Live Happy Family Roadtrip

8 Secrets to a Happy Family Road Trip

As millions of families prepare to hit the open road for the great American road trip, the thought of hearing “Are we there yet?” and “I’m bored!” for hours at a time can make even the calmest parent a little anxious. But this year, you have Live Happy, and we have parent-tested and -approved advice to help you make this year’s family road trip one you’ll write home about. Our first tip? 1. Watch those expectations It’s fun to dream about and anticipate an upcoming family trip, but be sure to keep one foot grounded in reality. Remember, you’re dealing with unpredictable pint-sized people, so your plan may not go exactly as you’d imagined. Roll with the changes and adapt. 2. Prepare Stress makes traveling a mess, and rushing out the door means you’re starting your trip on a negative note. Make a travel list of to-do’s and items to pack and then keep it on your computer. Update your list every time you take a trip and make necessary changes according to your kids’ ages. Next time, you won’t have to start from scratch. 3. Think carefully about when to leave After a meal, long before the sun comes up or at bedtime are all possibilities for when to depart. Of course, it depends on your kids and their ages, but here’s the point: If you leave at the right time, you can rack up the miles while your smaller travelers are asleep in dreamland. 4. Keep it simple Just pack the essentials—your kids don’t need their rooms while on vacation. You’ll have more space in your car, and once you’ve reached your destination, you’ll have less to pack and unpack. 5. Don’t pack your kids' favorite toys This might sound counterintuitive, but do you really want to spend your entire trip figuring out where your toddler left her Big Bird stuffed animal? Save tears, time and frustration by only packing the toys, books and clothes that won’t mean the end of the universe if something is misplaced, lost or left behind. 6. One word: snacks Kids get hungry, too, so pack their favorite snacks as well as ones they don’t have too often. And while you’re at it, pack a few of their favorite drinks as well. Soon the kids will start associating car road trips with fun treats, and we all know well-fed kids are happy kids. 7. Get active Pull over at rest areas and let your kids run, run and run.  And once you get to your destination, make sure they have lots of active time. 8. Prevent boredom While you can encourage your kids to sight-see as you drive, you can also have a bag of tricks to prevent boredom. Play a game of “I Spy” or see who can spot the most out-of-state license plates. And if your kids are young, have them name an animal for each letter of the alphabet or sing songs. Quelling kid boredom is a lot easier now with tablets and portable DVD players that allow you to turn your car into a traveling movie theater. We also like books on tape and family friendly podcasts, as well as old favorites like trivia games and coloring books. Read more about the happiness-boosting power of vacations here. Let us know about your family's road trip in the Comments section, below!
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Sunday suppers with Rev Run

Dinner With Rev Run

Countless studies show that sitting down with your family for a meal is good for your well-being. It’s good for your brain, it’s good for your health and it’s good for your soul. If science doesn’t convince you to make the time to break bread with the ones you love, then maybe listen to a man of the cloth. Rev Run, known to many as frontman of the legendary hip-hop group Run DMC, is showing the rest of the world how to get families back to the dinner table with his Cooking Channel show, Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers. Sunday Suppers “I was just trying to put something together where we can have a good time together and keep the tradition alive with sitting down with family and eating,” Rev Run says. “That’s the point of Sunday Suppers. For me, it’s to find that one day that we can enjoy each other, and I don’t have to feel like my whole week is just an empty house.” When the Cooking Channel approached him about doing a cooking show, Rev told them he wanted to do something different. With his six kids getting older and starting to live their lives outside of the house, Rev and his wife, Justine, wanted to give them a reason to come back to the nest, even if it was for only one day a week. From there Sunday Suppers was born; the second season is underway. Family recipes Each episode of the show features recipes designed with purpose, mixing new twists on passed-down family favorites, such as Aunt Chelle’s Three Cheese Macaroni and Cheese and Grandma Simmons’ Savory Shrimp and Rice. The show also allows Rev to do something nice for the people close to him, like creating a special gumbo dish for his older brother, Danny. “So I had to get myself a beautiful recipe and put in my special ingredients,” Rev says. “He loved it. So those are some of the highlights for me.” As he juggles multiple TV shows, DJ gigs and preaching the good word, Rev Run knows that lives can get busy and hectic. If you can do anything to bring your loved ones closer together, that can only strengthen the health of the family, he says. It's all about togetherness “The key to a happy family is being together,” Rev says. “At the end of the day, it’s not the food that makes it fun. It’s good to have food, but there’s something about getting together. There’s something about knowing that everyone is coming over, the hours leading up to and after: football games, the music, people ringing the bell, smelling the food. It’s all about the togetherness."
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Parents with children in city environment

