Summer - Week 3

This past week, Connor went to sports camp all week and Helen went to Junior Naturalist camp.

Even though Junior Naturalist camp ended with Helen being stung by a wasp 3 times - twice by her eye and once on her back - I can tell this camp is going to be hard to beat. Every day the kids did some cool activity, and they spent pretty much the entire time outside.

Highlights included building their own shelters, going on a stream hike, and going on a morning hike at a different nature center that ended up at a water park. As far as I can tell,  the leaders of the camp brought a ton of energy to their jobs, and it was obvious everyone just adored Helen - which I'm sure is partly because the kid was so happy!

Connor's camp was OK, but not great. It's been super hot here, and playing outside pretty strenuously was a bit more than Connor was up for (especially as he looked back fondly on his prior week in video game camp).

This week, we're chillin' with the in-laws in the Adirondacks. The trip started a bit rough, when Ed tried to put air in the car tires. The nozzle that you put air into broke off - and all of the air in that tire escaped. Thankfully, he was able to get the little spare tire on, we found a service station that not only stayed open late to get our car on the road, they then refused to charge us. When I tried to give the guy who had saved our vacation $40, he told me he could not possibly accept it, took $20 and said he'd split it. People from Pennsylvania are clearly the nicest people on earth.

Prior to the mini disaster, we had been whitewater rafting in the morning which ended Helen's longstanding fear of "foot traps" and whitewater. She is now ready to brave the rapids in Cessky Krumlov when we go there in August.

The kids had more fun running around today with their cousins than one would think possible, and by the end of the day, Helen's eye (which had been swollen completely shut the morning before) looked basically normal. She was also so tired that even though a cousin spent the night, she wasn't even tempted to stay up late chatting.

I rocked 6 miles in the hills with Ed and am looking forward to more tomorrow. These miles are happier than others because I had a 2-day bout with sciatica that I thought would surely end my dreams of running MCM. But game on - my back has been fine for the past week.

Elaine