It's Been Too Long! Summer 2026

Highlights

• End of school and the art show and the end of year concert. The concert was amazing! So fun!

• The first school musical, Bounce, was really impressive
• School was finally out in mid-June
• The annual trip to Lewes

• Friends: attended Cora’s end of season softball championship game. They won! Water play here and there with the neighbors. Playdates for Zach since he came home on the last day of 4th grade teary-eyed. We’ve gotten together with Santiago and Noah, and he’s been in camp with Theo and Henry. Adrian was also at Day Camp, and he’s played basketball and seen some of Jackson and Adrian at games and practices. Zach had a couple afternoon playdates with Theo and Henry and got to spend the night at their house when our AC died
• Visits to Mom and Dad in June with Emily and Zach and July for me!
• The World Cup

• The bi-annual visit to Roanoke with Paige: loved meeting John and learning about his connection with Frank and his son’s with Zach. John and Frank have the exact same birthday, and his older son was born on the same date as Zach! Paige and I ran across a fawn in downtown Bedford, VA, and we enjoyed the Southern India tasting menu at Bloom - a new restaurant for us. We had watermelon salad and gazpacho, and listened to the countdown of the top 250 songs of the 70’s - 2000’s on 102.3 The Hook out of Charlottesville!

• 50th Birthday Celebrations included the dinner with Paige in Roanoke, flowers from the farmer’s market, brunch with Zach at Godrey’s and watching the World Cup at the Old Brogue Inn. Auntie Em made dinner for me, and we all met at her house and enjoyed miso chicken, fresh bread, baba ganoush, and a chard and bean dish. We all watched The Greatest Showman, and finally, on my actual birthday, we tried out the new Indian restaurant, Masti, in the Town Center. 
• Pool visits and Water Mine time for Frank and Zach

Soccer

• End of year soccer party - Kyle’s mom was articulating all my fears. Sons aren’t close to their mothers. Once they leave elementary school, they’ll have no relationship with us. And I liked her a lot and was glad to get to know her since I’d seen her only one other time!
• The party was fine and strange and the end to a very weird season. I hugged people when I left, and I am not a hugger, so that was interesting. I don’t think there would have been any hugs, if I hadn’t taken the initiative. Amy and Paul were amazing hosts, and Amy got a cookie cake with the boys’ faces on it. Amazing!

Food and Cooking

• Leni shared her black beans
• Auntie Em made us beans and rice
• Purple barley
• Pesto
• Watermelon
• Zucchini hash
• Brownies
• Pesto grilled cheeses
• Magical fruit salad
• Watermelon coolers
• Blackberry cobbler cookies
• Blue Chicken Bakery’s sour dough bread, Earl Grey bun and pecan butterscotch scones and butterscotch cookies - yum!
• Homemade nachos with liquid cheese and refried black beans

Zach: Of Note

• Crocheting is on hiatus except for the two Making Circles, one in June and one in July
• Ended out the school year with fantastic teachers and his best year yet. Thanks to Ms. Edmiston and Sra Rice. Next year he’ll be in the part-time Advanced Academic Program and taking 6th grade math. I had a nice chat with the AAP coordinator, Ms. Citron
• Zach went on his Safety Patrol field trip on the Monday after school was out!

• Zach got invited to his first sleepover, which didn’t work out, but wow! With Jackson and then he kind of had a sleepover with Theo when our air conditioning died. In the end, he slept with me most of the night, but we all slept at their house, and Claire made me two great lattes!
• Frank and Zach got out camping again - this time near-ish Canaan Valley/Davis, WV and got out on the boat with Michael and Sisi
• Zach enjoyed time with Grandad around the 4th of July, and Frank and Zach went to the fireworks.
• Zach finished up his Invisalign time and got his retainer on July 6
• Camp, camp, and more camp - Reston Day Camp and Camp Goodtimes on the Road,  Sportsters, and MVP baseball camp

• Hanging out with the neighbors from July 23-25 with baseball, laser tag, games outside and inside, and bike rides.

