Summer 2009

Evidently summer in Boston doesn't always happen. This was news to us. It didn't not get above 70 degrees for any sustained amount of time until the end of July. It rained and was cloudy the whole month of June. Where did I move to, Seattle?!? All in all, we had about 4 weeks of warm weather, to the point of needing the air conditioner. By the end of August the temperature was back on the way down.

We did a lot of traveling over the summer as well: KY, FL, AL, and Barbados.

May, KY: This was a short trip, just a long weekend really. Kevin graduated (again) from EKU and we flew in to see that. Robert's parents, sister, 1 nephew, cousins, aunts, grandma all came up for the ceremony and afterwards we went bowling. Because we were in the state, my parents came too. Amazingly, this was the same time my brother was on vacation at home so we saw him as well. It was just like old times. Nine of us in a hotel room eating pizza and swimming in the indoor pool.

June, FL: This was a girls and "men under ten" week only. I flew to Jacksonville to stay at my Grandmother's condo in Daytona Beach with my mom, aunt (and her 2 sons), and then Kerri came over with The Blonds. It was a great week. We went to the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine (which 1. is not a fountain and 2. is the main source of water for the whole area, i.e. tap water--so need to pay extra to drink it). I had been to Daytona many times during that same week of the year, and this year the water looked different than I had ever seen. It looked the Caribbean Sea on some days. We saw dolphins from our balcony one day and just had a good time being together.

July, AL: Before we knew that we'd see my brother and his family in May, we made plans to go to their house in AL for the 4th of July. We flew into Nashville where we met my mom, dad, stepdad, and large dog (who rode in the front floorboard the entire way). From Nashville, we drove to south Alabama. I will never do this again. Robert, myself, and my father were in the backseat. None of us are small people.

It was worth it though, once we got there:


We played with The Blonds extensively, including reading books (see above). We swam in my brothers pool, went to Destin for the day, took a tour of Ft. Rucker and saw all the different types of helicopters, and where Jarrod has been training for the past year, had a lasagna cook-off, watched movies, played Wii and Rock Band and soaked each other in.

(Robert with his best girl).
(Peyton showing us how to fly this thing).
(My dad playing with the kids while simultaneously terrifying the adults).
(Joy).

In summary, if you want to experience summer while living in Boston, you may have to find it elsewhere.