6 Reasons to Raise Your Family in the City

Conventional wisdom tells us that to raise happy children, you need a big house, a lawn, fences, backyards, mudrooms and playrooms. You need a quiet neighborhood and a nice, safe car to travel through it. In other words, you need the suburbs.Or maybe you don't. A growing number of families are choosing to raise their kids in dense urban areas—city centers—rather than retreat to the suburbs. “In 2011, for the first time in nearly a hundred years, the rate of urban population growth outpaced suburban growth, reversing a trend that held steady for every decade since the invention of the automobile,” wrote Leigh Gallagher, author of The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving, in a 2013 story in Time magazine.As Columbia associate professor and author ofA Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban AmericaVishaan Chakrabarti, Ph.D., writes in a 2014 New York Times editorial, "In the past, many of those who moved to cities in their 20s moved to the suburbs in their 30s, where schools were good, crime was low and family-oriented amenities were plentiful. But those factors are changing in cities, too. Crime has remained low, while public schools and parks have been getting better in many places."But that's not all city living has to offer. Here are six more reasons people are choosing to nest in an urban area:1. Culture at your fingertipsIf you live in a big urban center, you are much more likely to have easy access to cultural amenities, such as the symphony, opera and ballet, as well as museums, rep movie houses, and historical landmarks. Amy Graff, a San Francisco mom of three children, ages 11, 9 and 1, says she used to regret not having a backyard when the kids were young, but as they’ve gotten older, she appreciates having the whole city, including its museums and parks, as her “backyard.” Says Graff, “It’s all available to us, just a bus ride away.”2. Cutting down on carpool timeEven the happiest suburban parent generally doesn’t enjoy the hours spent behind the wheel ferrying the kids to school, camp or classes. In cities, parents begin to let their children use public transportation around the age of 11 or 12, especially if they are with friends. Not only do parents get a break, the kids gain a sense of independence and self-reliance.3. Being a citizen of the worldPeople from all over the world live and work in cities. Children get to meet people with a variety of life experiences and backgrounds, which increases compassion and tolerance. “Kids in the city are exposed to so many different kinds of people,” says Graff, the mom from San Francisco. One day her daughter came home and asked for dried seaweed in her lunch after tasting it in a school friend’s lunch.4. Absorbing importantlessonsIt's terrible having to explain to a child why that homeless man is sleeping on the sidewalk. But there are opportunities for learning and growth, as well as opportunities to volunteer and offer real help, such as volunteer shifts at food banks or homeless shelters. “I have a friend who grew up in an upscale suburb,” says Houston attorney KatieSunstrom, who has 4- and 8-year-old boys. “She says she never knew there were poor people until she went into the Peace Corps! Seeing different kinds of people deepens children’s understanding of the world and their place in it. Our job is to teach them to give as well as to take.”5. Little or no commuteFamilies who both live and work in one city spend less time getting to and from work. This means more time to play, do homework or otherwise be with the kids. Sabrina Garibian, who has a 2-year-old and a 16-month-old she’s raising in downtown Philadelphia, says her husband’s commute is one walkable mile. “I only use my car once during the week to go to the market,” says Garibian. “Our vet is in walking distance, our pediatrician is within walking distance.”6. Amazing food and other amenitiesCan you find artisanal single-source coffee or ice cream made with liquid nitrogen at your local strip mall? Okay, not every city center has the mind-boggling smorgasbord of eating and drinking that you find in San Francisco, Chicago or Brooklyn, but the options in any city are usually better and more diverse than what you find in the burbs. Easy access to these delicacies and to interesting boutiques and stores is another reason to go urban.Are you raising children in the city? Tell us about your experiences and what makes you happy about where you live.Joyce Slaton writes, sews, cooks and lives in San Francisco with a husband, an enormous orange cat and one fiery grade-school daughter, Violet. Her work has appeared in Self, Ms., Wired, and Babycenter.com, where she has been blogging for almost a decade.
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Gretchen Rubin in Central Park

