Bankhead Adventures

Halloween 2022

As part of the blog resurrection, the next several posts will be throwbacks, starting with some creative Halloween costumes. Miles as Satan (featuring mom's face painting skills), James as a Hollow Knight character that he crafted himself, Sadie as Scarlet Overkill, and Amos as a ninja.

Resurrection

During our robust Holy Week celebration, the Bankhead children mentioned that they would like to see this blog continue. So in the spirit of celebrating resurrection, their request shall be granted.

This year we held an Easter scavenger hunt in which the children had to follow clues to find their Easter presents while bound to each other by loving (and colorful) ties.

Goodbye Summer, Hello School

The Bankhead family had a rolling start to school this year, with kids at three different schools. Over the course of 6 weeks, we had multiple first days of school, but the process is now complete and everyone is back in the groove.

Before heading back to school, we had to commemorate summer with this visual representation.

James began a program at the local community college for high schoolers. He said he wanted to take an easy class to ease into college life, so he registered for calculus.

Sadie started high school!

Amos started his final year in elementary school, and he refuses to ever tie his shoes.

Miles wore his lucky shark shirt to start his year off right.

Laurie and Alfonse's Wedding

Paul's sister Laurie got married in June. The event was magically perfect. Highlights:

Laurie's new husband stunned us all by naming all 39 Bankhead siblings, spouses, and children in his remarks during dinner.
James used the wedding as an opportunity to obtain his first formal suit.
Miles discovered social dancing. After dancing in the center of a circle of people cheering his name, he told me, "I think I'm a little bit famous here."
We managed to fit in some waterskiing before and after the wedding.

An hour before go time, Sadie became the "get children ready for the wedding" General.

The children clean up pretty well.

Here are just the nieces and nephews that
Alfonse married into--and he can name them all!

Miles's uninhibited dancing was a hit.

The cousins needed a break after warding off the paparazzi.

Highlight of Amy's Summer 2022

The heartbreak of living in the Bay Area is all the friends who move away. This summer a gaggle of friends who have left the area flew to California to celebrate a milestone birthday, and thus began a multi-day adventure that filled Amy's emotional bucket for months to come.

Patio yoga that ended with tearful expressions of gratitude

Getting ready to kayak

Visiting the elementary school where we built our mom friendships day by day at drop-off and pick-up.

MLB All-Star Game for Aunt Sica's Birthday

Sica had a lousy birthday last year, so this year we agreed to redeem the day by attending the Major League Baseball All Star Game in Los Angeles with her. In addition to the all star game, we attended the futures game, celebrity softball, and the home run derby. We also spent time at Universal Studios and the beach. Our trip to Universal Studios revealed that the younger Bankheads had never seen any Jurassic Park movies, so we spent every night after that making our way through those. A memorable trip for half the Bankheads.

Gorgeous night at Dodger Stadium

Summer Sewing 2022

We used some of our summer time to do a few sewing projects. Sadie and a friend found some fun fabrics during a service project, so they made some pillows. Then Sadie made her first quilt, and Miles made some pajama pants to celebrate the Warriors win on his birthday.

Wilderness Marriage Therapy in Yosemite

While the children had a ball at the world's most exclusive summer camp (thanks, Mom!), Amy and Paul ventured into Yosemite's wilderness on a kidless backpacking trip.

Things that made Paul especially excited:

Sleeping in the back of the truck the first night--what are trucks for, after all?
Enjoying a snow-chilled Diet Coke next to an alpine lake on the morning of Day 2. (Not worth having to carry the extra weight in Amy's opinion, but boy was Paul happy about it.)
Identifying dozens of peaks with our map and compass.
Appreciating that frequent yoga breaks made him feel awesome. (This was all Paul. Amy did not enforce this.)
Resting his head on his new inflatable backpacking pillow.

Things that made Amy especially excited:

The fact that we can just drop our kids at the airport curb and they fly away.
Having no access to phone calls, texts, or emails.
Taking the time while hiking to analyze with Paul the most recent insights from his therapist.
Hiking in minimalist sandals to make river crossings extra easy.
Loving the gnarly, gritty trees that cling to rocky slopes.

Ten miles into our hike, on Day 1, we discovered that our water filter was broken. That made the rest of our trip a little more complicated, so instead of taking a leisurely two more days to hike out, we blazed down the mountain at our fastest hiking speed on record. We arrived back in civilization in time to enjoy dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant and to congratulate ourselves on not getting giardia.