Kicking off the first day of summer break feeling truly refreshed already which is, I'm hoping, a great sign that it's going to be a good one this year. The previous months have already been pretty packed and have flown by, Brendan and Oli went to another stop motion camp and had fun although I'm still waiting to see more of their work. Oli has shown me a couple of shorts but it's just enough to wet the palate and leave me wanting more.
They've also both done pretty well in swimming lessons, I'm finally less worried about losing Bren to the waves at the beach.
Oliver spent a week at sailing camp and I'm really proud that he survived being capsized and was able to right his little boat and get himself back in it, great stuff all around.
Negative points for not getting out to the pool and stuff as much with Miles so I'll have to pay extra attention to spend the more time with him at the beach this week, he loves the water as much, if not more than I do.
He's been making pretty great strides behavior and communication wise and while that's great it has a way of letting him blend into his routine in the background which is less great. Which reminds me, he's been doing really well with this cheap off the shelf word board that Shardé picked up for him, it's very simple and only has a few dozen words but since there are no apps to distract him the battery is never dead so he's always able to use it.
I think that we can make something very similar with a piZero or nano or something that could compete with the ipad apps but with the added benefit of having no other distractions on the device, best of both worlds. Something to work on when we get back from the beach.
Getting back to our busy summer though I want to make sure to mention our trip to the Nats game. Derick from KLA invited Oli, Brendan and I to come see the Yankees at the Nationals Park in DC so of course I said yes and dragged the kids somewhat reluctantly along for the ride.
The trip there was mostly uneventful except for it being Oli's very first time on an extremely packed train, probably terrifying for him and if I had to do it over again I would wait for a car with fewer riders. In the moment I pushed us all onto that train despite it being over capacity because I was worried about being late to meet with Derick and there was a rush of people behind me also trying to get on, but no excuses. That one is on me.
I would like to try to go again and either go earlier, wait for a less packed car, or both.
Those are the highlights that I can remember off the top of my head at, we'll call this the halfway point of summer, pushing it I know, but the MLB all-star break was just a couple of weeks ago so I hope that the judges will allow it.
Going into the second half my goal is to keep the momentum up, get the kids back on their bikes, spend more time with Miles, work on some simple robotics projects, take lots more photos than I have been, and try to make as many memories as I can.
I'm going to truly try to disconnect for a couple weeks, in the past I've only unplugged from work while continuing to keep up with the news, but I need break from the daily outrage machine.
Signing off for now, stay safe out there.