How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Just back from our (mostly) annual sojurn to California to catch up with family and friends.

If you're looking forward to lots of wonderful photos of our time spent on the beach, with friends, on horses, at the water park, of the new baby, of the 75th birthday party, etc. I am sorry to disappoint you. All three of us forgot our cameras (even though it was clearly listed on TWO of our lists!). For those of you who hosted us and took photos, please send them!

Our first day there started off in the best way possible - meeting and holding the adorable 2-day old Skylar Kiera, my new neice. Such a cutie pie! Good job, Jude & Brad!

Then it was off to Captain & Nonna's house for several days of chickens, chores with Captain, a baseball game, a visit to a marine mammal rescue center, and lots of time sharing a cup of tea on the sofa gabbing with Lynn. I had a fantastic ride in the hills with Kelli on two very nice horses. Later that night she and I made what is beginning to be an annual trip to the "old fogey bar" to party with the octogenarians and sing show tunes.

We also visited the kids old preschool, I had lunch with an old friend, drove by the old house and generally tried to stay in touch with old things. The preschool teacher, the marvelous Polly, invited Bridget to come ride her Very Nice Horse (named Vienna) at her Very Posh Barn and that was a special morning. Bridget really enjoyed the time on the horse, the time at the barn (heaven, to Bridget) and her time with Polly's puppy. I think Polly got a kick out of seeing that one of her former students has the talent and ability to ride her horse.

Aidan got to join Miles's birthday extravaganza and hit Great America with a bunch of boys. Heaven, to Aidan.

Our last night in Danville, we got together for dinner with more "old" friends from preschool and even further back. It is so neat to see the kids play together like they've never been separated. Also neat to see my kids playing with the children of my childhood friends. Hansen-Judd, Bullock & Powers crews - thanks for coming! It was a lovely evening with your company!

The middle portion of our trip was spent in Manhattan Beach. BIG thanks to Janet for being such a gracious hostess and letting this road-weary lady and her two obnoxious children crash at her place for 3 nights. Janet, it was better than camping. The soft bed and warm shower and put all thoughts of Big Sur out of my head. We still had good grilled food, s'mores over an open fire, and hours and hours on the beach. I think it'll be an annual thing unless you move and don't give me your fowarding address.

Also in LA, we saw old friends from NoCal who moved down there recently. Christie and Ryan, thanks for making the trek out to the beach to hang with us. It was such a joy to see Bridget and Ryan playing together just like old times.

Cousin Dan also joined us on the beach and I got to catch up on extended family news. Note to self, must email Paul Belzer about the two new kids he's had and not notified me! On our way back up north, we went to Dan's for breakfast and to see his beautiful home. The kids were treated to parts of Dan's one-man show "A Songwriting Lesson From Irving Berlin" and got to be wowed by a bit of the huge talent this man possesses.

Back up to NoCal to spend the final portion of our trip with Papa and Grandma. We spent a lovely evening in Fremont's Central Park listening to a very energetic and fun rock and roll dance band. Such a nice setting with Lake Elizabeth sparkling in the background and the evening light on Mission Peak beyond.

Then it was "party prep" mode to get ready for the big hoe-down in celebration of both Papa and Grandma's 75th birthdays. Lots of cooking (I was in charge of appetizers), and lots of set-up (western themed backdrops, straw bales, floral arranging, etc.), and lots of errands by Papa and Aidan (pilfering tables and chairs from the church, trouble shooting and then replacing parts of the AV system...). Big shout out to Julie for her amazing party planning and organizational skills, she had us all mustered and marching like the military and it was a great party!

Wonderful to see Jeff and his beautiful and accomplished kids. Tucker, come visit me and give me a golf lesson! McKenna can give Bridget some tennis pointers.

And if we didn't wear out Papa and Grandma enough, our last two days were spent at the water park, dining at our favorite restaurant (The Willow Tree!), and a trip to the beach to crash Dave & Shelley's vacation. Bill and the boys (and even Chester!) generously carved some time out of their busy schedule to come join us for a while and it was great seeing the kids play together again.

Whew. Got me tired just writing about it.

