Five Brown Kids

Emily and her kids came to visit for the long weekend. Scotia and Blythe loved having friends to hang out with the whole weekend. We all went to Jaxon’s basketball game. They jumped at defy gravity, made Tik Tok videos, ate at Moes, jumped on the trampoline, had a rap battle (which ended in tears when Scotia told Blythe she couldn’t do hard rap) and the big girls went to a movie.

This is a note I want to remember. Jaxon is a cool guy. Right hair (big Afro), stylish clothes, varsity basketball. But after the last game when he came out of the locker room Blythe ran to him, reached up and grabbed his hand and he held it the whole way out of the gym... 

The Browns, Scotia, Blythe and I headed down to Taye’s last home swim meet of the season. Tyrone was on call.

Taye's swim team had their annual Christmas training trip in Jupiter, Florida. He flew down straight from skiing to meet up with his team. They swam at an outdoor pool all week which was amazing  - fresh clean air to breathe, not too hot or too cold. Swimming outside is fun! Taye said it wasn’t a vacation though. Hours of training everyday. Nice location but lots of work!  Taye has so many wonderful opportunities. Such a lucky kid. 

What a decade. We started out in 2010 with Tyrone working his way through grad school for the second time . Three little kids and stressful finances trying to survive on school loans and my part-time work. Taye started swimming year-round to add to the craziness. And we ended the decade reaping the rewards of those crazy stressful years. Added another kid to the bunch (she’s the sweetest!) and kids are grown up and independent. Taye is swimming at a division 1 college. Tyrone’s job pays for our beautiful house and lots of fun activities.  It’s a good life.  Taye is in Florida for the week on the ECU swim training trip swimming outside!  On New Year’s Eve Tyrone took Derick, Jaxon and Willie to an NBA game in Charlotte. Jaxon caught a flying t-shirt and Derick loved seeing players in real life. The girls and I went to Harris’ always epic New Year’s Eve party. They rode the mechanical bull, jumped on the humongous bouncy house, ate yummy food and visited wit...