Alexanders first day of summer was spent at his friend Drews house. He went bowling, went to Dairy Queen, bounced on a pogo stick, and played video games while I was still finishing up.
His second day was not "fun," but we got A LOT of house cleaning things done. He and Bob started cleaning out the garage until I got home. We finished cleaning the garage and had a ton of stuff to donate to goodwill. The rest of the weekend was filled with power washing the outside of the house, cleaning inside, laundry, mowing the yard and organizing. It was great for us, but Alex was not happy.
To counteract all the non-fun, I decided I would go biking with Alex. We had a blast in the evenings exploring the neighborhood. We found bee hives, saw deer cross our path and got a great workout. We continue to ride almost every evening, with the exception of some rainy nights. I feel great about getting some exercise. It is great time spent and I plan to keep it up all through the summer. We are already planning some bike trips to Canal Place in Cumberland and on the Rails to Trail in Morgantown. Here are some shots of our bike adventures so far.
One of my favorite experiences so far was playing in a Steel Drum Band with Alexander. Since November, we have been playing in a group at the Pan Jammin' Steel Drum Studio. It is a new studio and I was going to help, but Alex seemed to take to it and want to jump in there. To my surprise, he was quite impressive with his music skills. He was able to pick up very quickly, and ended up playing the Basses (largest) in the performance. He had to stand on a stool so he could reach the drums, but it was so cute!! We played Brown Eyed Girl, Baja, Island in the Sun, and Happy!
Grammy and Pap surprised us by coming to listen to us at the Strawberry Festival. They drove down on their Harley, and got stuck in a rain storm. Most of the vendors packed up, but the band played on. We were on the stage of the Pavilion, and there was a tent covering the audience. We had a packed audience, and they seemed to really enjoy the concert! There were 3 group bands performing. It was a great experience, and I hope Alex wants to continue! I especially liked being able to enjoy my favorite hobby with my favorite kid!!! My parents were so proud to see us both up there! Bob got some great video, but unfortunately you can't see Alex.........bummer.
During that same weekend, Alex also had a baseball tournament in Midland. Sadly, we lost both games. His team was very good, and they had some great plays and hits. It was hard to see them lose. On Monday after the exciting weekend, he played in another tournament in Keyser. He was playing so well and the team had a good lead in the beginning of 8-2. In the last 2 innings, the other team scored and scored and scored and we lost just barely. It was an extremely hard loss, and the boys were crying after the game. I just hugged Alex and told him he did great and just wiped the tears. It was so hard to see and feel the loss. They tried so so hard. As the boys were packing up, a dog named Bruce and his owner walked through. He was the largest dog I had ever seen and sooooooooo cute!! He stopped at the perfect time to cheer the boys up. It was the highlight of the day!! Tears dried up and all was right in the world. Don't you wish all woes could be fixed that easy?
We also snuck in a trip to Ohiopyle (about an hour away) to meet aunt Verna for the day. We explored the hiking path, had a picnic lunch, and played at Cucumber falls and Natural Waterslide. The rain had made the river a little rough, so we had to be careful. We did a little window shopping at the stores, and Alex did a little gem mining.....well actually arrowhead mining.
We took it easy for the next couple of days by sleeping in, building a fort, watching movies, cleaning, and chilling out. On Wednesday of this week I scheduled all of our appointments. I had a doctor appointment in the morning and on the way back home, we swung through Petersburg and went to a strawberry patch. Alexander and I picked 2 quarts of strawberries and came home and looked up recipes. We decided to make strawberry bars, so over to walmart we did go. My thinking was if we were going to have a good dessert, we needed a good dinner. The whole meal took about 3 hours to prepare and cook.....Wow, do I love summer so I can have the time to plan, prepare and cook!! I made a sort of clambake on skewers. I got the recipe on Pinterest of course, and it included shrimp, corn on the cob, and Italian sausage. I was quite impressed with how it all turned out, and it made it special knowing we had a dessert that we had prepared from scratch by picking the strawberries ourselves.
Now I am up to Thursday, June 12. I am so thankful that Bob and Alex made it home safely from karate. There was a terrible rainstorm and the river flooded in the area they had to drive through! Roads were washed up and looked like rivers, waterfalls came from the banks and flooded houses and stranded several cars. It was quite scary to see all the pictures afterward. I was teaching at an Arts Camp in the evening and Bob brought Alex to me after karate. He told me about what had happened, and then when I got home I realized just how lucky they were to get through at the time they did. God was watching over them and many others out on the road.
Today is June 13 and we slept in until 10am. It was much needed! I will try to post throughout the summer our little adventures.
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