Summers in Maryland
are always an endurance test for me, to see how long I can survive being
constantly overheated and sticky, with bug bites all over, needing to put on
sunscreen and bug spray over everyone before going out, just to get even
hotter, stickier, and more bites. So, when we learned that Chris would be going
on a four week long conference/summer school/networking event in Bolder, CO, I
was excited to be able to go take the kids to Seattle for those four weeks
Chris had to be gone. And since we were traveling anyway we went ahead and went
all out and decided stop by Chicago
as well.
Here are the facts:
Just a few days before leaving- trying to get packed, clean
the house, and finish errands (like a simple tire rotation from the previous
post.) Our friend’s lease on their place ended June 1st and they
needed a place to stay for their summer internship so they stayed at our house
while we were gone which was really nice to have someone mow the lawn and get
our mail, but I had to make sure we left it clean.
May 31st- We got up at 6am and drove 13 hours straight
to Chicago . The
trip took 13 hrs instead of 12 because we wanted to avoid paying about $50 in
tolls and after two terrible experiences with the Pennsylvania toll roads we
vowed to never pay them another penny (although the don’t even take pennies
because we’ve tried). The kids were good in the car, I think we only stopped
twice.
June 1st - We stayed in Naperville and rested for a day.
June 2nd – Early in the morning we went to the
airport and said our goodbyes, Chris on a two hour flight to Denver ,
and the kids and I on a four hour flight to Seattle . We were both flying southwest and
had the same departure times, so it was nice to go though ticketing and
security together. The airport was fairly busy, it took us quite awhile to go
through ticketing and security. Jack drove his Lightening car all through ticketing.
After making it through security we went to the
bathroom and then got right on the plane. Four hours later we finally landed in
Seattle and
could relax because we wouldn’t need to do anymore traveling for a month, but
we also sad not to have Chris with us as well.
Chris made it to TASI (theoretical advanced studies
institute). It's a four week long seminar/summer school/networking opportunity
for graduate students in theoretical physics. He got to sleep in dorms with a
roommate and eat in the cafeteria and everything (although the food was pretty
awesome he says.) He attended talks, did physics, and played a lot of volleyball. But I wasn’t there and don’t have any pictures so there you go.
As for the kids and me, we did a lot and have a lot of
pictures, which we’ll save for another day. Here are just a few of the general
everyday things.
Played with toys (this is pretty much a daily occurrence)
Got sick (everyone got one after another, the first two weeks someone was sick and no one was sleeping at night)
Played pool, a new favorite.
Talked with daddy
More not sleeping- all the kids (Cousins came from Alaska ! For the last week when everyone was doing better) slept in the same room. They actually did pretty well, but sometimes were a bit crazy. We know this because we had a little security camera in there so we could see what they were doing. Coolest thing ever. (you can see the little screen in the skyping picture just behind the laptop.)
Played in rocks in the backyard. Along with pool, it was a huge hit.
Played with grandpa
Roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over fire.
Read stories
Enjoyed the comfortable (not Maryland) weather! Nothing beats a PNW summer.