Enjoying

• The Mending Summer
• The First Ladies
• Shrill
• Little House on the Prairie and Stamped from the Beginning
• Restart with Zach
• Gravity Falls
• Family reading time

Challenges

• Dead car battery when we got back from Grand Cayman
• The big storm that came through and brought down trees and limbs.
• Car registration stuff and then the stickers never came, but I had a positive experience at the DMV in AAA in Tysons! 
• I described “my vibe,” and as I continued to chat with Claude, the AI referred to my vibe as “pretentious.” Too funny!
• The AC died on a hot day with hazardous air quality, and Frank and I spent most of the day meeting with HVAC companies. In the end, we got the AC replaced by early evening on Saturday, and they brought us a window unit to keep the house bearable. Frank and Callie stayed at the house, and I slept at the Zuazo house. Luckily Rachel and Erik and family were out of town, so we could work and hang out in their cool house. Frank and I even got to watch an episode of Ted Lasso
• Canadian wildfire smoke led us to postpone our vacation and time with Paige in Michigan. :(
• GoCanvas’ CEO is leaving. Sigh. 

Fun Stuff

• My partnership with neighbors to build community is going strong. Leni, Megan and I are meeting regularly, and we had our first “Making Circle” in June. We have one in July and August. Beth came and hosted the July circle. 
• Coach Kevin was gone for two weeks and I recruited Russel and Katie to coach the games while Kevin was away
• Phone calls with Mary Kay and Kathleen and regular catch-ups with Nikki and Angela
• I inspired a neighbor with my calisthenics.
• Short walks/chats with neighbors: Susan K. and Leanne and Ava
• Auntie Em’s garden is inspiring others too!

Health stuff

• Keeping an eye out for ticks
• Foot stretches
• Jumping rope and Darebee
• Doctor’s appointments: Megan at Saville and Dr. Davis
• New therapists in the mix

Succulent in a pot Zach made!

Caribbean Adventure: Grand Cayman (May 24-31, 2026)

Grand Cayman - What a trip!

• Frank’s 50th birthday celebration took us on the Metro to spend the night close to National airport for an early morning flight. Up at 3:30am, we made it to the airport and headed to Orlando. We enjoyed the views from the plane on all the flights. 
• Hot, hot, hot in Grand Cayman, and it started raining! As Frank said just before our trip the weather forecast was “dull and dreary.” On day 1 the early morning caught up with Frank, and he took the pouring rain pretty hard.

• Wild chickens everywhere - apparently the population got out of control during the Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Also, quite a few outdoor cats.
• Buzzed in at the grocery. On Sunday’s stores over a certain size must be closed, so our only option was a smaller grocery.
• Driving on the left side of the road. Lots of round abouts, Frank did great. 
• Hot, hot, hot. The temperature never really varied, so it was just hot all the time. 
• I got mosquito bites on my evening walk and Day 1. I put on bug spray after that.
• After Day 1, it was still hot, but not as bad. We all got out paddle boarding and kayaking. We took our snorkel gear and headed to Starfish Point. 

• Overall, we explored the entire island on our trip. We were really happy we stayed further away on the remoter side of the island. 

• We visited the Cayman Turtle Centre, had lots of outdoor lunches, and listened to local radio. We enjoyed fruity beverages and beaches all around the island. 
• As a family, we took the Slip and Slide boat tour and got to go down a slide into the water and snorkel further out. The guide on this boat trip informed us of several crazy things. One, the mosquitos used to be so bad on the island that livestock suffocated. Because the mosquitos were so bad, fisherman took their catch out to a sandbar off the shoreline, and all the fish guts over time attracted the sting rays, creating Sting Ray City. 
• Frank and Zach had a couple days on their own, and they visited more beaches and took the tour to Sting Ray City. 
• On our last day, we visited the Pedro St. James National Historic Site and learned about the first settlers on Grand Cayman. They made their fortune by making rope.
• I was proud of how we took advantage of local food. We bought local juices, mangoes, and coconut water. We bought local peanuts, lots of plantain chips, and ginger beer and had ginger beer floats as recommended to us by a couple on our Slip and Slide tour. I used the mangos to make a fruit salsa, and we had lots of avocado with beans and rice. The restaurant next door had a fantastic slaw and beans and rice! On the last night, I wanted ice cream. Zach was hoping for lemon sorbet, and we wanted to make one more round of ginger beer floats. While Frank was trying to “bring us back to reality” from our vacation diet, I announced that excess was about to take place as we had a little of three different frozen desserts!

• We gave all of our leftovers to a family we met on the last night. We commiserated on the cost of food on the island.