august 30

Hi,


Lots to catch up on.  I'll try to be brief...


We've had a lot of extended family time lately -- picnics, visitors, and, of course, Grandma Donna's funeral.  My good humor wore off by the time Donna's funeral came around, and I was not entirely pleasant to some of the folks there.  I felt waves of conflicting emotions -- sadness, anger, frustration, pity, and even a hilarious-church-laughing-fit thrown in for good measure.  Suffice it to say, I'm glad it's over.


I facebooked this, but I want to capture this moment here too.  On Saturday, post funeral, we had a very lovely family walk through some equally lovely gardens in Janesville.  We sat to enjoy the moment, and my sweet little 4 year old said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a worker-guy.  I'll build us a house here.  We will be married, and we can sit and watch the fountain alllll daaaaay looooong," and he touched my cheek.  That, right there, right then, I needed.  


My cousin and her girlfriend and their doggie have moved along.  They stayed here a few days recently during their whirlwind tour of the midwest (they live in NYC).  It was great having Julie here.  The kids love her, and she loves them.  Julie convinced me to go to this hippie music fest in Kentucky that she attends every year.  In an inspired moment, I suggested my bro and sis-in-law join us.  So, the boys and I will head out of town on Thursday this week (yes, the second day of school) and drive to Indianapolis where we will pick Mark and Aisha up at the airport.  We will then drive together to Berea, KY to camp.  With a bunch of aging hippies.  I kind of can't believe I'm doing this.  We'll head back home on Sunday, sans Mark and Aisha, as they will return to the east coast with Julie and Melanie.  Or, as I summarized in an email to the group about this: We will leave Madison to drive to Indianapolis to pick up Baltimore to camp in Kentucky, and New York will take Baltimore back home.  


I'm a little anxious about this trip -- how will the kids do in the car?  how will we handle camping for 3 nights?  will it rain?  will the mosquitos be awful?  And then I get excited about the trip -- fun to spend unexpected time with Julie and Mel and Mark and Aisha, good to mix things up every once in a while, fun to show the kids another part of the country.  I predict we will be nice and exhausted by the drive home on Sunday, and hopefully they will be too tired out to bicker too much.  Or maybe I'll be too tired out to care. 

In the middle of all of this extended family fun, our little lives here keep on moving on.  Our love affair with the pool continues to be full and passionate.  Today's visit marked our 62 visit to family swim this summer, obliterating our previous record.  One has several tackle football practices under his belt, and that has been as fun as expected.  He loves it even more than flag football, and he looks very cute in his uniform:

This week, the final one of summer vacation, will be consumed with more trips to the pool, more school readiness (I haven't even told you about that!  good news there!), more Kentucky trip planning, and hopefully some decent sleep.  We are all short on sleep, but there's too much fun to be had to spend it sleeping!