The Life of Reilly in Boone, June 2008

In early June we headed to the mountains for what has become at least an annual trip, sometimes more often. This time we went with our closest friends the Moyes. We stayed a great place, Echota, which I highly recommend, both for how nice the place was and the incredible views.

After an incredible night watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, hands down the most incredible thing I have ever seen on TV, we awoke to a misty mountain view, really cool stuff.

Boone 2008, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

This was our view from our back porch, Grandfather Mountain and beautiful weather.

We took the Moyes to Linville Falls, which was packed, but still worth the trip.

I only wish we had more time.

Beth and I in the City of Lights!

One of the great (and not so great) things about my job, I get to travel again. Prior to having kids, I LOVED traveling, now I view it as a mixed blessing, given the choice, I would not go anywhere without my family, but since my new job requires some travel, I make the most of it when I go. The good news, I typically get to go to cool places, places that open your eyes to the world and help me think beyond my own little state of being.

June found me in once such place, Berlin, followed by my favorite city in the world, Paris. I talked Beth into leaving the boys behind and joining me for a weekend in Paris. To say it was worth it is an understatment. In many ways we needed this trip, it worked. It was also Beth's first trip outside of North America, I hope it impacted her the same way my first trip outside the US did.

I found a great hotel one street over from the Eiffel tower, this was the view from our balcony. It was magical.

April thru June 2008 402, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Hotel La Bourdonnais, on Avenue La Bourdonnais was perfect.

Here is the view from "the Dome Church" where Napolean is buried, also a few streets over from our hotel.

April thru June 2008 334, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

The Latin Quarter, one of my favorite sections of Paris.

April thru June 2008 355, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

You can find all of our Paris pics here.

It has been awhile

Between a new job and Griffin's first year, life has gotten busy. I was looking through this blog and have decided to keep doing it, it is a really great way to look back at some great memories.
We have started our summer right this year, we went to Smith Mountain Lake in June with the Tuppers, this was our second year doing this and we had a blast.


Griffin also got his first haircut, he is the opposite of Reilly in so many ways, and getting his haircut is one of them, he loved it.









We also had a Reilly/Griffin Birthday party extravaganza, probably 30 kids, 40 adults, multiple bounce houses, it was a really fun party, hot, but alot of fun. Reilly was proabably the happiest I have ever seen him.

Christmas Time and 2008!

After a busy December, The Life of Reilly is back up and running. This picture below pretty much sums up our Holiday! It was the Christmas of Reilly. This was the first year he really got it and Beth and I really over did it (for everyone, but esp. for Reilly).

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Griffin continues to be a sweet little boy who smiles at just about everyone. He is really close to sitting up and is trying his best to keep up with his big brother. The two of them are really sweet together.

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway

As typical for the Holiday's, we stayed put here in Chapel Hill and spent alot of time with Family, most of Beth's family made it this year, all but Harry. Griffin got to meet some of his titi's for the first time, Sara and Felicia.
Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Reilly really enjoyed hanging out with Zak. Zak is really sweet with Reilly!

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Here is a picture of Matt and Lauren, we got to spend several nights with the two of them, playing cards, listening to music, just hanging out, it was really fun. I even talked both of them into a trail run one day!

Uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

The Life of Reilly Enjoys October

October brought Griffin's first Halloween, a trip to the state fair with John and Madeline, a visit to a pumpkin patch, and the appearance of Mikey and Minnie at our annual kids Halloween party.

Tommy Galloway

The Family

We recently had some family photos taken, they turned out very well if I do say so myself

Happy 105th Birthday to Colonel Benjamin Whitehouse

September 6 - 9 found us on one of my favorite places on the planet, Cape Cod. Beth and I have been going to Cape Cod just about every year since we first moved to Connecticut in 2000. We have missed one year when we moved down here but otherwise it has become a very nice tradition. Here are links to previous Cape Cod trips, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006.

Click here for all of our pictures from this trip.

This year was very special as Ben, Gladys, Harry, Ilene, Cindy, Dave, Zak, Emily, Ben and Sabra joined us along with Aunt Trudy, Uncle Ed, Kelly, Mike, Daniel, Craig, Matthew, Connie and Tia joined us in celebrating Beth's Grandfather's 105th (not a typo) birthday.

originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

2007_0910originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Sunday Grandpa's place celebrated his birthday and gave him 105 red, white and blue roses.


I was also able to get a nice run in on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, below is the route I ran along with a couple of embedded pics, I created this using EveryTrail, a very cool gps/picture site.

Cape Cod Rail Trail Brewster, MA at EveryTrail

Map created using EveryTrail: GPS, Travel & Geotagging!

The Trails

I have found a very cool new site which allows me to embed pictures in a google map along with the gps route. Check it out.

He is Handing Them Out

2007_0813(006), originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Griffin started smiling a few days ago, now he won't stop. What a cutie!

Banschee

Banschee, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

I am playing around with blogging from flickr, my new site for storing all of our pics, check it out sometime, www.flickr.com/photos/tommygalloway.

This is a shot of one of my favorite sections of one of my favorite trails, from my back door to trailhead, less than 1 mile.

How to Beat the Heat? Head to the Mountains!

Saturday 8/04/07

6:00 am

Sunny 59 degrees

Moses Cone, Blue Ridge Parkway Milemarker 294

http://www.brptrails.com/brp2940.htm

We took the boys along with Gary and the Girls and headed to the mountains this weekend to beat the heat. A stunning sunrise run was one of the the highlights of the weekend.

I tagged along with Gary for the first part of his 24 mile training run this Saturday. Not too crazy about his strict 6am start time, I dragged myself out of bed at 5am. We arrived at one of Gary's favorite destinations and quickly becoming one of mine, Moses Cone http://www.blowingrock.org/mosescone.html, and were running shortly after 6am. I was running the first 10-11 miles with Gary, 1.5 miles down to Trout Lake, then 4 miles up to the top of Rich Mountain, then back.

Here is the elevation profile from my garmin.

The sun starts to rise as we pass Trout Lake, and the run takes a very difficult turn up, basically 4 miles of slow, gradual "up" on winding carriage roads. If you can catch your breath, you are rewarded with beautiful views of the mountains. Don't let the run back fool you, while mostly downhill, running with Gary downhill is a quad burning experience, and the last 1.5 miles is all uphill as you leave Trout Lake again and return to Moses Cone.

The tempatures were a good 10 degrees cooler than Chapel Hill and we passed exactly zero people the entire way up and most of the way down. All in all another excellent run on the carriage roads of Moses Cone. Watch out for Gary, whatever he has been doing is working, he is a RUNNING MACHINE, I recommend staying away from hills if you are running with him.

A "3-D view" of the route w/elevation from Google Earth, you can see 221 and the BlueRidge Parkway wrapping around Grandfather Mtn in the background.

Swimming Lessons for the Life of Reilly

originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Reilly and his buddy Thomas have started swimming lessons

Photos by Kathleen Hunter

Griffin Galloway

Griffin getting a little play time!

Before and After

Want to see what 4.5 years of running will do for you? The picture on the right is from Christmas 2002, the left was taken last week. Quite a difference?

July 4th, 2007

Griffin has almost doubled his weight since he was born, he is 6 weeks old today! Dad, Carol and Matt came for a visit the week of July 4th.