it was fourth of july in the time of COVID, which means no parties, parades, or large gatherings. it was fourth of july in the time of america's racial disparities awakening, which means a lot of searching for meaning, truth, and transparency in our country's history and current culture. it was a quiet holiday.
our annual triathalon was cancelled, so we slept past the usual 7 am start time, and gathered with 4 friends and did the triathalon route on our own, and it was super fun.
even though the field was small, there were trophies. there are always trophies.
later, we put all our old toys out on the driveway and tried very very hard to given them away to every young child on our street. we got rid of a lot of good stuff.
after a final stuff delivery to kate's house and a socially distanced afternoon cold beverage, i grabbed a wagon ride home....
...just in time for a most amazing backyard meal.
don't get me wrong: any food is a treat when shared with dear friends, but when those dear friends happen to be an award winning chef, then the food is a really really big treat.
poor james really struggled during this meal. the smell of the meat, particularly the lobster, almost killed his poor vegetarian heart. the stabbing of the live lobsters might have been the thing that set him off....
later that night, we walked to a neighbor's house to watch some little home fireworks in the driveway. it was a pretty good day.
later that weekend, we beat the heat in our bright plastic flotilla,
and we peeped at rainbows from the rooftop.
james got to attend a real camp this week: the annual favorite skate park camp, all outdoors and naturally socially distanced, was the perfect camp for this summer. he worked so hard all week. it was amazing to watch his growth.
on one particularly pretty sunset stroll, we snuck into the new backyard, just to double check that the view was still good. it is. it's still good.
then me and this little skateboarding mohawk-and-mullet dude went to the park to finish that sunset.
we brought along this little furry dude, too.
the rest of the week included gardening and the discovery of this mutant jalapeno,
lots of unstructured time for the kids, which lead to a lot of water balloon play (pictured here: the balloon toss)
and in my packing, i have come across SO MANY things that i should probably throw away but then linger over and get a little teary eyed. take, for example, this little platypus art project that james brought home from school last year. remember school? remember when the kids did things and created with others, saw teachers, came home and amazed us with their new knowledge and talents? like making a very charismatic little platypus out of a toilet paper roll? i love this little platypus. forget it. i'm not throwing this one away. actually, i still might. or not.
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