4th of July

Today is my last day with the girls before I leave on my trip, so we are going all-out on Family Time. This morning we went to the Games at the Community House, where Leah got 3rd place in the egg and spoon race and Leah and Rebecca got 2nd place as a team in the egg toss. We arrived late so the girls missed the three-legged race, back-to-back race, and the sack race. We also never captured a box turtle this year so we didn't have a competitor in the turtle race. The girls had a good time and we ran into some of my friends from when I was growing up in the Cliffs and we got invited to a barbeque at 5 pm. The Square Dance is at 7 pm.

While we were in the Cliffs, the children and I went to the little cabin where we vacationed last year and rescued our bikes and trike from the basement. The boiler in that house exploded and so it looks like Natalie's bike didn't survive the disaster. Apparently, the water wasn't discovered for several weeks. That's the problem with a family-owned summer cabin. When no one is using it, no one notices when things break. My brother and sister-in-law and 3 nephews were there (and Natalie and Joe were a team for the egg toss but didn't get to the final three) and I discovered that they are moving to Australia next year! First thing I thought was, whoa, that's pretty far away. Looks like a family tie that will be hard to maintain. The second thing I thought was, hey, we have people we can visit in Australia!

While I was loading bikes and the trike into the back of the truck, the girls discovered that the local wild red raspberries were ripe (these are also known as wineberries). They filled Natalie's hat with them. Unfortunately, this was Natalie's new sky blue hat with white polka dots and it now had a big red berry juice stain on it! When we got home, I found that our next door neighbor had gone berry picking and she brought over a big container of raspberries for the girls and I to enjoy. That was very sweet of her.

The girls are having lunch (hot dogs, bread and butter pickles, baby carrots, tomato soup, milk) and then naps while I work on getting all the laundry done before I go. Having decided to strip all the beds and put clean sheets on them, wash all the towels and the blankets, and do a ton of cooking as we work to use up the perishable things in the house (this morning we had crumpets with strawberry-rhubarb jam, greek yogurt with sliced strawberries, and orange juice), I now have tremendous piles of both laundry and dishes. Add to that the barbeque and square dance and I can guarantee that I'll be up into late in the night cleaning. The girls go back to their dad's house at 9 am tomorrow morning. Then I have to pack the truck, back up my hard drive, and take the dog and my remaining perishable items to my mom's house, and hit the road. Hopefully I'll be well past D.C. before the traffic for the national fireworks begins to clog the roadways. I am taking my laptop with me so I will be able to keep blogging about my trip.

It strikes me as somewhat funny that I am leaving for my road trip on Independence Day.

Happy 4th of July everybody!