Knoxville Zoo

On the way home from the beach it has become a Kelly family tradition to stop in Knoxville and spend some time at the Knoxville Zoo. It is a smaller zoo than Cincinnati's but very nice. Knoxville's zoo has a red panda breeding program and we enjoying seeing and learning about the red pandas every year. This year the new "Red Panda Village" opened and we were able to get much closer to the animals than we ever have before- here or in Cincinnati. The girls also enjoyed the camel ride and merry-go-round.

Family Beach Vacation

Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina
June 7-14, 2008

Thanks to my parents we enjoyed a week at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina in early June. This is the third year they have rented this house and we always have a great time. My brother Drew and his daughter Emily joined our family and my parents. We were sad that my sister and her family could not come, but they had a really good excuse – my sister gave birth to Milo Juniper Gunderson during our vacation. He was a few weeks early but nothing like his sister’s very early arrival. Milo was born at home just as Nicki had wanted. Unfortunately Nicki had complications after his birth and had to go to the hospital for a day. Although still weak, overall Nicki is recovering well from his birth. Milo is a calm baby and doing well. He is beautiful – check him out at the Newman Gunderson blog. I wonder if they plan to change the name from three part harmony to four part harmony?








The birth of Milo wasn’t the only big family news that happened during our time in Ocean Isle. Sadly my grandparents condo was one of the many homes flooded during the Midwest floods in June. My poor parents spent the entire week trying to enjoy the vacation with two of their children and four of their grandchildren while also feeling like they needed to be in Portland, Oregon to help Nicki and Dan and feeling like they needed to be in Iowa City, Iowa helping Dad’s parents. Dad has since traveled to Iowa to help with clean-up and plans to return with my brother as soon as he returns from visiting the Newman/Gunderson clan in Portland.

During our week at the beach we had unusually hot weather but no rain. We followed our normal pattern of going to the beach in the morning and then using the pool in the afternoon. Now that the girls are older we found that we enjoyed going back to the beach in the evening. The temperature was better and the sun wasn’t hitting you right in the eye.

One of the activities the girls look forward to each year is kite flying. This year my woodworking father made each of the girls a kite string winder. They were fun to use and helped with controlling the kites in the wind.

Dad's kite winder

Grace helps Rachael with kite

Grace loved the ocean and using the boggy board. Every day she got someone to go out with her – Dad, Emily, Uncle Drew and even Mom. Rachael loved to dig holes and hunt for shells and other creatures while Hannah became a great sand castle builder.

Every year I am surprised by what games the girls come up with in the pool. This year they created a “bus” with the foam noodles and took turns being the driver dropping off people and picking them up from the hair salon, grocer, doctor’s office, etc. Sometimes the bus was a taxi when only a few wanted to play. Sometimes Mom or Dad were the driver. They also found that if you put the noodles up to the water sprayers just right you could spray water like a hose. If you were sneaky enough you could use it to hit Dad or Uncle Drew with water. Getting thrown in the pool by mom or thrown in the air in the pool by Uncle Drew was also fun.

Rachael hooks Daddy with snorkle



The only down side to the trip was Rachael’s poison ivy. It started as a small patch on her cheek that we noticed in the car on the drive down. At first we weren’t sure what it was. By the time we got to Ocean Isle it had started to spread and was on both sides of her face and several places on her body. We tried several over the counter remedies but each day it just got worse. We are so grateful to Uncle (Doctor) Sean who helped us out. After one dose of medication the rash was obviously improving and in 24 hours it was almost gone. Through the whole thing Rachael was a trooper. She didn’t complain and tolerated all the creams, washes, and medicine we tried.

Hannah turned seven during our vacation. To celebrate Ohma made her favorite meal – salmon – for dinner. After dinner we played miniature golf. Nana introduced the girls to putt putt earlier this year and they all enjoy it. Hannah hit more than one whole in one and we all had a good time. It was a great activity for the kids and adults. The weather was a little cooler than it had been earlier in the week and there was a nice breeze. Following golf we went out for ice cream because Hannah doesn’t like cake. Overall I think Hannah had a great day. Of course how can you not have a great birthday at the beach!

Memorial Day Weekend

We tried to make Memorial Day weekend a weekend balanced between fun and work but it was primarily about soccer. We had five games over three days – spread out all over the place. As you can see from the team photos, Craig not only is the assistant coach for Grace’s team but this season he was also the assistant for Rachael’s team. Craig says it was more like herding cats rather than coaching, but he helped.






Rachael is #4 in green.

This is my favorite - it really shows how they play "soccer" at four years of age. What you can't tell is Rachael's tongue is out - Newman gene.

Hannah is #9 in blue.

Grace is #10 in purple.

After the games on Saturday we decided on the spur of the moment to go see a Legend’s baseball game (our minor league team.) That morning I had seen in the newspaper that the game was at home and there would be fireworks at the end of the game. Soccer games on Saturday were at 1:30, 3:00 and 5:00. The baseball game started at 7:00 and the soccer fields were on the same side of town as the baseball field. Hannah loves fireworks so we decided after Grace’s game to go see the Legends. The girls were dirty but not old enough to care. There really isn’t a bad seat at this facility so last minute tickets were still good. We had a great time. All I had with me at the baseball game was my camera phone. Hannah insisted I take pictures of the fireworks. I have included a few even though they aren’t very good. On Sunday we had two more soccer games and on Monday the entire family cleaned the garage. I should have taken pictures of the girls working – especially Rachael sweeping the floor. Now it is the most organized room in the house. So far the girls are mostly keeping it up – hopefully my theory of, “if you have a stake in it you will take better care of it,” is working. If only I could get that theory to work in their bedrooms!

The girls enjoyed the silly sprinkler over the weekend. I can't explain the goggles.