June Review

Oh gracious, it's almost the end of June! I counted today and LO starts kindergarten in just seven weeks; SEVEN! DH and I talked about this summer back in February (when all good "planning mamas" plan their summers), and I resolved to keep LO home of much of it rather than send him to his school for their summer programs like we did last year.  That decision was not, as one might guess, because my first born is about to start kindergarten.  No, it was because my first born is a homebody, and, I thought, that would be his preference for his last summer before he started school.  I then resolved to not over-plan our summer.  I wanted him to play in the yard, enjoy the friends he doesn't see much during the year (two of his closest friends are homeschooled), grow closer (hopefully) with his brother, and maybe even be bored a little.

Here we are five weeks into summer, and I'm here to tell you I have failed.  I'm not sure why I didn't see it coming, but I failed miserably at the attempt to not over-plan our summer.  LO has had camps three of the last five weeks, and, while he's enjoyed them all, I think, we are, indeed over-scheduled.  The good news is that June seems to have been "camp month" and July looks to be a month of travel.

 In two weeks LO and I will road trip back to his birth town and see old friends.  DH and Boo will stay on the mountain for that.  Hopefully Boo will forgive me for leaving him the third time in a month.  DH says I've "moved to pole-position one" with him, and I don't see how given my recent absences.  Maybe it's a case of them making his heart grow fonder?  After LO and I return from our brief trip, we'll be home with few plans other than play dates and possibly swim lessons for five whole days, then the four of us head to the beach with Toona, Gido, and DH's extended family.  We haven't had a "real" vacation or seen a beach in two years, and we ARE ready!  After that little trip, the boys and I have a week at home, then LO has a garden camp here on the mountain for a week. Believe it or not, we then are less than a week from kindergarten day one.

You follow that?  No?  Well the point is, we're busy around these parts.  Busier than I'd hoped, busier than I'd like, but we're busy with good stuff.  We're also likely to see nearly 80% of our blog reading public at some point this summer, so, maybe you'll forgive the lack of documentation.  I'm always torn between living this life well and documenting it.  I hope I'll always err on the side of living it.  I hope whomever reads this in the future will always forgive me that.  So, in lieu of having a post for each blog-worthy moment of the last month, I'm just writing one. Here goes...

Memorial Day these monkeys and I watched competitive cyclists fly down the mountain.  Later in the day we accidentally crashed a party, then got caught in the pouring rain.  The boys took refuge at a friends' grandmother's house and ended up in this tree while I went to get our car. Accidental playdates are the best.  Losing your car keys in the pouring rain, not so much.

The last weekend in May Aunt Cat and I indulged in our first annual (hopefully) Sisters weekend.  DH manned the home front while I scooted off to Nashville. 

First stop after Pancake Pantry brunch was the Parthenon. Nashville's replica of the original full scale model first built on this site for the World's Fair in the early 1900s.

Enormous gold statue of Athena inside the Nashville Parthenon.  She is over 41 ft tall and the small statue in her right hand of Nike is 6ft. 

Not to be outdone by Athena, we scaled some heights of our own at the climbing gym.  We each made up  four or five walls then called it a day.  It was tough, but fun.

After cleaning up and a scrumptious snack at Epice, we hit a Nashville institution.  We were fortunate to get tickets to the late show on Friday night.  It was songwriters in the round and, though, we didn't know all the songs, it was a great performance and one of the highlights of the trip.  I felt my age though when they closed with Juice Newton's "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me."  I think I was the only one in the room singing, and it made me think of mom.

Dessert at Epice. We stumbled upon this place in 12S and it was fantastic.  We just had appetizers and dessert, but they were divine!

Breakfast mocha at the Frothy Monkey

Cat's taco at the place by the CMHOF.  There was a whole lot of good food in this trip, and this was just part of it.

We also saw a whole lot of gold records.  The Country Music Hall of Fame museum had plenty to offer and entertain us even though neither of us are country music fans. 

We visited the Hatch Music Print Shop where something like 90% of campaign, music,  and ad posters of this style are still printed.  They had carved wooden blocks from presidential campaigns dating back to the early 1900s.  

We got to try our hand at printing a poster of our own

We proved that longer arms do not overcome the age gap when it comes to selfies.  Aunt Cat 's were always better, though she did teach me a few tricks.  

Just before we left we visited Bicentennial Park where they had a vintage baseball game being played. 

Overall we walked our tails off (about 20 miles total in three days) which might have accounted for our first meal at the Pancake Pantry.  We lucked out with the weather, saw some neat stuff, and enjoyed more time just the two of us than I think we've ever had as adults.  I had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!

The next morning, I hit the ground running as I helped with registration for LO's first camp of the summer.  It was a fun opportunity to think about how far we've come and how many people we've met in the last year.  LO attended this camp last June starting just three days after I came to the mountain with the boys.  This year as fellow campers approached the sign in table, I knew almost half of them, or at least their families.  I was pretty pleased with that given that the camp is for kids ages four to fourth grade. Last year LO knew no one in the whole room (and I was so impressed by how bravely he went).  This year he knew most of his group and had trouble spending his time evenly between his friends.  Ironically, where much has changed as our family has become more connected to this community, some things haven't changed much at all.  The most notable is that the first week of June also  marked a year since work was begun on our deck.  Ahh, the deck saga is one that should probably have its own post, but not sure if I will ever want to read it again.  The good news is that June saw some progress. Where I hoped last year to have a "come see the deck" social for Labor Day 2014, I actually think that might be feasible for Labor Day 2015.  Maybe. It's the question I get asks most often around the mountain.  "Is the deck finished?"  And as I answer everyone else, "I promise you'll know when it is" is the best I can say.

