Pictures, Punta Cana, & Prom!

I kicked off April with a trip to Oakland for a specialized customer event to help transform our key customers over to more sophisticated solutions. Our small “power team” executed a well-run, highly collaborative, and very rewarding event where our customers were open and transparent with each other, establishing more credibility and trust between all the organizations. Mission accomplished! We had some great meals and enjoyed time with our co-workers. While I was gone, Hanleigh had a track meet against Quail Hollow, and Brayden supported the incoming National Honor Society inductee class during their biannual ceremony. Brayden had her senior pictures taken, which would be used for her graduation announcements and invitations. We figured that while we were doing this, it would be the perfect time to go ahead and get an updated family portrait, something we haven’t done in about 10 years. We hired Amanda Caldwell, the same photographer who took our pictures back then, to take these. And she did an incredible job! She has an eye for lighting and poses, and keeps things very natural looking and candid. We even had a couple outfit changes! We are extremely pleased with how they turned out! 

Ten of us went out to dinner for Kendall’s 47th birthday, but unfortunately Andrew was not able to join us as he was not feeling well. We went to Link & Pin and then ventured to The Clubhouse, a local watering hole that caters to people in their ‘thirties ’30s and ’40s, which is nice because we don’t have to go too far from home to a chill place. Unfortunately, they did not have a DJ that night like they have had before. Next time! That same night, Hanleigh went to her friend’s Bat Mitzvah (the first one she had been to) and had an absolute blast! Based on all the swag and merch they left with later that evening, my guess is that it felt a lot like that show way back in the day that was on MTV called “My Super Sweet 16!” I think the parents went all out for this party. 

The next day, I headed to Katya’s baby shower. She is one of Hanleigh’s best friend’s moms, who is on her second marriage (her husband’s first) and decided they would see if it was in their cards to get pregnant. The shower was beautiful and so was the hostess’ home! Her house could have been in Architectural Digest. As it turned out, she was an interior designer. Hanleigh continue to have her monthly orthodontics appointment and I feel that she is just another couple months from getting her braces off. So exciting! We had a lady come to our house to give us a quote for cleaning our house moving forward, something we probably desperately need as we don’t find much time to give our house a deep clean, which is something that she did with her team, thank goodness!

I had an awesome dinner with Heather and Tonya at Postino, which is always an amazing time! Trent did the annual Waxhaw Trail Fest, otherwise known as WTF, which is a race that he does with his friends, Brayden attended her best friend, Melanie’s, birthday party, which had a childhood Max and Ruby theme. In anticipation of spring break, we boarded the dogs in a new place, which they seem to love, but ultimately, Myers was once again put in isolation because he gets feisty and irritated with other dogs and does not play well with others. Meanwhile, Charlie is making best friends with all of the other dogs! The next day, the four of us boarded a plane bright and early for what would be our final spring break all together, since Brayden will have a different spring break than us when she goes to college. It all seemed very surreal and I knew this year’s trip would be quite different, especially considering that we got her and her best friend, Emory, their own room. This was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I also felt like we needed to start cutting the cord soon to make this transition a bit easier for all of us once August rolls around. I know it won’t be easy at all, but every little thing can help. We stayed at the Dreams Royal Beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Trent and I went to the Dominican for our 10-year anniversary with the Mazzolas and had a good time, but the hotel property left much to be desired. Thankfully, this hotel was beautiful in so many ways! Our room was spacious and we had our own private pool. It was further away from the beach, you walked across this beautiful bridge that took you over a lake where there were tons of egrets and turtles and fish coexisting and a marine habitat. Brayden’s room was closer to the central part of the hotel. The first two days were really hard on me because I didn’t see her very often and didn’t know when I was going to see her, nor what her reaction would be when she saw me. I know this is all part of her growing up and letting her fly, combined with us soon getting used to a new normal in our household of it soon being Trent, Hanleigh, and me. I teared up a bit both nights, but by day three, I was feeling better. It was such an odd experience. We all decided the food was a six out of 10, but each restaurant had one or two dishes that were really delicious. We find that to be the case at all-inclusive resorts. Although, we have been to other resorts that have had better food. For what the hotel lacked in terms of amazing food, it made up for it in terms of activities. Everyday on the beach, there were different dance lessons like bachata and salsa, and the pool had fun exercise classes like aqua dance and stand-up paddleboard yoga! Each morning, we would start off with a workout, go to breakfast, lay out at the beach, partake in the dance or exercise classes, grab a bite to eat for lunch, relax some more on the beach or by the pool, then go back to the room and get cleaned up for dinner. 

