I resolve to go back to the Gorge

When I started this site over 10 years ago there wasn't Facebook, texting, Twitter, and really cheap communications. It wasn't quite as bad as my childhood with long distance fees and postage but there still wasn't a cheap way to keep people informed. 

Since 2012, I’ve gotten behind on galleries and general posting because it is so simple to text friends and family and post to Facebook to communicate more broadly with all your social circles. So the site has evolved for the biggest things. It’s also became an obligation that annoys me at times. Anyone who frequents this site knows we went to 30A for Thanksgiving.  Between myself, Jenna, and Melissa everyone interested has seen the sights and sounds in posts, photos, and videos. So why post here?

As social life evolved so has this site. I have a record of the entire history of my little adventure in one place. A place I control. Text messages have to be purged to make space on your phone. Want to leave Facebook-hope you have a whole day to download important memories. I don’t even acknowledge Twitter anymore for personal use. It has become so vitriol I hate myself for even checking it. 

The Sullivan Adventure has evolved to a place for Jenna and I rather than a place for our family to “catch up.” I used to get in trouble with my the grandparents if they missed a birthday party and I didn’t immediately post it here. Today they’ve Facetimed the kid’s within minutes of the conclusion. Then it was to inform, now it’s to enjoy. Jenna and I sit at the computer sometimes and will just look at the posts from a year and shake our heads how fast our little train is speeding out of the station.

Control has starting to become something more important to me as well. I’ve been happy with the control Squarespace gives me. It costs more than Wordpress or Blogger but I’ve never had a DOS attack or any intrusion at all. I’ve never had a minute of downtime. The pages can load slow if I have too many fancy posts (slideshow galleries particularly kill the speed) on the front page but generally it’s solid. Most importantly they give me tools to export out if I so choose.

So this year’s resolution is to catch up on the galleries and the vacations and the excursions and the birthdays and the everything. I also resolve to post big memories here first and link them to other social sites rather than defaulting to group think. I’m starting with a gallery from September of this year. A small little trip Jenna and I took to the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy.

Holidays 2015

The way Christmas fell this year was odd.  With it on a Friday the kids had 6 days off school before the big day.  On paper that sounds like a great relaxing time.  The reality was our procrastination struck and the week was full of errand running and last minute buying. <sigh>

We left for our south Arkansas tour on Christmas afternoon. A big mistake. "Here kids enjoy all the wonderful things you just got for Christmas........now pack them up and lets go on a 5 hour car ride." We should've foreseen that. We could've prepared before Christmas, but again our procrastination runs deep. 

Campbell's Christmas was Monster High overload. She loves her iPad too but I think her little Vtech smartwatch was the biggest hit over the holidays. I think her favorite part of the holiday was having so many girls to play with. Our neighborhood is boy heavy and with her cousins in Texarkana and in ElDorado being predominately female, the tables were turned. She spent the night in the same house as us once the entire trip. 

Everything Noah got paled next to his PS4. It took him all of 3 days to become better at FPS games than me and I'm no Halo slouch. I don't really mind him being better than me but he's become pretty adept at trash talking. His teachers are going to be in for a shock when he shows up to school with a controller in his mouth. There aren't many boys down south but he really liked being the big kid and teaching JI everything he knew from Skylanders to Minecraft. He also likes being the agitator for the girls. In fact I'll say he relishes the role much to his mother's dismay. Boys-what are you gonna do?

As always it was nice to see everyone let the kids be with all their extended family at once. We were only gone a week but it's an exhausting week. Totally worth it. 

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Halloween 2015

Guess I forgot to post this a few weeks back. This year's Halloween was a glimpse of the future.  Noah and his buddy Jackson decided they didn't want to Trick or Treat very far.  They wanted to come back home to hide and scare kids coming to the front door. So we did the 'hood and crossed over to Thornbury where there is a house that is half haunted house. We'd be back before you could blink. Until...

About the 5th house they ran into 3 girls from school. Immediately both boys' IQ dropped 40 points each and the decibel level of the girls' giggling raised about the same proportion. I asked if they were ready to go back to the house and scare kids and the lights just weren't on upstairs anymore.  2 miles and 40 houses later we arrived at the girls' final destination.  The boys gave ALL their candy to them and sauntered on home. Can't imagine what it's going to be like in a few years when they like girls.

Meanwhile Cam, ran into her best friend while we were still in our hood.  Jenna went with her and we maintained visual contact for a bit but eventually they went to a party while I kept hoofin it. We reunited at bedtime. Good times.

Photo by Amber Lanning

Uploaded by Chad Sullivan on 2015-11-16.

Close to home

Since we moved to our house when Noah was little it seems we always had something on the horizon that was going to make our location even better.  We bought the house knowing Wagon Wheel was going to 4 lane and the road behind our house would no longer be the main east-west avenue for the north side of town. After a few years it seemed like it has always been that way with local traffic only. Several years back the Northwest Arkansas Greenway was announced. A lot of proposals later and then we found out it would literally run within half a mile of our house. Now the new East-West 412 bypass is under construction.  It will run a few miles north of our us and should ease a lot of the traffic problems we have trying to get across town.

