I would have to say that, in terms of building summer memories for ourselves and for the kids, we’ve had a pretty full season. As I type this, Erin has boarded a plane in London and is heading to New York. Nine hours before that, she had woken up on her arrival to London from Hong Kong. Her month in Mongolia is something she won’t soon forget, that for sure.
And while the kids have been super troopers, dealing with a single-parent home (plus loads of help from the grandparents; this would not have been possible without grandparents), they’ve had memories too. They’ve had art camp, three weeks of Y summer camp, and two weeks of science camp. They went into Toronto with me and saw the Mythbusters exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. They sailed a tall ship in Toronto’s harbour. They saw The Music Man at the Drayton Festival. And, of course, they started off this summer spending two weeks in California, experiencing the Pride Day parade in San Francisco, camping under the stars in the Sequoia National Park, and building sandcastles in Pismo Beach.
Myself, I experienced all of that (save for the camping under the stars). I also visited Sacramento and Historic Folsom to visit the California Railway Museum and ride the region’s LRT. I saw Inside Out twice (and I cried both times). I saw Ant Man, Mr. Holmes and Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso by myself, and Erin and I got to view Ex Machina.
There were even home renovations, thanks again to the kindness and dedication of grandparents. Thanks to Rosemarie, Michael and Pat, we have a swanky-looking bathroom. Thanks to a lot of frustration and sore muscles, we also have a new Ikea loft bed for Vivian. There’s also a nicely repainted sunroom.
Many people say “time flies when you’re having fun”, but others have noticed that time sometimes slows to a crawl when you look back on a week or a month full of activity. Looking back, even though its only been two months, it seems like nearly forever since the girls and I set out from the Region of Waterloo airport to meet up with Erin in San Francisco. All told, when school starts tomorrow, it will be a breath of normality.
Also, it will be a lot cheaper.
Photos of the Paris Fair can be found here. Photos from the summer, and more, can be found here.
