Sand slipping through fingers

This is the only time of year when finding grains of sand under my nails and in the creases of Nolan's toes does it elicit a smile and some nostalgia.  The visceral memories of little waves on my feet and sloppy wet sand piled on my legs and Nolan sitting in my lap in the tide pools are still lingering recent in my head.  We are just home from a week at the beach with my parents and Nana! I know I've missed a few weeks of our lives in this online forum, so this is going to be a reverse chronological post.

But first, remember last year at the beach....

Last year, at this time, we'd just announced that the belly I was growing indeed had a baby in it.  

And this year, the baby is here, and swimming!

We played in the water a lot.  And Nolan took off my sunglasses and hat, a lot.  We learned that he only tolerates the fancy SPF hat I got for him if it was wet- a useful revelation for the duration of the week!

And we all lounged and napped under the umbrellas.  We managed to stay relatively unscathed from the super hot North Carolina sun.  Nolan had fancy SPF suits, and the rest of us were lathered/ sprayed up with plenty.

Nolan played a lot with Gramma, who brought him special toys from Cincinnati.  They were a huge hit.

We drank morning coffee and sat in rockers on the porch with Nana.

We sat in the surf.

And I wore a long sleeve shirt because my pale skin was getting cooked.

Nolan was thrilled to eat toy boats and bury his toes in the sand.

We took afternoon breaks from the beach to read with Nana.

And we had afternoon hugs.

Nolan and I took an early evening walk on the last day.  Felt the ocean breeze,  and the salt spray one more time.

Freckly self portrait for the two of us.

Everybody sat around and marveled at the little one.

This was pretty much the scene, Nolan getting tons of attention from the grams and greats.

Till next year!

And now I hear him calling from the other room.  Mama, come save me (don't worry, Arnie is watching :).

Tomorrow I will keep going back in time and update on our trip to Iowa, and Nick's dad's birthday party, which was right before the beach.

Grutz says, "Wha, what happened?" or "Can't make complete thoughts......""

We're bushed and busted.  Whew.  I can't speak for Carleen but I'm fried.  A little photo update of little Nolan.  (Don't worry, we're all fine, just tired.

This is the norm at the Grutz household.  Quality time in bed.

HO HO HO! Look what Santa brought!

Carleen, Grandma TT, and Nolan get festive!  Ho ho HO!

The happy family! (Yes, I am the ever supportive husband......)

......and the tired daddy.  Look at those bags!

Nolan grimaces at the thought of college tuition in the year 2030!

Grutz says, "WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER HANDLING RAW ONIONS AND GARLIC!"

Nolan doesn't like it when you stick your pinky in his mouth after you've made his mom some food and forget to wash your hands.  Replace "doesn't like" to "utterly detests" in the previous line.  Lesson learned.  Carleen and I are still getting back in the swing of things.  There's a whole other variable to everything now.  A game changer, dare I say it.  To all our many, many, well-wishers, thank you for all the love and support, and yes, we will get back to all of you and share our newest adventure once we're a bit more rested.  Here's a couple of pics to keep you satisfied.

Nolan has hands!  Look at his hands!  Aw, hands.

                                    

Grandma and Grandpa Healy enjoying little Nolan.

  

Grutz says, "Hectic doesn't even begin to describe it." or "Actually, we're heading out of town, again."

Wedding season is open.

Anyone (oh about 5 of you) following this blog documenting a year in the life of the entity known as Nick&Carleen* knows that we post, at the very least, every few days, if not more.  Lately, this has not been the case due to a very busy schedule for the two of us.  Now I'll happily fill all five of you in....

Carleen's brother, Matt, wed Maggie a couple weeks ago.  I put up a nice pic of Carleen in the last blog.  Cincinnati is such a great city and this is no doubt because of Carleen's family.  Tom and Karen were kind enough to let us stay with them WITH Arnie.  It was great.  The stay did feel a little busy, though, with getting the wedding set up, rehearsals, rentals, pre-post-parties, and a 115 lbs dog named Lola.  But enough of this yammering, photos!

Julia Healy.  A force to be reckoned with.   Best photo of the wedding, hands down.

The happy Healy clan.  Carleen, Karen, Matt, Maggie, Tom, Julia and Michael (from l-r).

When the Healys out number everyone on the dance floor you know the party has hit its stride. 

What a dynamic pair. 

Iowa Waltz.

