May activities

Since I am behind on this blog, this post will summarize some of my May activities.  Here we go.

This was my first spring in my house on 8th St (since I was in Nicaragua last May), and I was able to discover all the flowers growing around my house, especially in the back yard.  

Peonies

Poppies by the garage

 The first weekend of May I was at The Hermitage for a board meeting, then stayed for a 2 day personal retreat.  On Sunday afternoon I decided to explore a new-ish county park just down the road from The Hermitage.  I was very impressed - trails were well-marked and it was a great place to hike. 

The lake at Spirit Springs

Trail at Spirit Springs

Turtles were about the only wildlife that I saw

Wildflowers

 I was at Eric & Michelle's for Mother's Day and had some opportunity to get updated pictures of the kids. 

Emily and Eric

Joel

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids

Denise reading books with Emily

 I did a lot of traveling in May for work.  First was a trip to Long Beach, CA for the annual conference of the Association of Institutional Research.  I had time a few evenings to take a walk on the beach with co-workers, but forgot to take my camera! 

The convention center in Long Beach

 My church is having a year-long focus on environmental sustainability, so one Sunday in May we had a "blessing of the bikes" after church.  As many people as possible were encouraged to bike to church that day.  The pastors led in a reading then had a "sprinkling" (with water and pine branches) of bikes and riders.  It was announced that there were about 80 bikes and 40 cars at church that day.

Gathering for blessing of the bikes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denise and I had planned a Memorial Day evening cookout with a few friends, but it rained most of the day.  We still grilled out, but ate inside. 

Me watching the grill

The grill full of yummy food. 

 The second conference I went to was in Orlando FL.  It was the annual meeting of users of our administrative software, which is designed for and used exclusively by colleges. 

We were treated to an evening at SeaWorld, and our own private Shamu show. 

Shamu show

A turtle at SeaWorld

Dolphins performing

The "huddle" of co-workers at the conference. I promise we spent a lot of time in meetings and very little time at SeaWorld.