All in all, it was so nice to hug my family members, hang with old friends, do some old favorite things, and some new ones. We had many generous hosts and a lot of people who changed plans to accomodate us and we are grateful. We are sad we didn't connect with a few of you (Lisa! Paula!), but hopefully you will come visit us soon.

More odds and ends

Just spent the last five days in Aggieland (Texas A&M for the uninitiated).

It was the state long course championships for the 14-under swimmers.

I think this was the longest most drawn out swim meet I have ever attended.

As I've explained in this post, at this point in Aidan's life, we don't expect a lot out of long course season. So, unlike short course (winter/spring), he didn't have a whole bunch of qualifying times. He swam 1 individual event (50 back) and was on 2 relays (200 free and 200 medley).

As always, he swam his heart out, especially on the relays. The medley relay was the last event on the last night of competition (we'd been there five days by then), and they did awesome - I've never seen him swim so fast, or be unable to stand up after he was done. That relay took third. His free relay took fourth. His individual 50-back was a good swim, but as he's a "young" 12-yr old and also a bit of a small 12-yr old, we did not have high expectations. He's still in the top 20 in the state, so that is a lot to be proud of.

The 11-12 boys from our team got 2nd place overall for their age group in the whole meet. Our team wound up taking 6th (missed 5th by 6 points which is NOTHING in swimming). The best our team has ever done in long course season statewide is 17th. We are very proud of them all.

Since we were there five days and Aidan was only in the water for a total of 94.43 seconds and you can only watch so much swimming, we had a lot of time to kill. There is not a lot to do in College Station, TX.

We toured the campus which was very interesting. Except for the fact that Aidan (who insists he's going to UT) complained and rolled his eyes the whole time. Bridget was a trooper though, as she insists she IS attending A&M (because her riding trainer went there). I find that funny as she's so artsy and creative.

We tried a "self-tour" of the horse barns, but since no humans were on site, Bridget (who is all about The Rules) was so nervous we finally had to leave.

Besides the swimming, the highlight of the trip was visiting the Bush Library (H, not W). It was lovely with very informative exhibits.

The drive home was a real grind. The meet wasn't over until nearly 9pm.

But I'm here now, and I have about 43 hours to "turn & burn" and then head out for California. Well, make that 42 hours. I think I'll need a nap today.

Team Glynn

We are a well-oiled machine. The only way you can haul as much equipment to and from the beach as we do is to be organized and have everyone understand the process and their role in it.

We pull up to the loading zone, jump out of the car, and proceed to pull the following out of the back:

• 1 10x10 canopy
• 3 folding chairs
• 1 skim board
• 2 boogie boards
• 2 inner tubes
• 1 cooler
• 2 baskets containing books, camera, hats, sunscreen, snacks, blanket, 4 towels, sand toys, masks, fins, snorkels

Ray goes to park the car and the kids and I make like pack mules and haul it to the beach. Ray quickly catches up and the canopy goes up in mere seconds. People around us comment at how quickly we do this. Bridget arranges all the “furniture” to her satisfaction.

I could get used to this schedule. Aidan and I are up early so he can train w/ a local team. A big shout out to the Bluewater Bay Barracudas who have been so accommodating and friendly. The pool we have been going to is outdoors, apparently like most Florida swimming facilities. For some strange and wonderful reason, it is set in the middle of a woodsy swamp. This is how you get to it.

After swim practice we hit the hotel buffet – Ray and Bridget meet us there and in true Team Glynn fashion, they work as the “advance team” and scope out a table, get my tea brewing and Aidan’s waffle going.

After we’ve had a hearty breakfast we head back to our hotel room and relax for a few hours. OK – Aidan and I nap, I’ll admit it. Ray catches up w/ the news, a bit of work, and Bridget plows through the Harry Potter series.

After sufficient rest, we head to the beach and stay there until 6 or so when we finally have to drag Aidan out of the water. Last night he was trying to catch fish with his bare hands. A few days ago the kids caught a bucket full of jellyfish that have sparkly lights running up and down their bodies.

