Circle Trail

Hey all! All is well here. Brenda has her first performance on Saturday, and I'm looking forward to getting a sneak peek of the show tomorrow night at the final dress rehearsal. I'm still very much in study mode, but we managed to get out of the house on Sunday for another hike (thanks to my folks for looking after Rowan while we were gone). Here are a few pics from the hike.

 The first mile or so of the hike was pretty steep, which made for a good workout

Surveying the land at the summit.

Brenda still had plenty of energy. We'll have to find a more challenging hike for her next time.

Time to call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!

a Sunday stroll

Hey all! I decided to skip a day of studying on Sunday and go for a hike with Brenda on one of my favorite trails in Santa Fe. Brenda's parents were kind enough to keep an eye on Rowan for us while enjoyed the sunshine and exercise.

The hike ended up taking us three hours total. Brenda is at the highest point in this picture which was 1,100 feet higher than where we started.

We came across some interesting creatures along the way.

Brenda's parents headed home early Tuesday morning. We already miss them, but we look forward to seeing them again later in the summer. My parents arrived on Tuesday and have picked up where Brenda's parents left off with babysitting Rowan. We feel so fortunate that we get to spend so much time this summer with our families.

I should get back to studying. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!

all settled in

Hey all! Brenda and I are in the kitchen in our lovely Santa Fe digs making a late dinner. We're all fully adjusted to the new time zone, and Brenda and her castmates have already staged their opera. They even had their first rehearsal on stage today. The first performance isn't for two and a half weeks yet, so maybe they'll get a week off to just hang around the pool on the opera campus.

 Brenda posing for a picture with herself next to the Santa Fe Opera box office.

Brenda sent me this picture during her lunch break while I was locked in a room reading about the Federal Rules of Evidence. 

 Brenda's parents, Rowan, and I joined Brenda for her lunch break a couple of days ago. Rowan got to meet a bunch of new people, and he enjoyed pushing his stroller all around the grounds.

If you like sunsets (and sunrises for that matter, although you have to get up pretty early for those) then this is the place for you.

I need to get back to the grind. I hope you all have a great weekend, and we'll talk to you next week!

Santa Fe

Greetings from Santa Fe! We arrived late Monday night after a very long day of travel. Rowan was a champ and managed the flights and the long layover really well. He's been having a great time this week with Brenda's parents who kindly came to Santa Fe to look after him while I study for the bar. The bar prep is still quite intense, and I couldn't do it without the help of Brenda and her parents. They've been great.

Not a bad place to study.

I should call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!

equitable servitude

Hello again! I just finished taking a multiple choice quiz on real property law (hence the blog title), which marked my last bar prep assignment for the day. The good news is that I got more questions right than I got wrong. The bad news is, well...let's just say I'm thankful I don't have to get an A on the bar exam to pass.

Our trip to Santa Fe is imminent. The to-do list on our blackboard is still quite long, so the next few days should be busy ones. We're going to be subletting our apartment while we're gone, which means we should probably wash some sheets and maybe even clean the bathroom. It will be interesting to see if leaving Frankfurt feels different this time since Brenda will not be coming back as an ensemble member. We'll still have our apartment here (at least for now), and Brenda will still sing here (as a guest), but I'm curious to see if we get a little teary eyed as we head to the airport next week.

Actually, I know I'll be teary eyed because we'll be about to endure a really long day of travel with a fourteen month old. I think the days of Rowan resting calmly in our arms as we fly over the ocean are gone. He wants to walk everywhere, touch everything, and he's usually pretty vocal when he doesn't get what he wants. It could be an interesting flight, but we're hopeful he'll just walk up and down the aisles smiling and waving at our fellow passengers.

I should get to work so I can cross a few things off the to-do list. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!

a legal refresher

Hey all! Sorry for the very delayed post. It has been a busy week. I began my bar prep on Monday and learned that they weren't kidding when they said it'd take 8 - 10 hours a day. That may not sound like much to you employed folks, but I've grown accustomed to a rather relaxed lifestyle as a trophy husband. Actually, the tricky part has been coordinating the studying with parenting. Brenda has been amazing about taking care of Rowan while I cram Contracts and Sales, among other subjects, into my brain.

From my desk I could see that it's been a beautiful week in Frankfurt. Brenda has taken Rowan outside several times to enjoy the weather and to play with the wood chips at a nearby park. He's started taking a serious interest in the swing and the sandbox. His ability to get around is just getting better, and he's figured out how to climb onto the couch now. I think we can count ourselves lucky that we don't have a flight of stairs in our apartment.

Brenda has her penultimate Arabella performance tomorrow night. Last week she performed at the annual ensemble dinner and enjoyed chatting with the opera supporters there. Many of them remember her from her first season with Oper Frankfurt back in 2008.

The curtain call at the ensemble dinner.

Well, it's past my bedtime, and since I've got the first parenting shift tomorrow so I should hit the hay. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!

enjoying the sunshine

Hey all! It's been a quiet week since my parents flew back home last weekend. They left just before the weather in Frankfurt got really good. We've been enjoying getting outside and letting Rowan run around the nearby parks. (We've discovered that he really likes wood chips). He's at an age now where he's curious about absolutely everything, he's mobile, and he doesn't understand what "no" means. That's a dangerous combination. To make matters worse, when we tell him "no" he realizes he's getting a reaction out of us so he keeps doing whatever he's not supposed to be doing. So his favorite toys these days are the dirtiest things in our apartment (i.e. our trash can and our shoes) and the most dangerous (i.e. the outlets and power cords). He keeps us on our toes.

Brenda's season in Frankfurt is winding down. She is singing at the ensemble dinner tomorrow night and has just three more performances of Arabella. I start studying for the bar in earnest next week, which means Brenda will be busier looking after Rowan. Hopefully the weather will continue to be good so they can get in a lot of park time.

It's getting late and it's my turn to get up with Rowan tomorrow, so I'd better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!