Summer: High- and lowlights

It's really hard to believe how incredibly hot we all were just last week when two friends and I took eight children downtown on the Metrorail for lunch and shenanigans.











And on the Fourth of July where we all wilted in the sun during the neighborhood parade, until the firetruck came back to spray us all, of course.











Because now we look like this!








(Blanket is snoring)











Mary picked out her kindergarten backpack on the way up.





We traveled light as always.



We went to this wonderful Congregational Church that always makes me want to pick up stakes and move here (but what doesn't?).



My friend Susanna loaned us this amazing sculling boat and we've been taking many happy laps around the bay.





And in the spirit of transparency, here are some less photogenic things we have been dealing with:
1. I've been squeezing in as much work as I can on this pesky round of article revisions that are due on July 19th, which is in six days. Thank goodness Ryan is a signal guy, because I was facing down a massive wall of Imposter Syndrome related to this FFT graph the reviewers wanted to see and he coaxed me into finishing it with a mix of know-how and genuine curiosity. We spent so much time working on this at night that I pointed out a bank of fair weather cumulus clouds the next day and commented that they looked like the high frequency end of the ozone PSD.
2. Both Wes and Charley had two days where they developed random fevers, like legit fevers of 101.7, sore throats, and headaches. When I picked Charley up at camp on Monday he was lying facedown on the table. He came home and went straight to bed. Ibuprophen and TLC did the trick though and they were back to normal in 24 hours-ish. Weird.
3. We have more medications lined up on the counter than my Baby Boomer parents, between all of James's constipation remedies, ibuprophen for adults and kids, Charley's usual meds, and some random antibiotics that the telemedicine doctor prescribed after we described the kids' strep-like symptoms. James is also on a special diet and Charley is still a vegetarian. We're such freaking hipsters but all I really want is to slap down some hot dogs and mac and cheese like a normal person.
4. The fighting. OMG. THANK GOODNESS FOR SEA AND SCIENCE CAMP FOREVER AND EVER AMEN.

All of the above is just life though. And I am so thrilled to be here, doing life in all of our favorite place with some of our favorite people.