An Epic Ballade of Texas

As per tradition, we headed west to spend time with family for Christmas, and had a lovely time. Here's the whole Shearer gang at Grandma's (aka GG's) house. And here's the Norris gang out for a hike. Looks like we're in Utah, right? But we're actually still in Orange County. Last year  at this time Elliot met his cousin Micaiah for the first time. I posted this picture of them "sharing hands": Well here they are, one year later, still going strong: While in California, Micaiah spurred Elliot on to walk, and now Elliot is walking all over the place! One last picture of Elliot doing two of his favorite things: (1) being a Cool Dude, and (2) chewing on a fresh-cucumber-scented-baby-wipe. Finally, while we were in California, my brother turned THIRTY! We all sang him this song.

Elliot just turned ONE YEAR OLD! To celebrate, his grandparents came to visit. Here's everybody celebrating at Elliot's baby work (aka daycare).  [That's his baby work boss in the back] On the day of his birthday, Elliot's second cousins came over (the Sanchez family) and we all played at the park.   [Elliot "opening presents"]  Most kids get to make a giant cake mess on their birthday. Well *my* son chose to make the world a cleaner place:   Elliot is really enjoying his new birthday toys. At first, however, his favorite part was sitting on the boxes they came in: Later while my parents were still out, the WHOLE NORRIS CLAN went out and played tennis. Happy Birthday sweet baby!

Meg and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary by heading to the cooler climes of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. What is there to do in the Twin Cities? Well, for starters, we headed over to the largest mall in the USA: [Yes, we are overlooking an amusement park, inside the mall] We visited a modern art museum in Minneapolis, where we "participated" in one of the works of art.     Did you know that Minneapolis was the "Flour Milling Capital of the World" in the 1800s? Well it was, and now you can visit some of the "ruins" of abandoned mills along the Mississippi River, and observe re-enactments of how the mills worked. [We're on the 7th floor of a now-defunct General Mills flour mill] We headed over to St. Paul, where you can visit earthen mounds thousands of years old, built by Native Americans on a cliff overlooking the Mississippi River. We also took some time to enjoy Northern (Scandinavian, that is) food. ...

  Now that I'm my own boss, I get to choose which conferences I go to. This year, go figure, there was a conference about C. elegans in Barcelona! The meeting was held at a big convention center / hotel / cruise ship port of call. It's the big bowl-shaped building at the tip of the pier in this photo. In my free time I visited a museum dedicated to the art of legendary Barcelona artist Joan Miró .  I found a painting that looks remarkably like C. elegans worms crawling around on a petri dish. Maybe he was a fan! Here's a photo of the whole gang of worm researchers at the meeting. I'll also mention just one tourist attraction. La Sagrada Família is a cathedral, and is currently the longest-running construction project in the world (began in 1882). I've been to a lot of cathedrals in my lifetime, and this one takes the cake. The outside entrance is a nativity scene that looks like it's made of melting wax. Unique features include angels pl...

The Norris Family recently returned to Boston to celebrate Meg's Ph.D. conferral!  First was the flight from DFW to BOS. Elliot is now officially a pro at flying. Here we are just hanging out on the plane. [Elliot is trying to touch my phone with his foot] We met Meg's parents at the Boston airport and then we all stayed in an Airbnb up in Malden, which was a quick subway ride away from Harvard Square. [Elliot riding the Orange Line] Here's the whole gang posing beneath the iconic Harvard Biology Rhino. And now the main event! Meg is at the podium receiving her degree in historic Sanders Theatre. After the celebrations were over, we all went up to Maine to stay with Meg's parents. Here we are at Two Lights, Maine, enjoying some seafood and Elliot's first visit to the Atlantic Ocean. [Elliot seems none too impressed] Our trip to Boston clearly made Elliot a subway-riding pro. Here we are taking the subwa...

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the second car I've ever owned, a 2016 Mini Cooper that we call Rusty Jr. Long-time readers may remember that for many years I owned an old Nissan truck named Trusty Rusty, which was formerly owned by my grandpa Shearer. Thus the new car's name, although the color is technically "Volcanic Orange." There are a few similarities though. Interestingly enough, I was car shopping online via AutoTrader, and the perfect car just happened to be in Long Beach, CA. So my dad drove down and took it for a test drive, then the dealer shipped it all the way out here to Dallas. Our first family trip in Rusty Jr.? In-N-Out, to spend some Grandma Shearer gift cards! We just recently came back from our first road trip in the Mini Cooper, and it was great. We drove out to Searcy, Arkansas to attend the wedding of Jenny Martin. Here we are hanging out on the campus of Harding University in Searcy (Rusty Jr. in the background)...

We traveled back to California for a funeral for Grandpa Norris. It was a nice time to remember and celebrate his good life, and to catch up with a whole lot of Norris folks. Here's one of my favorite pictures shown at the funeral. It's Grandpa (standing) and his siblings (seated). You can already identify a number of recognizable Bill Norris characteristics from even that young age. The trip was also an excellent excuse for Elliot and his favorite cousin to hang out some more. His cousin is now big enough that he can hold Elliot in his lap! He can also hold Elliot in his lap while administering a dental exam, should the need arise. Here they are sharing each other's sorrows, shortly after a sudden loud noise. (There are often sudden loud noises when lots of Norrises get together.) Elliot also took advantage of the lovely SoCal weather to go for his first swim! In another first, Elliot ate his first solid food! We'd been offering...