Holiday weekend

We enjoyed some time with my family for Independence Day festivities.

Fireworks. We watched them from a cemetery and I got a migraine. Galon had stayed behind with Susannah, who was sleeping soundly by this point, but the show was lovely and it was especially nice because 1) no one was hurt or burned or singed and 2) it was Deltaville's 100th birthday.

Pool. We spent a couple days in the pool and Susannah was very receptive to it because 1) Aunt Katherine was swimming and Susannah is officially a groupie in the fan club for Aunt Katherines AND 2) because it was considerably warmer than the last time we tried it (which was like in March or something.) I would be interested if anyone has advice about swimming lessons for babies. I am personally nervous about being responsible solely for this aspect of my daughter's development since it could involve water up the nose or teaching her to jump in safely. Suggestions?

Crabs. We enjoyed watching the crabs race during Heritage Day. Susannah even had crab glasses, as you can see. If you look really hard you can see a reflection of the beginning of the parade.

Flowers. We enjoyed hanging out in mom's garden with perennials and her special kid friendly garden on the side of the house.

Home. We made it home and Susannah took two naps and still slept from 7:30 p.m. to about 8 a.m. like normal. I think it's safe to say she was sufficiently worn out as much as the rest of us were from the lovely three day break. Notice teensy sandals, which I got cause her tennis shoes were causing serious foot stinkage. She loves these shoes but also loves to kick them off randomly, nearly taking out her eye or the cat's head when she does.

Fireflies

As the summer progresses, each night after putting Susannah to bed I sometimes get a chance to hang out on our screen porch. Overlooking a wheat field and our two magnolia trees, the porch is surrounded by hydrangeas, spirea and daisies. As the sun sets usually behind a haze of heat, bright orange, pink, purple and blue lights up the sky and a sort of mist settles in the corner of the field. Usually, that's the moment fireflies make their appearance.
Because I'm usually laid out on the swing reading, I don't ever catch a sight of the first one. However, sometimes I glance up to the song of a bird or bark of a dog and notice they are everywhere. Fireflies, that is. It's funny to me how one will flash and in a simultaneous chorus of answer, the others all flash, echoing a stream of orange light about a foot off our lawn all the way across the wheat field.
Walking back from a neighbor's house the other night, Galon caught a firefly in his hand to show Susannah and she didn't seem too impressed. She did notice the green glow smeared on the windshield of the car as we were driving home from a trip recently.
"Wow," she said.
In other news, here are some photos from a recent trip to Jamestown.






I had visited before, I'm sure, as a child and have a memory of the ships and eating peanut soup with my aunt and grandmother and crossing on the ferry.
However, this time was refreshing, with gardens to model, informative displays in the museum and even demonstrations of bone carving and shale arrow head making.
This weekend we are looking forward to some time off to spend with my family for July 4 festivities, complete with crab races, swimming pools, parade and fireworks. Usually we go sit in the cemetery to watch the fireworks- morbid, but seems to be tradition.
We'll try to post some photos more recently than we have been- I like the lazy days of summer and am spending enough time in front of a computer at work so don't feel the need to be on it at home.
We also booked tickets to return to Alabama for my high school reunion and to visit some of Galon's family, first in Alabama then in Nashville. We are looking forward to that time too and hope to reunite with as many friends and places as we can while we're there. (July 24-30)
Also, this just in, this summer our vacation does NOT correspond with that of our daycare providers. So we are scrambling to find back up babysitters for the middle of July. If anyone has suggestions, or a teenager looking for some money, let us know.

Summer daze

Working and pleasure boats line the docks on Broad Creek on June 21, the first official day of summer.

We have been enjoying time with Galon's parents as they have motored up our way and have the RV stationed nearby. They've been gracious to watch Susannah some and all seem to be enjoying the extra attention.
For father's day, we all went to Middlesex County to see my parents and enjoy some time on the water. Dad G took us out on a Catalina 309 and it was very relaxing, even with the blustering wind. Also for father's day, Susannah helped me make some yummy blueberry streusel muffins from scratch, which Galon promptly enjoyed and later shared.
Last week we had a strange thing- we bit the bullet and invested in life insurance. Part of the process is a person comes to take some information and samples from you. In your house. I was dreading it, mostly because of my inherint belief that insurance of most kinds is a racket, but mainly because I was worried about some person coming to our house to take blood and urine samples.
Lovely beginning to a Saturday morning, I'll tell you. But it turned out ok and once the paperwork is finalized, we'll be worth more dead than alive. Charming.
So after peeing in a cup, we went to the next town over to (work) and enjoy RivahFest, an annual summer event in Tappahannock. A heat index of 95 degrees and dark blue shirts= nasty sweaty Maggie. Galon, Susannah and his parents came in the afternoon after a rest at the house and managed to get hot enough to warrant extra showers before we all went out to eat in Montross that night.
All in all, we've been enjoying our time while they're here as a bit of "staycation," showing them the sights that often we're too busy or exhausted to take time to enjoy.
Other items on the agenda have included a day cruise to Tangier Island, complete with soft shell crabs and mild sun burn, trips to the church playground and dinner at their place in Coles Point. (temporarily:)


Galon and Susannah enjoyed spotting bottle nosed dolphins escorting the Chesapeake Breeze out of Reedville.