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| July 4th parade |
The summer is flying by! Anna kicked off the month with her second summer class (Anatomy Part 2) along with a new job at Cafe Amouri. She also worked in a trip to meet up with her cousins in Massachusetts (more on that one in a minute). Theresa was busy with various volunteer activities, meeting up with friends and a road trip to Ohio with some strategic stops. Joe is very glad the month is nearly over following some bad luck and general annoyances.
The month started off with July 4 festivities. The weather was unusually nice this year and Anna was persuaded to join her parents for the annual Fairfax parade. The parade is normally about 1 1/2 - 1 hour 45 minutes. This year it was just over an hour (noting lots of the ethnic groups were NOT in the parade this year). There were also several marching bands missing, including bands that usually march in the national parade. There were also far fewer Shriners this year (only two mini cars to race as opposed to a fleet of stunt drivers). Everyone can draw their own conclusions from the decreased parade participation. The afternoon was filled with the traditional neighborhood festivities (July 3 gathering, July 4 field and pool games) followed by a grilled chicken dinner (Mrs. Latimer joined for that one) and the City of Fairfax fireworks. A lovely holiday weekend!
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| Theresa, Sue & Tricia |
The rest of the July saw some travel to meet up with family, or at least attempted travel). James organized a cousin gathering in Massachusetts the 2nd week of July to celebrate Luke's birthday. This event expanded to include Aunt Loren & Aunt Mary and Joe to join in. Theresa had a previously scheduled trip with friends to the Chesapeake that weekend, so Joe and Anna planned to fly to meet the group. The plan was to leave on Friday morning, July 11 and return Sunday evening. Some trips go smoothly- with all of the timing lining up. That is how we picture the trip unfolding when we book the trip. Other times, everything goes wrong. This was one of the other times. So many things went wrong including timing, ticketing, security and gate changes, resulting in missing the flight. The next available flight was not until 10:20 PM. Anna ended up taking that flight while Joe decided the fates were clearly telling him to stay home. Aunt Terri picked Anna up in Hartford, CT at midnight (a HUGE thank you for that late night pick-up).
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| Lucy, Anna, Mary & Loren |
Anna made it to Massachusetts and had a fun weekend with her cousins. The weekend was spent consuming large amounts of antipasto and playing nonsensical wiffleball games with the cousins in the backyard (with some quality heckling from Aunt Mary) She was supposed to arrive back in DC at 9:20 PM on Sunday night (also noting that she had an exam on Monday afternoon). Her flight was canceled due to thunderstorms. Thanks to help from Carly (Andrew's girlfriend), she got on a 5:14 AM flight on Monday morning. Aunt Terri once again drove her back to the airport (they left at 3:30 AM). Anna arrived back in DC bright and early on Monday morning. Major kudos go to Aunt Terri for not only one but two drives at crazy times.
Meanwhile, Joe's bad luck continued. While changing the wiper blades on his car, he dropped a wiper and cracked his windshield. He now has new wiper blades and a new windshield. He opted to lay low for the rest of the month and is looking forward to August.
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| Your friendly Wolf Trap Greeter |
Theresa continues working through her summer bucket list. She started her first volunteer shift working at Wolf trap National Park, of which Anna was very excited to turn the tables and get a "first day of work" photo in front of the tree. She and her friend Sue also did a road trip to the Northern Neck of Virginia to visit a former colleague with a great retirement home on the Chesapeake! Theresa then planned a summer road trip to Ohio to see friends and visit some sites along the way. She left July 18 and stopped at the
Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, a very moving tribute. She then stopped for lunch in Pittsburgh to see one of her former DOT colleagues. Friday night she arrived in Paulding, just in time to catch the end of Aidyn's senior picture shoot. After a few days in Paulding, the real adventure began when she and Aidyn headed back to Columbus and then on to
Hocking Hills for a few days of hiking and outdoor activity. Aidyn, who recently got his driving permit, was anxious to try his hand at driving and got some quality time behind the wheel with Aunt Theresa's car. This added a new level of excitement to the trip for all parties involved, especially on the winding roads around Hocking Hills. Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa had been working with him, so he was up for the challenge.
Theresa rented a cabin for a few days, and they were able to enjoy the many hikes and beautiful scenery of the area. Aidyn was forced to give up his video games but seemed to mostly adjust to nature. There was a close call on the last night when the internet service went out and for a brief moment it appeared that he may be forced to play board games or cards with Theresa. Fortunately,
service was restored and he was able to have some restorative YouTube time. Some of the highlights for the week included:
- Lovely hikes to Old Man's Cave, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls and Conkle's Hollow nature preserve. There was lots of rock scrambling involved.
- A ziplining tour (Aidyn is ready for the "extreme" tour next time).
- Kayaking on the Hocking River. This had a memorable ending when Aidyn exited the kayak and proceeded to walk up the hill only to slip on his slides and getting one of the slides wedged on his leg. This necessitating cutting off the slide and stopping at the local shoe store to get new slides.
- A stop in Parkersburg, WV on the way back to Virginia to have breakfast with Theresa's former Treasury colleague, Paul. Aidyn also drove over halfway back to Virginia, including in some unexpected rain.
Aidyn is currently spending a week in Virginia and seeing some of the sites. So far, he participated in the late-night pool party (we were there until 11:30), took bikes on the metro into DC to ride around the monuments, and stopped at the air and space museum by Dulles. More activities are in the works depending on the weather (it is one of the hottest days of the year in DC this week, which we know because Aidyn was providing weather updates every 15 minutes). He flies back to Columbus on Sunday.
In between, there has been much rain and stormy weather. The garden is growing, and it appears there will be lots of tomatoes in the very near future. Reports from Ohio indicate a robust garden at Grandma and Grandpa's, which means the zucchini bread is ready. Happy Summer!
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