This last weekend was Gretchen's 30th birthday.  I can't believe my little sister is 30!  So just after returning from Cincinnati we took off for Iowa.  But before we ventured west of the Mississippi we stopped at Uncle Jeff's in North Aurora.  Jeff and his wife, Yung Kuei, we're hosting Nana who was visiting from DC for the above mentioned wedding.  Along with his two daughters, Amy and Jennifer, we had a great visit and fine, fine food from the grill.  Jeff's house boarders a nature preserve and is very close to the impressive Fox River.  We, of course, had Arnie with us and he greatly enjoyed Jeff's spacious yard.  The woods behind the house, though, proved too tempting to Arnie.  He walked up to the fence, paused, and just jumped right over!  A good 4 1/2 feet high fence!  Of course he walked around to the front of the house, no big deal, but we now know that you're standard chain linked fence will NOT contain Arnie.  It's pretty amazing to witness such an athletic little pooch.

So after the great visit, we got on the road to head to Iowa across western Illinois.  The sky turned dark and the rain came down.  It was a different route for us, as we usually head towards Dubuque, but in this case our destination was Grandma Barb's house in Coralville (it's closer to Gretchen's place in Cedar Rapids).  As you may know, I kinda like Iowa.  A lot.  As we neared the Mississippi, a feeling of comfort and stability crept into my heart.  Weird, I know.  And once we crossed into Iowa the sun broke through the clouds and the rain stopped.  A symbol?  A message?  Something divine?  Nope, that's just Iowa welcoming you home.  And, eerily, it's not the first time this has happened!

The Iowa sun breaking the clouds.  A welcomed sight.

Arnie thinks he can sit in the front.  We think he can't.  So Carleen keeps him happy.

Gretchen's birthday was very busy (a reoccurring theme!) as we went to her place to meet with her, her kids, my mom, and Wally's parents.  Wally is Gretchen's fiance and is stationed in Afghanistan (only one month to go!) and we had yet to meet his folks.  As I get older, it's exciting to see how our 'family' grows and changes.  After this visit, we went back to Gram's and celebrated Grr's and Waylon's (His 3rd, June 29th) birthday with Uncle Jim's family.  Then we drove to Dubuque.  Notice the driving, there's a lot of it.

Unfortunately, this visit to Iowa wasn't all fun and games.  We had a passing in the family.  Now I'm not going to go into the details and such, but it was a profound moment for the Linden family.  Just always remember that family and friends are the most important things in this world.  It was moving and sad, but there was something positive, too.  I can't put my finger on it or articulate it, but there was a positivity found, somewhere, in all this loss.

Continuing with the positive.

My lovely wife, Carleen, with wonder-mutt Arnie, in Mom's joyous garden.

In other good news, our great friend, Ciaran, is enjoying Northern Ireland.  I mentioned his visit here.  He's also been documenting his journey on a blog.  You should really check his blog.  Go to it.  Now.  And it doesn't hurt that he gives us a shout out, too.

We did even more than I've written and we have more to do.  We're leaving to go Sunset Beach NC tomorrow and we have to find an apartment and we have a wedding in Missouri in two weeks, yikes!  We'll try to keep you posted.  And something a little more humorous.

* Our friends, JulieAnn and Dan, have a wonderful daughter, Nora, who refers to me as NickandCarleen.  Kind of like how little kids think lmnop is one letter.   It's funny.

Grutz says, "Whoa, hold on, we just went on a little trip." or "Yeah, that's right. I got a sunburn. Jealous?"

Greetings all!  Yes, it's been quite awhile.  Carleen and I relapsed into our old addiction of traveling this last week.  A combination of a free week and really crappy weather in Chicago forced us, literally, into our Subaru and head east.  First stop: Cincinnati.

As you may or may not know, my wonderful wife is from Cincinnati and her folks still reside there.  The weather was lovely, flowers galore, and more sun than you can shake stick at (ummm, yeah, that's what I meant....).  Also we also hit up the Queen City for a bridal shower for future sister-in-law, Maggie.  So while Carleen and her boss mom, Karen, got to rock out at the Vintage Club with a bunch of ladies I got to hang with fiance, Matt (uber-bro-in-law), in the pleasant Oakley hood of Cincy.  All in all, a great day for the both of us.  Sunday we had an amazing afternoon at the Great American Ballpark watching the Reds battle the Pirates.  Sun+brews+ball=spring.  Though the Reds couldn't quite pull it out (down by a run in the ninth, bases loaded...) it was a very entertaining game from beginning to end (back to back dingers in the first by the 'Bucs).  And it was truly wonderful getting all that vitamin D.  And yes, some of us got pink, except for Matt, he got red!

