Ithaca Motherhood Conference

Last weekend (now two weekends ago!! I need to find time to update this blog) I went back up to Ithaca for a wonderful retreat with some old friends from Cornell. Jennie Sanders and I planned a CareerMothers conference to tap the collective mothering wisdom of the women we knew while we were at Cornell. Essentially, it was a chance to take a step back from our daily routines and and learn from each other about what we are doing in our roles/jobs/callings/careers as mothers. Being a full-time mother breaks down some of the handy compartments that can keep our lives organized and feeling full. Whereas in other stages of life what I did (professionally or as hobbies or interests) didn't define me, I feel like in this stage of life what I do (mother) is so much a part of my identity (mother), that I need to step back in order to make sure that I'm still both progressing and thriving as an individual, and doing a good job as a mother. Maybe that is true for other people at other stages of life, but for me, being a full-time mother is the most intense experience of total immersion. I love it, but it's intense.

Anyway, it was such a great experience just to get away by myself for a weekend. I feel like that alone gave me some much-needed perspective on what I need to change/do more of/do less of to be the mom/wife/person I want to be. The conference was held at the Kappa Delta sorority house where Jennie and Scott are house parents. The women who were from out-of-town (and one "local") stayed in the sorority house since it was empty for the summer. I think that everyone felt really inspired and renewed by the end of the weekend. We had an opening dinner on Friday night and then several workshop sessions on Saturday. Jennie's mom gave the "keynote address" on Joyful Mothering. I led a workshop on Supporting Playful Learning (all about why creative, imaginative and dramatic play is important for children's development and how parents can support this by providing "true toys" such as blocks and dolls, craft material, dress-up or costume options, etc. and by giving kids opportunity and latitude to let their imaginations roam). There were other sessions on topics like positive discipline, raising self-reliant and hard-working children, improving our relationships with our husbands, etc.

One of the best things about the weekend was reconnecting with old friends and remembering what was such a wonderful, special time in my life. I miss it, but the only consolation is that Ithaca is such a transient place. Even if we had stayed, everyone else would have moved on eventually and it wouldn't have been the same anyway. Oh, but it was such a great time and we made such good friends!

The whole group (minus a few)

The kiddos at the Saturday night Family BBQ

Heather and Chelsea at the Cornell Dairy Bar

Whipping up lunch in the sorority house kitchen

Jennie and Conrad

Hiking at Treman

La Belle Ville

We went up to Montreal for Fourth of July weekend with Grandpa Ford. Montreal is such a great city!! We spent Christmas here last year (and in Mont Tremblant north of Montreal) but we love it even more in the summer. We stayed in a loft apartment in Vieux-Port (the old town of Montreal). It was quite charming.

We rented bikes and rode along the Lachine Canal and out to Ile Ste. Helene and Ile Notre Dame where there is a park and a Formula One race track (we thought of Jean Girard from Talladega Nights!) It was somewhat bizarre to be biking along the race track but I guess when it isn't being used for car racing, it is opened to the public for biking and rollerblading. We biked twice to the Atwater Market which is like paradise for foodies. We bought fruit and vegetables, cheese and crusty french bread, pastry and sorbet. It was lucky that Oliver was riding in a bike trailer because we loaded up the trailer's "trunk" with all sorts of provisions. Our favorite shops at the Atwater Market are Les Douceurs du Marche grocery and gourmet provisions shop, and Premier Moisson bakery and pattiserie. There is also a fabulous cheese shop.

We mostly ate and biked in Montreal, but when we were taking a break from biking and eating we walked along the waterfront, visited some museums and gardens, watched the fireworks that were part of the International Fireworks Festival, took in some of the Montreal Jazz Festival, and checked out the playgrounds (Ryan, me and Oliver).

Abby and Ollie in front of the Atwater Market

Me and Ollie considering the offerings at Premier Moisson

This shop was on the cover of Gourmet Magazine last year

Grandpa Ford got really into his biking-attire, he didn't want to take these off

It looks like we are standing in front of a volcano, but it's just a fountain near the Hotel De Ville, or City Hall.

Professor Ford

In what I can only assume was an American Idol-like, people's-choice voting process, Abby was recently selected by the third-year medical students to receive the "Most Awesome Resident" award. Actually it was called the *Arnold P. Gold Foundation's Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award* at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons where she is now a second-year Obstetrics/Gynecology resident. We (Ollie and I) went up to NYC to see her accept her award. She gave a very gracious and inspiring talk to the 3rd and 4th year classes. I am so proud of her!