After dinner, we watched the theme show, which varied from Queen and rock to acrobatics and pop. The talent was pretty good! We then went to the sports bar for some karaoke, which was one of the highlights of the trip. It was awesome as well because Hanleigh was old enough to hang out. There were three different high schools from North Carolina and everyone had such a great time. One of Brayden’s friends, Ethan, even sat down at the drum set while a Coldplay song was on and rocked out. Very impressive! There was also a club that all the high schoolers went to after the sports bar and danced until the wee hours of the morning. We checked it out the last two nights and it was really fun as well. One day, I went parasailing with the girls, which was really awesome and we had a dinner one night with all the parents and kids in our group. We were serenaded by guitarists and sang along to Sweet Caroline and some other Spanish music. It was interesting sitting back and watching all of the high school kids consume adult beverages (the drinking age there is 18), some of which who participated in a really dumb game of taking “rainbow shots” where you bounce from bar to bar taking a shot that represents each color of the rainbow. You can probably guess this does not end well. On our first night there, we actually saw a kid getting sick over his balcony ledge. Of course, this is their senior year of spring break, so I didn’t expect anything less. But, as one mom told us, this is hopefully a good lesson to learn a few months before college starts in that you can’t party your face off every single day because you can’t function the next morning and it’s impossible to do that and go to class and get good grades. One kid even told his mom, “I don’t know how people do this everyday and I’m looking forward to going home.” Hilarious! I wish I could say that every kid on that trip was going to learn that lesson, but I’m afraid there will be a select few that don’t and end up getting a 0.0 GPA in college their first semester. I am confident Brayden will definitely not be one of those. She has her head on straight and knows that if she gets anything below a 3.0, that she will be paying us back for her semester while continuing to be enrolled in the next one. I learned that from a friend of mine in college whose parents had that expectation and rule and I think it’s pretty darn fair. College is much easier than high school, as long as you can figure out time management. All in all, it was a great trip and served its purpose, which was to provide Brayden with a safe environment to have a blast and a last hurrah with her close friends. We were happy to be there to witness that and spend a week relaxing! 

Hanleigh had a track meet at AG Middle School and we continue to really enjoy watching her run and do the high jump. The last weekend of the month was Brayden’s senior prom. Her best guy friend, who is also ironically enough named Brayden, asked her to prom earlier in the month. He surprised her by coming over to our house for his “prom-posal” and made a sign that had pictures of the two of them over the years (they always take a picture of each other when they are together) with the words “2 B continued at prom?” It was so incredibly thoughtful and creative. The morning of prom, Brayden and her best friends made flower bouquets and boutonnieres at Sanah’s house, then they got ready at Emory’s house, then ventured over to Providence Country Club for pictures, then went to Porter’s for dinner, and then took Ubers to prom, which was at founders Hall. They came back to Emory’s house afterward for a post-prom party and spent the night there. We were invited to come over and hang out with other parents, which was really fun, so we did that for a few hours as well. Brayden, on the other hand only got two hours of sleep that night before waking up there and having to come back home to then turn around and work at 10:00am. We concluded the month by having mom over for dinner one night and Hanleigh had her last track meet at Carmel Middle School, my alma mater! 

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