How is it August already? I know we're only technically about halfway through summer vacation, but it definitely feels like summer is slipping away. I thought Carter was going to cry the other day when I told him it was August 1st. I feel ya, buddy.
I can't really say how we're doing on the usual bucket list of stuff I start panicking about this time of year. We've gone mini-golfing, done the drive-in, had a beach day (more on that below), and Carter and I have already done a lot of playgrounds and one amusement park. One reunion is done and another is coming. I feel like we've generally done OK with summery stuff, but then again, maybe not--I'm not even sure what qualifies anymore since COVID got us out of our habits a bit, and the kids' interests have evolved anyway as they've grown over that time. Now I get to worry about what I'm not even realizing we should be doing, what we might permanently be missing out on, let alone what we know we need to accomplish. I did want another little long weekend-type getaway for us before Disney, but that seems less possible these days with what we've already got going on. Carter still desperately wants to go back to Darien Lake, so I need to work on that. We were hoping to go as a family but Jacob is pretty adamant about not going--even though I think he'd enjoy the waterpark a lot and could find enough other stuff to do in the park. I recently decided it might be safer to keep Carter out of his last week of camp to avoid COVID pre-Disney, which would mean he'd miss the big Seabreeze field trip. He said he wouldn't mind that so much if we made it to Darien Lake. I officially unenrolled him today, so I need to figure that out ASAP. I probably need to do a full-family check-in and see what else everyone wants to do before we run out of time.
Jacob is at UR basketball camp this week, which is a nice change of pace to have a quiet house again. He usually gets some good feedback from his week there, and I like the thought of him having time with actual college basketball players. Hopefully he represents himself well and catches a few eyes. Carter is eagerly awaiting next week at his camp when his buddy Elias is there again. He seems to mostly be enjoying his time there, even if there are times he complains. But I appreciate him getting some social time, going on field trips, and generally having some organized activities after two summers of nothing but screens and nagging. I'm still not happy with his entertainment choices at home as I look at all the toys that sit unplayed with, but at least he is now making more of an effort to catch up on his summer school work. Craig is off to California Thursday through Saturday for his college lacrosse league's championship weekend. It'll make for an interesting end of the week, for sure--getting one kid out of the house has been a challenge so two is going to be more than I feel mentally prepared for. Apparently my brain and my body decided they need to take the summer off, so mornings have been tough. I've successfully gone into the office twice per week for the last three weeks, but I can't say I've been on time every day. How did I do this five days per week for 20 years?
I don't know what has happened to me in recent weeks. I'm struggling with a ton of indecision and presumably some sort of anxiety. I can't seem to plan dinners ahead to save my life, and the Disney stuff and all of the other things I'm putting off are just exhausting to me. I'm not quite sure what happened, although Craig's busy schedule and Carter's busier soccer schedule in July did disrupt family dinners quite a bit and likely got me out of my groove there. I don't know where the anxiety about things like Disney, Jacob's uniforms, renting Carter's instrument for the fall, or any of that has come from. I've never been great with that stuff but it's been exceptionally hard to wrap my brain around those types of things lately. Add in that so many things need to be done early because we lose our last week of break for vacation, and I'm really feeling under the gun. I'm trying to knock things off the list or at least take the next step, one thing at a time as I have a moment of strength and motivation, but it seems like everything takes time or has interim steps I wasn't expecting.
I suppose I'll get into the Disney stuff in a separate post, but suffice it to say its been so much more to process since we went nine years ago, and I'm still not sure how to work through everything in the next four weeks.
In the meantime, we're doing what we can to enjoy our summer. A few weeks ago I randomly found myself describing a Choco Taco to Carter. I fell in love with them when I worked at Taco Bell and we sold them at the time. Carter said he wanted to try one. I knew that the one gas station chain near us sells them, and I actually almost got one the night we went there for ice cream after Carter's soccer team won. However, I had already snacked on Jacob's nachos that night (he bought them and then realized halfway through the long walk back from the stand that the chips were different and he didn't know if they had gluten. I couldn't let them go to waste!), so I passed. But I figured I owed myself a Choco Taco one of these days. Not long after, it was announced they were getting discontinued. I panicked a little and decided one day I had to stop at the gas station and pick up a few so Carter could try one before I could no longer keep my promise! Unsurprisingly, he loved it!
It wouldn't be a summer post without one of my flowers. I don't love this type of zinnia compared to the normal ones, but this one was actually a nice change of pace when it popped out!
As I mentioned, we finally had a beach day. Beach days can be hectic and hot so I probably don't make them a priority, but I loved our day in New Jersey last year and I was definitely looking forward to my family reunion when I knew we'd get a beach day this year. The reunion has been at Camp Pioneer since my dad was a kid, and between the pandemic and financial problems of the camp ownership, we had two years where the reunion wasn't held there. The camp closed for a bit but thankfully a group organized to buy it and bring it back. They've done a great job, and it felt so good to be back! Carter and I went alone because Jacob had some basketball stuff that day. We were hoping to catch church there, but strangely there wasn't any, so we just tracked down my family and waited for everything to begin. Interestingly, just as things were getting going, Craig and Jacob showed up! They decided to skip the basketball stuff and come--for a few reasons--which I wish they would have decided earlier so we could take one vehicle, but it worked out because they left earlier to go visit his dad, who's finally home from the hospital.
