Hiking & National Park Photos

Kendra, my new associate, has been an absolute all star. In every phase, literally every single phase, she's been a great addition and I'm really thankful to have her on board. The peace of mind that I have leaving the clinic in her hands now is hard to describe, and I really enjoy having this luxury when it comes time to Wednesday morning hikes with Jenn. Between Wednesday mornings, and some evenings when the kids have been with the grandparents, we've been able to see some neat things.

Fireworks at Blossom, as seen over the Beaver Marsh

Indians Baseball - Lincoln's First Game

Lincoln and I got to go to an Indians game, thanks to a very generous family that thanked me for taking their daughter on as a shadow at the clinic for a couple of years. Lincoln, at his first Major League Baseball game, came home with 3 baseballs, a t-shirt, and a piece of gum that Trevor Bauer shared with him!

School & 95th Birthday

The first day of school:

We celebrated Grandma Gates' 95th Birthday!

Creek Swim

We've been able to enjoy the outdoors a lot as the warm weather has wound down. The kids new favorite spot is a creek off the Oak Hill trail in the Summit Metroparks.

Backyard Renovation

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The Gates home has been full of activity over the last month and a half. A change was made at the Cuyahoga Falls Veterinary Clinic. As of July 8, I became a solo practitioner with two part-time helpers (it pays to have two DVMs in my family!). It was only temporary until my new associate could start on August 29. It was a change that needed to be made, and we're all looking forward to what's in store. All of this has made for a more busy RG, as well as a few extra busy days for Jenn while she's worked some mornings for me. And the kids are ready for school to start. We're all ready for school to start. :)

This wasn't the final product, but sure was fun in the process!

All of the above happened just as we were ready to pull the trigger on redesigning our back yard. For those of you who had seen our "deck," you know it was a dump of a DIY project taken on by the previous home owners. It was neither well-made, nor well-designed, nor functional. And we'd had enough of it. Jenn and I like to entertain, we like to be outside, and the previous set-up wasn't cutting it. So we decided to make a once-in-a-lifetime change back there.

We hired Lucas Landscaping, finalized a design, and they're currently in the middle of implementing what we intend to make our prime guest-hosting area, complete with 2 patios and an outdoor kitchen. To say I'm looking forward to using the new Komado Joe is an understatement. Jenn has been an absolute all star in the planning and development of the backyard installation. She's quite possibly been the most helpful and certainly the most informative of any of Lucas' clients.

In the meantime, we've been having some fun doing other things. For instance, while Jenn was checking out granite options at Mont, the kids and I went for a short hike.

As an aside, the granite we settled on was found at Architectual Justice, and we're really excited to see it installed.

Henry's been rocking the swimming lessons lately. He's quite good at this, and it's neat to see him be both excited about something and good at it.

We took in a car show today.

And the Akron Zoo a while back.

Western Vacation

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Our western vacation has concluded, and it was a fun whirlwind of activity.

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Jenn and the kids started their adventure before I did, flying out to Jackson and experiencing southeastern Idaho for a time. My adventure started in the most frustrating of ways, spending nearly 24 hours of delayed travel, mostly in O’Hare airport. Weather in Chicago delayed my leaving Cleveland, and by the time I arrived, I’d missed my ~9:30am flight to Jackson. Then it was mechanical trouble and more weather that kept me in Chicago. Finally, just before midnight I was able to catch a flight to Denver and then rent a car to Jackson Hole. This completed 28 hours of travel on 0 hours of sleep. While the circumstances weren't my ideal, driving through southwest Wyoming at the crack of dawn with no other traffic on the road was definitely a neat thing.
How cool was it to have dinner in front of the Tetons, lunch next to an erupting Old Faithful, and lunch on the Going To The Sun Road?!!
We enjoyed wonderful accommodations on the footsteps of the Grand Tetons, not the most spectacular accommodations in Yellowstone but great observation of wildlife, long drives through big states, a beautiful stay on the east and west sides of Glacier National Park, and a place that exceeded our expectations in Kamiah, Idaho.

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The much-anticipated launch of our travel blog, Gates50States, is just around the corner. I'm most excited about this because Jenn will be more involved with it, as she'll write most of the content. This blog will still fuction as the family milestone marker, but most of the travel details will be over there. Stay tuned!

Mid-June

School's over, the summer has begun, we're having all sorts of fun doing this and that... This is gonna be a Hit The High Points kind of post, 'cause I've got to get something up before our big western memory-making trip.

A while back I had the opportunity to go to central PA for a veterinary meeting in a beautiful setting.

The cicadas are here!

Of course there was Jenn's trip to Thailand and Cambodia, but these photos haven't yet been processed and Jenn's been bouncing from one thing to another and hasn't yet had an opportunity to compose a post... more to come on this later.

Lincoln's big year-long Project Ocean was on display as the school year came to a close. He was awesome, and the progression he showed from his early projects to the final ones was remarkable. Score one for OTS!

And some catch-ups...

S'more w/ a Camping Marshmallow...

And this wandered into our yard...