6 Tips That Help Me Be the Parent I Want to Be

We all want to be calm,cheerful, light-hearted andfun-loving for our families.But in the tumult of everyday life,it’s easy to fall short. In those times,remember this: Though you can’tmake your children happy—they haveto figure it out for themselves—youcan influence your family’s happiness.Here are just a few strategies Iuse to cultivate an atmosphere oflove and happiness at home:1. Get enough sleepIf I want to be cheerful, energetic andmentally sharp for my family, I have toget enough sleep. After always beingstrict with my daughters’ bedtimes,I realized that, like most adults, I needat least seven hours of sleep each nightto function at my highest level, and nowI work hard to meet that minimum.2. Get up earlyA few years ago, because I wanted acalmer, less hurried morning with myfamily, I started getting up earlier. Now,I get up an hour before my children,giving me a chance to work at my desk,have coffee and check email before it’stime to roust everyone out of bed.3. Instill outer order to create inner calmI find that when I take the time tohang up a coat or close a drawer,I feel more energetic and cheerful asI engage with my family. After I tackleclutter, I feel less hurried because I canfind and stow things easily. Havingmore order in my cabinets and closetsmakes me feel more energetic andcheerful as I engage with my family.4. Follow the 1-minute ruleIt’s simple: If I can accomplish a taskin less than a minute, I do it withoutdelay. If I can read and sign a letterfrom a teacher, answer an email,look for the scissors, I go aheadand do it. Because the tasks are soquick, it isn’t hard to make myselffollow the rule—but it makes me feelmore serene, less overwhelmed.5. Give warm greetings and farewellsThe way we act toward one anothershapes the way we feel about oneanother, so my family follows aresolution: Give warm greetingsand farewells. Every time one of us comes or goes, we go to the door andgive that person a kiss, a hug anda real moment of our attention.6. Remember to cherish todayI’m reminded of something the writerColette said: “What a wonderful life I’vehad! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”When I feel overwhelmed or annoyedby parenting responsibilities, I remind myself that one day, I’ll look back on thisseason of my life with great nostalgia.How about you? What strategiesdo you use to help yourself be thekind of parent you want to be? Let us know in the Comments section, below, or on our Facebook page.GRETCHEN RUBIN is the best-selling author of The Happiness Projectand Happier at Home, and is currently working on her latest book, Before and After, scheduled for release in 2015. She is considered one of the most influential writers on happiness today, and has become an in-demand speaker and keynoter.Gretchen has also made appearances on the Today show, CBS Sunday Morning and Booknotes. You can readabout Gretchen’s adventures in the pursuit of happiness and habits on her blog at GretchenRubin.com.
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Boy playing chess

Your Child’s Sparks

One of the most interesting things to emerge from the landmark 2012 American FamilyAssets Study was the concept of “sparks,” meaning those talents and interests that really light up kids and make them tick. Encouraging each other’s sparks, according to Pennsylvania StateUniversity professor J. Douglas Coatsworth, who consulted on the study, makes a big difference in the wellbeing and happiness of a family.Finding their special talentThese interests, when pursued over time, can help kids attain a positive sense of mastery, which has been linked to self-esteem. Eventually, when playing piano or painting a mural, they may even enter a state of "flow," a heightened sense of happiness and being in the moment.“Those activities or skills,those are really the strengthsthey see in themselves,” says Doug. “We started asking ourselves, ‘What is itthat families were doing that made themfunction well and helped parents raisehappier, healthier kids?’ ”Every child has sparks. Dougestimates 75 percent of kidscan identify things in their livesthat make them feel different,special, alive and real. Maybeit’s swimming, dance, chess,tennis or writing. “What happens with someparents is they don’t see that,”he says. “They’re so caught-upin raising that child the waythey feel they’re supposed to raise that child, or the way theyfeel their neighbor thinks theyshould raise that child, thatthey’re missing some reallyimportant parts of being ayoung kid or a teen.”Setting limits, discipline andbehavioral control resonatemore easily with many parents, according to Doug.Focus on the positive“It’s much harder for manyparents to examine thestrengths of their kids. Askparents, ‘What are your kids’positive qualities?’ They mightsay a few things. ‘What is your kid really interested andinvested in? What makes themgo? What’s their spark?’ Lotsof parents can’t do that. Theydon’t connect with their kidsat that deep emotional levelthat is really the core of thatchild’s being. And that’s reallywhat that spark is—whatthat child feels is his or heressence. And parents aren’t intouch with that.”Supporting your child’ssparks is even more difficultwhen they aren’t the sameas yours, according to Doug. “The saddest thing,the absolute saddest thing, isa parent trying to make a kidwho has a spark for playingthe piano into a linebacker.But parents do it all the time.”
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Family-on-the-beach

