Immediately after we picked up Vince, we headed to Montecello, home of Thomas Jefferson. This was not the most brilliant idea as Vince was exhausted and wanted to just hole up at home in air conditioning and play video games for a few hours. But he was not too bad – he tried to write in quill ink a copy of the Declaration of Independence:
Vince’s summer camp is nestled in the depths of Virginia – so we decided to organize a mini-road-trip around picking him up. On Friday – we drove to Montpelier, the home of James Madison. Traveling with Edda without Vince can be a luxurious experience in some ways – although she cannot participate by herself in almost all of the kid-centric activities such as a Children’s Museum or a moon-bounce, she is always excited to walk/stroll on a downtown boutique boulevard or try new foods at a strange restaurant. It’s not to say that the day doesn’t present challenges – we always travel with movies and if Edda is impatient, we whip out the movies and she is content. In this way – we enjoyed the house tour at Montpelier and a 2 hour dinner with Edda.
We did have a theme for the day – Edda loves ice cream! (Actually we all love ice cream – but we like to blame our indulgences on Edda.)
Here’s Edda at Sweet Frog frozen yogurt in Charlottesville, VA looking a little concerned that maybe we are eating too much of her frozen yogurt.
I announced about 20 minutes from Montpelier that I needed to pee. If you know me, you know I hate to stop the car to pee (I don’t mind if someone else stops the car because they need to pee, I just don’t like doing it), I don’t like finding bathrooms, I don’t like inconviencing anyone. I know, it’s weird. I’m weird. But I think it must have been karma, because the closest bathroom was at the Moo Thru – a great local ice cream shop!
We picked up Vince from camp on Saturday – he was hoarse from screaming and yelling and singing all week. He was dirty and smelly from a week in the lake and some inadequate showering. He caught fish, learned to build a fire and learned lots of camp songs. He had a great time! Jeremy and I couldn’t chaperone the troop this summer because of work obligations – but Jeremy is pretty determined to make it next year. We are all so happy to see him back. First order of business – a BATH!
I miss Vince. I don’t think I’ve gone so long without actually speaking to him! I know he is having fun at camp (we get daily updates on the group activities), but it’s not the same as actually talking to him…
Edda is enjoying her time at camp. Here she is getting ready to go zip-lining!
We are trying (like the rest of the country) to get back in shape. This involves a lot of walking, exercise videos, borrowing the wii fit and time away from the internet. Thank goodness for the dogs, they make the walking part more fun.
Sixteen years ago this week, Jeremy and I were falling in love with each other, but we had not yet told each other of this fact. There were a lot of trips between the third floor (Arnold lab) and the basement (Wang lab) of the Spalding building with lame excuses to say hello. I remember how I asked him to go to the fireworks with me (with a group of mutual friends) and he turned me down (!). I thought for sure he did not like me.
We had an argument last week which started one night and festered for a few days. It’s a standard division-of-labor argument that crops up every few months. With both of us working, we generally split the childcare/household chores 50/50 with each person choosing what they like doing. I generally like the decluttering/lawn mowing/appt making. Jeremy likes all things kitchen/car/large home projects. Anyways, our argument started when we each decided that the other person was “Taking ME for GRANTED!” Our arguments are very passive-aggressive. We argue by being extremely nice to each other (I’ll go pick up the kids, you stay home and take a shower/nap. Look what I got from Trader Joe’s – your favorite ice cream bon bons!) but still being pretty mad at each other. Anyways, maybe we get tired of being mad, or maybe we get tired of being really nice to each other but we resolved our argument on Sunday night and celebrated July 4th by borrowing the Wii Fit from a neighbor and having a fun time being goofy.
We also went to a lovely neighborhood 4th of July party. They served Jello shots which were formed in the rind of a lime.
And I got to hold a baby!
Vince is off on his first sleepover camp. All packed:
Able to carry his own gear (barely):
Ready to go!
Here’s the update I got:
Quick update.
We all arrived safely at Goshen.
The boys are having a blast and are covered head to toe in dirt. We’ll see how many of them actually take showers tonight (or tomorrow).
Dinner tonight was baked chicken, bread, watermelon, salad and veggies. Most of the kids ate well and two lucky volunteers even cleaned and scrubbed down the dinner table. The scouts also got instruction from the camp counselors on how to properly clean a latrine. Keep this in mind for home!
We are headed over now for the closing flag ceremony and then on to a bonfire.