It’s been a rousing success of a weekend, on several fronts! Our newest family member joined the world this morning, Jess and I took a fancy-pants cooking class, my good friend Michael Shawler led a group of great kids to a robotics competition win, and Tony and I book-ended all this with a couple of great skiing trips.
Haylon Wade sure took his time getting here. He stalled and procrastinated as long as he could in his cozy den until he finally gave up the ghost and made his way here. He was born at 5:50 this morning, and his grandpa Phil swears he’s already gotten smiles and kisses. I believe it 100%. Congratulations, Cody and Tiff…and all grandparents 🙂 Looks like we need to schedule an Ohio trip to meet all these new nephews!
Haylon Wade and Pappy Phil - I can see smiles on both 🙂
Tony and I have this agreement about Christmas presents. We don’t get them for each other. Instead, we always get super-sentimental cards. You can imagine my surprise when he and Jim surprised Jess and me with a cooking class at Chateau Chantal. It was a class centered around knife use and “European technique,” which pretty much means that they taught us the “right” way to use a chef’s knife, how to sharpen said knife, and how to prepare a few classic French dishes. We had a great time, our food was wonderful, and the views were stellar. How can they not be, up on top of the Old Mission Peninsula?
Mr. Michael Shawler took a group of students to a robotics competition where they fared amazingly and will be advancing to state. This is a huge accomplishment, but is even more impressive when you consider that this was his first year coaching the (new, because he started it!) program at the school. He’s a good guy. And I know the kids too, and they’re pretty awesome as well. I’m hoping to be able to time a trip to Atlanta so that I can see them compete at Southern Polytechnic.
Their scissor lift in action - image from Shawler's FB page
And that brings us to skiing. When we went Friday evening, it was 16 degrees and snowing so hard that we were accumulating little piles on the lift. I was seriously bundled, such that Kathy would have laughed at me. The important thing is I stayed warm 🙂 Today was a whole different story: temps in the low 30’s and lots of sun.
We’re expecting drizzle tonight, which is expected to switch over to snow. I hope so. I think we all know how I feel about this winter. Regardless, what a great weekend! I hope yours was even half as good 🙂
Adventures in Michigan's Up North 
Fancy-pants cooking!!! 😀 Welcome to the newest new nephew! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Fancy-pants is nicer than saying “pretentious,” right? Bacon lardons! Thanks for the welcome and for the cooking accompaniment 🙂
Looks like Phil is “wrapped”! Little bundles don’t take long to make you fall in love. Congratulations to the new parents and grandparents…
You will have to teach me how to use the knives, and share your new skills. The pizza dough is wonderful, btw..
They’re pretty sweet (when they’re someone else’s). I’ll be happy to pass on my knife skills. I also learned how to sharpen and hone them…in theory should have been doing this MUCH more than I was (not at all). Glad you liked that crust!
Sounds like a very busy weekend. I say this after having sat my weekend away, at a movie, at dinner, watching the football games and knitting. Ah yes, when you get older, you needn’t make excuses for sitting, sitting, sitting. But I love sharing active weekends vicariously!
When I was teaching we had many more successful weekends that consisted of holding down the fort at home. But our life is pretty relaxed now, so we tend to cram it full of activities that we can’t do during the week – thanks to the sun’s early setting. It’s a different story in the summer! I’ll happily share my active weekends as long as I can vicariously partake of the knitting that I so want to learn.
I was going to type: Kathy would NOT laugh! **grin** But then decided I’d better click and see if you were talkin’ about me. So now I can say Kathy would NOT laugh! Congrats on the newest family member. And everything else in-between. I love the blue & purple scene. (May not be back to read and comment for a couple of weeks. Then again may be here tomorrow if, you know, doesn’t happen.)
I think you’re fibbing! You laughed at least a little last time I told how many layers I wore 😉 Thanks for the congrats. For your sake, I hope you don’t have the chance to comment. Have a great time. We’ll miss you 🙂
OK, I might have laughed a little. Barry laughs at me all the time in Grandma’s 1970 snowmobile suit. I can’t be seen in public wearing it.