Yesterday, Ray rented a catamaran and spent a couple of hours sailing us up and down the shoreline. Aidan sailed too, as he learned how to wind surf at Boy Scout camp a few weeks ago. It was so beautiful out on the water, I loved it and loved seeing the big grin on Ray’s face as he was sailing.

It’s been quite crowded at the beach, but there is plenty of room for everyone. We wait until people start clearing out before Ray and the kids start construction on the sand castle du jour. Yesterday’s was Hogwart’s Castle complete with Hagrid’s Hut, a quidditch stadium and the Forbidden Forest.

A nice lady nearby offered to take a family photo of us, even though we weren’t wearing the requisite khaki and white.

The kids are definitely loving the beach, they play and play and play. Ray and I read and read and read. Like I said, I could get used to this!

Hello from the beach!

Photo of the day: Teaching your kid sister to ride the waves

We survived the car ride. Barely. A twelve hour trip becomes 14+ with a breakfast stop, traffic in Mobile, AL, and traffic on the one-lane bridge leading in to Destin.

We checked in to our room and headed to "The Wharf" for dinner and a whole lot of people watching. Must be wedding season because we saw at least three bachelorette parties cruising the bars, always with the bride-to-be wearing a veil. Two plate loads of raw oysters and a few cocktails later, we began to feel like we were on vacation and not on the verge of killing our goofy offspring who had gotten decidedly giddy in the last hour of being locked in the car.

Hit the beach yesterday and got my toes in the sand. Paradise. Destin is so pretty. White sand, blue, blue, blue water. Our needs are simple and it was a great day, with more to come. We finally had to pull Aidan out of the water near sunset, he'd play and swim until he dropped otherwise.

As we were packing up to leave, I saw a photographer shooting a family at water's edge. They were in white shirts and khaki pants, it was a lovely shot. Next time I glanced that way, she was shooting a couple dancing in the waves. In white shirts and khaki shorts. Coming down the stairs was a family of 3 generations, heading to the photographer. In white shirts and khaki shorts. After she shot them, she met another family on the little dunes. In white shirts and khaki shorts. Awaiting on the boardwalk were her next clients - in white shirts and khaki shorts. I guess she's got the formula down and just keeps crankin' 'em out as long as the light holds!

Today started early for Aidan and I, as we've arranged for him to train with a local swim team while we're here. It was an outdoor pool in a lovely area, nearly completely surrounded by a beautiful swamp, or bayou, or whatever it's called down here. Large trees, standing water with flowering lilly pads. The coaches were very accomodating and the kids were all so nice - it was fun to work out with a different team!

Time to hit the beach!

Odds and Ends

We are leaving in a few days to head to Destin, FL like we did last summer. We enjoyed it so much, we have to go back!

I've been gathering up all our electronics for the trip - phones, cameras, computers, game players, etc. and all their chargers, adapters, media, etc. and realized I hadn't actually downloaded photos off one of the cameras since Christmas!

So... here you will find just a few highlights of the last six months! First stop - Merry Christmas!

Remember the %&*# Elf? Well, here is a photo of Bridget and the %&^# Elf. She named him Robin. I guess he has to come back in about five months. Robin, I hardly missed ya.

Now, all you tree-huggin' liberal relatives out in California.... brace yourself for the next photo. Aidan's dearest wish was answered and he got a gun of his own. He IS a crack shot, afterall. This is a nice little gun and we've all fired it. It has 3 interchangeable barrels for fowl, deer and (hehehe...) squirrels. Now that we have a weapon in the house, I was forced to decide exactly how much damage I wanted to inflict upon any possible intruders. I think I want to do like Dick Cheney, and so when Ray is away, it's got the SHOT barrel on it so I can slow 'em down long enough to clear out and call 911.


Bridget too, is a crack shot, but of another kind. She enjoys photography. One of these days I'll encourage her to put more of her photos up on her blog. Santa answered her dearest wish and she got her very own camera.


