Dog Days of Summer

After a being on the move for much of late June and July, it has been nice to be home in Vermont.  Because Labor Day is "late" this year, the craziness of Trek was delayed a bit and John was able to spend some time doing some of the things he doesn't usually get to do, like Valley Stage-- a local, family friendly bluegrass festival:

Picnic time with the First kids

         

While John was gearing up for Trek, the kids and I put in some hard time at various pools.  Cally figured out how to make a hammock with a towel on a fence-- a cool place to hang during "adult swim" at Maple Street Pool.

We did manage to get to Circus Smirkus:

We also checked off another item on our summer "bucket list"-- cub bike races at Catamount

Rainbow Bike Race

Before everything started to get really busy, I got to get away with five of my favorite ladies and run the 100on100 relay.  And making it extra special, was celebrating Caroline's 40th birthday!  We ran through heat, humidity, and thunderstorms, but it was such a fun experience.

We met up with the Meyer cousins at Waterbury Reservoir for a fun day of beating the heat:

Underwater "boyagers"

        

Wrestling fun

 Once Trek training gets started, the kids look forward to several events-- their favorite being the dress up bowling night:

Amongst the chaos of Trek training and my school year starting off, we managed to host 8 house guests!  Our good friends Tim, Sophia, Beckett, and Iris passed through the area for a few days with their friends.  The heat was high, but we romped at North Beach and joined John's trek leaders at a BBQ on the beach.

Once John's trek students and leaders were in the woods, we took a deep breath and tried to get our ducks in a row for the start of the school year, no childcare for the kids (Tammy was away), and a drastic change in our "schedule".  I think we were all ready for a little more structure in our lives.  The kids were starting to fight more, they were wanting to see their buddies more, and I was also ready to settle into a routine again (although that usually takes a little while).

We did manage to do one last fun event before the first day of school.  The Cleary's, up the road, had a Pop Up Fire Show to raise funds for a trip to Burning Man in Nevada.  It was certainly an experience: