A day in St Paul, Minnesota

Many of you may have wondered what I've been doing with myself here in St Paul, and why you haven't been hearing from you as regularly. Time zone issues aside, life is pretty full here, and very different from my life in SF. To illustrate this point, below is the description of a typical day.

7:00am - 7:30am James has this great tradition of having breakfast with the boys before he leaves for work. They love the special time with Dad, and I think he likes it too.

7:30am James starts his daily bike ride to work, in downtown St Paul. This is usually accompanied by a chorus of "Go, Dad, go!!" from the boys. (The dark spot between them is James. I yelled out the window for him to come back for a retake, but for some reason, he didn't come back. I guess he didn't hear me.)



8:30am or so After breakfast and dressing, the remaining Doughertys hit the streets for some excercise. I drive the cart, and Anne carries MJ. (Please note the gorgeous flowers from the Dougherty garden, also known as Anne's fourth child.)

If the boys are good- and when are they not good?! - a stop at the bakery for a morning treat.
Then, to the park. Seamus called this the "sea serpent." The reason why will be covered in a future blog.

11:00am Back home. The boys play in the backyard until lunch. Which Mom is usually nice enough to serve them outside.

During this time, I go to work. Its 9am on the West Coast, so perfect time to get started on business. There is no picture of this, because its not very interesting to see. Mostly just me working on the computer, and occasionally on the phone. Snooze.

1:00pm - 2:00pm The boys go upstairs for stories and a rest. I've been reading to Seamus, which has been great fun. Anne reads to Finn, and then its off to sleep. (Sometimes for all of us.)

4:00pm or so If its nice when the boys wake up, they might take a dip in the pool. This can lead to hours of fun. They have a bigger pool now, so the slide has replaced "cannonfalls" as the most fun thing to do in a pool.

And just so MJ doesn't feel left out, she might sit outside too. The boys love to come visit and give her a little hug.

Clearly, she loves her brothers, and the attention.
6:00pm James gets home from work! Smiles and hugs all around.

6:30pm The boys eat, and the bedtime ritual begins.

8:00pm The adults eat whatever amazing meal Anne has prepared this time. Always delicious.

10:00pm The adults drag themselves to bed after a long day.

The next morning, repeat.

Not a bad way to spend the summer!