The Great American Ballpark.  Named after an insurance company.  Really.  I always thought that the Reds were just full of themselves.   I stand corrected.  Tom Healy totally had me, too.  He said all he could get were bleacher seats, yet he got us along third base line.  Well played, Tom, well played indeed.

Superfans from l-r, Matt Healy, Karen Healy (check out the 'red' Reds outfit she's sporting!  Awesome! You should see her decked out for Xavier games) and Tom Healy.  Notice Matt's exposed neckline.....his v-neck matched the color of his hat by the end of the game. 

Carleen sporting the rally-cap.  Alas it almost worked.  Maybe if it was a Red's hat instead of Dubuque hat it may have worked.  Maybe.

After the game we had a great dinner with our friends Tom, Holly and Frost Hankinson who recently moved from Chicago back to Cincinnati.  I have to say I miss them a great deal, but it gives Carleen and I even more of a reason to hightail it to Cincy.

Up next: Super-sleepover in Athens, OH with Julia Healy! And the Healy-Grutz tour hits up our nations capital (and not for the 420 rally, seriously)......stay tuned!

I hope your brains are ready for a workout, it's been awhile.  Make sure you stretch first.

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist,  and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. He has been described as "almost certainly the most famous philosopher of the Victorian age."  Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies.He is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Speices.


Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Whew!  I know it's a lot, but we've got to get back on the horse with the birthday facts.

Good to goetta!

So much has happened in the last few days, and we've had no time to catch up.  I almost feel like making a list and letting it go at that, but now, knowing that we have some loyal followers (Nana, Matty P, brother Matt, Jane) I have a sense of duty about sharing our lives.

Well today we packed in the love.  We said goodbye to my parents this morning, we even got up early and had Goetta and Grotta with mom before she trucked off to the Montessori kiddos.  If you are one that needs enlightenment, Grotta is the vegetarian form of Goetta, a Cincinnati staple that resembles sausage, made with spices, oats and pork.   The vegetarian version is delicious, made with steel cut oats and spices: think of the spice of a good slice of sausage with the texture of oatmeal, and then fried.

Mmmm, delicious. 

All we needed was a side of cheese grits and it would have been a classic Cincinnati Healy breakfast.  Moms biscotti tops it off, and as we can all attest, it is the best.

Hello from Cincinnati Healys!  We went for a sunset walk at French Park after dinner.   I practiced droving the Subaru and the mosquitos weren't so bad, I was pretty happy. 

Nick looks disenchanted, but it really was a nice walk.
Actually, there was a small, yippee dog gnarling on my ankle and I was trying not to grimace.- Nick

Whenever we are driving, I have a strong tendency to completely nod off and today, I serendipitously snoozed as we drive by Chicago, and thought, "how appropriate."  I think I am letting go of what was, and am settling on what is right now.   It is a content place to be.

We drove on and stopped for an iced tea and a chat in Madison, WI with my buddy Matt.  It was all too short, we'd barely started crumbling the wall of mild social awkwardness that always happens when friends haven't seen each other in forever before we had to go.  But as usual after a visit, I have renewed commitment to seeing Matt and other best friends soon!  It's just so good to be around old and true friends, there is something so grounding and simple about it.  No explanations necessary, no pretensions, words aren't even needed.  Sometimes it's enough just to be with the person.

Departing Madison, we headed to Baraboo, WI, where we were showered with map assistance and highway stories about driving west, bear encounters, and drunk indians.  Jim and Jane are Nick's non related relatives, they were neighbors in Dubuque and the families have remained close since.  They've done a lot of RV and road trips around the country, and they are going to be our contact for the Buffalo Roundup in Custer State Park on Monday.  They are great people to know and because of them, the gems of hidden byways of the West are now our privileged information.

Jim and Jane and I!  They take such good care of us, we might never leave.
The Square Bar, Baraboo WI.  "Hip to be square? Uh, like yeah."- Nick

I still have a ton more catching up to do, as this post is now officially "yesterday."  We are heading out of Baraboo, towards Sioux Falls, SD.  Tonight will be our first night of camping, might be completely in the rain, but we have a new tent that promises great things.

Thanks Mom and Dad, Matty P, and Jim and Jane for making our past few days so great!