Family Strong

There’s good news about families. Regardless of life’s inevitable challenges, families remain strong, resilient and lasting when attainable characteristics, practices and priorities are in place. These common strengths of thriving families can be found in a wide variety of family make-ups and circumstances. They’re not tied to family structure, nor are they guaranteed by wealth. They are a result of getting the basics right.Any family can have any strength or combination of strengths. The presence of a single strength can help a family stay or become strong. The basic strengths of strong families, according to research, include characteristics like the ability to adapt to change, having clear roles for family members and maintaining overall physical, mental and economic health. Practices like spending family time together, communicating with and being committed to each other, and establishing accountability and mutual respect are considered key strengths. Also on the list are priorities like having community ties, spirituality, cultural traditions and an extended sense of family.The most recent and broadest research is the American FamilyAssets Study by Minneapolis’ SearchInstitute, a nonprofit dedicated to discovering what kids need to succeed. The Search Institute has spent the last 50 years looking into the strengths in young people’s lives, and the last 25 focused on developing assets they need to grow up successfully. Their study, published in 2012, was based on the results of a 2011 Harris Interactive survey, which polled a diverse cross-section of more than 1,500 families. “A big part of our research is understanding the power of focusing on strengths ... of counterbalancing the negative messages about kids and families that are out there,” says Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Ph.D., the institute’s vice president of research and development. “We know that family is important, and yet it’s sometimes hard to be tangible about what that means.”Eugene and his team had a sensethat what was happening in familiesand what those families shared ascommon strengths were part of whatthey needed to tap into to help buildstronger families. In the end they identified 21 tangible things families can do to bestronger units. These family strengths, or“assets,” as the institute refers tothem, center around five commonqualities or actions:1. Nurturing RelationshipsAre family members respectfully listening to each other? Showing each other affection? Encouraging each other? Asking about each other’s highs and lows of the day is a great way to keep in emotional touch. “Relationships shape us so much, as do the quality of the relations with each other,” Eugene says. “The way we get along shapes family life. It matters. It’s what gets us throughchallenging times.”There are high societal expectationsof closeness. There is no other group ofpeople we spend more time with. There is no relationship like the parent-child relationship. And there are no other relationships where those involved have such a great stake in each other’s lives. We are responsible for each other. Sometimes grandparents are part of that immediate family. Sometimes friends are.2. Establishing RoutinesAre you eating dinner together? Hanging out together by planning regular game or movie nights? Creating meaningful traditions, like half-birthday celebrations or doing fondue as the first meal of the new school year? Can you depend on each other? Do you have a family calendar everyone has access to?Kathleen Fischer, a Dallas-based family and parenting coach and author, uses the 21 Family Assets often when working with families and refers to family dinnertime as a secret weapon.“When parents say, ‘How am I going to connect with my kids?’ I ask how many times they eat dinner as a family. This is your best tool, your most consistent, easiest way to broach tough subjects, to check in, to get a barometer ;on how they’re doing in the day.”3. Maintaining ExpectationsAre the rules fair? The boundaries well-defined? Can you discuss the tough topics? Is everyone contributing? “As your kid is moving toward being in charge of his own life, the amount he’s contributing back to the family is important,” Kathleen says. “I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about, ‘Would you pick up a gallon of milk?’ ‘Would you take Jonathan to soccer practice?’ If my kid is on the East Coast in college and Grandpa is getting over pneumonia, can he take the train down to Philly and check on him? Not only is it a relief to Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, but it also says to the kid, ‘You have a real role to play as you begin to contribute back to the family in adult ways.’ ”​4. Adapting to ChallengesIs everyone doing what needs to be done at home, work and school? Do family duties need to adjust while Mom is out of town or your 16-year-old studies forfinals or a state debate competition?Does the family adapt well when faced with changes? Do you work together to solve problems? Is everyone’s voice heard? Even Eugene, who has been a parent for decades and has one senior in high school and a recent college graduate, learned something along the way. He was surprised at how important adaptability was to those interviewed forthe study.