Dear reader, your illustrious writer has just returned from two weeks away from home. And I have returned to a house with non-functioning AC and a hurricane bearing down, so. It’s a testament to how tired I was of travel that I am thrilled to be here. Sweaty but thrilled. Right now I’m watching Father Brown with my FB buddy (Jack, generally my tv pal), after having made brownies and muffins and chili and roasted red pepper soup, all because I was so chuffed to be back in my kitchen.
Part of my trip away was business, and part pleasure. I headed north to NYC to take a deposition, and flew from there to Charlotte, NC to attend a dance competition with my kiddos and my nieces. From there we drove to my in-laws’ place a few hours away, and we were there for the Fourth. I flew from there back to NYC, where I was for about a week, and at last I am back home. This was a packing challenge to be sure, and I had to use the hotel laundry as I ended up extending my NYC stay somewhat, so it’s great to be back in the land of clean undies and full-sized shampoo bottles.
Big Apple 
Times Square
The dance competition was lots of fun. My six year old niece was competing – all business, very serious about her performance. After “winning” an arm wrestle against a full sized adult, we all pretended to marvel at her strength and she flippantly declared, “well I AM a DANCER after all.”
We weren’t too sure about how the boys would handle sitting for hours in a dark auditorium watching all of the competitor teams. But they had a great time! And they sat pretty still! My niece did great, although one of her little dance colleagues had a puking session right before they went on. However, just like Kerri Strug, up she went and did her part! My niece Harper had quite the crew in town – her aunt and uncle (me and the Prof), three cousins (my kids), her grandparents on both sides. We all cheered, and she and her team won Elite Gold!
DANCE MACHINE 
My niece in her full makeup and hair, choosing a McD’s Happy Meal toy. 
Paw Paw B and his lady!
After the dance competition was over, we headed off in the car to our home for the week. The boys jumped straight in the pool as soon as we got there – a very inviting place on a warm July day.
The week proceeded as these summer weeks do – countless hours of swimming, occasional ventures out for lunch. Some cupcake decorating, some ice cream eating, dinners and chats and kids playing, fighting, and playing again.
At one point, we had a visit from a friend and her twin babies. These boys just turned one, and they are just the darlingest darlings. I wanted to hold them and sniff their heads, but they – being Very Busy Toddlers – would have none of it. They did quite a bit of exploring, and we sent her home with some blinky noise-making toys that were no longer required in our house full of big kids.
On the actual Fourth, we enjoyed a steamy and lazy day by the pool. On July 3, I learned that I would be in trial starting July 10, so I had to cram a lot of work in. But I did my best to spend some focused time with my sons and nieces, too. I swam with the boys, and had chatty moments with them. I drew pictures with my nieces, and braided their hair. I even got some time with my canine “nephew” – a giant Labradane named Beaux who is the biggest, clumsiest, sweetest old galoot you ever saw.
We took the obligatory billion pictures of the cousins in matching, holiday- appropriate attire. They were miserably slapping mosquitoes and whining about sun in their eyes, and we barked unsympathetic orders to SIT STILL and SMILE, and after about 700 shots we got a few that weren’t terrible.
And a few that were.
They decorated cupcakes also, which was a prime opportunity for Family Fun Photos.
My brother-in-law got in on the fun.
Most nights, my children’s grandmother read to them from a Berenstein Bears book. They were rapt.
The boys left for home on Friday. I had to fly to NYC on Sunday and did not fancy a 10 hour drive just before. As it turns out, I also had quite a bit of trial prep work to do. So I stayed, and flew straight to NYC from my in-laws’ place on Monday. I spent much of Friday and early Saturday working on trial prep, including in the library.
On Saturday, we met my SIL at Panera for lunch, and then she took me home to her place for one night. It was lovely – they invited friends over and my BIL made the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. We all had some drinks along with our fried food, and played a game where we take turns picking songs to play. The song has to be linked somehow to the song before, in any creative way you can think of – so we had lots of fun with that. I went to bed not too late, as my flight to NYC was the next morning and there is nothing worse than hungover flying.
The Chef 
Shenanigans 
Picking a song 
Four Roses deliciousness 
Fried chicken assembly
The next day, off I went to NYC, and I became buried in trial prep. Our first day of trial was on Wednesday, and I flew home Thursday, to a house with a malfunctioning AC unit and a pending tropical storm/hurricane. I have only just today fully emerged from trial and now I’m worried about flooding. Augh.
We are enjoying board games, cooking, our (my) tabletop oscillating fan (NO AC SO HOT SEND HELP), and peering out the window occasionally at perfectly sunny skies. It’s a tad windy but so far so good – cross fingers and toss salt over the shoulder that it stays that way. We are on pretty high ground, so not too worried about anything but losing power. But since we have no AC, we’re halfway there already anyway, so . . .
Just four more weeks until the boys are back in school. We still have a trip to my parents’ place in Nashville to look forward to, and after that I have the rest of my trial coming. Zoom goes 2019 – 2020 is fast approaching!