Montgomery, AL

I planned a long weekend trip for myself.  First stop, Montgomery, AL.  I found a fun taproom for lunch.  This wall is like serve-yourself frozen yogurt, but for beer and wine!  Many bad choices have been made here, I'm sure:

And then I found the offices of Equal Justice Initiative, a group of lawyers who provide representation for prisoners who can't afford attorneys or who have been wrongfully convicted.  The founder of EJI is Bryan Stevenson, who wrote Just Mercy.

EJI also established the Legacy Museum, which documents the racial issues in slavery up through modern mass incarceration:

And I went to this memorial:

Which is a memorial to victims of lynchings:

This wall was really moving.  It's glass jars of dirt from each of the lynching sites the memorial features:

Cooper misc

Coop was tired of his loft bed, so we ordered this one, with a bookshelf head board and some storage drawers in the side:

One afternoon, Coop had a couple of hours between school dismissal and play practice.  So he brought a group of friends over to have snacks and hang out:

True to my nature, I talked them into painting canvasses:

Homework on the kitchen floor:

Half Marathon

I've been really enjoying going for long walks after walking Cooper to school in the mornings.  I decided to walk the half marathon in Lawrence recently.

A bit chilly (windy) at the start, but it was near 60 by the end.  Gorgeous morning.

One of the best pit stops I've seen on a race.  Particularly when it's a bit chilly at the beginning:

Not a lot of walkers, so there were at least several points in the race when I was bringing up the rear:

Finished!

Portland

I made a quick trip up to visit Carmen and Vada in Portland.  Vada introduced me to her chinchilla:

We went to a pumpkin patch:

Tall sunflowers:

Dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and Vada helped make guacamole table side!

Tea party with the dog and Vada's stuffed animals.  We had toast, sprinkles, tea, and marshmallows.

At Vada'a favorite dumpling restaurant:

Kelly and Vada modeling halloween masks at Michaels:

Brand new couch!

The arts

Cooper is in the Cougar Chorus, which meets before school at 7:10am.  They had a fall concert recently.  It was wonderful and, surprisingly, it lasted all of 26 minutes!  Brilliant!

Coop is also in the Honors Choir, a select group of chorus members.  He's one of four tenors.  They sang Seasons of Love at the concert:

Coop got a part in the fall school play, too!  It was called "Writing a Will can be Murder," and it was super clever.  I was so impressed with the kids!

Halloween

Coop and I decided to have our Halloween skeleton friend ride in the car with us.  We call her Nana Beverly.

On Halloween day, Cooper went to school as his choir teacher, Mr. Viets, who wears a name tag with a bunch of ribbons on it.

For the school's trunk or treat event, Coop dug out a giant 6-foot tall giraffe costume.  This is his good friend Renee:

With friends and his school principal (in the middle):

He went trick-or-treating Halloween evening with Molly and Eliza, who dressed as toothbrushes:

I happened to be at the law school on Halloween for a meeting, and I ran across this student:

Who was dressed as my headshot for halloween!!!