&“It’s easy to forget how important itis to adjust when things come up,” he says. “When we talked with families in the study, we weren’t originally thinking about this. We were thinking ;communications and routines, but people kept bringing this up, that they’d been through some tough stuff. To me, that was one of the pieces that stoodout. It’s actually something we cancelebrate, that we can use to get throughthe tough times.”5. Connecting to CommunitiesDo family members have relationshipswith others in the community, with coaches, teachers and other adults? Are neighbors looking out for each other? Do you feel a part of your community and are family members active in it and giving back to it? Are there nearby places each member of your family feels at home, like a neighborhood coffee shop, church or a friend’s house?Isolated families are not healthy families, Eugene says. “The best families are not cocoons against theworld, but families that are connectedand engaged in the world. Different people bring fresh perspectives, new ideas. When there’s a disaster, it’s theneighbors who help you through it.When a family becomes too isolated from activities and broader connections, it’s not good for them.”The study found that the more assetsa family has, the stronger parents and children will be. Broadly, kids from such families are more engaged in school, take better care of themselves and stand up when they see someone treated unfairly. Parents of these families also are more likely to watch their health and be active in their communities.“Across virtually every cross section of family, the vast majority want to do right by their kids,” Eugene says. “They want to be a good family even if they have had some tough knocks in life. How do we help them do that? One of the ways is to begin articulating key pieces of what that means, things they can actually do. We wanted to make the intangible tangible.”Strengths Trump Structure and DemographicsPeople sometimes equate a “good family” with a particular type of family—and that family usually looks like the person imagining the perfect family. The image of a strong family then becomes based on who is in the family, who isn’t in the family, as well as our own individual values.“That doesn’t capture enough about what a family is,” Eugene says. “You can have a traditional two-parent, two-kids-and-a-dog fabulous family. But you can also have a family that’s abusive and dysfunctional that looks just like that.” Regardless of the structure, “What are the processes and relationships going on with the family?” is whatis more important to ask, he says.“What happens when we pay attention to those?”The American Family Assets Studyshows those processes and relationships matter far more when you’re looking at outcomes than demographics do. Statistically controlling for family size, composition and neighborhood, demographics may account for 5 to 10 percent of the outcome difference among families (how happy and successful their children end up). The 21 Family Assets account for a 30 to 35 percent difference.“Family isn’t isolated, but has a unique role,” Eugene says. “You’ve been with them from early childhood, all the way through. And you have this deep bond and attachment. That’s just different than any other relationship.”Past Flaws in ThinkingSociety—and therefore, research—is generally problem-focused, says J._Douglas Coatsworth, Ph.D., professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University and a consultant on the Family Assets study. Earlier research and advicestemmed from clinical models workingwith children who were alreadyin trouble.“It’s easier for us to categorize andclassify along certain dimensions,”the professor says. “It’s much easierfor us to say, ‘This is a single-parentfamily,’ than to say, ‘This is a familythat provides love and nurturing, goodguidance, fair discipline and openconversation.’ The attributes of strongfamilies are harder to describe.”As Doug instructs his students toobserve in everyday situations, specificrelationships—mother and son, brotherand brother, sister and mother, father and son, sister to brother—seem totake precedence to the family as anentire unit.“It’s hard to conceptualize and talkabout the family as a whole thing,” hesays. “Families are really complex. It’sreally hard to measure how the family as a whole is functioning. It’s mucheasier to emphasize parenting.”The assets study is one of only a fewstudies since at least the ’70s, Eugenesays, that has tried to quantitativelylook at family strengths. It seems inmore recent years, we’ve gotten toocaught up in the techniques of parenting.But a positive spin on the family andchildren in the past decade has startedto cast a different lens on the family:“We started asking ourselves, ‘What is itthat families were doing that made themfunction well and helped parents raisehappier, healthier kids?’ ”The Search Institute researchuniquely includes the important rolechildren play in the strength of a family,a change Doug has seen in the researchcommunity in the last 15 or so years: “Some of the positives of the Family Assets have to do with what the youth contributes to the family. They have an important role and contribution. Recognizing that within a family is very important.”
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Ron Howard Illustration

