Hi, everyone!
July has been mostly hot and dry so far. James and Thomas have a wading pool in the back yard to cool off. The water from the hose is good for the grass, too! It’s cooler when we go out to the bay, especially when we take a powerboat ride with Grandpa. I was really happy Thomas helped me up the stairs after our first ride! When we’re in Fairport, we’ve been eating on the back deck when it isn’t too hot. One day Grandma cut James’ and Thomas’ pizzas in the shapes of letters! Then everybody Facetimed with Uncle Steven as he got ready to leave their house in Brunssum.
On the 3rd of July, we went out to the bay so we could watch the Sodus Point fireworks from our dock. This year, even Thomas was big enough to stay up to see them! We stopped at Burnap’s farm market on our way back into town on July 4 to get one last batch of local strawberries. Thomas got a ride on the swing before we left! Thomas had a splinter on the bottom of his big toe that got infected, so the next day he had to go to Urgent Care. He was very brave when the doctor fixed his toe. Thomas chose the color for his bandage, so he was Thomas Blue Toe for a few days!
Uncle Steven was due to arrive on Sunday evening after the Fourth of July, so we spent some time getting ready. In Fairport, James and Thomas drew a chalk obstacle course on the driveway, then everybody added “welcome home” messages at the end of the driveway. James and Thomas practiced waiting for Uncle Steven in the apple trees, but Aunt Kara said she’d take them to the airport to meet their daddy, instead.
On Saturday, we all went out to the bay. We cleaned up the cobwebs and cottonwood fluff on the porch. Grandma cleaned up the powerboat so it sparkled! Then Grandma and Aunt Kara cleaned the sailboat before they and Grandpa launched it. Neither the powerboat nor the sailboat ever made it into the water last year at all so they were grubby! After working very hard on it, James finished all the levels on one of his Nintendo games for the first time ever!
On Sunday, we tracked Uncle Steven’s plane on the internet, so we knew where he was in the sky and when he would arrive. When Aunt Kara and James and Thomas saw him at the security exit from the airport concourse, there was so much jumping and hugging that Grandma couldn’t take a picture! James wanted his daddy to help him with a video game right away, and Thomas wanted help building a Lego set. When Uncle Steven got his laptop computer out, it was Minecraft time!
Right after Uncle Steven arrived, so did the local sweet corn crop and sour cherries! I helped Grandma get the first sweet corn of the season at Powers Farm Market. We shucked it right there before we took it home!
Grandma bought sour cherries, too! She pitted them, then I helped her make a sour cream sour cherry pie. We had a very special dinner that night on the back deck, with corn on the cob and pie for dessert!
Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara have a lot of appointments about fixing up their new house. Sometimes James and/or Thomas can go with them, and sometimes not. One “not” day, Grandma and I took Thomas to Perinton Park. I think he set his all time record for time being pushed on a swing at one hour fifteen minutes! He only stopped once, so the maintenance crew working at the park could put fresh wood chips under his swing! When everybody was back home, Grandpa made wild blackberry ice cream. Thomas watched the blackberry mix churn and freeze in the ice cream maker, so he could report when it was ready.
The annual picnic for the choir members from Grandma and Grandpa’s church was last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa took me to the bay on Friday afternoon to get ready, and we had two more sets of arrivals. First, Tilly and Moose-san came with Joe-san and Nancy-san to stay the weekend and help out getting ready for the picnic. Then Uncle David drove down from Ottawa and brought Mocha with him. On Saturday morning, Grandma and Nancy-san paddled over to Clark Creek in the kayaks. Grandma wanted to see if buttonbush blooming season had arrived, and it had!
Mocha isn’t used to having lots of people around, so she and Uncle David stayed on the porch when my choir friends started arriving for the picnic. I was happy to see so many of my friends and to make some new ones, too! We had a sprinkle of rain, so everybody moved inside for a little while. Some guests decided to stay on the porch after the rain to eat their dinners!
After such a big day on Saturday, we relaxed on Sunday! Uncle Steven took Thomas for a kayak ride. Joe-san taught James how to play darts. I had a chance to lie in the sun while I waited for Thomas to come back from his kayak ride. Uncle David and Mocha left to go home, and it was nap time for the rest of us!
Thomas got one more powerboat ride with Uncle Steven and Grandpa while Grandma did some final clean-up from the weekend. Before Moose-san and Tilly left, James and Thomas got a chance to see Joe-san’s new red car! On the way back into town, I helped Grandma and Grandpa recycle all the cans and bottles from the picnic. There were a lot of them!
When we got back into town, there was one more arrival! Uncle David’s Corvette had been shipped from California and delivered to Grandma and Grandpa’s driveway! It had been stored in a warehouse in San Francisco even before Uncle David and Aunt Emi moved to Japan. Soon it will be on its way to Ottawa!
This morning was the first day of camp for James and Thomas! Thomas is going to Peacemakers Camp at Grandma and Grandpa’s church in the mornings for the next two weeks. Last year James went to Peacemakers Camp too, but now he is too old. He is going to soccer camp this week and Camp Arrowhead next week. Everybody was ready to go early enough that they could watch videos after breakfast before they left! Grandma decided to wash Uncle David’s Corvette and asked me to help dry it. It’s nice and shiny again now! People sometimes say that the surest way to make it rain is to wash a car. Cars get dirty again in the rain! Grandma says we need the rain, so if washing the Corvette makes it happen, good!
Love,
Lion-san
Thanks, Lion-san, for sharing pics of the Choir picnic. I missed it this year because I was tired out from my trip with my granddaughter to Glacier National Park and I was also getting a cold that I didn’t want to share with all my friends at the picnic. But seeing the photos made me feel like I was almost there! Grandma Sue
This note is to Grandma. The boys are precious. I smiled at all the fun you and Lion-san are having. Pizza cut like a P is a first I’ve heard of. I am enjoying the boys vicariously. What is a button flower? What is the botanical name? Love from, Great Aunt Betsy.
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=g830
Cephalanthus occidentalis is the botanical name. I only know it as a wild plant, but apparently it is used in landscaping. See the link above.
We had a good time with all of you this past weekend! We enjoyed seeing Steven, Kara , James, Thomas, David and Mocha again. Hopefully we will see them again. It is too bad that washing David’s Corvette didn’t bring more rain. It was just a little sprinkle here although we heard it really rained on Highland Ave. and we heard thunder north in the city.