The bypass is still several months from completion but the main greenway is finished and now all the spurs are under construction.  One of them recently completed. It's a new mountain bike trail with the trailhead a mile from our doorstep. Where the pavement ends though is a really cool bridge over Spring Creek with a deep pool at the end of some rapids.  The kids like to play there but it's become Oliver's favorite spot.  He chases fish and it's about the only place he'll just jump in and swim around.  Plus it's absolutely beautiful. Did I mention it's right down the street? 

Fall 2015

We aren't in full orange and red yet but fall is definitely in the air.  This year at the corn maze/pumpkin patch the kids and I splurged and went for a helicopter ride.  It was amazing. Watching the video now, all I can think is how much better it's going to be in a couple of weeks when the colors of the trees explode.

Pretty Solid Weekend

A 3-day weekend is nice but we don't always take advantage of it.  This weekend we nailed it.

Best Stage Ever

Campbell is in that stage where she just LOVES everybody. She gives out hugs like the sun gives off light. She can't walk near you without holding your hand. She can't sit in the room without being either in your lap or right next to you. I love it.

On the flip side, Jenna gets tired of having a shadow and constant commentary 😀. More than once the past week I've left the house with Cam chatting to her about something, for me to return and I'm not sure Cam inhaled the entire time I was gone.

It's not just the loving she gives. She's quick to compliment and even quicker to tell you she loves you. She's a star at school too. Every time I'm in her building for work I have someone come up and say how much "I love your little girl!" 

Just makes a proud dad. If I can figure out how to make it last I will let you know. Of course there will be a nominal fee...on second thought it probably wouldn't be that nominal.  

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If It's Not Written Down It Didn't Happen OR 10 Years of Blogging

It’s hard to remember the world ten years ago. It was way back when you paid for long distance and you paid by the minute for your mobile phone. It was before apps. It was before texting was easy. Facebook may have been invented but it was far from a thing. 

When Jenna became pregnant with Noah, we had zero family living close by. Every time something new happened, we’d have to share it multiple times with each family member.  Whoever we spoke to last got the short end of the stick. So I had a brilliant idea. Let’s start a website. A blog.  It’s this new cool thing people are doing.  We can post news and everyone can go to their computer and see what happened! As always Jenna was skeptical about anything I’m excited about, but she went ahead and gave me her blessings. 

On September 1, 2005, I made the first post. Today, I make my 863rd post. I had to manually add them up because I didn’t think the statistics page was correct. 863! It has grown just like our little family over the past ten years.  It went from a way to keep grandparents up to date on doctors appointments to a true history of our family. 

It has become a historical document to us in a way I can’t explain. It has been there for two births, hundreds of small victories, a couple of huge victories, and a few moments that threatened to crush us. It has also seen it’s fair share of deaths and chronicled the pain that goes along with life. Without knowing it or even trying, I created a written account of our adventure. 

I am thankful for everyone who has ever visited. I am thankful for a life where I get to wake up the two greatest children in the world each morning, watch them stretch, and hear “Good morning Dad.” Mostly I am thankful for my beautiful wife. She is and always will be the star of my story.

The kids' first concert

My first concert was the Gap Band with Midnight Star opening for them. I don't remember the year but I've never forgotten the concert. My big sister let me tag along with her and her friends. No one ever forgets their first concert.  Noah and Cam got to go to really cool laid back one. Amos Lee and David Gray had an outside concert that was perfect.  It was all lawn seating. The view was great. The music was perfect. We love Amos Lee.  The kid's have grown up listening to his music and Noah could sing along to about a third of the songs.  David Gray was a mystery to me. I haven't really listened to him since his first album but his show was awesome. He was a great performer.  Hopefully it made an impression with the kids. I'm glad Amanda and Sue got to share it with them.  Come to think of it, I'm glad their parents got to share it with them too.

Uploaded by Chad Sullivan on 2015-08-02.

Uploaded by Chad Sullivan on 2015-08-02.

The Swoosh

Last time we were in Portland, I got a tour of Nike's campus from Amanda. This time the kids were bigger so we all decided to take a peek. Coming from 2 people who work in school districts, it seemed like a foreign country.  We were there during lunch time and the amount of people working out was astonishing. The culture of health was unlike anything we experience. If you workout you get an additional 30 minutes of lunch.  I don't know logistically how every company can emulate that but what a service for your employees. Everything from the tennis courts, to the gyms, to the pool, to the soccer field was being used. Jenna loved seeing the soccer field where one of her Nike Training Club app's trainer's had a bullhorn and was putting about 200 employees through a crazy workout.

The kids enjoyed it in different ways.  Campbell just thought it was a town with cool art. Noah just looked at the banners of all the athletes.  They got to run a lap on the track and see museum worthy things they won't appreciate until they are older. This trip to Portland really opened Noah's eyes to a lot of sports.  Lacrosse seems to be his new "favorite" sport. My personal favorite moment was seeing a group of engineers (or whatever they are) putting a group through workouts as they tested Sparx gear.

Thanks to Sue for taking us there on her day off, even though people kept trying to stop her and engage her in work :)

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