Sunrise, Moonset

Hello there blog! Things have been busy, in good ways, and so a lot of sunrises and moonsets have gone by since my last post. In summary, a bunch of stuff has happened. Here's a photo-diary of the highlights:

A sunrise, moonset at our house the other day. Just to get you re-oriented to our island of adventure.

 After my last post and still in 2012...

St. Louis in September where we attended Tyler's 20th high school reunion. We were joined by Mom and Dad Smith and had lots of fun traipsing around the old Smith haunts, includingTyler's childhood neighborhood and Ted Drewe's famous frozen custard. Delicious!

Newport, RI for our friends Ian and Francesca's 5-star wedding. Guess which photo is the "before" and which is the "almost after" the reception? Let's just say that good times were had. As was a massive allergic reaction by yours truly. To what? Not sure, maybe lobster, maybe a new sweater, maybe the cold north! But Benedryl and champagne kept my immune system at bay, so I could still dance the night away.

Next up...surgery. But no need for photos of that. Following surgery (thumb-y is now one joint less but much more useful!) and a busy end of the semester, we did the Colorado-New York loop-d-loop for Christmas and New Years.

Starting in Colorado for Christmas this year...

Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. Note "the giant claw" covering my surgery cast. 

An exhausted niece.

Niece and nephew looking innocent but actually planning a major snowball assault.

Snow on Christmas morning!

Over to New York for new years and...

A baby shower for Chung (my college friend) in the center. She gave birth to twins Elise and Ernest on January 27. Mom and babies are doing well (and are ridiculously cute). Also in the photo is Sarah (high school/college/everything friend) who brought her incredibly cute kids.

A new years party at Mom and Dad Brandt's.  See Kelly's blog for more excellent photos.

 After returning from the holidays, so far in 2013:

I went to Tampa for a meeting and afterwards got to spend the weekend visiting with friends from St. Petersburg. During the weekend we saw more manatees in one place along the coast of St. Pete than I saw in my entire 8 1/2 years in Miami. Thanks to Cara & Wade and Annette & Mark for putting me up and Ryan for hosting an excellent Rum-B-Q!

In February, I sailed over to St. John to do 8 tuff miles. Tyler was already over there for a meeting so it was just Shaun and I who sailed over in her boat. Tyler and I shaved two more minutes off our time (and this year I beat him! Ok, it was only by 45 seconds but ha!).  We spent the rest of the weekend sailing in the BVIs... a nice reward for another brutal run.

In what is becoming a regular tradition, Mom and Dad came to visit during spring break and this year we treated them to a truly authentic VI experience. Ha ha... ok, we were a little bit nicer than the photo suggests.

In fact, we finally got to the butterfly garden!

And to the British Virgin Islands! Here we are for a sunset dinner on Tortola.

And now it's almost April and we're gearing up for one crazy summer! Four trips are planned so far: Miami for me in a week, Santa Fe and Colorado in May, Jamaica in June and North Carolina in July-August. Some work, some play, some both. I will post when I can but in the meantime... Happy Spring everyone!