The middle of the summer is a busy time for us. Father’s Day falls the weekend before both Susan and Morgan’s birthdays, which rolls right into the Fourth of July. Instead of going in depth, I thought instead I’d summarize the past two weeks.
Our “two weeks of busy” kicked off with Father’s Day. Among other things, Susan, the kids and I went out for lunch and then visited Factory Obscura or the first time. Factory Obscura is… hard to explain. Essentially it’s a series of rooms filled with multimedia art all loosely tied together with a common theme (mixtapes). It is the distant relative (second-cousin?) of Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf, which we have also visited. It was a blast to visit, and I had a great weekend spending time with everyone.
With the addition of the pool, everything right now seems to revolve around swimming. For Susan and Morgan’s birthdays, we invited our families over to swim. Our niece’s birthday also falls in the last week of June, so we were glad that she and her family could join us as well. I am sure that 2021 will be remembered as the year of the pool. For her birthday, Susan got floaties for the pool, foam noodles for the pool, a Bluetooth speaker that floats in the pool, a thick pool towel, and a serving tray that floats in the pool.
Two days later, Morgan had a joint birthday party with a friend of hers who shares the same birthday. Morgan and her friend each invited several kids over, who all swam before retreating to the movie room. Susan and the other birthday boy’s mom sat outside supervising the pool while I did exactly what every sixteen year old wants — hid in my room and played on my computer.
A few days after her birthday, Morgan passed her driving test and got her driver’s license. Although some tag agencies have a months long backlog to get your license, Morgan was able to take her test at the driving school she attended and was able to circumvent the long wait. When I took Morgan to the tag agency to have her license made, two women waiting outside voiced their disapproval that we were able to be seen without an appointment.
When our kids were younger, the Fourth of July was a big deal. We always bought small fireworks (firecrackers and sparklers) for the kids and went out to watch a big firework show. We almost always attended Yukon’s Freedom Fest, and built floats for the children’s parade each year (winning almost every year we entered).
This year, we didn’t do any of those things — in fact, on the evening of the fourth, none of the four of us were in the same place. Morgan, with the lamination on her driver’s license still warm, left to hang out with some friends. Mason went with some friends to Six Flags in Texas. Susan went to the lake to hang out with her mom and sister, and I stayed home and watched movies with the sound cranked up to drown out the sound of fireworks being detonated by my neighbors for hours upon hours. (Seriously guys, midnight is late enough.)
After a busy week, things have settled down. Birthdays are over and the Fourth has passed. Now it’s back to normal, back to work… and back to swimming!