I dabbled a bit in the garden some mornings, but mostly we stayed in. I worked an extra half day on Monday, and by the afternoon, the girls and I were ready to jump in a lake. Or a pool. We choose pool, and went to the local water park, which used to be the local pool (and was a lot less expensive to get into back in the day!) J swam like a fish, and L did things that she never had before, like go down the water slide and swim under water under the raining mushroom. So we finally made it to the pool by the last part of July. Whatever.
On Thursday, our designated Outing Day, we scrapped the idea of outside touring for the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, just 40 minutes away. We got to take a 30 minute ride on a restored electric trolley through the countryside, then quickly walked through the Children's Garden right next door. We continued on to do some back-to-school clothes shopping and went to Toys-R-Us as the girls had saved up for a toy that was currently BOGO.
After work on Friday, we loaded up the van, stopped by the Hex House for Grandmom, and started our journey to Ephrata in the 95* heat. We arrived at the home of my Aunt sometime after 9 PM. The following day, my Aunt hosted myself, 4 of my cousins, another Aunt, my mother, and 8 cousin-and-a-halves for brunch and water play. She had set up a virtual water park in her back yard, complete with Kidwash, pool, slip-n-slide, water guns, bubbles and water balloons. By the time the temps were nearing 100*, it was time to shed the wet clothes, climb back into the HOT van, and drive 10 minutes to my Grandpa's apartment.
We talked with Grandpa about birds, gardens, house projects, my brother's imminent move, my job, the girls' school, blue crayfish and coal mining. I hadn't seen him since Grandma's funeral back in October, and I thought he was actually looking a bit better since then. It was good to see him smile again!
We kissed Grandpa goodbye and dragged our tired bodies out to the even HOTTER van, and turned South and West toward our corner of the world. Once we made it over the mountains in Maryland, with a brief stop at Sideling Hill, the temperatures dropped 10 degrees and everything looked pleasantly greener. We returned home to discover that it had rained significantly in our absence and cooled things off a bit.
Today was humid and hot again...typical for a Pennsylvania summer. JP and I picked beans this morning, and snapped them (with L's help) while watching a movie this afternoon. At the moment, I am waiting for the pressure canner to cool off, so I can see if my first attempt at canning beans was successful.
Thus ends another full summer week!
