Summer Snippets

Oh how I miss these angels of education. (Alastair's teachers)

Summer is in full swing here at Planet Bowling. School has been out for two full weeks now and we're settling into a rhythm that I think is going to become routine now that the pool is open during the week.

Our weekends involve a lot of packing, unpacking, and a lot of towels going through the laundry. There is plenty of sunblock misted, squirted, and slathered on. The weeks involve shuttling the kids to various activities (most also involving sunblock) and popping some Advil to soothe my weekend weary muscles.

Some highlights:

The backyard splash pad, which will remain up until it pops.

It is nice that we still have a few sandy spots in our backyard as the grass slowly creeps/grows across it. After all the work/money dedicated the our yard recently, Kim and I decided that carpet grass will take care of the sod problem all on it's own. Imagine that: a low maintenance decision at Planet Bowling.

We were there to see the Astros win!

The kids and I met up with some AMOK friends to catch a ball game the week before last. I was rather pleased with myself for taking both kids on my own and navigating both parking and a stroller averse ballpark without any assistance. I realized while we were there that this was Emery's first baseball game as well.

Memorial Day: Alastair "drives."

And to prove that we really are boat owners, we had our first mechanical disaster while on Lake Somerville, Memorial Day Weekend. Alastair and I were on the tube when the engine died and then refused to restart. It was insanely windy that day (sustained winds of 22-25 mph with gusts topping that) and there was some serious chop and whitecaps. My mom calls those conditions "Victory at Sea." Pretty dumb of us to be out there to start with, but we figured we would do a little tubing, some swimming and call it a day. We were grateful to have our iPhones so that we could look up phone numbers and find someone to come tow us back in. See the jetski in the foreground? He pulled us halfway across the lake with water coming over the bow and splashing all over the place. Fun times. For Alastair, it could easily have been the time of his life.

Once we thought we were in the clear, we were in for another surprise. On the way home, one of the tires on our tandem axle trailer threw its rubber and we got to visit Discount Tire in Brenham as well. An expensive outing to be sure, but now our disaster is behind us and since Kim has figured out the problem, we're back in business.

Eleven years and counting.

This past Friday was our anniversary. We booked a babysitter and headed out for a wake boarding lesson on the other side of town. I surprised myself by getting up on the first go and really enjoyed myself. I got about 35 minutes of our hour lesson and probably had 20 starts in that time since the lake/cable setup was rather short. Mr. Annoyingly Athletic had to top me by actually going off one of the jumps a couple of times. He did not, I console myself, stick the landing, but still. Jumps!

After our lesson we headed back into town for a great kid free dinner at Pappadeaux and some shopping at Memorial City and Costco. We're not normally gung-ho on a dinner dates, but I have to say it was really nice to just sit and chill and not have to request allergen information or keep anyone quiet. The best part is that when we arrived home at 7:45, the kids were already in bed so it was like coming home to an empty house.

Saturday morning we got up early and fed the kids in the car on our way to...

Blueberries!

Oh, how I love blueberries on tall tree-like bushes and not getting devoured by black flies/gnats/mosquitoes while I pick. After eleven years of marriage and four (five?) years of dating, I can now happily announce that I have Kim fully trained as a berry picker. Look at that bucket. No purples. No leaves. No twigs. No greens. Alastair is really off to a good start too, although his telltale blue mouth indicates room for improvement.

Emery is another matter.

I had to make sure she wasn't picking them out of the dirt to eat and even then I almost wrestled a green one out of her tiny fist. Nah, I thought, let her figure that one out on her own. From that point on, she was intent on only the bluest of the blueberries, but not a one made it's way into the bucket. Thankfully she spent most of the early time we were there refusing to get out of the stroller, so even her best efforts did not amount to a dangerous level of berries.

Saturday afternoon we hung out with new friends in Spring while Kim brewed up another beer with one of his work buddies.

Sunday: success!

Everything ran properly and the lake was as calm as we've seen it. I highly suspect this was the best day we'll get all summer. Kim and I both went for a tube run with Alastair, Kim slalom skied a few times, I wake boarded on my brand new board (purchased for me by a very enthusiastic husband Saturday night; thanks Kim!), and everyone had fun swimming. It was a blast.

I think it's time for another round of Advil...