Ron Howard Keeps Family Life in Focus

For Ron Howard, the secrets of happiness are simple, yet profound. “It’s about enthusiastically putting one foot in front of the other, and looking forward to what’s next, handling the challenges and doing the chores,” says the director of Splash, Apollo 13 and now Rush. Ron learned from the imaginary world of movies how to see the real world in fresh ways: “You have to create a special environment in order to catch something extraordinary. You never know when exceptional moments are going to happen, so you have to stay on your toes or you’ll miss them.” In fact, you might say Ron’s mantra and another of his secrets of happiness is the question he’s constantly asking, “How’m I doin’?” Happiness is also all about family and all that represents, Ron explains. It’s about how he treats people. “It’s about noticing what’s in my frame,” says the director, “what’s right in front of me and never allowing myself tobe bored.” Happiness is about love, his favorite word. “It’s loving what I do and who I do it with.” Happiness is about accepting what is beyond a person’s control, including his shrinking hairline–“I got used to it a long time ago.” And it’s much deeper than perfection or bank accounts. “Honestly, if I wasn’t a director, I’d probably be a basketball coach,” he says. “I know I’d love that, too, because I actually did coach my daughters’ high school team a while ago.” Ron married his high school sweetheart and the love of his life, Cheryl Gay Alley, in 1975, when they were 21. About that time he was beginning to experiment with films. He cast Cheryl in the first one, and he still puts her in all his movies. “I call her my good luck charm,” he says. Now they have four grown children and three grandchildren. Cheryl is a pro in her own right, and she’s an adventurous woman whose dad taught her to fly a plane and handle a gun. She researched and wrote the novel In the Face of Jinn, which takes place in Pakistan. “She loves travel and exploring different cultures,” says Ron. According to Cheryl, he says, “one of the things that brought us and has held us together was our appreciation of a good story.” And Cheryl is obviously very much in love with Ron. “He dazzles me,” she told Connecticut magazine. Cheryl coped with the travel requirements of Ron’s career by being willing to move whenever necessary to keep the family together. The couple took their children along on location, and Cheryl handled the logistics, even home-schooling some of the time. “We wanted to live a whole life with our children, so we didn’t compartmentalize,” Ron says. “It was unsettling and confusing. It was chaotic, but they rolled with the punches.” In fact, when Cheryl was pregnant with their son Reed, she arranged for the whole family to be in London. Ron was making Willow, and the move allowed him to be present at Reed’s birth. It was the act of “a real hands-on mom,”he says. Daughter Bryce Dallas remembers, “My mom gave so much to us when we were growing up. Even now she stays very involved in keeping the family together.” A profile of Ron in Connecticut magazine quotes Cheryl telling other moms in their town, “If you ever see any red-haired kids so much as smoking downtown, I want to know about it!” “When I had kids she gave me a piece of surprising advice,” Bryce says. “She said that when it comes to building a strong family, it’s always important to prioritize the marriage. You have to be stable in your marriage and personal relationships before you can impart stability to your children.” Cheryl lives this advice. “My parents have always made time for the little things,” Bryce says. Bryce tells about her parents’ coffee dates, bike rides, trips to the farmers market and watching movies and TV shows together. “As hard as it must be to juggle kids, life, a career and all those responsibilities, they truly prioritize their friendship,” Bryce says. “It’s something my husband and I really pay attention to and try to emulate.” Memorably, Ron and Cheryl gave each of their children a middle name that stands for where he or she was conceived. Daughter Paige says, “I don’t know what they were thinking!” There is Bryce Dallas (representing Texas), her twin sisters Paige and Joselyn Carlyle (in honor of the famed Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan), and son Reed Cross (named after a street in a small town where they were living at the time). Now, Bryce is an accomplished actress and the mother of two children, Theo and Beatrice. She’s married to actor Seth Gabel. Paige is also pursuing an acting career, and Joselyn, a fairly new mom herself, is finishing school and is married to actor/writer Dane Charbeneau. Ron and Cheryl’s son, Reed, is on the pro golf tour. What’s next for Ron and family? He’s already started a project based on a survival story by Herman Melville, who wrote Moby-Dick. “It’s a masterpiece,” Ron says. He found it in the book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick. He is currently working with daughter Bryce on Project Imagin8ion, sponsored by Canon. The project encourages the public to submit photos; winners are selected to inspire short films and experimental movies. Joselyn’s husband, Dane, wrote the first film that resulted from the project, and Bryce directed. “It’s the first time we’ve worked together in this way, and I must admit it’s beautiful for me to be able to say the words, ‘my daughter, the director,’ because I know the joy that awaits her,” Ron says. After all, as he says, it’s that joy, and love, that leads to the happinessRon feels.
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