Next we move on to Spring. You may remember we were consumed by Aidan qualifying for the Texas state swim champs. Papa Bud and Grandma Jan came all the way from California to watch him swim, and let me tell you (well, I already have), swim meets aren't exactly pleasant spectator events. But I knew it was worth all their troubles when Grandma got tears in her eyes the first time she saw him do his thing in the pool. Papa also got to have some fun in the garage with Ray and all his toys I mean tools.

Besides firearms, Santa also brought another kind of weaponry - bows and arrows. So Papa and Grandma also got to do a little of that with us.

And just in case you don't think we have enough weapronry in our house (believe me, we don't, by TX standards...), Aidan added to his arsenal for his birthday. He is now the proud owner of several "airsoft" guns. These shoot little plastic pellets and are all the rage among the pre-pubescent boys. They run around the woods shooting one another.

Papa and Grandma had sent a very generous gift at Christmas, which we tackled this Spring. It is a set-up for a zip line for the clubhouse. So many times I've composed a blog post about this in my head. Something along the lines of "If at first you don't succeed...." but we still haven't quite gotten over the heartbreak of all the effort to install the zipline and the fact that it still isn't done yet and a perfectly nice (but quite sick, unknown to us at the time) tree was harmed in the process.... So I will save the telling for another day and offer these two photos..... the one of the left is getting the "crash test dummy" (that would be AIDAN) ready to test it, and the one on the right is trying to get him out of the harness when the line sagged too much. We had a crew of workers here that day dismantling our Christmas lights and the guffaws coming from the other side of the house were hysterical. I bet they think we're nuts.

And finally, in May, it was SwineBreak '09 where our schools and many public events and activities were closed. So, the kids and I hit the road and spent a nice couple of days on the outskirts of Glen Rose, TX. There is a drive-through safari park, and a beautiful state park on the Paluxy River with many dinosaur footprints. We stayed at a nice little guest ranch and brought home some of their pasture-fed longhorn beef. Those cows graze right by our cabin.

All for now! I'll update from Destin.

Gardening

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. ~May Sarton

I haven't written about my garden in a while. Mostly because I am confused.

My first plant to bear fruit was the "Beefy Boy" tomato. I was so excited. These tomatoes are to be the base for all the flavorful sauces I'll be "puttin' up" as they start rolling off the vines.

Either the plant was mis-labeled at the garden store, or I am doing something wrong. I think they are cherry tomatoes. Nobody in my house cares for cherry tomatoes.

My tender greens came up and grew enough that I could distinguish the varieties - red leaf, oak leaf, arugula. I could even taste the difference as I thinned the rows. I could not wait for salad.

Neither could the bugs. The greens are gone. I guess I know why there are never any tender baby greens for sale at the farmer's market.

There is still some arugula left which while ridden with bug holes is still pretty tasty. Not enough for a salad, so I hide it in sandwiches where the bug holes don't show.

In the bed where I'd planted radishes, all I could find was the pathetic remains of some radish leaves that the bugs had devoured.

Full of hope, I grabbed them and pulled. One perfect radish. It was delicious.

My "Mr. Stripey" tomato plant took off like gangbusters. This would be the showstopping heirloom as the focal point of a lovely capresi salad. It is currently over five feet tall.

It has yet to produce a single bloom.

The snow peas look sickly and are probably only alive just to taunt me.

The cucumbers look healthy, and while they refuse to climb the trellis, I guess I can let them ramble, as so many of the plants in the bed are dead - there's plenty of room for them now.

The green beans really knew how to do their job. They sent up runners that twined beautifully around the trellis. Up, up, up, they grew. They've given me a few beans, but not enough to do anything with. YET. I remain hopefull still.

I talk to better gardeners than I. They are an optimistic bunch. Enterprising, always looking for a better way, hoping for a better result.

I'm a rookie. I shouldn't expect immediate success with a task that is both literally and figuratively organic. I will remain hopeful and be grateful.

But can I still curse the bugs?

Bird Nerd

My friend Cathy called me a Bird Nerd when I got all a-twitter about a rare bird sighting.

We have a motion-sensitive camera trained on one of our bird feeders.