Brunch with Mommy, Daddy and Abby's boyfriend Brian

Abby and Brian. Brian is a med student and was actually the one who introduced Abby and presented the award. They assure me that it was pure coincidence...

Race for the Cure

So, up until about a month ago I was a fairly dedicated runner. I had been running almost every day with various friends and neighbors. A friend from church got together a team for the Race for the Cure. After we drove downtown, parked in the remote parking lot, waited in the line for the shuttle, shuttled over to the race, milled about for an hour or so with the other 20,000 participants, the race itself was over and done in the blink of an eye. I didn't mean to stop running after the Race for the Cure, but it has sort of turned out that way. It has gotten way too hot and muggy for me to enjoy running outside. Here are some pictures from the race.

This is not the start of the race, it is the start of the kids 1-mile run but we couldn't get a picture in front of the real start (there were about 15,000 people in our way).

Me and Rachel looking sweet

Me and Rachel looking tough

Life's a Beach

One of the great perks of this "job" (the whole stay-at-home-mom gig) is that I have really nice vacation benefits. We were invited to spend the week at the beach with my friend Molly from Richmond. Ryan couldn't go unfortunately because he had to work but Ollie and I packed up our towels, sunscreen and bathing suits and hit the beach with some of my old mom's group friends. Virginia Beach was more than a 4-hour drive from Raleigh so that was tiring, but once we got there we had such a great time.

Hotel Halverson

In the past three weeks we have had house guests each weekend. We had our good friends Julie and Nick and their one-year old twins Ella and Colson come up to visit from Spartanburg, SC for Memorial Day weekend. Then Richard and Kathy came the next weekend. We went out to Asheville with them and toured the Biltmore house and gardens. Last weekend Ryan's sister Kirsten and her family (husband Kurt and five kids!) stayed with us on their way out to a Johnston family reunion on the Outer Banks. We went to the Durham Life and Science Museum and went swimming at our pool. It was pretty crazy having seven guests in our house. It kind of looked like a flophouse with air mattresses and sleeping bags everywhere. We didn't even have enough pillows for everyone, we had to use throw pillows from the couch. K&K and family are stopping by next weekend too because they flew into RDU from Minneapolis.

Daniel

Anna and Maren in the butterfly house at the Science Museum

Caprice

Ellis

Grandma Halverson playing with Ollie

Richard and Kathy at the Biltmore in Ashville, NC

Ollie, Colson and Ella enjoying a bath

We didn't take a picture of Julie and Nick this time but this is a cute picture from when they came to visit us last September in Richmond.

Rocky Mountain High

In the past month we have been so busy that I have gotten really behind on updating this blog. When we aren't gone on some trip we'll have guests here at home so it's been a little crazy.

So, I'll start with our May 11- 19 trip out to Colorado. It was sort of work trip for Ryan that got extended into a vacation for all of us. We spent Saturday- Tuesday in Fort Collins with our good friends from Ithaca, Dave and Morgan. And then Wednesday-Saturday we were in Colorado Springs where Ryan took a 3-day coaching course at the "Center for Creative Leadership" while Ollie and I saw the sites, checked out various CoSprings playgrounds, and went swimming. When Ryan wasn't in training, we went on hikes through the Garden of the Gods, drove up to Pikes Peak (and quickly drove down to avoid the thunderstorm) and hung out in Manitou Springs, which is even weirder/funkier than Ithaca. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Hiking with Dave and Mo in the foothills near Ft. Collins

Dave and Morgan and their awesome dog Cornelius.

Ryan and Oliver in Ft. Collins

Ryan and Ollie at a playground in Ft. Collins

We stopped at the Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver on our way down to Colorado Springs from Ft. Collins. It was mesmerizing to watch them stretch, cut and shape the candy into big spiral lollipops. Here is Ollie watching the action...

Hiking with Oliver in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

We drove up to Pike's Peak on our last afternoon in Colorado Springs. It was clear when we started out but the weather quickly soured. It was pretty scary. We spent about 30 seconds at the top, took a picture and jumped back into the car. There was lightning and you can see my hair is standing up from the electricity in the air. You can see also that the visibility on the gravel road was pretty bad...our car was completely covered in mud by the time we got down!