Summertime and the Bloggin' is Breezy

 Sometimes I don't blog because the week is too bad, and sometimes I don't blog because the week is too good. Happily, this is the latter (that means the second one. Get it? I am so funny).

Zarah and I have been friends since undergrad - she moved into a house in third year with my future husband, so she can pretty much take credit for our entire relationship. She's been coming here with the kids in the summer since Sophie was a baby and Eve and Alex (Sophie's brother) would fight over whose Sophie she was ("MY Sophie!" "No, MYY Sophie!") It would be the three kids or four, depending on Angus's baseball schedule.

We bought them matching shirts for as long as we could pull it off.

Actually, last year Zarah sent Alex to Lululemon and told him to buy himself something he liked and buy the same thing for Angus, so we're still pulling it off.

For years we would do a museum or two every trip,

Children's Museum

Museum of Nature

Agriculture Museum


(Look how YOUNG we are)

along with walking, cooking, playing in the sandbox, putting on plays, and going to bookstores. 

This was after a particularly horrendous play, in which many people got shot, possibly (and justifiably) for overacting

 At some point the kids confessed that they could take a break on the museums,so we pivoted to getting ice cream every day, which worked well for everyone, along with hiking, baking, go-karting, mini-golf, pedicures and going to bookstores.













Now they're practically all lactose intolerant, so a few years back we switched to Bluesfest, after I started going again and taking Eve and we both realized we loved it, despite hating crowds and loud noises and outdoor bathrooms. Oh wait, we ate a ton of grilled cheese sandwiches the first few years, so they must not all have been lactose intolerant yet. Anyway. Also a lot of eating, going downtown for gelato/sorbet, and going to bookstores.













So Alex hasn't been able to come the last couple of years because of school or work, and Sophie is in university in BC now and might not come home next summer, so last week was bittersweet but still awesome.

I am not the greatest with normal houseguests, but these houseguests don't care if I stay up late and sleep late, and they unload my dishwasher and walk my dog while I'm still sleeping, showering or wandering around in a daze, and we have a blast even if we're just grocery shopping or sitting around the kitchen table, and it's always the best, loudest, funniest, talkingest week.

So Zarah and Sophie got here Wednesday, and were going to see the Foo Fighters at Bluesfest that night as part of their pick-3 package. Eve and I weren't going to go because we had seen the Foo Fighters at Bluesfest a few years ago and it's always sold out and very crowded, which pushes our comfort level. I knew, thought that once Zarah and Sophie were here there was a good chance we would decide to go just to hang out with them, and we did. Zarah drove so I didn't have driving anxiety, and we got practically the last spot in my special parking lot (see last post), and had a really good time.



 It helps that we mostly do what Eve calls 'old people Bluesfest' now - take lawn chairs and don't bother going in the smushy crowd closest to the stage. There are a few bands I would still do this for, but none of them were here this year.

Sophie and Eve were prepared to guard our little patch



But we sat in roughly the same area every night and the crowd was super friendly and fun.





Thursday we were doing coffee and bookstore before going to Bluesfest that night. Now, some weather background: we have had two tornados in the past five or so years that knocked out our power for three days (first one) and knocked down our fence (second one). For a while after that I was on extreme edge every time there was a tornado watch, to the point where Matt was slightly exasperated, and nothing ever happened. One might say that I then overcorrected.



Our phones did broadcast an emergency alert while we were in the Starbucks drive-through, but it only said to take cover if threatening weather approached, and nothing looked that threatening, and we weren't the only car out, so we blithely drove to Indigo and wandered around in a book-happy stupor. Then we headed over to the library because I had a book to return and a hold to pick up. As we got near the library we started to see trees blown down and garbage scattered everywhere and started to think that maybe we had chosen poorly. Eve said "dad just asked if we have power. Do I tell him we're not home?" (to be clear, I am not making light of the fact that some people sustained house damage and lost power, just the fact that we were so mind-bogglingly oblivious).

We got home and the phone alerts went off AGAIN, and we watched some scary videos of funnel clouds very nearby and looked around at each other sheepishly, and then got ready and went downtown (minus Eve, who wasn't feeling up to it) and watched Mumford and Sons in cloudless perfect summer weather. It was a strange day.

To be continued