I like that our arrival on the mountain was at such an easy-to-remember point in the year.  Just after Memorial Day, the last days of May, just after the end of school, however you think of it, it's a time of year most families are changing pace a bit.  I like that there's a rhythm to that time of year that prompts me to take notice and reflect on its significance to our family.  I've thought a number of times about writing a post simply about our first year on the mountain.  I think now that probably won't happen.  Just two weeks after we marked our first year here, DH and I also celebrated 10 years of marriage. I've also thought about writing a post just about that.  About how we've changed in those 10 years.  Perhaps I will.  Just in case I'll share this quote from a 30 hour anniversary get away we managed to pull off.  DH and I found ourselves in a kayak for the first time in about 13 years and only the second time ever.  The first was in a creek in Arizona.  We made it from point A to B somehow, but there was a lot of paddling in circles early on, and that's really all either one of us remembers.  This time we recalled that experience as we got in the kayak.  DH chose the front this time and let me have the back (steering) position since I have slightly more experience in that department.  About 10 minutes into this trip (which was around a pond, so there was no real destination), I noticed DH was paddling like crazy from the front of the boat.  We had already made it once around the pond and exceeded our expectations on that front.  I had told DH I wasn't in a hurry and he didn't have to paddle like mad.  He'd rest for about 30 seconds, then paddle some more.  Finally I just stopped talking to him about it and enjoyed the ride.  It was hot and the harder he paddled (for whatever reason he chose to) the more he created a gentle breeze for me.  He didn't have to be working so hard, but I figured he'd stop when he didn't want to do it any more.  At that point I mentioned that, had I stopped trying to teach him what to do 13 years ago and just kept my mouth shut, he probably would have figured out how to steer and we would have stopped going in circles.  To which he replied "It took you that long to think to keep your mouth shut?"  Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.  Funny mostly because it might also be really true.  I think I've changed the most in the 10 years we've been married, and I hope he'd say it's for the better.  I know I'm just grateful he had patience with me when I was a lesser wife to him, and that he's patient with me now when I'm just different altogether than he might of bargained for.  So after all of that, here are some pictures DH shot from our actual anniversary day.  We busted out our wedding video and showed it to the boys for the first time.  I think they were mostly just excited that mama sat down in front of a screen with them.  That pretty much never happens.

Boo's hand on mine.  

Aunt Liz on the video.  The boys didn't recognize her.

Out for anniversary dinner with my man.

The weekend after our anniversary, DH and I were able to scoot away for a quick overnight trip.  We had hoped to have a nice getaway for our tenth, but lack of viable childcare and the upcoming beach trip made us reconsider.  Hopefully we'll make that happen for our next anniversary. We enjoyed our 30 hours away though.  We found a sweet little resort just over an hour away, and indulged in massages, walks, decent food, and the luxury of being without a schedule. It was a real treat. We also daydreamed about where we'll be in another ten years.  Teenage boys anyone?  Ironically we'll go from wishing we didn't have to have a sitter, to being afraid to leave without one. We chose to focus on our presumed ability to sleep in on the weekends rather than our inability to get to sleep at night or go away for anything, ever.

Sometime in June I witnessed endured a number of sibling bonding experiences that were not exactly what I had in mind when I said I want these two guys to be best buddies.  Right around the time of the last post, they were also coconspirators in tearing a paper crown, throwing it in the toilet and flushing it.  Fortunately the plumbing seems to be none the worse for their efforts.  Similarly, the morning of our anniversary, LO decided he wanted to go get his brother at 6:30 in the morning, so he did.  By "get" I mean he walked into his room, helped him climb out of his crib, and then ransacked the playroom.  Said playroom just so happens to be below where mommy and daddy sleep. I'm pretty sure they were just super excited to wish us a "happy anniversary" even though they had no idea. LO has also been working the brother angle of getting away with things.  He seems to think that he can tell Boo to tell him to do something, then use "well Boo told me to do it" as a valid excuse.  This past week Boo supposedly told him to put his shoes in the toilet...after Boo had pooped in it.  Yeah, LO that isn't going to fly with me...you must think this is your mama's first rodeo.  In yet another potty related antic, the pictures below are of the boys topping the "spiderweb" at out local park.  Boo followed his brother right up, then cheesed for DH's phone.  Apparently right after he smiled for this picture, he proceeded to pee.  He's been potty trained for six months now, so DH didn't have any spare clothes, not to mention no one was prepared to clean the spiderweb.  Sorry neighbors! So the summer has had a fair share of sweet brother bonding time.  Much of which has been responsible for a new crop of grey hair on their mama's head.

We have a few days left in June, and I'm hoping they will be chill.  We have a dentist appointment, Aunt Cat and Lah-oo birthdays, music classes, a few swim lessons, and a guest visit on Friday this week, but otherwise our schedule seems pretty clear.  Here's hoping we'll find some sort of slower summer groove.  Re-reading that sentence makes it seem like a long shot, but it's good to have goals.