April 30, 2013: Flew into NYC to be here for a conference tomorrow. My flight was supposed to go to HPN, but with a 2.5 hour delay I swapped over to a flight from ORD-LGA. Great view of Central Park coming in. I figured since I was going to drive right by Yankees Stadium and had nothing to do, I picked up some cheap seats and went for a few innings.  Em got to see the game too thanks to FaceTime, haha!

April 29, 2013:  We had a visit from Great-Grandma and Grandpa Davis today! Emelyn hosted a tea party for them.  Small group tonight, our last study of the semester.  We’ve really enjoyed going through James this semester. 

April 28, 2013:  Got brave and babysat ‘Graham and the Girls’ this afternoon.  Had a blast with them, he’s so fun! Nice to have a little boy to play with occasionally :)  Em was playing ‘mommy’ last night, making her lists, checking the computer for coupons… too funny!

April 27, 2013: Full day in the yard.  Planted the garden, put a new fence around it, mowed, sprayed weeds, cut a tree down, put out the tiki torches, and about 20 other honey-do’s. Impromptu visit from Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Josh which made Emelyn’s day!

April 26, 2013: Kiss the Cook!

April 25, 2013: Dinner with the Michaels and their cute little boys.  Em and Eli are best buds.  Played some “Kick the Cup Tower”, chased Bella around, and generally caused ruckus well past bedtime.

April 24, 2013:  Wow.  1,000 posts today.  781 days ago on March 4, 2011 I posted a pic from a cramped bathroom on a Canadair, and I’ve posted at least one piece of content every day since.

March 4, 2011 wasn’t just a random date that I decided to post a selfie. It was the beginning of a quest, a challenge to leave an archive of life. An opportunity to digitally catalog my experiences and my memories.

March 4, 2011 was my 10,001st day of life.  My 10,000th day of life was my dad’s 55th birthday.  And my wife’s 10,000th day of life? Our 5th anniversary. (Cue the creepy music.)

So what if I happen to make it 10,000 consecutive days?!? Well… Emelyn would be the age I was when I started this blog (27), and Annelise would be 25. Jen and I will be a week from our 32nd anniversary, and I’ll be… 55, the age my Dad was when I started this. And on that day, if the internet exists.. if cameras exist… computers… tumblr… heck even us…. I’ll hand the keys over to my 27 year old daughter and tell her to have a blast with it. To look back fondly on the memories and the blessings, but to live for the future that much more. It’s funny because I don’t truly care that much about the past, I’m always looking ahead.  But it’s fun to leave a trail behind me in case I want to ever slip away and reminisce.

So now here we are, on the 1,000th post of WhereisBradjward.com. The tumblr started on November 28, 2007 with a pic of Bella the Beagle, who’s looking a little more grey, sleeping a little bit more each day, and just as sweet as ever. There are 219 random posts between 11/28/07-3/3/11 that I wanted to leave for archive’s sake. The 1000th consecutive post won’t occur until Thanksgiving this year, 11/28/13.

The site has seen 13,000 visitors from all 50 states and 49 countries.  Since starting it I’ve flown 602,125 miles (To the moon, back, and half way there again!) I’ve touched down on 6 continents in 32 countries across 120 different airports with 36 different airlines.

And those numbers are fun. And nice.  But what I cherish most is the ability to one day just…. get lost scrolling.  Remembering.  Watching my daughters grow up before my eyes.  Watching my love grow for my wife by the day, seeing friends come and go, but not without leaving an unforgettable impression on my life each time.   It’s all here waiting.

Thanks for being a part of my story.
- Brad

April 23, 2013: Emelyn wasn’t too sure about holding this worm… but after 6-7 minutes of encouragement she finally did. So glad we stuck with it and she had that experience, but now she just keeps saying “I wanna go hold wormy wormmmmm.” Cute :)

April 22, 2013: A much needed car wash, followed by small group. We were able to inventory the $8K of jewelry we hope to sell at Light up the Night, with 100% of proceeds going to help stop sex slavery and trafficking!

April 21, 2013: Hit the road to get back to Indiana.  Pit stop for some impromptu dandelion bouqeut creating.  Girls were so happy to be out of the hotel room and back home to some SPACE. :) The room was getting a little tight with the king-sized bed, rollaway, and pack and play.

April 20, 2013:  Wedding day!  Photos went well, and I got to spend the day with extended family.  Emelyn got lots of Grandma/Grandpa/Uncle Chris time, and especially loved playing with her cousin Breah!

April 19, 2013:  Moved the family from Springfield to Carbondale as we get ready for my cousin’s wedding tomorrow! I’m doing the photography so I wanted to be down here early to check out the church, lighting, etc. Em and Annelise always love getting rambunctious on the hotel bed.  So nice to be able to travel with the fam all week.

April 18, 2013: Did a guest lecture on Entrepreneurship at UIS today, which was a lot of fun!  My parents came over to see it, and we grabbed dinner together afterwards.  So nice to be back in Springfield for a few days.

April 17, 2013: Back home in Springfield for a few days! Jim and I prepared an authentic homemade Thai meal tonight, using the skills from our Thai Cooking Class.  Egg rolls, chicken satay, pork fried rice, beef broccoli, and mango with sticky rice for dessert! Delish.

April 16, 2013: Closing Keynote at University of Illinois Web Conference.  Heading on stage to a room of ~350. Let’s do this.

April 15, 2013:   #fundaymonday at the Knuths with 30 amazing people. So blessed by the community we live in.

April 14, 2013: Lunch at the Van Elks to raise some $$ for Light up the Night.

April 13, 2013: #MUMWARD night.  Em always loves having her aunt and uncle over! Busted out some karaoke to end the night.

April 12, 2013: 5:45am flight home, lunch with Justin and a surprise at home… morel mushrooms! They were $49.95/lb at Marsh so Jen bought a handful to tie me over until another year when we can get home and get a few lbs for free :)

April 11, 2013: Didn’t take any pics today… but I did snag this screenshot of my new high score in Ticket To Ride :) 232!

April 10, 2013: An early AM flight to Boston via Newark, work at Merrimack followed by delicious food in Chinatown with HK. Hit up the Celtics/Nets game afterwards. Chicky Chicky Parm Parm.