One day, I was downloading the pictures from the camera and came upon this:

I was speechless. I didn't think any such bird existed except in the jungles. I emailed the photo to my Bird Nerd Husband and he identified it as a Painted Bunting. Apparently, these birds come to Texas and other southern states to breed. They are mostly monogamous. After breeding, they head south to Mexico where their breed is threatened as they are captured and sold to Europeans as cage birds. There are only a few confirmed sightings of this wonderful bird in Texas each year.


We now see him and his mate nearly every day. She is a pretty yellow-green color. The feeder is near a window and if anybody spots the Bunting, we all run to the window to watch this beautiful bird.

We also have had a lot of problems with squirrels. A couple of acrobatic squirrels can empty the feeder in less than a day. Through craftiness and weaponry, we've pretty much encouraged the squirrels to find their food elsewhere.

A variety of birds visit the feeder and are photographed every day. The photographs help us identify individuals. We get lots of cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, and wrens. And the birdcam has gotten some great shots! Check 'em out!

It's what it's here for

If a tree falls in the forest when nobody is there, does it still make a sound?

I used to feel that way about this blog. Well, sometimes I still do.

My reasons for blogging aren't big or important. Mostly it is because I live far from family and old friends and felt it was a little presumptuous to send the constant stream of emails bragging on my kids with all the attendant photos. I figure of anyone wants to know what's up in our life, they can come here to find out and if they don't care, they don't have to keep getting my self-important emails.

I also like to write. Sometimes I wish I actually had something important to say.

It's not that I expect hoards of readers, or anything in the way of spirited discussion.

But, for the longest time, I sort of felt like it was throwing a party where nobody came. I guess I expected more people to post comments or something. I mean, Dooce gets like 900 comments a day on her blog, I usually get ZERO. But, I'm thinking that those 900 comments really translate into, oh, I dunno, maybe a bazillion readers or something, because the last week or two, I've heard a lot of this:

Girl Scout Mommy: "I read your post about evolution, and I thought to myself, 'I have to get to know Pam better!'" Wow- and I was actually worried about offending people with that one!

Baseball Coach: "I hope you don't mind, but I clicked on that 'my blog' link at the bottom of your email. Is it OK that I read that stuff?" Of course! That's why it's there!

Neighbor at a cocktail party: "I must confess, I feel like a voyeur when I read your blog, but I can SO relate to it, your post about Bridget's singing was JUST LIKE what happened with my 20-year old 10 years ago..." Which sparked a lovely discussion from which I learned a lot about how to support Bridget in this potentially new activity which I'd never before considered.

So, to my bazillion anonymous readers out there in the bloggosphere: yes you are allowed to be here, and most importantly thanks for coming. Enjoy!

The Grainy Back-of-the-Auditorium Video

As promised in this post, here is the video of Bridget's talent show performance.

The news is all good. It was a great experience, she had SO MUCH FUN, you can tell just by watching her. She has officially gotten over her stage fright. When I tucked her into bed that night she said, "And you know what I learned? The bigger the audience, the better!" Oh lordy, I see a new journey in our future.

Enjoy the video!

A Chip off the Old Block

I started feeling a little overwhelmed yesterday. This time of year is just NUTS, I tell ya. All the end-of-year activities, trying to finish up stuff, add in the fact that we're having 4 parties in 4 weeks (just NUTS, I tell ya!) and, well, I did the UNTHINKABLE and sat down and actually wrote a To Do list.

Mostly, I carry this list (along with many others, like the grocery list) around in my head, and mostly, I do alright. But yesterday I was convinced I would be unable to get through the next 48 hours without stranding a child somewhere or forgetting a birthday gift or not scheduling time for a shower. Yes, it's that bad.

So, last night I got home with Bridget check! (after Talent Show rehearsal check! and PTA picnic check!, why-oh-why did I let her con me into going to THAT bore?) and I was cleaning out her lunchbox check!

Down beneath the uneaten carrot sticks and unused handy-wipe, I found this note. Guess she's feeling the pressure too.

And once again, I am pleased and amazed that she is developing yet another necessary life skill to help her cope with things.

I was also pleased to note that she too, had to schedule her shower into her timetable. Guess I'm not so nuts. Either that, or maybe we both are.