of elevators that go to the top of the building. We walked past a sign and security guard who took no interest in us whatsoever and tried to figure out which elevator was working. None of the buttons responded so we walked back and queried the hourly employee who couldn't care less about our predicament. That's when I saw the sign that said the observation deck was closed temporarily. To get this other human being to show a sign of life I asked how long it had been closed. She lumbered with the enthusiasm of a sloth and said, "It's been closed since COVID."

Not deterred, my young architecture student proceeded through the art deco building and called my attention to all the features that I otherwise wouldn't have seen. We strolled through the building and fell into the bar at the Orchid Restaurant where I drank a blue moon and Chris enjoyed a double shot of water. Because it was St. Patrick's Day there were many older men wearing tuxedos with green bow ties seated around the bar. It seemed that they had all gotten an earlier start to celebrate the day based on their behavior.

We left the bar, walked around a little bit more - he actually disappeared upstairs at one point - and then made our way back to the truck which was sandwiched in between two sedans in the parking garage. Seemingly satisfied, or more likely accepting his fate, we arrived back at his dorm among many long sighs and groans. As we were parting ways I realized his teeth needed some serious brushing. This was when he realized he left his toothbrush and paste at home. Go figure.

And so, Christopher's spring break came to an end with one last little adventure in a building constructed nearly 100 years ago.