As for the reunion, I have taken over the family tree maintenance. It was built so well for me with a family tree database program, and my uncle felt I would be the perfect person to be the keeper. I mostly just get people's changes that they write on the printed version at the event (or if they want to email them) and make the changes for next year. I may need to get more involved with a few other elements, as well. My cousin is ready to give up leadership of it, and while I'm not the person to make the calls to arrange things (see bad adulting above), I don't mind helping out with things like the email list or the Facebook page we want to start (with the help of a distant cousin-in-law who has experience in that realm). I'd like to see the reunion survive, even if it seems to get smaller every year. It's a tough sell as the younger generations have less connection. But being at the beach helps draw some of us in!
Happily, the beach was so much better than it was last time we were there, when lake levels were abnormally high throughout the Great Lakes (and on the St. Lawrence in the Thousand Islands when we were there) and half the beach was missing. I was so happy to see that it looked more like the beach I remembered! Of course, the dead fish have always been a thing there, and this year was no exception!
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| Yup. Gross. |
When we got down to the beach after lunch and the family meeting, we got to see a bald eagle sitting high above the beach. Interestingly, later on that day, a turkey vulture took over the spot. Must be a great perch!
As usual, it was a hot but fun day. It was so nice to be back there, almost surreal because I was worried I'd never be in this spot again.
Carter got right to playing in the sand. He was trying to build a pool that wouldn't leak when water was poured into it. Obviously it would still soak in, but he just liked to see water dumped in and not escape.
It was a slightly cloudy but still pleasant day! I got a bit of a sunburn on my back because the clouds gave me a false sense of security and I neglected to sunscreen my back. My shoulders have gotten burned a few times this year so I was definitely being careful with them. They came out unscathed, thankfully. But what would a visit here be without some sort of sunburn? A couple of my worst ones came from here--once when I was a camper and fell asleep (which made many activities for the rest of the week extra challenging), and once when I got my first bikini. I always aimed to get a tan at the reunion so I didn't use much sunscreen, and my white, virgin cleavage that the bikini showed off saw the sun for the first time ever. That one blistered...ouch!
The beach is full of rocks, which gave Carter's pool floor a good base. I took a couple walks to collect rocks for my flower bed. I tried to stand up flat ones from camp years ago to edge my flower bed, and those fell flat (literally) so I'm trying with slightly rounder, thicker ones this year. They're still not big but we'll see if they do what I want. Believe it or not we're actually going back in a couple weeks (!) so I'll have another chance if I figure out I need more or something else will work better. Maybe eventually I can build a full wall, adding a dozen or two rocks each year!
Carter worked hard on his creation and we spent hours going back and forth to the water with buckets, dumping, testing, fixing and fortifying. We have "wall" sand molds and kept adding more in addition to the rocks.
The beach is still the rocky mess it's always been, but we had good water shoes and did just fine. I was interested to see if the beach glass supply had replenished at all since the beach had been mostly deserted for the last year and a half (in comparison to years prior anyway--I'm sure there were still walking neighbors). My mom and I strolled for a bit and I was constantly moving piles of rocks and shells like the photo below to try to uncover glass. I did end up finding around 8-10 mostly very small pieces, which still felt like a victory since the last time I was there I think one was all I could muster! I even found a super tiny blue one! Moving the rocks was actually pretty relaxing and almost like a hand massage, oddly. In the past the shells have been mostly from zebra mussels, which look like little clams, but we found a bunch of tiny spiral shells this time. I found something on the internet about someone who found shells like that elsewhere on Lake Erie, and they linked them to a type of snail. Interesting I've never really noticed them before.
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| The water was pretty nice! Warm enough and very calm! Waves were always fun as a kid but it was nice to walk out and not worry about getting knocked over! |
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| This giant rock looked a bit like a turtle hanging out on the shore! |
Eventually Carter was pretty happy with the performance of his pool--no leaks and it even took a while to soak in.
I dragged him down the beach on a quick stroll with my aunt because I wanted him to see this crazy rock. Look at that big round rock exposed among the shale!
The erosion along the Great Lakes has been a big deal for years, but it really seemed to accelerate in 2019 when the lake levels were high. My aunt noticed a cavity in the rock wall she'd never noticed before, and then we started noticing some at-risk trees.
I wish some of my past years' beach pictures had caught that area to see if there was obvious progress, but no luck!
Eventually we needed to pack up and go. Not only was it dinner time, but we were among the last few people left and I needed to grab our leftover potluck dishes, the family tree, and the rest of our stuff up in Hickman Hall where lunch had been. We changed, loaded up, said goodbye to the last few relatives, and headed out.
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