Blazing Baseball, Ana+Ata, and Sharkshooting.

We survived baseball camp.

And by "we," I mean that Seth Nieman, descendant of the sainted sportsMom Jayne, rather than dropping his children off and heading to the gym- or brunch- as yours truly would have done; spent half a day every day for a week handing out water and snacks in blazing heat, and shouting encouragement while F+F made lackadaisical attempts at running the bases before racing back to the dugout to hang out with their friends.

I showed up for the last day, in time to be truly flabbergasted by the searing sun, and to take these happy survivors to lunch. And for ice cream, because they more than deserved it.

Afterwards, we managed a little downtime for friends,

kid karaoke and sprinkler fun,

and trips to Home Depot

(before Ana & Ata arrived for a week of fun (and yard work) while Seth did his Global Residency.

The kids soaked up the snuggles,

Star Wars performance audiences,

and beach time

(not to mention one billion trips to the pool and kid sports while I was at work, of which I have no pictures but a lot of epic stories.)

We were very, very sad to see them go Saturday morning.

So we decamped to the Susquehanna River for some "glamping" and a Hobie BOS Tournament for Seth (he had a great one, minus a small capsizing incident),

and adventuring in one of my favorite River Towns for the kids and I.

Plus a stop at the ever-popular Little Round Top on the way home. We never forget how lucky we are to live somewhere we can just "swing by" spots of immense historic significance.

Side notes, 1) parents tell their kids some obscenely dumb things at Civil War sites ("it was just a misunderstanding about how to farm" ?!?!?!), and 2) Ford thinks the Confederate sharpshooters at Devil's Den were "sharkshooters" and I refuse to correct him.

If you thought to yourself, "it also appears that Ford is wearing a Disney princess sweatshirt and carrying a Dark Saber he is using as a rifle," you would be correct.

Believe it or not, it is officially August. Happy last month of summer!

Summertime in Northern Michigan (& Beyond)

"Summertime in Northern Michigan" is a whole glorious thing, and not just in Kid Rock songs.

We spent the weekend of the fourth on Lake George, as I used to do lifetimes ago, for Jackie and Tony's uber-casual lakeside wedding, which featured lots of jumping into the lake,

wild tubing adventures, 

outrageous pool floats and even more outrageously attired wedding guests,

and plenty of Americana.

It was vintage Jackie, and practically perfect in every way.

We lucked out and were joined by Tony and Jayne on their maiden camper trip (they're practicing for Tony's upcoming retirement, and we're loving their adventure) in time for the "big" fourth of July parade. 

Then, since I had to fly back for work- which included ridiculous TJAG retirement events such as this fun run-  

and Seth wanted to pre-fish for an upcoming tournament in Ohio,

the kids got to go on a Michigan camper adventure with Tony and Jayne.

I was pea green with envy, especially that they got to go to the National Cherry Festival

(although we're glad they didn't hop on this ride),

but Jayne was awesome about sending pictures, and it looked like they all had a rip roaring good time.

I drove back out to retrieve the kids Friday night, and we said farewell to the grandparents and their camper at this hysterically terrible RV park in the shadows of a nuclear facility (they really are team players!)

and we spent the weekend (literally) in Lake Erie.

 

It was a real summer extravaganaza, full of stolen ice cream and "world famous glacial grooves,"

a lighthouse and a ferry ride to Kelleys Island,

 

and a very strange pear winery with a butterfly habitat. 

Sunday we made the haul back in torrential downpours, stopping for a muddy hike in Cuyahoga Valley National Park,

and the discovery of Pittsburgh's fantastic North Park

before frantically racing back to unpack, start on vacation laundry, and get ready for much-anticipated baseball camp and Monday morning...