It’s been so long now, I can’t even remember how July started. Other than Maya’s swim team practices, we had a bit of a camp reprieve at the beginning of the month. So it only made sense that I would get sick.
It started out benignly enough with a little sore throat. Then some congestion was added. My body felt like it does when I have a fever, but I don’t think my temperature got much beyond the 99s. We had bought all the stuff to make a swanky lobster bisque on 4th of July, so I muscled through that, though I mostly just wanted to rest. Then because I didn’t feel well, no one in our house bothered about fireworks. It was a very subdued celebration of our country’s independence.
The next day, I’m not even sure why, I decided to take a COVID test. I haven’t had a test come back as quickly or as affirmatively positive as this one did. I was in the middle of texting Sean to see how long you were supposed to wait for a line to appear when I noticed it rapidly and boldly emerging next to the control line. Thankfully no one in the house got sick. Because COVID wasn’t even really on my radar, I wasn’t being obsessively cautious, and I was under the weather for a few days before it occurred to me to test.
Our month was pretty low key. We watched the movie Chef with the kids, and were inspired to make Cubanos, courtesy of a youtube recipe from Brian Lagerstrom. The pork was divine, and bread was exactly what I want from sandwich bread. The kids were largely content with just pork and bread. Sean and I went in for the whole mustard, cheese, pickle, pressed sandwich thing. It was a good experience.
Ian had been watching a show called, “Is It Cake?” The premise is that these incredibly talented baker/artists make cakes that legit look like real life objects and in a comparison, contestants have to decide which is actually cake. Ian decided that he’d like to try his hand at cake decorating. We started simple with an iced chocolate cake. He has asked to try a confetti cake next.
The weekend of the 14th, Maya had her last of three swim meets on her fun summer league. Her favorite stroke is butterfly, but she’s fastest at backstroke. In fact, if she weren’t so worried about bonking her head on the wall (a real concern, to be sure), she’d be very fast. I hear this backstroke speed is hereditary (her dad).
The next week, both kids had camp. Ian went to a Lorcana camp at the comic book store, which by all accounts he adored. Maya tried out a songwriting camp. She’s musically very talented and competent, but she very much prefers to do things on her own rather than in a group. The group aspect of songwriting camp was going to stretch her a bit, and I think Sean and I were both apprehensive about how well she’d like it. We needn’t have worried. Every day she was excited to go, and when we picked her up, she’d babble endlessly about all the things they had done that day. She’s already planning to go back next summer and has been working on Ian to try it out too.
The evening of the 19th, after camps were all done, we loaded up the car and headed partway to Alabama for Camp Lollipop. Maya and Ian would spend the week hanging out with their grandparents. We would spend the week working from Alabama. It seemed like a good arrangement.
Our hotel in Shreveport had a lot of “character.” The AC didn’t work, the blackout shades didn’t black out, and to top it all off, the coffee machine didn’t work. Oh, also, the clock was wonky – it was always 2:25p, no matter what. We weren’t really there long enough for it to matter much; mostly it was a place for us to sleep a bit, so no big deal.
Lolli and Pop had a dance that Saturday evening, but we managed to roll into Homewood in time to see them a bit before they headed out. After much dithering, we tried a place called Sam’s Deli for dinner. Sean and I loved the dinners we ordered. Their falafel was amazing! The kids were maybe less excited about the chicken fingers they got from there.
On Sunday, we rested, at least in the morning. The kids chose Nothing But Noodles for lunch, and it was on the way there that we learned the startling news that President Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race against Donald Trump and had endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris instead. It’s one of those historic, unprecedented kinds of things that can’t help but dominate the lunch conversation. And the kids seemed to be listening too, because they definitely had questions.
Pop took the Maya and Ian to the pool, much to their delight. If someone would take them to the pool every single day, I think they’d be happy. Our fun event for that evening was to go see the Despicable Me 4 movie at the Grand River Drive-In in nearby Leeds.
They have a really nice set-up there. There’s sort of an attached food court area where you can secure food and drinks from a handful of eateries. We went to fetch the family some dinner to eat during the movie and holy wow were they out of everything the kids might have liked. There was no red sauce for pizza and their fryer was out of service so no french fries. It was tricky finding food the kids would eat, but we more or less managed.
When we got back, the movie was just starting, so we missed a little of the beginning, but no big deal. The kids were there with Lolli and Pop, so they saw it. Our car was a little fussy. To hear the audio, we tuned to a particular FM frequency, but in accessory mode, our car just kind of shut off every so often and our audio had to be re-started. For us at least, it was a little hard to hear unless we were sitting inside the car. If we were to do this more frequently, we’d need to find a good audio solution for chilling out near the car in our lawn chairs. There was definitely plenty of room for us to do that. Still, everyone had a really good time. Gru and the minions are a hoot, as always.
On Monday, Sean and I set up to work, and Lolli and Pop took the kids to the Cook Museum of Natural Science in Decatur for the day. Maya and Ian’s favorite part of that experience was getting to work a mining sluice. They got a sack of mining dirt and sifted off the dirt in the running water to see what sort of gemstones had been hiding in their bag. Ian tells me one of his is an emerald, so that’s pretty exciting. Then, after all that fun, Lolli took them for their obligatory run to the pool.
That evening, the kids chose Okinawa Sushi for dinner. I think Okinawa may be the kids’ most eagerly anticipated meal when they visit Lollipop. They get cool Ramune sodas, excellent sushi, and even miso soup. What’s not to like!
After Okinawa, we went to Big Spoon Creamery for ice cream, mostly at my request. I don’t crave sweets often, but every once in a while, I love a good ice cream. They had a unique variety of flavors. Ian had a basil flavored ice cream that was to die for. Maya, with her coffee affinity had one called caramelatte. I had a corn and blackberry one, and Sean had the peach and bourbon cobbler flavored ice cream.
Pop had been starting to get sickly already on Sunday. By Tuesday, Lolli was well into her illness as well. It was decided that in the best interest of everyone, we should head back home. We worked through the day and then loaded up and headed halfway home that evening, finishing our drive on Wednesday. The drive home was uneventful, though the kids were sad their visit was cut short.
We pass the time on long road trips by listening to audiobooks with the kids. On the way out, we listened to Swindle, by Gordon Korman, which was geared to younger kids. It was maybe a hair boring for the adults, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. On the way back home, we started listening to Divergent, by Veronica Roth. They really seemed to get into this one, so while it may seem a little “old” for a 9- and 11-year-old, for ours it was spot on.
We mostly used our unanticipated extra time at home to try to pack for our big summer vacation ahead of time. We wouldn’t be flying out till Monday the 29th, so for a change, we had time to lay everything out, check and double check that we were remembering necessary items for specific outings, and even purchase a few last-minute things. It was as un-chaotic as packing for a trip has managed to be, since we’ve had kids.
And then we flew to Hawaii.
