Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Start of the June Adventure

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.